Spook,
As you progress farther along the road to your private license, you'll
get your
own chance to fly Instruments. I can't remember how many hours of "hood"
(IFR) time
you need, but it's a few. You'll be amazed how hard it is to believe that
artificial horizon.Larry Georgia Trehey wrote: > Her name is Heather, the lady who offered to let me go along with her as a > passenger. She was standing at the counter at our local FBO, Northern > Air. I was struck by how young and how small she is. She's a cute, > little impish girl. As I've often noticed, appearances can be deceiving. > Heather is already an accomplished pilot at approx. 70 hours. > > I am astonished and grateful that this person, who I had not even met > before, extended an invitation to me to accompany her on an IFR lesson. > > So anyway, her CFI showed up about then. She hadn't asked him yet if I > could go but he was amenable to it. I'm beginning to wonder if it is a > common practice to invite passengers along on lessons.?? That is when > it's a big enough plane, of course. Heather's CFI, Ryan, handed me a > headset and said, "You'll need this." It was more than I had hoped for. > I would have been happy just to observe, but I was going to get to listen > too!" > > I was so fascinated with the idea of going along on an IFR lesson. At > this point in my training, with so few hours, IFR is a total mystery. > However, I didn't know what IFR, VFR even meant a few months ago! > > Heather and Ryan picked a good day. The coastal Humboldt County summer > fog created a solid ceiling as it often does. I have never been up in the > air in clouds/fog even in an airline flight so I had no idea what to > expect. > > Side note: Heather is so small that she uses a booster seat in the 172 > I'm serious! I really don't think she could see over the instrument panel > otherwise. Quite a contrast with me, eh? In fact I was joking with her > about noticing a difference in performance with me sitting in the back > seat. She and Ryan said that they were used to taking passengers, so no > problem! > > I tried to take in everything Ryan said to Heather and also listen to > everything that was going on over the radio. There's a lot going on, even > in the low traffic area over Humboldt here. > > When we took off and started to climb out over Humboldt Bay, I looked at > the blanket of fog overhead, wondering how high it was and what it would > be like. I'm not sure what altitude it was when we went in but we got out > at about 3500'. We were not totally in the fog for long, maybe 1 minute? > I'm not sure about that. Maybe I should have taken notes. I'll say this, > being totally surrounded by nothing but white was disconcerting. I'm glad > I wasn't flying. Heather calmly expressed that she was getting a bad case > of the "leans". Ryan told her to keep looking at the instruments. I think > she did a fantastic job. She ignored the misleading information her body > was telling her and did what she was supposed to do. How great! I > mean I have read about this and heard about it in ground school but here > was the reality. Cool. This was Heather's first time flying through the > clouds. > > Wow, it's completely white all around and suddenly there is the bright > blue sky and a rapidly receding brilliant white blanket beneath us. What > a rush for me. How beautiful. I could see the tops of some of the > mountains poking up through the fluffy white blanket. The word that comes > to mind is the word I used last year on my very first aerial look at our > wonderous north coast- "enchanting!" > > While we were flying along and Heather was "chasing" (my word for it) the > Fortuna VOR, I was thinking to myself how happy I am when I'm up in a > plane. It's unfortunate that it took so long for me to discover this > about myself but on the other hand, I'm grateful to have discovered it at > all. > > With the blanket of clouds beneath us and with me not following the > numbers maybe as closely as I should have, I didn't know where we were > some of the time. Then I saw some holes in the clouds through which I > could see the vegetation. I guess all the satellite vegetation mapping > left more of an impression on me than I thought. To myself, I was able to > identify where we were by looking at the veg. Positive id to tree species > and geographic location from 5000'. I felt good although if you are a air > photo interpreter, it is no biggee. That's OK. I still felt good about > it! > > It was clear over Shelter Cove and the Lost Coast! This won't mean > anything except to folks who know this area, but I thought I's throw it in > anyway for anyone with a Klamath Falls sectional. > > Heather did so well and her CFI praised her often. On the way back we > popped back out under the clouds just where we were supposed to. I'm sure > Heather was as delighted as I was. > > She has an interesting landing technique. She kept muttering something > about John Wayne flying and I think that fits. I felt like I was riding > in a rodeo on final. However she did put it down on the runway very > nicely. > > I am looking forward to accompanying her on another lesson. I learned > more and understood more than I thought I would. And I had a fabulous > time. > > Spook > > __________________________________________________________________________ ______ > To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > ___________________________________________________________ > T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 > Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics __________________________________________________________________________ ______ To unsubscribe from this list please send mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________________________________ T O P I C A The Email You Want. http://www.topica.com/t/16 Newsletters, Tips and Discussions on Your Favorite Topics
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