The weather in Ottawa is frustrating. Seriously, there have probably only been about ten days of good weather in the last six weeks, and I haven't had a flight booked on any of them!

About once a week, I head out to the airport in the middle of the afternoon for my second solo cross-country, only to hang around a bit, then decide I can't go. Today, that happened, but I wrote a practice exam since I was there anyhow. The exam was to see if I am ready to write the real Transport Canada exam that I have to pass to get my license. I'll find out in a couple of days what I got.

To get my Private Pilot's License, I still need to:

• Write the Transport Canada exam
• Fly (and pass) a flight test
• Fly a second solo cross-country to Cornwall, Brockville, and back to Ottawa

By the way, my last post got sorted in the wrong order, so you will find it below the one after this.

A diversion is an "event involving the diversion of the aircraft from the assigned or planned for location or destination." If weather is the cause, then the ceiling would be quite low, possibly around 1,000' above the ground. This also means that I would be flying even lower. Then, while circling a small town or other landmark, I would have to calculate the new heading, compensate for the wind, and estimate a time of arrival. Since I am flying low level, I must do all this in my head, while trying my best not to hit anything!

On this flight, Unal made me divert from Arnprior to Pakenham, then from Pakenham to Constance Lake. The first one wasn't bad, but on the second one, I got off course pretty quickly, and unfortunately Unal had to help me find a better direction.

Anyways, my next flight will be with a check instructor to demonstrate that I can do diversions (obviously an important skill on a cross-country), then go for my solo cross-country to Kingston and Carp.

Do you want to hear the good news or the bad news first? Good? Okay, I flew my solo cross-country flight today. It couldn't have gone better; I left just a little late, but had no trouble navigating to Kingston. I landed there, refuelled, and got my logbook stamped so I could prove I got there. Twenty minutes later, I started the engine again, and left towards Carp. The wind, which had been against me on the way down, was now making me burn along at 110 knots (127 mph, or 203 kph!). Carp showed up pretty quickly, and I landed to get another stamp. Then one more short hop back to Ottawa, and it was over.

Bad news? The Kingston I flew to wasn't in Jamaica...yet.

-- Update --

I obviously have some work to do here, since this isn't showing up above the "Diversions" entry. :( I'll work on it.

This post will do a few things. First off, I got the pictures of my first solo off the club's camera, so I have updated the first solo post (on April 3, 2008). Secondly, I have done everything I had listed in my last post, namely:

1. Flight test - everything was great, we flew to Carp and did one crosswind touch and go, not perfect, but acceptable. Then shortly after takeoff, around 800 feet above the ground, the check pilot pulled my power and told me to do a forced landing. Now believe me when I say I've done forced landings a dozen times, but always with enough altitude to do all the steps. In this case, I had to cut the procedure down to simply flying the right speed and lining up with a grass field. After we had added power and begun to climb, he confirmed that I had chosen the right steps, and not wasted time with non-essential things. Phew! We also did some steep turns and other random stuff. I passed, and was told I could go solo to the practice area.
2. The two hours in the practice area went well, and actually turned into 2.4 hours. I was allowed to do a fair bit, including power-on and -off stalls.
3. The flight with Unal went okay, and so I started to do another two hours in the practice area.
4. I did these two hours on the same day. Tons of stalls, steep turns, and forward slips, and before I knew it, I was done.
5. This is where I am now. After two false starts over the last two days, I got my dual short cross country done today, in spite of high winds. Unal and I flew to Smiths Falls and then to Carp before returning to Ottawa. Total time was about 1.5 hours. In addition, I flew an hour of instrument time today, which means flying in poor visibility. It is simulated by me wearing strange looking goggles that allow me to see the instrument panel, but not outside. Read: 100% guaranteed way to feel queasy after a flight!
6. Next? Here's what's coming up:
1. Dual long cross country - Ottawa, Kingston, Carp, Ottawa
2. Solo cross countries (5 hours)
3. Some instrument flying
4. Some flight simulator time (yes, they still charge you for it!)

Lastly, I have gotten a full time summer job with a consulting firm...more later!

Sorry to everybody who's come here lately and not found any new posts. The reason is mostly studying for final exams at Carleton. :) Anyways, the exams are all done (they weren't too bad), and here I am...

1. As you can see, I made a couple of progress bars to show how much flight time I have. Just keep in mind that the 40 hours for the private license and the 200 for the commercial are minimums.
2. I have flown 7 times since my last post - 6 dual, 1 solo.
3. Here's the game plan for the next while:
   1. I fly with a check pilot tomorrow who will clear me to go solo to the practice area in addition to simple circuits
   2. I fly two hours of solo in the practive area
   3. Unal flies one flight with me to make sure I am doing all right
   4. I fly another two hours
   5. I begin studying navigation

Just a quick note to say that I flew a bit of dual and 1.1 hours of solo this morning. 8 knot crosswind, but nothing really happened. I only have another 0.6 hours of solo before the next stage.

Today was a lot of fun. The flight in the morning was cut short by a suspicious noise in the plane, so we landed. We would be out of time if we got another plane ready to go, so we arranged to fly again at 5:00.

I had an afternoon so use up, so I drove to Smiths Falls airport (CYSH), and was SO lucky - I got to see an aerobatic biplane fly! He did a bunch of really awesome flying, including staying inverted 15 feet above the runway the entire length of the airport! I did take some pictures and movies, but they don't really look that good, so I won't post them.

When I got back, the wind had picked up to almost 15 knots. Unal went along with me for the first couple dual circuits, then I did 1.1 hours of solo. I took a few pictures simply by pointing out the window, and hoping to get lucky. Here's a couple of the better ones:

	View	Large-res
	View	Large-res
	View	Large-res
	View	Large-res
	View	Large-res

At this point, I have to build up 4 hours of solo (shouldn't take too long). At the start of each flight, I have to fly a couple dual circuits, then I go up for an hour of solo. That's what I did today - except the dual ended up taking 0.9 hours. I guess that's okay, too, since I was able to fly 0.9 by myself as well.

Finally! I went up solo today!

Unal and I spent an hour doing circuits, preparing me for the check flight at 9:30. After that flight, we went inside and met the check pilot, Derrick. Derrick and I flew a few circuits so I could show that I was ready to go solo. I was taken by suprise when he acted like a regular instructor, putting spins on what I had to do. For example, usually I only use the flaps if I am high, but Derrick got me to set up my approach to that I needed 20 or 40 degrees of flaps. Believe me, that takes good estimating skills!

Anyways, I must have done well because he notified the Tower that the next flight was a first solo. I dropped him off at the flying club, then went up for a single circuit. The flight was great, although it was definitely bumpier without the extra weight.

Now there's a tradition that a student who has just flown their first solo gets wet somehow, whether they get thrown into a stream, have buckets of water thrown at them, or simply get sprayed with a gerden hose. When I flew my true first solo in 2006, I was thrown into a stream. Today, I didn't know if I should expect a watery welcome, since it technically wasn't my first solo. But when I got out of the plane after shutting it down, I noticed three pilots on the roof of the flying club, and guessed they had pails of water. Sure enough, Unal grabbed my coat and headset from me just before I walked under them, and I literally got soaked! I opened the door of the club, and ran inside, thinking I was done with getting wet. Another instructor was waiting for me inside, too, and threw another bucket of water at me! So the lesson here is: Never fly your first solo before the morning before a history class!

There are two pictures of me after I landed, but they are on Unal's camera, so I'll post them when I get them.

---Update---

	View	Large-res
	View	Large-res

I just got home from a amazing flight. The weather was reasonable - the sky was clear, which on one hand is good, but on the other bad because the air becomes turbulent below 1,500 feet. The winds were 12 knots from the north, so I had to compensate for a slight crosswind.

Lots of cool things happened, so I'll try not to miss anything! First of all, the plane we were given was not exactly perfect...there was a minor inconvenience with how the radio worked, as well as a shimmy in the landing gear. Then, when we were requesting clearance to taxi to the runway, the Tower told us that they were short staffed, so we would not be able to do circuits. We were welcome to depart the airport, however, so we chose to fly to Carp Airport, 14 nm (27 km) from Ottawa International.

The flight to Carp was typical, and when we were getting close, we discovered there was no traffic already doing circuits - so far so good. After our first landing, a plane joined the circuit, and then another. Before we knew it, there were four planes all in the circuit!

Even though that's a fair number, it would've been safe if everybody used their radios freely. Somebody, however, decided that they were going to skip the circuit and fly straight in, not warning us that they would cross our path. Fortunately, they saw us at the last minute and warned us, so we were able to climb quickly and avoid them. We overshot and headed back to Ottawa!

The flight was 1.1 hours in total. So far, I have recorded 12.5 hours in my logbook since January - almost depressing, but fairly good considering that it is winter, and also that I have been fitting flying in between classes at Carleton. My next flight is Wednesday.

I'm re-posting this, since I had the wrong date.

Since the last flight was not really useful in refreshing my skills, we flew a few circuits today. Not much happened, except that the hospital helicopter flew by in front of us at the same altitude. Unal called my last landing "beautiful", because even though I made a small mistake during the flare, I knew how to correct it, and was able to stop the plane from literally dropping a few feet onto the runway! :P

I have another flight under my belt now. When I went to the flying club today, the winds were 20 knots gusting 30. Unal asked me if I wanted to go up, and I said absolutely. We were directed to runway 32, which is the 10,000' one, which meant that we had to taxi all the way to the main apron, and follow WestJet planes.

The flight was indeed bumpy - sometimes one wing dropped 60 degrees, and the wind blew us off course constantly. One other thing happened as I was approaching the runway for the last time today. An F-18 took off runway 32, and the instant he was clear of the runway, put the plane into a vertical climb. At the time, we were flying at 1,500', but the jet must have been higher than us within 2-3 seconds. The invisible column of turbulent air he left was blown by the strong wind all the way down the runway towards the point I was going to touch down. Sure enough, out of nowhere, my plane dropped like a rock, and a wing dropped. It reminded me of flying a glider, and going through turbulence!

I realize it must be hard to visualize what I mean when I talk about runway 32/22, and the circuit. To give an idea of what the airport looks like, here is a screenshot from Google Earth. You can see the flying club at the green dot. The normal circuit we fly from 22 is shown in red.

Also, here is a cleaned-up version of the CYOW (Ottawa International!) entry in the CFS (Canada Flight Supplement) which shows the numbers of the runways.

I just found my score for the pre-solo exam (the one I wrote on the 16th)! When I was talking to Unal on the phone this evening, he mentioned I had "two small errors" on the exam. Roughly, that converts to 95%!

The OFC (Ottawa Flying Club) pre-solo exam is not actually required by the government to get my license, but the flying club makes me write it before they trust me with their planes. The crazy thing is 12 pages long, something I didn't know until yesterday. There were 61 questions, with a total mark of 100. Most questions were , but most were multiple choice, but most were fill in the blank. A passing grade, fortunately, is 70%, a little lower than for the PSTAR.

I drove to the airport at 3pm, studied there a little bit more, and then wrote the exam. I didn't find it too bad, although there were a couple of places where I was supposed to fill out a list, and came up one answer short! Unal and I did a good job of preparing me for this exam, and I am confident I easily passed.

I have booked a plane for Tuesday afternoon for a flight with Unal. Afterwards, he should be able to recommend me for the flight test with an instructor named John.

I got my PSTAR results back yesterday! My grade is...92% (four incorrect answers). Sounds high, but don't forget that a passing grade is 90% :)

I reviewed the exam, and I am mostly sastisfied with the mark. One question, though, was a "silly" mistake. Here it is:

1. the sole responsibility of ATC.
2. the responsibility of the pilot, only when advised by ATC of the possibility of wake turbulence.
3. a responsibility shared by both the pilot and ATC [Air Traffic Control].
4. the sole responsibility of the pilot.

I have been told for years how to solve questions like this. Ultimately, everything is the pilot's responsibility. I used this fact to answer other questions on this exam, but for some reason got this one wrong (I chose C, but the answer was D).

The PSTAR is an exam that students must take before being allowed to solo. It is made up of 50 questions taken from a publicly viewable list of 200 questions. Given that, it is not suprising that the pass mark is 90%.

All week I've been studying for it by using a couple of websites that give answers to the questions, and scheduled today as the date I would write it.

Unfortunately, Unal got stuck in his laneway, so he wasn't at the Club, but I was able to write it anyway.

Just for the record, and for anybody reading this a few years down the road, the weather this weekend is and is going to be insane! This winter has already handed Ottawa 12 feet of snow accumulation, and it is only the start of March! The original forecast for this weekend was between 30 and 50 centimeters of snow, but has since been modified to around 40. The wind is crazy, too.

It seems to be taking forever to actually solo, but the end is in sight. I still need to write a short exam required by the Flying Club, and then go for a check flight with a special instructor, and demonstrate absolutely everything I have learned so far. The weather is the only block in the next week.

---Update---

The site I used for studying is at http://www.flyingstart.ca/FlightTraining/PSTAR/PSTARIndex.htm. It lists the 200 questions and their answers, as well as explanations.

Since I couldn't fly yesterday because of weather, Unal and I did an hour of circuits today. Mom stayed in the club where she could watch, and said she enjoyed it. I did 95% of the flight including radio, and did pretty well. I think we did five touch-and-gos, then one overshoot from full flaps, and then a full stop.

An interesting element to the flight was a flock of birds that stayed between 600 and 800 feet in the air, just past the end of the runway. We had to be careful not to hit one, or the plane would have been a mess. :D

Unal said I should write the two tests and the check flight required to go solo, since I don't have to learn anything more until after I solo.

That's it for today; more later. My next scheduled flight is on Wednesday the 5th. So far the weather looks terrible (90% chance of snow) for Wednesday, but that can change :)

So I flew a 1.8 hour flight with Unal today - completely the longest flight so far!

The weather was amazing, which was a good thing except for the fact that it made the sun really bright. The temperature was almost hot in the plane, even without a coat on.

We flew out to the practice area, where we practiced forced landings. Basically, we bring the engine down to a low power setting, and lower the flaps until the rate of descent simulates the rate of a descent with no engine at all. Then I have to do a ton of stuff really quickly, including

• Flying the plane
• Choosing a place to land
• Attempting to restart the engine
• Briefing the passenger
• Sending a Mayday
• Shutting down the engine
• Landing the plane safely

And all this in the time it takes to fall from (while practicing, 3500' AGL) altitude to 1000' AGL!

After two simulated forced approaches, we flew back to Ottawa over the Champlain Bridge. On final, the controller asked us if we would like to do some runway changes, and Unal accepted. We got to do touch-and-gos on every active runway at the Ottawa International, including runway 32, 10,000 foot long! For that one, we came down near the threshold, then put on a little bit of power and "floated" above the runway for close to 8,000 feet before doing a touch-and-go.

Another cool thing that happened on this flight was a jet that flew only about 1000' above us while we were in the circuit. It's speed made ours look like nothing.

Unal and I flew five or six circuits for one hour today. I had to do some of the radio calls, and had control of the plane the whole time. There was a 10 knot crosswind that made judging the circuit not perfectly easy with no real experience at this location/in this plane.

The circuit for runway 22 is: fly straight until around 750-800 feet, then turn towards Shirley's Bay. After flying 1 mile, we turn towards Mooney's Bay. This stretch is called the downwind, and is where I complete some quick checks of the plane, and contact the Tower, letting them know I intend to land. Over Mooney's Bay, we turn perpendicular to the runway, and begin our descent. After that, we simply have to turn to line up with the runway, recieve landing clearance, and land.

Since we were doing touch-and-gos, as soon as the plane touches down, we add full power and take off again.

I had trouble concentrating for some reason, and consistently flew too fast on the base and final legs of the circuit. I am supposed to fly 70 knots, but I stayed around 75. The last time around, I finally flew a better approach, though.

Also, because of the crosswind, I got some practice in crosswind landings - crabbing until short final (almost ready to land), then side-slipping almost onto the runway, and finally landing with the into-wind wing low. Overall, a great flight!

A spiral dive is essentially a automatically tightening downward turn. The wings are still producing lift, but since the aircraft is banked at least 60 degrees, the lift serves only to tighten the turn. The G-forces increase rapidly, as does the airspeed, meaning that recovery must be completed by the time the airspeed reaches V_NE.

Unal demonstrated the first one, going to the left (my side). I didn't feel great afterwards, but knowing what to expect helped me when I had to do one.

The slips part of the lesson was short; in fact, the only slipping I did was on final. Learning slips in a glider helped me a lot, since I knew how the attitude the plane should be held in.

Unal wrote in my PTR "circuits next."

Just a quick one this time... Unal and I flew the ground briefing from yesterday - spins and stalls. We did three spins, then a couple power-on stalls. They are so cool, but not quite as cool as in a glider. The G forces during recovery are still rather strong, though.

I asked Unal to take a quick picture of me in the cockpit after we landed:

I think the next lesson will be spiral dives!!! I can't wait!

This flight is taught since the flight characteristics I learn in it are the symptoms of dangerous things such as stalls and spins.

Slow flight is, for the Cessna 150, the airspeed range between flight for endurance speed and the stall speed, and is the entry to a stalled condition.

To get into it, the nose is raised as the RPM is lowered, maintaining altitude. At around 55 knots, the plane is in slow flight, and has a nose-high attitude. Air flow around the engine is reduced, though, so we can't fly slow flight for very long. Unal got me to practise some turns in slow flight, and it was amazing how small the turning radius was.

Unal then demonstrated power-on as well as power-off stalls, and then got me to do a couple. I think I did pretty well, except for one recovery. I had stalled the plane, the left wing had dropped, and I put in right rudder to correct the wing drop. What I did wrong, though, was to increase power before reaching a safe speed, causing the plane to violently stall to the right. Fortunately, Unal caught the problem, recovered, and made me try again!

Yesterday I realized I hadn't flown in a week, and that today would be a good day for flying, so I went online and booked Allison since Unal was not available.

We did a ground briefing so I could learn the math and stuff behind range and endurance, as well as how to use the POH (Pilot's Operating Handbook) to help plan a flight. After that, we went up to actually fly those numbers...

I booked Unal for a flight today. He seems really good, so I think I'll stick with him.

He showed me how to do a walkaround for a 150, and then we went for a flight to the practice area (roughly between Constance Lake and Constance Bay) and practised everything we had gone over on the ground. Straight and level flight, climbing/descending, and climbing/descending turns were the main parts of the lesson. The flight lasted 1.3 hours. The only thing I regret was not having gloves; it was COLD during the walkaround! Fortunately this plane had heat.

Unal said overall I did well, but that I had to look outside more, rather than at the gauges.

My first ground briefing was with Wayne today. We discussed my experience, and then began attitudes and movements, straight and level flight, and medium turns.

I am excited to actually start working on my license, and I'm looking forward to my first flight!

Although this isn't really recent, it is a related milestone, so it's in here. This was the day I flew solo for the first time. It was about 2/3 through the Glider Pilot Scholarship course in Debert, Nova Scotia. I was flying a Schwiezer 233-A cadet glider and went to 2,000 AGL to practice medium turns.