A Pilot's Journey

Saturday my wife and I flew down to Colorado Springs to visit some friends and take them up for a ride in the airplane. Certainly not the most efficient use of an airplane as we could have left our house and driven to our friends quicker than driving to the airport, pre-flighting, and flying to KCOS and being picked up by our friends and driven to their house. But this is not about using the airplane efficiently, this is about getting my time up for the commercial rating. After my instrument checkride I was sitting at about 170 hours plus 23 hours of sim time. I can count up to 50 hours of sim for my commercial so I had 193 hours towards my commercial, add the 3.1 from this weekend and I am at 196. I used the opportunity of going to KCOS to file my first IFR flight plan under my own name. I filed a fairly direct route, and when I received my clearance it was nothing like I had filed, so much for all of my calculations. I had filed KBJC BJC V81 BRK D-> KCOS. My clearance was as follows: Cleared to KCOS via Vectors to LUFSE V389 ADANE V108 BRK Then As Filed. Huh??? I read back everything but the route and then asked for the route again, it kind of caught me off guard. Once I had the route written down I had to look at my IFR Low Altitude chart and find what they wanted me to fly. Once I found the route I programmed it into the GPS and contacted the tower. Once in the air I was given some vectors and after about 5 to 10 minutes was told direct to BRK. Ok, so much for the initial clearance, isn't IFR fun. Over all it was a good flight, everything went fine except when we were getting ready to return to KBJC. As I was doing the engine run-up in Colorado Springs I noticed that when I had put the throttle at a setting where it should hold 1800 RPM it was fluctuating about 100 RPM's rather than holding 1800. I leaned the mixture for the altitude as is the first step in the run-up, then as I checked the mags it looked like the right mag had a higher drop but was within range. I decided to go back to both and lean the mixture a lot to see if perhaps some of the spark plugs were fouled, after running extremely lean for a bit the RPM's appeared to stabilize. I figured that I had not leaned enough for taxi and probably fouled some of the plugs. I kept a close eye on the RPM's during the whole flight back and there were no other odd indications. I have never run into fouled plugs before, but I knew the procedure for taking care of them, if anyone has any comments about what I did please let me know, especially if you think I did not do the correct thing.

Here are a couple of pictures from Flight Aware.

Trip to KCOS.

Trip Back to KBJC.

Next flight will be to Kansas City this upcoming weekend. I should log around 10 hours for the round trip. I will post an update after that trip. Till then, fly safe...

I am finally an Instrument Rated Pilot. After many years of starting and stopping I have finally completed the next big step in any pilot’s career. The check ride was not too difficult other than the fact that everything seemed to happen a lot faster than when I was training. We took off from Jeffco and tracked V-81 North, then after tracking that for about 1 minute, the Designated Examiner covered my heading indicator and we did a 45 degree turn to the right this was accomplished using a standard rate turn (3 degrees per second for those who do not know) and timing the turn for 15 seconds. I was exactly 10 degrees off which is the max to pass that portion of the test, the DE said it was probably due to the amount of turbulence we had. We then did one unusual attitude recovery, it was from a nose low turning attitude. After that he gave me a vector toward SHATZ intersection, this is the final approach fix for the GPS-A approach into Erie CO, after the vector he said to proceed direct to SHATZ, this is where I had to ask a question, he was originally giving me vectors, and as such I would not have to do the course reversal holding pattern, but then he said to go direct, so I asked him since I was now cleared direct, did that mean I had to do the course reversal or was that still technically a vector, he told me I would have to do the course reversal, no big deal I know how to do holds even if I had not ever done this full approach before. On the GPS approach he had me use the auto pilot. I did the missed approach procedure and after making the hold entry he immediately cleared me for the VOR/DME approach into Erie. This approach was done partial panel with the Attitude Indicator and the Heading Indicator covered up, again no problems with this approach, we ended this one by entering the pattern for runway 33 at Erie to count it as a circling approach. We then left the pattern to the South East and I called Denver Approach and asked for vectors for the ILS 29R at Jeffco. This is where I discovered a mistake I had made early on in the flight. Denver gave me a transponder code and then they told me they had negative radar contact. I looked at the transponder and it was still in standby, I quickly switched it to Alt. and apologized to Denver telling them it was still in standby, I then sheepishly said I must have glanced over that on my before takeoff checklist. Denver got us on radar and then gave us vectors to get us close in on the ILS as there was other traffic inbound. The DE asked me to keep best forward speed until established and then speed was my discretion. The ILS worked out fine and we landed back at Jeffco. After we shut down the DE asked me how I thought I had done, I said I could have done better but I knew I was within all of the Practical Test Standards. It was then that he congratulated me. In the debrief he admitted that he had missed the transponder as well and it was right in front of him that is why he did not ding me on that one. The only other comment he had was that I need to make sure I announce to ATC when I have had a vacuum failure, I neglected to make a fake radio call when he covered my Heading Indicator and my Artificial Horizon. As I was leaving with my new certificate in hand he complemented me on my Radio work with Denver, he said I was well above average and I kept my calls concise and to the point. Now that the Instrument is complete, I will be taking a few trips to build some time. I am going to Kansas City on the 2nd weekend of March and Nashville TN, on the 3rd weekend of March as long as the weather is good enough... That is nice to say, as long as the weather is good ENOUGH. After I have about 220 hrs logged, I will be starting on my Multiengine commercial. That should take about a month to get the time required and hopefully be proficient as well. I will update after my trips and then updates will get more frequent once I start the commercial. Till then, let's go bust through some clouds!!!

The Designated Examiner called me today and we are now scheduled to do the flight on Sunday Feb. 25th at 12:00 noon. That is the definite date (weather permitting of course). If he can get me in sooner he will be calling me. There will probably not be any posts until after the ride now. So till then, fly safe...

Unfortunately I am not an instrument pilot yet. My check ride was cancelled due to the fact that the Examiner had to catch an earlier flight to New York because his original flight was cancelled. So I flew with an instructor and did some approaches using the auto pilot so when the check ride is rescheduled I will be ready to go right away. I do not know when it will be scheduled for yet, but I will update the blog once I know. Till then fly safe...

The oral exam is now done, and I still get to fly tomorrow so I guess it went well. Actually to be completely honest I felt like the $375 I gave the examiner was a bribe rather than a fee. It was way too easy, either I was really well prepared or it really was a bribe. I bet we didn't even cover half of what we covered in my stage 4 check. The oral lasted about 1.5 hours and covered the basics, but there is a lot of knowledge in my head that never even crossed my lips. We will see if the flight goes that easy tomorrow. Till then, we shall stay out of the clouds...

Tuesday’s flight was cancelled due to weather, so we spent the time filling out the 8710 form. This form is essentially an application to take the practical test (aka checkride). We rescheduled our flight for Saturday from 10:00 - 12:00 my checkride flight is at 3:00 Saturday. The only reason for this last flight is to get myself a bit more comfortable with using the auto pilot on an approach. It will also be a nice last review before the checkride flight. Saturday is calling for stong winds but it looks like it is going to be down the runway and at 18 kts or so, so that is not too bad, I will just have to keep that in mind when doing my approaches and holding patterns. Tomorrow is the Oral Exam; I will update afterwards and let you know how it went. It is getting very close and the nervousness is starting to set in. As long as everything goes well, soon I will no longer have to remain clear of clouds. Till next time...

Well, I passed the stage 4 check on Friday without any trouble. The oral portion of the exam took about an hour and fifteen minutes. The flight was 1.8 but we did 5 approaches as he was teaching me to do approaches with the autopilot. The only thing the Chief Instructor had to say was to make sure I verbally go through all of my checklists and not to forget to make my mock radio calls when I do the missed approach procedure. On the oral part the only thing he stumped me on was the 3 types of AIRMET's. There is AIRMET Sierra which is for IFR conditions, AIRMET Tango which is for Turbulence and AIRMET Zulu for Icing. The Chief Instructor said that I was one of the best stage 4 checks he had ever done. He said that he usually has to tell people to come back after some more studying. He could have just been trying to boost my confidence though. The Checkride is now scheduled. I will be doing it in 2 parts. The Oral Exam will take place at 4:00 Friday and the flight will be at 3:00 Saturday. This could change though as the DE has another pilot that is supposed to take a checkride at 12:00 Friday, but his plane has been down for maintenance, so if he can't fly my ride will take place on Friday at 12:00 and we will do the whole thing. I will fly one more time before then, 2:00 on Tuesday to get some more practice doing the approaches with the autopilot. I will update after that flight then you probably will not hear from me until after the checkride, perhaps after the Oral Exam if it stays as currently scheduled. Till then, let’s stay clear of the clouds...