Private Pilot: Back on my Instrument Rating journey!

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

This past weekend I finally got to resume my Instrument Rating. The planned training flight got bumped a couple of times because of scheduling conflicts, incident at the airport and weather, but eventually, I got together with the instructor last weekend and restarted my training. Since this was the first flight with me wearing the hood, he asked me what I’d like to focus on. I told him that I wanted to do basic maneuvers, steep turns, unusual attitudes and a couple of approaches. So that’s what we did.

I haven’t had hood time for over more than a year now. For that level of “rustyness”, my instructor said I did pretty good. I had a little bit of issue holding the altitude but apart from that he thought I did good. He said I was closer to getting my instrument rating than I thought, which was pretty encouraging.

Lot’s of hood time and a couple of Instrument approaches

The above map from flightware shows the path I took for this refresher flight. The small loops on the left (west) are the steep turns and then the two approaches (a VOR and an ILS). There was a procedure turn with a parallel entry if you can spot it 🙂 . The first one was an ILS to a missed approach followed by the VOR. We were supposed to land right away but were a bit high and there was an embraer jet ready to take off so we did a go around, canceled the IFR that my instructor had filed and did a visual approach landing. Overall, I felt good going out there flying under the hood. The instructor also suggested that I get my written exam done so that there is only the check ride to get my instrument done. Although, there are those cross country requirements that I am still short on!!

So, next steps – get a bunch of cross country flights in (hopefully to some destinations rather than just getting the log book time), get registered for a ground school, get endorsement for a test and get that out of the way. Like I said before, I’m excited to finally get back out flying and get my instrument rating training going. Will keep the blog updated with my progress. Now time to find to a good groundschool and hit the books ugggh!

Personal: Yay! N!=1

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

We did it! We made it a trend! Well, not really a trend but as I said in my previous post, I choose to call it that 🙂 ! I’m talking about the hike we did this past weekend. It was hike number two for us. Yes, we did the same hike that we did last time, we did it with the same set of friends as last time but the weather was much nicer and we did it in less time because – experience 😛 .

Anyway, to be honest, we need to do a lot more of outdoor activity that we currently do. While we take our son for walks almost every day (rain or shine), we need to be a lot more deliberate about enjoying the nice weather out there. This will only last a short while before either the gray PNW skies take over or there is smoke all over the place due to forest fires, which, unfortunately, has been happening quite a lot. There is an undeniable beauty to the pacific northwest summers but if this trend continues, it will be harder and harder to find those perfect summer days.

On a lighter note, I can confidently say that our hike was not a singular event. If it happend more than once, you can extrapolate it to say that its likely to happen 🙂 just like, if we find evidence of second genisis, we can confidently say that life is all pervasive throughout the universe. That doesnt mean if we dont find the evidence, there isn’t life elsewhere. I am firmly on the camp that there is life and that too of bizzare (of the kind that we can’t imagine because for most part our thoughts and imagination are bounded by the life we see on this planet) nature out there. It is like we can’t imagine what fourth dimension of space looks like. We can use analogies and extrpolate from imaginnig what living beings in an imaginary two dimensional world will experience when someone from third dimension shows up but its not the same. We cannot imagine a fourth dimension of space. Anyway, I digress 🙂 .

I think the point I was trying to make with this post is COVID has thrown a wrench in everyones life and I don’t think normal as we knew it prior to the pandemic is every going to come back. What we all can do is bring some normalcy and routine in our lives by doing things that make us feel in control of the situation. Even without COVID, our lifestyle was expected to change because of our kid but we want to make sure we were deliberate in keeping doings things we wanted to do. With COVID its become exponentially harder but the hikes (n=2 or rather n=!1) are a step in that direction for us as a family. For me personally though, my wife has been very supportive, allowing me to engage in my hobbies of flying and amateur astronomy, for which I am eternally grateful!

WOW! This post went from our decipline in outdoor activities to life out there in the universe to 4th dimension of space before coming back to the pandemic. What random thoughts go in this tiny brain of mine 🙂 Anywhoo, for anyone interested, Here is an interesting video on what life in 2d might look like:

Until next time!

Private Pilot: Easing back into flying

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

Short post alert! With my required annual review done, I am eager to complete my instrument rating training. However, I still have a bunch of cross countries to finish as a PIC and before getting right into those, I wanted to get comfortable being in the cockpit alone so this past memorial day weekend, I rented a plane to go flying!

I think, touch and go’s are a nice way ease back into flying so that’s what I decided to do. Took the plane to the short runway and did several landings. Going back up in the air by myself, soaking in the beautiful pacific northwest scenery on a nice clear day and getting the rust off of my flying skills. It was liberating!

The first landing and subsequent takeoff was bit rough on the edges but after getting the feel for the plane, the subsequent landings were mostly smooth. Although, I did not practise forward slip like I had thought the last time around. I think it is better to practise them at altitude before trying to do them for landing. If I ever felt I was a bit high and not comfortable/ready for a slip, go around would be an easy option. However, I did not have to do any of that this time.

For those who care, here is a video I took of my touch and go’s. The altitude and the speed G-Metrix are messed up but its just a mundane video showing me take off and land several times 🙂 . Enjoy!

Next, finish my cross country PIC (pilot in command) time and continue IFR training with instructor but before that a lesson with instructor to dust off my IFR skills (practising holds, approaches, naviation etc).

Keep an eye out for updates as I restart Instrument rating training in my private pilot journey!

Personal: First “Vacation” as a Family

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

This past weekend was a huge milestone for us as a family. We went on a “road trip” for a “vacation”! Alright, I know it sounds wonderful but there is a reason I put road trip and vacation in quotes 🙂 . It was less of a vacation and more of a test of how our son would react to a new environment. We chose a destination that was about an hour and half from our home – a small Island in the Puget sound called Camano Island. Having said that, it was still a great break to get away from the daily rut. Our son was largely okay during the drive. Although, my wife had to sit with him in the back seat. He usually tends to get bored after some time and then gets cranky. If my wife keeps shuffling through the toys, he is fine. The airbnb we booked had really nice views of Puget Sound making it easy to get the island vacation feel 🙂 . On the first night, we had issues with the heat. I followed the instructions laid down by the host but the fireplae did not turn on. It seemed like the pilot light was out and I wasn’t able to get it to work. There was another heater (radiator type) that made some crackling sounds when I turned it on. Not liking that, I turned it off. We had plans of having our son sleep with us in the same room given the new place and all but given the issues with the heater, we decided he would sleep in a different room where there was an electrical heater. We tried to keep the room settings as close to home as we could (we even took the white noise machine from home). However, the room wasn’t dark enough and our son woke up at 4:15 the first morning so we had to tend to him then.

On saturday, we decdied to explore the place a bit and went to the beach close to our airbnb followed by the Cama beach state park. With the nice warm weather, stunning viewes all around, the place is awesome. Pictures don’t do the place justice but here are a couple of shots from our day out:

My son and I enjoying the beautiful views and conteplating about life! 😛
A nice click by my wife. I think her photograph turned out much better than whatever I was photographing there 🙂

It wasn’t really a “day” out because we headed out of the airbnb after our son’s first nap so around 3pm and came back home at around 7pm. But as they say, its not the amount of time you spend enjoying but the quality of time that matters. So it was a throroughly enjoyable day with the family and nice to get away from the daily rut. The next day, we decided to head back early so left the place around 11:15 and were back home by 1:00 to get ready for the grind. The trip was a good test and now we know what all we should have packed and what all we packed that was unnecessary. A learning for the next trip!

Btw, another bonus activity I was able to do, was get a nice picture of the night sky. Friday night was forecasted to be clear (although it got cloudy after 1:30 am) so I decided to take some star trail pictures with the puget sound as the foreground. I did not carry my telescope or the star tracker and it was too bright (with the moon and city lights) for milky way shots so the choice was simple. Here is a processed image of the night sky I captured. The orange/yellow glow on the left is the cloud cover that was approaching and the bluish purple tint, I am assuming, is auroral activity?

All in all, it was a nice family “road trip” and a “vacation”. Looking forward to a real vacation sometime soon!

Private Pilot: Up in the Air!

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

This will be a short but exciting post! Now that we have decided to increase our risk tolerance and send our son to day care, and the fact that I am fully vaccinated, I felt a bit more comfortable flying with an instructor to get current on my annual review so that I can get going on my IFR training. So that’s what I did the weekend of 05/15. My instructor had gotten his first shot so wasn’t fully vaccinated yet but given that I was fully vaccinated and wearing an N95 mask, I felt comfortable.

The weather was nice and the review was pretty straightforward. Took off from Paine field, went over lake Steven’s did a few maneuvers including but not limited to steep turns and stalls. After the CFI assessed my proficiency at that, we came back to KPAE to do a few touch and gos. Most of the landings were decent but not great showing that I had gotten a bit rusty due to the lack of practice. For one particular landing, I was a bit high and the CFI asked me to do a forward slip. I did not do a good job at it keeping my airplane nose higher than it should be leading to lower than desired speed for the slip. I corrected for it and made a good landing but the CFI had to remind me to watch my airspeed while doing the slip. Something for me to practice on my next flight

After just under an hour of flight time, the CFI signed my log book and my review was done. I can now freely rent an airplane and finish up on my cross country requirement for IFR. I also spoke to the chief instructor about restarting my Instrument rating and he was going to check on availability and get back to me. I am looking forward to getting back to the training and getting my instrument rating as soon as practical! First up though, some touch and goes and local flying the next time I rent the airplane on a weekend with nice weather! Boy, I am excited to be able to go flying again!!