Pruurpolis

In this episode, I have in-flight audio recorded during my second solo cross-country. The flight took place back on May 18, 2008 (The corresponding blog entry, "Another Day, Another Solo Cross-Country," can be found here http://uncoordinatedflight.blogspot.com/2008/05/another-day-another-solo-cross-country.html). This was my long cross-country which means I had to have landings at 3 different airports with one leg being at least 50 nautical miles. I actually flew much further than necessary as I went from San Antonio to Austin to Kerrville and back to San Antonio. Each leg was over 50 NM with the Austin to Kerrville being almost 80 NM. Overall, it was a good flight, but the leg from Austin to Kerrville was BORING!!! As always, thanks for listening and please check out the blog at www.uncoordinatedflight.com. There are several new videos posted which I'm sure you'll enjoy. Also, please contact me at [email protected] with any questions or comments.

This podcast episode is mainly in-flight audio recorded from my first solo cross-country which took place on May 17, 2008. On this flight, I flew from San Antonio to Uvalde and back to San Antonio. For the most part, it was an uneventful flight, but I did have some weather issues to deal with. For more details on the flight, please check out the May 17 blog entry, "My First Solo Cross-Country." http://uncoordinatedflight.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-first-solo-cross-country.html If you are not using Itunes or some other type of podcatcher, use this link to directly access the audio file: http://www.archive.org/download/EthanJacobyUncoordinatedFlight_005-MyFirstSoloCrossCountry/UncoordinatedFlight005MyFirstSoloCrossCountry.mp3 Please contact me with any questions or comments at [email protected]. Thanks for listening to Uncoordinated Flight and I'll be back soon with more flying.

Here it is, the eagerly anticipated and often promised episode #4. This is a very short podcast that I'm simply using as a catch-up episode. I'm much further along in my training than the podcast would lead you to believe, and the blog is a bit behind as well. So, this brief, 4 minute podcast, will quickly get you caught-up to where I actually am. There will hopefully be some more episodes to quickly follow this one. I have in flight audio from three solo flights that I need to edit and add commentary to before I post them. If I can't find time to do this soon, I'll get it done after I have my license. Thanks for sticking with me in the meantime. Enjoy the podcast. If you are not using Itunes or some other type of podcatcher, use this link to directly access the audio file: http://www.archive.org/download/UncoordinatedFlight004/UncoordinatedFlight004-TheCatc.mp3 Welcome to episode 4 of the uncoordinated fight podcast. I’m your host Ethan Jacoby. Once again, I’ll apologize for the long gap between podcasts. The blog is slightly more up to date, but it is behind as well. Needless to say, I have not had an excess of free time. While trying to find time for work, flight school, and maintaining a social life, the podcast drew the short straw. The last podcast posted towards the end of march. It is now the beginning of June and I’m obviously much further along in my private pilot training. Since the last podcast, I’ve completed a couple of dual cross-countries, a night cross country, a phase 2 stage check, two solo cross countries, lots of dual, local flights, and some local solos to practice maneuvers and landings. Now, I’m basically just working to fine tune my skills before taking the phase 3 stage check and the FAA practical exam. With any luck, my license is just around the corner. So, looking at my log book I now have 52.5 hours of total flight time, 43.7 of dual/instruction time, 8.8 hours solo/PIC time, 10 hours of cross-country flight, 5.1 hours of night, and about 130 total landings…13 of which were night landings. My plan is to take the written exam next weekend. I’ve been taking a lot of practice exams with my scores routinely falling between 80-90%, so I’m not too worried about the written. Of course, I know that the better I do on the written, the shorter and easier my oral exam will likely be. After the written is out of the way, I just need to keep flying (alternating between dual and solo) until my instructor thinks I’m ready for the exam. Then, I’ll take a phase 3 stage check which is basically a mock check ride with one of the stage check instructors. Assuming the stage check goes OK, the next thing after that will be my practical exam! The podcasting takes much more time than I first thought it would, but I hope to a few more episodes out fairly quickly. I have in flight audio from three solo flights. As soon as I can get it edited down, I’ll post it. Until then, thanks for listening and I’ll be back soon with more flying. For additional details on my flying adventures, please visit the blog at www.uncoordinatedflight.com. Also, please email me with any questions or comments at [email protected].

**I recently logged into my feedburner account and was shocked to see that I had quite a few subscribers. While most of the subscribers are for the podcast, I think there is a fair number reading the blog as well. Since it has been awhile since I've posted, I wanted to get something out to let people know I'm still flying...Sorry, no in-flight audio, but I'll try to get more of that in the future. Also, A big thank you to all that are reading/listening. The feedback I've received has been great and I hope to hear from the rest of you as well.** Lately, it has been rare that I've been able to schedule two lessons on one weekend. This weekend was looking to be no different. I had a lesson scheduled for Saturday, but the weather forecast looked prohibitive of a Sunday lesson. However, I've come to the point where I enjoy flying so much that I realize one day in the air is much, much better than none! Saturday morning came about much too quickly. I rushed out the door shortly after waking up and headed towards San Antonio International. Rodrigo and I arrived at about the same time, so we checked the weather report, grabbed the keys and POH for our airplane, and headed towards his cubicle for a short bit of ground instruction. Rodrigo quickly ran through the procedures for short and soft field takeoffs and landings. In addition to the explanations, he artistically illustrated them on a white board. When he asked if I had any questions, all I could ask was, "You're going to do each one first and let me follow on the controls right?" We headed out to our airplane. Today, we would be in N52261. This airplane is a Cessna 172P lovingly nicknamed, "The Beast!" When I asked Rodrigo how it got it's nickname, he told me, "You'll know as soon as you start to taxi!" I had flown this airplane once or twice before, but this was the first time I had heard the nickname. Thinking back to my previous flights in this craft, I couldn't remember any reason to call it "The beast." As I started to taxi, I was still clueless of the origins of the nickname. However, when I pulled into the run-up area and did my final flight controls check, I suddenly found "The beast" to be a well deserved nickname. The controls were stiff. The elevator, in particular, required much more effort than any of the other 172s I've flown. I looked over at Rodrigo with a confused look and, while moving the elevator, asked, "Is this OK?" Rodrigo moved the elevator up and down and deflected the ailerons in both directions. He said that they are tough to move, but they are in good flight condition. Accepting this explanation, I was ready to take off. Rodrigo decided that we would make our first departure a soft-field takeoff. He would handle the controls and I would follow him. With the flaps set to 10 and the elevator fully deflected in the nose up position, we rolled onto the runway and Rodrigo hit the throttle. The nose wheel jumped off the ground and was held in the air by Rodrigo. The airplane left the ground around 50 knots, but Rodrigo prevented it from climbing out of ground effect. We flew low over the runway until our speed reached 70 knots. At 70, Rodrigo put the airplane into a normal takeoff climb and handed the controls off to me. San Antonio ATC kept me under their control for the duration of the short flight to Stinson Field (KSSF). A short ten minutes after takeoff, I was handed off to the Stinson tower and preparing to enter their pattern. Once I was given my landing clearance, Rodrigo again took the controls to demonstrate a soft-field landing. Nothing difficult here...just keep the nose wheel up and try not to use the breaks when on the ground. However, Rodrigo slammed the airplane down hard and couldn't keep the nose wheel off the ground. We both started to laugh when Rodrigo commented that mine would probably be much better than his demonstration. We taxied back to the runway so that Rodrigo could demonstrate a short-field departure. Again, this seemed fairly

Two entries with podcasts in two weeks. Somehow, I don't think I will keep up this pace for long. However, I was finally able to record in flight audio which really helps when putting the podcast together. Rather than scripting or talking, I can just edit and publish. Today, the plan was for a flight which I'm calling my first complete solo. For the first time, I would complete a short flight without ever having an instructor in the airplane with me. I would takeoff from San Antonio International (SAT), navigate to the practice area, perform some maneuvers, navigate to Castroville airport (T89), do a couple of landings, and return to SAT all by myself. Surprisingly, I wasn't really nervous about this either...just anxious and excited. This, I knew, was going to be fun. This was what flying was all about. I had the airplane (N1281U - Rifle 12) scheduled from 9:30-12:00am local. However, no one was scheduled in this airplane before me, so I decided to arrive early in order to complete my weight, balance and performance calculations before my scheduled start time. For such a simple flight, this work didn't take very long. I gave myself a half hour to finish and I ended up with 10 minutes to spare. Good, a little time to relax might be helpful. When Rodrigo arrived at 9:30, he quickly checked the weather with me again before we sat down to discuss the flight. I was expecting to have to go through an additional oral exam, but Rodrigo didn't seem to have a lot of questions for me. I like to think that this means he thinks I know my stuff (probably not the case though). Rodrigo and I only talked for about 10 minutes. Most of that time was spent giving me my instructions for what to do during the flight. He wanted me to keep it short, simple, and fun. I decided I wanted to go to the west practice area, so the plan was for me to do a few maneuvers in the practice area, then head to Castroville (T89) for two full stop landings, then return home. After those simple instructions, I was handed the keys to the airplane and sent on my way. I ran through my pre-flight and, when everything checked out, settled myself into the cockpit. As I started the engine, checked the ATIS and contacted clearance/delivery, everything was feeling good. I wasn't nervous at all. I just wanted to get into the air. A few minutes later, I did just that. As soon as I had my takeoff clearance, I shot down the runway. The temperature was a mere 10C, so my little Cessna leaped from the runway and climbed like an F-18! OK, it was only 1200 feet per minute, but it felt great! Moments later, I was cleared to resume own navigation and I turned into the wind and towards the practice area. With a strong headwind, I wasn't able to make very good time to the practice area. It took me about 20 minutes to travel 20 miles. There was another Wright Flyers airplane behind me also headed to the practice area. Fortunately, we had a very good controller watching over us. Once we entered the practice area, he continually called out positions to each airplane. Even though I could not see the other airplane behind me, it was good to know I was being looked after. Once I was deep into the practice area, I started the maneuvering prescribed by Rodrigo. First, two steep turns. One right, one left, both OK, but both could have been much better. I then set up for slow flight in the landing configuration, followed by slow flight in the clean configuration. I maintained each slow flight configuration for about two minutes, making slight turns to get used to the mushy controls. With that out of the way, I was ready to head to Castroville for a couple of landings. I radioed SAT to let the know my intentions and to tell them that I had Castroville in sight. They immediately had me switch over, so I tuned in the Castroville CTAF and made my first call. With the wind direction and my location, I decided to make a straight in approach for runway 15. There was no one else in the area, so I felt like

I was on a business trip this week and had some free time in the hotel, so, I figured it was a good time to record the first real episode of the podcast. I'll apologize upfront for the audio quality. I'm still trying to figure out the recording/editing software. Eventually, I'd like to figure out how to add music as well. In this episode, I decided to just give a quick introduction to my flight training so far and then dive into the story of my first solo. Getting the first solo out of the way was a relief...the second solo was a blast and I can't wait for the third. For future episodes, I'm hoping to incorporate some in-flight audio. I recently purchased a headset adapter cable that should allow me to use a digital voice recorder to record all in-flight audio. We'll see what the quality is like, but I have my doubts. As usual, please email me with any questions or comments at [email protected]