First Flight Today: My Flight Experience at KGAI

[Cyrus]

I just went for my first flight today. I took off at KGAI, did some turns, flew the approach pattern a few times, and then the instructor did the final leg of the landing. Not bad for the first time, but it was almost EXACTLY like flying microsoft flight simulator.

http://montgomeryaviation.aero/images/N5215E.jpg

Shes the bird I rented out today. Probably will go back out in her tomorrow. Its about as easy as driving a car. The only thing hard to me is talking on the radios. Oh, and knowing where you are on the map is hard too. Were about 20 min out from camp david which is a no-fly zone. (Just outside the ADIZ). Fly there by mistake and they revoke your licence.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Cool! How long until you solo?

A number of pilots have told me that the simulators are great for practice. This being true, it seems that I can land a 747 on a runway for private aircraft... less the building at the end of the runway.

 

[Cyrus]

Dont know, it was my first time up. I still have to get my class 3 medical. Because I am in the DC area, we have to file flight plans every time. I can't solo until I get the medical.

If anyone thinks about flying, be sure to buy block time. It reduced the price from $110/hr for a cessna 172 to $98/hr. I bought the entire package, so I saved $480 bucks (because its 40 hours of flight time). Thats almost 5 hours of flight time you save (and will need later on).

Its going to be hard because I am taking a summer course (Aerodynamics I), and working at school. So I will be in school from 8-6. Then I have ground school from 7-9 on T/Tr or M/W. So flying is going to have to be strictly on the weekends (weather permitting).

 

[Cyrus]

A number of pilots have told me that the simulators are great for practice.

You just have to know how to use Microsoft Flight Simulator. I used to use it A LOT. I had an actual flight map of the DC area (because the radio freqs in flight simulator are the real ones). I also printed out a checklist, and read a Jepsen flight maneuvers manual, FAA written exam book, and FAA flight training handbook, in high school and first year of college. I wanted to learn, but had no money. So it should be fairly easy to pass the written exam and the checkride.

If you read some books, and use the simulator properly, it can literally be "as real as it gets." Make sure you turn on the real time dynamic weather, otherwise it won't be bumpy up there like it should be. Also, turn on the air traffic and do visual scans as your flying for other traffic. (I also use a headset\flight yoke [not a joystick!] when flying on the computer, it does sound different and make a difference).

The only thing the flight sim is not good for is talking on the radio. But for everything else, its pretty damm close.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

You just have to know how to use Microsoft Flight Simulator. I used to use it A LOT.

When I was traveling a lot, the WWII combat flight simulator helped me keep my sanity... well, sort of... I esp enjoy trying carrier landings.

But this is very cool Cyrus. I knew that you were a plane buff but didn't realize that you were getting serious about it.

 

[z-component]

cyrusabdollahi, I'm jealous you're starting ground school! I'm the same as you; I used Flight Simulator a LOT in middle school and high school and I did some flights in a Cessna 152 and one in a 2002 model Cessna 172 (such a great airplane).

However, I don't have the money to start actual flight school, hence my jealousy.

Is the airport you train at untowered?

 

[Cyrus]

It's a unicom airport (123.075).

http://www.montgomeryaviation.aero/images/gaimap.jpg

Tomorrow I have 2 hours reserved on her:

http://www.montgomeryaviation.aero/images/N96747.jpg

Shes not easy on the eyes, that's for sure.

 

[z-component]

Once again, I'm VERY jealous. I think I'm going to rob a bank so I can do flight school. My airport is also UNICOM so it's pretty lax on radio transmissions.

I'd use the 152 simply because it's cheaper, but the 172's we have include the nice GPS console. I wish we had a 172 with the new Garmin glass cockpit, but that'd be expensive as hell.

Keep us updated on flight school and take more pictures!

Has your instructor induced a stall yet, for fun?

 

[Cyrus]

For now, I am flying the 172. I also want to fly the 172SP at least once, which is all glass.

http://www.montgomeryaviation.aero/images/N2277Tbig.jpg

http://www.montgomeryaviation.aero/images/N2277T_panel_big.jpg



Im going to fly a 182 for at least 3 hours so I can get rated on a high performance airplane, since its 200+ Hp.

http://www.montgomeryaviation.aero/images/C%20182_big.jpg

A few of the 172's have GPS. The one I was in had it, but it was an older crapy one. I don't want to become reliant on a GPS though. Not for learning VFR.

Do you have Microsoft Flight Simulator X, z-component?

 

[z-component]

I only have the free demo. Unfortunately, I made a decision to customize my laptop with only the best integrated GPU out there, so it has 3D capability but nothing great for games. The demo's nice, but I can't get the most out of it, of course. I do own FS98, 2000, 2002, and 2004. I find it hard to enjoy the actual flying aspect of FS after having flown for real, but I do value it for the instrument training.

 

[loseyourname]

Cyrus, you bastard! I want to fly!

 

[Cyrus]

I only have the free demo. Unfortunately, I made a decision to customize my laptop with only the best integrated GPU out there, so it has 3D capability but nothing great for games. The demo's nice, but I can't get the most out of it, of course. I do own FS98, 2000, 2002, and 2004. I find it hard to enjoy the actual flying aspect of FS after having flown for real, but I do value it for the instrument training.

You REALLY should get FSX. It has m-player features. So I could fly with you in the same airplane. You'd be the pilot, id be the co-pilot (and really be in the right seat). We could fly together through an IP session. Since I have a headset and mic, I could talk to you as we fly.

 

[berkeman]

Do the flight simulators require you to compensate for the precession effect in climbs, etc? Do you have the foot pedal assembly for your PC? We got the foot pedals and steering wheel thing for our PC a long time ago, but never ended hooking it up yet. I've heard that learning to compensate for the precession effect is one of the more fundamental things in lerning to fly a single prop plane -- is it?

 

[Cyrus]

It is important when the power is high or you are in a steep climb. But during normal banks its not so bad. Just a dab of rudder is all you need. Its pretty easy to do, you just keep the ball centered in the slip indicator.

I don't have the foot pedals (unfortunately). The simulators do have that yaw tendency if you set it to fully realistic. If you have a good PC 3+GHZ, and you can spare to buy a really really good video card, turn up the settings to full on FSX and you will be amazed. Its impressive. I need to get a video card, so I have every setting turned down so I get 20FPS. I know some people have nearly 100FPS with full settings on, but that takes some hard core processing power (But WORTH it).

 

[scorpa]

That is so awesome Cyrus! I would love to learn to fly one day! Keep the pictures and stories coming!

 

[Cyrus]

Once I get my powered license I want to get a glider licence. Those look more fun actually. You can do loops and rolls and stall spins in gliders. Things you wouldn't want to do in a powered airplane like a cessna.

 

[z-component]

You REALLY should get FSX. It has m-player features. So I could fly with you in the same airplane. You'd be the pilot, id be the co-pilot (and really be in the right seat). We could fly together through an IP session. Since I have a headset and mic, I could talk to you as we fly.

I could, but my computer wouldn't be able to run the graphics fully up, and my framerates would suck. That's why I want that powerful PC you're referring to.

 

[mattmns]

Sweet Cyrus, that looks awesome!

 

[Cyrus]

I could, but my computer wouldn't be able to run the graphics fully up, and my framerates would suck. That's why I want that powerful PC you're referring to.

Well, my PC specs are:

2.79Ghz w/Hyper Threading
1GB Ram

Whats making it slow is my baseline video card. I think if I put a good video card in there I could get really good performance...I think. I don't see why your laptop would be slow if you upgraded the video card?

 

[z-component]

I can't upgrade the card. 1) It's integrated with the motherboard, and 2) I believe HP solders the cards in place to prevent that. That's why it was crucial to customize it right the first time, but I was on a budget so I had to skip the good video card.

Otherwise, I have 2 GHz AMD Turion 64-bit processor, 1 GB RAM. Video card is a 128 MB ATI Mobility RADEON Xpress 200M.

 

[Cyrus]

Damm, that's stupid. Can FS04 IP connect to FSX? Probably not.

 

[omega_M]

what sort of pilot license are you aiming for ? can it take you up to the commercial pilot course ? Cool man, I dream of learning to fly some day. Maybe when I get money I will give it a shot !

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

I was going to start playing around with FSX when my friend showed it to me, but never got around to buying it. I have a 3.01GHz p4 with a pretty good gfx card so I am pretty sure it would run well on my PC. Maybe during the summer .

I also envy you, looks like you are having lots of fun. :)

Cyrus in your opinion do you need a joystick to play with FSX? I guess they are pretty cheap but it would be nice to save the money since I am not 100% sure that I am going to get into it in a hardcore way if I but it.

edit: actually I looked at joysticks and they are much cheaper than I thought.

 

[Danger]

Cyrus, congratulations. I both envy and pity you. Envy because I don't have that freedom any more (although I hope to regain it). Pity because I took my first lesson on a $5 coupon, and then rented a 150, 152, or 172 for $35/hour; the instructor was free. By that I mean that it cost $35/hour to rent one of those under any circumstances, so the flying lessons were essentially free.
By the bye, on my first introductory coupon flight, the instructor made me land it. Embarrassingly, that was probably the best landing that I ever made. (The one referenced in my signature was a bit bumpy. )
What I absolutely cannot understand is how someone can equate a PC simulator to the real thing. You don't 'fly' an aeroplane, pal... you wear it. It becomes part of your body, and you can't get that from a computer.
I must admit that I was a little surprised when I saw this thread. From your obvious knowledge of aviation as demonstrated in your posts, I always assumed that you were a very experienced pilot.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

(The one referenced in my signature was a bit bumpy. )

I wondered where that quote was from.

 

[Cyrus]

I was going to start playing around with FSX when my friend showed it to me, but never got around to buying it. I have a 3.01GHz p4 with a pretty good gfx card so I am pretty sure it would run well on my PC. Maybe during the summer .

I also envy you, looks like you are having lots of fun. :)

Cyrus in your opinion do you need a joystick to play with FSX? I guess they are pretty cheap but it would be nice to save the money since I am not 100% sure that I am going to get into it in a hardcore way if I but it.

edit: actually I looked at joysticks and they are much cheaper than I thought.

Don't waste your money on a joystick, get a flight yoke. I have one like this I bought back in high school.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CH-Pro-Virtual-Pilot-Yoke-and-Pedals-gameport_W0QQitemZ180121773980QQihZ008QQcategoryZ74944QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Who knows, maybe you can buy that set on ebay. If you can bid it for under 150 bucks its a steal. I paid something like $170 just for the yoke about 5 years ago. It uses the old joystick port which new PC's don't use anymore, so you will have to get a Joystick to USB converter from radio shack, but that's like $15 bucks.

 

[Cyrus]

What I absolutely cannot understand is how someone can equate a PC simulator to the real thing. You don't 'fly' an aeroplane, pal... you wear it. It becomes part of your body, and you can't get that from a computer.

Depends, what did you fly? It sounds like you were going up in T-34 mentors.

Have you ever tried FSX? Its better than almost any other sim out there and has really improved compared to the crap ones even as far back as 98.

 

[Danger]

Depends, what did you fly? It sounds like you were going up in T-34 mentors.

Negative, although I wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of those. My PIC experience was 150's, 152's, & 172's.
Through friends, I had access to a Champ, a turbo 310, a twin turbo Comanche, and a few other things that I can't remember. Two of the guys had a P-51 and a Spitfire, but they wouldn't let me play with them.
What I really wanted to own, and would have bought if things had worked out differently, was an E58 Baron with the Excalibur package.

 

[Cyrus]

That Baron is one nice airplane. It was holding short while getting IFR clearance when I was landing today (It was white/blue with thin gold trim).

The flight today was nice. It was my second flight, and I got to do touch and go's. I did 3 total and 1 full stop landing (instructor did the full stop; I did the legs of the approach). I did some shoddy com work LOL. He was like, try the radio, say this "Montgomery Traffic, Cessna 96747, 5 miles out inbound at 45 to runway 32L." Now that’s not so hard to say, unless you’re trying to keep the airplane steady and looking out the window/instruments at the same time. I just looked at him and said...I think you should do the radio for now.

We had a dirty mag on the left, so we did an engine run-up at 2000rpm with carb heat on to clear the mags. The airplane was 6 hours to go before its 100 hour inspection. For some reason it needed lots of right rudder all the time, but she flew like a champ. She’s not easy on the eyes, but she flies nice. It held altitude and trimmed out much better than the airplane yesterday.

We also did steep turns at 45 degrees. Lots of G-force into those turns. I was more worried about snapping the wings off in that turn than anything else. The airplane's an old 1979 cessna.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

We also did steep turns at 45 degrees. Lots of G-force into those turns. I was more worried about snapping the wings off in that turn than anything else. The airplane's an old 1979 cessna.

You seem to worry a lot about wings coming off.

Did you ever see the footage of that happening to the fire fighting plane a few years ago? Both wings snapped off while making a water drop. But I think that was more like a 1959 model.

 

[Cyrus]

You seem to worry a lot about wings coming off.

Did you ever see the footage of that happening to the fire fighting plane a few years ago? Both wings snapped off while making a water drop. But I think that was more like a 1959 model.

I say it because it does happen. I know some T-34's were having problems with cracks developing and the wings failing in flight. You don't put old airplanes with high flight hours into high-G moves.

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/regulatory/regt34.html

On November 19, 2003, near Montgomery, Texas, a second T-34 Mentor experienced a separation of the right wing and crashed, causing two fatalities.

Would you sit there and do 3-g turns in something like this when its only 6 hours away from its 100 hour inspection?

http://www.montgomeryaviation.aero/images/N96747.jpg

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I say it because it does happen. I know some T-34's were having problems with cracks developing and the wings failing in flight. You don't put old airplanes with high flight hours into high-G moves.

http://www.aopa.org/whatsnew/regulatory/regt34.html



Would you sit there and do 3-g turns in something like this when its only 6 hours away from its 100 hour inspection?

http://www.montgomeryaviation.aero/images/N96747.jpg

[/URL]

Have you seen any planes with a parachute system [for the plane, not you]? I've seen where they have saved lives.

 

[Cyrus]

These are rental planes, so they are all or nothing. Either you pilot it down into a field if your engine quits or you die. We fly over a lot of farms, so its not a big deal. If we were flying over the city, Id be more worried about making a forced landing into a house or something.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

These are rental planes, so they are all or nothing. Either you pilot it down into a field if your engine quits or you die. We fly over a lot of farms, so its not a big deal. If we were flying over the city, Id be more worried about making a forced landing into a house or something.

It would be even harder to land if the wings came off.

 

[Cyrus]

No wing = dead occupants.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Well, with one exception... that F14[?] that flew with one wing + a bit.

Come on Cyrus, if he can do it I'm sure that you could.

 

[Astronuc]

Watch our for 'cloud suck'.

 

[Cyrus]

Thanks, but I think that applies more to para/hang gliders.

 

[Astronuc]

I've been in a commercial twin engine puddle-jumper that got caught in an updraft - then a down draft. Cloud suck can most definitely happen in a single engine craft - and that is why pilots fly around thunderheads with wide clearance. Certainly a plane won't be sucked several thousand feet, but it could be unsafe nevertheless.

 

[Andre]

That's a micro burst, a strong down draft, in strong thunderstorms. It's not your day if you find one at final approach for landing. Approaching the micro burst, the headwind increasing strongly, you pick up air speed and hence the aircraft getting energy to climb.

Now the wrong decision is usually taken to correct for it and ease off the power to fight the effects, reduce the speed and stay on the approach parameters. Seconds later you pass the centre of the downdraft and then you get tail wind, the airspeed is now dropping dramatically and the airplane may stall, which is the same effect of having no wings. With less power selected, the time to regain power may be too short.

It's a real killer.

 

[Cyrus]

I've been in a commercial twin engine puddle-jumper that got caught in an updraft - then a down draft. Cloud suck can most definitely happen in a single engine craft - and that is why pilots fly around thunderheads with wide clearance. Certainly a plane won't be sucked several thousand feet, but it could be unsafe nevertheless.

I was talking to my instructor today as we were flying. You were right, though I've never heard the term 'cloud suck' before. I've heard it called microburst. The visibility was only about 5 miles today, lots of haze. We did more touch-and-go's and some slow flight. I had another airplane with 'character'. She would pop on taxi and the instructors call her 'the beast'. I am going to start flying early in the mornings now, it gets damm hot up there with no air conditioning. And being memorial day weekend, there were too many people talking over each other on the unicom. It would constantly squelch when two people tried to talk at once.

 

[Cyrus]

Jesus christ, what an idiot.

 

[Danger]

Well, I can't dispute that he's still alive because of the parachute; it sure as hell wasn't his piloting skills that saved him. How the hell did that guy keep his license?

 

[Cyrus]

I don't know, he had no reason to parachute. His plane was working fine. Dont these idiots scan for other traffic? Your flying around airspace with lots of gliders and other people around. Talk about lazy idiots. That airplane had a pilot and camera man, the other one at least one pilot. Was everyone asleep?

 

[Danger]

Yeah, he sure should have been looking around. And once he did see the other, what happened to the mandated 'dive right' response in case of a possible collision? And shutting the engine off right when you need it most?! Damned parachute just cost the Darwin Award committee their most likely candidate of the year.
Okay, bedtime for Danger. Later.

 

[Cyrus]

To the benifit of the pilot who used his chute, it would be hard to see another plane coming at you from your right wing-tip. But for the other guy, there were two airplanes RIGHT INFRONT OF HIM flying in close formation. HOW DO YOU NOT SEE THAT? He should have his license revoked, not suspended.

 

[z-component]

cyrusabdollahi you should keep a blog of your flight training / hours flown. You can add to it each day, and I can be a jealous idiot and subscribe to it. :)

 

[Ivan Seeking]

If you don't know the story, you might be interested in reading about the death of Congressmen Hale Boggs, and Nick Begich. This is the core of the story:

In 1972, while he was still Majority Leader, the twin engine airplane in which Boggs was traveling over a remote section of Alaska disappeared. The plane presumably crashed and was never found. Congressman Nick Begich was also presumed killed in that accident.

...He [the pilot] deliberately flew into known icing conditions, having written the lead article for Flying Magazine of October 1972, entitled "Ice Without Fear." In the article, Jonz boasted that 99% of the current wisdom regarding flying in icing conditions could be safely disregarded.[continued]

http://www.answers.com/topic/hale-boggs

 

[Cyrus]

9 times out of 10 bravado gets you killed. If its a car/plane/motorcycle, same end result.

 

[Cyrus]

Today was nice weather and very little traffic. We flew from GAI to Martersburg (with a bunch of Galaxies parked on the runway).

http://ama.natca.net/photos/C5.jpg

Did some touch-and-go's, and then did a few more touch and gos at frederick (FDK) and flew back to Gathersburg (KGAI)

http://photos-524.ak.facebook.com/ip002/v72/133/69/5736845/n5736845_34574524_5628.jpg
Pre-flight complete and beginning engine startup procedures.


http://photos-529.ak.facebook.com/ip002/v72/133/69/5736845/n5736845_34574529_6952.jpg
Us circling for 15 minutes before ATC would give us a sqawk code to enter back into the ADIZ. Circling for clearance SUCKS.