9:00am flight – scheduled for just the right day. The 23rd and 24th (my last two lessons) were in perfect weather, the 25th was lousy overcast, and today was perfect again. Wind was calm, 10 miles visibility – very nice.

Today we worked on more stalls – specifically power on stalls, to simulate stalling the plane just after takeoff or during a go around. Very cool. On the first one, the nose dropped pretty sharply, nearly the entry to a spin. My response was simply “Oh shit”, but I recovered OK. No real danger I was told, so I relaxed after that. A few stalls later it did the same thing, and that one was kinda FUN. I imagine that they’d be a lot less fun if they were unintentional or close to the ground – so I’ll be very careful.

Next up was some ground reference maneuvers. Turns around a point first – we found a water tower, and turned around it both left and right. Easy to understand, just needs practice. Next was S turns across a road. Again – just needs practice.

After that, Richard demonstrated a complete engine failure. Pulled the throttle all the way back, trimmed for best glide, and then found a spot. Circled down until we were on final for a small road, then recovered. Cool.

Back to Van Nuys for another OK landing (a 5 on a 1-10 scale, I think I’ll rate them all that way from now on), and taxi home.

1.5 hours/12.0 total

Flight was scheduled for 3:00, but the plane had to be back by 5:00, so I got to the airport early to preflight and get weather information before Richard showed. This would give us the most time in the air. He arrived right on time, and we headed for the plane. On the way, he suggested that we fly out to the practice area with Flight Following, do some stalls, and come back for touch and goes. Sounded good to me!

Radioed Clearance Delivery before Ground this time, to get our clearance and squawk code for FF. As easy I as expected, and we were off. A good solid takeoff started a great lesson. Out to the practice area at 4500, a few 360’s to clear the area (and practice 360’s, of course) and then a bunch of stalls. Power off, with and without flaps, straight, left and right. Much more comfortable with these now – even liking them. Back to Van Nuys, where there was a TON of traffic, cleared for TnG’s on 16L. Had to do a go-around on the first one (WAY too high) and then got the next two down fine. Last one was a full stop. Had to wait about 5 minutes behind a LearJet before we could cross the active runway – kinda interesting.

Next flight – Friday to do some different kinds of stalls. As usual, I can’t wait.

1.6 hours/10.5 total – Hey! Double digits!

Today was my first flight with Richard Mend from a flight school (AV8) at Van Nuys. Richard is a professional CFI – meaning that ALL he does is teach people to fly. I was hoping I would get a bit more structure and support than I had been getting in the past. Turns out I got a WHOLE lot more than I even expected.

I showed up right at 9:00 and met Richard. We talked a bit about exactly what I had done thus far in my training. He explained the way he does things – more or less from a structured syllabus – and then asked if I had checked the weather. I told him I got the ATIS on the way over, but he wanted a full briefing. We called a Flight Service Station (FSS) and asked for a standard briefing from Van Nuys to Camarillo (even though we were just going to stay around Van Nuys). Very educational. He suggested we just do some pattern work to sort of “check each other out”, and I agreed. He watched me preflight the plane, giving me good tips along the way, and then off we went.

Right away I knew things were going to be different. From the hold line, I radioed the tower to let them know we were ready to go, and got “Cessna 2257 Echo, cleared for immediate takeoff on runway 34 left – expedite for incoming jet traffic.” Oh mercy. I got the plane started out onto the runway, and said sheepishly “He wants us to expedite – do you want to take this?”. Richard said “Nope – you should be fine”. I pushed the throttle to the firewall and just kept it on the centerline. 55 kts, rotate, airborne. No sweat! Around the pattern was no biggie – just watch the airspeed, altitude, radio calls, other traffic. Turned base, kicked in flaps, pulled power. Put on my sheep-face again and said “I haven’t done many landings” – to which he replied “You look good right now – just get us down”. Keeping in mind that down could mean in smoldering wreckage, I kept focused on where I wanted to land. Airspeed at 60, watching the numbers, just short of the runway pull all the power, round out, flare, SQUEEK! Beauty! Taxied off, and back for another takeoff.

We did 6 takeoff’s and landings, all to a full stop and taxi back, and Richard never touched the controls ONCE. Even on the two landings that could only be described as BONE JARRING, but that was fine with me. I got to FEEL what causes those. Back to parking, and we debriefed about the flight. A check, a handshake and a scheduled flight tomorrow. Today I feel like a PILOT.

1.6 hours/8.9 total

The Nissan Open golf tournament is in town this weekend, so like a good golfer I had to get up at 5:00am to head out to Riviera Country Club to watch the pros. Stayed until about noon, when I got a call from Kent saying that the plane was available. Figuring that any flying is better than no flying, I hightailed it home, watched the end of the tournament on TV (Ernie Els beat Tiger Woods by one) and headed to the airport.

ATIS was reporting wind from 330 (runway 34 would be in use) at 17 gusting to 30! I called Kent just to be sure we were still on, and he said “Sure – it’ll be fun for you”. Yeah. OK. Preflighted and headed to the practice area, with moderate to severe turbulence the whole way. It calmed a BIT once we got over Simi Valley, but not much. Kent seemed to be enjoying this. I, however, was sweating profusely. We did some climbing turns, descents with and without flaps, steep turns (I seem to have no problem with those) and then some power off stalls. Still not comfortable with those, but I’m getting better.

Headed back to VNY, with instructions to make left traffic for 34L. Just as we started to turn downwind, the tower told us to fly directly across the runway and start a right downwind for 34R. No problem – just surprising. Thought about doing a touch and go, but the wind was too hairy. Put it down a bit hard, but in one piece.

1.0 hours/7.3 total

Kent called this morning and said he had a cancellation in the afternoon – was I interested? With .3 hours in the last 8 days, I had to say YES.

He’d been flying all day (giving rides to kids all day for an EAA group he works with), so a full preflight was not required. I did the basics, and off we went. To the practice area first for some maneuvers, including slow flight, power off stalls and departure (power on) stalls. The departure stalls were interesting, because you just pull the nose up (and I mean WAY up) until the stall horn starts blaring, and then wait for the break. On the first one, I tried to steer a bit too much with the yoke, which has a tendency to stall one wing more than the other. What this results in (I soon found out) is the quick drop of the wing, and (if you’re not careful) a SPIRAL DIVE. No problem – just level the wings, keep the nose lowered, pull your heart out of your throat, stop screaming and recover. Piece of cake.

Back to the pattern for some touch n’ goes. The very first one I did, I did all by myself, and pretty good, too. Kent said that I was flaring a bit early, and landing harder than I needed to. The plane was on the ground, no damage, no injuries – sounds PERFECT to me. Fine – let’s do some more. We did 4 more before we can back in, learning something on all of them.

I’ve some to a point in my training where I think I really need to settle on a CFI – this back and forth between Kent and Marv is getting to be counter-productive. In an effort to make the BEST decision, I’ve scheduled a lesson on Tuesday with yet ANOTHER CFI from a nearby school – Richard Mend. Of the three he is the only professional instructor (the other guys have regular jobs) and comes highly recommended. By Tuesday noon, I’ll have made my decision.

1.3 hours/6.3 total

Driving the baby to daycare this morning, it looked bad – low fog. Called up the ATIS at Van Nuys, and confirmed a 200 foot ceiling – not exactly VFR weather. Hopefully it would burn off in time for a 4:30 lesson. In fact, it did just that. I checked throughout the day, and the ceiling started going up. By 3:00, it was FL120, 4 miles visibility haze. Marginal, but flyable.

I headed to the airport to preflight before Kent showed up. Marv was out for more surgery, and I just couldn’t wait. By the time he showed, and we got airborne, things were deteriorating rapidly. I did my run-up and after a brief wait for a few Learjets (they always seem to get priority over Cessnas), was cleared for takeoff on 16R. Handled everything on my own, including takeoff roll (actually kept it on the centerline) and getting airborne. Even asked for (and got) closed pattern traffic.

Just as we made our turn downwind, and just shy of pattern altitude, I realized there was something I couldn’t see – the airport. We decided to do a touch n’ go and go around one more time. Got more of a hang of the approach procedure, round out and flare, and just about landed alone. Kent just had to help at the last second. Back up, and the weather was even worse than the first time. Decided to make it a full stop. Bounced the landing this time – another good experience, but not very pretty. Taxied back and logged a WHOPPING .3 hours in my logbook. For a city that has such great weather, this is really starting to eat my lunch for me.

.3 hours/5.0 total

Today’s weather was a bit more accommodating. 10 miles visibility, wind at 10 gusting to 17, but right down the runway. Marv figured that it would be too bumpy over the Gorman pass (where we go to do air work) so we headed to the ocean. Flew through the LAX special flight rules area – a specific heading and altitude DIRECTLY over LAX that allows you to traverse the busiest airspace in the country without having to talk to anyone. Flew out over the ocean and started to work.

Started with a review of slow flight, which I nailed the first time. Then we got right into approach-to-landing stalls. These are the stalls you basically are doing when you land. Complicated. I think I was so concerned with what happens when the plane actually DOES stall, that I didn’t pay enough attention early on. I got the last one just about right. So many things to do after the stall – lower the nose, full power, carb heat off, raise the flaps, right rudder, maintain altitude, etc. By the last one I was close, but I’ll NAIL them next time. Next were steep turns. Marv said I did steep turns as good as any student he’s ever seen.

Back to Van Nuys for a straight in landing, which I have a lot finer grasp of now, thanks to the stalls. Scheduled my next flight for next Wednesday!

1.5 hours/4.7 total

Booked a morning lesson for today at 9:00am with Marv. Got there a bit early to start getting the plane ready. Cloud cover was bad – prediction was for lots of rain today. By the time Marv showed, the ceiling was down to 2400 – no problem for some pattern work. We preflighted the plane and then talked about runway lighting, markings, taxiways and procedures in the pattern. Fired up and taxied to 16L for departure. My flying club’s planes are all the way at the opposite end of the runway, so when 34L is in use, it is only about 100 feet of taxiing. When 16L is in use, however, and given the fact that Marv likes to use ALL available runway (I good practice, I agree) it makes for a long taxi. No problem.

So we get in the air and realize that the ceiling is WAY lower than it had been. ATIS was saying 1800 feet (right around pattern altitude), but we could see it was dropping rapidly. By the time we started our turn downwind, we were in solid IMC. We dropped a bit, and told the tower that we would be making our first landing a full stop. Taxied back and shut it down. A total of .2 hours on the tach. Didn’t even bother putting it in my logbook.

STILL 3.2 total hours

I was out of town last week on business in New Orleans, so I obviously couldn’t fly. Side note – I think that the “8 hours bottle to throttle” rule should be changed to “80 hours bottle to throttle” if your drinking is done on Bourbon Street. I’ll bring it up at the next FAA meeting.

When I returned, I scheduled some time with Marv, who was back from his surgery and feeling much better. Morning sky looked pretty dismal, so I prayed to the weather gods for something reasonably VFR for my 1:00 lesson. Started happening around noon – I may have to really re-think this religion thing. By 1:00 the ceiling was 2700 broken, virtually no wind.

Marv arrived around 1:15, and we started by talking about what I had learned in my time off. I explained that I had sucked up as much information as possible, including ALL of the Cessna training CD’s, ALL of Rod Machado’s Private Pilot Handbook, and ALL that I could find on the Internet. He seemed reasonably impressed (damn right!) and proceeded to quiz me on the finer points. We went through the preflight (which I have pretty much nailed now) and hopped in to 2257E for flight number 3.

Given that the only PTT (push to talk) switch is on the pilot yoke, I did all of the radio work, which he complemented me on (even read another book on radio communications) as well as my taxiing ability. We headed to 16R at Van Nuys, did our run-up, and off we went. We headed northwest towards Simi Valley, and found the cloud cover to be very broken. We climbed on top (about 6500’) and started some airwork. Marv is very clear about the procedures he wants done, which I really enjoy. We did coordinated turns at standard, medium and steep banks until I felt like I had a good feel for them. Then some slow flight, which took some getting used to, but I finally nailed those as well. By now we had meandered well north over Santa Clarita, so we turned around to head back. Over Magic Mountain I radioed in and heard quite a bit of traffic around VNY, but was cleared for a straight in approach to 16R. Marv explained our cruise descent in detail, and then the transition to landing, which I just helped with again. Taxied in and shut down. Another GREAT flight! Scheduled two more lessons for this week.

1.2 hours/3.2 total