The Rocket Misadventures

At the beginning of summer I was put in charge of a new AIAA project (AIAA is the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, a club at UCF that also has prestigious professional reach). With a limited budget and anyone interested, we're probably going to start small by building a few Estes rockets while I give lectures on basic rocket flight dynamics (it's not as technical as it sounds), then working up to bigger models and possibly some electronic payloads. I bring this up because on Monday I learned how to make rocket propellant out of household ingredients.

At our weekly SEDS meeting (the Student for the Exploration of Space, a rival aerospace club at UCF that I'm also a member of, and both clubs give me trouble for being in the other one, but that's not my problem), a guy from Santa Fe Community College came down with a few cases of his personal experimental supplies and taught us the basics for propellant mixing. All you need is an electric skillet and a spatula for kitchen supplies, and the ingredients are sugar, Kayro syrup, water, and potassium nitrate (ok fine, not so household, but very cheap online, despite it being used as the primary explosive in homemade bombs such as the Oklahoma City bombing). All you do is mix the ingredients at 300 degrees until the water evaporates and then put it in a mold.

Once we had made our propellants we went outside with small pieces for test burning. There are few things more fun than lighting things on fire, and one is lighting things on fire with permission from a professor in a parking lot by a tree. We set our test strands on the ground and used a can blow torch. I was surprised how long it took for the strands to burn out; we averaged about 12 seconds per inch of propellant. The cool part was there was nothing left on the ground but a small burn spot. Because the propellant wasn't chambered or focused, it didn't go anywhere, but it still burned in the conical shape of a solid propellant rocket. The only analogy I can think of to this is when you blast anything with a fully charged plasma beam in Metroid Prime, except a little slower and with a cone of fire coming off the edges (I know, no one reading this has ever played that game but me).

On Monday we are going to launch some rockets using our propellant. Hopefully I'll be able to incorporate my knowledge of propellant mixing with the AIAA program so we can make our own propellants. Two members of AIAA work for my boss in a propellant mixing and testing project similar to mine (mix something then light it on fire, only theirs is with solid fuel and mine is gaseous), so I may be able to get some insight from them.

Over Spring Break I took some time to launch rockets. Here's an earlier account of those events:
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THE ROCKET MISADVENTURES
Let me say this: legal model rocket launching is not as fun as illegal spud launching, even if it's safer. However, illegal rocket launching on campus affiliated housing property is pretty fun too. I got a model rocket kit for Christmas that I had only used once at the Lake. I decided that even though there are over a dozen rooftops in my phase of the apartment complex a rocket could get stuck on and even more trees to get caught in, I decided on Thursday that is would be a good idea to launch my B engine rocket.

I went outside. There was no wind. Perfect. I had a little trouble deciding where to launch it, but I eventually settled on setting up the launch pad on the basketball court. After a brief countdown, I pressed the launch button. Nothing. I am officially the worst rocket scientist of all time. I get mad and figure it's the batteries, replace them, and hit the launch button. Nothing. I decide the launch wire is busted. I find a fuse from my firecrackers but can't find a lighter. I get mad and go to WalMart to buy a pack of C engines because C engines have twice as much power as B engines.

After lunch, I come back and actually read the directions on the motors. It turns out I hadn't cut out the connecting wires properly and they fell apart too much to use. I loaded a C engine in, took a few steps back and, after a 5 second countdown, pressed the launch button.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

If you've never pressed the button, you don't know the ecstatic feeling a rocket burns gives you (or at least space cases like me). As the rocket ascended, I watched and jumped around like I did when I was in third grade and had my first rocket launch. As it descended, I thought it would be a good idea to try to catch it has it landed. After racking my privates on a picnic table, I determined it would be best to look where I'm running when I catch this thing. I caught it in the air as it floated down between the clubhouse and the apartment building next to it. Three guys on their third floor patio cheered as I caught it in my hand.

Feeling immortal after a successful launch, I hastily assembled the rocket for another launch, and when I say "hastily assembles," I mean "forgot to load in burn wadding and slapped in a new C engine" meaning when this thing launches again the parachute will have a hole burned in it during burnout. After five minutes and two runs to my room to get supplies, I slipped the rocket onto the guiderail, stepped back, and pressed the button.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

Once again, grinning like a donkey, I run after the rocket on its way down only to realize the wind had picked up a bit and the rocket was heading for the clubhouse roof. I heard the sound of plastic bouncing on hard material, and walked around to the front of the building to see the rocket laying halfway up the roof. Since I'm no punk, I grab the pool-cleaning hook and try to save it. It worked. I feel empowered. My parachute has a hole burned in it, but it's not too big to care about.

A few hours later I get bored and use the extra connecting wire to use the B motor that I couldn't get to work earlier. Out on the basketball court again with no wind, I press the launch button.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

Not as high as the last two, but even closer to perfection with the launch angle. Straight up, caught in my hands in the tennis court. I am a rocket launching genius. After putting it back together, I found the old connector that was broken, managed to put it back together with pliers, and let'er rip.

SSSSSHHHHHOOOOOOOOOMMM!!!........*pop*

Perfectly straight. Ne'er have I witnessed a spectacle or grinned like an idiot... until I saw the parachute fly off and float away, never to be seen again. My rocket was racing downwards at terminal velocity and moving away from me because the wind had just picked up. I couldn't judge where to run until it was too late. I was within five feet of the landing site when it smacked into a car. Stupid chutes. After I finished wetting myself I looked at the car and saw no damage. And when I say "looked," I mean "glanced at the car for a giant dent and looked around for any witnesses." One of the fins had broken off and now remains on the floor of my room awaiting super glue. It was officially time to stop for today. [I fixed the fin two days ago]

But that wasn't the end of my rocket misadventures for the week. On Sunday afternoon I became a little impatient with the wind conditions and decided to launch a mosquito. A mosquito rocket is approximately 4 inches tall, 3/4 inch in diameter, and only supports an A engine. Granted, it's small, but A engines pack no punch, especially the miniature versions for mosquitoes. "There's no way that's going very far" I said to myself. Famous last words.

Although it was windy, wind had nothing to do with the immediate shock of this launch. This thing has a wussy engine, it's not going anywhere. I'll angle it into the wind a bit so it comes right back to me. Press the button and...

ZIIIIINNGG!!!

Gone. That thing went clear over McCulloch and possibly over Alafaya. There was no way I was going to recover that one. The whole incident took me by surprise because the little buggers aren't supposed to do that. Oh well, I still have one more mosquito for launch right in front of me. Now my place smells like burnt steel and noxious chemicals. Ahh, I love it.
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I haven't gotten any word back from Space Generation or NASA regarding my applications, but I will post my status when I hear about it.

Aluminum Tubes!

Pretty much since the day I finished flight school I've been working 20-30 hours a week for Dr. Eric Petersen on his newest research project. When I got here all we had was a giant aluminum tube and its endcaps. Ever since then, I've been ordering bolts, screws, pressure transducers, thermocouples, DC amplifiers, valves, fittings, connectors, control panels, electronic assemblies, lumber, electropneumatically actuated ball valves, vacuum pumps, and other assorted lab supplies. The only things I've built so far are the supports for the giant aluminum tube, which I cut out of a 4"x4", and an upper level of an optical table that I have to redo because it wasn't professional enough (read: it wasn't expensive looking enough, so I have to buy thick aluminum rods and build and paint a new upper level instead of using the steel pipe, flanges, and plywood I bought from Home Depot, plus the 1/2" plywood bends a little too much, and by a little, I mean barely).

The experiment works like this; we have a few tanks of compressed gasses in giant SCUBA tanks, one each hydrogen (fuel), oxygen (oxidizer), and nitrogen (or something non-flammable). The hydrogen and oxygen will be fed and pressurized into a mixing tank so the right chemical composition and continuity of the gas is fed into our main chamber. The main chamber is an 11.75" ID, 14.25" OD aluminum tube up on an optical table. We pressurize the tube anywhere from 100-450 psi (about 7 to 30 times standard atmospheric pressure). On the endcaps of the tube there are 2" thick lexan (bulletproof) glass plates so we can point cameras and other optical equipment at the center of the tube. In the center is an electrical sparker with a 5000 volt potential difference that creates our spark. Once the capacitors are charged, we flip the switch and if my designs are within safety factors, I won't be incinerated by the blast. Using a $30,000 high speed camera, we'll take pictures of the expanding blast sphere, and from simple frame rate calculations we can accurately measure just how fast this gas explodes. Once the test is over we open a valve to vent out the hot gases, and then open another and turn on a vacuum pump to clean out the system.

The purpose of the experiment is to simulate high pressures experienced in rocket engines to establish behaviors of these gases under these conditions. These tests have been done under atmospheric conditions but not under high pressures. What's crazy is that this and two other shockwave experiments are being carried out in the Gas Dynamics Lab... which is located in a regular office building, the same one the alumni association is headquartered (Lorraine Weinstock might still work here, but I haven't seen her since I started). If something goes awry, lots of people can get hurt or be laid off, so I'm making sure everything has a high safety factor, because 30 atmospheres, even contained in a 1500 cubic inch chamber behind 6" thick walls made from plywood, sand, more plywood, and sheets of stainless steel, is deadly.

The worst part of the job? I've been working since the end of May and I still have not received a paycheck. The first pay period that went by I couldn't get paid because I didn't quite have all the paperwork done because I wasn't enrolled in any classes. Had I been enrolled as a student it would have worked out. The next pay period I still wasn't in the system because of my old job with SARC tutoring physics. My records were in place and had to be taken off by my old boss, who did it in a timely manner, but because the lady in accounting with the engineering department is never there, she didn't get it in time. For the third pay period I have no idea what happened, and by that time I had $30 to my name and was out of gas. Hopefully, if FedEx gets my signed timesheets here by tomorrow from LA where my boss has another lab, I should get a hefty paycheck next Friday. The job pays $12 an hour, which is $3/hr better than flipping burgers and frying fish like my last job, plus I work in the coldest building in the hottest months of Florida. Pretty sweet if you ask me.

In addition to working, I've also been building model airplanes and rockets (until I went broke and had to play video games). So far I've built two model airplanes, a P-51D Mustang and an F-16, and three rockets, a standard Estes Alpha III, an SR-71 Blackbird, and an X-Prize winner whose name escapes me at the moment. I still have yet to launch them, but I'd like to make it an AIAA outing so other people can bring their rockets and we can share some engines. I also bought a new bass guitar since my old roommate took his back. I can't wait to learn some new songs. I'm also thinking about buying an electric or acoustic guitar to learn to play as well, even though everyone tells me bass is a whole lot easier.

Flight School: Final Day

One word:

PASSED

As I write this entry, it's been six weeks since my FAA exam, and only now am I actually recounting the details of the exam.

My flight examiner was Mr. Faulkenstein, the ancient pilot who is scared of flying. People tell me because he's lived this long he's paranoid about a student finally taking him out in a crash after all these years of surviving.

We started off with paperwork. Had I been filling this paperwork out, it would have been done in 5 minutes. Because this guy actually brings in his own old-school typewriter like the one I practiced on at TSL (back when even that was old), it took much longer. Ordinarily, this would make my ADD get the best of me, but because both the oral and written exams are limited to one hour each, I was happy time was a'wastin'.

All my studying for the oral exam was practically wasted, except for the fact that it's the law that I have to know what I'm doing in the air. We spent about half the remaining time talking about Harry Truman holding the newspaper saying the other guy won the election, and another quarter of the time talking about something in Key West (since my pre-planned cross country was to EYW airport). So basically, I only "know" about 10% of what I need to according to my oral exam because the Ancient likes to talk about Ancient times.

Obviously, I passed the oral exam. However, the weather was pretty bad. I knew that as soon as I turned on the engine I'd fail the test if the weather conditions weren't within my student pilot minimums. I got the handheld radio and listened to Kissimmee's AWOS and waited until the visibility got better. To be honest, I was scared. The difficulty of the oral exam was inversely proportional to the difficulty of the flight exam with this guy from what I had heard. I wanted an excuse to postpone the flight so I could take the exam with the nice lady who gave a harder oral exam but an easier flight exam. I'm chicken.

After an hour of waiting, Faulkenstein started getting impatient and subliminally urged me to start the preflight despite visibility being 2 miles less than my minimums. I couldn't stall anymore. I knew he couldn't fail me because he was pushing me to start, but what if he was pushing me to test my judgement? Either way I bit the bullet and prepared for flight.

Engine start... and off we go. The bad thing about this guy is that he tests landings first, so if you mess up the landings the exam is over. Most examiners do landings last so that if you fail, you can try again later and stay in the pattern without doing the entire test over. Not my guy.

We took off normally. Now he starts getting scared. "Keep your airspeed around 74!" he yells during the part where I normally stay around 68 during takeoff. "I think you should make your crosswind turn now!" he suggests. I come in for my first landing, and there was bounce. Not bad, but I definitely got SCARED because of what I've heard about this guy and landings. "Let's not have another landing like that!" he says like it was partially his fault but stingingly implied I better not screw up again.

"Alright, give me a short field takeoff!" he shouted into the comm. I didn't hear "short field." I heard "soft field." Big difference. I acted smart and said "yeah, that's what I did," and I think he changed his mind about what he said. I say this now because I spent two weeks wondering why he went nuts when I did the wrong simulated takeoff, then I figured it out and thanked God he didn't fail me right there either.

On the way in for the second landing, the crosswind has picked up, but instead of fretting, I closed my eyes, took a breathe, and let my eyes and hands do the flying. "Tilt to the right with ailerons to correct for wind! Tilt!" was along the lines of what I heard on the way down. Airspeed 65 on final, 55 over the trees, 45 right above the ground. Altitude two feet... one foot... right wheel touchdown... one wheel roll... gentle touch on the left wheel... keep applying back pressure... front wheel still in the air... keep pulling back.... gentle front wheel touchdown... BEAUTIFUL!! PERFECT!! TRICK-SHOT LANDING GONE GREAT!! I had never pulled off a one wheel landing before (and that's how you're supposed to land with crosswind).

"Excellent!" he yelled in the comm like it was a mistake (for some reason this guy and the owner's compliments came off as backhanded ones, I can't figure out why). I hit the throttle again and we were off to perform the other maneuvers. At this point I knew my chances of passed went through the roof. I knew these maneuvers so well it didn't matter how much the crosswind blew me off-course; I knew I could fix it. I knew where I was, I knew where the 1100 foot tower was that he was scared to death of, I even knew where I was when the blinders were on. I kept my IRF flight on course and within flight standards. I didn't even have to do a rectangle or a 360 around a point. My first high bank turn was so good the wings shuddered at the end because I hit my own wingtip vortices.

Of course, this guy was scared the whole time, yelling and suggesting I fix this and that. It was within standards, he couldn't fail me. We came back to the airport, and the home stretch was upon me. Now I was scared, because he could still fail me on the final landing despite everything I'd already done. We entered the Delta airspace through the same place I almost wrecked Mike Kilo in on my second solo, turned into the downwind, then base, then final. My speed was high, the air was turbulent, and the thermals over the lake on the long final were acting up. "Oh no," I thought. "This is too easy to mess up."

Too fast to flair properly. I have to bleed off speed over the runway. Touchdown. Bounce. Front wheel hits. I'm porpoising. Oh God, I'm porpoising. Pull up. Don't lift off. Stop lifting off. DON'T PORPOISE! LAND AGAIN! PULL BACK! CORRECT FOR WIND! BRAKES! BRAKES! BRAKES! "Cessna 452MK, contact ground point 7." I hear from ATC. Because I have the controls tilted, I hit the wrong button on the yoke when repeating back the instructions.

Finish the post-landing checklist; taxi to Sunstate. Now I was on pins and needles. Sure, any other examiner would have said my landings were good enough, but this was The Ancient. He didn't take kindly to errors.

Once the plane was shut down and I started the post shutdown checklist (did I mention there's tons of checklists?) he stopped me and said "Congratulations, your performance was satisfactory. You passed."

At that moment, I kinda felt like I passed with a C-, but who cares!!! AAAHH!! PILOT! After more paperwork, my private flight training was over.

I haven't been flying since, and I'm getting stick itch. I haven't flown because of weather (it seemed to rain every Saturday and Sunday afternoon, and recently the weather has been too variable), trips, and now I can't fly because I'm broke. I haven't been paid in 6 weeks, so I only have $26.23, not nearly enough to get off the ground. Once I start getting paid I'll have more to work with, but until then I'll keep my eye on the sky and my mind in the clouds (even though I can't legally fly through the clouds yet).

Flight School: Day 20

Boo-urns. I had a ground session and flight with the owner of the flight school to make sure I was ready for the checkride. It didn't go too well.

I'll be honest; I hate finding out what the weather is like. I hate trying to read METAR's, TAF's, FA's, and those awful black and white maps that tell you not a dang thing. I especially hate calling someone for weather information, but that's only because I already hate talking on the phone, let alone to strangers, let alone to be berated for not knowing what plane I'll be flying or the course I'm going yet. And of course, weather in general irritates me.

I also hate the pressure of making a perfect landing, because every time I'm pressured it doesn't come out right. From what I can tell my landing failures (by "failures" I mean "bounce a little which would fail me on the exam but not kill, maim, or hurt anyone" of course, don't worry) I need to slow the heck down on the approach and not be afraid to enter clean stall speeds (above dirty stall speeds, which is the landing configuration). I keep touching down around 55 knots instead of 40, and then I have to put on super brakes to slow down enough. Sure, I could ride the runway out here, but on a short field I'd need to stop eventually.

Maybe I'm just upset because the owner really perturbs me. Let me go into further description of this guy. I've already mentioned he looks like a mix between Mike Lumberg from Office Space (and that's how I felt after the flight, Office Spaced) and William Defoe. Now, add to that the people from San Francisco from the Hybrid Car episode of South Park, you know, that are so full of themselves they talk with their eyes closed and like the smell of their own flatulence. Now, I'm not sure if this guy smells his own farts, but he does talk with his eyes closed.

I'm still waiting on the verdict for tomorrow. Send me some good luck e-charms.

Flight School: Day 19

Last day of training, now I just have to prepare for the End of Course review/flight tomorrow and the FAA Examiner's Flight on Monday. I gotta study pretty hard (although not as hard as some of my school classes, but there's a lot of stuff to remember here), but I think I'm ready.

I needed 1.7 more hours of solo time for the Private standards, so I cleaned that up by hanging in the pattern the whole time. I did 11 full stop taxi backs, which is really annoying compared to touch and gos, but since I'm a student pilot I'm not allowed to do them. Taxi backs don't necessarily take forever, but they do eat a chunk of time. Oh well, I was killing it, and my flight lasted exactly 1.7 hours.

For the FAA test, there's a 45min - 1hr oral exam that will be the death of me if anything at all. We did a practice oral and I about went nuts trying to remember these acronyms for minimum equipment for VFR flight and the most specific details of markings on the sectional charts. ATOMATOEFLAME, FLAPS, NWKRAFT, WARMPC, and 30FUCTD are acronyms that are irritating me.

After that we did a practice FAA flight, and I destroyed it. I'm ready to fly and perform the maneuvers (steep turns, clean/dirty slow flight, power on/off stalls, S-turns, turns around a point, rectangular patterns, and blind flight), but the landing might be the death of me. I seem to be getting worse (and by "worse" I mean "not beautiful but not scary enough for any passengers to flip out or get hurt or sue me")

Peace, and humptiness forever.

Flight School: Day 18

To get a private pilot's certificate, you have to do a 100 nm solo cross-country with at least two stops and at least one leg more than 50 nm, so that's what I did yesterday morning. I went from Brooksville (already did that twice, so it was no problem) to Wachula (the only new leg of the journey) and back (did that the day before). On the way to Brooksville there were three planes all from the same school flying in formation and arguing about who's landing where and when. Of course, I was the only solo flyer among them, the other two had instructors, so they probably saw my mistakes and relayed them. Oh well. There's never anyone at Wachula, so that's never exciting.

Later I did a mock FAA Flight exam, which went pretty well except for the bad weather that built up that made us stop earlier than expected.

Checkride is scheduled for Monday, exactly 21 days since I started, exactly on schedule.

Flight School: Day 17

Well, I was supposed to do a >250 nm cross country flight to Macon Georgia, but at the last minute the owner of the flight school said I wasn't experienced enough to make the trip. The only reason I need a trip that long is for a commercial license, but you also need 250 hours for that, so I wouldn'tbe saving any money by knocking it out now.

I did, however, do a XC to Wachula, Florida (10 points for anyone who can find it without a search engine), a cool 53 nm over familiar territory, not-so-perfect weather and no skydivers at Lake Whales. I got to see Chalet Susanne, Crooked Lake and the Lake House, and Bok Tower. No crazy Brits on my way back over the Sandpits like on my second solo flight, no VOR glitches, and no botched landings (although they weren't perfect).

Tomorrow is my extended XC to Hernando County and Wachula, and since I've already planned XC's to both locations it shouldn't take long to whip a plan together. I also have a mock checkride with my instructor.

Flight School: Day 16

Practice Exam #1 Score: 83
Practice Exam #2 Score: 83
Actual Exam Score: 83

Hey, at least I'm consistent. Extended cross-country tomorrow to Macon, Jawjuh.

(Post Script: I couldn't figure out how to reorder entires after I posted this, so it's out of order, I know.)

Flight School: Day 15

I only had one flight today. It was five hours long and completed night flying for my private license, night cross-country for a commercial license, night landings for private, simulated IRF for private, and it was pretty darn cool.

I stayed at my apartment last night and got back to Kissimmee around 11 and studied my butt off in the school for about 7 hours in between cross country planning and eating a healthy meal of a Hot Pocket and a Tony Roma's microwavable boneless rib sandwich. I finished reading through the Gleims study book and calculated distance/times/gas consumption/headings for each point along the cross country route.

We left at 7pm for a cross country day flight to Tallahassee (200 nm) and got there a little after 9. By that time it wasn't officially "night" but it was dark enough to enjoy seeing the decked out lighting system Tally has at its airport. Runway lights, centerline lights, 1/4 line lights, threshold lights, it was great. They say everyone screws up their first night landing because they either come in too high or too low, but I was perfect. My landings are really getting better, and this night practice really improved my confidence over last week struggling to get approved for solo flight. Along the way I navigated using sight, but the way back I pretty much followed GPS.

After a half hour stop for a drink, a game of pool, and physiological release, we headed back to Kissimmee. Not only was it near impossible to discern the airport from the surrounding neighborhood, the lighting system is the crappiest one I've ever seen (which means it's the second best as of now, but so what). It looked like the Christmas lights your neighbor puts up, but he doesn't have a tall enough ladder and they're really crooked. Everyone in the neighborhood can tell but him, plus he's colorblind and used blue lights. Honestly, who uses blue Christmas lights?

After touchdown, we did 8 more stop and go's to fulfill the night landing requirements. Each one of mine were fine, then Paul decided to try a night landing. After all, he's the Certified Flight Instructor, why shouldn't he be awesome at it? We come in at 55 knots over the trees, 10 slower than I usually do and I end up overshooting the first taxiway. He was aiming for Alpha 1, the first exit from the runway. We didn't even make it to the runway before we fell from the air and bounced harder than I've ever bounced in a small airplane. It was the worst landing I've ever felt. Sure, we stopped in time to turn off on Alpha 1, but I couldn't stop laughing at the irony of the situation. We did one more of my landings before calling it quits.

Tomorrow is "Cram for the Written Exam" day, after that the extended cross-country solo, after that some progress checks and solo practice. Saturday is the flight exam.

Flight School: Day 14

First solo cross country done. It was pretty easy, although my gyroscopic compass kept moving off and the magnetic compass is worthless unless you're sitting still, so I had to go by dead reckoning on the way there to sharpen my skills and GPS on the way back because I'm a lazy SOB. My destination was the Hernando County airfield in Brooksville, just north of Tampa's Class Bravo airspace. Both landings there and back were fine, but I got stuck for a little bit on the ground because I had a momentary retardation onset while trying to figure out which runway other pilots were using (it's an uncontrolled airport, so pilots just do whatever the heck they want and take off from whichever runway they want, as I did once I was sure no one would come down on me as I ascended). The weather reports I got all said visibility was 10 miles, but when I got there is was pretty bad, no more than 6, and I'm only allowed to fly in 8 minimum. Oh well, I got the job done.

I'm at UCF for tonight because I had a meeting with some people for my job. My extended night cross country trip is tomorrow. Any destination suggestions (must be more than 100 miles from Kissimmee, but not much more than that because I don't feel like paying more than I have to)?

Flight School: Day 13

It was 7 AM and I was learning how to plan cross country flights (50 nm or more) by getting TAF's, METAR's and weather briefs from Flight Service Stations (FSS) to calculate wind correction angle and ground speed for each leg of the journey. After visibility delays, we left at 9:45 for Hernando County airfield just north of Tampa. I was only two minutes fast for my calculated time of flight as we performed a touch and go, and two minutes fast for my return trip. There wasn't anything interesting along the way except for my waypoints I found by dead reckoning.

After that I planned another CC flight to Ocala International (whoever gave it an international designation was on crack; there's no tower and.. it's OCALA, redneck capital of central Florida). Not only was I on point for every checkpoint, I was exact for my planned time of arrival (although, there was no forecast wind, so the calculations were nothing more than simple multiplication and division, no vector analysis yet). We had awesome bacon cheeseburgers in the airport restaurant that we've heard so much about from other instructors, and we went back to Kissimmee. I was one minute early on my times.

Just remember, if you ever fly cross country with someone who files a flight plan with a FSS, make sure they close it, otherwise they pay the price for the search and rescue team that comes after you an hour after your scheduled arrival time.

Flight School: Day 12

Quite an exciting day, both positively and negatively. My first flight was delayed an hour, so I would have been irked had I not passed out on the couch in the school for that time. We left at 8am in IFR conditions because of the fog. We went to the practice field and practiced using the VOR for navigation. It's not so bad, but can be a bit confusing at times.

My second flight was my second solo flight, after the weather cleared while the wind was dead. I went out to the practice field and practiced some of the maneuvers I'll have to do in the FAA Exam. However, while coming back to Kissimmee I ran into troubles. As I came back to a landmark ATC uses as an entrance into Class Delta airspace, I got stuck because the comm was too congested for me to get a word in edgewise. One of the other instructors decided to scare with me and passed by pretty close on my left side, so I had to bank right and pull a 360 while he went towards the pattern (he had called in earlier, so he wasn't hogging the frequency). He posed absolutely no threat, so don't get upset. He was close by aviation standards, which means he was about 100 yards away. After doing some safe circles and traffic checks over the sandpits while I waited for the comms, I finally got some silence where I got my position out, only to have been interrupted by someone in the pattern. I had to do two more circles. On the final circle ATC acknowledged my position and told me to give my call sign.

My position was announced over the sandpits... I was in mid sentence when out from my left some careless British pilot buzzed within 50/100 feet at the same altitude at full speed while DIVING towards me (when he should have been climbing coming out of the pattern like he was). Now, on the road 50 to 100 feet is some distance, but in the air when two planes can have relative speed in the 200 nm/hr, it's too damn close for my sanity. At that point I let tower know where I was so no surprises could happen while I waited to enter Delta space. The landing was quite pretty.

(Post Script: Later that day the pilot called the flight school to complain. Let me reiterate the situation... we zoomed past each other at a speed of over 200 nautical miles per hour, which is around 220 or more mph, but I don't know the exact conversion factor. I barely had enough time to react to the situation. Yet somehow, this guy manages to SPOT MY TAIL NUMBER as he flys past. How is that possible? Luckily, neither my instructor nor the owner was in to take his call at the time, and he never called back because he knew his argument wasn't worth the electricity used to make the phone call. I did the right thing.)

The third flight was a doozy. We're really close to finishing the FAA maneuvers, so now he's just messing with my head and extending my times. Once we got to the practice field he put the blinders on so I navigated, did slow flight, power on/off stalls, high bank turns, and unusual attitude recovery all BLINDFOLDED. Man, that hurt my stomach, especially when he put us in a negative .5G dive/twist I had to recover from. My right leg hurts from mashing the right rudder for so long (you have to for many reasons, but it's tiring after a while).

Flight School: Day 11

"Damn it feels good to be a gangsta" was the song on the comm when I entered the downwind for my second landing on runway 15 this morning around 7:30. My first landing was beautiful, no crosswind and a smidge of impact. If I could pull them off like that each time I'd make a lot of money as a delicate explosives carrying pilot. Second touchdown, slight crosswind but good correction. Boom, park on the taxiway and ask Ground Control for taxi back to the runway. Up again, around again, but the crosswind had picked up a bit. Still no problems getting the plane on the ground. A slight *screech* as we hit the brakes to exit on taxiway Alpha 2. Paul signed my logbook, shook my almost sweaty hand and shut the door. I was approved for solo flight.

That's right mother flippers, I said SOLO FLIGHT and it was greattt. Three ups and three downs to keep it simple for first timers, but it still felt like a large burden was lifted from my flight training. As soon as I got on the taxiway GC made me turn around because they switched the active runway because the winds had changed. The flight was otherwise uneventful, but the winds were picking up so my landings got worse as they went on. The third landing I had a soft bounced and skid, but nothing uncontrollable, uncomfortable, or destructive. Tower got me the wind speeds and directions each pass so I was able to accurately correct for the wind, and I coasted back to the tarmac and parked it like it was hot.

After they cut the back of my shirt (long aviation story), I had to fly a progress check with the owner of the school, the William Defoe/Mike Lumberg love child. I didn't do so hot with that, however. I severely screwed up my stall recovery by using ailerons when I wasn't supposed to, I didn't know some of the checkpoints he was talking about, and I didn't use ailerons when I should have on landing. He also did a broken headphone simulation where I had to use the crummy handheld mic and the intercom to hear.

The third flight of the day we simulated and practiced short and softfield landings and takeoffs. We practiced both at Kissimmee and took a mini cross-country trip towards Lake Whales, then a little further east, then back. The trip was a blast not only because it combined so many flight elements, it also took me over the familiar sights of Bok Tower, which I haven't seen up close for at least 5 years, and especially not that angle. We landed on a grass airstrip by a lake in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere north of Lake Whales. It was actually a 5 star restaurant/hotel/getaway resort. I got a ribbon for flying in on their airstrip and we took a tour of the restaurant. Guys - if you want to treat your lady to a high class night, take her to Chalet Suzanne. After that we went over restricted military airspace (over, not through) and had to pull an awesome 3000 foot descent slip. We touched down on the short strip, turned around and cruised back to Kissimmee using some autopilot features. The landing was superb, no crosswinds and I just floated that plane like paper over the runway screaming "no, you can't have it!" (another story).

A very successful day for me. I'm happy, and I'm going to celebrate. When I get done we need a have a party.

(Post Script: Aviation Story - back in the early days of aviation, the student pilot sat up front and the instructor sat in the back. Since they didn't have eletronic avionics (radios), the only way for the instructor to communicate with the pilot to tell him to turn left or right was to tug on the back of his shirt. Once the student flew solo or graduated, the instructor cut off the entire back of the student's shirt since it was no longer necessary. )

Flight School: Day 10

Still no solo, although my landings are getting much better. I had two flights today, one at 11 and one at 3. The first flight felt better because we stayed out of the Kissimmee traffic pattern and went to Winter Haven's uncontrolled airport, so if I screwed up ATC wouldn't get mad or give the FAA a reason to arrest me. I had a couple good landings there, then we came back. The second flight we stayed at Kissimmee and just did the pattern in pretty high crosswinds.

My crosswind correction is getting better, but I still just barely screw up the flares. There's so much finesse it's crazy. Tomorrow I'm scheduled for 7 am so the air should be smooth and undisturbed and the thermals shouldn't exist, so as long as I don't royally screw up or the weather is really bad, I'm definitely soloing tomorrow.

Now I need to find somewhere I haven't already eaten dinner at near this place. I've done pretty well so far but the pickings are slimming.

Flight School: Day 9

Today was tremendously frustrating. I hope today is was the worst day of flight school, including yesterday when I didn't even fly.

I only had one flight today in 8 knots winds with 12 knots gusts, all of which were nearly straight up the runway, meaning it should have been a piece of cake. But it was bumpy, gusty, turbulent, and the thermals were horrible. We stayed in the traffic pattern, which was busier than I've ever seen it. I had to pull a short approach to beat an airliner, make a long approach/short takeoff and landing to avoid another's wake turbulence, and worry about more than a student pilot's share of incoming traffic ATC commands. After 8 landings, only one which was absolutely beautiful (but I was too stressed to enjoy it), my instructor called it quits because I was getting so frustrated. Too many weird noises, uncontrolled bumps, ATC demands, and botched landings got under my skin.

After a few hours to calm down, listen to music, watch three episodes of Boondocks and download a bunch of music off of the free wireless internet that doesn't restrict Morpheus like my worthless apartment ethernet connection does, the winds had gotten stronger, with 12 knots sustained and 17 knot gusts. We decided not to go for the scheduled 4 o'clock flight and I went back to the hotel to call my mom and crawl into the fetal position on my bed. I also experienced my first coin laundromat session. If all the instructions weren't in Spanish it might have been better.

I'd like to take this time to explain my favorite non-aerobatic maneuver. Sure, Immelmanns are cool, loops and barrel rolls are fun, but regular planes can't perform those. My favorite is called a Slip. Basically, you put down full flaps (or don't, your choice), turn your wings to one side like you're doing a turn, but jam full opposite rudder. Because the rudder and ailerons are fighting each other, you don't turn, but you induce a lot of drag. The purpose is to lose altitude and speed in a hurry for short approach and emergency landings. It kinda feels like you're on a linoleum floor with socks and you run and slide on the surface, but instead of slowing down, you just slide really slow past all the hot women on the dance floor without running up, in slow motion. It feels cooler than moon-walking was back in the day.

(Post Script: yes, I realize just 6 days eariler I hated slips. Things change. Instead of feeling out of control, it now feels like drifting in a car. As Bow Wow said in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, "If you ain't out of control, you ain't in control." Word of advice: don't ever quote Bow Wow.)

Tomorrow doesn't look any better for a solo flight. I just hope I can finish without losing my research job.

Flight School: Day 8

Today was the low point in the training. It rained from around 5:45 am to noon and visibility was IFR (Instrument Flight Rules, as opposed to Visual Flight Rules) the whole time, so no flying for me. I sat there and watched training videos on crosscountry flying and ate lunch at the Golden Corral with some instructors. At least it didn't cost anything to do nothing.

I'm also out of clean pants and low on socks, and the hotel washing machines are out. And the power just cut off...lucky I'm on a laptop. Maybe I'll solo tomorrow.

Flight School: Day 7

Today was pretty boring. I did not fly solo as expected because of wind conditions (who the fudge decided to close runway 24 with winds at 22 knots in that EXACT direction? Why must they make me land on 15 in perpendicular crosswind to THAT!?!? WTF MAN!!)

(Post Script: Runway numbers indicate magnetic heading, so runway 24 points towards 240 degrees, which is about west-southwest. If you take off or land going the other direction on the same runway, it's runway 6 for 60 degrees. Just add or subtract 18 to figure out a runway's other side)

The first flight was at 7 in the morning. I did 12 landings, one of which was absolutely gorgeous, like, love at first sight with a personality and gorgeous legs all wrapped in one. Okay, maybe not quite that pretty, but you get the picture, a nice float with a touchdown softer than any lotion can make a person's skin.

Then I sat around forever and watched the training videos, which are starting to get tedious because of the cross country training, and I have to learn about engine performance and minimum runway lengths during specific conditions. I also surfed around online and ate Firehouse for lunch again. I sure am lucky that virtually every food place ever is on the main street, otherwise I'd get bored with the food selections.

The next flight was the ill-fated 22 knots crosswind landings. I managed to make four landings before the instructor declared N452MK had taken enough beatings for one day after bouncing around on the final landing while I was correcting my position on the centerline. Wow that was scary. Then we went over the pre-solo written exam, which I did pretty well on. It's not graded, we just go over it until I get a 100. Hopefully, tomorrow morning I will be flying solo. I found out later the NOTAM was reversed and runway 24 opened up. Those mongoloids.

Flight School: Day 6

A word to Cessna Training Video Instructors: your jokes are all-encompassingly and completely horrible. Flight training videos are "Night Court in its fifth season" lame. I'm also getting sick of these stupid jingles whenever you complete a lesson.

Continuing story: After we figured out how to hook up an MP3 player to the radio system a few days back the first song we listened to after I completed some slow flight was "Damn It Feels Good to Be a Gansta." I seriously felt like I was coming out of Office Space. The reason I bring this up now is because the owner of the flight school just got back from his vacation in Hawaii. Everyone told me this morning that he looked and sounded exactly like Mike Lumberg with his glasses on. He got a haircut though, so now he looks more like William Defoe. I introduced myself and he properly referred to FWB as the Redneck Riviera. (If you haven't seen Office Space, disregard this last paragraph).

The first flight today was a review of all our maneuvers, including slow flight, stalls, high bank turns, and, the most fun of all, how to keep your cool in an emergency like an engine shutdown. We chilled and relaxed with the engine on idle while I glided down from 4000 to 500 feet over a cow pasture near a Military Operations Airspace zone. I think I have a pretty good grasp on how to land in an emergency. It might not be pretty, but it certainly wouldn't be ugly. Then I did some instrument flight (he put special goggles on so I couldn't see out the window, just the display panel) and he seriously screwed up my equilibrium by telling me to close my eyes while he turned the plane at some asinine attitude. When I opened my eyes I had to correct it. Then I had to navigate back to Kissimmee, all blindfolded. This type of operation isn't essential but very important when visibility is low or weather goes bad. The landing wasn't too bad either.

We had lunch and went over airspaces at Wing House. I didn't know that place was closer to Hooters than it is to Buffalo Wild Wings. I learned more about how to read sectional maps and determine flight paths and rules through airspaces. Orlando airspace happens to be one of the toughest in the country, but FWB isn't a piece of cake either, so it's good to figure it all out.

My next flight consisted of 14 takeoffs, 14 traffic patterns, 14 high-speed crosswind landings, and one botched attempt with a go around. Needless to say, crosswinds are no fun. A crosswind blows you off path, away from the runway, and you have to point at the runway crooked and cocked to the side, and at the last instant correct when you touch the ground. I'd say half of those landings weren't bad, the other half weren't ugly. I'm definitely getting better, but I still need a lot of finesse. We also did an actual simulated emergency landing (as opposed to hitting the gas when we were 500 feet up like in the first flight). That wasn't bad, but still, it wouldn't be very pretty if it actually happened.

Flights are at 7 and... some other time. If I do well, I'm flying solo tomorrow, so wish me luck! If I don't update tomorrow, well, you can guess what happened (and no, I won't be partying like a rock star).

Flight School: Day 5

Someone put in transponder code 7500 today while we were flying over Kissimmee Airport. Someone has a lot of paperwork to fill out with the FAA. Someone wasn't me.

That was really the highlight of the day because I never thought I'd get to see the hijack transponder code so soon, even if it was a fake (someone asked ATC if they should do a flyby of the airplane, but ATC said "naw, it's probably a mistake." I haven't watched the news yet so I don't know). During that flight I made ten landings, all of which weren't good enough for me to have to try again. The landing flair is the hardest part of flying, and I do expect to nail it soon, but dang... ten traffic pattern flights in not even an hour.

My parents came down here to switch cars since I had my mom's. They opted to join us on the Cessna and we obtained clearance to fly over Disney and see the attractions from above. Not a very interesting flight, except when my parents videotaped me and the instructor dancing to music you can't hear on the tape instead of flying the plane. Since I don't have my camera connector cable I can't post pictures yet. However, my mom said that landing was better than some of the airlines she's been on. I'd have to say that's true, but it wasn't great.

The third flight tested me if an instrument failed during flight. I love our high-tech methods of simulated instrument failure, and when I say "high-tech methods of simulated instrument failure," I mean "post-it notes over the meters." We took out the attitude indicator, the coordination meter, and finally (and worst of all) the altimeter. I learned how to judge heights from the sky a little better though, so I'm glad I did that exercise. We made some landings at the Winter Haven airfield, dodged a box turtle and an armadillo on the runway, and practiced emergency landings, all of which were pretty interesting. I made a decent landing back at Kissimmee, so that made me happy.

Flights are at 9 and 5 tomorrow with a 1 o'clock ground school lesson.

Flight School: Day 4

I no longer think "swampass" describes what I experience after an hour and a half in the cockpit after my instructor scares the daylights out of me and nearly forces my lunch of a pizza hot pocket and a Jose Ole microwave burrito out of me. This morning I had a progress check with the head flight instructor of the school, and it went very well. We took off, did some stalls, and then did my first instrument only flight. Basically, he put a pair of lab goggles on my eyes that were mostly opaque except for a small rectangle at the bottom of both lenses so I could see the instrument panel. I imagine if I had any random person off the street in the plane they would go nuts with this, but it was actually not bad. I fly by instrument most of the time anyways because I don't like using cockpit/horizon intersection points as attitude markers. I also had a very nice landing, but that was because we were perfectly upwind for the landing. The next flight was with my regular instructor and we went to Winter Haven Airfield to do touch and gos at an uncontrolled airport. This means airplanes need to work together to ensure they don't crash into each other since there's no ATC isn't directing traffic. It also means planes without radios can cross into your whole flight pattern. For instance, on our initial approach, we announced an upwind approach (same direction as the runway, just off to the side), and a hydroplane got into out flightpath. Luckily I saw him and dodged him. Helpful hint: Hydroplanes suck and have no respect for traffic patterns around an airport. Just because there are five lakes around the airfield does not mean you own the airspace (well, it kinda means no one does and therefore it's perfectly legal to be an imbecile, but have some respect). After four ungraceful landings and an aborted takeoff, we headed back up. I practiced my steep 360 turn, the one thing I could not pass in Microsoft Flight Simulator and get my virtual pilot's license. Today I nailed it on my second try. However, before I completed my second attempt at the double 360 manuever, I screwed up a little by adding the wrong rudder, so my instructor showed me what happens when you screw it up. We went into a diving spin, lost about a 1000 feet in a matter of seconds, and I had a headache and was sweating much more profusely than before. He also messed up my throttle on one of my ascents because I didn't have my hand on it (he told me he would if I didn't keep my hand there, so it's my fault, but why do you have to screw with the power setting? I mean, come on). After another not-so-graceful landing, we were done, although I had to walk around to dry my pants out. I have flights at 9, 2, and 5 tomorrow, and my parents and aunt and uncle are coming up to see me. Remember, Mother's Day is Sunday.

Flight School: Day 3

Waking up early for flying is almost as bad as waking up for class. Almost. Even after a 1 hour delay for fog conditions to clear to 3 miles visibility for Visual Flight Reference to take effect for learners.

After the wait, I did the preflight inspection and we were on our way south of Kissimmee. I learned and practiced the 360 around a point, S turns, and rectangles. These maneuvers are pretty much self explanatory from the names, other than the fact that they are much harder than they sound. For the 360, imagine flying around a house (which I did) while holding constant speed, altitude, turn coordination, and bank (with corrections for wind). For S turns... imagine flying in an S shape holding the same criteria. For rectangles... yeah. What makes is harder is the wind changes your ground position by making you drift, and since you have to stay in a path relative to the ground, it's tricky. I wonder what those people were thinking when they looked up and saw me flying around. And when I say "people," I mean "nudists at a nudist colony near Lake Toho."

When we landed I finished the lesson for the next flight, ate lunch, and passed on the couch while listening to heavy metal. It sounds hard, especially for someone like me who doesn't take naps, but I did it. When I woke up at 1:54, 6 minutes before my scheduled flight, it was pouring down rain, so we did some ground school and I learned about traffic patterns and radio communications at different airports. Word of advice: British people stink at flying and don't use American radio standards. Even the French are better, from what I've heard.

Once the weather cleared we went up and did a review of most of the maneuvers I have learned (preflight, takeoff, navigation, turn coordination, rectangles, stalls, slow flight, and slips). Let me be the first to say that slips are horrible. You basically turn the rudder one way, the aileron (wings) the other way, and dive while losing your stomach and about a pint of sweat. If you add too much rudder, you'll flip. If you add too much aileron, you'll spin. No matter what happens, keeping a steady heading is hard, especially when you have to switch which side you slip. I also about lost some body mass through the exit port when doing a power on stall (simulating a takeoff gone wrong) and nearly flipped the plane at 3500 feet. Sure, it's enough time to recover, but I thought we were spinning, which is the worst thing that could happen when flying high. After entering the traffic pattern, we did some touch and gos (that's where you land and then take off again without stopping). Sure, my landings are improving, but I still walk away from that plane with a bad case of swampass.

Next flight is at 10 tomorrow, and it's supposed to be a progress report with the head flight instructor at the school, so I'm hoping to do well.

Flight School: Day 2

Just call me Joseph Stallin'. Cause I'm awesome.

Today we did some more aircraft manuevering, including the stomach wrenching "close your eyes and fly the plane" sqeemishfest that left my legs a little wobbly and my brow sweating profusely after flight 1 midday. I was pretty nervous the whole time, had butterflys anxiously awaiting my body to succumb to its desire to hurl on the cockpit glass, and got mic fright so many times I had to write down my ATC lines. I was also ready to pass out on their extra comfy leather couches while studying transponder codes.

Helpful Hint: If your plane is hijacked you set your transponder squawk code to 7500. Then ATC says "Are you sure you want your squawk code there?" and you say "Yes". Then you OWN the sky, but you'd better have an unwanted passenger when you land.

After lunch and more videos, we went up again and practiced slow flying and stalls. I was told stalls were the scariest thing that could happen on a plane, and my grandfather couldn't get his own private license (not recreational license though) because he was too afraid of them (you have to perform them on the checkride). After learning to fly slow like a champ I faced my greatest flying fear... and was sorely dissapointed at how inane it was. I'm used to seeing stalls in video games where you're flying your F-22 Raptor at a 90 degree incline and you don't have enough power to continue rising and you pitch down 180 degrees and drop a couple hundred or thousand feet. I was wrong. We basically slowed down to below 40 knots airspeed, the plane shuddered a bit, and the nose pitched down 20 degrees or so. I jammed the throttle in, raised flaps from 30 to 10 degrees, and pulled back gently while applying right rudder to not spin. Easy as video games. The reason stall practice is so important is because you practically stall when landing and can easily run the risk of stalling when taking off. I'm glad I'm not scared of this problem anymore.

Bedtime, next flight it at 7 in the morning.

Flight School: Day 1

I got here at 8 in the morning in the rain, so I pretty much expected not to fly today. I got my training materials set up on my laptop, almost all the book materials I need, and a nice, laid back area to study and do my flight lessons in. My flight instructor, Paul, is a pretty cool guy, so I look forward to more lessons and not hating him. In addition to crappy weather, President Bush is in Orlando today and tomorrow for some reason, so the FAA put a TRF (I think that means Temporary Flight Restriction, but I'm not sure) up on a 10 mile radius from Orlando International Airport (MCO), and since Kissimmee is about 6.1 nautical miles from MCO, we're grounded. Luckily, the weather cleared up and the start time for the TFR got pushed back so I was able to squeeze in my first flight.

The lesson I completed on the computer was a joke except for some of the control techniques used for increasing and decreasing power. I also learned how to do a preflight inspection of the aircraft, which is easier than it sounds but tedious nonetheless. After fueling up and taxiing, we were up and away. I've always been scared I'd end up stalling, but there's a heck up a lot of pickup when you have full power (sure, a car accelerates faster, but cars don't have to worry about airspeed and stalling). We cruised up to 1500 feet, did some turns, went up to 4000 and experimented with bank angles and keeping level flight. The plane handled a lot better than the one I flew on Saturday with Young Eagles, and I didn't have any trouble keeping it level. I got to talk to Air Traffic Control (ATC) for the first time ever too. I didn't actually land the plane, but I did fly it around the flight pattern and bring it down to its approach. For some reason I always feel a little queasy after landing, possibly because of dehydration but it could also be a delayed reaction to the G's we were pulling over Haines City.

It's time for lunch. I'm flying at noon tomorrow after the TFR gets lifted.