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!
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!
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