Relaxing Fathers Day / Belated Birthday Weekend!

I didn't spend much time studying or thinking about studying on Friday or today.  But I did spend alot of quality time with my family.  Friday,  Dale and I took my nephew Austin to Magic Mountain, it had been years since I had ridden a roller coaster.  After Magic Mountain, Dale and I headed to my parents house to start Fathers Day / Belated Birthday weekend for our Dad.  The car ride over was great, I got hear how Dale clawed his way up the corporate pilot ladder, and all the great planes he'd flown. Amazing career, filled full of great general aviation aircraft.  I'm blessed to have Dale as a great resource within the family for career advice and guidance.   Dale's buddy John ( a CFII) joined my parents, Dale and I as we settled in at the local watering hole, Firestone Brewey.. after the pub the evening was down hill from there.  Aviation tales, airplane stories and everything else imaginable were covered as we chatted til late in the evening over beers!  I learned alot from Dale and John, and I think my parents learned alot as well. 
Saturday Morning was spent taking Dad to a trap range for his belated birthday present.   Dad had never shot skeet before, so we had to correct that.  The day was fun, guys, guns and a great lunch afterwards.  

till later!

Private Multi-Engine Rating.... Check!

Today was a long day, but a great day..  I passed my multi-engine check-ride and I was accepted into Emory Riddles Masters Degree program. I got up early to relax and have breakfast before running off to school for my multi-engine check ride.  I spent a couple hours before the evaluator showed, pre-flighting the plane and looking over my paperwork.  While on the ramp, I ran into Brett as he was pre-flighting for his contract flight.   It is nice to have such a great resource as an instructor.

The Mighty.. PA-44-180 Seminole.. N571AT  my checkride bird

 Next I turned my attention to the weather, it was a nice quiet morning at the field, because of the overcast cloud layer hanging over the field, so only IFR (instrument flight rules) planes were moving. That left me on the ground.  I hoped the layer would burn off quickly for my practical portion of the evaluation.
Once my evaluator Joe showed up we started the paperwork and then proceeded to the oral portion of the test.  After a couple hours of questions and answers, we turned our attention to the weather. Unfortunately the "San Diego marine layer had yet to burn off, so we agreed to meet back up in couple hours, I hoped the marine layer would burn off.   Joe headed to lunch and I took advantage of the "break" and relaxed while getting a bite to eat myself.
Luck was with us, the marine layer burned off quickly leaving us a opening to the east of Montgomery  over Gillespie to conduct our maneuvers and landings.   The practical portion was a blur for me, it was one maneuver after another, Joe was an expert he had all the maneuvers planned out, so they were all in sequence with no wasted time.  Then before I knew it, Joe looked at me and said " I have the controls"  After he took the controls I had a little bit of panic thinking I screwed up some how and the ride was over,  as I looked around I noticed I wasn't in the wrong airspace so I relaxed.

Then I started laughing, as I noticed it Joe 15-20 seconds to get the plane settled out and smoothly headed back to Montgomery.  His years of experience of flying came thru,  compared to my constant efforts and fiddling.   Joe just smiled and told me to relax and enjoy the ride back.  So I did, watching him, picking up some tips as we made our way back.   I expected him to give me the controls back  for the landing, but he did not.  After, " the after landing checklist" he gave me the controls back.  Once getting taxi clearance back to parking, he told me "don't break it, you are rated now".   I thanked him, wow a huge relief I had passed my second check-ride in thirteen days.  Now all I had to do was get the plane safely parked.  After parking, Joe headed off as I closed up the plane. As I walked in, I ran into Brett again. He congratulated me, giving me a  huge sense of pride. I felt like I did him proud, giving back to him for help he gave me.  Once I met back up with Joe  he certified in my logbook that I was a multi-engine pilot.  The joy was immediate, it felt better then my private.

After chilling for awhile  at school, I decided to head up to the visit the Wheelers getting an early jump on the Father's Day weekend plans.  Matt had canceled our evening flight due to weather and had given me the weekend off for Fathers Day.  So I packed and headed north, I battled the traffic for three hours but considered myself lucky considering I headed north at 3:30 on a weekday, I was going to hit all the traffic for San Diego and LA counties.  
Dale & Renee had prepped an awesome rib dinner for the feasting.  The rest of the evening was spent drinking some beers and chatting.  It felt great to be done. It was weird I felt more of an accomplishment with this checkride then I did with my first.   Well enough for now...

Final Prep for Multi-Engine Checkride...

Today was a good day... another flying day.  After a brief break I restarted my morning workout routine.  I spend a good hour working out as I listen to my favorite podcast "Airplane Geeks".  It's awesome to work out and come out motivated about aviation.  The podcast covers everything from general aviation to commercial aviation politics.  Just a great way to start the day, for an airplane geek!
I spent the rest of the morning studying my multi-engine aerodynamics and Seminole systems. After lunch I headed to the field to “chair fly the maneuvers” one more time before our afternoon
 After yesterday's flight, today's was mostly to burn up flight time, go thru the maneuvers one more time and have fun.  Matt and I headed west over the water to do the high work, then headed to Brown field for the landings.  I enjoy doing touch and goes, I was loving it.  After eight landings we headed back to Montgomery Field,  I think was Matt was bored. So it was a short "school" day.  But I was happy he was bored and not all over me for not being able to fly! After our flight, we took care of the paperwork for my test tomorrow and then I headed home for a bite to eat. 
In effort to curb test jitters preventing sleep I scheduled a flight with the Navy tonight, to conduct some Loadmaster duties (figuring I’d be exhausted).  Our flight to NAS Leemore was quick and fun, we took the sailors from the USS Vinson home after their deployment. For the most part the plan worked.  We landed at 10:30 and I was home and in bed by midnight.   That’s all for now.. It’s an early day tomorrow.

Finally Got Airborne!

Today was a great day for training!  I spent the morning being lazy watching "Sunday Morning" and studying for Thursday's check-ride.  As luck would have it, the weather was good, not great but good enough to go flying today.  After flying the simulator this past week, it was great to get in in a real plane.  ATP has its students fly the Piper PA-44-180 Seminole, its characteristics make it a great trainer, allowing the student to grasp the concepts of multi-engine flying and aerodynamics. 

One of ATP's  Piper PA-44-180 Seminole's

After my check ride on Thursday, I'll be able to be the PIC during all the following flights during my instrument, commercial and flight instructor phases of training. Allowing me to start racking up the multi-engine time.  Sitting behind the dash was great, especially since I knew what all the knobs and buttons do! 

My new "desk" for the new few months

 

After start up we headed out, it was weird at first it took a little to get use to the plane's handling and how the controls felt.  Soon Matt and I were headed east bound to let me get adjusted and go thru maneuvers.   After practicing in the simulator, the real thing felt light on the controls, smooth and it was quiet!   The view was great, so far I'm loving the plane.  Performance wise it is not a great hauler or fast, but after the first flight I'm happy with it.   Over all the simulator made me a better pilot, making the plane easier to fly. The maneuvers felt smoother and easier vs in the simulator. Hopefully the weather holds this week, we should be flying everyday this week!  So I can't wait, and so far I'm not nervous about the check-ride we'll see how I feel as the week goes on.  But I still have six more hours of training before Thursday.