I'm back! and ready to learn

[David MacRay]

It was just taking longer to sell than I expected back when he put it up for sale. It was a pretty nice little plane and for the price I doubt you could get as nice a 152.

As for the Covallis, quietly alert me via PM if you find one registered in Canada with a valid CofA for under $30,000. I might risk making my wife cranky for a deal like that. Same for an RV-8. Even with crappy radios.

[TwinOtterFan]

We don't seem to spend much time on the ground or in the pattern, but so far I can only book 1ish hour lessons and only 6 days a week. But that doesn't seem like enough to really get a feel for things. Mind you I have only been up 3 times because of weather. I know the school was limiting aircraft because they have to wiped down after each flight, so maybe that is contributing to it as well. It seems to me its like the instructors are rushed to get to the next student and so my lessons feel rushed to accommodate.

I do like the idea of grabbing a share on a Cessna but have concerns as I know nothing about plane ownership,

I kinda miss the military training.... almost, not the blatant belt fed cock part, but the black and white set standard with the structured repetitive training that last more than 20 minutes. Maybe I'm getting old but having one demo and then trying something once maybe twice is not enough for me to be proficient.

There is another flight school almost the same distance away from my new place, its very small just a little thing. I may take a ride out there tomorrow just to chat and see. I could at least do my PPL with them, and then come back to this one for my CPL.

[Colonel]

Free advice to every flight student:

1) never put money on account with any flight school. Pay in full after every flight.

2) keep your personal logbook up to date. Make an entry in it after every flight, and
keep it in your possession. Get each page signed by the instructor as it is filled up.
Don't keep it in a fancy headset bag in your back seat, because thieves will break the
car windows and steal it, thinking it's an expensive camera. If you insist on doing this,
check nearby garbage cans for your headset and logbook. Keep it in the trunk of your
car, with your guns.

3) your PTR will be kept by the flight school and also has entries for every flight. Ensure
that the school is keeping it up to date and your instructor is signing off every page as
it is filled up. Legally you can request your PTR from the flight school at any time - they
cannot hold onto it for any reason. If they try that stupid shit, call TC and they will crush
the FTU for disobedience. Theoretically, you can do your flight training with one flight
at each different FTU in Canada. If you stop flight training at an FTU, get your PTR
signed off and in your possession immediately. Idiots will go back after 10 years and
then whine when their PTR is gone.

Above I emphasized the importance of getting each page of your personal logbook and
PTR signed off as they are filled up. What happens is that people leave, records get
lost and hard to find, and people don't want to sign off other people's flying. Avoid that
by getting each page signed off immediately after it is filled. Don't create a big paperwork
headache.

It's important to learn that aviation runs on paperwork. No one gives a shit how well you fly.



This student made THREE major errors:

1) lack of right rudder after touchdown
2) excessive speed on final - power reduction far too late
3) white shirt with gold bars

Don't do those. But I'm sure his paperwork was perfect, which is why he was flying,
like this guy in Toronto:



No one gives a shit, but

THERE WILL BE NO NEW CAUSES OF AVIATION ACCIDENTS THIS YEAR

So. If you have a double-digit IQ, it may occur to you that if you review past accidents, and
learn their lessons, you will not repeat them.

But people don't do that, because not crashing isn't important to them. They think it's funny.

[TwinOtterFan]

I am actually following this already Colonel, I cash out right after the flight, and then if we do ground instruction I cash out separately after that. logbook stays in my bag with me at all times, and I try my best to read the accident reports you fellows post, and I usually look up other accidents that are referenced on here. So I will keep moving along in the same direction. I did not get a chance to check out that other FTU but I will tomorrow.

Reference the last video, what happened? theory's? As in the loss of control initially? I assume the application of full throttle did not help the situation but I am curious what made him go so far of to the left initially.

[Colonel]

the last video, what happened?

Severe cranial-rectal inversion.

If I can teach a student ONE THING:

At high speed, use the ailerons for directional control
At slow speed, use the rudders for directional control

It behooves you to spend lots of time in the practice area on
the back side of the power curve, learning to control the aircraft
as AOA exceeds Clmax and then decreases. Generally not symmetrically.

Flight instructors teach slow flight really badly, because they don't
know how to do it themselves. Rolling (banking) around a point and
the falling leaf are so outside their personal envelope. It's sad, actually.
In the Pitts, we do the inverted falling leaf, to build character.

TC emphasizes all the wrong things. As expected.

When you are in slow flight, don't worry about maintaining a precise
airspeed or altitude. You actually will slowly descend because you won't
have enough power to maintain altitude, and don't worry about it. There's
a guy in the right seat who's job is to worry about altitude, traffic, navigation,
fuel and time. Just fly the fucking airplane.

Just look outside, and listen to the stall warning horn, which comes on
around 7 mph above the actual stall. Don't spend your time in slow flight
with your head inside the cockpit, staring at the airspeed or the altimeter,
the way TC wants you to, with their stupid "tolerances" which distract you
from learning. Look outside. Observe the yaw. Observe the wing drop.

Learn to control the aircraft at high alpha. Use your feet for directional
control, and learn to lower the nose a degree or two to un-stall when
a wing drops. This is counter-intuitive and will not become instinctive
without significant practice.

Learn to precisely control alpha. It will be different on each wing, and
only one or two degrees makes a difference. See the Cl and Cd curves.

Four bars will tell you this is stupid, but one of those douches killed
everyone on Colgan 3407 when he stalled, and pulled all the way back
on the control column with enormous force, and snap-rolled his way down
down to the ground, killing everyone on board.

The really sad thing about that accident is that instead of learning from
it, to cover up for their incompetence the four bars created this narrative
that he crashed because he was tired, and as a result developed superhuman
strength, the way that everyone gets stronger when they're tired. No, this
guy had failed flight test after flight test with no fatigue.

This is why there will be no new causes of aviation accidents this year.
People are determined to repeat old ones.

See, all my friends are dead. I don't know anyone who's died from the
seasonal flu this year, but almost all of my friends have died in airplanes.
Each of them taught me a lesson that I will never forget.

Here are two of my friends that died in airplanes that taught me lessons:

1) Joe Broeders. Groundloop in homebuilt taildragger. Cracked the spar.
Did not inspect. Took off again, wing separated in flight.

2) Bob Sterling. Cessna came apart in flight. TSB report was a disgrace.
The aircraft had been "totalled" in a previous accident, and I am certain
it had hidden, unrepaired damage that killed Bob and his wife.

They had hangars near me. So many people in our row of hangars had
serious accidents and died, they started calling it "death row".

Somehow, to the great disappointment of TC, I am still alive. Clearly
I know absolutely nothing about aviation, despite the fact that my family
has been doing it for over one hundred years.



Curtis Pitts liked how we fly, though.

Here's what a fourth generation biplane pilot does for fun. Like the delayed opening?

www.pittspecials.com/etc/eric_idaho2.mov