SPC#73 – A Different Kind of Pattern

undefined: 00:00:01

So it's time to get the foggles on and start some actual simulated IMC training again. I hadn't done that for 14 years, so it should get pretty interesting. I'd be doing what are called instrument patterns, or I guess the regular pilot skywriting, I guess. I don't know. Find out what happens in episode 73 of the student pilot cast, a different kind of pattern. Oh, and I'm going to be introducing a new regular segment. Alright, like I said, it had been almost 14 years since I donned a view limiting device. Ashamed of that, actually. I mean, I did take the last 11 years off of flying, but then I should have done this about 11 years beforehand. I think even for non instrument rated pilots, this should be done with an instructor or a safety pilot on board, of course, but it should be done more regularly than we probably do. One of the killers of private pilots is unintended flight into IMC. And that little bit of training we do in our private training is the bare minimum, of course. And after a year or so, it's probably close to useless if we're not refreshing and practicing that skill once in a while. So So let's talk about this for a few minutes from the perspective, mostly, of a non instrument rated private pilot. But we're going to revisit that in a little bit. That's what I was at the time of this training. I was a non instrument rated private pilot. For the private pilot certificate, you have to have three hours of IMC training. Usually using a view limiting device to simulate IMC and VFR conditions. This set of skills that you need could save your life and that of your passengers should you accidentally get yourself into IMC while flying. And it may not even be weather related. It could just happen to be flying in an area of very little light at night, which is somehow legal. and these skills could get you back to safety. Apparently this VFR flight into IMC conditions. ends very badly 86 percent of the time in non commercial flights in fixed wing aircraft. Those aren't great odds. So avoiding this would be the first big step, of course, but also being ready if you do do this. Could go a long way to saving your life, but the skills are perishable. They're fleeting when you don't practice them. So you've got to practice them. Not just before the check ride either. Ongoing. These skills involve being able to focus on the instruments and of course trust them over what your body's telling you. You have to be practiced at scanning them so you don't focus too much on one of the instruments. to the detriment of the others. so you have to develop an effective scan in other words. While doing that, you must be able to turn around safely or otherwise head towards VMC conditions while not descending into terrain or other obstacles without getting yourself into a death spiral and while maintaining some situational awareness of where you are and where you're heading. You have to be able to simultaneously tune in a radio to get some help and then confess that you need some help. In this situation, it would most likely be important that you declare an emergency if you're not instrument rated so that you can get focused help, get that help that you need from a controller. You might need to be guided to safety for a while, and you want all of their attention. so why do you need all of their attention? According to that famous video from AOPA Safety Foundation, on average, you might have about 178 seconds to live once you enter IMC inadvertently. So yeah. You want all the help you can get to improve your time and your odds. You know how I know that this is a perishable skill? Because I've had to keep myself current since I achieved my instrument rating over a year ago. We'll talk more about currency in another episode. But while I've stayed current, I've noticed when I've done some instrument practice, how much proficiency that I've lost while not using and practicing these skills. in fact, you know that 86 percent number I threw out earlier? According, again, to AOPA, one third of those fatalities from VFR into IMC were instrument rated pilots. Just having the training isn't enough. It requires you to be proficient. because it is a perishable skill. Okay, so back to my training. All that is to say that this was the first time in a while that I'd be training in IMC, albeit simulated of course, in a very, very long time. So we'd be keeping it pretty simple. I'll go into a little more detail in a few minutes on this training flight coming up today, but for now, But I wanted to do something pretty exciting first. I've got a new regular segment that I'm going to introduce today on the podcast. I'm calling it Beyond the Checkride, and I'm bringing back another voice you'll recognize from the past to help me with this segment. Actually, I'm just going to bring him in right now to help me introduce it.

Bill: 00:05:45

All right. I'm so happy to have with me in the student pilot cast today. Uh, your old friend Kent Shook from the pilot cast days. Hey Kent, how are you doing? Great. Really glad to be here. Awesome. So Kent and I at Oshkosh, as you do, talk about ideas and, and things about aviation that you've been thinking about. And one of the things we started talking about are these tips beyond the check ride. So when you get into your regular flying. How you really weren't taught some basic things that you might need to know as you get out in the world and do real cross countries and do real flying with friends and family. So we're going to kick this segment off. Our first one is going to be about flying with non pilot passengers. It's the first thing you want to do most of the time when you first get your ticket. Who was your first passenger, Kent?

Kent: 00:06:42

You know, I'd have to go and look. It's been so long, I cannot remember. Um, maybe I should have looked for that before we started doing this segment. Um, you know, really my first passenger was my primary CFI because the first thing that I did after my checkride, which I did all my flight training in Cessnas, and I wanted to have the best possibility of being able to rent an airplane whenever, and so the very first flight after my checkride was going to get checked out in the Cherokees. So Maybe I'll try and look at my log book quick before we're done here and see, see who it was. But yeah, I've flown a whole lot of people over the years, uh, for the first time. And I mean, I think that's a thing that almost every pilot wants to do just about right away after their check ride, right? Is, you know, you've, I've been sitting here with your instructor for so long and you know, uh, probably spouses are a frequent first flight passenger because they want to know where all this money's going. Um, so, you know, it's a thing that I think everybody does at some point, but. Nobody ever really talks about what to do. And, you know, this segment is all about experience, right? And so I'm going to tell you a few things that I've done wrong and a few things that I've hopefully done right. But we want everybody to have the best experience possible, especially those spouses, because, uh, spousal support is extremely important if you want to keep flying. No question about it. So who was your first passenger, Bill?

Bill: 00:08:16

My first passenger was my wife. That's right. Hey, there you go. And I do have a little story along these lines. I was trying to be the most conscientious pilot of a new non pilot passenger ever. Um, obviously I wanted it to be a great experience for her. And so I was explaining everything I was doing in the pre flight. I did a great passenger briefing, you know, I was in the mode because I had just done my check ride. It And I made sure I was saying, you know, in the very unlikely event that we do have to land off airport, here are some things to think about. I was being really conscientious and I was telling her, okay, this is what you can expect. This is what, what we're going to be doing. Of course. I wasn't following all of the best guidelines. It was summer in Phoenix after all. And we were going to go take a flight up to the high country. I was on the, upwind. Basically I had taken off and I was flying straight out. I was cleared to make a right crosswind departure to the north. And again, I was explaining everything that was going to happen. And as soon as I banked right. to make my right crosswind departure, I heard a little scream. So even with all of my thinking and pre planning and making sure she was comfortable and she was expecting everything, I didn't prep her that she was She was going to feel the banks a little more in this small airplane than maybe she does in a commercial jetliner. So, um, that was my one tip I want to add here, especially to a new, a new passenger who's never been in a small airplane before you're going to feel things more and it's probably good to kind of explain that and maybe even before your first banks, um, just say, Hey, I'm about to turn right. And I wish I would've done that. She was fine. She got used to it really quick and we had a great weekend trip and it all worked out right. And she loves flying with me. She's not scared of any of it. So everything worked out perfectly, but she did let out a little Yelp when I first put her down towards the ground on the right side of the airplane when I made that right turn. So something to be thinking about.

Kent: 00:10:40

Yeah, that's actually, that brings up kind of the, the first, the bullet on my list here, which is to always explain everything that you're doing, uh, which, you know, if you're a new pilot, hopefully your flight instructor prepared you and coached you to do that during the check ride as well, because, you know, the examiner wants to know what you're thinking as well. So hopefully you're in practice when it comes to, uh, what you're going to be talking about throughout the flight. I mean, really for your passengers, it's all about comfort. Okay. So think about what you're saying. Tell them what you're doing. I mean, even something as simple as a run up will confuse somebody who's never been in a small airplane before. So, uh, you know, Hey, we're just going to check a couple of things on the engine. We'll rev it up here, but we're not going to go anywhere yet. And that sort of thing, uh, plane might bounce around a little bit from the prop wash and that sort of thing. I can definitely tell you that what you don't want to do is right after take off. When you realize you forgot to turn your transponder to altitude from standby before takeoff, you really shouldn't say, Oh, or that's a very inconsequential thing, but or, Oh yeah, that's, that's right, right.

Bill: 00:12:05

Yeah. That's a good

Kent: 00:12:06

one. Yep. That was one of my things that I did early on that was, Not a great idea. So going along with kind of keeping them in the loop as to what's going to happen, uh, you also want to fly really, really smooth. for some reason, a lot of people, they're like, Ooh, I'm a pilot now and they feel the need to either show off or, Show their passenger every maneuver they had to learn to get their pilots. Yeah. Don't

Bill: 00:12:38

do stalls. Right. Don't do stalls with a new passenger.

Kent: 00:12:42

And you know, my first ride at a GA plane was with my uncle and I loved it, but I do remember he stalled the plane a few times and, you know, he was showing me all those things. And I was fine in the airplane. I ended up getting sick when he got back on the ground. Um, Later on, so it might not have had anything to do with the flight, but yeah, that's a thing that I have done that with some people, but only people who were actually interested in learning how to fly and in fact were concerned about what stalls were going to be like. And that guy went, Oh, that's all it is. Yeah. If he had not been a person who is interested in learning how to fly and already had some concerns about stalls and wanted to see a stall, then yeah, that's definitely a thing that you don't want to do. Along with that, you'll sense there's this comfort theme throughout everything that we say here. Try and fly when there's as little turbulence as possible. Um, I don't know. Uh, what causes the most turbulence down in your area, but up here you get, uh, a lot of turbulence in the spring and fall because you have a, uh, when you get the solar heating on the ground from the sun, the ground is starting out really cold in the spring. And so the temperature drops. Difference between the light areas and the dark areas is pretty extreme. And then as you're into summer, or if you're in the middle of winter, there's very little thermal activity. Time of day makes a difference though, with that, of course, late afternoon or mid afternoon as well, are both going to be really turbulent. Most of the time, um, if surface winds are really, really strong, you'll get some mechanical turbulence and that sort of thing. So. Do your best to go up at a time where you're not going to have as much turbulence. One thing that I really like to do if they're someone that I think is really going to be into it and doesn't have any motion sickness issues to worry about or anything like that, sometimes what I'll do is I'll take them for a hundred dollar hamburger and we'll fly somewhere in the evening as the sun is going down and then. You know, eat some food and then fly back at night so that they can experience that as well. That

Bill: 00:14:55

flight at night is usually very smooth.

Kent: 00:14:57

Yes. Yes.

Bill: 00:14:59

Out here in the desert, we get a lot of lifting action in the summer and the spring and the fall because it's still hot at those times as well. So we get a lot of that. And then of course, out here in the West where we have lots of mountains, we get a lot of mechanical turbulence from wind as well. So, yeah, it's a good thing to think about. Go when. Turbulence is lighter. Speaking of that, one of the things that ForeFlight's been working a lot on is being able to see actual turbulence based on people using their sentries and the adhars that are part of that are giving a lot of data back to ForeFlight. And so that might be a tool to help you choose a time and a day, that's maybe a little lighter on the turbulence. So something to think about just popped into my head.

Kent: 00:15:45

Yeah, that's a great point. It's one of the newest features of ForeFlight, the actual reported turbulence. And they're, I guess, using something specific about the sensor package that they have in the Sentry to be able to detect turbulence. And if you sign up with ForeFlight to submit the data from your Sentry at the end of a flight, then you get that feature for free and the rest of us have to pay. that's, I mean, I'm, I'm kind of excited to see where things go with that feature. I haven't pulled it up recently, but I hope that there's lots of people signing up to do that and giving us lots of data. So that feature becomes really useful because that is really a great tool that we have not had anywhere in aviation before.

Bill: 00:16:30

Automatic and real PyReps without you having to do PyReps. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. What else, what else can you think of that, people should be thinking about when they take their first passengers?

Kent: 00:16:43

Well, I do have to say, I was just looking and my first flight was my best friend, as well as someone else that I knew. And I did exactly the wrong thing with what we were talking about. It was a late afternoon flight at the end of May in Wisconsin. And it was. Really, really bumpy, you know, even 20 years later, that was some of the worst turbulence. Great first flight. Yeah. And you were mentioning mountains in the Southwest. I think the worst turbulence I've had, at least in terms of being more than just one bump and extended period of turbulence was flying West out of Albuquerque. So yeah. Anyway, that friend, uh, I know he's flown with me at least one more time, but he's not super eager to go with me. So that, you know, maybe why. Yeah, you

Bill: 00:17:36

can't definitely attribute it to that, I guess, but it certainly didn't help. I'm sure.

Kent: 00:17:42

Yeah well, and I guess You should be prepared with barf bags and all that kind of stuff You can just use a ziplock if you don't have the special airplane ones But once in a while people will steal barf bags off an airline flight. Yeah, give them to me

Bill: 00:17:59

They've got stacks of them.

Kent: 00:18:00

You can just ask for

Bill: 00:18:01

them

Kent: 00:18:03

Yeah I've actually only ever had one person who had an issue with that that I was flying. Well, I guess Two once in part 91 personal flying and once in professional flying the the second one had just had his COVID vaccine and he got the Was it Johnson and Johnson that was making everybody sick? And so He was actually Getting sick before he even got to the airplane, uh, for us to fly him home. So that one definitely wasn't my fault.

Bill: 00:18:37

So tell me a couple of reasons that you've thought about that. It's so important to make your passengers comfortable.

Kent: 00:18:47

Well, you know, we mentioned one already, which is that you want them to come fly with you again, right? Yeah. But the other one is, uh, You know, I used to train truck drivers and I used to always take my trainees flying at some point, usually when they were getting successful with things, that was kind of the reward of, Hey, I think we're almost done and going to get you in your own truck. Hey, do you want to go flying? And one of them that I specifically remember, his brother had been a cargo pilot and had taken him flying in a three 10 and was just. Making jokes about, gee, our hope, our wing doesn't fall off and stuff like that. And, you know, it was just purposely trying to freak him out. Cause I mean, I guess that's what brothers do sometimes, but you

Bill: 00:19:36

know, it's that, or a, it's that, or a noogie. So,

Kent: 00:19:40

right, right. Yeah, but yeah, he never got on an airplane again and he, he wouldn't go flying with me and I'm not even sure he flies on the airlines anymore. You know, GA is just a very, very, very small community. But, we do need to make friends with the rest of the world, because their taxes pay for our airports in a lot of cases. And so, you know, next time your local airport is in trouble, you don't want that person whose brother freaked them out and they never went flying again, to be speaking up at the town meeting and saying, Nyeh. Screw those guys. Let's get rid of all those dumb little airplanes, right? You want to have a bunch of people that you've taken flying and given a wonderful experience and hopefully you've taken their kids flying maybe in young Eagles and, um, you know, maybe you've brought them a puppy with pilots and paws or something like that. Show people the good side of aviation and, um, going up with you. Absolutely. You know, we need more friends of this industry for sure. So that's incredibly important.

Bill: 00:20:47

Yeah. So if I could sum it up one, don't freak out your passion passengers, find ways to not freak them out or make them sick. And two, let's make friends outside of aviation. Absolutely. We want all the non pilots to like the airplanes and like flying with us. It gives us more opportunities to fly if they want to fly with us. Right. So that's part of our challenge.

Kent: 00:21:14

Yup. Just make it smooth and comfortable and fun. And the fact that you're a pilot is the coolest thing in the world to them.

Bill: 00:21:21

Yeah.

Kent: 00:21:22

There's nothing else you need to show off, you know, that is a really good

Bill: 00:21:25

point. Yeah. It was a really good point. Well, Kent, this was super fun to reprise our roles on the pilot cast a little bit and get back together. So appreciate you coming on and I'll say to the SPC listeners that we're going to be doing more of this and we're going to do a new topic for a lot of episodes. So this feature will hopefully keep going and we'll hear a lot more from Kent and the wisdom of all of the experience that he has. So appreciate you coming on Kent. It was really fun.

Kent: 00:21:56

Well, and I hope people will write back in and offer their comments and maybe give us some ideas of things to talk about on this, because, you know, I've been flying these little airplanes for 20 plus years now, and I still definitely don't know it all. So, um, tell us what you want to hear and we'll talk about

Bill: 00:22:13

awesome. Thanks. We'll talk to you

undefined: 00:22:17

So that's our first installment of the new segment and I hope you love where we take it. We'll figure it out over time and the best way to bring these topics to you. And I'm sure we'll get better and faster at it. In other words, most of the time, I think there'll be a little shorter than that. But it's our first one. So cut us some slack. Like we mentioned in the segment though. We'd love suggestions on what to cover in future episodes. We have a decent list going already, and the plan is to keep adding them to most episodes until we simply run out of topics. So that's where you come in. Don't let us run out of topics. So send your suggestions to me at bill at student pilot, cast.com. Thanks. All. Alright, so let's get back to today's flight. I'd be starting simple today, like I said earlier, and doing what are called instrument patterns. These are simply little instruction cards that tell you what patterns to make in the sky. Unfortunately, the ones we were using didn't write anything cool like a skywriter would. Nothing like that. They were simply directions to fly certain headings or relative headings, altitudes, et cetera, and told me how long to fly them, how long to fly each leg. This is designed to help me practice my instrument scans and divide my attention across altitude, time, heading, standard rate turns, all that stuff. Basically, it starts letting me practice in a very simple way, all the things I have to do as I put instrument flight together and as I get better and better at it. If you're not familiar, I'm sure you'll get the picture as you hear more of the training. Essentially, I'd be flying seemingly random patterns based on these little cards that they gave me, and timing each leg so I know where and when to start another turn in the pattern. Another leg, if you will. So let's get on with it. Oh, and I should mention that I'm breaking this flight up into two because of the new beyond the check ride segment. I didn't want it to get way too long. so to kick this one off, I'll throw in my ground call, but in the same theme of keeping this shorter, I'll cut a lot of the monotony out where I can. I'm trying to strike the right balance of helping you guys feel like you're there on the flight with all of the other traffic, the practice area congestion, you know, the context of the flight, but at the same time, not bore you with every minute of the flight. So definitely let me know how I'm doing. Give me feedback on how I'm editing the flights up. That said, here's that ground call. Red Rock sixty at spot five, would like a south departure, and we have PAPA. Red Rock sixty, thousand ground, runway four right, taxi via delta. Four right, taxi via delta, Red Rock sixty. Couldn't hear the beginning part. No, you're good. Clear the intersection. That guy's going to the right, perfect. Clear the intersection, coming left. Okay, he's coming this way. Uh, he's just clearing the runway. Okay, we're good. Good S. A. though. He's gonna call ground right now. After taxiing out, we did the run up as usual. Okay. Alright, so what you do with Hold that down. Eight oh 1000 Ground street. Delta. Delta. Alright. Runup parking brake is set. Mixture rich light controls fountain ground, Oxford 49 55, correct. Spot three AJ Departure with 2049. 55,000 ground runway. Four eight. Text Delta. Alright, Magneto's left. Barely a drop. That's nice. Barely. And right. Barely. Okay, both on. Carb heat. Barely. Wow. Amps. Probably here, huh? Yep, exactly. Okay, 13. 6 volts. There's no ammeter. Oh, okay. Vacuum, we're at 5. 3. Uh, oil and fuel. All in the green. Okay. And throttle back to idle. Make sure it doesn't die. We also, we missed one thing on the checklist there. I believe flight, oh no, excuse me, flight instruments are afterward. Perfect. So we're still a little tilted. I'll try and remember that. Where's the compass? Magnetic compass is over here. So we can set it to about 320. That's three four zero. My bad. You're good. Three two zero. Alright. Yes. You already put something in there? Oh yeah, I threw a Chandler. Okay. Um, are we going to be transitioning Chandler? Or are we going to be above their airspace? We're going to be above them, yep. All right, and, uh, Transponder, I was, someone was squawking yesterday. I guess they did like a VFR, so I just set us to VFR. Okay, you got us. Okay. 1200. All right, so we are going to do a normal takeoff. Yep. Um, we'll probably, she'll probably put us in a right pattern to go south, right? Yep, exactly. Um, at 400 feet, you're going to ask me to put my foggles on. Yep. Which, I don't remember where I put them. I put them somewhere to be handy. Okay. I can grab mine if need, but. There. Perfect. There you go. You can just, uh. Put them on my head. Good deal. Okay. Um, if we have any problems with the engine or otherwise, uh, while we're on the ground we're going to break and get off the runway. If we are rotated, but have runway remaining. We're going to land and heavy break. Um, if we don't have any runway remaining, we're going to head over maybe to Phillips Road or to the golf courses over there, if we can't maintain altitude. Um, alright. Anything else? Nope. You can switch over to tower. When we come to a stop, you can, uh, you can throw in one, two, two, eight, five, to kind of help yourself out, stay ahead of the airplane. That's the south practice area? Yep. Eight, five, there you go. And when this guy starts rolling, then you can call him up saying, uh, Falcon Tower, Red Rock sixty holding short, four right. Okay. Steel pump is on. Flaps are and light set to zero. Heading light. There you go. Ending light is on. Perfect. Right. Falcon Tower. Yep. Falcon Tower. Red Rock. 60 is holding short of four. Right? Ready to go. Red Rock. 60 Falcon Tower. Good morning. Right turn. Southbound approved wind 0 3 0 at one four runway four. Right. Clear for takeoff. Clear for takeoff. On for right and right turn. Approved. Red Rock 60. That's a nice guy. Yeah. Good vibes. Alright sir, takeoff is all on you. Have a bit of a left crosswind. Yep, just a little bit, so you can add a little bit of aileron. Alright, here we go. Airspeed is alive. Engine instruments are green. And we're at sixty five. Rotate. Helicopter 3A Gulf Mike ready to go with Yankee 2. Helicopter 3A Gulf Mike, Yankee 2 pattern approved. Inbound traffic for Yankee 2 pattern four miles northwest. Five. Okay. So at about 400 feet, my instructor took over the controls so I could get my foggles on and start the simulated IMC. I'll go over some of the requirements to get your instrument rating in the next episode. But this would basically be my life in the airplane for the next couple of months. Here you go. Alright, I'll take the controls. Alright, your controls. your foggles on. Alright. You got the airplane? My controls. Alright, you can come right heading 220. Right, heading 220. And we'll climb up to 3, 700. 3, 700. Universal 1 9 traffic helicopter, left downwind 2 pattern. Traffic in sight, Universal 1 9. You can start your wings level. There you go. And we can do our after takeoff checklist. And really small movements. Don't need to go crazy with it. After takeoff, flaps set to zero, mixture rich, landing light is off, back on my heading, and we'll go level off. Okay, fuel pump off, say again? You can level off right here. And now you can turn direct to 190. 1 9 0. Yep, left 1 9 0. Stay out of Phoenix's airspace. Falcon Tower, Oaxala 7251, Fountain arrival with V formation pop up. Request And you can descend down, watch your altitude. A 3 72 51 F Tower. Good morning. Make left traffic runway four left. There you go. Where do you want? Uh, just about 23 out of that yellow, right? Yep. Okay. After. All right, cool. Out the feel to not look outside. A little weird. Yeah, it's been a long time since I've done that. Welcome to I Red Rock 60 traffic, two miles south your position. Diamond Star 3,700 indicated also southbound. Frequency Change Prove Good day. Frequency change approved, and we're looking for that traffic redox you see. I don't see him. I'll worry about him, you just worry about the airplane. So we're staying clear of gateways, staying clear of the Phoenix Bravo, and the shell starts at 4, 000 so 3, 700 is perfect. We're going to fly right over the top of Chantler. You can do your cruise checklist for now. Cruise checklist, throttle, cruise. Sir Lane, uh, heading indicator, we have 1 9 0. You'll already got the timer going. South Spencer is the 5 86 4,500 over Gila River Memorial, heading towards slow point stall. South Spencer, south north America Mountain maneuvering between four and 5,000 feet in Southwest. Oh, it's so busy down there already. This is gonna be tough. This is going Okay, so we're flying along. And we hear this, the segment that I've got coming up. I'm adding this in because I want to give a little shout out to APS where they do, well, more than do, they basically wrote the book on what's called Upset Prevention and Recovery Training or UPRT. My youngest son is about to start A& P school and recently he started working at APS and he is loving it. They have eight extras and a couple of experimental jets for high altitude UPRT as well. Well, We happen to hear a few of them in a section of the Southeast practice area having a little bit more fun than we probably were. I mean, I like instrument training and all, but here was their call. Notice the call sign. They use upset as the beginning of the call sign for all of their planes. Man, that sounds like a lot of fun, right? I know they're mostly doing serious training. I mean, they do fun aero rides too, but most of their training is for professional pilots being sent there by their company or by the military. But that doesn't mean it's not fun, right? Well, this is how we reacted at the time in the airplane. And I'm still kind of jealous. My son who started working there recently is apparently going to be getting a pretty cool ride soon. Part of their perks as employees. So I'll live vicariously through him for at least a little while. That said, I did have my own little aerobatic adventure very recently, but again, in the interest of time, I'll cover that hopefully in the next episode. So stay subscribed. All right. Jealous pilots aside, let's get on with the flight. There you go. Really good job. So far, so good. We'll just kind of get clear of everyone's airspace and then we'll, uh, As far as straight sky, 4190, Victor over, written half, sat 3, 500, heading back into gateway, last call, Sunday. I realize we don't have a lot of bumps. But, this is so much easier than the simp. I know I'm not doing anything yet. But even this, it's like, at least it holds altitude. The error on the latitude indicator is giving me some problems though. Well, I try and hold it level and then I realize I'm turning left. Uh, I just have to keep remembering. about 3 miles to the northwest AmeriCorps mountain. Setting up for slow flight stall. Southeast practice area, Skyhawk 1752, uh, at 5, 600 descending down to 4, 500 and over Coolidge heading to the gap. Southeast practice area, Skyhawk 1752. Alright, um, for sake of spacing, timing, time, and traffic. We're going to just start our first leg, um, on a south heading. So we're going to kind of do everything reference to south. Okay. Because there's a lot of traffic, and there's a lot of airspace that we have to worry about. Um, so we'll just continue on this heading. And we'll climb up to, climb up to 4, 500. 4, 500. Yep. Don't forget to put in uh, your mixture when you climb, and then your power. Okay. Let me jump in here real quick for some local information. You're going to hear my instructor saying Bob Choulet, I think, or something like that a bit in this episode. I honestly thought it was a joke as I was re listening to the recording because we do pronounce it that way as a joke sometimes, something I learned to do as my training progressed. But I think in this case, he might've been serious as I listened more, which is understandable. My instructor was. Not from this area. And as I mentioned in the last episode, was new to instructing and to the airport. So how would he know? There is this tiniest of communities South of the East Valley of Phoenix called Bapchule. It's spelled B A P C H U L E. So you can see why someone pronounce it. as Bob Shuley, which is what we do when we're flying often so much that I sometimes have to think about how it's really pronounced. We've come up with all kinds of ways of saying it, sometimes with an English accent, sometimes with a Southern accent. It's all fair game. I've never even been to this place on the ground before. And when I say small, it's like a couple of buildings. But it's surrounded by open desert. So it makes for a nice reference point from the air. It's easy to see, and it stands out against that open desert. And it's on the way to a lot of places. If you're coming out of the gap over Chandler, the gap is that air space gap between the Phoenix class Bravo, And, Williams Mesa Gateway Airport, and where you come from Falcon Field, when you're kind of heading to the south, you can go through this little gap where you get through this airspace. So it's called the gap. So we use BAPTULE all the time as kind of, oh, there, you know, I know where I'm at. If you're observant, you'll hear at least one other pilot on the radio, pronouncing it correctly during this episode. Points to the first listener who reaches out to me with the timestamp of when that happens. Anyway, I didn't want you wondering what we're talking about every time my instructor is on the radio and he's talking about this Bob guy, Bob. Bob Choulet. I don't even remember. We've said it so many different ways. I don't even remember what he was saying, but you'll hear it. So let's carry on. I'll let most of this play and tell about the halfway mark of the flight. So you can follow my patterns, but I'll cut out a bunch of silence or near silence so that times won't necessarily match with the wall clock while you're listening on the timing I'm doing for the legs. Here you go. 'We'll be right behind you. When we reach Bob Chulet, then we can start our instrument pattern. Do you want me on one eight zero or still on one nine zero? We're gonna do one nine zero for now. Okay. And then when we start our instrument pattern, we're gonna go one eight zero, get ourselves a stab at four thousand five hundred, and then we'll, uh, we'll start that instrument pattern. Alright. Brenda, cool? Yep. Sweet. And, um, just make sure I heard correctly, you said four thousand five hundred. Four thousand five hundred, yep. Got it. And you can come left one eight zero for spacing. Worth another traffic. 1 8 0. Uh, we're going to go left actually 1 6 0. 1 6 0. 1 6 0, level off 4, 500. Alright, you can start your level off. And you can start to slow yourself down to 100 miles an hour. It's going to be like 2150, right? Around that, yep. So that's called our control performance. So RPM for a 100 miles per hour, perfect. Perfect. And you can get yourself back established on a 1 8 0 heading. Alright, 1 8 0. And when you're ready, you can start your instrument pattern. Very nice job so far, Bill. Give me just one second here to get my speed and altitude. Yeah, get yourself situated. Sorry about that. Oh, you're good. I know, it's hard with the attitude indicator. With our attitude indicator, we can also reference other instruments to make sure that we're turning right. We've got our track coordinator, we've got our heading indicator. Okay, so I've got a bit of a problem. I can't, I can't seem to hold altitude and get it to 100 miles an hour without going into the yellow. Okay, um, what do you want me to do? Yeah, we can add in a little bit of power. We'll go 110. Okay. Just for that sake. We'll stay at 2300 RPM. And that should give us about 110 or so, 105. And we'll just use that. Just kind of get yourself trimmed out. Perfect. Not quite there yet. Sorry. Don't apologize. I need you to get comfortable with the airplane before you start doing anything. I know these airplanes really aren't easy for instruments, so. You're doing great. I'd be doing the exact same thing you're doing South Practice area, red Rock sixties, 4,500, Bob Chile heading southbound and maneuvering, staying at 4,500. So, okay. So 1 7 5 2 Tango, I think Wichita Southeast. I'll help you out for today with a timer. This one doesn't have a timer. Okay, I can. Because 8 0 Whiskey does, but not this one. I can help you out with it if you need. Time to change tanks. Okay, perfect. So your fuel pump should come on and then we'll switch tanks to the right. Alright, fuel pump. I got the airplane if you need. Fuel pump is on. Switch tanks. Cool. Fuel pressure. Good. Fuel pump off. Perfect. Fuel pressure. Alright. Good deal. Um, the timer. Okay. Okay, my airplane? Your airplane. South, right? Uh, yep. so if we get started here, alright, it starts right here for one minute. Ready? Sir. Going 45 Uh, it's the first leg, just one minute. I meant 45 degree turn to the left, sorry. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I was about to say. I should have met CA better. Oh, you're good. Southeast Oxford. 10 10, 6, 5. Overwater Ski Lake will be setting up for slow seconds. Southbound go Three zero Golf, which has had three, five for the gap. Lost fall South Southeast Practice Oxford 70 49. Water Ski Lake 5,500 southbound. That is a one minute leg sir. We'll do a standard 180 degrees. Uh, turn to the right. Take one minute. Yep. Right at one minute we should be heading about 320. There we go. Standard rate. Be sure to compensate for that loss of lift. Good. Very nice. Right there, right on. One minute. On the money. Okay, then this leg Thirty seconds? Two minutes. Don't scare me like that. I am on the right leg, right? It's two minutes? I thought you were on, I thought you just did your Oh, you're right, you're right, you're right. Okay. I was thinking the wrong one. I want to go north. There you go. In five seconds. I was about to say, two minutes, alright, that's a That's a long one, yeah. Okay, standard rate. Little back pressure. Yep. Run from your mistakes. That's perfect. Could be about 15 seconds. Is whoop overdid it A little. All right, now this one's two minutes, five outstanding goes over black water. Five nine descending three five emergency. Sent with a couple of fe Sarah Red Rock, 64,500 North test track and northbound gonna be maneuvering circles and south. Keeping up that scan. Alright, one minute to go, roll. Alright, one minute to go, roll. Southwest practice area, SS734, Hotel Charlie is at 4, 500 over Bapchul, moving westbound. 30 seconds, I'll be making a turn to Zero four five. Yes sir. Zero four five heading. Standard rate. Go. Reset. I don't know why we ballooned so much. Probably some turbulence. This one is Forty five seconds. Forty five seconds, we're about halfway there. Alright, ten seconds. be doing a two seventy. Alright? Yes sir. I'll be turning to the south. Yep, you're going to be heading south. To the left. Right now. Yep. Standard rate. I could lose a tiny bit of altitude. Practice Aero to X 60, 4, 500, Bob Choulet heading southbound, south. Bill, you're doing a great job. Thank you. Keeping a right of standard rate, you're keeping this game going, and I know you are, because your altitude's good, your coordinator's good, your air speed's good, your power setting's good. Fantastic. This is going to be fun, man. Challenging, but fun. Yeah, oh yeah. It's just the beginning. Then you're going to be doing checklists in the next lesson with us. Yeah. And changing air speeds and doing all kinds of stuff. Then we can start talking about control performance. Alright, I'm going to be rolling out on south. Alright, that'll have to do it for the instrument patterns for today and we'll pick this back up next week. But it was good to be doing actual simulated IMC training again. I was doing alright, but I was in kindergarten with these patterns. This rating would get challenging for sure, juggling all of the new knowledge, the new skills in the cockpit, and mostly just how busy everything would get, and I couldn't get enough of it. You know what else I can't get enough of? Yep, you're right, comments from you guys. As usual, I Want you to know that I'd love hearing from you again. You can send me email anytime at bill at studentpilotcast. com. It's easy. And I don't charge that much for emails. It'll only cost you. Let's see, one carry the two. Oh yeah, it's free. And it's easy. You can also find me on X using the handle at bill will that's Bravo, India, Lima, Lima, whiskey, India, Lima. I know a few of you have reached out that way and that's cool too. However you do it, let me know what you're up to in aviation. If you're flying, let me know what and where you're doing it. And let me know what you're learning right now too. Seriously. I love it. So I'm in the middle of my first training under the hood in a while. And like I said, we'll finish up this flight next week, but. I'll be doing a lot of this over the next little while. Like I said, I couldn't get enough of it. There would come a time when I would long to look out of the airplane again, but for now I was learning and practicing some new skills to me, and that usually keeps me really happy. It's like a fix I was able to get a couple of times a week, sometimes more. I'd also start flying a bit in the basic training device or the basic SIM that I'd use for some of my training hours. And. In fact, I had done my first SIM session a day or two before this flight, where I was introduced to the instrument patterns in the SIM before we did it in the airplane. I'll talk more about training in the sim in future episodes a little bit. Nobody wants to hear audio of a sim session. Suffice it to say right now, it's not nearly as fun as it sounds. The real airplane is way, way better. I found the sim actually really hard to control. Nothing felt as natural as the real plane, and the controls were just too simulated feeling. So, yeah, real flying is best. That said There is a good place in trading for the sim. And the better, like the more expensive the sim, probably the better it is. But I much prefer real flying. I use my own non certified gaming sims to practice certain things, including procedures from time to time. While it's not loggable and not nearly as fun as the real thing, it can be instructive and helpful. So yes, there is a place for it. But I'll keep bringing you to the real thing. And maybe, Talk about some of the sim experience that I got during this training. So until next week, when we finish this one up, just remember I was loving it so far. I was learning a ton and I had no idea what was in store for me, even if I thought I did. I was blissfully ignorant of the brain overload that I'd soon feel. I would actually soon be an overloaded pilot who could only stammer nonsensical phrases like hold entry while looking at my thumb and VDP what? I might have even been heard saying something like why does he keep telling me how far I am away from this final approach fix and what was all that other stuff he said? I'd figure it out soon enough, I guess.