Episode 67

SPC #67 – Here We Go Again

In Episode 67 we join Bill as he becomes a pilot again after an 11-year break from flying. This is the first part of his first flight review flight back after the hiatus. It's full of re-learning and discovery, and we're happy to have you back along with me in the cockpit as I try to shake off the cobwebs and get back to it.

Links:

Hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening! Visit the SPC website at https://studentpilotcast.com. Please keep the feedback coming. You can use the contact form on the website or send email to bill at student pilot cast dot com. The theme song for our episodes is "To Be an Angel" by the band, "Uncle Seth".

Legal Notice: Remember, any instruction that you hear in this podcast was meant for me and me alone in the situation that we happened to be in at the time. Please do not try to apply anything you see or hear in this episode or any other episode to your own flying. If you have questions about any aspect of your flying, please consult a qualified CFI.

Copyright 2008-2024, studentpilotcast.com and Bill Williams

Transcript
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Well, here we go again.

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I'm getting more episodes out.

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A lot has happened since I last published.

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So this is going to be fun to bring you up to speed.

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We'll start here with an episode that gets me back in the air after an 11.

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Year.

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Hiatus.

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I know it's inexcusable, but here I am.

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Enjoy episode 67.

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Here we go again.

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Welcome back SBC listeners.

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As I said in the intro, a lot of stuff has happened since we last spoke.

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So over the next few episodes, I am sure I'll get you up to speed.

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But for now, I'll just give you some of the basics.

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After 11 years, I thought it was time to get back in the cockpit as PIC.

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And then do some more training.

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So in early 2012, after having my private pilot license for almost four

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years and having a great time flying, I moved to San Diego with my family.

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I had to leave my awesome flight club when I did that here in Arizona.

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And then when I got to my new home near Carlsbad, California, I quickly

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joined, uh, another flight club there.

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I got checked out in a few of the airplanes in that club.

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But then my job got really, really demanding and I stopped flying for a while

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due to lack of time and funds and you know, all the reasons people stop flying.

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I also found that since I was covering all of Southern California for my work.

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That I was spending a lot of time on Southern Cal freeways.

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Instead of flying.

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, My family was having a great time at the beach and I was driving

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three hours to a customer meeting first thing in the morning.

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So, so yeah, that's when my hiatus from flying first started.

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And once you've stopped for a while and you let the skills deteriorate.

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It gets more and more daunting to get it going again.

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Two and a half years later, we moved back to Arizona and after a great

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time in, so Cal making lifelong friends and enjoying what must be the

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most amazing weather in the country.

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When we moved back, my sons were teenagers and we started spending all

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of our time and money on wakeboarding.

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Uh, boats, dirt bikes, RVs for going to the dunes, all kinds of awesome stuff.

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But all of that awesome stuff, still relegated, flying to the

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proverbial back-burner if you will.

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But it kept holding a huge place in my head.

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And in my heart.

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I know this is likely going to resonate with a lot of you out there.

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So you probably know exactly what I'm talking about.

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Well, I planned on getting back in the air a couple of years ago, and I even started

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releasing new episodes on the podcast.

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I took my boys who were then adults and our adults still,

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of course, to air venture.

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For the first time we did a bunch of features there.

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And then I was doing features on the podcast.

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I was interviewing a lot of folks who are involved in flight training before

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and after Oshkosh in one way or another.

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And one of my friends from years ago, I've known a long time who's

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a captain at a major airline, he started a flight school here locally

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with his wife a few years earlier.

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So I reached out to see if he'd come on the podcast and talk about the experience

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of running a flight school and what he was seeing in the industry, and so on.

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He agreed immediately, but our schedules never really aligned

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and it just didn't happen.

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For months, it didn't happen.

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And then something happened in my life.

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It was a catalyst and near the beginning of 2023, I had some major changes.

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And they happened all of a sudden I was working on my health at the time

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and my career and making decisions about my future, and I had a major

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change happen in my work and my career.

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I immediately decided it was time to jump back in and in a big way.

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And I also decided that I wanted to make aviation a big part of

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my future, not just my past.

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So I decided to start collecting ratings and certs at least to start with.

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But I had to start with just simply getting current and safe.

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So I went to see my friend at the flight school and he was

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thrilled for me and helped me get set up and start training again.

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I would definitely have some ups and downs as we do over the next 16 months

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or so, but I will say this, I've got a lot of content in the can, if you

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will ready to be edited and released.

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So rest assured.

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I'm sure we'll have another 15 years or so of the podcast

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with huge breaks in between.

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No, I'm just kidding.

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We're not going to do that.

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We're going to try not to do that.

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But I am ready to start bringing you all back up to speed and bringing some

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great training content back to you.

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Bringing you along with me through the ups and downs, the triumphs

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and the defeats, as I do, all the way back to where I am now.

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So, where am I now?

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Well, I'm still having ups and downs as we do.

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Still learning a ton and working my way through my own aviation journey.

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But what this means for you is that it's time to start bringing you

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with me again and today we start that with the first half of my first

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come-back flight with an instructor.

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Why only the first half?

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Well, It's because this is a really perishable skill we have here.

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And after 11 years, it had basically vanished quite a bit for me.

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So this flight was so full of relearning and discovery that as I started

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editing it and started listening to it again, I realized how much of the

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flight I really wanted to leave in.

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So you can come along with me while I reconnect a whole bunch of synapses in my

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brain that had been lost along the way.

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So to make this episode not be over an hour or two.

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I decided to break it up into two pieces.

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I'm sure that we'll be able to speed up the episodes a bit as I get back into the

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training and release a few more episodes, but for this one, man, I was rusty.

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But it was a blast.

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It was to get back up there.

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Back in the cockpit back in the air.

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I remembered immediately why aviation would never leave my heart.

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This is an amazing thing that we get to do.

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And I realized I was still in love.

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I hope you enjoy the first part of my foray back into the fold.

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So let's get started.

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By the way my local airport that I'm talking about here and that I'd be flying

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out of is called Falcon field or K F F Z.

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It's one of two airports here in Mesa.

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And you'll note that as we go through more of my flights in these episodes,

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that when I fly south, I fly right over Chandler municipal, or K C H D.

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And if you're a long time listener, you'll recognize that as the home airport where

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I did my initial training back in 2008.

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That's another class Delta airport in the east valley of the Phoenix area.

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And we have quite a few airports around here.

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But now I'm flying out of Falcon, which is an airport I've always loved.

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It's busy.

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There's a lot of flight training and lots of other traffic that occurs

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there, but it's one of my favorites.

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And it always has been, since I've lived in Arizona, I've

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always lived somewhere near it.

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And I've always just loved the vibe at Falcon field.

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And it's only 10 or 15 minutes away from my current house,

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so that's pretty nice too.

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So as usual.

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We'll get started after getting back in the airplane and getting the ATIS.

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I was with an excellent young man named Ryan, my CFI, but just for my

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flight review, which would take a couple of flights if I remember right.

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Ryan was ready to head off to a regional airline, but his experience as a CFI

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and his demeanor was super helpful in helping me get back in the saddle.

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Here you go.

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Is the compass working?

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It is, yeah, it's just missing the little, uh, plastic plate on the top.

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So basically whatever's on top of there is your heading it should say.

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And it's probably going to have to adjust a lot because I turned it around.

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Okay.

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Oops.

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That's the wrong thing.

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You're getting, you're getting warmer.

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Yep.

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Alright, so we are at 13, 13 it looks like.

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I'd call it about 130.

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Falcon Ground, Oxtra

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5841 at spot 5 with information November looking for a Chandler.

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Alright.

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Okay.

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And

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Uh, ATIS is first.

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Oh yeah, you're right.

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We'll go ahead and get our ATIS here first.

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Uh, our frequency for that is one, one eight point two five.

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You can do it however you like.

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I like to use the bottom number two radio for your ATIS's and

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the top for stuff I'm talking on.

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Sounds good.

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Um, this comm here, it has two green lights on com.

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One means you're talking to and listening.

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This would be monitoring that over the top of that information.

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Contact.

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I put everything down here.

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All arrive contact tower on 1, 2, 4 0.6.

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Advise initial contact.

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You have information.

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November,

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November, November.

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Gotta get our altimeter and winds and runway

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Falcon tower information.

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November 1, 5 5, 4.

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Zulu wind, calm.

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Temperature three dew point minus one.

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Altimeter 3029.

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That

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is what it is.

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Cool, you good with that?

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Uh, yeah, winds calm, departing Runways 4.

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Yep, and go ahead and hit that bottom one, that'll move both your

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comms over.

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This

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is

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ground?

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Yep, so 121.

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3 is ground and 124.

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6 is tower here.

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Okay.

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Uh, flight instruments.

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Okay, so we got this one.

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Does that jive with what you'll normally see?

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Yep, that's good enough.

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Our elevation here is 1,

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394 feet, so that's close enough.

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Okay.

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And the ATIS did say 3029.

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Yep, so you got that set up.

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I think it's 8, but

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Yeah, it's 8, so you

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gotta go up a little more.

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Okay.

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Um, airport diagram.

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I'll be your airport diagram.

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Thank you.

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You got one right in that pocket there.

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Okay.

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Alright,

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I think we're

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Alright.

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ready to go.

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And we'll go ahead and pull up where that guy was sitting

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over there by that dashed line.

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Okay.

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Okay, let her move a little bit, maybe give your brakes a quick

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stop to make sure they work.

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Oh, and I do not have brakes on my side, so if I reach for the uh,

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If I reach for the parking brake, that's why I don't have brakes.

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Alright, clear to the left and to the right.

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Now we're just gonna stop up there before that dash line.

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You're not required to stop there, but it's just uh, we just stop here

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because they know where spot 3 is.

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That's what this is called?

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Oh, it's right there on the pavement.

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This is

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all a non movement area here, so you can do whatever.

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But we just stop here because when you say spot three, when you call

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them, they know where you are.

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Alrighty.

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Okay.

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So, it'll be, and you want to go ahead and put that back up to a thousand.

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Gear power when we're sitting here.

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Yeah, if you get it below about 900, the alternator will stop

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charging the battery and it'll start falling off the plugs eventually.

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Gotcha.

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Alright, we'll go Falcon Ground, Red Rock 66.

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Where's my push to talk?

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It is right there.

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Okay.

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All right, just get ready for a theme here.

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I was not very comfortable after so long off, so I felt, and

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now that I'm listening, again, sounded like almost a new student.

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I had some good base knowledge and experience, but it was so far

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removed that I felt like I was starting almost from the ground up.

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I had about 220 hours at the time and I would rely on that experience as I

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relearned, but 220 is not very much in the big scheme of things, especially

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when it was all 11 to 15 years before.

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So I made my ground call and the controller surprised us

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with a pretty funny question.

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The flight school I was at had moved the airplanes all out to the tie-downs

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and on the flight line, instead of at, or near the hangar where the

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school was because of some sort of construction that was going on.

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So when we went out to a plane, it was either a pretty long

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walk or a golf cart ride.

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It was temporary maybe a month or so, but the planes were parked

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sort of out in front of the tower.

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So they saw us coming and going like crazy all day long.

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Oh, yeah.

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Before I play it.

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, you'll hear in the background while we're having the back and forth, one

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of the instructors, one of the other instructors in a different airplane,

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I think tried to answer as well.

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You can hear it in the background.

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Anyway, this is a pretty funny exchange.

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Here it is.

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Falcon Ground, Red Rock 66, at spot 3 with November, requesting north departure.

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What's

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Rock 66 Falcon, uh, ground.

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How long does it take you to walk over to your plane?

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Depends on if we have the cart or we're using our feet.

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I saw you guys using your feet this morning.

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We sit in planes all day.

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Anyways, we need to walk once in a while.

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About 7 minutes.

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How long does it take you to walk from the building over there?

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Oh,

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about 7 8 minutes probably.

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Okay, I guess you guys need the exercise.

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Runway four right taxi via Delta Red Rock 66.

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Four right via Delta Red Rock 66.

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Alright.

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That's the first time I heard that one.

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Yeah.

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So, yeah, that was a good time.

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I'm glad with even an extremely busy airport and controllers who are not only

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busy, but perpetually shorthanded, they still have a little fun with the pilots.

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And, speaking of busy, let's talk about that for a minute.

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As you hear me training here more and more over the next episodes, you'll hear how

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busy it is, but a quick search shows it's definitely in the top 10 of the country's

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busiest, general aviation airports.

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In fact, at least three of the top 10 are in the Phoenix area.

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It's definitely a popular place to flight train.

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So there's a lot of traffic from that as well as all the other normal traffic.

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Anyway, glad these overworked controllers take a moment to have fun sometimes.

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So then we taxied out to the run-up area near the approach end of runway 4R?

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Okay.

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So you just leave it and use brakes then?

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You leave it at 1, 000?

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Even though I would normally pull it back here?

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No, once I get going,

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I like to keep it between nine hundred and a thousand I don't

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like pulling it that low.

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Because uh, in the summer it'll foul up your plugs real fast, how hot it is.

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Just a lot of brakes, I guess.

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Alright, she said Delta, right?

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Yes sir.

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You'll see, once you get slowing, you can pretty much keep it at 900 and it'll,

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you don't need to ride the brakes much.

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Okay.

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And once I do need to slow down a bit, I just add brakes to about a

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walking speed, then let go of them.

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Okay.

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And keep it going.

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But, right here is, Trying to get

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the sight picture.

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Help me, help me with the nose wheel.

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Am I on?

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Yes.

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Okay.

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Basically, take that yellow line, pretend it's coming inside the cockpit,

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and keep it on your inside leg.

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That'll keep your right smack dab on the middle.

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All right, good.

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Lower down a little bit.

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All right, not this left right here, but the next one.

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We're gonna go and pull in here.

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It says run up.

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Oops, my bad.

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Go ahead and start slowing down here a little bit.

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Okay, so just follow the line.

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Keep following it.

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And we're just gonna pull up into one of these stalls next to these guys.

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Oh, I see.

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Okay.

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Okay, these are just run up areas.

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Really doesn't matter, right?

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Nah, you can take any one you want.

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Whichever one you're feeling like.

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I'm feeling this one.

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Ah, yeah, this, this one looks nice.

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Looks comfortable.

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And just out before the dash line there again.

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So, as you heard, I'm doing things as simple as asking for help to get the site

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picture for what it looks like in these planes, when you're on center line taxing.

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Pretty basic stuff.

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So about the airplanes I'd be flying.

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If you remember from my initial training, I learned to fly in Piper

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Cherokees, PA-28-161 models, mostly.

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They were from the early eighties for the most part, maybe a couple

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from the late seventies, then.

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Later in my career, after getting my cert, I joined a local flying club, and

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back then that club only had Cessnas.

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Two 182s and a 172 SP.

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So by the time I was back to this flight, most of my time had been accumulated

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in a 182, which is a type that I really, really love even to this day.

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Well, the school uses mostly PA-28-180s, the extra power is nice out here

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in the desert when it gets hot, but you'll notice that they are not 181s.

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These are mostly sixties era airplanes, and they are well used

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in a very busy flight school.

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They are airworthy of course, but they are not going to win any beauty contests.

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Let's put it that way.

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But you'll hear coming up a pretty funny situation.

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I had to get over where my muscle memory was thwarting my ability

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to fly these older planes.

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We'll get to that in a minute.

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For now we do the run-up back in a PA 28 for the first time in about 13 years.

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Alright, we're gonna need a run up.

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Parking brake.

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And up.

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Mixture rich.

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Do we want it rich?

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Yep,

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you can go all the way rich.

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Okay.

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Flight controls.

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Cleared the right side and going to, uh I believe it's Falcon Aviation.

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Up on this side, down on that side.

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Delta Tango, Falcon.

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Are you correct?

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Roger, stand by.

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Throttle 2, 000.

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I wish you had brakes too.

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Nope, I can hold

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your, uh, parking brake.

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Uh, Magnetos.

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Right there.

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About

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a hundred.

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And About seventy five.

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Look good to you?

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Yeah, looks good to me.

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Uh,

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carb heat.

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Drop.

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I'm waiting for you.

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Uh, that ammeter reads so barely above zero you can't tell.

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But right here is a battery voltage meter.

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If you're anywhere around 14, you're good.

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If you see it constantly going down, you know you got an issue.

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Alright, thank you.

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Vacuum.

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Right there, we're looking for anywhere between 4 and 6.

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Alright, we're at 5.

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Oil and fuel gauges.

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Our oil temperature's still low.

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Oil pressure's good.

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Fuel's good.

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Throttle, back to idle.

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a thousand.

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Pull her all the way out.

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Can't pull it anymore, we're just making sure it's not going to die on us.

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Oh, you want to pull it all the way out?

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Yeah, pull it all the way

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out to idle and just make sure it keeps running.

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Okay.

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And then once you know it will, then go up to a thousand.

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And this isn't on the checklist, but I always re lean it after my run up.

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Because, uh, that's about good.

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Most of the time here, you'll sit in line behind ten other people in line.

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Yeah.

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And if you sit there idling forever, It'll foul it up.

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It'll foul up your plugs, and you'll go to take off and be like,

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oh my god, my engine's dying.

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But your plugs are just stuffed full of lead.

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Alright, flight instruments.

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That looks good.

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We're at zero.

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Uh, it doesn't really match anymore.

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About three, yeah, usually Oscar, uh,

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gets a little bit

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off of it, yeah.

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Vacuum took a while.

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We're at 300.

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Those heading indicators constantly process when you turn.

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Man, you can't get it to stop where you want it.

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Yeah, it's good

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enough.

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It's good enough.

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Uh, any other flight instruments I need to check?

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I always just look over everything one more time.

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Airspeed, that, altimeter.

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I'll look at that.

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Mostly this is the only one that moves, but I just look at everything.

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Okay.

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Transponder is 1, 200.

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And we want to go to altitude, right?

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That'll

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automatically cycle to altitude once you take off.

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Automation.

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Yep.

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Uh, before takeoff brief.

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Alright.

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Doing a normal takeoff?

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Normal takeoff.

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If, uh, anything happens on the runway, we'll come to a stop, get off.

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Uh, anything off the runway and we can't turn back, we got golf courses

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right off the ends of the runways or we got McDowell Road which is pretty

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wide and usually not very busy.

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Thousand feet or higher, we'll make a 180 and we'll land on

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22 right facing to the south.

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Okay.

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That's usually how I like to My game plan.

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All right.

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And radio's set.

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Cool.

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So you can go flip over to tower now.

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We were cleared to taxi all the way down to the runway.

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This is just pit stop along the way.

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Okay.

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And then I always put the next frequency we're gonna use

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too, just to have it ready.

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So we're going onto to the north practice area, and that's 1 2, 2 0.75.

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These, those guys.

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Four at Cliff Takeoff, 1890.

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There you go.

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Perfect.

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122.

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75, radios are set.

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We don't do the before takeoff until we get down there, right?

Speaker:

I usually do it if I'm going to be number one down there, but that guy

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might be taxiing out by the time we get there, so I would just do it here.

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Okay, so fuel pump on.

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You okay with it on now?

Speaker:

Yes sir.

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That's not it.

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Landing

Speaker:

light on.

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And the only thing I wait to do is my mixture, I leave that.

Speaker:

Yep, okay.

Speaker:

Flaps?

Speaker:

Uh, we don't do any flaps for a normal takeoff.

Speaker:

Mixture, we'll do that, and door is secured?

Speaker:

Yes sir.

Speaker:

So, our takeoff checklist is done.

Speaker:

We'll

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Okay, so we're ready to head up to the runway and hold short.

Speaker:

Here you go.

Speaker:

get out on the runway there, you need your feet off the brakes.

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Uh, please keep one hand on the yoke and one hand on the throttle the

Speaker:

whole entire way down the runway.

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And for about the first few hundred feet that we climb up.

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Sure.

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We rotate at 60 miles an hour and we climb at 85.

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Alright, this is miles per hour?

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Yes sir.

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Okay.

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I just like to pop her off the ground and just keep the nose on the

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horizon for a bit so you can see.

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And, uh, it takes, it takes a few seconds to gain speed.

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Tell me,

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like, tell me the climb out, climb out speed again.

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It's

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85.

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85.

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Yes sir.

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Okay, is that VY?

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Yes sir.

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Okay.

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60 and 85.

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Yippers.

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And checklists complete.

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And at the whole Shortline, we're good to go.

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Here's the takeoff and climb out.

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They beat us up here.

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Yeah.

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Red Rock 53 factor, fly straight out, runway four right, cleared for takeoff.

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Red

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Rock 53 , clear for takeoff.

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Straight out.

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Foreright.

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Go to the hold short?

Speaker:

Yep.

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Okay.

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I just like to stop so I can see the whole thing over my nose.

Speaker:

Give yourself plenty of room.

Speaker:

Can I hear her?

Speaker:

Yeah, that's about good right there.

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Alright, you can just give them a shout.

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Uh, just, Falcon Tower, Red Rock 66, holding short of foreright.

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Falcon Tower, Red Rock 66, holding short foreright.

Speaker:

Red Rock

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66 back there, fly straight out, Runway 4R, cleared for takeoff.

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Cleared for takeoff, fly straight out, Red Rock 66.

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Oh, I didn't say the runway.

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Yeah, he might ask

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you.

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But it doesn't sound like it, so keep going.

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Some of them ask you, some of them don't.

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Yeah.

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Alright, get your mixture there.

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That was improper.

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There you go.

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Alright, now do you want me to

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do a brief pause or just roll into it?

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No, you can just roll into it.

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Yep, just roll

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into it.

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Once you get out there, scoot those heels down to the floor though for

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me and get those feet off the brakes.

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Okay.

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Alrighty.

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There we go.

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All the way.

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And everything is in the green.

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Okay.

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And we're at 60.

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Nice smooth back pressure.

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Keep that bit of right rudder in there.

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Keep pulling her up.

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There you go.

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There we go.

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And 85.

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Connection three, left turn first.

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Nice

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job.

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Oops.

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Is it pulling on you pretty hard or does it feel alright?

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It's okay.

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Okay.

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I'll reset it here in a second.

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Sounds good.

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I'm all over the place.

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You're fine!

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You're doing good!

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Okay.

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So remember I was back in a Piper after quite awhile, but

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not only that I had never flown a Cherokee from the sixties before.

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In the Cherokees I had flown the trim wheel was on the center

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console down by the flap handle.

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And in the Cessnas, it's in a relatively similar place on

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the lower portion of the panel.

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, in the center.

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On these older PA 28s, the trim handle looks like the

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old time car, window cranks.

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Uh, , those crank handles and it's overhead on the ceiling in

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the middle between the pilots.

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I reverted to my primacy of learning and all of my experience and when I

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go to trim I would reach down, not up.

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The crazy thing was I kept doing it and it wasn't obvious which way to crank the,

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to lower or raise the nose with trim.

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Since it's a horizontal crank.

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I figured it out within a few flights.

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But we had a good laugh at my expense every time I would reach down to

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trim and nothing was there to turn.

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Looking great!

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Okay.

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Just need a little where is that?

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It's up

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under your ceiling.

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You Cessna, boys.

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That was just pure muscle memory.

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Which way is, uh, forward?

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Just

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swivel it and see what it does.

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That's

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the wrong

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way.

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Okay.

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Red

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X 66, left turn for

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That's you.

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Yep.

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Left turn approved, Red Rock 66.

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I've got over a thousand hours in these and I still don't know

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which way is which with the trim.

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I just give it a couple swivels, shit, wrong way, then I go the other way.

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We went ahead due north.

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Uh, you see where all those houses are out there in like the

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foothills of those mountains?

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That's uh, Fountain Hills.

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That's where we usually point when we got to North practice area.

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So, you see where they go?

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Those guys right ahead of us?

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Yes sir.

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About 11 o'clock.

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Just follow them.

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Okay.

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And we're gonna go up to 3,700 feet.

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3,700?

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Yep.

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We're under a 4,000 foot Bravo shelf right now.

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Sure.

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So we usually do 37 going out and 33 come back in just 'cause so many people

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funnel in and outta the same place.

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Or sorry, four right at in your head on.

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So it just kind of keeps you, you know, not on a head-on collision course.

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Gotcha.

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Coming

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back.

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You do

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what we do.

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33 coming in 33 and 30 going out.

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Yep.

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And when you're ready, get your after takeoff there real quick.

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Oh yeah.

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Oh, it's nice and smooth out here.

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Yeah,

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you wouldn't know it from my takeoff though.

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After takeoff,

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flaps, zero, mixture, rich, landing light off, and pump off probably.

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Yeah, yeah, you can go ahead and turn

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to zero.

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Still have fuel pressure,

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airspeed,

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cruise climb, 100.

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After takeoff complete.

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Man, did you turn the autopilot on?

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Yeah, it's my feet.

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I'm a little fast at 90, are we okay?

Speaker:

No, you're fine.

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The crew,

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it tells you on your after takeoff to pitch over to 100.

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Okay.

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So you can if you want.

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Usually when you're a little heavier, uh, like the plane, I

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shoot for about 90, because 100 you'll just basically barely climb.

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Yeah, but 95 or so, whatever's good.

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Just basically get the nose down far enough so you can

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see over the, uh, over it.

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Ah, look at you.

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Muscle memory.

Speaker:

So we go out to the north practice area and he wanted to start me slow

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with just some regular old turns.

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Take a listen.

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Cool.

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All right.

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So you just want to give me a nice left 360.

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Just try and maintain your altitude.

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Do about maybe, I don't know, 30 degrees bank or so.

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30 degrees.

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All

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right.

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Do you do?

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Okay,

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let's see.

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Hey, we look clear to the left.

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Before I do any turns out here, so clear left, clear right.

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Or just the way you're turning, so clear left.

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Okay.

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Left turn.

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Gizzard.

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Just get into that bank and then just kind of work on using the

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horizon to keep yourself level.

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Yep.

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Let it do all the work for ya.

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And if you see you're getting a little, there you go.

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Yep.

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Trying to figure out the sight picture again.

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Yeah, you're good.

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That's why we're doing circles here.

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Oops,

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I let my turn out.

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I'll just give her a little more back pressure and a

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little bit of a descent there.

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Oh, yeah.

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Kind of keep the ripple right on the horizon, right?

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Uh huh.

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Yeah, this one I think is a little more difficult to keep low than the

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other ones because this dash is all, you can't really, you can't see the

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nose where the other ones are set up nice and high, you can see the whole

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calendar.

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emergency descent, uh, northeast.

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Northeast

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practice, Red Rock 66 over Rio Verde community at 5, 500 circling northeast.

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Want me to roll out north again?

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Yeah, roll out north and then go back the other way.

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Okay.

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There's that little burble.

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Yeah, might have a wake of error there.

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Okay.

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Alright.

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Clear?

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Clear right.

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Northeast Pakistan Air, what's going on?

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500, just north of Dynamite Road, gonna be maneuvering northeastbound, northeast.

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Oh, this is totally different on this side.

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Yes

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it is.

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Oh, they're over Rio Verde at 5, 000.

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We'll keep an eye out for them.

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I've become such a wuss without sunglasses since I know, once I started wearing them.

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It would kill me, man.

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If there's any light out, I can't see.

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Alright.

Speaker:

Roll

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out on north again there.

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Nice job!

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That looked pretty good.

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It's nice, it's pretty still.

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Yeah!

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This thing is pretty stable.

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They fly like trucks.

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Alright, go ahead and give me a left turn at 240.

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Try to do the same amount of bank.

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240 at 30.

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Yep.

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Okay,

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it's

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clear.

Speaker:

And when you're rolling to your turn, relax a little bit on that left rudder.

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You don't really need it until you're actually in the turn.

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Okay.

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You barely need any.

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Northeast practice, Oxford 4263, simulator emergency landing, we're

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going to be on the north side of the Ah, a little too much right.

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Oops, I'm not on my heading.

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I rolled out on the street.

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I didn't see nothing.

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Alright, now let's go back to, uh, how about

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030?

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030.

Speaker:

All right.

Speaker:

So not too bad after all that time, but these were just turns for crying out loud.

Speaker:

It was time to move on to a few other things.

Speaker:

So Ryan wanted to demonstrate slow flight once and then have me try it.

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Beautiful.

Speaker:

Okay, that's easy for you.

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Should we start with some slow flight?

Speaker:

Sure.

Speaker:

Go ahead and do that.

Speaker:

You feel up for it?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Cool, cool.

Speaker:

All right, so on your checklist, we got a pre maneuver checklist

Speaker:

that we'll go through first.

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The clearing turns you can skip.

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We just, we'll call those all our clearing turns.

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Just need a little bit of

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trim here.

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Okay.

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Nope.

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Maybe.

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Maybe not.

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Okay, before, cruise,

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It's on like the very, there it is, the very back.

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Okay, clearing turns complete.

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Just did them.

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Fuel pump on.

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Landing light on.

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Nice.

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There we go.

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Mixture rich.

Speaker:

Wanna do that?

Speaker:

Yep.

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Carb heat.

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I don't know.

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Think we need it?

Speaker:

No, we only use carpeet when we, yeah, we get, we use carpeet when we get car

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biasing, otherwise you leave it cold.

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Alright.

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And throttle.

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Okay.

Speaker:

Alrighty.

Speaker:

So, I'll go ahead and just kind of do it with you first, and just run

Speaker:

you through our procedure to do it.

Speaker:

So, what we're going to do, we're going to pick a starting heading, I don't really

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care about you maintaining your heading perfectly today, just kind of look at

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something out front and just point at it.

Speaker:

I'll just kind of point out towards Bartlett here.

Speaker:

Keep away from the mountains so we don't hit any bumps.

Speaker:

We'll try and maintain about 5, 500 here.

Speaker:

So first thing we're going to do, pull our power down to 2, 000 rpm.

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Okay.

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And then once we're at 100 miles an hour, we're going to get

Speaker:

our first notch of flaps in.

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There you go.

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So if you want to go and pull it, kind of feel it.

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First one doesn't really do much to you.

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The second one is the one that likes to blow you up.

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All right, then 90 miles an hour, we'll get our second notch.

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I'm a big fan of trim too.

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Oh yeah.

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Make it do the work for you.

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Uh,

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close enough, get 90 for the second notch.

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There we go.

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Built that one a little more.

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And this is the one I swear to God it just stops on down, sometimes

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you gotta pull a little extra power.

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I get more trim in.

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And 80 you'll get your last.

Speaker:

So it's just 190, 80 with the flaps.

Speaker:

And then we'll go ahead and slow this sucker all the way down until

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we get a first indication of stall.

Speaker:

Probably get it to about 55 miles an hour.

Speaker:

And you're sitting at about 17?

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Yeah, it'll come down a

Speaker:

little bit on its own while you slow down.

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Okay, just holding altitude.

Speaker:

Yep, just holding altitude, and we're pretty much going to go till the stall

Speaker:

light blinks, and we'll do our thing about five miles an hour above that.

Speaker:

I'm not pulling.

Speaker:

Yeah, you're good.

Speaker:

It's your airplane, right?

Speaker:

Uh, yeah, for the most part.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

Just kind of

Speaker:

feel me do this.

Speaker:

I'm, that's what I'm doing, yeah.

Speaker:

So, I'll just keep getting our nose up slightly, get ready with the

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power, just to get a little bit in.

Speaker:

And, there's our light, so about 55 miles an hour, so we'll do this at about 60.

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Okay, we'll get a little bit of power and nose it down just a tad.

Speaker:

And, yeah, that's right where I want it.

Speaker:

Alright, so slow flight, you're going to kind of use your pitch to control your

Speaker:

airspeed and your power for your altitude.

Speaker:

So, now you see we're about 50 feet low.

Speaker:

If I want to get back up, I'm just going to add a little bit of power.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

Now when I add that power, I'm trying to stay at 60, so I'm going to nose up a

Speaker:

little bit too, so I don't just speed up.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

Remember we're going to need a good, decent amount of right rudder

Speaker:

here, because we're pitched up high, high power setting, and very slow.

Speaker:

There we go, right where I want to be, so I'll pull my power back out.

Speaker:

Around 2, 000 rpm seems to be the sweet spot with this thing.

Speaker:

I'll give you a couple turns too when we do it.

Speaker:

We'll do no more than 10 degrees of bank.

Speaker:

So shoot for about 10.

Speaker:

Be a nice low flight.

Speaker:

I like everything to be slow.

Speaker:

Like we're a

Speaker:

little fast.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

Even though we're in a left turn, we're still adding right rudder just

Speaker:

because of our high power and all that.

Speaker:

I know.

Speaker:

Glorious 180.

Speaker:

Horsepower, amount of torque working against us.

Speaker:

Did you just pull a little power?

Speaker:

I just pulled a tiny bit of power, yep.

Speaker:

My airspeed is pretty much right where I want it.

Speaker:

I like to try and stay within 10 miles an hour.

Speaker:

Minus zero plus ten is the ACS standard, so if you can hold that, that's wonderful.

Speaker:

But, see we're getting a tad bit high, so I'll just pull out a smidge of power,

Speaker:

just let her sink down into place.

Speaker:

Eh, I'm going to roll out about here.

Speaker:

And our recovery, so this is what we're going to do.

Speaker:

We're going to try and maintain our altitude still on our heading,

Speaker:

so we're going to go full power.

Speaker:

Get one notch flaps out right away, and I put a ton of trim in there So I like to

Speaker:

kind of trim nose down while I speed up.

Speaker:

Yep

Speaker:

Kind of like a little a boat planning down on top of the water once it speeds up 80.

Speaker:

We'll get our second notch And then at 90 we'll get our last Or nose down trim.

Speaker:

There's 90 and around a hundred miles an hour.

Speaker:

I'll reset my power to my cruise 21 22 There we go.

Speaker:

All

Speaker:

right,

Speaker:

It was my turn now to get my slow flight on.

Speaker:

If you don't know, or you don't remember slow flight is helpful in getting a

Speaker:

feel for controlling the airplane in various configurations, getting it

Speaker:

slow, and then being on the backside of the power curve, as they say,

Speaker:

or in the area of reverse command.

Speaker:

Where you have to add power to go slower.

Speaker:

And then importantly, the recovery is great practice for

Speaker:

controlling the airplane, having it do what you want rather than

Speaker:

being mostly along for the ride.

Speaker:

So, this is how it went for me.

Speaker:

Right, let

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me get a shot

Speaker:

Yes, sir.

Speaker:

Go for it.

Speaker:

What, what

Speaker:

heading?

Speaker:

Uh, just this way is fine.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

I'll go ahead and kind of talk you through it while you do it.

Speaker:

First thing, power to 2, 000 and we'll try and stay around 5, 500 feet.

Speaker:

That's good.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

And then 100 miles an hour, you can get your first notch flaps.

Speaker:

Alright, and then 90, we'll get our second notch.

Speaker:

If you see you're not slowing down at all, it's probably because

Speaker:

you're in a little bit of a descent.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Gotcha.

Speaker:

And if we need to pull out a little bit of power too, its all northeast

Speaker:

practice area.

Speaker:

Oxford 50 48.

Speaker:

Sometimes it takes a long time in the winter to slow down over the fountain.

Speaker:

Headed back to Falcon.

Speaker:

Last call, Northeast.

Speaker:

A little low and

Speaker:

bit there.

Speaker:

Is there.

Speaker:

I got it.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

This, this flap lever isn't very cliquey in this plane.

Speaker:

The other ones, it's really like, you feel it?

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

Might need to slow it down a little bit.

Speaker:

Yep.

Speaker:

And then just pitch up your nose.

Speaker:

Just a tiny, tiny bit.

Speaker:

That'll.

Speaker:

Get rid of a few extra miles per hour for you.

Speaker:

There you go.

Speaker:

And there we go.

Speaker:

80.

Speaker:

And let's

Speaker:

slow down.

Speaker:

I can't tell when it gets it.

Speaker:

Let's just do it at basically 60 like we did last time.

Speaker:

Keep pulling that nose up as you slow down.

Speaker:

And it's up to you.

Speaker:

If you want to make life easier, use trim.

Speaker:

But if

Speaker:

you want to get an arm workout, then don't.

Speaker:

You can use as much or as little as you want.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

All right, cool.

Speaker:

So keep pitching that nose up.

Speaker:

We got a little extra air speed to get rid of and we're also

Speaker:

starting to get a little low.

Speaker:

Oh, yes, we are.

Speaker:

So let's kind of get our hand on that throttle and maybe get some power in.

Speaker:

They get about 2000.

Speaker:

About 2000 RPM will keep you level.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

So if you need to climb a little bit, you'll probably have to

Speaker:

go a little higher than that.

Speaker:

Got it.

Speaker:

And

Speaker:

keep it above 60

Speaker:

with pitch.

Speaker:

Get a little right rotor there.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

There you go.

Speaker:

Beautiful.

Speaker:

I'm climbing on purpose a little bit just to get back.

Speaker:

Oh, I see what you're

Speaker:

doing, and I'm liking it.

Speaker:

Yeah, 100, 200 foot per minute climb is perfect for slow flight.

Speaker:

There you go.

Speaker:

And when you're ready, give me a left turn to, uh, about zero, nine, zero.

Speaker:

Zero, nine, zero.

Speaker:

Keep it about 10 degrees of bank.

Speaker:

You're probably still going to have to keep that right rudder in there.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

Just keep using that power and that pitch, control your airspeed and altitude.

Speaker:

Beautiful.

Speaker:

Oh, roll out.

Speaker:

Yeah.

Speaker:

Alright.

Speaker:

Hey, let's go ahead and recover.

Speaker:

Okay.

Speaker:

So, recovery, remind me of the RPM.

Speaker:

Okay,

Speaker:

it'll go

Speaker:

full power.

Speaker:

Full power, okay.

Speaker:

Yes,

Speaker:

sir.

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And I'm gonna

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need all the way, and then get one notch of flaps out right off the bat.

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All And then just try and maintain your altitude.

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Remember, it's going to kind of balloon up on you as you speed up.

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And at 80, we'll get our second one out.

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And 90, the last one.

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And then coming up on 100, I'll set my power back to where I had

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it at cruise, about 2100 or so.

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Dude, that was beautiful.

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Out of Passed a commercial checkride right there.

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Again, it helps

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the air is still.

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No, that, that is true.

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It's a little more difficult

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when it's, uh, when it's bumpy out, but.

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I did get five degrees right in my heading.

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Ah, that's alright.

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Commercially you get plus minus five, so.

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Good job.

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Well, hopefully I'll be doing that in a few months.

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Yeah, yeah, for sure.

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Alright, so how'd that feel?

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Good.

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Good.

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It looked great.

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It looked great.

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I really got nothing for ya.

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Every, every time you started descending or ascending, you

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did the correct, uh, fix for it.

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Used your power, and I heard you saying you were using your pitch for

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airspeed, so that's, that's perfect.

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So that's where we'll leave it for this episode.

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We'll pick this flight back up in the next one, which I

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promised to release next week.

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We'll head back into Falcon field and do my first landing in a minute.

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So I do appreciate any of you who are still listening, or anyone

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who's just discovering the podcast.

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Like I said, I've got a lot of editing and releasing to do, but I am not

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wanting for content or drama, so I'll release an episode each week . Right

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now we'll be doing that on Tuesdays.

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So hopefully you stick around and we go on this learning journey again together.

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As always, I would love to hear from you.

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Questions, comments, and critiques.

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Doesn't matter to me.

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Just reach out.

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And the easiest way is to just send an email to bill at

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student pilot cast dot com.

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I'll have some other ways to reach out soon too, but my old trusty Twitter

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or X account is still there too.

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You'll find me there under, at @billwil, that's Bravo, India,

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Lima, Lima, whiskey, India, Lima.

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And if you're training or you're teaching, or you'd like to be, let me know about

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you and your own journey in aviation.

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But again, being back in the air was awesome.

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It had obviously been too long.

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But I was thrilled.

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I had some more practice to do quite a bit of it actually.

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But I knew then.

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That I was going to be a pilot.

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Again.

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About the Podcast

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The Student Pilot Cast
Learning to fly...in front of the world. A Podcast about flight training.

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About your host

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Bill Williams

Bill is a papa, a pilot, a geek, a diver, a sailor, a motorcycle rider, and a podcaster. He brings a long if sometimes interrupted history with both aviation and podcasting, along with passion for both to his podcasts. Currently working on his CFI, Bill is dedicated to advancing his skills and sharing his love of flying with others.

Bill hosts the popular Student Pilot Cast where he shares his flight training with the world, bringing the listener into the cockpit and more frighteningly, into his head, to share in the triumphs and the defeats of perpetually learning the art and science of flying.

More recently Bill is also co-hosting the Flight Line Podcast with Tiffany Wolf as they reunite after having been co-hosts on the reborn Pilotcast podcast in the earlier days of aviation podcasting.