The Journey Continues: VOR’s and Goose-Free Night Flights

Fall 2016 status update

My second round of flight training has proven to be much more of an adventure than my first experience twenty years ago. When I flew for the first time was an aviation major at the University of Central Missouri working toward an ATP rating in a 141 school.

Thanks to student loans and scholarships, my only job back then was to go to school, do homework, and take lessons. It was no problem to fly two or three times a week because aircraft and instructors were always available. Progress was steady and I was about three fourths of the way through my private rating by the end of the first school year.

Around that same time, however, I had begun to discern a call to pastoral ministry and my career goals changed. It was necessary to put flying on hold for several years. Two years ago my career, finances, and lifestyle finally coalesced and I was able to at last get back into flight training recreationally.

Not as easy as it once was

The first year was spent in ground school and taking a few introductory flights. Last year I began training seriously in the Dexter Flying Club’s Cessna 172. Unfortunately my progress has proven to be far slower than it was when I was a college student. The pressures of a career, military reserve service, and family have meant that I am forced to divide my attention in many different directions. Frankly, this has meant that I am not as focused on learning as I would like to be.

Besides family and professional pressures, aeronautical challenges have slowed my progress as well. A bird strike knocked our club plane out for three months. My first two instructors faced personal situations which forced them to temporarily step back from teaching. The situation with my third instructor is wonderful, but there have inevitably been a few delays and repeated lessons along the way.

By this fall my third instructor and I were able to get into a bit of a routine. We agreed to fly together once a week with me taking solo flights between lessons to practice maneuvers and take off/landings. Inevitably, the chaotic fall weather scrubbed some of those lessons, but we got to fly often enough to be making noticeable progress once again.

Goose-free night flight

The big event of the fall was making my first night flight since the infamous goose strike in February. It was designed as a practice mini-cross country so that I could demonstrate my planning skills to my new instructor. He wanted to see how I planned a flight before he would be willing to let me set out on my own.

On a beautiful November evening we set out from Dexter toward Cape Girardeau. He had me do some dead reckoning to begin with and once we got closer to Cape I was asked to demonstrate my VOR skills. Everything seemed to go fairly smoothly except that I discovered I had figured the wrong direction for my wind correction angles. He let me fly my pre-planned headings until we got close enough to the station for me to see just how far off I had been.

Once we landed in Cape he had me re-plan the flight with the right wind correction angles. Our next destination was Sikeston and I did a little bit better holding the right heading on trip south. I still wavered for a few miles until I was able to get the needle properly centered.

Shortly before our landing in Sikeston he declared a diversion and had me plan in the air for a trip to Malden. This time I finally got the wind correction angles right and was flying the plane straight to the station.

Apparently satisfied with my VOR work, my instructor again declared a diversion. He said that we were done with the cross-country portion and that we were going to work on unusual attitudes. He put a hood on me and had me recover from various configurations. The final part of the simulated instrument practice was a simulated ground control approach back to the Dexter airport.

It was extremely satisfying to pull the hood off about a mile out while lined up for a long final. A ground control approach is something I had never tried before, but it was a good experience in case I ever inadvertently wander into weather and find myself in the situation of needing to do it for real.

The flight closed with a bit of night time pattern work. It was an intense night with several things that I had never had the opportunity to try before. When we landed for the last time I was happy, but very drained. Needless to say, I slept very well that night.

Getting closer all the time

My instructor assures me that I am getting close to being ready to prep for the check ride. This is something I am still not sure about. While I can feel my skills improving, and the basic knowledge has never truly disappeared, the truth of the matter is that I still do not yet feel as confident as I did when I was 18 years old. How much of that feeling was youthful arrogance, I do not know, but I am willing to bet that it was at least a part of the situation.

Frankly, I am glad that I am a little more cautious than I was back then. I find that I am a more careful and detailed oriented pilot than during my college training. My navigation and instrument work is better, even if I have not yet brushed all the rust off my skills. Practice will eventually get me where I need to be.

The next big step in my training will be a solo cross country. Even though I have mathematically finished all of the training requirements necessary to satisfy FAR Part 61, many of those hours are two decades old. Both my instructor and I want to make sure that my skills truly are fresh.

Everything from here on out will be based on reviewing the basics and making sure that there are no gaps in my knowledge. For those of you keeping score at home, I now have 83.5 total hours. 53 of those hours came 1994-1996. Most of the last thirty have been over the past year. Even though it now comes at a slower pace, it feels incredible to be flying regularly once again.

Best of all, unlike the instructors I had in college, my new CFI is retired and not trying to build time for a future career. His sole goal in training is helping his students prepare for the check ride. While we still take training seriously, his careful, yet laid back, approach has reduced the pressure and increased the fun. This should be an exciting spring.