This is my final night in Oklahoma after being a temporary resident for the past 4+ months. Tomorrow morning (probably not as early as I left Atlanta) I will head east again, although I will only make a little more than half the journey that I made to come out here. Friday morning I will get up bright and early to report for my first day of work at the Memphis Air Route Traffic Control Center.

My last few days at the Academy were very laid back. For once, everyone was running radar problems very relaxed and most of the talk revolved around home or for those of us moving, what our plans were to try to return to somewhat of a normal existence again. I'll actually be somewhat homeless, I'll be sleeping on an air mattress at Mitch's condo until my wife and I can move into the house that we hope to rent a week after I arrive.

I've got a whole host of pictures and stories to tell about my last month at the Academy, I kept meaning to post them but got distracted with everything leading up to the PV. Hopefully training at the Center won't have me so occupied that I can't find a few spare minutes to fill in some of the gaps on my blog.

Though I still officially have eight more days of class, the final hurdle of training at the Academy is over. This past Friday, I passed my en route PV (Performance Verification), the final practical test that determines if you proceed on to your facility. To say that I am relieved is an understatement. This has probably been the first weekend in about a month where I have actually been able to relax and not think about my career being on the line based on a single test.

To top things off, everyone in my class passed. We had one classmate fail his first run, but did his practice runs and retake throughout the other runs and passed. I suspect after he calmed down a bit more he was able to run a solid problem.

Generally, the PV is not a difficult problem. It is CHALLENGING, but anyone who has pushed themselves to do the best that they can should not have a problem with it. Compared to the problems we ran from about 30 onward, the PV was slow. Perhaps the biggest obstacle was shaking off the nerves and trying to relax as much as possible. I'll admit that I was still a bit tense, but not so much so that it kept me from keeping my head in the game.

Here's a brief rundown for any current or prospective ATC students, or anyone who is just wanting a glimpse into ATC training.

About 5 minutes before the problem starts, the evaluators come out to meet with the student they will be evaluating for the problem. Mine was Dave Blackwell, a front line supervisor at Memphis Center (Jan 2011 note: I got my first over the shoulder as a certified D-side from Dave last month, he now does most of the ongoing performance reviews controllers receive on a yearly basis). He gave me a brief run-down on his expectations and wished me luck before leading me into the lab.

Has it really been two months?

Last week marked my second month in OKC. It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in a room in the security office with everyone I'd be spending the next 4 months with chatting about where we'd come from, why we were doing this and what facilities we're headed to. Today I'm staring at a pile of flight strips covered with markings that would have seemed bizarre to me that first day.

This picture is actually one of the smaller piles. If I bothered to count them, I probably have a few hundred of these laying around my apartment today.



In my time here, I've made some good friends, and met an even larger number of people. I've got two guys in my class both going to Memphis Center, Kendrick and Mitch. Mitch was originally born in southern Georgia, but has moved all over the country with his family and the military and was living in Idaho before coming here. Kendrick originally hails from Chicago and had moved down to Memphis last year. Both are really good guys and I think both of them will do well in ATC.

Regrettably, we also lost our first classmate last week, who resigned the day we were to start non-radar labs. To most of us, it was a bit of a surprise, as he had been rather silent about some of the mental struggles he had been having trying to decide if this was what he wanted to do as a career. I wish he had stuck with it for a little while longer, as he seemed to have the aptitude to learn the job. However, this is one career that you've definately got to have your heart into as well, or it will just eat you alive. Even in the short period of time I've been in non-radar, this has become very evident. In any event, I wish him well in whatever endeavor he chooses to pursue.

My impressions of the Academy have overall been positive. Basics, like I had been told, was largely a review for a pilot such as myself. Some did struggle a bit at first, but I think most of it was probably people having to shift back into an academic mode. Everyone ended up passing the final and our class average was around 96-97% if I recall correctly.

After basics, we got to spend a day and a half at CAMI (Civil Aero Medical Institute, these are the folks who process pilot's medicals) which is just a few buildings down from where we were at, taking various personality tests and a couple of the sections of the AT-SAT again. We were told that these tests would be used to tweak the AT-SAT and their selection criteria for the psychological exam that is part of the employment screening process. As we were told our first day there, most people working ATC are a bit "off". Evidently they had been rejecting a higher than normal number of applicants when they started using a new type of psych test a few years back, only to find out that students currently at the academy and controllers in the field pretty much tested out very much the same.

En Route training has had its ups and downs so far. Academics has not been that difficult, the rules used in non radar are not too hard to grasp conceptually, but actually applying them is where the true challenge has been. Some problems in the lab go well, others you just get your butt kicked. For me, my biggest challenge has been containing my frustration about my performance when something is pointed out to me and all of a sudden becomes oh-so obvious. Trying to take 20-30 strips of paper and trying to maintain an image in your mind of what is happening over and around a particular fix is a daunting task and I don't think there is anyone who makes it through there without having their ego and confidence bruised at least a couple of times. I think success in this program is largely determined how well you overcome that adversity and just press on.

This post started off as "A Week in OKC" but I got put on night shift a few days after I started that post and haven't done much more than go to class and sleep since.

Anyway, here's a summary of the festivities...

I got here on the 16th around noon, after a rather gloomy drive over here. It rained overnight while I was in Little Rock, enough so that the thunder and lightning actually woke me up early that morning. It remained cloudy for most of the day between there and OKC. I found my way to my apartment with no problem, unpacked most of my stuff, and gave my brother a call who is staying in nearby Muskogee, OK. He shows up about 5 hours later after he gets done with work and we go out and enjoy some wings and beer, and try to catch up on things. I hadn't seen him since Christmas so it was a nice visit. He spent the night here, Sunday morning we grab some grub at a local Waffle House and then go tour the Oklahoma City Memorial. Once I figure out how to get my pictures off of my iPhone without wiping them out (hey Apple, ever thought of allowing people to drag and drop off of this thing!?! I've already had one synch wipe out most of the apps I had installed on here!) I'll post the ones I took.

First day at the Academy everyone starts out all hyped up and excited, and leaves a little underwhelmed. Not that everyone isn't still excited about the job, but in summary it is just a day of filling out more forms and then getting the same speeches about benefts and workplace behavior that you get almost anywhere you work these days. Oh, and you get told not to look at pornography on the government computers about a dozen times by just about everyone who walks into the room.

I'm not going to give a day by day run-down on Basics because it would be pretty pointless. In short, it is how the FAA crams all of the aviation terminology and concepts down everyone's throat in 5 weeks that someone is likely to encounter in ATC. As a pilot, almost all of this is nothing I haven't been exposed to or tested on before. In fact, some of the test questions were almost taken verbatim from the instrument written test. My only real gripe about it is that they spend far too much time on certain subjects, like airport markings and lighting. For example, they spent almost 4 hours on that subject, when a private pilot ground school may take up about an hour to cover the same subject. I realize that this is new material for most in these classes, but they could shrink some of this stuff down as to not bore everyone to death in the meantime.

Socially, the guys/gals I'm in class with have been a good bunch to hang out with and have made my time here significantly more bearable. Though most of our time has been spent together in study sessions or just BSing after class, we've found some down time to go enjoy some good BBQ, catch a movie (Star Trek was awesome), or enjoy a late night breakfast at Waffle House after class. Mitch, Kevin, Hsaing (pronounced "shang"), and occasionally Matt and Keef have been my partners in crime for study sessions or just to hang out. I'm trying to interact with some of the other folks a bit more, but with them all living about 20 minutes NW of here, it limits our ability to just pick up the phone and walk over there on a moment's notice.

Gotta run to the store now and pick up some stuff before class...night classes are just soo much fun!

So my journey to the FAA academy has begun. I made it out to Little Rock today, and tomorrow I will drive the last ~340 miles to my home away from home for four months.

I woke up at 5am today, tossed the last few things in the car (laptop and camera) and kissed my wife goodbye and was out the door by 5:30. I said a short prayer, then wished Georgia goodbye for at least the next 4 months, assuming the house doesn't sell while I'm away.

There was a little more traffic than I was expecting getting to I-20, but nowhere near what it would be like in another couple of hours. As light as traffic was, I was able to do 75-80 mph just about the entire way to Leeds, AL, where I stopped for a Chick-Fil-A biscuit (yummy!) Because of the time change, the time on the clock there was a scant 45 minutes after I left (6:10am CDT) but in fact I had been driving for about an hour and a half at that point.

Birmingham came and went, and before I knew it, I was in Mississippi. I fueled up just east of Tupelo, then took a reprieve from interstate driving to do a little railfanning. This has been another one of my hobbies for the last 8 years or so, although I have become a bit disolusioned with the Class 1 (classification for our country's largest railroads) operations, and specifically seeked out two smaller shortlines, the Mississippi Tennesee Railroad and the Mississippi Central. This actually worked out well, because had I just driven on to Memphis, I would have probably have gotten there at close to 10 local time. When I got to Memphis, I ran into a traffic jam, caused by, ironically enough, a 18 wheeler hauling railroad car axles. The first few had not been secured very well and had shifted, striking the rear of the cab and one ended up in the middle of the road. To avoid the traffic, I took a small detour that took me by Memphis Center, where I will be after I finish the academy.

So I ended up at my intermediate destination, Jim Neely's Interstate Barbeque right around noon, and sat down to a plate of delicious chopped pork. I think I am still full from that lunch, nearly 9 hours later!

My original plan was to stay the night in Memphis, but it was only about 1 pm local time, and I was still in the mood to drive, so I decided to head to Little Rock, AR to help shorten tomorrow's drive. While Arkansas is every bit as flat as I thought it was (I only encountered one real hill in 120 miles) it isn't as bleak as I had envisioned it. What was neat were watching the crop dusters in full force! I saw no fewer than 4 Air Tractors and Thrush aerial applicators (as they are properly called) swooping around applying fertilizers and pesticides to the numerous farms alongside I-40. I caught one taking off from Carlisle Municipal, about 25 miles to the east of here, and making a quick turn to the left, swooping over the interstate maybe a scant 50' above my car. Pretty neat!

Well, that's today's trip...let's see what the rest of the drive is like tomorrow.

This past Friday marked my last day at Eclipsys, I had worked there for just shy of two years, after being laid off from two jobs within the span of 8 months. It was nice to be steadily employed and to work with some pretty good folks, but I'm glad I'm finished there.

This time next week, I'll be in Oklahoma City, just a few hours away from starting my job with the FAA.

Fortunately, I was able to catch it before I drove 700 miles to find out about it.

I *thought* I was supposed to start the FAA Academy this upcoming Friday (May 8th). My offer letter had that date on it, and that was the date given to me verbally before I had my firm offer letter.

I had been waiting and waiting for the welcome package they send to all Academy students a couple of weeks before you get there. It has important information, oh like, when and where you're supposed to show up on your first day. Last Tuesday (the day before my last day at my current job!), I called up the lady who is responsible for sending these out, only to find out that she doesn't have me down for that date. Yikes! Never fear, she did say she remembered seeing my name on something and told me to sit tight while she got in contact with my HR rep to see what was going on.

A couple of hours later, I get a call back from my HR rep. She proceeds to tell me that there had been an error on my offer letter (I didn't mention the verbal confirmation I got back in January) and that I was supposed to start on May 18th and not the 8th. Well....that made things a little more interesting. That following day (April 29th) was supposed to be my final day at work. So after making a rather awkward phone call to my boss, here I am at work for another week.

At least this gives me another week and a half to relax at home, spend some time with family, and maybe even get in one more flight before I leave for OKC.

ME!!!!

After 7 years, I have finally accomplished my goal of adding my instrument rating to my private pilot's license.

The oral examination was relaxed and with a couple of exceptions, I breezed right through it. No real surprises, he kept the questions relevant to the airplane I flew and the type of flying I expected to do. So I wasn't getting questions about airspeed restrictions or equipment requirements for an airplane flying in the flight levels.

After the pre-flight and run-up, Don gave me a simulated clearance (at VFR altitudes, of course) to the Knoxville Airport (KTYS). He gave me step up and step down altitudes until I called up Knoxville Approach. Listening to their ATIS, we discovered that rwy 23R was closed, which is the only runway that has an ILS there. Forutnately the tower was willing to accomodate us to get the approach out of the way. At this point, I was already a little rattled because I'm not used to doing much mountain flying and I was doing everything I could to stay on course and at assigned altitude crossing the SW corner of the Smokies to get to Knoxville. Then, Approach gave me a rather late altitude reduction that made me scramble to intercept the glide slope. Because it took me a little while to pick it up, I thought I had busted, but Don kept silent, I flew the approach down to 500' AGL(because of the equipment on the runway) and went missed.

Next, was the partial panel approach. In training, I didn't have much problem with these, and after a couple of vectors, I re-learned how much I needed to lead or lag the compass in that airplane to come out on reasonably accurate headings. I would reference my handheld GPS and the 430W in the panel to cross check. Trying to fly purely by a magnetic compass, even in smooth air, is a chore. With some of the bumps I was getting, it made for a lot of head bobbing trying to keep on course. This one also had a change of course when crossing the VOR, which was another thing you had to keep in mind. Not awfully difficult, but it could get you if you aren't paying attention. I flew it down to MDA with about 3 miles to go to the runway, and at the VDP, Don had me look up and do a touch and go.

Finally, Don had me go direct back to Andrews-Murphy, then told me to go ahead and get set up to fly the GPS approach into the airport. While in-route, he put me through some unusual attitudes, a moderate spiral and a steep climbing turn. I quickly interpreted my instruments and righted the airplane with no problem. Back on course, I flew to the IAF for the approach, did the required hold (with 4nm legs, I thought it would never end) and turned back inbound just as the needle centered. I bet that will never happen again!! After the first step down the published minimums are only 80ft lower, so to keep from busting the MDA, you don't descend much lower until you're confident you're within sight distance of the airport. At about 3 miles out, Don called airport in sight, I looked up, circled around to Rwy 26 and put it down.

When we stopped, I thought I had busted that ILS approach and was pretty much expecting him to tell me I'd have to come back and shoot another one. I followed him up to his office, and on the way, he said, "When we sit down, I'll need your driver's license and current pilot's certificate." I was floored...I passed!! He did ask me what I thought, first thing I mentioned was the ILS. He did say that he gave me some leeway because I was trying to comply with ATC and they did not give me a descent early enough to properly intercept the glide slope. We both agreed that if it came down to it again, it probably would have been best just to have broken off the approach and asked to shoot another approach.

After grabbing a quick lunch in Andrews, I filed my first IFR flight plan as pilot in command. I filed HRS, direct RYY, but ended up getting HRS, V463, V222, LOGEN, which took me out on the east side of Atlanta. All in all, it added about 20 miles to the flight. As forecasted, some storms were starting to build to the west, so this routing actually did help keep me clear of some of those storms. It still didn't keep me clear of the bumps and drafts from the developing clouds, so it wasn't quite the leisurely flight back home I was hoping for. Top that off with Atlanta Center having problems properly receiving my Mode C (they were showing me being 400' higher than I was, I compared alitmeter setting with them and it was OK, Atlanta Approach said it was spot on) I was busy for the first half of the flight.

Once I was on the ground, Andy came out and congratulated me, and we exchanged a farewell, since this also marked what is my last flight with Superior. I then headed over to the tower to get my flight progress strip from my first flight on an IFR flight plan as PIC.



From top left: (1st column)Tail #, Aircraft type and equipment, Computer ID, (2nd Column) Transponder Code, First Fix on route, Last Fix on route, (3rd column) Time handed off to tower, (4th Column) Type of flight, destination, (blocks to far right, left to right), estimated time of arrival, runway used, actual time of arrival (in minutes past the hour, 31), FS = full stop landing.

So with some sadness, this will mark the beginning of another hiatus from flying. Two weeks from today I will be in Oklahoma City, preparing for my first day at the FAA Academy. I was hoping to do a little flying out there, but unfortunately I couldn't find anyone renting airplanes at a reasonable cost. Short of finding someone to split the cost of the airplane with, it just isn't going to happen. When I start my career at Memphis Center, I will likely be too engrossed with training (not to mention the inital cut in pay) to get any flying in. In the end, I feel blessed to have been able to enjoy taking to the skies again, even if just for another few months. Let's hope this next hiatus doesn't last 6 years as well.

To the readers, keep coming back, I will soon start chronicalling my progression through the ranks of air traffic control.

After two weeks of trying in vain to contact the DE (designated examiner) based at Cobb County, I finally had to go to plan B to schedule my instrument checkride. So on Monday, I scheduled my exam with Don Jones at Andrews-Murphy on the 20th of this month.

Last night, I met with Larry Hutchison, the AGI at Superior. He had sat in on one of Don Jones's instrument checkrides last November and based this lesson/review on those notes. Basically, if I did well tonight, I should have no surprises on the oral exam. One thing he did emphazize is that Don liked to ask questions that stressed application and decision making and not just providing the "right answer". Personally, I prefer questions like that because it involves less tedious memorization but rather allows you to take concepts and explain why you would do something that way. In that way, it makes it more evident that I've actually absorbed the information rather than just learning a bunch of information to pass a test. Overall, Hutch thought I did a good job, but gave me a few items to brush up on, specifically some more detail into some of the regulations (I'd start answering something and leave off an item or two) and weather products, specifically Airmets and Sigmets.

So I've got all of my endorsements in my log book, and all of my paperwork is filled out. All that remains now is to fly to North Carolina and take the test!

Until I leave for Oklahoma City to start training for my new career as an air traffic controller. It will have been about a year and a week since I applied for the job until my first day of training.

My blog will be making a short term transition from my flying experiences to one as an ATC trainee as I progress through the Academy and later at my facility, the Memphis ARTCC. As much as I hate giving up flying (again) the move and initial pay cut I will be taking will require that I put it on hold again for a short period of time. I'm hoping that maybe by summer of 2010 I'll have the time and money to rent an airplane at one of the airports around Memphis.

Stay tuned!

One of these days, I'll actually get around to updating my blog on a regular basis. Until then, I'll probably continue the same pattern of going a month or two without writing a thing, then playing catch-up.

On March 9th, I went up for my stage check flight with Bob Kitner, the Chief Pilot at Superior and one of the co-owners of the place. Pretty nice guy and a fellow ham radio operator. Overall, the flight went well, though I was admonished about my cockpit organization and approach briefing. Said my flying was fine and commented that I always seemed to be on top of the instruments at all times. He had me do a couple of steep turns under the hood, which I hadn't done since I don't know when. They're not on the PTS any longer, so Andy hasn't had me practice any, but his whole purpose for doing that was to get an idea on how someone's instrument scan was. Because of the increased rate of turn and the usual increased amount of elevator needed to maintain altitude, it really does make sure you're cross-checking your instruments quickly and understanding what they're telling you.

Next came some unusual attitude recovery. Instead of the usual routine of closing your eyes and having the instructor put the airplane into a steeply banked climb or descent, he had me trim for straight and level, then close my eyes and try to keep the airplane flying straight by feel alone. First time I made it about two minutes, by the time I opened my eyes, I was still within about 50' of my original altitude and the wings were level, but I had managed to turn a full 90 degrees to the right. Since I didn't quite "lose it" that time, he had me do it again. This time, after about a minute and a half, I noticed the engine speed pick up a tad, a sign that I was descending. A little bit later, it *felt* like I was turning right, so I added what I thought was a small amount of left aileron to counteract. Bob lets this go on for about another 10-15 seconds, then has me open my eyes. Quick look at the attitude indicator confirms that I'm in a left spiral (not too tight) about 20 degrees nose down and banked over about 45 degrees to the left. Wow. That's why it is vital to trust those instruments and not your own feelings. This is the classic scenario that leads to the graveyard spiral that has taken the lives of quite a few pilots.

After that, he had me fly a a holding pattern, which doubled as the course reversal for the ILS approach into Rome. That was the approach I didn't brief well. I was well within standards as far as flying the airplane was concerned, but I fumbled around with the GPS, didn't check the weather and didn't make the necessary radio calls. Lesson learned on the next two approaches that went well, although I did miss picking up the airport doing the VOR/DME-A into Cartersville, which involves a very steep descent on the final approach leg to circle-to-land. I mistook some headlights on the other side of the airport for the road that paralells the airport to the west. I quickly noted that I was just on the other side of the MAP and went missed. So even though I didn't pick up the airport, I did recognize the problem quickly and took the correct action. One more GPS approach back into McCollum and the flight was done for the day.

The weekend after that flight the school was supposed to have a poker run and cookout, but the weather didn't cooperate so the poker run was scrubbed. Fortunately they still had the cookout, and over the course of the afternoon maybe 30-40 folks showed up for some chili dogs. Since my wife was at our niece's birthday party, I took the opportunity to take a tour of the tower there at McCollum. I ended up spending about two hours up there, just chatting with the guys about flying and ATC. It was nice to get to meet a couple of the guys I had been talking to the past few months. Unfortunately the weather and OTS ILS meant there were no departures or arrivals the whole time I was up there.

After another week and a half of bad weather, I was finally able to get another lesson scheduled with Andy (March 29th) to go over the items Bob had concerns about and to finish my checkout in the Tiger. Yes, with all the hours I had in that airplane, I still could not rent it solo. All of my hours, save the time I went up with Rick (who was checked out in it) were at night or IMC, neither of which was condusive to the manuvers needed to sign me off in the airplane. I thought I was going to get boinked by the weather again, as the winds that day were rather gusty, but were straight down the runway. Just as I was walking in the door at the school, someone else pulled up in the Tiger and told me that the wind didn't pose much of a problem, apart from the expected bumps.

Gusts and some small downdrafts made the takeoff a little more exciting than normal, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle. Made our way a few miles west and clear of the class D, and finally got those VFR steep turns and stalls out of the way. Like the Cherokees I have flown before, you really have to try to make that airplane stall. Even when it did, there was nothing more than a slight dip of the nose. Add the power back in, and bring the flaps back up as the airspeed comes up. A ILS at Paulding County, VOR/DME-A at Cartersville again (got the airport this time) and the localizer at Cobb Co (glide slope is still OTS!) and a good landing and the day was done. Andy said I did MUCH better than I had before on cockpit organization and was ahead of the airplane the whole time.

So we went and sat down at his desk, and he placed the call I've been waiting for for a few years, the one to the examiner for my instrument checkride. He said he'd do the final sign-off after a dry run a day or two ahead of my actual 'ride to make sure I was still good to go.

So that's where I sit today. I talked to Andy this past Friday and said he hadn't heard from the examiner yet, but he said he'd give him another call to see if he can get things set up with the guy at Cobb Co. If not, I'll have to go to plan B, which will be either going up with a guy at Andrews-Murphy or maybe I'll see if the DE that gave me my PPL is still around.

Today I took and passed (yes!!) my instrument written test. It took me about 1:15 to get it done and I scored an 88 on the test. I was fairly confident that I knew the material, but they always seem to put in a few questions on the test that make you question your confidence. So I was thrilled that I not only passed, but scored as well as I did.

I should back up a moment and mention that I took it today because of....the weather! Up until yesterday, the forecast was supposed to be clear skies all day on Saturday. I get up this morning and the visibility is 2-3 miles with fog and mist, ceilings are 600 overcast. What?!? Nobody saw that coming.

Andy had called me the night before and told me the stage check was off, the CFII I was supposed to fly with had gotten stuck down in Saint Simons on a charter flight. So he set me up with a safety pilot who had recently passed his instrument checkride to fly a few approaches with me today. I head up to the airport as planned just in case the weather breaks up early. An hour rolls by, and while things improve, it isn't looking much better. I decide at that point to go ahead and get the written test out of the way, until I realize I've left my logbook, with my endorsement, at home. So I go back and get it, do a few more practice tests, come back and take the test.

Talk about a transformation, as soon as I walked out the door from the test, I look out the window and the sky is almost completely clear. There are a few clouds hanging around, but the ramp looks like it is covered with a bunch of ants, everyone who had been sitting around waiting to fly that day was out pre-flighting aircraft or was already rolling to the runway. My safety pilot, Rick, had arrived in the meantime. After a quick introduction, we did an impromptu flight plan, I had been auditing my logbook and realized I needed some more cross country time, so I plugged in an airport I had never flown to before in the 430 and decided the destination for the day would be the Jackson County airport in Commerce, Ga, 19A. It just met the criteria for a cross-country flight, about 52nm away.

We got airborne, dodged a few clouds on the way up to the cruise altitude, and enjoyed the trip enroute. I decided against flying the entire trip under the hood, I had plenty of instrument time and just wanted to enjoy the scenery for once in a long while. It was decided that when it came time to fly the approaches that I would don the hood again. First approach would be the VOR/DME 34 at Jackson County. At first, I was going to fly the DME arc, but at 2nd glance, it would have required a VERY steep turn with short intermediate leg to get on the arc. I instead opted for the AHN VOR transition, which added a few extra miles but was the better choice. I kept the needle fairly well centered the whole time, came down to MDA, and viola, there was the airport. I circled around to 16 since the wind favored that runway and put it down without much fuss. There were about 7-8 guys sitting around the FBO there, all welcoming us there and offered us free snacks, not just the typical popcorn, but a whole table chock full of cookies, chips, candy bars, etc. I grabbed a pack of Oreos, expressed my mutual dissatisfaction with our current president (not capitalized intentionally), thanked them for their hospitality and got back in the air.

Next up was the ILS 25 at Gwinnett County, in Lawrenceville, GA. Just getting cleared for the approach proved to be the biggest obstacle. Generally it is a good idea to talk to approach on the north side of Atlanta before flying any practice approaches because of the volume of traffic into RYY, PDK, LZU, etc. It lets them coordinate with the tower and get you slotted into the arrivals and traffic in the patterns at each airport. They're just that busy sometimes and today was no exception. After tuning to Atlanta Approach, it took me about a minute to get a word in, then another 1-2 minutes to get a squawk code! Then I had to ident twice before I was ID'd on radar. If I had to guess, I say that controller was probably working at least 14-15 aircraft. I know I counted about 7-8 distinct callsigns, not including my own, on his frequency. I had positioned myself to quickly join the approach course when I finally got my appraoch clearance. With the rising temperatures today, plus the clearing skies, meant some unstable air, so I was bouncing around on the localizer and glide slope, but kept it wthin a dot left/right/up/down, and the runway was right were it should be at DH. I had to break off my approach on short final because the tower had cleared a Hawker Jet to depart, but he took his time taxiing out to the runway, and wasn't even rolling by the time I passed the missed point. I started my climb back out, advised the tower, who told me to excecute a turn to the south for traffic, then turn back to the course I was given for my missed approach.

My final approach of the day was the GPS 27 back into Cobb County again. I had the course nailed pretty much all the way in, but coming down the pseudo-slope (my new term for it) I kept getting some updrafts that, even though I had my power exactly where it needed to be and my speed pegged, cancelled out my descent rate. I normally don't get that far off the glide slope, but I was about half to two thirds deflection the last two miles, even though I had been forcing the nose over and re-trimming to keep it on its way down. All said, when I looked up, I was looking at 3 whites and a red on the PAPI and well centered with the runway, so it was more than passable and would have gotten me down safely.

All told, today got me another 2 hours cross country time and some valuable practice for my stage check on Monday. With any luck, in two weeks I'll have the checkride done and will be able to add "Instrument Rating" to my license.

After my cross country flight, I remarked to Andy that I'd like to get some actual in before my instrument checkride. God must have been listening too, because the day of my next flight, Feburary 14th (I took my wife out the night before!) it was solid overcast most of the day.

1568R was available again, having had its attitude indicator replaced a few days beforehand. I noted a discrepancy between the tach/hobbs time indicated and what was in the computer, evidently I was the first one to fly the airplane after the work. So I was going to get to be the guinea pig to see if the AI actually worked properly for more than a 5 minute check on the ramp. Yipee.

The plan was to fly to Centre, Alabama (C22) to fly the full VOR/DME arc to RWY 27, do the VOR or ILS into Rome, then come back and do the localizer or GPS into Cobb County. Of course, like most things in flying, what you plan to do and what actually happens usually diverge from each other. Observed weather at Cobb County at time of departure was 4 mile visibility and an overcast celiing at 600 feet and a 5-6kt wind from the northwest. Temps were high enough at all planned altitudes where icing shouldn't be of any concern.

I got my flight plan filed, pre-flighted the airplane, layed out my approach plates, called for my clearance, dialed my flight plan into the GPS, taxi'd down to 27, did the run-up, checked my instruments, and away we went. About a mile off the departure end of 27 I started poking my head into the cloud deck, and about 650' AGL, I went to zero/zero. For the first time in a long time, I was flying in actual instrument conditons. I knew flying in the clouds added some bumps to the situation, but I had forgotten how much it did. It wasn't too bad, but it required a little more vigalence on my part to keep the airplane pointed in the right direction and to maintain my assigned altitudes. I think a combination of that, and getting a little fixated on the attitude indicator, led me to being behind the airplane for the first half of the flight.

My first issue came up when we stated our intentions to Atlanta Approach. The controller got a little perturbed that I didn't file to the IAF for the first approach I wanted. Actually I started to, but then Andy said we could just request the approach in the air, since we were likely to get cleared straight to the airport as soon as we were airborne anyway, as C22 is just barely 50 miles away from Cobb County. So he goes and calls the center, and comes back to tell us to fly direct to the IAF for the VOR/DME arc, then hands me off to to center.

While all this is going on, I climb through 5000' or so, and break out of the cloud tops. It is an absolutely amazing and beautiful sight. Approach asks me what the weather is like up there, to which I reply, "It is clear as far as I can see, what clouds are above me are higher than I can climb to!", which gets a little chuckle from the controller.

When I called Atlanta Center, they threw a wrench into the entire plan for the day. Evidently I wasn't the only one who thought this would be a good day for some practice in IMC and there were no less than 3(!) aircraft shooting approaches into Rome and Cartersville. The traffic into Cartersville isn't the problem so much as the guy at Rome. All of the approaches into Rome use the Rome VOR for an IAF and/or missed approach hold, as does the approach I want to fly to C22. I ask for a hold to wait for the guy flying the ILS to Rome to get out of the way, but Center replies there's already one right on top of the VOR right behind the guy doing the ILS. So he can't (or won't) hold us there. Instead, he just tells us to fly direct to C22 and he'll turn us back towards the VOR when he can. So much for doing the DME arc. This goes on for about another 10 minutes, the 2nd guy goes missed at Rome and heads off to Cartersville to shoot another approach there. Luckily the 3rd airplane going into Cartersville had already cleared out of the way by the time all this was going on, otherwise it would have been a real zoo.

After all this, I finally get cleared back to the Rome VOR, and then cleared for the VOR/DME approach to C22. I start my descent to 4000', and since there's no charted procedure turn or hold-in-lieu, I fly over the VOR, give myself about 30 seconds, and do a standard rate turn to the left to intercept the inbound heading. Opposed to loading the approach in the GPS, Andy had me keep Rome VOR as my direct to waypoint so I'd have distance information and then fly the approach using the CDI tuned into the VOR. At the first intermediate fix, CAVIN, I start down to 2200', and a few minutes later the clouds start to break up. By the time I reach the FAF, there are large gaps and the ground is pretty much in plain sight. Being mindful to continue to fly the approach, particularly since there are still clouds below me, I continue on down to the MDA, passing through a few smaller clouds on the way down. I reach MDA about a mile and a half away from the missed point, and start looking around. I wasn't maybe a dot off on the CDI, but I can't find the airport. Andy tells me to look to my 1:30-2 o'clock and there it is. He remarks to me, "some of these VOR approaches give special meaning to the term 'non-precision approach'". Even though I was well within the tolerances of the approach, at 25 miles from the VOR, even that relatively small error off the radial puts you about 1/4 mile or more to the south of the runway. I turn towards the airport and at the MAP I go missed.

Climbing up to the missed approach altitude (4000') I intercept the 270 radial (flying 090 to, of course) from Rome and start trying to call the Center. I get within a few miles of the holding point before I finally establish contact with them and get IDd on RADAR. If I had not been able to contact the Center before that point, I would have had to have entered the hold. Instead I'm cleared to climb to 5000' but even though I'm out of the clouds at that altitude, it is just barely so. I'm still getting bumped around a little, so I request to go up to 7000' to find some smoother air. A handoff back to Atlanta Center got me a clearance direct to EKACU, the IAF for the north leg of the GPS 27 back to Cobb County. There's not much to flying a GPS approach (in my opinion) as long as you hold altitude, and it was rather satisfying to break out of the overcast at about 800' and have the runway directly ahead of you, right on the LPV "glide slope".

It was kind of a so-so flight. I executed the approaches well, but I was struggling a bit with the airplane, which I attribute to a breakdown in my instrument scan. Also, due to all of the confusion with ATC, I lost my mental picture of where I was and what I needed to do for a moment, which put me a little behind the curve. Add in a little vertigo, and I just didn't have the best feeling about my performance for that lesson. At least later on I found out part of the difficulty I had in maintaining heading was that the airplane was, in fact, pulling to the right because someone had (probably accidentally) tweaked one of the trim tabs on an alieron, after someone complained about it pulling right on an instrument checkride a couple of days later.

Andy's main take-away for me was that I needed to improve my cockpit organization a little bit, in regards to checklist items. On our initial climb-out, I left the fuel pump running, along with the landing light. While neither item affects the performance of the flight, keeping on top of the checklist is something that the examiners definitely look for. Despite that, he said I still flew relatively well, he noted that I was little off compared to the past couple of flights, but wasn't too concerned about it. He scheduled me for my stage check flight with one of the other Senior CFIIs there the following weekend, but I had to scrub that because of gusty winds and this upcoming Sunday isn't looking too good either for the same reason.

In the meantime, I'm going to get my written out of the way, and just continue to practice on Flight Sim at home, paying particular attention to my scan and practicing holds, approaches, timed turns, etc.

After two postponements, I finally finished my instrument cross country on Feb 6th. Compared to the two days I had scheduled before, the weather was near perfect for the flight. Not a cloud in sight and the ride was smooth along almost the entire route of flight.

I was supposed to have flown 1568R, but the attitude indicator failed (with a loud crunch, so I'm told) the day before and would not be available, unless I felt like staying local and VFR to practice some partial panel. Having scrubbed this flight a couple of times already, I decided against it and got moved over to N53361, a Cessna 172P. It had a similar avionics package to the Tiger so all I was really giving up was a few knots of speed. Incidentally, this was also the 20th aircraft I logged time in since starting my flying hobby over 8 years ago.

My plan was to fly from Cobb County to Birmingham Intl. (KBHM), perform an ILS approach there, then to Auburn, AL (KAUO), for the VOR/DME-A, and then back to Cobb County for the GPS 27.

Leg 1: KRYY-KBHM
Filed: DALAS GAD V209 TRUST
Total Distance: 116nm
Time: 1:21




When I called for my clearance, I was given radar vectors to TDG TRUST on V18, which took me to the south of my filed route. Andy said it was their usual practice (I assume they probably have a LOA with Birmingham Approach for that routing) to send anyone flying to Birmingham that way, although they usually clear you to HEFIN intersection first. Fortunately I was GPS equipped, because when I departed Cobb Co, I had no reception of the TDG VOR. It wasn't until I was about 10-15 miles to the west before it came in well enough to be used for navigation. Of course, about 5 minutes later I get "Cessna 53361, cleared direct Birmingham" shortly before being handed off to Atlanta Center. Then just to make things a bit more interesting, Center calls up: "Cessna 361, I have an amendment to your clearance, advise ready to copy". "Cessna 361, proceed direct Vulcan VOR, direct Birmingham. R-2101A just went hot." It seems our little shortcut put us right through the middle of the restricted area. R-2101 encompasses part of Anniston Army Depot, which is a munitions and chemical weapons storage facility. My assumption is it gets activated anytime they start moving any of the weapons out of their bunkers, just in case something goes off and starts launching rounds into the air above. On a positive note, I did read that all of the nastier nerve agents stored there have been destroyed, which has to be a relief to the residents in the Anniston/Oxford, AL area. Shortly after passing the Anniston area I'm handed off to Birmingham Approach, and shortly thereafter given clearance for the ILS 24 about 18 miles out from the airport. Due to headwinds, my groundspeed was reduced to about 90kts, which added about 10 minutes to the trip.

Leg 2: KBHM-KAUO
Route: HANDE KENTT
Distance: 98.9nm
Time: 0:32

Thankfully this leg took me significantly less than the first one, as the wind was to my back the entire way down. About halfway to Auburn, my back started killing me and I couldn't wait to get on the ground. I goofed the hold over the Tusgeegee VOR a bit, as I overshot the inbound course, but still managed to do correct and had the needle right where it needed to be when I made it to the missed approach point. I stopped here to stretch my legs and relive my back some. It was the first time I had flown into Auburn in some time, although when I first started flying it was a common destination and is also the place where I took my private pilot checkride.

Leg 3: KAUO-KRYY
Route: LGC LGC.MIKEE4
Distance: 96.2nm
Time: 0:45




I spent a little too much time on the ground at Auburn and by the time I was airborne the last leg of my flight plan had been purged from the system, so we ended up having to file in the air for the trip back home. I was cleared for the MIKEE4 arrival back to Cobb County. Its routing helps keep IFR arrivals to airports on the NW side of Atlanta clear of arrivals/departures in and out of Hartsfield to the east of the route. About 20-25 miles NE of the LaGrange VOR, I noticed that the NAV flag on the CDI tuned to LGC started flipping back and forth, then stayed on continuously. I reached over to the audio panel to monitor NAV1 and got no ident. I tried my NAV2 radio and got the same result. I tuned to the Atlanta VOR and immediately the CDI reacted and I got the ident. A quick call to Atlanta Approach indicated that I was the first to have any issues with it. A couple of minutes later I hear back from them, they had called the center and had them ask some other aircraft in the area if they could tune it, apparently it had just failed. By that time I was close enough in that approach decided just to give me vectors the remainder of the way to the IAF for the GPS 27 back into Cobb Co. With no WAAS, best I could do on this one was a descent to MDA, then set up for a visual rest of the way in. A quick check of the NOTAMs after I was back on the ground confirmed that the LGC VOR was indeed out of service.

Overall, things went well, I handled the airplane well the entire way, excecuted the approaches all pretty well, and had a good time to boot. Although after being cooped up in a 172 for over 4 hours, it quickly reminded me why I didn't like flying in an airplane of that size for that much time virtually nonstop! By the time I walked in the door at home, it was about 5 after midnight. After such a long day (I had been up since 7am!) I had no problem sleeping that night.

Totals:
Distance: 311nm
Time Logged:
4.2 Hrs Total
4.2 Hrs X/C
3.8 Hrs simulated instrument

Videos and images from my flight back in November to Copperhill, TN and Andrews-Murphy, NC airports. These were taken by my friend Zach Winslett, who was my passenger for the flight.

N54448 at Cobb County Airport:



Pickens County Airport, Jasper, Ga:





Departure from Andrews-Murphy Airport, Murphy, NC:

Getting this IFR cross country in is proving to be a daunting task. Although the weather was better than what had been forecasted (we didn't get the snow that was promised), the low ceilings stuck around just long enough to force me to scrub the flight. My planned departure was around 5pm, but with a 500-600 ft overcast and nigttime coming soon (the club does not allow IFR flight at nighttime unless the celings are over 3000' AGL...not a bad rule) I just kept an eye on things because there were signs that the weather was improving. It did eventually clear out, but by that time it was about 6:45-7pm, which would have meant a 7:30 departure for a 3-3.5 hour flight. Since I didn't relish the idea of getting home at midnight, so I called Andy and just had him push the flight back to this Thursday. The weather looks more promising (forecast calls for severe clear that day) but I'm not holding my breath!

A few months after earning my private pilot's license, I began work on my instrument rating. I made a couple of flights with my original instructor, Brad Smith (also a friend of mine from my Boy Scout days) before joining a flying club over at Coweta County Airport where the aircraft were a little less expensive (way less expensive compared to today!) and the schedule was not quite as busy. Before I ended up taking a hiatus from flying, I accumulated about 8-9 hours of dual instruction and roughly 30 hours of simulated and actual instrument flying.

Due to my upcoming career change, I talked it over with Tiffany (my wife) and decided that now would probably be as good as time as any to go ahead and finish my instrument rating, since flying money may be a little tight (or non-existent!) for about a year or so due to the training period for the ATC position I have accepted.

I talked with Andy Manning, one of the CFIIs at Superior who was down at FTY (they have since closed that location), and went over where I was, what I thought my abilities were and roughed out a brief roadmap of getting my IR done in the shortest amount of time possible. With your primary training, if you take a couple of weeks off, it probably isn't the best idea, but you probably aren't going to have to review too much the next time you go up. With the instrument rating, not having flown or practiced in some way (Flight Simulator comes in handy here!) can mean spending half an hour or more in review, when you should be working on the next step. Once you start, it is important that you try to fly at least once a week at a minimum. Some people advise you should try twice a week, but unfortunately my schedule and budget doesn't support that kind of flying anymore.

Anyway, here is a synopsis of what I have done to date:

1/11/09 - My first scheduled flight gets scrubbed due to low celings and PIREPs in the area just to the north of Cobb Co for icing. I was looking forward to getting some actual time, but with a 1500ft celing and reports of icing at 2500ft, there was just no safety margin in a light single should I encounter ice. Instead of scrubbing the lesson entirely, Andy set me up in the simulator where I worked on holding patterns. I did both standard and non-standard patterns, with a variety of entries and wind conditions. I actually did fairly well considering the time it had been since I had flown one last. There was one pretty tricky one (direct entry across the fix, 90 degrees from the inbound course, with a 20kt tailwind!) that I messed up the entry on, but I was still within the protected area and managed to re-intercept the inbound leg OK. Thank goodness he wasn't judging me on the ability to hold altitude in that thing, to say that the pitch control was sensitive is an understatement. With no control feedback, the slightest touch put it in a 300-400' per min climb or dive.

1/14/09 - The weather was beautiful, save the 30ish degree weather. After my last lesson I had discussed my interest in flying the 1975 Grumman AA5-B Tiger, 1568R on my next flight. It is well equipped for IFR work, and is one of two aircraft there equipped with a WAAS GPS (Garmin 430W) making it possible to perform LPV approaches. So in conjunction with the IR training, it also turned into an aircraft familirization flight. That night, I did basic manuvers under the hood, such as constant airspeed climbs/descents, straight and level flight, timed turns, compass turns and a little partial panel flying without the attitude indicator. I asked for the Localizer 27 at Cobb Co (glide slope is currently inop) and did pretty well holding that all the way in. I was about a dot and a half off at the missed approach point; I think I was a little too fixated on the altimeter (funny how airplanes always want to descend when you're at MDA!) and let the heading drift a tad in the last mile or so of the approach. Overall not too bad. Andy thought I did well and said he thought I'd probably be ready for a checkride in 3-4 flights. I really liked the way the Tiger flew and decided to do the rest of my training in that airplane. I found it to be much more stable in some light chop and is faster to boot.

1/21/09 - This entire flight was dedicated to partial panel. About as soon as we had climbed out of Cobb Co's class D, Andy covered up the attitude indicator and direction gyro. He just had me do some basic straight and level to get settled in, then had me dial in the Rome VOR, track it inbound, then set up for the VOR/DME Rwy 1 approach into RMG. This particular approach involves a hold for the course reversal instead of a procedure turn, which was more than a little interesting with nothing but the compass for reference. Once I was established inbound, Andy set up the display on the 430 so I could get my heading information off of it instead of having to drag out the flashlight to look at the compass. I came in a tad high, but I was reasonably well on course at the missed. I flew the published missed, then set up for the LOC 19 at Cartersville (VPC). Since the Tiger is not equipped with an ADF (thank goodness!) I used the 430 to track to the IAF and to fly the approach. My procedure turn was a bit sloppy but I tracked the localizer fairly well and was in a good position to land if need be at the missed approach. On the way back in, I asked for the GPS Rwy 27 back into Cobb Co, largely because I had never flown a GPS approach before. Compared to the previous two approaches, this one was a breeze. It helped that by that time Andy had thought I had done well enough partial panel, but the prompts and GPS glide slope made it like flying an ILS. I was a little high (3 whites, 1 red) at the missed approach point, but I was still able to get it down and make a nice landing (I love the way this airplane lands!) without having to force it down.

1/28/09 - I was supposed to have done my long IFR cross-country, which would have put me over the hump for hood and dual time, but alas, the weather did not cooperate. Icing probablity was over 75% around Birmingham (one of the airports I had planned to fly to) and night IFR in low celings with a single engine airplane just don't mix. So I cancelled it, came home and flew the route on Flight Sim instead just to get a feel of the flight. Assuming the weather holds out I have rescheduled the flight for the upcoming Monday.

So far, that's where I'm at. I'll try to make sure to keep the blog updated after my next flight...and maybe add some pictures here too!

It has been a few months (three, actually) since I've posted anything here. Poor weather, plus the runway resurfacing that kept the airport closed for the better part of November meant I didn't get much flying in for that entire month.

I did take one of my buddies up about a week after my flight review to Copperhill, TN (1A3) and Andrews-Murphy (RHP), which also was the first cross country time I had logged in quite a while. It turned out being a very nice flight weather wise and the leaves were just shy of peak color, which made for an absolutely beautiful flight. It was also my first flight in one of the older 172Ps that they have on the line, N54448.

Once the airport opened up again in early December, I made a rather long cross country flight to Chattanooga (CHA) and Huntsville (HSV) to give the new-to-me Garmin 195 GPS a run in 54448. I picked it up for $100 off of Craigslist. According to the gentelman I bought it off of, he used it twice since purchasing it in 2001, so it is basically a brand new unit. Most of the accessories were still sealed in their original packaging. Talk about a deal! While at Chattanooga, one of the ladies who was nice enough to give my wife and I a tour of the tower back in July was working local control. She was a bit surprised that I remembered who she was, I told her of my selection for Memphis Center, for which she congratulated me before giving me my clearance out of the class C airspace there.

Over Christmas and the holidays I wasn't able to get much in for obvious reasons. I did have one flight scheduled, but had to cancel because of low celings. It was the day of Superior's annual Turkey Fry, and to my wife and I's surprise, Alton Brown of Great Eats was the one frying the turkeys! I did not know this before, but he lives in the Atlanta area and takes flying lessons at Superior. He owns a new or nearly new Cessna 206 that I have seen out on the ramp a few times and is currently working on his instrument rating.

My last flight of 2009 ironically fell on the same date as my last flight of 2002, December 29th, the flight that ended up being my last for five and a half years. I made a rather brief flight over to the new Paulding County Regional Airport (PUJ) and did a few touch and goes, then made the short hop over to Cedartown (4A4) to log a couple of more airports in 54448. I made that flight in anticipation of my next step...finishing my instrument rating.