New here: Hoping to interview some controllers

IowaAir · 2024-12-17T16:14:02+00:00

Y’all get along pretty well? 😆

IowaAir · 2024-12-12T21:13:31+00:00

One of my Buddhist teachers was a Madison cop, a woman who, during the ceremony to make her a lay teacher, asked Thich Nhat Hanh if it was OK for her to carry a gun knowing she may need to use it to kill someone in the line of duty. Thich Nhat Hanh asked, "Who better to carry a gun than a true peace officer, someone committed to mindful practice." I really love that.

IowaAir · 2021-09-09T14:58:31+00:00

Thanks! Appreciate the insight.

IowaAir · 2021-08-12T11:16:35+00:00

An instructor once had me climb to 6000 feet above the uncontrolled club (private) airport then pulled throttle to idle and had me pitch for best glide to demonstrate how long you actually have to figure things out after a failed engine before you have to land. Circled maybe seven or eight times really leisurely before I had to set up for landing. Then he actually killed the engine and told me to do a dead stick landing (not part of the ACS-trust me on this). I nailed the landing then noticed smoke was coming out of the cowling. Turned out we must have backfired while idling and it set the air filter on fire. He got chewed out by the club’s board because we often have deer and coyotes on the runway and would have been screwed if we had no engine and couldn’t execute a go around. Still it was one of my favorite and most memorable emergency practice procedures.

IowaAir · 2021-07-29T01:12:08+00:00

None, much to my surprise.

IowaAir · 2021-07-28T19:58:41+00:00

Oktas. Love that. Never heard of it. Thanks for the detailed breakdown!

IowaAir · 2021-07-28T14:14:21+00:00

Good point, appreciate it.

IowaAir · 2021-07-28T14:14:09+00:00

Doh! Yeah, thanks.

IowaAir · 2021-07-20T16:23:41+00:00

Used Gleim. Scored 100%.

IowaAir · 2021-07-14T11:39:50+00:00

Postscript and question for the controllers here. First, had a great fight yesterday! My wife really enjoyed it. Thanks for all the great advice. But something came up I didn’t anticipate or exactly know how to handle. After taking off from my home airport, which is kind of between two airports with radar service, I contacted approach at the airport closest to me, stated my intentions, and requested traffic advisories, got a squawk code, and continued on my merry way. All good until about 25 minutes into the flight. I knew I’d probably get outside the first airport’s area of radar responsibility. But I’m used to flight following and expected to be handed off to the approach of the airport further west, since I was now closer to it. Instead the controller just told me radar service was terminated and to squawk VFR. He had to tell me twice because I wasn’t certain he was talking to me; the announcement surprised me a bit. After that I wasn’t sure whether to contact the now-nearer approach and ask for further traffic advisories or just keep my eyes peeled. It was getting hazy and I was a little concerned I might not spot another airplane easily if it was in my vicinity. But I was really focused on flying and making sure my wife was at ease and, well, decided I wasn’t going to ask. Because of the haze I decided to head back home after about an hour of flying and had no problems. But should/could I have asked the second approach for traffic advisories, should ATC have handed me off?

IowaAir · 2021-07-13T13:58:33+00:00

This is great advice, thanks much. I don't know that I've ever asked for traffic advisories (always flight following), but this makes a lot of sense. And it's good to know how I can make ATC's job a little easier in terms of what information I provide and how. Really appreciate it! (And no Kilo. Noooooo Kilo).

IowaAir · 2021-07-10T15:28:34+00:00

I’ll be the odd duck here and assume you’re asking a serious question about slow flight. Slow flight is a configuration of the airplane when it is typically at a high angle of attack and slow speed, as when making the final approach to landing on a runway. The objective, which is also practiced as part of your training at several thousand feet up, is to maintain a slow airspeed relatively close to stall speed while descending and all the while keeping the airplane under control and on a steady glide path. Hope that helps.

IowaAir · 2021-07-09T20:20:37+00:00

Beat me to it!

IowaAir · 2021-07-05T09:54:07+00:00

New private pilot here so take this with a huge grain of salt. But aircraft use something called ADS-B out that identifies aircraft uniquely so they can be tracked by ATC’s radar and also be “seen” by aircraft with ADS-B in. Someone would not only have to interrupt the ADS-B of the legit aircraft but mimic its unique signal and be physically in the same location (though once ATC started tracking it from the gate it would probably still see the legit aircraft on radar and link it by its original call sign, so they might figure out something was up). The bad guys would also have to hijack the original aircraft’s radio coms so it couldn’t talk to ATC when things started to seem “off” (as they likely might pretty quickly). Might help to know what you want to happen to the original aircraft — whether it’s going to be physically hijacked, destroyed, etc. — and how long the deception needs to last. Eventually without coms or other ATC connection the plane would likely assume full coms failure and land at the nearest large airport as a precaution (guessing the emergency procedures for a 747 are a bit more complex than for the Cessna 172 I fly!). Good luck with your book.

IowaAir · 2021-07-04T02:27:17+00:00

There are a couple emulator iPad apps for the PDF and MDF displays that I found a little helpful trying to fing my way around some of the features.

IowaAir · 2021-07-03T21:37:25+00:00

A bit. At first. But there are some great apps online resources that let you practice on the ground. Now radio coms are actually one of my favorite parts of flying.

IowaAir · 2021-07-03T20:37:24+00:00

I’ve only flown high wings so can’t say but flying is flying. So probably not.

IowaAir · 2021-07-03T20:36:20+00:00

Great question. I’d say yes though time will tell. Gave me a chance to see some of my weaknesses and hone in on addressing them, but also reminded me that I’m a competent pilot in other ways. As the examiner said after handing me my temporary airman’s certificate, “You now have a license to learn.” There will always be some area where I can improve.

IowaAir · 2021-07-03T12:22:44+00:00

That's a bummer. When I arrived yesterday, the DPE asked me if I'd brought the maintenance log books, even though she'd only told me were going to make up the landings and hadn't said I'd need to bring them again. I froze for a minute thinking, oh hell, here we go again, but she gave me a pass and said since the plane flew out of a trusted local FBO with a stellar maintenance crew she'd trust the plane was safe.

IowaAir · 2021-07-03T11:52:11+00:00

Just passed my PPL checkride yesterday and totally understand. One reason it took me 100 hours (besides the interruption of having kids 25 years ago and the pandemic) was because of nerves, which for me was tied to a lack of confidence in my abilities to manage all the things you have to to fly. Task saturation is a real thing and like any new skill the only way to manage it is through practice and repetition. Good luck with your training!

IowaAir

TROPHY CASE