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Today was an interesting day. I was scheduled for the first go. We started jet and taxied. Right before run up, we heard radio saying that it's going to be a weather cancel. So we taxied back. Hay, at least I practiced start up and taxing.

Later in the evening, we did something that may look silly to outsiders. We drew up our pattern on the ground and practiced our radio procedures. So we walked in tiny little steps our pattern and made calls as instructor cleared / denied our requests. Also, it's a good practice to learn about conflicts and what to look out for.



It's a good practice doing radio calls in classroom since any wrong radio calls will cost students money starting next week. So each time we make a wrong radio call or wrong phraseology, it will cost 25 cents. After a while, cost will rise and rise. All of the money will go to our 'solo' party which usually is after 8! rides.

Another weather cancel.

Here's an engine startup. Unfortunately, there were other aircraft doing their thing so sound is a bit messed up.

I thought the US Air Force was an all weather service ?

J/K, thanks for the video.
I hope you get to go flying soon.


Wheels

ERAU was similar- plus we got to ride on other students flights- one benefit of trainingain a seater (C172, they had just gotten Piper cadets when I was there. Those could be hugely helpful to a student like me.

I saw an awful lot of guys that were much more experienced than I make stupid mistakes. One guy forgot to shut the door on a twin (Cessna T303) during a prog check. IP got him to fix it at the hold point!


Desktop sims can be good for procedures, but not for airwork. There's too many variables and there's no 'feel' at all. you might be able to fly the numbers with roughly the correct power settings, but that's not nearly the entire story. Your hands tend to be in entirely the wrong place. HAving flown an FAA certified 767 sim once, it's far more immersive even without motion turned on.


Sim I love you posts! Thanks.

Friday was another day of no flying. Hopefully Monday will be different.

Please excuse for misspells. I had a long 12 hours day...

Finally I had my second flight, although in a very poor weather. After takeoff we upped from a deck at 13000 MSL. That means I had my first IFR flight. Weather was so poor that we had to take LOW (8-14) and HIGH (16-22K MSL) MOA (Military Operating Area).

In area we did GX, Power-on, ELP stalls, Pattern Stalls, Slow flight, Stability demo and few recoveries from unusual situation.

GX- Establish ~220 Knots, bank near 70-90 and pull gradually up to 4Gs with full torque. During this maneuver, student practices anti-G breathing and straining. During first GX when g-suit squeezed the heck out of me, I forgot to strain and as a result started loosing my color vision. So I strained my lower muscles and regained color. :P Since this was my second ride, IP demonstrates and then I try to do. When I tied to do, I got up to ~200 knots and banked. But as a tried to get 4gs going, my speed dropped to around 180 and stick shaker activated so I had to relax stick. Just to further explain, T-6 does not have a stall horn. As a replacement of it, it has a stick shaker that gets activated 5-10 knots before stall. So I reached near critical angle of attack and activated stick. Lesson learned. Higher alt requires higher speed.

Power-on stall. Maneuver starts at 160 knots with torque between 30-60. Pitch up around 30-40 degrees and hold it until wing or nose drops. When that happens - max power, relax stick and roll level. We need to quickly break stick shaker and then to return to it. Fun little maneuver. There are two versions: straight and turning. I did OK, but was got too aggressive and dropped nose too much.


ELP and Pattern stalls both try to simulate stalls that can happen when in pattern. ELP is with engine simulated feathered position (4-6 torque). Pattern stalls is just as in a pattern. Both has three different stalls and are quite easy to complete. I had no problems with those.

Slow Flight. Drop gear and T/O flaps. Speed 85-90. No altitude loss / gain while flying straight or turning. Torque varies due to temperature, altitude and/or other conditions. I had a bit hard time keeping within speed / altitude parameters. I need more practice...

Stability demo. This one is performed by IP. It's almost like power-on stall but attempts to display stability of T-6. IP pitches up to 45 degrees bank and reduces power to idle. Nose drops and IP released controls. T-6 drops to what seemed to me near 70-90 degrees nose low. As speeds regained, aircraft attempts to return to last trimmed flight. So airplane picks up speed and starts pushing Gs while returning to level flight. Of course, it passes level flight and starts gaining alt. Dynamic stability. Fun

Recoveries. There are nose low, nose high and upside-down. All are simple to recover from. Nose low - bank to wings level while pulling up and trying to keep ac from building too much airspeed. Going to power idle and extracting "board" (speed break) is acceptable based on a situation.

Nose high recovery may require going upside down while pulling to get nose to level flight.

Finally upside down is simple - just bank until sky is up

For those, IP gets aircraft to those situations and student recovers. Piece of cake.

In the end, we recovered by vectors from approach to airfield. That involved a lot of flying through rain and clouds. Neato.

Mission lasted 1.4 hrs.

Poor weather entire week. I still haven't seen pattern and until I do, no flying. I still have only 2 flights.

In academics, we are moving into advanced instruments. We completed Instruments 1, took test and started 2. As a flight, we did quite poorly with three busts. I came very close to busting so I better change how I study since we had a lot of free time and I still straggled during the test. I thought that I was going to do well....
Three busts in academics = automatic removal from a program.

Anyhow, next week we start late so no more waking up at 0330 in the morning.

Hang in there Sim, you'll do fine.

Well due to poor weather, I haven't flown for over 10 calender days. I'm starting to forget what airplanes looks like. Soon IPs will loose currency! I can't even do sims because syllabus requires to have at least 3 flights. I have only 2. Anyhow...

Academics are on full steam into Instruments 2. IAF, FAF, MAP, DP etc... Test is expected sometimes next week.

I have a 50 - 50 shot with this.
Don't worry Sim good weather is heading your way.

Keep studying, I believe it will happen for you.


Wheels

It's not a big deal...the flight commander has the option to give guys '86' rides for 'break in training' if the delay gets excessive.

And it takes a while before a line swine IP loses currency...your guest help or part time reservist on the other hand...

The problem is that the type of rides Sim needs require a visual pattern. You can maybe skip a pattern status on one or two rides in the block...any more than that though, and you start shorting the student critical pattern practice.

FC

Hehe. Down at Toplicane in Kosovo, with the MNAvB Mercury, the Germans had one of their guys do that in our Black Hawk hangar, in front of the whole flying crowd, as part of his 3000st Huey-Hour celebration. Damn right it looks a bit stupid, but that was the point!

Thanks. Monday predicted weather is much better...



Exactly. I can't even get 86 since I have only two rides in and min for 86 is 3. Next two days have only 60% for Tsrm. It's very tiresome just sitting and studying...





Also, that is used by most acrobatic pilots. They will perform their preplanned flight on the ground first ... and some flight sim fanatics do that as well.

We used to do that in the Army. We would make a large representation of the map area we were in and then have the units "conduct" the operation order by moving on it as their unit. Helped clear up questions and timing issues. When you had the time to do it, these "walk-through" rehearsals were well worth it. Again to the uninitiated it looks a little odd, but experienced people knew how to use it and what to look for.

My Flight Instructor had me do that a couple times for familiarization with the landing pattern. He used it to teach approach, choice of runway, comm, and speed, height, distance, and flap use. It is easier to focus on instruction like that when half your brain isn't focused on actually flying the plane.

I saw a documentary on the "Blue Angels" a while back.
It showed them sitting at a table "flying" the whole routine with their eyes closed and the commander giving his radio calls.
At first it seemed a little odd but it made sense after they explained why they did it.


Wheels

That's great news Sim. I am happy for you.


Wheels

Congratulations!

It's a task in itself just getting all of that kit on and walking out to the aircraft on a hot day.

Andy.

Jeez, I don't get to wear all that neat-o gear.

My instructor said that miltary flight training is the best way. There is enough time and complete focus to really build a proper groundwork. By the time you get in the airplane you are already 80% there.

I flew a BAC Strikemaster in Sydney in 2000.

Took me about 30-40 minutes just to kit up properly, and get a proper mask fit.

Then, by the time I got to the aircraft (36 degree day) and got in, I'd probably lost some weight by that time. Because of the Plexiglas canopy, I'm guessing temps inside the cockpit when I strapped in were hovering around 50 Celsius.

And that was before we even began the flight!

RIP Nick Costin

Another flight under my belt. I'll do a writeup over a weekend.