Robert Stogsdill’s Flyblog

Well today I was able to do a little bit of work. I managed to get 1.1 hours with a student who is ready to solo, but cant beacause of the weather. We stayed in the pattern and did 6 landings. I admit I was pushing it slightly. Visibility was about 4sm, and although they where saying sky clear below 12,000, it wasnt true. I had my student do some extremely tight patterns but they worked out well. He has had some of his best landings yet.

After the first student I decided to take up the other guy, the weather was looking like it was getting better. So we take off and I notice as we climb that its actually getting worse. We get to about 800′ (600′ agl) and I see a nice cloud about 200′ in front of us and I quickly call for the controls and level the plane out. Normaly pattern at Manassas is at 1200′. Lets not forget the tower was still reporting sky clear below 12,000. So I do a normal pattern at 800′, and let the student take over. I then quickly notified the tower that visibility had decreased well below 3sm, and that at traffic pattern altitude we would have needed a flight plan. So obviously we landed and ended it for the day.

It just sucks because both of my students are ready to solo, last week they werent able to fly ANY day due to weather and this week isnt looking any better. Here is the TAF for tomorrow:

KIAD 110301Z 110324 32004KT 2SM BR VCSH BKN010 OVC025
     FM0500 00000KT 1SM BR VCSH BKN005 OVC010
     FM0800 00000KT 1/2SM DZ FG BKN003 OVC010
     FM1400 00000KT 4SM BR BKN007 OVC010
     FM1600 16005KT 5SM BR SCT007 OVC010

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So today is my 4th day off. The first 2 days where planned, however the second 2 were not. Its been extremely windy the past 2 days. While I dont mind sitting at home all day, sleeping in till 11, and just doing nothing. It also means I dont get paid, which sucks…

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Yesterday I did 7.6 hours of flying, once you hit 8, your done legally. I did 2 cross countries to Charlottesville at 1.6 hours a piece and the rest was just taking students up and doing maneuvers. Pretty damn tiring…

280hrs

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I have 45 hours of dual given now. I have finished instructing one marine, he solo’d, did his solo xc, and is now on his way to Pensacola. I should have my other marine done this week, and my other 2 should be ready for solo by the end of the week.

I have realized that once a week students take much more attention, and catching up. My marines, who have never flown before, by the 4th lesson are extremely proficient in comparison to their experience with the radios and just the basics of flying and landing. I assume this is because they are flying almost everyday, or everyday in a row with good weather. My civilian students who only come in once a week spend at least the first half hour of just getting back into the flow of things, and putting them on the radio is a complete mess.

I have also realized that to a new student, landing almost by themselves  is a pivotal moment to them. When they look over and see that I dont have my hands on any of the controls and they have just greased a landing, they start feeling much more confident in how they are coming along. It also makes me much happier because its less work I have to do

273hr total time.

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Not much to update on. My original 2 students are 2 lessons away from soloing. Thats going to be a crazy experience telling someone they are ready to go fly by themselves.

I have also had one flight review since the last update. However the guy had not flown since 2003, and his skills had definitley faded. We went up and pretty much did straight and level flight just to get back into flying. I was a little worried when we where taxiing and he said “so where are the brakes?” I questioned his aeronautical decision making skills too when he wanted to go flying in winds gusting up to 25 knots. For those who dont know, if its over 10 knots, and if its gusting higher, it get a bit bumpy. Even though the winds where high, they where going straight down the runway, instead of a crosswind, so I agreed to take him up.

I also got a brand new student on Sunday. He isnt a marine, just a regular guy who wants to fly. I took him up for about an hour. We flew to a local airport, and just did straight and level flight, and climbs and descents. This was the first time I had to actually use a steep turn for whats its meant to teach you. While coming into Manassas, approach told us there was another aircraft at our 12 o’clock, same altitude, heading towards us. I quickly found him, and he was definitely heading towards us, so I quickly grabbed the controls and made a steep right turn. The other plane didnt even change direction, so Im guessing he was pretty clueless.

Ill update again once my guys solo.

No Comments » Posted by v1valarob / Being a CFI...

Today I picked up another marine, and flew again with my student from yesterday. The new student was at the same level as my student was yesterday, so I had to go over power on stalls, power off stalls, slow flight, and engine failure procedures. The one thing that I have to remember as a new instructor is the way I felt when I first did these maneuvers. At first it feels unnatural for an airplane to be doing this kind of stuff, and as a brand new pilot, they are not prepared for it. So I have to make sure I tell them what we are going to do, and also let them now that its going to be a strange feeling. But remind them that we are completely safe, and we do these maneuvers for safety reasons.

Not much else to report on, I let my student from yesterday, pretty much land the plane today. I helped in the flare, but he managed to come in at the right airspeed, and stayed pretty much on correct glide slope. It was awesome, because he couldnt really believe what he had just done. He didnt believe me that all I did was help on the flare, and seeing someone get that first feeling of real accomplishment flying was pretty damn amazing.

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Today I went in for my interview with the same FBO that I did my private pilot training. It wasnt really an interview though, it was more of a welcome, here is the practice area (which I already knew), oh and here are some students, have fun. Haha! I thought it was pretty cool though since I think thats what a new CFI needs, to just go at it.

The FBO that I am working at now has a program called “IFS.” This is the for the Marines, the military doesnt want to have new officers go to pilot training and waste money and time when they might not even be able to fly straight and level. So they send them to our school for 25 hours of flying each. We have 6 starting every other week, so there is alot of work to be had. I took on a student today who had only flown twice before that. It was an amazing experience, its also really scary. Theres not much to say about it, but I think I am going to enjoy this.

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