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.
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.
posted by Benacor at 11:29 PM
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