Flying Blind

Imagine: you're driving your car down the highway going 90+ MPH and there's nothing but you and the open road. Sounds fun, right? Now imagine this situation, and you happen to drive straight into a fog cloud and you can no longer see what's going on down the road, let alone 10 ft in front of you. How would you react? What would you do? In a car, the safest option would easily be to slow down to maybe 25 MPH as you wind your way along the road. However, if this situation were to happen while flying a plane, it would hardly be this easy.

When you're hundreds of feet in the air travelling 100+ MPH, slowing down isn't exactly an option...if one were to slow down to 25 MPH in the air, they would more than likely stall the plane and basically fall out of the sky. When weather conditions like flying into a cloud arise in flight, there are a few options for private pilots, as they aren't allowed to fly into clouds (which requires an instrument rating), the simplest option being a 180 degree turn to get out of the weather or clouds that you just flew into.

In order to prepare to fly into these conditions if a situation like that ever arises, the FAA requires that three or more hours of simulated instrument time must be completed. The one object that makes this training possible is what's called "the Hood."

Not me pictured here, but this is the same sort of Hood that I used during training

The Hood is a half cone-shaped piece of plastic that fits around your head with an elastic band and forces you to fly while only looking at your instruments, as it blocks all outside views.

All you'll really see while flying under the Hood

When your only way of gathering information about what's going on outside is your instruments, you need to maintain a vigilant scan of those instruments to make sure that your plane is staying on the heading you want and at the altitude and airspeed that you want. If any adjustments need to be made in terms of heading, altitude or airspeed, they need to be subtle and carefully executed for a couple of reasons. Most important of these reasons is: you want to make sure that while performing any maneuvers (turns, climbs) you maintain a scan - any movements that are too fast would prevent you from maintaining your scan of the instruments and making any proper, timely adjustments

While some may find the aspect of flying under the hood a bit of a hassle because of the possibility of vertigo, I actually found it pretty fun. When you fly without any outside views and it feels like only you and your plane flying along, you feel much more a part of the plane than if you were to fly with a view. The fact that you have to explicitly trust in what your instruments are telling you compared to what your body is telling you is an incredible feeling and something that I can't wait to have again if I ever start my instrument rating training. 

Another big part of instrument flying is VOR navigation as discussed in my previous post. GPS has also become a major player when it comes to instrument flying as it's become more and more precise, with many approach procedures now using GPS as a primary source of navigation. Both of these navigation methods are essential when flying blind, as there is no way of navigating using any visual checkpoints that private pilots normally use. 

While flying blind may not sound fun to some of you, chances are that you've been on a commercial flight where your friendly Captain and First Officer (copilot) have been descending through thick clouds to land when they only have their instruments available to them for reference. A quick YouTube video can be seen below with the pilots using what's called an ILS or Instrument Landing System. Don't worry though, chances are that you'll most likely never be on a commercial flight where the visibility is that bad...

ILS LANDING VIDEO HERE

Diagram of an ILS - the plane more or less follows the crosshairs down to the runway, usually on a glideslope of approximately 3 degrees

Frankly, the thought of basically flying a final approach without being able to see anything at all would definitely give me an incredible adrenaline rush, and it's absolutely something that I'd like to do some day as a pilot. Those that know me know that I'm not really a huge risk taker or "adrenaline junkie," but this is something that I would no doubt love to do.

While I'm not able to shoot any approaches like this in real life (for now...), I am able to practice them to some extent on the Flight Simulator that I have on my computer...more on that in my next post!

Q and A

As mentioned in my last post, I said I would be fielding some questions that anyone had in today's post. Without further ado, here they are...

--What are COMM and NAV radios? VOR receivers? What does all that mean...

COMM is short for COMMunication - COMM radios are what we use to talk to air traffic control, or on "walkie talkie" sort of communication frequencies called UNICOM at airports without control towers.

NAV is short for NAVigation - NAV radios are tuned to certain frequencies of navigation aids, like VOR's. These frequencies are typically used by pilots who fly on instruments only, but they are also helpful for private pilots as well.

VOR stands for Very high frequency Omnidirectional Radio range - they are stations located all over the world and are used by tuning the NAV radio to their corresponding frequencies. To use a VOR for navigation, first tune to it's frequency and then turn the receiver to the radial that it corresponds with. It's pretty hard to explain on here just in writing so if anyone's interested in actually finding out more about how it's done, just click on this link HERE

--What kind of planes can you fly with your license?

Well...even though I don't have my license quite yet (5 hours to go...), I am currently limited to piston single-engine planes that weigh less than 12,500 lbs. In addition, I can only operate planes with fixed propellers, an engine less than 200 hp, but I can also technically carry as many people as I want in my plane.

--How high can your Cessna 172 go?

As far as I know, the "ceiling" in the C172R that I rent is 13,500 ft, while the ceiling in the C172SP that I also occasionally rent is 14,000 ft - if anyone finds anything different please let me know. This is convenient because if you're in a C172 above 12,500 ft for more than 30 minutes, than the crew needs supplemental oxygen on board. Also, if you're above 14,000 ft for any duration, it's mandatory that the crew have supplemental oxygen. Thankfully, I don't plan on going above 12.5 or 14 any time soon so I won't have to drop any more $$$ than I already spend on flying as it is, which leads me to the next question...

--How much does it cost to get a private pilots license?

To answer simply? A lot... The flight school that I fly out of has a price which I think is pretty standard for most flight schools around the country - it's in the neighborhood of $6-7 thousand, depending on the type of plane that you rent. For example, I could have rented a smaller, two-seat Cessna 152 for about $30 less per hour, but it would have been incredibly cramped with an instructor next to me. Also, a good amount of our weight would be taken up with human weight instead of fuel, which would severely limit our time actually up in the air. 

One must keep in mind that the $6-7 thousand figure is usually for the minimum 40 hours required by the FAA. For example, those that don't grasp flying right away may take up to 60, 70 or more hours to become fully licensed and will be paying for those extra 20 or 30 hours as a result. So not only can staying on top of your training can help you get your license quicker, but it can also save you some serious $$$ too.

 --How far along are you in your training?

As of today, I currently have: 35.3 hours, 96 day landings, 11 night landings, and 7.3 hours solo. The FAA has certain minimums set, which I will outline below, for obtaining the 40 minimum hours. I will also include the number of hours I have for each category. 

• 20 hours of flight training with an instructor which includes
• 3 hours at night (I have 3.2)
• One night cross-country with total distance of 100 miles flown (Done)
• 10 takeoffs/landings (11)
• 3 hours of cross-country time (flight to an airport of more than 50 miles away) (5.4)
• 3 hours of simulated instrument time (more on this in a later post) (3.0)
• 3 hours of training within 60 days of taking the practical (in-flight) test (N/A)
• 10 hours solo (7.3)
• 5 hours of solo cross country (Only part I haven't accomplished yet, despite being signed off for solo cross-country flights)
• One solo cross-country over 150 miles in length with 3 stops along the way (Nope)
• 3 takeoffs/landings to a full stop at an airport with a control tower (3)

As you can hopefully see here, I really only have to accomplish the 5 hours of solo cross-country time before I'm able to be signed off for my practical test. I tried to get those hours out of the way during winter break before coming back to school, but unfortunately lost about two weeks worth of time due to some awful Chicago weather and scheduling issues. 

--Do you take a parachute when you go up with you?

Nope - and frankly, I don't expect to take one up with me for as long as I fly. I have faith in the planes that I fly and I know that if anything is to happen to my single engine that my plane is actually a decent glider as well. Trusting in your plane is key, because who else is a pilot supposed to trust besides himself when he's up hundreds or thousands of feet in the air?

--Do you need 20/20 vision to fly?

No you do not! FAA medical certificates only specify that your vision be 20/20 correctable for distant vision, and 20/40 or better (with or without correction) for near and intermediate vision. Color blindness is also a factor, as the FAA states that pilots must be able "to perceive those colors necessary for safe performance of airmen duties."

--What has been the hardest part of training so far?

While I haven't gotten too much into it yet, I know that the hardest part will definitely be prepping for my practical test. I need to know the electrical, fuel, engine, and avionics (instrument) systems for the C172 like the back of my hand, in addition to knowing everything else not having to do with the plane like airspace regulations, weather, minimum weather requirements, communications, etc. or else I will fail my test and have to take it again - costing some serious $$$ and putting a "black mark" of sorts on my instructor's record.

--Dream plane and place to fly in to?

My dream plane would either have to be the Cessna 206 Skywagon or the Pilatus PC-12. The Skywagon is the newer, bigger brother of the C172 - able to carry twice the amount of passengers in addition to an engine that's twice as powerful. The Pilatus is also a single-engine plane as well, with incredible performance characteristics that all pilots would surely love - incredibly reliable, powerful engine, ability to get in and out of small runways, and great payload capabilities.

Both cost a pretty penny, so I guess I should start saving now...right?

C206 Skywagon

Pilatus PC-12

As far as a dream place to fly in to, I have long dreamed of flying into Chicago Midway (MDW), which I was able to accomplish (more on that in another post). I wouldn't necessarily say that I have a dream place to fly to, but I do have dream places that I'd like to fly over/around: my house/neighborhood, along the Chicago lakefront, along the dunes in Southwest Michigan, down the Hudson river corridor to NYC, over my college campus - the list goes on.

--What have your parents thought about the process? Are they nervous?

They have been very supportive! Not financially, however - that burden falls on me. I have talked about it with my mom before and she says that she's nervous sometimes, but that the more she thinks about it the more nervous it makes her, which I totally understand. I feel like my dad has the same sort of feeling, but I just haven't gotten it out of him yet.


Hope these questions helped you understand the nature of my training and flying as a whole better than you did before! My next post will be on what it's like flying only on instruments without being able to see out the windows - better known as flying "under the hood."

The Bird

Like every driver and their affection for a first car, the same can easily be said of a pilot and their first plane. For me, the first (and only, at the moment) plane I have flown thus far has been the venerable, mass-produced Cessna 172 Skyhawk.

With over 43,000 constructed since production started in 1956, it's safe to say that the 172 is a mainstay in the general aviation (GA) world. Loved by pilots across the globe, the 172's relative simplicity, four-seat capacity, and respectable performance make it popular whether you're a student or a seasoned pilot.

With a four or six cylinder engine ranging anywhere from 145 hp to 180 hp depending on the model, it can cruise up to 140 MPH and fly approximately 700-750 miles on a single tank of gas.

Personally, my time in the 172 has been great - the high-wing design allows for unobstructed views of the ground, allowing for great photography chances but also prohibits you of viewing anything in the air above you. It's relatively low stalling speed ( ~40 knots/45 MPH) also enables it to land on some short grass or paved runways, allowing you to get in and out of some unfurnished airports with ease.

The cockpit itself is about as simple as it gets for a small single engine plane. There are your standard engine/oil gauges, the standard "six-pack" (artificial horizon, altimeter, directional gyro (compass), vertical speed indicator, turn coordinator, and airspeed indicator), radio stack with different COMM and NAV frequencies and the transponder (basically allows your plane to be seen by air traffic control), along with the non-mandatory VOR (navigation aid) receivers and a very basic GPS and autopilot.

While it may not sound that simple on the surface, it only takes a flight or two to get used to the layout of the cockpit.

The view from the left seat of a Cessna 172

Full view of the panel - large orange/black stack in the middle houses the radios

On the outer portion of each yoke (control wheel), there is a push-to-talk button that, when pressed and held down, enables you to speak to controllers without having your hand leave the controls. Thankfully, most, if not all, planes have this feature, making aviating and communicating at the same time a breeze, especially for student pilots.

I planned on having this be a short informational post, but in my next post, I'd like to answer any questions that any of you may have so far on anything having to do with flying. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments box below or shoot me an email (jkrecek3@gmail.com) and I'd love to answer them.

Flaps up!

Ridin' Solo

(S/O to Jason DeRulo for the awesome post title)

Saturday July 26, 2014

Today, I had two flights on my slate - an 8 AM flight with a different instructor than the one I normally have, and a normal training flight with my regular instructor in the afternoon. This first flight was my solo cross check flight, or in other words, a flight where a different instructor accompanied me up to "double check" that I was approved for solo flight.

In this early morning flight, the weather when we lifted off from Clow (1C5) didn't look like the weather that other airports in the area were reporting - the clouds were lower and seemed to be getting lower by the minute. As a result, my instructor had to deviate from some of the normal procedures that were part of a regular solo cross check. After practicing some pilotage (using local landmarks to navigate as opposed to a GPS or other navigation aids) my instructor took me to Joliet Regional Airport (JOT) where we practiced landing on a shorter runway than I was accustomed to (2900' vs 3400').

What made the landing/approach at JOT more interesting was the fact that we flew it with the airspeed indicator out. In other words, the instructor placed a circular piece of paper, similar to a post-it note, over the instrument so I couldn't see what my airspeed was and I had to rely solely on my senses/how the airplane controls felt/responded to get a general idea of what my airspeed was.

As it turned out, I overestimated my approach speed and ended up having to execute a go around because I was too high and had excess speed. Nonetheless, the instructor said that he was happy with how everything went and said that it's definitely better to overestimate airspeed, because at the low altitude we were at, it's nearly impossible to recover from a stall (more on those in a later post).

After our practice at JOT, we headed over to the Lewis University Airport (LOT) to practice a couple standard takeoffs and landings - pretty uneventful. To end the day, we flew back to 1C5 and my instructors certified me for solo flight!

After a two hour break, I went up again at noon with my regular instructor. We started the day just doing some pattern work because the clouds were still at a level where we were unable to practice any other maneuvers/procedures, like stalls.

The 5 Different Legs of an Airport Traffic Pattern

After doing a couple circuits and nailing a couple landings, we were taxiing back to the end of the runway to takeoff again when my instructor told me to pull over next to the office, and I did - but I was confused...

Once I had stopped, he told me to keep the engine running and said "Alright, I'm gonna hop out here. She's all yours." I almost froze. I was actually going to fly solo...

It all came as such a shock to me because I thought I would be soloing when the cloud conditions were better, but he must've known that I was ready to do it and he threw me right into the fire.

On my taxi to takeoff, I kept going through the various procedures in my head if something were to go wrong - engine failure on takeoff, minimum altitude to turn back if engine failure occurred during climb, stall recovery procedures for both landing and takeoff - just to name a few. I know I know...thinking of all the things that could go wrong isn't exactly what you want to be doing when you're nervous, but when you're a pilot, it's a necessity.

I started my takeoff roll and everything was going smoothly. I was just be flying in the traffic pattern and my upwind, crosswind, downwind, and base legs were all uneventful. But when I rolled out onto final, I realized the small crosswind had pushed me a little bit off of the runway centerline and I knew I had to realign myself if I had any hope of landing the plane on the 50 ft wide runway.

Not wanting to totally botch my first landing, I decided to execute a go around, making sure not to stall the plane and performing all of the procedures that the checklist called for. My instructor actually chimed in on the radio after the go around just wanting to double check if everything was OK and of course I told him yes...I mean, what else am I supposed to think when I'm hundreds of feet up in the air by myself? I have to put the bird down somehow...

My next landing went according to plan, and after completing three more landings, I had officially finished my first solo flight. I was ecstatic - shaking, sweating, smiling - it was definitely one of the proudest moments of my life to date.

I had finally done it. I had finally flown a plane by myself. While I still had a good amount of hours to go before getting my license, I didn't care - I felt on top of the world.

Speaking of hours, I accomplished my first solo flight after accumulating only 12.2 hours of flying time in 5 days worth of flying, and as far as I know, that's a record at the school that I fly at. Also, it's something that I'm definitely proud of because I actually had to put in numerous hours of studying to even be able to solo in the first place, and it all paid off.

It's long been tradition in aviation that after a student flies solo, the back of their shirt is cut off and they are doused with water (depending on the weather). The story behind the shirt is that during the early days of flying, the instructor sat behind the student in the cockpit and since the cockpits were loud and there were no headsets, the instructor had to pull on the student's shirt to direct him. The shirt back being cut off was symbolic in that it signified that the student no longer needed to be pulled in the right direction. As far as the water tradition, that I'm not 100% sure of...but it happened!

It's also tradition for the student's instructor to take the shirt back and draw a design on it after it has dried and present it to the student.

My Shirt Back Design

After my First Solo

My first solo takeoff 

My Now Back-less Shirt

In my next post, I'll talk more about the plane that has carried me through all of my training and what I will likely be flying for the foreseeable future...the Cessna 172 Skyhawk

Cleared for Takeoff

At the beginning of the summer after my freshman year of college, I was excited - excited to see my friends, excited to make some more money working at a local restaurant, and excited for all that summer in the beautiful city of Chicago brings. Those plans all changed when I dislocated my thumb tossing the football around with my good friends Nick and Kevin, and I was put in a cast for six weeks.

Initially I had thought about waiting on my flight training since my summer was more or less booked with working, working out, taking a summer class, and relaxing with my pals. Since the cast was around for those six weeks, I was unable to work and could only work out one side of my upper body. It was also a huge, smelly, bulky pain to have around and I couldn't wait for it to come off. I spent most of the rest of the time with my cast on doing various odd jobs for some family friends to make a buck here and there, but it didn't compare to the steady, albeit minimum wage, income that the restaurant job would have provided.

Once the cast was off, I had to wait two weeks to be cleared by a doctor, then there would be another week or two for me to get any work in at the restaurant before leaving for school. I decided taking the time to adapt to working there again and re-learning the menu and protocols wasn't necessarily worth doing for two weeks, not to mention just getting back on the schedule to work again.. Instead, I thought that I could spend some time working on my dream of flying instead.

While I was back at school in the spring, I had looked into various flight schools in my area and the one that caught my eye was at the Clow International Airport in Bolingbrook, IL - about a 20-25 minute drive from my house. On Sunday, July 20, I called them up and they said they could accommodate me later that day for an intro flight.

Not to sound corny, but the flight was everything I had expected. The weather was perfect - winds no more than 5 knots, scattered high-level clouds, and I didn't do as bad of a job landing and taking off as I thought I might for my first flight.

After the intro flight, I decided to set a goal for myself of flying solo before I left for school. All of the initial training flights went relatively smoothly and quickly. After eight flights and five days of flying twice a day, my instructor threw me into my first solo, and I was totally blindsided by it - and I mean blindsided in the nicest sense of the word.

In reality, I had sufficient preparation and I was ready, I was just shocked at the way it all went down.

Check back for how my first solo went in the next post!

Back to the Beginning (pt. 2 of 2)

So here I was, going into my senior year, a bright student - good test scores, good grades, wanting to pursue engineering and hopefully one day work for Nike designing and tweaking their products. After I had spent countless hours poring over my college apps, I was excited - I was about to head to beautiful Keystone, CO with my family for some great skiing and much needed relaxation.

The night before our flight out from Midway, I realized I wanted a fun, new app to play while on the roughly five-hour commute from Chicago to the Keystone Resort. I was browsing the app store and thinking there wouldn't be any flight sim apps on the store, but I thought I'd give it a shot and see what came up. As it turned out, Infinite Flight popped up on my screen. I read the reviews, looked at the in-game screenshots and it seemed like for the $5 price point, it would be well worth the purchase.

While traveling the next day, I couldn't put my phone down - even though the app was relatively rudimentary. Whenever I was off the slopes, I couldn't resist the chance to play - I was hooked.

Over the course of the next few months, I still played the game quite a bit, and in the process decided to continue my academic and athletic "careers" playing football and studying engineering at a small-ish school in upstate NY. I initially applied as a materials engineer but with my interest in Nike fading and interest in aviation again growing, I figured I'd rather be an aeronautical engineer and study a field that I have great passion for instead.

During the summer leading into my freshman year, I knew that I would be getting a Windows PC for the engineering software that my school provided. Being a MacBook owner, this meant that I'd be able to pair my new Windows with the latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator as well. As it turned out, I bit the bullet and decided to drop money on both the game and a joystick/throttle combo to accompany it as well. With the joystick/throttle I could fly around in my game much more realistically and, most importantly, without using arrow keys.

All throughout my freshman year, I would try to play the game and advance my skill/knowledge as much as my school/football schedule permitted while still trying to maintain a solid social life. I'd also like to thank my roommate and great friend Greg for putting up with me flying at the desk next to his while he was trying to get homework done. I know that virtual jet engines/props aren't the easiest thing to listen to, so thanks for dealing with it, Greg.

Now, in every great turning point in our life there's some sort of revolutionary moment or event that has to take place at some point or another. This moment for me came during a test review session for a class called Strength of Materials (the name just screams "fun," doesn't it?). The thought that changed everything was "Wow...I'd definitely rather fly planes for a living than sit behind a desk and design them/crunch numbers for the rest of my life." Of course, the issue of airline pay - amongst many other things - came to mind as it absolutely pales in comparison to engineering pay, which I'll touch on at a later date. But most importantly, I knew if I were to be a pilot that I would absolutely love what I was doing every single day that I went to work.

Tentatively, the plan I have at this point is to obtain my private pilot's license while I'm in college and fly on my own and build hours. After I get my degree, I'd like to get on my feet for a few years and from there obtain all of the other licenses/certificates necessary to be a commercial pilot. I can't wait to share with all of you how that plan goes.

Frankly, it seems weird to call engineering a backup plan at this point, but almost all major airlines require a four-year degree...so why not pursue this (hopefully) lucrative degree while I'm at it? I also can't say enough about the people I've met, the friends I've made, and the experiences I've had while living in a totally different part of the country. I wouldn't change a minute of it.

So, from here, we'll move on to what prompted me to start my initial training in the first place. More to come on that in my next post...

Back to the Beginning (pt. 1 of 2)

In order to understand anything in life, we have to look to it's origins - where it all started. For me, my love for flying started at an early age when I was fascinated by planes as I traveled to and from Ft. Lauderdale every winter and/or spring to visit my great grandmother. I can vividly remember days at Chicago's Midway Airport traveling on ATA 757's to and from South Florida, and my parents always let me have the window seat. I even specifically remember not liking the fact that we were on a 737 instead of a 757 because I liked the way that the 75 looked...

Surprisingly, not much has changed in the 16 or so years since my first flight (that I remember at least), as I still fly out of Midway, albeit on Southwest 737's instead of ATA's, and I always always have to get the window seat. Heck, I'll still take the chance to ride on the soon-to-be-retired 757 over the commonplace 737 any day of the week.

From there, I would always ask for little toy planes as Christmas or birthday gifts...or whenever. For some reason, I found a lot of joy in being able to hold the scale models in my hand and make those WHOOSH noises as I contorted my arm around and "flew" the plane.

Building small planes out of Legos was something else that I enjoyed - they were pretty good ones for a second/third grader if I do say so myself. I know I took pictures of a few of them somewhere along the way with my dad's camera, but they have yet to surface around the house. Thankfully.

Next came Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 - the one thing that really got me interested in possibly being a pilot as a career. I got the game about the time I was in fourth grade and played it as often as I possibly could. Many of my landings/takeoffs were unrealistic and some of the maneuvers performed would likely result in immediate license revocation and possibly death in the real world, but the fact that I was behind the almost-entirely-accurate controls of a virtual plane with real cities and airports was incredibly captivating.

I went on like this for the next few years until my computer broke and the disk was unrecoverable from the ancient desktop computer. I remember I was crushed but I remember moving on fairly quickly as well. A few years later down the road in grade school, Nike's shoes and products really started to interest me. Being a shoe designer/product test engineer for them was a dream of mine all the way up until my senior year of high school. It was halfway through my senior year in high school that things started changing... **cliffhanger**

That's where I'll leave it for now...more to come in the next post!