Back in the Saddle

Friday, January 5, 2007
San Carlos Airport (SQL) California
12pm

I arrive at the FBO or fixed base operator, Diamond Aviation, at about 11:50 so I’m not rushed to meet my flight instructor, Stan (all-American flyboy). Stan was my instructor in 2005 and I have about 9 hours logged with him. I already have about 29 hours logged as it is in everything from a very small, and slow, Cessna 150 to my current ride, the Cessna 172SP with 4 seats and a more powerful 180hp Lycoming engine - giddy-up! The number of hours needed to obtain a private pilot’s certificate is 40 hrs – 20 with instructor and 20 solo. I’m going to be working on about 70 hrs when all is said and done. To me it’s all about being up in that tin can sitting in the left seat.

At the counter I check the ‘squawk’ sheet listing all aircraft at Diamond. This has information on required inspections and any f.y.i notes left by previous pilots on certain aircraft. The aircraft I will be flying today is N21591 and everything looks ok. Stan walks in about this time and we sit down to discuss the maneuvers I will be performing. These are all maneuvers I have done previously with Stan, mca or minimum controllable airspeed which is slow flight, turns, stalls (both power-on and power-off) and emergency landing procedures. He diagrams the maneuvers on the melamine board and I scribble notes and it is all coming back to me.

We walk out to the flight-line and up to N21591 parked on the ramp. I unlatch the door to the cabin and take out my official Cessna 172SP checklist card. If you thought getting into a small single engine airplane and just taking off was a simple matter, think again. There are more than 100 checklist items before you taxi up and take off. Stan used to send me out to preflight the plane myself. With so much time elapsed since the last time I went flying he wants me to make sure nothing has slipped since last time two years ago. I take off the control lock on the yoke (control wheel) and turn on the ‘master switch’ or electrical system to put the flaps down and check the fuel gauges and avionics cooling fan. Everything is ‘check’ and I turn off the electrical master and take my inspection to the airframe outside. I walk around checking all of the control surfaces and physical condition of the plane as well as visually verify fuel on board. Fuel gauges on Cessnas are notorious for being inaccurate. Once you verify fuel quantity you can calculate your fuel flow while in the air to ascertain fuel onboard at any given time so damn the gauges – let’s go flying! We climb into the very cramped cockpit and begin engine-start procedures. I have gained a little weight since the last time I went flying and I’m feeling the squeeze. I can assure you that when pilots talk about ‘pushing the outside of the envelope’ they are not talking about the size of their ass. This will be a good motivator to lose some weight.

I run through some final checks and then in the age old custom of prop-driven airplanes yell out the window, ‘clear prop!!!’. I fire up the engine and bring in about 1,000 rpm and then run through departure procedures. First we get ATIS or automated terminal air service on the radio. This advises us on wind, wind speed, visibility, temperature / dew point, atmospheric pressure which you set your altimeter to and runway in use. You are then assigned a specific letter A - Z which denotes the time of the report so the tower knows you have current information. With current information O (Oscar) we call up San Carlos ground control. I remember the procedure so I tell Stan I’ll make the call, “San Carlos ground, Cessna two one five niner one at Diamond with Oscar ready to taxi to runway three zero”. We are cleared to runway 30 and I throttle up and begin to taxi following the yellow centerline of the taxiway. The runways at SQL are 30 on one end and 12 on the other end. Basically this is the magnetic heading of the runway, 30 being 300 (just add a zero to runway headings) with 360 as magnetic north. So runway 30 is heading 300 or N – NW and runway 12 is heading 120 or S – SE.

To steer the plane you maneuver the front wheel with the rudder peddles. The brakes are on the topside of the peddles. When you take off you move your feet down slightly to keep them on the rudder peddles but off the brakes. Taxiing takes some practice as the plane tends to wander and one must constantly ‘dance’ on the peddles while simultaneously braking. The plane is light so the wind sometimes pushes you around and you have to hold the control yoke down and in during certain windy conditions. Like a lot of things in flying it is not like driving a car and requires you to pat your head and scratch you belly at the same time. We pull up to the part of the taxiway where we will do our engine ‘run-up’ just prior to taking off.

I pull out my card and begin to do final checks on the instruments and gauges. I then run the rpm’s up to about 1800 from 1000 to check the mags or magnetos (dual ignition system) and run a few other diagnostic checks on engine pressure and vacuum system which runs the gyroscopic gauges. With preflight done we taxi up to the runway hold line of 30 and I make the call, “San Carlos tower, Cessna two one five niner one, holding short at three zero for Bay Meadows departure”.

We are told there is a Piper on short final (approach)and we are cleared though need to expedite our take-off. I quickly turn on my landing lights, the transponder and push the fuel / air mixture knob in and throttle up and onto runway 30. This is called ‘lights, camera, action’. Take-off or ‘rotation’ is about 55 knots and with a little right rudder depressed I focus my eyes down the runway. A few glances back inside to my airspeed indicator needle and at 55 knots I pull back slightly on the yoke. I ease the plane off the runway keeping a little pressure on right rudder peddle. Pressure must be applied to the right rudder peddle to counteract what are called ‘left turning tendencies’ in single engine prop driven planes. This occurs for several reasons. The propeller turns clockwise which means there is considerable torque being applied to the plane when on the ground. Basically the force of the prop turning hard right torques the plane left causing it to veer slightly to the left if not for a little right rudder input. This only happens on the ground. When taking off the slipstream of air winding around the plane hits the left side of the tail fin or vertical stabilizer. This also turns the plane to the left so again right rudder input is necessary. This is most pronounced when taking off – high angle of attack, high power and not very evident in straight and level flight however.

We fly straight out at 1,500 ft staying to the right of Hwy 101 and at the Bay Meadows horse track turn left heading in a Westerly direction toward the Pacific and Half Moon Bay. These are standard departure procedures so you don’t go into what is known as Class B or Bravo airspace. Class Bravo is San Francisco airport’s airspace and literally SQL sits right underneath San Francisco’s final approach. You must remain at or below 1,500 ft until Bay Meadows which is a specified departure point to the West. I am flying in very close proximity to some of the world’s biggest aircraft at one of the busiest airports in the world!

We soar out over the Pacific and it is a spectacular, clear day. The winds however were screaming out of the Northwest at about 20 knots and the ride out was a little choppy. I am reminded this ain’t no ride in an over-sized jumbo-jet. Stan has me execute the maneuvers and all goes well except for my power-on stalls. A power-on stall is a maneuver meant to simulate taking off and pulling too far back on the yoke or otherwise stalling the wings. A stall in a plane does not mean the engine stalls as we typically know it. What happens to a plane when it pitches up at a certain angle beyond its aerodynamic capabilities is the smooth air going over the top of the wing detaches and the nose drops. You can recover from this as long as you ‘break the stall’ by pushing the yoke in first then pull back slightly to get the nose above the horizon for a stabilized climb with the essential right rudder input. To execute a power-on stall you slow the plane down to 55 kts simulated take off speed and then apply power to full throttle while pulling back on the yoke until the plane’s wings ‘stall’ and the nose drops, then yoke in and slow climb out. You have to keep in the bloody right rudder, left turning tendencies, Russell! It’s a damn scary thing to do because you have to pitch the plane up at a high angle of attack and then wait for it to stop flying for a second. You also have a stall warning blaring in your headset. What happens if you don’t do all of this smoothly with a little precious right rudder is the plane breaks hard left and the nose falls so you are suddenly staring sideways and down at the earth below you. It is startling and somewhat horrifying if you’re not used to it. To get out of that you have to immediately give a lot of right rudder that you stupidly did not apply enough of in the first place. I did this several times and I could tell this was very annoying to my all American flyboy instructor. I realize that I don’t really want to stall a plane that is flying along perfectly well, thank you.

We did a couple of more power-on stalls that had me looking like a wobbly goblin out over Half Moon Bay. I wondered what some surfer below must be thinking as my tinker toy of a plane is going through wild gyrations over the Pacific. Dude, I’m the unintentional acrobat.

I check ATIS and call in to SQL tower to let them know our landing intentions and head in. Stan sets me up for my landing configuration and I fishtail it in for a slightly sideways landing back on 30. All American Flyboy doesn’t seem to thrilled and mentions something about doing a bunch of touch and go’s (landing practice) next weekend. We taxi up to the ramp at Diamond and I run through my power down sequences and kill the engine. My friggin’ arms are fatigued and my shirt is soaked from sweat. I’ve been arm wrestling a Cessna 172 all afternoon. Stan mentions I flew well just coming back and we head in to the terminal to debrief the flight and then, oh yeah, I gotta pay for this whole exercise.

I tell Stan thanks and see ya tomorrow for another workout.