Pilot Life: Finishing My Second Stage Check (Take Two!)

Today, I finally finished my second stage check towards my private pilot's license with a local flight. I never expected my second stage check to take this long but it is what it is... I met with my check examiner and despite some concerns over the weather and visibility, I got dispatched out and proceeded to do the pre-flight inspection. Once I was done with pre-flight, my examiner joined me at the airplane and we hopped in. We closed up the canopy and went through the usual start-up procedures. Once we went through everything and completed the checklist (including the taxi and brake check), I contacted ground and they cleared us to taxi. We taxied out to the run-up area, where I performed the usual run-up procedure and monitored the instruments and gauges.

N987CT "Wolf 12," the DA-20 I took up with the check instructor to finish out my stage check in.

Once I finished going through the run-ups, I continued taxiing to the runway. Upon reaching the hold-short line for the runway threshold, I contacted tower and informed them that we were ready for departure. We were cleared for takeoff and I taxied onto the runway and pushed the throttle forward and we began rolling. Once reaching takeoff speed, I pulled back on the stick and we got airborne. As we climbed out, I set course for a practice area southwest of Provo. I got in contact with Salt Lake Approach; the controller there made radar contact with us and almost immediately advised us about nearby air traffic, which we immediately began scanning for. The responsibility of "see-and-avoid" falls upon the pilots flying once they've established visual contact with another aircraft that the controllers on the ground gave an advisory for. Eventually, I spotted the traffic approach advised us on and let them know I had visual contact with them. Keeping an eye on the traffic and which general direction they were going, we continued on our way to the practice area. Upon arrival into the practice area, I performed some clearing turns before conducting the flight review.

Once it was determined that no one else was in our vicinity at the altitude we were flying at, my examiner took the throttle and pulled it all the way back, simulating an engine failure. I acknowledged the scenario we were simulating and began the emergency procedures. First I established the DA-20's best glide speed. Once that was done, I immediately began looking for a suitable field to make an approach and simulate a deadstick landing on. Despite all the snow covering the ground, I chose one based on the fact that I was almost flying in the pattern with this particular field. Finally, I got out my emergency checklist. I first went through the attempted restart procedure all while maintaining the airplane's best glide speed. We automatically assumed that the engine restart process failed so it was time to commit to the simulated emergency landing. I then went through the checklist in preparation for the landing, applying certain control inputs as necessary and simulating others without actually touching them. I also applied flaps as necessary and turned onto final approach for the field I chose. My examiner felt that we would make it had this been a real emergency so she had me go full throttle and we executed a go-around and climbed back up to altitude.

Having passed emergency operations, it was time to finish out the stage check by re-doing VOR navigation. My examiner briefly took the flight controls and had me don my foggles. Now I was visually impaired except for my instruments. I was handed back the controls and I first made a quick verification that our navigation radio has been tuned and is receiving a signal from the Provo VOR via its Morse code identifier. I then toggled the OBS until the CDI needle centered. I then looked for the deflection in the CDI and made corrections as I blindly set course for the Provo VOR until the CDI centered again. With foggles on, I monitored all my flight instruments as I attempted to maintain course and level flight. My examiner passed me on VOR navigation this time and she had me remove my foggles.

We were done with the stage exam and my examiner had me set course back to Provo. I contacted the tower and entered the pattern. Once abeam of where we were to touch down, I pulled engine power back, lowered the flaps, allowed the airspeed to decrease and made a descent. I then turned based to final and lowered the flaps for landing configuration and made our final approach. The plane we were flying in was equipped with an Instrument Landing System (ILS) Glide Slope (GS) indicator and my examiner pointed out that my approach for landing was perfect because the GS needle was centered. But I don't need to worry about the ILS until I actually start working on my Instrument rating! My examiner also mentioned that she got her Instrument rating in a Katana like the one we were flying in.

I approached the runway and made a smooth touchdown. I then taxied off the runway and tower instructed us to taxi back to the UVU ramp, which we did. I parked the plane and shut the engine down. My examiner passed me on the stage check and we briefly discussed the flight and areas in need of continual improvement. But I passed nonetheless! We filled out our logbooks and I called it another flight.

I am ready to move forward.

Pilot Life: Review Flight

At the recommendation of my stage check examiner, my instructor and I went up on a review flight to go over a few things I still need to get done for my second stage check, which I got started on last time I flew but was unable to complete due to deteriorating weather during that particular flight. So far, this has been a very frustrating semester due to bad weather and scheduling conflicts. I've since dropped my plans to start training for the Instrument rating this semester pushed those plans back until the summer term. But the main problem for me is not being able to meet regularly with instructors/examiners and I feel like I'm being kept in the dark with regards to my progress. I have been assured that my current situation will be resolved, but I am honestly starting to lose faith in UVU's aviation program. It was concerning enough that I started flying three weeks late last semester, but it was bad enough that I had to spend all of December as well as the first week of my winter break waiting around for pretty much nothing. For now, I take it one day at a time but I really hope I can put all these setbacks behind me...

I met with my instructor today and after some conversation with regards to my frustration, we got underway with today's flight lesson. At least going flying would help me forget about my problems for a little bit... After I got dispatched out, I conducted pre-flight and did my usual inspections. After finishing the pre-flight, my instructor joined me at the airplane and he quickly briefed me on the DA-20 we were flying in today because it was slightly different from all the other Katanas I flew so far.

Diamond DA-20-C1 Katana Falcon (N390JA), "Wolf  10," the aircraft my instructor went up in today. I've seen this airframe out on the ramp before but never flew it until today. Out of the entire UVU Katana fleet, this one is different (I consider it the "black sheep" of the UVU fleet!) as it's the only Katana with rear windows and slightly different equipment and handling characteristics. The Katana Falcon was originally designed to be a military flight trainer, with cockpit instrumentation moved in front of the right seat, where the student sits. This puts the stick in the student's right hand and throttle in the left, similar to fighter aircraft. Katana Falcons can be converted to standard configurations like the one I flew in today.

We hopped in the airplane and went through the routine pre-start and engine-start checklists and got the engine started. Once it was verified that there were no anomalies, we tuned the radio and picked up the current ATIS information from the airport. Once that was taken care of, we began taxi and brake checks, which were good. I then contacted ground informing them of our intentions; they cleared us to taxi and we were on our way. I taxied the plane to the run-up area and performed the usual run-ups. It was here that my instructor informed me that that the instrument panel of the DA-20 we were flying today was electrically driven and not with the standard vacuum system I've been used to with all the other Katanas I've flown in.

After run-ups were complete, we continued our taxi to the runway. Once we were holding short of the runway, I switched over to the tower frequency and informed them that we were ready for departure. The tower had us continue to hold short for a few minutes due to landing traffic. Soon after, we were cleared for takeoff and I taxied onto the runway and throttled full-forward and we began rolling. I pulled back on the stick slightly once the airspeed reached rotate speed and I got us airborne. I then set course for a practice area to the southwest. I also got in contact with the approach controller at Salt Lake and made radar contact.

Once we were set, my instructor had me perform some clearing turns to make sure there was no other traffic in the area and we got under way with the flight lesson review. The purpose of today's flight was to go over some of things I didn't get a chance to do last time on my stage check. First I asked that we do some stalls, something that I did alright on during the stage check, but felt I could improve upon. My instructor first had me do a power-on stall; I powered back the throttle, pitched the nose upwards, let the airspeed drop momentarily, and then throttled to full-power. As the stall warning horn sounded, I maintained the nose-up attitude until the stall occurred. I then immediately pushed the nose forward and built up airspeed to recover from the stall. Satisfied, we proceeded to do a power-off stall. As if I were setting up to land, I powered back the throttle once again, and set the flaps accordingly with the airspeed as it dropped. I then pulled back on the stick slightly in order to maintain the current altitude as airspeed continued to drop. The stall warning horn sounded and eventually, the plane started dropping, which was my cue to recover from the stall and go full-power and begin climbing as if I was doing a go-around.

Satisfied with the stalls, my instructor asked me what we should do next. I asked that we do emergency procedures, something that I didn't get a chance to do during the stage check several days ago. I pulled out out my emergency checklist and my instructor decided to simulate an in-flight engine fire followed by a simulated power-off deadstick landing. I went through the checklist for the in-flight engine fire and simulated what I would do with regards to the cockpit controls (being a simulation, I didn't do anything like actually kill the engine or turn the key off!) while flying the airplane. Once my instructor called "fire out," it was time to move onto the next part of this "emergency." Since you NEVER restart an engine after a fire, you only have once feasible option: land as soon as possible. I recalled the ABC's of a deadstick landing emergency situation, which was maintain the best glide speed, look for the best place to land and commit to it, and then go through the checklist which I did. Since we we weren't going to attempt an engine restart due to the preceding "fire," I skipped all of the steps for a midair restart and went straight to the part of the checklist that prepared for the emergency landing. Maintaining the DA-20's best glide speed, I proceeded to position the airplane towards the field I was going to simulate an emergency landing on as I went through the checklist. I simulated applying certain engine controls and applied flaps as appropriate.

Once it was determined that we would make the field I chose, my instructor called "go-around" and I pushed the throttles forward and climbed back up to altitude. We got emergency operations covered, so there was only one more thing I needed to go over in order to finish my second stage check in a few days: VOR navigation, which I didn't do too well on at the end of my previous flight when I started my stage check several days ago. My instructor walked me through the process again. We first verified that we were able to pick up Provo's VOR Morse code identifier via the navigation radio. Once that was done, we tuned the Omni Bearing Selector (OBS) until the vertical course deviation indicator (CDI) needle lined up on a radial signal from the VOR station. Once the CDI needle started deflecting, I made the correction by setting course towards the VOR until the needle centered again. My instructor then had me tune into another VOR station out in Fairfield. This time, I did it all by myself and roatated the OBS until the CDI needle lined up. Using my compass and gyroscopic heading indicator (or directional gyro; DG for short), I pointed the nose towards the Fairfield VOR upon noticing the deflection of the CDI. My instructor was satisfied with with VOR navigation and gave me some more useful pointers before setting course back towards Provo.

Beautiful day to fly, despite my dislike for winter!

We covered everything that I still needed to do in order to finish my stage check (happening on Monday), so we decided to have a little fun by doing some pattern work. While I passed the pattern portion with the short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings, I'm always up for a challenge to continually improve my pattern and landing techniques so I could maintain proficiency. I contacted the Provo tower and informed them we were inbound for a touch-and-go. We entered the pattern and began cycling through the before-landing checklist. Once our wings were abeam of the threshold, I powered back on the throttle and set the first notch of flaps. As the airspeed continued to drop, I began the base-turn towards final approach and dropped the flaps down to full. We were on final approach and my instructor called out for me to do a short-field landing and touch down 1,000 feet down the runway, which I did. After touchdown, I retracted the flaps for takeoff, maintained a line-up on the runway center line and briefly hit the brakes to continue the short-field landing operation; I didn't stop the plane because we were cleared for a touch-and-go and not a stop-and-go. I pushed the throttles forward once again and got back in the air once airspeed picked back up.

Once airborne, I climbed us back up to pattern altitude and I called the tower to let them know we were full-stop this time. We were cleared to land with no other traffic in the area. My instructor had me do a soft-field landing this time. Again, I went through the same checklist and process to configure the airplane for landing. We made our final approach and I gently kissed the ground with the main landing gears and I kept the nose up by slightly keeping the stick pulled back as long as possible until airspeed dropped enough that the nose gear gently kissed the ground. We taxied off the runway and returned to the UVU flight ramp. There, I shut the airplane down and called it another flight.

Here's hoping I'll get done with my second stage check on Monday and finally move on from this major roadblock/setback/whatever you wanna call it.

Pilot Life: My Second Stage Check (Take One!)

Before proceeding with today's flight, I suppose I owe an explanation as to what's been going on with my flight training. Obviously, I was unable to finish and get my private pilot's license before the end of the semester. As a result, I ended up signing what UVU calls and "Incomplete" contract so I could finish things up at the beginning of the next semester. After I took care of all the bureaucratic stuff, I left Provo and headed home for the holidays. Now, it's a new year and the end of the second week into the semester and I only just back into an airplane today due to relentless winter weather here in Provo. Am I frustrated by all the delays? Yes, I am. Will it affect my plans for school and further flight training? Unfortunately, yes. I was planning on getting started on instrument flight training this semester, but it's starting to look like that won't be a possibility and I might have to push that back until the summer term. It is what it is since I have no control over the weather...

Anyways, I'm going to finish up flight training for my private pilot's license and burn off any excess flight hours I paid for last semester during these next few weeks and go from there. So today, I finally got started with the flying portion of my second stage check; I finished the ground portion last weekend but the weather here in Provo since starting the new semester has been absolute crap and it's been nothing but a waiting game. Today, the weather hasn't been great but it was marginal to the point that I was able to get into the air and demonstrate some things to my check examiner. I haven't flown in over a month and I really hoped that I didn't lose any proficiency or forgot anything important. Not surprisingly, I found myself reciting Alan Shepard's pilot prayer several times as I got ready for today's flight...

“Dear Lord, please don’t let me f**k up.” -Alan Shepard's pilot prayer

Diamond DA-20-C1 Katana (N879CT) "Wolf 08," the aircraft I took up today with the stage check examiner.

After I got dispatched out. I experienced my first little setback: the plane I was scheduled to fly in was in the hangar! So I had to wait for someone to tow it out onto the ramp... Honestly, the only thing that went right about today's flight was the fuel; I didn't have add or remove any for the sake of weight! Once the plane was parked out on the ramp, I did my preflight checks and my check instructor joined me. After I was done with the preflight, we hopped in the airplane, went through the briefing and start-up checklist, started up the engine, picked up our taxi clearance and taxied out to the run-up area, where we did our run-ups. It was at this point that I was glad I had my pilot checklist with me as I was able to conduct all my checks and scans of the aircraft instruments and controls rather smoothly; it was good enough for me to get a slight confidence boost. After run-ups were complete, we taxied out to the runway and picked up our takeoff clearance from the control tower.

I taxied onto the runway and lined up on the center line. My check instructor had me start with a short-field take-off. I stepped on the brakes and advanced the engine throttles. Once I verified the RPMs, we started rolling. Once we got to takeoff speed for a short-field, I pulled back on the stick and we got airborne; my first flight of 2017 was underway! I made a brief steep climb-out as part of the short-field takeoff before I dropped the nose a little bit to revert to a normal climb. I then turned us to the southwest towards the practice area, being ever so mindful of the weather, which was clearly deteriorating on us. We stayed close to the southern tip of Utah Lake as the weather and cloud cover was clearly worse further south. I performed a quick clearing turn to verify that there wasn't any other traffic in the area.

My check instructor had me start off with stalls. She had me first do a power-off stall with the flaps set to landing configuration. I thought about for second and I was able to recall the process. I first brought back the power and then lowered the flaps as needed, treating this as if I was preparing the airplane for landing in the pattern. Once the flaps were all the way down and power set to near idle, I then pulled back on the stick intentionally in the typical attempt to maintain altitude. Eventually, the stall warning horn went off and the airplane started dropping. I immediately went full-throttle with the engine and recovered the airplane and began climbing back out, retracting the flaps in the process. Satisfied, I was then tasked to perform a power-on stall. It was here that I made a mistake; I brought the power back initially but I then abruptly pulled back on the stick and revved the engine to full-power. I had failed to let the airspeed drop initially before pulling back on the stick. I also put the airplane into a higher than normal nose-up position for the power-on stall. I was corrected on this and I made said corrections. Despite my mistakes, I was still given a pass on the stalls. And despite having not flown in over a month, I felt I was doing decent...

My check instructor then took control of the airplane and she had me put on my foggles. Once I had my foggles on, she had me tune to the Provo Airport VOR on the OBI instrument after verifying that we were in range via it's Morse code transmission on the radio. With foggles on, I kept an eye on the instruments closely making sure I kept the airplane in level flight as I tinkered with the OBI. I had trouble tuning the navigation instrument. My mistake was that I was rushing it; I managed to tune the indicator to the direction of the Provo VOR but I had trouble getting the center needle lined up in order to verify which direction or heading I needed to turn to. Needless to say, I didn't do too well on this portion of the stage check... Plus the weather was getting worse so we headed back to Provo. We quickly went over what I didn't get right with VOR navigation and I received much needed insight regarding corrections I need to make for a recheck on this subject. Other than that, I probably had a brain fart on VOR navigation and my check instructor sympathized with me on it. The important thing is I remember and know it now and I won't forget it next time!

We proceeded back to Provo and made radio contact with the tower. It was a normal traffic pattern and thankfully, I remembered the procedures and checklists to go along with it! Each circuit, I manipulated the flaps and airspeed as appropriate. And as an added bonus challenge, there were elements of a crosswind! We noticed because the ground speed (GS) changed drastically on each leg of the pattern we flew, especially on the crosswind and base turns!

My check instructor had me first request a touch-and-go and called for me to do a soft-field landing followed by a soft-field takeoff. We entered the pattern, I pulled back on the power to the engine, lowered the flaps as necessary and descended during the base of the approach before making the final approach. I came down to the runway and pulled the power just above the ground. Once we touched down, I kept the stick pulled back slightly to keep the nose up as long as possible. Once the nose gear touched down, I retracted the flaps into takeoff configuration, got lined up on the runway center line, pulled back on the stick, and throttled forward to get back up to speed. Once the nose started going up, I manipulated the stick and waited until the main gears left the ground.

Once airborne, I turned the airplane and climbed back up to pattern altitude. This time, my check instructor had me request a stop-and-go clearance from the tower so we could do a short-field landing followed by a short-field takeoff. The tower controller cleared us for a stop-and-go and I proceeded to fly the pattern as normal. Once past the midway point on the downwind leg, I again reduced engine power, lowered the flaps as needed, descended and made my base turn toward the final approach. My check instructor challenged me to touch down on the 1,000 foot markers, which sits 1,000 feet past the end the runway I was landing on (obviously!). The 1,000 markers are typically the traditional touchdown zone for most aircraft landing on long runways like the one at Provo. As I made my approach, I made sure to keep some power to the engine until the last second before I pulled back to idle so I could hit the 1,000 foot markers. It was uneventful as I successfully landed on the spot I was instructed to. Once all the landing gears made contact with the pavement, I stepped on the brakes to finish the short-field landing.

Once we came to a complete stop, it was time to do a short-field takeoff from where we sat. I brought the flaps back up, remained on the brakes, and throttled the engine to full power. Once I verified the engine gauges, I released the brakes and we were rolling once again. Once we reached rotate-speed, I pulled back on the stick and as part of the short-field takeoff, I made a slightly steeper climb-out as if we were dodging an obstacle in our takeoff path. Once at a sufficient height, I brought the climb back down to a normal one and proceeded onto the final circuit around the pattern for the day. My check instructor was satisfied with the landing portion of the stage check so we were done for the day. I flew up to pattern altitude and called the tower to let them know that our next landing was a full-stop. With no other traffic in the pattern, the tower controller cleared us to landing and once again, I did the usual routines prior to a landing with checklist on hand. On this approach, I made a normal landing before taxiing off the runway. Once we were clear of the active runway, we immediately received instruction to taxi back to the UVU ramp. We also received a warning of caution from the tower regarding jet blast from a Gulfstream that was starting up on the FBO ramp. I taxied the airplane back to the UVU ramp, parked and shut the engine down.

Aside from a needed refresher with VOR navigation, we didn't have time to do simulated emergencies so the next time I meet with my check instructor, we'll cover these before she can pass me off on the second stage exam. Regardless of that, I was just glad that I was able to get back up in the air today after over a month of no flying!