New Commercial pilot on-board

scard · #1 04-14-2010, 09:27 AM

As of yesterday I got my freshly minted Commercial Pilot Single Engine Land Instrument pilot certificate. It isn't really worth much in our day-to-day utility, but is just another step down the path of learning new things for me. I promised myself very early in life that I would try to keep one foot in front of the last, wherever it may lead. The hours of flying the flight school Cessna 172-RG has reminded me why I spent years not flying before building our own airplane.

The check ride was fun. We had minimum weather with which to accomplish the maneuvers, but we did manage to get them done legally. The excitement began after I was done and had my new certificate in hand. This beat down, run over, stinkin', sloppy, flight school airplane wouldn't start when I was ready to depart Brownwood for home. The starter gear wouldn't move forward to engage. So I had to do the mechanic dance and pull the side cowl, screwdriver used to pull the gear out... Got it started. 10min into my flight home (50min flight), the alternator died. I did what I could think of to diagnose that to no avail. Little did I know that I would get to use the DECIDE model for Aeronautical Decision Making so soon

. My first thought was that I would get to exercise a manual gear extension operation and have to remember the light signals when arriving back home (class D) if this didn't work out. I reviewed those procedures after I had things stabilized. Luckily I noticed the low voltage light very quickly thanks to a general cockpit "ops check" every few minutes. I was day VFR at 2000' AGL underneath a layer, so I just shut everything down to conserve the unknown, probably equally beat down, battery. Just me, a commercial certificate, a compass and a map, crossing west-central Texas. There isn't much out there if you don't know. No radios, no transponder, no gps... The DG in this thing precesses so bad it is almost useless. I put the power all in and made a minimum time run for home bucking a 18kt headwind. It did about 130kts indicated

.

At about 20mi out, back in my own backyard, I started to consider if I was going to have to work on the gear. So I slowed down a bit, flipped the master back on and moved the gear handle to the down position. ... The gear went down, green light, and I see a gear out the window. WooHoo! I was a happy camper. I killed the master again as not to press my luck. At about 8mi out, I pulled all unnecessary circuit breakers and brought up just one radio. I was sequenced for an uneventful landing. It really wasn't all that dramatic, but I guess it could have been if I had just bopped along for an hour sucking all the life out of an unknown battery. I guess that is what they are looking for in Commercial level of capability, to take what could be a real problem and turn it into a whole big "nothin' burger" as Doug would say.

It looks like maybe a CFI certificate is next. Just for the fun of it, because I can. Not quitting the day job!

Mike S · #2 04-14-2010, 09:34 AM

Good job, congrats on the rating

Danny7 · #3 04-14-2010, 09:35 AM

Congratulations Scott! I had an alternator go out on me once , but that was at night. nothing else wrong, so i flew the plane home.

rvmills · #4 04-14-2010, 09:50 AM

Nice work Scott...well done, very professionally handled! And congrats on the new ticket! You guys are chewin' up new ratings real estate, that's for sure!!

Cheers,
Bob

scard · #5 04-14-2010, 09:52 AM

Thanks. Yeah, Tanya has been talking about getting her glider ticket. I think she should have to go next!

terrykohler · #6 04-14-2010, 09:59 AM

Scott:
Way to go. You're both great examples of what everyone should be aiming for -never stop learning.
Best,
Terry, CFI
RV-9A N323TP

Ironflight · #7 04-14-2010, 10:50 AM

Great job Scott - now get Tanya to buy you a cheap, pocket-sized GPS that you can carry no matter what piece of trash airplane you're flying. Never be without your own pocket knife and your own GPS .....

Louise Hose · #8 04-14-2010, 11:22 AM

Good job, Scott. Now that it's done, we won't have anything to tease you about....

scard · #9 04-14-2010, 12:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Louise Hose

Good job, Scott. Now that it's done, we won't have anything to tease you about....

Yeah right, other than the super slow build RV8 in the shop 30' from me right now

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ironflight

Great job Scott - now get Tanya to buy you a cheap, pocket-sized GPS that you can carry no matter what piece of trash airplane you're flying. Never be without your own pocket knife and your own GPS .....

Even more amusing, I had borrowed a Garmin Area 560 that I had all setup in the junker, only to find that the cig lighter port in the airplane didn't work! Piece of cr@p! The batteries in the gps died over Lampassas just after I did my last XM weather look ahead on the way TO the checkride.

Rick_A · #10 04-14-2010, 12:47 PM

Good work Scott.

I know what you mean about the planes at the local flight school. I rented that RG once while I was building and decided not to pay for the checkout time to take it solo. I also had a problem with an alternator on one of their Archers after doing a check ride down in Boerne. Made for an interesting trip back.