Wait for me guys!!!

Wait for me guys!!!
Originally uploaded by InformationZulu.

Why this guy keeps parking his bicycle here, I don't know.

1.0 MEL

People keep asking me, "so now that you have your instrument rating, what's next?" or something to that effect. There are a couple of options at this point, but I've elected to go for multiengine add-on to my private pilot certificate. This allows the several long cross countries that are part of the commercial syllabus to be logged as PIC in a multi, generally considered good to have in your logbook.

The instructor walked me through the preflight on the Seneca I. Nothing terribly complicated there just a couple of new things to check - as well as having an additional engine to look over, this is my first retractable gear airplane. My least favorite part about Piper aircraft is the need to get into the pilot's seat by entering through the copilot's side and clambering across the copilot's seat and the center controls, but soon we were strapped in and beginning the engine(s) start procedure.

Imagine to yourself (or for that matter, to anyone around you as well) driving a mid to small sized automobile for several months and then jumping into a largish van. Now give the van wings, two engines and significantly smaller tires and not only do you have a freaky mental picture of a flying van in your head but you may also understand what it's like to go from a Cessna 172 to a Piper Seneca. The haze was pretty nasty, but I could see enough to notice that we were getting out to the practice area in short order.

We started with steep turns, I did alright but the haze gave me a crappy horizon and very few good ground reference points. My instructor encouraged me to fly to commercial standards (50 degrees of bank) right away and with that done, we proceeded to stalls.

I've never liked stalls. I understand the logic behind teaching and practicing them, but I still don't like them. Stalls in new airplanes make me nervous, and I especially remember being nervous practicing them under the hood during my instrument training. This may or may not go back to the time I inadvertantly got to practice spin recovery during some solo practice while working on my private certificate. In any case, stalls proved to be no scary thing. The Seneca is a very solid feeling, stable aircraft.

On the way back in, my ears were in constant need of a pressure equalization procedure. I've been spending a lot of time at 3,000 feet and we got to 6,500 and above. After putting my first hour of multi time in my logbook, I felt reasonably upbeat.

Later I got the news that I may not fit in the budget at my current position. Right now I'm helping out at the programming position I had before beginning this whole pilot adventure and I was really under the impression that I'd be able to stay here for at least 3 months and probably longer. Now it looks like I may be hunting down other prospects for income. Talk about a buzzkill.

My iPod is Naked!

Just some post exam randomness today. Yesterday, I went out and picked up an iDJ for doing dj and podcast stuff. Of course that meant I needed another iPod for the second side, so to bring the total tally to three I bought a 1 gig nano. Just enough to hold a few songs so I can fade back and forth between the nano and my venerable 40 gig iPod Photo (ipod #3 is the shuffle). Tested it out last night and it is pretty cool. Though I did find out that the case I'd been keeping the iPod photo (dubbed fliPod) in would not fit in the dock connector of the iDJ so away it went. Kinda lame 'cause now the fliPod has no belt clip, however I did get a little case for the nano which is probably better suited for belt clippage. Mmmm... clippage.

Um, what's the word? Oh yeah...

WOOHOO!!

I'm instrument rated :) The recheck went - fairly smooth. Only had to do one coupled VOR approach, of course the autopilot seemed to have it's own ideas of what to do.

The departure from 27R as published is a right 270 to 165 (mentioned that before I think) and we're cleared to climb up to 3000 feet. After getting the heading bug on the correct side of the heading indicator, I engaged my supposed electronic helper to allow it to finish the turn. It seemed to be a little confused for a moment and didn't exactly keep smooth progress toward the desired heading. By some miracle, I ended up with the nose pointed the right direction. I started the approach check, NAV1 - check, NAV2 - check, COM 1 set to ATIS on primary and tower on standby. Shaping up to be a pretty good approach so...why are we at 3300 feet?

Otto the copilot seems to be on vacation, time to disengange and try again. SoCal clears me for the approach and I reset the autopilot - which in addition to having trouble with the altitudes also can't seem to intercept a VOR radial. I hear about it from SoCal and go back to heading mode for a while. This would be easier hand flown at this point but the examiner needs to see this approach coupled.

Finally nav and approach mode seem to be cooperating and there is at least a chance of getting the vertical speed and altitude modes to work.

Crossing Poggi at 1220 on the nose, the examiner tells me we can cancel IFR and depart the Brown class D airspace to the north. He also asks if I mind handing over the controls for him to take us home. This I've learned is not a bad sign and I relax while he takes us back VFR.

Time to go find a nice cloud to crash through :)