Here are a few pics from the ride we took the other night....chris jami and myself in the captains chair. Spring weather is among us here...im excited for the weekend. time to do some great flying. enjoy!!

First timers

So I guess spring is supposed to be here by now huh? Well, Mother Nature is having second thoughts on that I guess. The forecast for the weekend is for rain and snow tomorrow. And possibly on Sunday as well. It is pretty annoying when you are only able to fly with students on the weekends and the weather consistently does not cooperate. Whether it is the wind, the clouds, or now precip and freezing temps….its enough to make a guy like myself want to move to Florida. I think I can handle thunderstorms and hurricanes better than I can deal with a winter full of gusty crosswinds and ice filled clouds. But I digress.

The weekend is slated to be a good one, if the weather cooperates. I am scheduled to work the dispatch desk on Sat morning until around noon. I’ve got one of my better students lined up for a flight to tune him up for his re-solo. He’s new to town and needs a new solo endorsement from myself. Easy flight. Late afternoon I have a new student who has about 30 hours, but wants to finish his license. This should be an interesting flight. Flying with new people always keeps me on the edge of my seat.

Speaking of new pilots, I took my friend Chris and Jami up in the airplane last night. We loaded up the c-172 and headed west towards Front royal and Winchester. We were headed into Winchester (kokv) for a touch and go and I asked Jami if she wanted to try a landing. She was excited so I said I would handle the rudders and the power, she could do the flare. I carefully watched her and coached her every movement. As we came over the grass I said, keep bringing us down; we crossed the threshold at a beautiful height and I explained that ill being the power back and I wanted her to level off, then I told her to keep the airplane at this height and not let it sink. She started to instinctively flare the airplane. I was in utter amazement. Granted she did not have to worry about maintaining airspeed on final, or putting in flaps or steering on the ground after touchdown, but she still did a whole lot better than a lot of students I’ve seen. I think we might have a new student on our hands. I gave her a logbook with her first 1.5 in it.

It was great to get back in the left seat and I enjoyed being the sole manipulator of the controls for a change…..

We took our friend Dave flying as well. We had a picture of him on my clipboard propped up on the instrument panel in cruise flight. As his girlfriend sat next to me I watched as she held the picture in her hands. Dave had been flying with me once before, and he wanted me to take him flying back in January. I guess he finally got to go back up with me again.

things that go bump in the day

Wheels up and back in the sky once again. Right on schedule, the weekend arrived and the winds fired up. Saturday saw the worst of the weather pass through. Winds on the surface were gusting once again to 27. But more dangerous were the winds aloft. Moderate to severe turbulence below 8000 ft all over the region, and a mountain wave that, according to a pirep, was quite severe. A driver of a Cessna 172 reported a descent over 500 fpm while trying to cross the ridge. He had full power and was pitching the aircraft for Vx…or best angle of climb. Not sure how he got out of it, but that alone was enough for most of the instructors, myself included to cancel our flights.

Sunday was forecast to be better, however the forecast changed and those winds hung around. The severe turbulence was gone, and the mountain wave wasn’t as vicious so I decided to give it a shot. My first flight of the morning paired me with a private pilot….from Jamaica….that hadn’t flown in 4 years. No problem. I told him it would be bumpy but if he didn’t mind a few bumps we could go. So we headed out and I showed him the preflight. We hopped in the airplane and departed off runway 35. I requested a vfr climb to 3000 and a class bravo clearance, and Potomac departure was able to accommodate. I wanted to get out of the low level bumps as soon as I could. It worked, sort of. We headed over to Winchester and flew around. Let him get used to the airplane, as all his ppl training was done in a Cessna 150. He came to me with .8 of an hour in a 172. We did an hour in the practice area and headed back. I briefed him on the landing, and asked if he wanted to try to land it. We agreed that I would help him on the controls as it was a pretty gusty crosswind. To be exact I wrote down the winds…280@16knots gusting to 27. The wind was 70 degrees off the runway heading(350) and nearly exceeded our xwind capability of the aircraft. We were almost test pilots. He did a great job on final until over the grass. We went below the trees and lost our wind. He had let us get slow and the windshear bit us. I felt the sink, called for some power, he didn’t respond so I took controls, went full power and got out of there. he asked me to do the landing the next time around and I totally greased it. My biggest fear was botching another landing with a student, for the second week in a row.

My second student is a guy that ive been trying to fly with for a while now. We first flew together back when we had the electrical failure, and have only had one other flight in the pattern between then and now. So we headed out into the wind. Nice takeoff and climb out. Headed west via rt 7 and used some pilotage to have him find Winchester airport for me. We did a few maneuvers in the area and then headed over for a couple landings at Winchester(kokv). Winds were 16 knots but right down the runway. Made it nice and easy for him to have good landings. Made my job easier too. We departed the airport back to Leesburg and I wanted him to learn how to enter and exit the ADIZ. He made his intial call up to Potomac and we were rudely dismissed. As we circled outside the ADIZ we watched the airliners entering the downwind for rwy 1L at KIAD. The controllers were busy. One large jet after another, and no sqwawk code for us. So I tried two more freqs before we finally got a code. So, my teaching moment was kinda ruined and I had to kinda ad-lib to get us back home. But at least got to see what to do when that happens. I will say it again, the ADIZ is a good thing for national security, but damn it’s a pain in my a$$ every day that I fly. Nine times out of ten it’s a piece of cake with no problems. But that tenth time it really bugs the crap out of you. Some controllers act as though they are god…..and treat smaller GA aircraft as though they aren’t worth their time. Ok, end rant.

So we ended the flight with a pretty wild time on final, and a pretty long touchdown. But it was a safe landing on the centerline and the plane will fly again.

Overall not the best weekend of flying, but I did get some time in the logbook. Broke 490 total time, so I am slowly getting closer to the elusive 1000 hrs. I have a pretty good feeling that once I start teaching full time I will fill the pages in my logbook pretty fast.

Total time=490.7 Multi time 9.8 1hr PIC multi. That is soon to change.

Arrow Time

It’s been a pretty crazy couple of weeks for me, but I think the dust has settled and we are all moving forward. There is definitely something to be said for having someone on your side upstairs. This past weekend was tremendous for me as far as the flying goes. Sat morning I made my way out to the airport for a 10 am show with a student who was signed up for his first lesson ever. Huge responsibility for me. My first student from scratch. He was excited, motivated, and ready to fly. I took him out, showed him the Cessna we would be flying, and we started in on the preflight. I had him read the checklist item and I showed him what we were looking at. After the preflight, we climbed in and I taxied us out of parking. Once on the main taxiway headed out to runway 35 I let him take the controls. I showed him how to taxi using the rudder petals to steer and to keep us on centerline. We did the run-up and then we took the runway. I had briefed him on the takeoff. I kept us going straight with my feet and kept an eye on the airspeed. When we hit 60 knots I had Ahmed gently pull back on the yoke. Before he knew it we were airborne. He was really pumped. I let him fly us west staying under the Dulles class B airspace, and had him climb us out up to 3000 as soon as we could. Once clear of the ridge and the ADIZ boundaries, we went up to about 4000 to get above the thermals. Nice smooth air for his first flight. We did some turns, climbs, descents…..he had a huge grin on his face. After about an hour we headed back to Leesburg. After a brief delay getting back into the ADIZ we got our code and I had him descent us down to around 1500. He was a little unnerved by the thermal activity as it was a nice warm day in the DC area. I took over a mile outside the pattern and landed us on runway 35. He complimented me on the landing…..glad he didn’t know otherwise. I had a little bounce to it. I guess its all good right? So he’s signed up for his second lesson. He’s all set to get started. I am as well.
My afternoon was a checkout in the arrow. The PA28R-200. Retractable gear, constant speed prop. We headed off on a x-c he had planned up to Chambersburg PA—N68. A nice little skydiving strip. We landed, taxied in, and right before departure back out we were bombarded by about 6 parachuters. Pretty cool to see. After departure, we headed over for a landing at Hagerstown (khgr) and then a landing at Frederick (kfdk). Full stops at each. Then we headed home for a nice smooth landing back at Leesburg. As usual, a gorgeous sunset on the way back southwest bound. Something I have really found enjoyment in. Nothing better than a nice sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains at the end of a long afternoon of flight instructing.

Sunday was the morning of my 8k race in DC. St Patty’s day 8k to benefit the Special Olympics. I used the opportunity to raise money for the family of my friend who had just recently passed. I was very successful, and thank all those that helped me with my effort. I also had an excellent run, finishing at my best time to date.

The afternoon I spent with my commercial student. We went up in the Cessna to get him back in the saddle. It’s been a while since he’s flown so we went through the PTS and did all the maneuvers he would need to know. For not having flown in a while he did exceptional. After the airwork I told him to take us to Winchester (kokv) for some landings. We were on the edge of some weather and it was moving in. On about a 3 mile left base for runway 32 at Winchester I asked him what he thought about the weather. He said “Let’s go back to Leesburg”. I concurred. I told him that’s exactly what I am looking for him to do with his commercial training. Start making good decisions based on experience and knowledge that he has….no longer relying as much on a cfi for guidance. Growing exponentially as a pilot, and eventually a CFI. We are going to get into the Arrow next time. I am excited to teach him about the gear and the constant speed prop. It’ll be a real experience for me.

the morning after......

With the passing of a good friend, come many mixed feelings that each personal interprets and processes differently. I experienced a whole spectrum of feelings. It started with doubt and disbelief. How could the lord take someone so young and strong so quickly? It didn’t seem fair, and certainly could not be true. It was as though we were all waiting for Dave to walk into the party at any minute. Then those feelings of disbelief and shock blended into feelings of sorrow and grief. We realized that he was not coming back and it was a hard thing to deal with. But, but the grace of god we were all blessed with a large group of friends and a family to lean on. We cried, we laughed, we told Dave what a punk he was…..and at the end of the day it made us feel better. Now that the wake and the funeral have passed we can move on with the mourning process and move forward. This is my first death of someone so close to me as an adult, and it was very difficult. But seeing a church filled with close to 1000 people, from as far away as Korea, it really touched my heart. My feelings are slowly turning now to a mixed feeling of great joy in knowing that Dave is with the lord in an awesome place, but very sad in that we will never live with him on this earth again.

In my attempt at gaining some assemblance of normalcy, I went out to the airport Saturday morning to work my dispatch shift. A guy called looking for a flight review. I offered to do it for him in his own aircraft. He flew a TB-20….a Trinidad. A very nice aircraft that would’ve been a joy to fly if it were a hair bigger. But I enjoyed messing with the avionics and letting him show me how to operate the autopilot. His BFR consisted of the standard ADIZ departure. Once over Winchester we did some stalls, slow flight, steep turns. Being an obvious master of his own airplane, I decided to shift gears and see if this guy really knew how to use his avionics. What a blast. 6 miles south of the Martinsburg VOR we set up the radios to fly the ILS approach to runway 26. We crossed the Initial approach fix and turned outbound before making the procedure turn inbound and intercepting the localizer. The winds were strong and you could see the autopilot was crabbing the nose of the airplane quite a bit to the right to maintain on the center of the localizer. We reached mins and cut off the autopilot and put the bird down in a fabulous x-wind landing. Dip the right wing to maintain runway centerline, but straighten the nose with left rudder and land on the right wheel. A complex yet graceful maneuver when done with finesse.

The second time down the localizer was a real treat. The Martinsburg airport lies in between the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are ridges to the east and west of the airport. Field elevation is 700ft, and the tops of the ridge reach about 2k. Not the Rocky Mountains but big enough to set the scene for a great sunset. As we came down the final to the west runway, the orange ball of sun sat teetering upon the ridge waiting to set. As soon as the sun dips below it is only a matter of seconds before it disappears behind the horizon. The absolutely gorgeous sunset and the chance to fly in the plane reminded me how luck I am to be alive and to be able to chase my dream. The setting sun was somewhat metaphorical in symbolizing the end of Dave’s life, and the eventually beginning of our lives anew. Bringing with us the strength, wisdom and inspiration that Dave left us with. His 29 years of life allowed him to see and do much more than many people see or do in a lifetime. I anticipate spending my next 30 years in much the same way. And when we meet again, I will tell him about all the great places I have flown and foreign lands I have seen. And how he inspired me to be a better person. For this I am thankful.

UPDATES

Its been a couple of weeks since I last posted on here, and I apologize for that. There isnt too much to report. I am axiously awaiting my last day at my job(may 12) so that I can head down to Ft Pierce Florida to fly a be-76 beech duchess around for 100 hours. When I get back I will be a full time CFI and probably be working at the Outback again to make ends meet. I was a cook there in college. Its decent money and I do alright at it, and nothing lasts forever right? Why is northern VA so damn expensive. Ive been weathered out quite a bit in the last few weeks due to winds, but I did get a chance to take my student into KIAD-dulles international a few weeks ago one late weekend night. the tower let us land and taxi back on rwy 1R. Huge thrill for my student. Had an A320 land while we were taxiing back. Pretty cool to be that close.

Anyways, not too much new to report in the world of aviation for me.....but I do have some rather sad news to report to my friends here. A very good and longtime friend of mine, Dave, passed away Friday March 3 at around 630 in the evening.

Dave had been living in Korea and was exposed to TB. When he returned to the states he went for a physical and the strain was detected using one of those TB tests noone ever thinks is worthwhile. No big deal right? Give him some antibiotics and the strain would die off before ever developing into full blown TB. So, the DR gave him some meds and said, hey, be careful this hurts x percent of patients livers. Great news doc, but it might help to tell him that he needs to have blood drawn every month to check for liver enymes(damage).

Two weeks ago Dave's liver began to fail. He got very ill and went to the hospital. The ER docs sent him home with some medication, thinking he had the flu. A few days later he was incoherent, delirious, and his urine was dirt-brown. Dave was in some trouble. He was quickly sent to the ICU and a plan was devised. He improved with some meds, and the idea was to try to regain some liver function using mass amounts of IV fluids. Two days after being sent to the general hospital floor, he was back in the ICU. This time he was out of consciousness. He had moments with his eyes open, but his pain was so severe the doctors chose to sedate him, verses giving him pain meds as to avoid further liver damage. Dave needed a liver, in a bad way.

He would never even get a a chance to accept one.

Last night we all stood vigil outside ICU 1 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. His parents, relatives, church people, friends, rugby team, and girlfriend were there praying beyond belief that he would pull through. Around 5pm Daves fever shot up to 106. His breathing was labored. He needed to be put on a ventilator. The cause of the fever was his brain squeezing under tremendous swelling out the bottom of the skull. This was the end for Dave. At 6 pm EST, March 3 Dave was removed from the ventilator to determine if he could breath on his own. He was pronounced brain dead.

Dave was 28, in excellent physical shape. He was an excellent rugby player, a smart kid, a friend to all, a great boyfriend, and a better son than his parents could have ever asked for.

More than all that though Dave was our friend. We all shared special moments with the guy in the last 15years, and we will miss him so very much.

Dave's parents, his sister and her husband and their newborn and 14 month old, and Dave's girlfriend were so thankful that we were all there for them. They had no idea that Dave had so many people that loved him. He is in a better place now..........

................We will miss you buddy.

We celebrated Dave's life like he would've wanted us to.....we toasted a pint in his memory last night.

Dave Bailey 12/24/76 - 3/3/06

Arctic Blast

Yesterday saw a FROPA- or frontal passage and the obligatory winds and dropping temps. Wed and thurs last week were gorgeous. Warm temps, sunny skies. I didnt even need a jacket when I left my house that morning. Yesterday was a standard saturday for Feb in Northern VA. The wind from the backside of the coldfront, and the dropping temps made it very unappealing to our customers to go fly. This morning I was greeted with a metar that read something like this....m11/m18. In plain English this means temperature minus 11, dewpoint minus 18. It was damn cold. I showed up for a 9 am student around 830. I knew we would need to preheat so i left instructions for my student to meet me at the plane and I headed out to do the dirty work. Today was the first day we needed the preheater(to warm the engine oil and engine block to help start easier). So, I had to go look around the hangar till i found it. I eventualy did and it was a miracle that it worked. So, I got the preheat operations rolling on the line while the first wave of students headed out. We headed out to do our thing for an hour or so.

I am starting to get bored of watching stalls, slow flight and steep turns. my students just need practice and thats what I am here to help with.

Tomorrow morning I am taking my mom and two cousins up in the airplane for a scenic. Its going to be fun to actually get to fly the airplane for a change.

I absolutely love to fly, and without a doubt am enjoying every single second that I spend out here at the airport. to alot of people this is a hobby, but to me this is home. I am pretty sure some of you who read this will concur and feel the same way.........why else would I have been out here on a sunday morning freezing my a$$ off just to go in an airplane. Sometimes I feel as though Im the luckiest guy around.

Three More

My Office

Ive been seeing alot of office talk on various blogs so I thought I would give you all some insight as to what my office looks like. A couple pics of the flight line and some snow, the view from desk duty, and the cockpit of my favorite bird to give instruction in. Enjoy!

SNOW!!

Ok, so I am not going to complain.....but we have about 10 inches on the ground right now. This winter has been very kind to us thus far so I am not the least bit irritated. It sure looks nice..all white and pretty....but I am sitting at the dispatch desk of the flight school with nothing to do. no flying, no customers...and worst of all no students for me to fly with. I am watching the snow removal crew do a full working over of the runway and taxiways from my desk here. The airport is still closed, as are most of the GA airports in the area. KHEF-Manassas is only open with 15 min prior approval, and Dulles is alternating runways for snow removal and treatment. On my way in to work this morning I was eavesdropping on the approach control freq. and heard a controller tell someone that everyone(all arrivals) was going to land on RWY 1R. And funniest of all was that she had a line of about 15 aircraft inbound. Awesome.

Temps right now are just above freezing and the sun is partially out, so mother nature is helping with the snow removal. I am lucky enough to be indoors while the rest of the gang is outside cleaning planes, although I kinda feel as though Id rather be out there. Most of the cessnas on the field are sitting with several inches of snow and ice on the wings and tail. this is making them all look at though they are taildraggers with a nosewheel. The added weight on the tail is causing the nose wheel to lift off and the tail to touch the ground. It looks kinda funny, but certainly cant be good for the plane. The ironic thing about all this is that John over at http://freightdogtales.blogspot.com was just ranting about the golf tourny biz-jets and the great weather he was having. Glad you were enjoying it. I, my friend, was digging my car out of several inches of snow this morning.

So, the airport is back open. The aircraft are clean and operations have began again here at the Leesburg airport. Its one of those nuisances that come with winter flying in the mid atlantic states. They way I look at it, I could be up in New England where they were predicting a blizzard. At least I got to make a few bucks working the desk, and Ill get to fly the sim before I leave here tonite. Good stuff.

Checkride Prep

The winds that had been pummeling us for the last couple days had subsided enough for me to get out with a student last night. We had a really deep seated low pass over us Saturday leaving us without even the option to do instrument training. Ceilings and Vis were about 300 overcast and ½ mile. Sunday, as the front passed by, gave way to clear skies but horrendous winds. As is the norm where I fly, when the winds blow they blow across the runway. For some reason the airport was designed perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction. Oh well. Just another part of flying in Leesburg-KJYO.

So, we departed runway 35 at Leesburg for what was to be part of the three hours of training with a CFI in preparation for the Private Pilot practical test. The FAA requires that all candidates for the PPL practical spend 3 hours within 60 days with a CFI in preparation. For the student that flies regularly this isn’t usually a big deal and happens by default. But for the individual who likes to drag his heels this can be a legitimate concern.

My student also needed some hood work, or flight under simulated instrument conditions. The FAA requires 3 hours of basic instrument instruction for the private license. That’s also time for the CFI to have some fun doing unusual attitude recovery. This allows the CFI to get as close to aerobatic flight as permissible then leave the controls in an unusual attitude, either nose low bank or nose high bank with varying power settings. It is the student’s job to look up and recover the aircraft. Good learning tool for the student and CFI.

The FAA states that a student also must have 3 hours of night flight. If you ask me that’s just barely enough for a low time pilot to get into trouble. But, that’s the regs so Ill abide by them. Night landings are tough to master, even for the seasoned pilot. For the second time with as many students we went around on the first approach back home. Not that a go-around is bad…in fact I teach my students when in doubt to go around and give it another shot. There is no shame in a go-around…only shame in bent metal.

So, hopefully Ill have this kid ready for his test in the next month or so. He will be my first sign off, even though I didn’t do most of the dirty work. I will still get the signoff and, hopefully, a “passed test on the first try” result on my record.

Night Flight

The allure of a regional airline is not for everyone, and for some a spot in the right seat of a 50 seat regional jet cant come soon enough. I am one of those folks who is stopping to catch my breath along the way. I am enjoying every minute of every flight that I take with my students and using every opportunity I have to impart my knowledge upon that particular student. I have been teaching for a couple months now and it has been an absolute blast. I learn something new every time I fly, and I still believe that I learn more than my student does each flight…believe it or not.

Last weekend was a long one. I flew with a student up to Frederick (KFDK) to do some landings and work on some maneuvers. We were north of FDK and had to pay special attention to the airspace around P40-President Bush’s special use mountain cottage airspace. After experimenting with some engine out procedures and a quick touch and go we headed back to JYO. We were southbound into the ADIZ at 2500 msl and treated to a spectacular sunset over the blue ridge mountains.

We taxied in and parked in a transient spot. Requested fuel and went in to finish our flight planning for the night flight that we had planned to York PA.-THV. I used the opportunity to teach my student about night flying, traffic scanning at night, vor navigation, and flight following. We found the airport no problem, and his flight planning worked out nicely. We did a couple touch and goes there and discovered that there were no taxiway lights. So, finding the turnoff of the runway was a real challenge. We headed back to Leesburg at 4500 msl. Tracked the FDK vor and then checked in with Potomac to get our code back into the ADIZ. After some runway confusion about which was in use we entered the left downwind for runway 35 at JYO. Nice landing late at night and a perfect end to the day.

I am headed to Florida to build some multi time in May, and when I get back Ill be at 600 and 100 multi. Those are mins for a lot of regionals right now. I am tempted to start applying but I think I want to teach for at least a little while. Who knows. I guess its probably better to get that seniority number and move forward. Really exciting fun stuff.

Got Wind?

The winter season in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains of VA and WVA provides an awesome opportunity to not fly very much at all. A low pressure system moved through the region Friday and partially on Saturday. It brought warmer temps and lower celings. The freezing level(which is usually around sfc-2000) was way up around 9000 ft msl. Might be a good chance to work on some instrument skills if I had some time. So, my schedule was set for the weekend. Two students saturday, one on Sunday. Saturday morning I was set to work on CFII stuff in the clouds, but that nice warm low pressure system decided it was time to push through. As is typical with all cold front passages, the wind on the leading edge and back side is usually pretty viscious. The isobars are packed so tightly together that the winds are just ripping apart anyone who dares to fly. This is a look at the metar for KJYO-Leesburg airport for Sunday the 16th. These are just the morning, so as the day warmed you can imagine how bad they got. The highlighted portion shows the wind direction, followed by wind speed in knots.
KJYO 151500Z AUTO 30024G35KT 10SM CLR M01/M11 A2984 RMK AO2
KJYO 151440Z AUTO 29028G39KT 10SM CLR M02/M11 A2985 RMK AO2
KJYO 151420Z AUTO 30028G34KT 10SM CLR M02/M10 A2985 RMK AO2
KJYO 151400Z AUTO 29027G35KT 10SM CLR M02/M11 A2984 RMK AO2
KJYO 151340Z AUTO 30026G37KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2983 RMK AO2
KJYO 151320Z AUTO 29030G36KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2983 RMK AO2
KJYO 151300Z AUTO 30024G34KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2982 RMK AO2
KJYO 151240Z AUTO 29025G36KT 10SM CLR M03/M11 A2980 RMK AO2
KJYO 151220Z AUTO 29025G38KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2979 RMK AO2
KJYO 151200Z AUTO 29033G41KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2977 RMK AO2
KJYO 151140Z AUTO 29027G34KT 10SM CLR M03/M12 A2977 RMk

Todays prog chart shows that low system moving off to the northeast in its typical fashion. There are still some remnants of the tightly knot isobars that rocked us.

There were a few small planes that dared to takeoff and land this past weekend. We watched one cessna 172 come in to land, he had what looked like full aileron and rudder inputs into the wind, and he touched down, rode a wheely, lifted off again at least three times. Some pilots like to say that wind is alright..."im good enough to handle the wind, etc"...it must be an ego thing. its one thing if you are flying a large jet with someone paying you to get them there, but to rent a cessna for an hour to joyride in an airmet for moderate turbulence and a viscious x-wind just doesnt make sense. anyways, today is much nicer and people are flying again. I dont think I could take another day of that bone-chilling wind.

Is my headset broken?

Sunny Saturday. Weather looks great for a VFR flight in one of the old 172s from Leesburg to BVI--just north of Pittsburgh to pick up a friend. Well, as luck would have it snow showers, ice, low vis, and ceilings enroute prevented me from departing. So, sitting at home I thought of my options. I really didnt want to waste the gorgeous weather we were experiencing at my home airport, and i had the plane reserved, so i decided to head out for an hour, put my ipod in my ear and shoot some approaches from the right seat since i am currently working in the CFII. I walk into the flight school and find a middle aged gentleman standing at the desk looking lost, but noone was at the desk to greet him. I walked over and introduced myself. As it turned out, he had just moved to northern VA and was looking for a flight school to finish his private pilot at. He was also looking to go flying. So, I wasnt scheduled for anything other than my own joy ride, and offered to take him up. Great, I thought. Someone to pay for my flight. So we departed the ADIZ and headed west towards KOKV-Winchester regional where I was to have him do a few landings and learn the area. Once outside the ADIZ we set up for steep turns....looked great. Then into slow flight and a power off stall. On recovery I noticed his flaps were sluggish. Then almost simultaneously my headset got weird. I thought maybe it was breaking on me(lightspeed headest too). then I noticed the radio stack was dead and the intercom was on its way out. The ammeter showed a large discharge. We were experiencing electrical failure. Returning to leesburg was not an option since the ADIZ notam states that two way radio comm must be established with Potomac Tracon and a discrete transponder code must be used. So, what to do? I took control of the airplane and had my new student run the emergency checklist. Nothing fixed the problem.......so time to land. I knew the area so it was no problem. except for the crosswind at winchester. this would be a test of my skills. I knew from my preflight weather briefing that winds were from the south, so we entered a 45 to the left downwind for runway 14. I flew a wider than normal pattern to give me a long final with a shallow descent. It worked beautifully. 75 mph all the way in, over the numbers into the sideslip, power to idle and the upwind wheel squeaked down followed by the downwind wheel and the nose. I stopped the airplane, taxied in and tied her down. We would be waiting for a few hours for a ride.

Whats ironic is that my DE on my PPL checkride in that same airplane simulated and electrical failure to show me what the overvolt light looks like and what the ammeter would look like. I got to do it for real with a student. Im sure he wont soon forget this lesson.

So, my first real emergency with a rather impromptu student, worked out for the best. I reacted like a CFI should, and kept calm in a mildly tense situation. Its all apart of the learning experience and is a reason why I think all aspiring pilots should instruct for at least a little while. And to think, I almost flew the same airplane to Pittsburgh in marginal weather, but that voice in the head said no. I can see why he said no now.

17.9 hours

Teaching student is by far one of the most difficult things I have ever had to do. Specifically teaching my current student to land is even harder. My student has about 18 hours now, and was handed down to me from another guy who left the school. I have been working with him trying to figure out what bad habits he has, and how on earth I am going to break those habits. Let’s see, where should I start?

1) On the takeoff roll, he is reluctant to add full power right away. I watch him eat up half of the runway using partial power before he adds max power. This is fine on a 5000 foot runway, but makes me nervous if we go somewhere shorter. He also doesn’t believe in centerlines like I do. He has a tendency to veer off the runway centerline on the takeoff roll. I have to at times add right rudder to keep us aligned……
2) On the climb out he is good, except that he is a bit absent minded and flustered, and has a tendency to miss his xwind altitude. We turn our xwind at 900 ft msl…..and all too often I have to remind him. His xwind turn is pretty good. But when he turns his downwind he blows through his altitude (1200 msl) and doesn’t configure the aircraft like he should. Can be a bit frustrating.
3) Once we sort out the airplane on the downwind, the fun is just starting. Our base turn is a diving high speed affair. A little scary. It usually takes some coaching from me to sort out the issues on base and final but he usually recovers alright.
4) The last part of the puzzle is the landing flare. Or rather lack there of. He feels as though he needs to land on all three wheels……I do not concur. Those of you who know how to land know that it is customary to land on the main wheels and let the nose wheel fall…this is done through the use of backpressure on the yoke/elevator. Initially he will start to flare normally. Then he will either put in too much backpressure---in which case we balloon 20 feet in the air, run out of airspeed, and drop like a rock. Or, he lets out the backpressure and we drop like a rock and land on all three wheels at once. Not a real healthy thing for the airplane.

Anyways, I just wanted to share some experiences I have had in the pattern the last couple of weeks. Ill keep you updated.

Finally Makin Money

So, Again I apologize for the long gap in posts. Ive been keeping very busy on the airways and in the traffic pattern. I took two of my college friends down to VT for the Boston College game. It was a 745 game on a Thurs night, so i took a half day from work and was wheels up by 2 pm. We landed at BCB in the PA28R-200 Arrow right in front of N1VA---the governors jet. We went downtown for some food and to relive old times. The game was awesome but really cold. We won of course in what was one of teh best games of the year from a hokie fans perspective. We ended up walking back the 2 miles to the airport but it was alright...it warmed us up. An IFR departure into the cold black sky and up to 7000 I went. with temps hovering around freezing at that altitude i was on the lookout for ice. Sure enough like clockwork we began to pick up ice. So back down i went and out of the clouds and ice. the rest of the ride home was uneventful to say the least.. Just another night on the airways.

So, I have my first student since passing my CFI. Pete is a hand-me-down from another instructor who has since left the flight school. He has about 15 hours under his belt and is working on his private rating. Hes motivated and makes my job easier in that regard...but he has some stuff to work on. Nonetheless...this has been a tremendous challenge......I will let you know when he solos.

Comin' to your ci-tay

So, its been a while since I have posted on here so I figured Id do a recap of what I have been up to. Ive been a busy guy. I started working the desk at the flight school. Hoping to get a student lined up soon. Between my day job, working at independence air and the flight school...I havnt had much time for flying. But I did take some pretty cool IFR flights. I went down on 9/11 to see my hokies play Ohio Univ for the home opener. The game started with a b2 flyover...that was pretty cool. The flight down was even cooler. We departed VFR and picked up flight following down to BCB. Potomac approach cleared us up to our cruise altitude and into the Class B airspace. We were at 6500 and over some 4000 ft mountains. Always makes me nervous flying over mountains but its a calculated risk. I was in the right seat and Dan was in the left. His wife erin was in the back. We were about 30 miles SW of JYO and could see we couldnt maintain VFR, so i asked for a popup clearance from approach. The cleared us to join Victor airway 143 which goes from \CSN vortac to MOL vor. After some confusion and the inability to pick up the airway we ended up going GPS direct to BCB. We were in and out of the clouds and had a really nice sunny flight on top of most of the crud below. Some convective stuff made our ride interesting with some bumps, and flying on instruments from the right seat was interesting. Its all good though.

The flight home was interesting. We had to wait for the VA TEch police to let us into the airport since we came back after the FBO closed. We did a preflight and everything looked good. We taxied out and did a run up after we got our clearance back to JYO. after the runup and right before takeoff we got a low voltage light on the annunciator panel. So we taxied back, advised ATC and did a quick trouble shoot. We found a popped breaker and reset it. the warning light went off and we did another runup. the breaker held and we departed uneventfully. I later found out that this is a common problem and about half the time the breaker will pop again. I guess we were just lucky that night.

We were cleared up to 7000 but we at max gross wt, and had a hard time gettting up there so we stayed at 6000, much to the shagrin of ATC. I was PIC and made a decision they would have to deal with. The rest of the flight was normal. ATC had us relay a clearance to an aircraft on the ground at shenandoah while we were abeam the airport. A couple of "time-builders" heading out for some IFR training. My night landing left a little to be desired, but we all made it home safe.

Last weekend we took a cessna out to harrass the Gold Cup horse races inVA. We found the event and did a few laps while we watched the partiers below. We headed back to JYO and were greeted with a direct xwind at 15 knots or so. I need to get out and work on my xwind landings, especialy from the right seat. Always learning.

I am headed back down for another game in Blacksburg this Thursday. The hokies are playing tough and they have a big game against Boston College this week....shoudl be a good flight and a great game.