Student Pilot Journal Aviation Podcast

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Flying this Friday Jan 23, 2008

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Sorry I have not put anything out. I am having difficulty finding music that is fitting for my solo video. I guess I will have to write and record it myself.....which will prove to be time consuming. I have a flight this Friday and one the next morning on Saturday. I should be able to get at least one more supervised solo in, if not 2. Weather will be a key factor. I will do my best to get some video, even if its just me talking things out by myself while in the pattern. Thanks for all of the support!
-Greg

No Solo Today Jan 13, 2008

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I guess this post jumps right over the phase check. Last Friday I went up with another instructor and did a phase check to make sure I was safe for solo. We went through some maneuvers and landings. I was fairly nervous being with someone new, so things could have gone better. Despite my mediocre performance for the lesson, he signed off and gave me an ok for solo. I passed the "safe part" at least.
Now fast forward to today:
I woke up this morning only to see overcast skies and heavy fog. Visibility was less than a mile and things did not look hopeful until an hour after my scheduled time of 10 am. We waited and finally got a break in the clouds. If things went well I would solo...maybe. I unpacked my camera, mount, and audio cable. I turned the camera on and to my surprise the battery indicator was flashing. I was sure that I had charged it. I had a spare battery and was hopeful, so I attached it and it indicated that it had 57 minutes so I turned it off to save battery life until solo time. I also brought a smaller camera for my instructor to use on the ground if I had the chance to solo. When we took off we had some strong gusts so we climbed to 3000 to avoid the remaining clouds. Things were breaking up at this point so it was easy to get around. It was a lot smoother once we got higher so we did some slow flight and stalls. After that we started the descent and worked on some landings and got some crosswind practice. It took me a couple of times to compensate for the wind drift and at this point I knew that I was not going to solo today. What a bummer, but everything happens for a reason. We did not get an ounce of video and no solo. We will try again during the week. :-(

Student Pilot Journal Podcast #9 Jan 11, 2008

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Back to flying! I am glad to be at it once again.....a week off feels like an eternity sometimes. I'd fly everyday if I could. For this lesson I was introduced to some hood work (Instrument work). For your private certificate you need a minimum of 3 hours instrument time. I included some video of things that have already been shown in previous podcasts, but it was such a beautiful day that I had to include some footage. All my videos are shot in HD and I wish I was able to show you just how awesome the view is....in a better resolution. It was great to see the waves crashing along the coastline and the manatees in the water. I even saw a set of four tires in the water...I hope there was not a car attached to them...in the past! Maybe somewhere down the road, I will publish a page of all the podcasts in HD, but the file sizes can get out of control, so for now the current format will have to work. :-( I will be flying this Friday with another instructor for the pre-phase solo so wish me luck.
-Greg
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No Flying This Week Jan 04, 2008

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Weather scrubbed today's lesson. We had some of the coldest temperatures come through the last couple of days. We had temperatures in the low 30's with the wind chill around 25°. The cold was not a factor, however. Today was rather windy with gusts around 25 kts. The windsock at Valkaria was erratic which would have made for some interesting flying. Such is life. I was looking forward to trying out a new headset, but I guess that will have to wait. My instructor is flying out of state this weekend so we will not have a lesson until some time next week. Until then I will keep reviewing my previous lessons and study for my written.
-Greg

Student Pilot Journal Podcast #8 Jan 01, 2008

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Good lesson today. I felt much more relaxed....I hope I can maintain it for the remaining of my training. We introduced more emergencies - electrical and engine fires. We worked more on in flight engine outs and those went better for me this time around. Casey pulled the power on a downwind approach to rwy 14 so I had to turn an early base and final and forward slip to the landing since I had too much altitude. I really enjoyed the slips today. We had a nice 11/16 gust knot wind from 220° which made for descent sideslip practice for crosswind landings. Overall, landings were better although I still need to let the nosewheel come down slower in landing to trim off airspeed after touchdown and to lighten the force of the nosewheel falling. I also was able to do my first no flap landing and it was at that time that Casey decided to introduce passenger distractions. Check out the video for details. :-)
-Greg
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Student Pilot Journal Podcast #7 Dec 28, 2007

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Emergency practice day and towered airport operations.
Today was the introduction to dealing with emergency situations due to engine failure on takeoff, cruise, and landing. Casey pulled the power back to simulate a failure. It always amazes me how you can have a cool head on the ground and think that you will have no problem picking a field, only to freeze at 1800 feet like a deer in the headlights. Practice makes perfect is what I tell myself. I will say that when the lesson was over I was more relaxed than I have ever been...which makes me feel like I am making progress. A good motivator for me is looking forward to the day when things become more second nature.
We flew over to Melbourne International (KMLB) and practiced some landings and I was able to get some experience with ATC. Things got fairly hectic...very fast. Upon approach I was getting ready to announce my position and intent when a foreign helicopter student pilot chimed in and announced his position and intent for touch and go's. Apparently ATC believed him to be on the wrong frequency and instructed him to changed over to Space Coast tower in Titusville. He came back that he was indeed wanting to land at Melbourne, but there was a bit of hesitation in getting his request across and the language barrier did not help matters. When you watch the video you will understand when I say he did not make any new friends with ATC that day. You will hear a second pilot of similar country origin who it seems that they mistake for the first person, and he is promptly given the same treatment. It is extremely busy for ATC and I definitely can understand the importance of pilots being accurate and to the point....for safety purposes. A good lesson learned today.
-Greg
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Student Pilot Journal Podcast #6 Dec 25, 2007

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For this lesson we worked on more landings and I was introduced to ground reference maneuvers, in particular, the rectangular course and s-turns. Once again, I was getting lost from above and had trouble identifying the rectangular course that Casey was pointing out, which made things difficult. S-Turns went well, though. On left downwind to runway 14 from the practice area, I made an early turn to base for some unknown reason which put me about 300 feet higher on base than I should have been and very close to final, so when I made my turn to final I was still high so Casey had me do a forward slip, which proved to be rather horrible..... Needless to say I had to abort that landing and do a go around. On the landing that followed I hit pretty hard and the camera move down toward the baggage area so that ruined the rest of the video. Things happen that way sometimes.
-Greg
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Student Pilot Journal Podcast #5 Dec 22, 2007

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Happy Holidays! We worked some more with the power off stalls and also introduced steep turns, forward slips, and side slips. The slips were challenging for me...to say the least. Thanks again for Casey's patience. I am extremely fortunate to have picked a good instructor the first time. I can only wish the same experience for all of you.
-Greg
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Slow Downloads Dec 21, 2007

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It seems that some of us are experiencing slow downloads on the podcasts. I believe I have isolated the problem to my ISP at home (Bright House). Unfortunately, my tiny podcast is nothing to them understandably and they see so issues...naturally. I am able to download my podcasts faster on my laptop cellular broadband card than I can through Bright House and other family members throughout the state of Florida download it at 400 to 500 KB/s. I do apologize for this and I hope that they can resolve the issue they think they do not have....soon. :-)
-Greg

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