Storm system and Lake Effect Snow

So I got back from reading week hoping to have my preflight done by the first day or second day back. But both of those chances failed: Monday had rain and strong winds, and Tuesday had strong winds and low clouds. Both of these were caused by the storm over Eastern Ontario around Ottawa, Kingston Region.

The storm produced a very steep low pressure and so isobars were fairly close together around it, and that created strong gusty winds, around 20G38 kt winds from the northwest. The low over to the east created cloud formations over here because we were in the "tail-end" of the storm.

With the winds coming from the northwest, there was also an issue of Lake Effect Snow. Lake Huron was to the northwest and so any cold arctic air with strong winds create possibility of lake effect snow/precipitation.

Cold air gets blown over the lake and evaporation creates convective clouds over to the greater toronto area (GTA), it sucks because it is very short notice and as a result could be a reason for a lot of incomplete or cancelled flights in the winter.

So according to my instructor, instead of completing 0.3 hr of the preflight, he will just do a 1.5hr extra dual instruction to polish some of my weakness from the preflight:
Slow flight and Power On stall entries
Steep turns - to try and go back to entry altitude even within test limits.
Diversion - everything was perfect except I forgot to simulate a call to London
Soft-Field Landing- porpoising or not so soft landing

I won't be able to do this extra dual until next week because we will be away for a Search & Rescue Training weekend from Oct 31st - Nov 2nd. I am pretty stoked about this because we're going to Bankcroft area, and I can't wait how to really learn the things they will teach us (of course I'm not so excited because it's gonna be cold but I'm not complaining)

Anyway, I'll take my camera and post up some pictures of that here.

0.3 hr

So I "finished" my pre-flight test today. Okay, well I was short on time by 0.3 hours because I had to get to class. I believe it went pretty good...I think I just have to do precautionaries and practice soft field landings again.

This is my problem, in normal or short field landings, I land it pretty good at least no hard bounces or porpoising. But when I try to do soft field landings, it always lands hard or bounces or something wrong happens. Maybe I'm doing the procedure wrong. When I add power to soften the landing, I balloon and then instinctively (which is wrong) I pitch it down a bit and I end up landing flat, harder than usual.

Sometimes, my short field landings are way softer than my soft field landings. Maybe I should just pretend it's a short field landings minus the flaps up and maximum braking.

Anyways, I don't know when I'm gonna get that 0.3 hr left before I get recommended. But next week is study week so there's no flying. Maybe I'll go to the sim just to keep refreshing my mind.
Hopefully the week after study week, I can get the solo flight done then my flight test, and I really hope I don't get partial or have to repeat it or have it postponed.

I was flying today, and it was really nice out, the orange, yellow, red, and all the other fall colours was perfect...made it a little harder to find small towns but it was a nice view.

But in other news, I have two more midterms, an essay and a lab to do for the rest of the week...good fun!

Pre-flight test

Hey so today I got to finish my last solo flight before the pre-flight test.
I was really hoping to get at least to the flight test before study week which is going to be the week after next week. But I don't think that's gonna happen.
But I have the pre-flight test to do next and hopefully I can pass that before study week and I can just study and prepare for the actual flight test during the study week.

It's time to really get serious, because if all goes well, I'm 3 flights (including the flight test) away from freedom from the stress this is giving me. PLUS ofcourse the freedom to take passengers finally!

Anyways, whoever is reading this who has flight test experience. (PPL standards i guess), any tips/advice or anything that can help me for the flight test?

Thanks...and happy thanksgiving!!

9 flights.

Hey so yesterday I finally got to do that solo cross country which was the same route as the dual cross country on my previous post. It was awesome, weather was perfect: blue skies and calm winds all around.
I actually wasn't booked to fly it yesterday but I thought my instructor would still be sick so I woke up early to plan it anyways. When I got there, he came in and was hoping to fly but decided to let me have his airplane anyways. So the waking up was worth it.

The only thing that went wrong was that I forgot my logbook at Buttonville so I wasn't able to get stamps at Muskoka and Collingwood.

Anyways today I did review of airwork and some instrument flying under the hood. I have 9 flights left including the flight test before I can get my licence...if all goes well. I'm hoping to have it by 3rd or 4th week of October. It is getting pretty stressful along with academics and the quizzes and projects due coming soon. But I'm determined to get this done, it's kinda like the final stretch of that final lap.

Anyways I'm booked for a solo airwork flight tomorrow at 8am. Hope it goes well, and I get better.

Cross Country

So I've been really sick for the past week. And it sucks because well I violate the rule of thumb for flying a number of times so that's why I haven't flown in like a week.
There's this thing you could use to check if you should fly or not its called the IM SAFE acronym to check if you're fit for flying.

It's funny because us pilots have acronym's and abbreviations for EVERYTHING.

The acronym goes like this:
Illness - you shouldn't fly sick, even a small cold can get worse at altitude
Medication - Don't fly when taking over-the-counter medication not approved by a AME
Stress - Don't fly when you're over stressed, it'll affect your PDM greatly.
Alcohol - 8 hours bottle to throttle, 12 for Seneca
Fatigue - Haven't had enough sleep? Don't fly!
Eating - Proper nutrition and healthy diet is a must!

I don't meet I M and S in that IM SAFE checklist.

Anyways, I have planned my long cross country for a while now and just waiting to actually fly it with my instructor. I was scheduled today but with the weather caused by Post Ike and my illness moved it to Thursday morning.
My route goes as follows:
CYKZ - SHP over Ballantrae - CNF4 - CYQA - CYEE - CNY3 - CNA3 - CYKZ
So first I get to do it with my instructor and then I fly the whole thing again on a different day, solo!
I'm scared but even more excited. Should be fun!

My instructor landing on a HWY

This is taken from a post from liveatc.net
I must say I feel lucky to have Mr. Denning(leaning on the cop cruiser) as my instructor, can't wait until we fly again. Hopefully soon and get that first dual cross country done!
Well here it is enjoy!!


Globe and Mail (Toronto) -

"The plane (C-GSCZ) was gliding only 15 metres above two transport trucks before Mr. Denning brought the plane down safely on Interstate 87, close to the town of North Hudson, near Lake Placid."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080904.wsenecaflight0904/BNStory/National/home

Photo: T.J. HOOKER THE POST-STAR


Firemen and state troopers were able to move the aircraft off one lane, allowing traffic to flow past the disabled plane.
"They just pushed it off to one side," Bessey said.
As they waited for NTSB officials, the pilot and passengers leaned against the side of the plane, Bessey said.
"They were chuckling, everybody was chuckling with them. His instruments told him he was 15 minutes from Burlington.
He said at least he got to see Vermont. We told him he wasn't in Vermont."

http://www.pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_248000048.html?keyword=topstory





Original Audio File: BTV-App-Sep-03-2008-2000-2030Z
Download is edited, removing great whopping gaps of dead air

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BTV-App-Sep-03-2008-2030Z_CGSCZ.mp3 (704.8 KB - downloaded 21 times.)

Diversions

So today's flight was all about diversions!
We departed local north and went up to the town of Sharon, just north of the top of HWY 404.
My instructor helped me fly the airplane while I did my rough planning.
There are a few things you need to do in a diversion, and some should be in a certain order.
Draw your freehand trackline.
Estimate your heading using either the lines of longitude and latitude or a nearby VOR. This is critical you get this first because you want to be circling your landmark in a way that when you finish your planning you should already be around the heading you estimated.
Next is the distance to destination and time elapse. So the rule of thumb is 90kts = 1.5 NM/min and 120 kts = 2NM/min.
Next up is pick a halfway point and do the same things, distance and time. When you reach this halfway point, you will check if you arrive early or late, on track or drifted. This would give you your groundspeed and revised ETA and if necessary revised heading.

You should do all of these planning while flying the airplane, constantly looking out and in, out and in.
Then when your approximately over the landmark you started your trackline over. You should do these in order. (You also need to make sure your heading is set, because no point of doing any planning if you have the wrong heading)

TIME - write down the time you were over landmark
TURN - turn to your heading (use heading bug as well)
TRACK - see if you're actually on track using navigation (big picture -> small picture)
THROTTLE - adjust Throttle to cruise if you're not already in it.
ETA (to destination and halfway point)
TALK - contact london FSS or your company to let them know about the diversion

There were a couple of great tips my instructor gave me.
1. Always think ahead, always question yourself "whats next?"
It could be planning for arrival, checking the CFS, or completing a checklist

2. WATCH, MAP, OUTSIDE
a. Check time, see your ETA and what you should be looking for and where at certain times,
b. look at your map and look for Big picture-small picture of what you should be looking for outside.
c. Look outside and orient where you are from what you see.

Anyways my next flight is another diversion, but all by myself. So I have to fly the airplane while planning. I would probably be asked to divert to an uncontrolled airport and do uncontrolled procedures there.
The flight after that is a solo practice of diversion and uncontrolled procedures.

AND THEN! I should be doing my dual cross country after that.
I can't wait!