Mike & Angie's 1966 Cessna 150F
N8166F
Our 150 is based at CKF in Cordele, GA. I am working towards my Private Pilot license under the instruction of Rick Urash out of ACJ - Americus, GA. I soloed at CKF on 3/18/2006.
I have approx 62 hours and still have a couple of hours of hood time and my 3 hr review. Then it will be time for the check ride. I passed my written on 4-4-07. Man I am glad that part of this process is over. It won't be very long now until I can take Angie and the kids for a ride. They have been waiting on me to finish "impatiently"
Here are some shots of my Solo flight on March 18, 2006.
Here are a few photos in and around the airport.
Panel Shot-GPS296 Lake Blackshear Dam Looking North 150 & 33% Extra posing
Below are some shots of my long X-Ctry to Vidalia.
Here are a couple shots of our 150's. One is an F-150 and the other is a 150F.
On March 21, 2007 I completed my 3 tower controlled take offs & landings at Macon Regional. I started out departing CKF - Cordele and flew over to ACJ - Americus to pick up my CFI - Rick Urash. Rick and I departed ACJ and attempted to contact Atlanta approach when we were 20 miles out above Montezuma. I tried 5 or 6 times and never got an answer back so we dropped in on PXE - Perry to get out and check the radio and antenna.
The radio check on the ground was ok. We took off & headed up to Macon and I called and got Atlanta approach to answer. They switched us to Macon tower and after listening to the ATIS it confirmed, what we had already guessed, would be a straight in approach on RWY 5.
As soon as we took off from Perry and climbed to 1500' we were basically already setup for a long straight in approach to RWY 5.
Here is 66F sitting on the ramp and starting to taxi out. Prior to my sweaty palm departure, Rick and I verbally went over the "4 W's" regarding tower communications. No pressure....yeah right!
There were no forecasted winds when we left ACJ but the winds had picked up to 12 - 14 mph and allowed for some crosswind take off & approach practice. Practice is never good when you are under the "microscope" a.k.a. Macon Tower, but I managed to handle the additional challenges the wind introduced into the equation.
The Tower seems more intimidating than it actually is. I had a controller that put me thru the paces like lining me up on a downwind due to radar traffic inbound to Robins AFB. At that point I was at the "hold short" line and I called Macon Tower and said, " Macon Tower - 8166F" His reply: Macon Tower 8166F - I replied, "Macon Tower - 8166F....Sir I don't feel comfortable with this downwind take off and would prefer to taxi back to the ramp and wait it out!" His reply: 8166F turn 180 degrees and taxi back to RWY 13 and call when ready for take off. He was lining me up on the downwind to divert my departure and pattern work away from some heavy traffic crossing the field inbound to Robins AFB. This is what the view looked like from Rick's "cross the line" vantage point. If you see Rick, ask him about that sometime...hee hee
This approaching traffic was on my 3rd and final trip around the circuit. The controller called me and had me do two left hand 360's on the downwind leg of the pattern to give this monster plenty of room on his approach. Now, the wind was blowing pretty hard in my direction and he crossed the field around 1400' and I was around pattern at 1500'. I couldn't help but wonder if the wingtip vortices could be rolling my way or not. About that time Macon Tower announced that possible vortices were in the pattern due to the passing traffic at 1400'. I have now rolled out onto my right base for RWY 13 and as I keep my airspeed around 80 kts and bring in the flaps slowly I am haunted by the thought of being rolled inverted due to the possible vortices drifting down my way. Luckily there was no need for concern as I made my approach and the wind stayed steady blowing quarterly into my left side. I banked into the wind and touched down on the left main. As it let out a low, sloooow screech I let the right side down and then the nose. Man, was that a huge relief.
I learned a lot about "real world" flying on this day and I will never forget it as long as I live. So far, aside from my "solo day" this has been the most demanding as far as flying skills, cockpit workload management and high stress due to the combination of all of the above.
Thanks to the Macon Tower Controller for working patiently with me and to my instructor, Rick Urash, for teaching me all of the necessary skills which enabled my success in controlled tower operations.
4-4-07 Passed my FAA written with a score of 82. I took my Granddad's Logbook in with me for good luck.
Angie and I have wanted our names on the side of the plane for a while now. They turned out pretty good. Thanks to Dave Naylor at rcskydiving.com
I rented 6608D to try to finish my last night time requirements, but it didn't work out quite as planned. Angie & I met Rick & Peggy at ACJ and set out to fly over to Eufaula, AL to eat supper. About half way there I decided that 08D was skipping a beat every now and then and that the horizon was dim I didn't feel comfortable enough to continue the flight. We turned back and once we landed and checked the mags, the rpm was dropping 200 per side. Normally it should be closer to 100. So it was missing occasionally and it was more evident while flying at night when you can't make out the good clean landing areas in the event that the engine were to flame out. I think we made a good call!
4-17-07 Finished
up my night flying requirements. Rick & I flew down to Perry TMA and
nothing really interesting happened except the runway lights were not
operational. The taxi marker lights were and the threshold lighting was so
it was easy to tell where to land. Just another example of what you can
stumble across doing some real world flying.
4-26-07 Rick and I detected some vibration in the 150 on the last night flight. I took it down to see James @ J&M Aviation based at CKF and he checked the prop and everything seemed fine. I am going to fly at different rpm's to see if the vibration condition changes. Meanwhile, it caused me to "spin" down a different path since James had to pull the spinner to check the prop serial number we decided it would be a good time to polish it. I used some paint stripper that just peeled the paint off in about 30 mins. Added some elbow grease and a couple of hours polishing including the use of an orbital palm sander with a mild buffing pad, and here are the results. It really looks better since the prop is polished also.
I called Harless Aviation in Douglas and scheduled my check ride for 5-17-07. That way I have a definite time frame goal to meet the balance of my flight requirements.
Well, I was able to finish up my 3 hour review and hood time with Rick. It was a hard couple of days to get it done. I flew down to Douglas on Thurs and met Mr. Bob Harless. It was a pleasure for me to get to fly with such an accomplished pilot and Veteran. It is a real honor to me that he signed my logbook indicating that I am now a licensed Private Pilot.
5-17-07 Angie flew with me back to ACJ for our first flight together. We have been waiting for this day for quite some time now. It was a little bumpy but she was right at home since she grew up on the drop zones and was already used to flying with the door off and hanging on to a D-ring.
5-19-07 Luke, Will, & Leah went for their first flight today! They did very good and enjoyed the view from up above. Luke & I flew over lake Blackshear and back over town. He was a big help as my Co-pilot and assisted with the check list prior to take off. Will & Leah wanted to see Cordele Motor Speedway from the air since they were racing at that time, and Will commented on the fact that he didn't see Jeff Gordon down there. The sunset turned the sky pink for Leah's flight. It was really smooth and she was very excited to fly with her Daddy.
5-20-07 Today was another first flight that has been a long time coming. Dad & I flew around the airport together and I did some simulated engine off and an incipient power off stall to demonstrate the superb handling and rock solid flight characteristics of the 150. I even managed to "grease it in" on the way back.
I also took my Ma-N-La (Paula) on a flight out to circle Gerald and
Danno while they were doing some calf roping. We rocked our wings at them
and flew back to the airport. On the way back I asked her if she wanted to
fly and she did. She was smooth on the controls and demonstrated a natural
ability to handle the aircraft.
Walt Pierce - Click here to visit americanbarnstormer.com
Sat 08-25-07 Leah and I went for a 30 minute flight. She actually flew the plane for the first time and was very attentive as I talked her thru the inputs. She really likes to do steep turns. She will turn 5 in November, but if she keeps her interest in aviation at this level, she will be on track for getting her license before the time she can drive. You can bet her Daddy will see to it if that is what Leah Beth wants... The boys opted to go home and each lunch instead of flying, but they want to go fly next weekend.
Stay tuned for more progress in the near future!
