Back home in the 172

Waterfowl induced downtime

Some of you may remember the bird strike that knocked the Stoddard County Flyers Cessna 172 out of commission for several months. In February I hit a goose on a night cross country flight. The repairs on the wing took much longer than expected, and it turned out there were a couple of smaller things that needed fixed along the way. Our plane was not permanently back into circulation until summer.

During that period of time I decided to do some flying at Skybound Aviation in Cape Girardeau and even got a chance to get up in an experimental aircraft for the first time. The brief flight in a Kitfox was also my first time in a tail dragger in over twenty years. It was a fun change of pace and I can definitely see how pilots get hooked on that kind of flying. On the other hand, not being able to see over the nose on take off and landing was a truly odd experience.

My main focus during the break in flying was studying for my private pilot written exam. Two years ago I took an in-person ground school at Skybound and then last year I did a video refresher using the King School materials put out by John and Martha King. The final piece of review came from reading Rod Machado’s Private Pilot Handbook. In June I finally felt confident enough to take the exam. A friend and I both went to take the exam on the same day. All of the studying seems to have worked. We both passed with scores over 90%.

Getting back in the air

With the written exam out of the way and the plane back in operation, it was time to get back in the air. Because of scheduling conflicts, members of our club have started flying with a new instructor. Before going up together for the first time, I sat down with my new instructor so that she could review my logbook and figure out where I am in the training process. She asked several questions about my previous instruction and what aircraft I have flown. She laid out her expectations and helped map out a general outline for where we go from here.

Our first flight was essentially a pretest. While I was pre-flighting the plane, asked me some check ride-type questions about the systems on the airplane. Then we went up for an hour of slow flight, stalls, and ground reference maneuvers. Weirdly enough my right turns around a point were much better than those to my left. My take offs were okay, but my landings were a little rough. It always amazing to me how perishable flying skills are. More than anything, everything just seemed to happen very fast. I felt a little behind the plane the whole time.

Getting ready for VORs

Fortunately, I did not scare my new instructor too badly. She agreed to fly with me again and gave me homework to work on for next time. Weather and mechanical issues permitting, we are planning to fly weekly until I am finally ready for the check ride. Our lessons will also include a bit of ground school every time so that she can make sure that my knowledge is up to her standards. A few lessons in, I am finding this systematic approach to be a very good match for my learning style.

Besides knocking off the rust of the basics, the next big stage in my training will be cross country planning and navigation. Part of that is wrestling with VORs. Like most modern pilots, I find it easier and more effective to use the GPS in the airplane. However, the check ride requires applicants to be familiar with all the systems in the airplane. My knowledge of VOR navigation is entirely the theoretical information needed to pass the written exam. Our club’s plane has a single VOR that I have never really played with. Part of my assignment for the next several weeks will be learning how to use it and getting familiar with actually intercepting and holding a radial.

On the road again

All in all, it feels great to be back in the air. My instructor assures me that I have not forgotten as much as I thought I had. There are still several more months to go in this process, but it is a relief to be rolling once more. I just hope that there are no more goose-breaks in the future.

Momentum is a funny thing. It is a whole lot easier to keep moving than it is to get started. Perhaps that is the biggest realization for the moment. There always going to be interruptions along the way. Sometimes they are caused by finances. Sometimes they are caused by busy schedules. Sometimes they are even caused by waterfowl.

Throughout my training process I have encountered all of these situations. Far too often, I have allowed them to push me out of the learning mode. One week became two weeks. Two weeks became a month. A couple of months became a year. What made this time different was the fact that I found other ways to keep moving forward.

When I could not fly, I did the written test. When I still could not fly the club plane, I found another plane and instructor to work with for a while. It was a much slower process than it would have been otherwise, but at least it kept my head in the game. That made it that much easier to get back into gear once our club’s plane was back in operation.