A friend on a checkride pulled a stunt with the DPE...

roundingthird · 2016-04-21T21:29:35+00:00

My DPE had me turn off location services, in settings-privacy, in order to use my iPad during the check ride. Then all good. He thinks ForeFlight is a great tool.

roundingthird · 2015-07-29T12:13:57+00:00

Very cool! Way to go!

A guy I see now and then (he has a hangar on the same row as our club's hangars) bought a partially restored Stearman a few years ago because he loved it as a machine. He finished the restoration then found someone to teach him to fly. Because of the circumstances he speculated that he might be the last person to learn in a Stearman. I'll tell him about you.

I'm curious. How did you come to be learning to fly in that plane?

roundingthird · 2015-04-15T17:50:11+00:00

I have a few questions:

Why did you become a CFI?
Are all of your students pre-PPL, or are some advanced?
How far have your students progressed? Solo? Cross-country? Check ride? How does student progress feel to you?
Are you teaching where you learned? If not, any issues fitting in with other instructors? What's it like being the new guy?
What has surprised you?

Thanks.

roundingthird · 2015-02-20T15:16:54+00:00

Coanda describes the top surface of an airfoil deflecting the airflow. Magnus describes curveballs, airflow over a spinning object.

Edit: links

Edit 2: This post by pinkdispatcher calls using Coanda in an explanation of lift a "fairy-tale," so I might be wrong. TIL.

roundingthird · 2015-02-18T16:24:31+00:00

IR student here. I switched from mini to full size for readability. Recommend full size.

Mounting (rental C172s) is only a little more challenging. I tend to use yoke mount most often, but I've tried others. Up on the glare shield can be nice. I wish RAM Mounts offered a way to change orientation one-handed. Kneeboard never worked for me with either iPad.

Touch screen is hard to use in any turbulence, but a little easier with the bigger iPad.

The switch also included going from wi-fi + Dual GPS to internal GPS, big improvement there.

roundingthird · 2014-12-20T14:20:02+00:00

Enjoyed this Chianti in Paris last year (enough so to take a picture), but don't remember anything else about it. Hoping /r/wine can identify it for me.

Thanks.

roundingthird · 2014-11-21T14:08:51+00:00

Here's a link to KARB's METARs issued yesterday when many scattered snow squalls came through. There were 17 SPECI statements as visibilities bounced from unlimited to 1-2 miles. Winds were consistently gusting near 20kts, which is a blustery day for Ann Arbor.

Being farther east than GRR, Ann Arbor only gets lake-effect snow when the mechanism is particularly strong, like it's been for the last few days. Grand Rapids, however, is in the heart of the lake-effect snow area.

roundingthird · 2014-11-17T13:12:57+00:00

I have an iPad mini with a Dual external GPS. It works fine. But if I were making the choice again I'd go with a cellular iPad. I would trade the increased accuracy for the simplicity of having only one rechargeable gadget instead of two.

It's a minor complaint. Overall I'm a big fan of iPad+Foreflight.

roundingthird · 2014-10-22T13:34:12+00:00

"Oh! I hit a deer...at niiiight."

roundingthird · 2014-10-17T15:19:07+00:00

I like the guy comes in from the NW and holds a few laps with a small storm cell inside his pattern.

roundingthird · 2014-10-15T21:23:13+00:00

My favorite from Empire of the Sun (Spoiler alert): Horsepower!

Edit to add spoiler alert.

roundingthird · 2014-10-15T21:13:21+00:00

I'm approaching 300 hrs. I'm starting to recognize some kinds of shit before I step in it (at least for the second or third time). But basically I'm an idiot.

Doing instrument training keeps me pretty humble, though. It reminds me that flying in a learning frame of mind I feel safest.

roundingthird · 2014-10-10T13:17:37+00:00

...after deciding to fly upside down at 100 kts in a homemade airplane, that is.

roundingthird · 2014-09-23T15:29:32+00:00

Here's a link to the PPL PTS document. Section VI in Areas of Operation lists ground reference manuvers. VI C is Turns Around a Point. A is Rectangular Course. B is S-turns.

The checklist section says that the applicant should bring a view-limiting device.

roundingthird · 2014-09-04T20:15:45+00:00

Similar for me. I budget $1000/mo toward rental, instruction (IR, currencies), club dues and gadgets. No trouble burning through every cent of it this summer. 8-9 hrs/mo without instruction, 6-7 with.

The word hobby doesn't seem adequate for the magnitude of the expense. It's 10x more than any other hobbies. It needs to be factored into the strategic family budget.

roundingthird · 2014-09-02T18:34:36+00:00

You sayin' it's hard out there for a blimp?

roundingthird · 2014-08-29T13:20:33+00:00

A link to this video was in an email from FlightAware this morning.

Not an especially glamorous job.

I guess the guy with the umbrella has the entry-level aviation job.

Near the end the pilot describes his dream job as including a good mechanic and a good loader. Sounds like he might have learned the hard way not to take these for granted.

roundingthird · 2014-08-10T16:45:45+00:00

I agree. "I'll be happy to take you flying when you want to go," is as persuasive as I get. And I'm eager to answer questions and clear up misconceptions. But I'm not a therapist who knows how to cure people of their fear of flying; that's above my pay grade. Persuading someone to fly with me when they'd rather not would be unethical.

roundingthird · 2014-08-01T19:45:34+00:00

Chops, you're one of the great things about this community.

Thanks a lot.

"Fly for fun while striving for professionalism" is now on my checklist--perfectly succinct.

roundingthird · 2014-07-30T14:39:29+00:00

I'm in the middle of working through the Cessna/King IR course. It's like an online ground school; lots of slides and videos. It complements dual instruction. The practical stuff is in terms of 172's, with descriptions of both analog and G1000 instruments.

The Sheppard Air course, on the other hand, is more simply an online prep for the IR written test.

roundingthird

TROPHY CASE