niner niner juliett
Many, many prayers for those affected by the storm and those contributing to the relief effort. Our hearts are heavy as we keep abreast of events as best we can.
I’m very relieved the first flight is over. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a good amount of nervousness mixed in with the anticipation. But now I know what to expect and things will be easier. The preflight went reasonably quickly, as did the pretakeoff check. Taxiing was more of a challenge. Imagine steering and braking your car with your feet and operating the throttle with a pushrod in your right hand. Not only that, but you can apply differential pressure on the brakes to help turn the vehicle. And that vehicle isn’t really meant to lumber about on the ground anyway. So it was tricky, and I had to take a few laps around the ramp before I got the hang of it.
The flight consisted of running through checklists for various phases of flight, some medium-bank turns and some sightseeing to orient myself to the practice areas north of the airport. It was a cacophony of sensory overload, and most of what I thought I had committed to memory beforehand disappeared. But that’s just as well since we learn by doing it, not by reading a book. Still, it felt like the first time at the controls of a car in that I was “chasing the gauges” the whole way; in other words, I would go above and below the mark a few times before I settled on it, whether it be airspeed or altitude or rate of climb. I remember learning to drive and the experience of not knowing what 45 mph “felt” like–I couldn’t help but glance down at the speedometer every few seconds to recheck my speed. It’s the same way with the plane. I don’t “feel” its various states and attitudes yet. But with practice I will.
A nicely-written and relevant passage from Stick and Rudder:
There is a great difference between merely perceiving something and noticing it. A savage, put on an American city street, would see the traffic lights just as you do–maybe better. He would probably overlook them and watch instead the flashing neon signs, the lights of cars, all sorts of other clues that are more impressive but much less important; for he would not know what a traffic light means. But we see traffic signs even with bad eyes and while thinking of something else because we watch for them and understand their meaning instantly and know that, though they are not very attention-catching, they are important. […] Our difficulty in learning to fly is not sense perception, but interpretation of what our senses perceive. We tend to pay attention to the wrong things; we miss the things that matter because we aren’t looking for them, because we do not know what they mean.
Oh, and Male Kitchen Fix #174: A propane torch and oven mitt work wonders for freeing stuck jar lids. Which *ahem* we never have a problem removing anyway. So it’s all hypothetical. Yeah.
OMG YOU’VE PILOTED?
hahaha
For a little while, yes. I taxiied on the ground, climbed to cruising altitude and practiced medium-bank turns, but that’s about it :) The instructor (obviously) landed the plane. But I’m getting there.
I thought you landed too and just didn’t talk about it :o) That’s really exciting. I’m really happy for you because I know this fulfills so many childhood dreams you’ve had. Sounds like an awesome, awesome experience though. I can’t wait to be able to ride in a plane that you’re flying :o) How weird would that be?
Wolfpack Motorsports met yesterday. First offical meeting. They talked a little bit about the club and then shuttled people over to the shop to take a look at the facility and their two cars. I know you know there’s a Formula SAE and the Mini-Baja. There were about 40 people in the shop (which is tastefully decorated with two vertical milling machines, a lathe, a tig welder and many other pieces of equipment) about 35 people were hovering around the Formula car and many 5 were looking at the mini-baja. From what I hear and understand, the Formula competition is more legit. I’m excited about it because the Formula team leader (the technical director) gave me like the VIP tour. I’ll tell you about it more later. SparkNotes on Henry V now..
I won’t be landing for a few lessons yet. Maybe takeoffs, but not landings. I want to practice taxiing some more–that seems more tricky than actually flying at this point. And it’ll be a while before I can take anybody up with me–I’ll have to get my private pilot license first, and that’s scheduled for the end of the schoolyear, or next May.
So fewer people were interested in the baja car? Sounds like maybe the way to go if you want to contribute more. More OM-ish. Which one are you leaning towards anyhow?
Good luck with Henry V. You should watch the movie if you get the chance. It’s pretty awesome.
edited to remedy bad HTML
Yeah… the whole “flying” thing in general seems a bit tricky. I can wait until next May though, hehe. Maybe by that point I’ll be able to get you up into a Caterpillar wheel tractor scraper…maybe not drive it, but at least climb on it? On verra.
See my post about the cars..
We saw a clip from one of the Henry V movies (it came out in 1944 I think…war motivation) today in class.
envious and happy for you
what a rush. Sounds like a wonderful time.
Thanks D-funk. I got the wedding invite a couple of days ago. I like the John Wayne stamp on the RSVP :)