Night flight to Corvallis!

Thoughts: Tonight was a beautiful night to fly! My instructor and I hopped into the RG and headed south down the valley. After the success of our Saturday XC flight, we decided to head to Corvallis, OR. We worked on flows and proceedures as well as emergency proceedures en-route down, as well as slow flight and stalls while on the
way back. Once again the RG performed very well and I feel like I am getting much more acustomed to the controls and feel of the airplane.

Date: 02/22/2010
Time: 18:15
Point of Origin: Hillsboro, OR (HIO)
Midpoint: Corvallis, OR (CVO)
Destination: Hillsboro, OR (HIO)
Flight Hours: 1.6
Flight Info: Jeppesen Commercial Pilot Syllabus Flight #49. Local Dual flight in the 172RG. Slow flight, short and soft takeoffs and landings, stalls.

Sunny weekend flight to the coast!

Thoughts: To change things up a bit, and because the weather was beautiful, my instructor and I headed out to Tillamook to add some cross-country time. To be logged as cross-country (XC), a flight must be to an airport at least 50 Nautical Miles away with a landing made there. When it comes to obtaining licenses, I will need 1500 total hours of flight time with at least 500 hours worth of XC time. When I’m in a plane as fast as the RG, it makes it simpler to fly out and back within the time block. This gives me some extra experience in the “en route” phase of flight and dealing with Air Traffic Control. My next flight is scheduled for Monday evening. More night flying in the RG. Really looking forward to it!

Date: 02/20/2010
Time: 11:00
Point of Origin: Troutdale, OR (TTD)
Midpoint: Tillamook, OR (TMK)
Destination: Troutdale, OR (TTD)
Flight Hours: 1.6
Flight Info: Jeppesen Commercial Pilot Syllabus Flight #48. Local Dual flight in the 172RG. This flight was scheduled to be local to continue working on the basic flight maneuvers. Flew to Tillamook (TMK) and back, performing slow flight and stalls on the way back to TTD.

First Flight in the RG!

Date: 02/08/2010
Time: 18:30
Point of Origin: Hillsboro, OR (HIO)
Destination: Hillsboro, OR (HIO)
Flight Hours: 1.2
Flight Info: Jeppesen Commercial Pilot Syllabus Flight #46. Local Dual flight in the 172RG. First “Complex Aircraft” flight. Took off from HIO and headed south to McMinnville. Enroute I worked on going from cruise to slow flight and then back to cruise. After that it was a few stalls, both power on and power off. Over MMV we did some steep turns. We flew back into the pattern at HIO and performed 1 touch-and-go and 1 full stop landing.
Thoughts: The RG is a ton of fun to fly! We got up to 145 knots while cruising down to MMV which is the fastest I’ve been in an aircraft I’m flying. It is amazing how much of a difference there is in performance when the wheels go down (wheels down = more drag = we slow down pretty quick) to when the wheels are up (wheels up = less drag = takes much longer to get it slowed down). Just by adding the extra controls for landing gear, adjustable propeller, and cowl flaps there is a large increase in things to do in the cockpit at all times. I think that what I enjoy the most is having something new to work with. As usual I had a ton of fun and loved this flight!

Back to basics

Date: 02/06/2010
Time: 11:20
Point of Origin: Troutdale, OR (TTD)
Destination: Troutdale, OR (TTD)
Flight Hours: 1.2
Flight Info: Jeppesen Commercial Pilot Syllabus Flight #36. Local Solo flight working on flight maneuvers. Flew to Scappoose and did a touch and go before heading to Battle Ground to do Slow Flight, Stalls (power on and power off), Steep turns, and S-Turns around a road. Finally I headed back to TTD to practice Short Field and Soft Field landings and takeoffs.
Thoughts: This was a good flight. It had been a while since I had flown solo so I enjoyed the opportunity to make the decisions about where to go and which maneuver to perform next. Flying around with 12,000 foot ceilings and smooth air on a Saturday morning is great! There were quite a few other GA aircraft at the outlier airports though so it was a good day for CTAF practice. Looking forward to RG training next week. It looks like our (HAI TTD) RG is down for maintenance so I will be flying out of Hillsboro airport for a while. The new environment will be fun to learn.

Commercial Stage IV Check

Date: 02/04/2010
Time: 18:30
Point of Origin: Troutdale, OR (TTD)
Destination: Troutdale, OR (TTD)
Flight Hours: 1.4
Flight Info: Jeppesen Commercial Pilot Syllabus Flight #35. Stage IV Progress Check completed. Planned Cross Country flight to Tillamook but was diverted to McMinnville. While on the flight, I was tested on my plan and checkpoints as well as emergency procedures. On the diversion I had to come up with a new ETA and Heading. After doing a touch-and-go we tracked back inbound to the Newburg VOR before heading back into Troutdale.
Thoughts: This flight went mostly well but I made a few mistakes along the way that I should he known better. The instructor pulled the Alternator breaker without me knowing it and watched for me to notice it. Unfortunately the Voltage meter is on the far side of the panel and honestly I wasn’t watching it like I should have been. When asked about it, I didn’t have my emergency checklist at hand to start troubleshooting it. When I got the checklist from the instructor I found the problem quickly. I don’t like not having an answer. Having gone through this exercise, I will be sure to remember that one for the future. That was the biggest mistake that I made though. The rest of the flight was fun. It was good to pickup more night and point to point time for the logbook.