Obama visit

#POTUS visited my work Wednesday, however my attempt at capturing a decent photo of AF1 failed.


Obama departed KIWA at 1900L on runway 30R. This was too far away for my cheap camera to capture any decent image.


Here are a couple of photographs that I snapped at various points throughout the day.

Lesson 7

DATE: 24th January 2012
AIRCRAFT: C172P N54288 
ROUTE: CHD -> {Southern Training Area} -> CHD
DURATION: 1.1 hour
LANDINGS: 3
TOTAL TIME: 6.3 hours (+ 45.5 JAA)


Lesson Summary - Departed 22R. Climbed at V = 75/80/90kts.  Simulated engine fail. Nailed the approach. Ground reference manoeuvres. S turns. Turning around a point. Two more simulated engine fails. Back to CHD for Touch and Go's on 22L. Switched to 22R for the final landing.


Key Learnings - Confidence grew after nailing the first simulated engine fail. On the next one, took too long choosing a suitable landing area. Struggled to understand the purpose of the ground reference manoeuvres at first. S turns and turning around a point were easier to comprehend. Slight cross wind on approach. Nailed 2/3 landings.


liveATC Audio - http://tinyurl.com/6vwfdpq

Grounded by a TFR........

Due to fly Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday this week. However, the FAA has decided to post a TFR for Wednesday in the Phoenix area which will prevent me from flying. No it's not because of my landing's, but due to the fact there is a VIP in town.

This TFR may give me the opportunity to see AF1 for the first time ever. The airspace around KIWA and KCHD appears to be in lock down Wednesday evening. From the NOTAM information, I think #POTUS will be flying in and out of KIWA. In addition, it's a chance to see the support aircraft that follows  #POTUS.


Based on the following statement in the TFR text, I definitely won't be flying Wednesday!

C. The following operations are not authorized within this TFR: flight training, practice instrument approaches, aerobatic flight, glider operations, seaplane operations, parachute operations, ultralight, hang gliding, balloon operations, agriculture/crop dusting, animal population control flight operations, banner towing operations, sightseeing operations, maintenance test flights, model aircraft operations, model rocketry, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and utility and pipeline survey operations. 


Italic text and image courtesy of the FAA TFR website

Lesson 6

DATE: 21st January 2012
AIRCRAFT: C172P N54288 
ROUTE: CHD -> {Southern Training Area} -> CHD
DURATION: 1.0 hour
LANDINGS: 5
TOTAL TIME: 5.2 hours (+ 45.5 JAA)


Lesson Summary - Departed 22R. Climbed to 4000'. Foggle work including unusual attitude recovery (great fun!!). Then circuit work on 22L. Switched to 22R due to traffic. Switching circuits meant dealing with different drift angles (LH and RH patterns).


Key Learnings - Unusual attitude recovery is great fun. 3/5 good landings. Lost the picture on the last two (tiredness?). Great experience having to switch runways. Switching circuits meant dealing with different drift angles (LH and RH patterns). Transition between downwind and base much better. Had the confidence to tighten up the circuit pattern. Need to remain focused on what control inputs are needed to land on the centre line.

Lesson 5

DATE: 18th January 2012
AIRCRAFT: C172P N54288 
ROUTE: CHD -> {Southern Training Area} -> CHD
DURATION: 1.0 hour
LANDINGS: 5
TOTAL TIME: 4.2 hours (+ 45.5 JAA)


Lesson Summary - Departed 22R. Climbed at V = 75/80/90kts.  Power on followed by power off stall. Slow flight involving slow turns and climbs. Then accelerated stalls in a 45deg bank.  Headed back to CHD for 4 touch and goes on 22L and a full stop. 


Key Learnings - More confident with the stalls and slow flight hence why I executed them better. The accelerated stalls really showed how docile the aircraft can be. 1 good, 3 ok and 2 poor landings. Need to focus on control inputs needed to achieve 80kts, 2250' on the downwind. Taught new method for transitioning into the decent once abeam the numbers.  Better awareness of the circuit status today (parallel runway and other traffic).


liveATC Audio - http://tinyurl.com/74hh7dj

Lesson 4

DATE: 17th January 2012
AIRCRAFT: C172P N54288 
ROUTE: CHD -> {Southern Training Area} -> CHD
DURATION: 1.0 hour
LANDINGS: 2
TOTAL TIME: 3.2 hours (+ 40.0 JAA)


Lesson Summary - Departed 22R. Power off and on stall. Steep turns. Simulated Emergency Landings. Banked stall. Touch and Go. More confident with the stalls today. Wind was calm but shifted direction a couple of times. 


Key Learning - Pay attention to departure headings. Fly runway heading means runway heading. Do not allow the wind to cause the aircraft to drift towards the center line of the other runway. Both approaches high. This was a common problem in Ireland. Need to sort out in the next lesson.


liveATC Audio - http://tinyurl.com/7o9r7cu

Lesson 3

DATE: 14th January 2012
AIRCRAFT: C172P N54288 
ROUTE: CHD -> {Southern Training Area} -> CHD
DURATION: 0.9 hour
LANDINGS: 1


Lesson Summary - Reviewed slow flight, steep turns and stalls (power off, power on, banked stalls). Long final to 04L. Great landing. 


Key Learning - Not focused whilst setting for the approach. Lined up on 04R instead of 04L. Had to be corrected by the instructor. Need to listen out to all radio calls. Incorrectly acknowledged a landing clearance for another aircraft. Lost awareness that an aircraft was landing 04R whilst I was landing 04L.


liveATC Audio - http://tinyurl.com/726e2fm

Lesson 2

DATE: 10th January 2012
AIRCRAFT: C172N N734HC
ROUTE: CHD -> {Southern Training Area} -> CHD
DURATION: 0.3 hour
LANDINGS: 0 !


Lesson Summary - Supposed to fly to the training area for stalls, turns etc however the take off was aborted due to a stuck magneto. Aircraft towed away to the hangar for repair.


Key Learning - Power low on the take off run. Showed good airmanship to abort the take off.


liveATC Audio - http://tinyurl.com/7nrop4m

Lesson 1

DATE: 7th January 2012
AIRCRAFT: C172P N54288
ROUTE: CHD -> CGZ -> A39 -> CHD
DURATION: 1.0 hour
LANDINGS: 3 


Lesson Summary - First FAA lesson. Chance for the instructor to gauge my previous experience from Europe. Departed runway 22R and flew touch and goes at CGZ and A39 before heading back to CHD. Landed 22L at CHD. Slight cross winds on all approaches. Required right aileron and left rudder.


Key Learning - Flying in Arizona is fun! Set the trim to Take Off and not neutral.


liveatc.net Audio - http://tinyurl.com/7hauypu 

First Flight.......................

First week was amazing and eventful. I have flown twice although the second lesson was aborted during the take off roll! Hadn't flown since November. Was great to get back up in the air.

I plan to summarise each week via a short podcast. Hoping for the first one to be released this weekend after my first three flights.

In the mean time, check out some of the ATC audio courtesy of liveatc.net 

ATC Audio

First Lesson Booked

First FAA lesson is booked for Saturday 7th January.


Hear my first lesson on liveatc.net from 4pm UTC http://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=kchd

Road Trip...........

My family and I took a road trip to Vegas for a couple of days before New Year. 


Being an #AvGeek, I had to take the opportunity to check out a couple of places during the trip. Since 9/11, I am conscious about hanging around airport fences with a camera. However, I was able to take a couple of photo's at two locations.


Vegas was amazing. A buzz of airline, biz jet and helicopter traffic. 


skyvector.com came in handy again to help me figure out the local airspace around Vegas. 

KLAS Executive Terminal

KIGM Kingman Aviation Bone Yard

Approved......

Received an email this morning from the FAA stating that I have been cleared for flight training. Hopefully I will be back in the air within 7 days.


2012 is going to be a great year......................

Cockpit Audio

Thanks to the internet, I have been able to research different audio set-ups. Check out @rfelty and his YouTube setup - http://youtu.be/CiRWiVq5otk

I have selected a digital audio recorder from Sony. The Sony icd ux512 retails at $99.99 but is available from Amazon for $75. 


The cabling set-up is so simple and discrete. I can plug in my headset to a patch lead from Barnstormer Audio. It comes with three connections. One end connects to my David Clark headset. The other end connects to the regular audio socket in a C172. I then connect spliced end of the patch lead directly into my audio recorder. It's that simple!


Next I need to focus on the video. I have an idea to use a small HD camera, but I am first going to get the audio nailed. There is no point having video with no audio. Also, I don't want the audio and video to distract from the task at hand. Let's take our time.


All going well, I will be recording my first cockpit audio in about two weeks time. In the mean time, I will continue to watch and admire Rick's YouTube channel.

Alien committing a crime?

Being a non permanent US citizen working in the United States , I am classified as an Alien. If that wasn't bad enough, I have to visit the Chandler Police Department next week to give my fingerprints. Don't worry, I am in the country legally and I have not committed a crime. This is all part of getting clearance to commence flight training since this that terrible September day back in 2002.

This should be the final step in getting TSA clearance. I am on track to commence my flight training in January out of KCHD in Chandler, Arizona.

I need to start thinking about my training schedule. After talking with the family, we feel that flying two evenings after work and once on a weekend should be manageable. I am targeting finishing my training by March which will allow me time to build my confidence for the remainder of the year before tackling that elusive IFR ticket in early 2013.

In-flight audio

This evening, I am researching how to record cockpit audio. If I can get this working I may make a small weekly podcast with my training highlights.


I am using a blog entry from the popular StudentPilotCast podcast to research which equipment is needed. 

http://studentpilotcast.com/spc/2009/08/spc-video-005-recording-cockpit-audio/

One of the questions I have is whether instructors approve of audio being recorded. Need to do some research on this once I start my training.

Pima Air & Space Museum

This was our third weekend in Phoenix. I was keen to continue the aviation theme as with previous weekends. I took the family down to Tucson for the day. The ladies went shopping. The boys went aircraft hunting. Everyone was happy!


As far as museums go, Pima Air and Space Museum has to be the best I have ever visited. Such a wide range of Cold War and Military Aircraft. I only had four hours there. I really have to go back next year. Very impressed with the restored B-36 that last flew in 1959.

In addition to over 250 static objects, there are two busy airports near by. Tucson International Airport and Davis Monthan AFB. The Arizona National Guard are based at Tucson International. Was pretty cool to see several F16's lined up on west apron.

When I do go back, I have to visit one of the aircraft boneyards in the area.

http://www.pbase.com/bmcmorrow/image/34179099

All in all, just another great aviation experience in Arizona.

Overall, this has be be one of my fav. photo's from the day.

Page 1 of 1315

Purchased Jeppesen's FAR.AIM 2012 manual yesterday. Essential reading for any pilot.


The problem is, it's over 1300 pages long. Where do I start?


Need to get a head start on FAA regulations before my flight training starts in January.

And the winner is.........

Chandler Air Service.


www.aerobatics.com

Today I visited CAS based out of Chandler Municipal Airport (KCHD) to discuss my flight training options.


I spent an hour with one of the Chief Instructors talking about the the road to getting the FAA Private Pilot Ticket. UK and Irish Flying Schools have nothing on this crowd in terms of introducing people to aviation. So impressed with that today.


Basically I will work on my medical and TSA clearance over the next two to three weeks. Training will commence early in the New Year.  I am going to stick with the C172, however the PA28-Warrior remains an option.


The most exciting part is the thought of the Cross Country exercises. I will discuss them in a later posting.

So much to talk about.......

I have only been in the US for a couple of weeks, but this place is just happening for General Aviation and #AvGeek interests in general. 


I could talk about the contrailing fighter jets that I saw dog fighting in the SELLS MOA this weekend or the number of small GA airports around the Phoenix area. But instead I am going to about the my son's first flight in a GA aircraft.


Last Wednesday I logged onto Stella Airpark's (SLJ) website for no real reason. Turns out there was to be a EAA Young Eagles morning at the weekend. I spoke to my 9 year old and he said "sign me up".


On Saturday morning, we headed the 1/2 mile to Stella. We were greeted by a business jet and a L-39.

I filled out the disclaimer paperwork before my son was released  to the flight line. There were some pretty cool looking aircraft flying around. I was not disappointed to hear that he would be flying a Mooney M20C (retractable gear!).


Marvin and my son taxied towards the active right in front of me allowing me to take some photo's. They departed runway 17 at Stella and headed west towards the mountains. They flew right over my work which added to my son's excitement. They then appeared approx. 20 minutes later on left traffic for 17.

24 hours after the flight, my son is still buzzing. He has the aviation bug. Where we come from, experiences like this don't happen to kids of 9!


After 2 weeks, I am clearly in love with General Aviation in the US.


Thanks to Marvin for taking his time and money to share this experience with my son. Thanks to EAA for running the Young Eagles program.