SPC#76 – Last Call

Can I get through.

What would turn out to be a bit of a challenging training flight?

And actually get something out of it.

Find out today in episode 76.

Of the student pilot cast.

Last call.

Welcome back SPC listeners.

Thanks for listening to today's episode.

We'll be covering my next instrument training flight in this one.

Which turns out to be a little bit of a difficult one, nothing bad happened.

Don't worry.

But I just didn't have a great day, but we'll get into that in a little bit.

First, I want to thank those of you who've reached out and given me feedback and

let me know what you're doing in aviation and how things are going as always.

I love hearing from you.

So please keep the feedback and the stories coming.

What I haven't gotten yet though, is anyone with a beyond the checkride story

about how they learn something important that they just didn't learn in training?

Please tell us your stories and hopefully we can feature those on

future behind the check ride segments.

You can reach me as usual at bill at student pilot, cast.com.

Speaking of beyond the checkride today's flight is a little bit long.

So we'll forgo the beyond the check ride segment for today's episode.

And we'll be sure to include one in the next one.

Hope this doesn't make anyone too sad.

But if it does.

And to reach out and let me know.

Okay, so let's get on with the flight.

For this lesson, I was with Eddie again, but this would be one of my

last flights with him for awhile.

I think as my main training would get transitioned over to another instructor.

But we'll introduce him next time.

Today.

Eddie.

And I would be doing some air work under the hood.

So my training would soon start evolving.

Into the normal things that people think of with instrument training,

like holds and approaches and departure procedures and all of that stuff.

But for this flight.

We'd be focusing on control of the airplane Using only

reference to the instruments.

So it's like training for the training, kind of getting comfortable with the

airplane in various configurations.

Without the ability to see outside.

So all that other stuff will come later.

But for now, this is what we'll be focusing on for this flight.

Also the airport was particularly busy that day.

Part of it was that one of the runways and several of the taxiways were closed

and ATC personnel were understaffed, which was happening quite a bit.

Back then.

But there didn't seem to be any less traffic than usual.

So alas, a really busy airport.

In fact, he'll hear a couple of times that pattern work was not available and

even so it seemed busier than normal, even though people couldn't, you know,

do a bunch of pattern work there.

So go figure.

In any case we didn't need pattern work.

As landings don't happen in instrument training, obviously.

I'm just kidding.

Of course I'm kidding, but it seems like that sometimes landing

is almost like an afterthought.

And once you take the foggles off during the landing, it seems like.

Everything else is just putting the airplane away.

The training's over right.

Oh, anyway.

As per usual, we'll start by getting the ATUs.

This will be the first indication of a busier than normal airport.

Fcon tire information.

LIMA 1 9 0 5 4.

Zulu Wind 3 0 0 8.

Temperature niner dew point minus six T 3 0 0 5.

Visual approaching use landing runway.

Two two left only.

Notums 5 2 2 left.

Further information.

Contact service frequencies runway two two.

Right closed 3 0 0 5.

Taxiway Charlie closed taxiway Echo.

Between Echo four and Echo six.

Carly's closed.

I need all arrivals.

Contact tower 1, 2, 4, 0.6.

Advise on initial contact.

You have Lima.

All right, you got your altimeter setting?

I did.

I already put it in Lima one.

I got altimeter 3 0 0 5 3.

That's what I have.

Temperature niner.

I forgot this one.

Six three.

0, 0 5.

I did that one.

The one that doesn't work as well.

Two.

Two left Only.

Okay.

Just head out here, is that spot 5?

Uh, that is, spot 5 is up there, so you can just taxi straight ahead.

And then just turn left up there.

And since we're going to 2 2 left, let's go to Delta 7 intersection.

All right, so we'll make our ground call.

Now I wanted to mention, or at least explain the blue tail

thing you're about to hear.

And you might've heard this before on my other episodes, but here again,

you'll hear a controller mentioned to follow the blue tail traffic.

That's just an easy way to identify planes from the biggest flight

school on our field, which is cau.

They use the call sign Oxford, which you've definitely heard

before in my other episodes.

And if you ever fly around the Mesa, Arizona area, You'll

definitely hear Oxford airplanes.

Their planes.

Have you guessed it?

Blue tails.

Thus the moniker.

I just wanted to explain a little bit about what you're hearing

I

Falcon Ground Red Rock.

71 is at Delta seven.

Uh, with Lima.

We're gonna be headed to the north.

Red Rock 71, Falcon Ground, pass behind the blue tail archer that's

heading to your left on Delta.

Runway 22L, taxi via Delta.

Taxi to 22L via Delta, and we will follow the traffic that's almost

in front of us, Red Rock 71.

Smooth with it.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can.

Perfect.

Very nice radio call.

Falcon Ground, Red Rock 83 is at Delta 7 with Lima, requesting

taxi for southbound departure.

Red Rock 22L, taxi via Delta.

22L via Delta, Red Rock 83.

What's flashing here?

That's just the oil temperature because you're at a really low power setting.

Hasn't warmed up yet.

Tell me how to enter this run up area again.

Just go to about where I'm going to be.

You're going to hold short because of all these guys right here, so you're

just going to be on standby for now.

Oh.

So you're just going to go next to that CAE guy for now.

Come to the right.

Where at?

You can just hold it right here, right here.

Unless you think you can squeeze in there, but I don't know if we can.

So let's just, let's just stay here.

Wait for someone.

Oh, I'm gonna pull in.

There we go.

Try to just go in front of this guy.

Go in front of him?

Yeah, and then just make a really tight U turn.

Uh, come to your left just a little bit.

There you go.

You're clear.

Perfect.

Very nice.

All right.

So we were ready for the run-up at this point.

Eddie went over some instrument checks with me and I was already

forgetting some stuff when moving onto the next thing, which doesn't

bode well for the rest of the flight.

I had taken over a week off from flying due to other

things going on and scheduling.

And it turns out Eddie had been on vacation too.

So neither of us had flown in, in the last week.

I said it before, and I'll say it again, flying, especially for someone with low

overall timeline me Is a perishable skill.

And you'll notice it when you haven't been flying much recently.

Everything just takes a little more thought and effort.

So here we go with the run-up.

Runout brakes, parking brake is set.

Mixture full rich.

Flight controls

free and correct.

Throttle 2, 000.

Carb heat.

Oh, carb heat's working.

Little drop.

Crab.

Huh?

Uh, not much.

Yeah.

Amps, uh, let's see, I think I need to go to the next screen, right?

Positive.

Positive.

oil fuel gauges.

Everything's in the green.

You can hit it one more time for your oil gauges.

Oil temperature's still a little low.

It'll warm up.

Yeah, low is good.

Alright, so back to idle.

Okay, flight instruments, we're good on the altitude.

Can you remember your instrument cockpit check at all?

Instrument cockpit check.

Yep.

We talked about that on the last flight.

Going through all the instrument checks, right?

Yep.

Okay, so we're reading zero, which we would expect.

We've got zero climb.

Do you want anything there besides getting rid of the message?

Uh, you can throw in direct to V-P-F-T-N.

Enter, enter.

Perfect.

And, uh, you are missing one other thing on the instrument cockpit check.

Oh yeah.

Two other things.

Um, so we're not showing a turn here, um, ball is centered, and

we've got,

let's see, three, 25, and we're showing 325 so that matches.

And this is leveled at the horizon.

Alright, so there's two other things.

So you want to make sure you have a clock handy.

Do it right here.

Perfect.

And then, uh, once you start moving, you want to check your inclinometer.

So you're going to see the purple.

Okay.

Alright, so um, I've got a clock.

Right here.

Perfect.

You're good to go.

You're good to go.

You just released that parking brake.

East departure

temperatures.

Two two left taxi via delta there two two left taxi via Delta 8 8 4.

And I am seeing the inclinometer.

Yep.

Inclinometer is reading true?

Do you have your fogles on you?

I do.

Perfect.

They're right here.

Alright, this is eight.

Eight.

Im gonna switch over to tower.

And then what is the, uh, practice area Interview?

1, 2, 2, 7, 5.

Takeoff, takeoff.

2 2 68.

One.

Very nice.

Staying ahead of the airplane.

I was just going to tell you to do that.

So now that we're done with the run-up, we were ready to hurry up and wait in line.

When we talk a little bit about being glad to be back in the cockpit,

after a little break, but then we start joking about most of the

practice we'd get on such a busy day.

Things like, you know, idle and breaking.

I here you go.

Was good.

I haven't flown in almost a week.

This is nice.

Excited.

I missed it.

Me too.

And I don't fly nearly as much as you.

True.

They're slightly slower.

Gonna get lots of, um, Roger that we have that.

We'll try.

You're gonna be doing a lot, a lot of brake checks.

Well, I don't know why that runway is.

I'm gonna look at the note right now.

I do.

so we were finally number one.

And ready to go.

And we got our clearance.

As you'll hear.

I forgot to say the runway in my read back.

And then when contacted again to say it, I got a little bit

flustered and then it distracts me from the other things going on.

So you'll likely notice throughout this plight things would start to pile

up on me a little bit simple things.

And I'd get behind the airplane again.

Anyone who's done any training knows about that phrase, getting behind the airplane.

But for those who've not flown yet.

It should be somewhat simple to grasp.

When you get task, saturated things, start building up on you.

Things that need to get done, things you need to do.

And pretty soon you're barely keeping up or not keeping up.

You're behind the airplane.

Ideally, you're keeping yourself ahead of the airplane or

anticipating what needs to be next.

And either taking care of it or getting prepared to take care of it.

This is always important, but never more important than

when your instrument flying.

The task load gets much higher than just flying visually.

There's always parts of every flight, basically where there's a lot to do.

But it just gets intensified when your instrument flying.

There's simply more to do.

More to consider more tasks in general.

But no more time to do them.

So a lot of instrument flying has practicing to the point where you

can stay ahead of the airplane, even with more tasks to do such as

you have when you're flying IFR.

So today I wasn't even on an instrument flight plan and I wasn't.

Doing all the things that you would have to do when you're flying by instruments.

It was actually pretty normal stuff I had to do.

And I was already getting behind.

Again, not a great sign for the rest of the flight.

But certainly good for my learning.

It's important in controlled situations like this, like with an instructor.

To get yourself task saturated.

So you learn how to adapt.

How you'll react.

Get better at prioritizing.

All of those things.

One of the best reasons to be in this situation is to feel what it's like.

Again.

Better in a controlled and safe environment like this.

So you realize your limitations and start to understand the

amount of practice and recency.

It takes not just to be current, but to be proficient.

Well, that was a big part of the lesson I got this day.

So that's just a long-winded way of saying let's get on with the

flight, with my takeoff clearance and the subsequent takeoff.

Red Rock Seventy One, Runway two, two, left, line up and wait, traffic downwind.

We'll line up and wait.

Uh, Red Rock Seventy One.

Red Rock Seventy One, Runway two, two, left, line up and wait.

Fuel pump is on.

Traffic outside, 243.

8, do you copy.

Landing light.

Flaps are set.

Red Rock Seventy One, I need the runway with that.

Runway two, two, left, line up and wait, traffic downwind.

Runway two, two, left, line up and wait.

Red Rock Seventy One.

Three ninety eight, X radiator climb through two thousand

seven hundred for traffic.

click.

Oxford 63 98 here before a takeout check.

So 74 holding left.

I don't know which one is the landing light.

78 34 star.

March 44 61.

Turn base runway two two left.

Continue traffic and position turning base for runway.

Runway two two Left Oxford 44 61

Falcon Tower Helicopter.

Six two Hotel Papa Fountain Hills.

Request Geco to arrival Landing Thunderbird with Lima.

Helicopter from the north, landing Thunderbird, cross midfield, one thousand

nine hundred hundred, falcon altimeter is three zero zero five, transition approved.

Transition approved, that's helicopter six two hotel papa.

Red Rock seventy one, right turn approved, runway two two left, cleared for takeoff.

Cleared takeoff for two two left, Red Rock seventy one, right turn approved.

Rock seventy eight thirty four, delay approved, runway two

two left, cleared for takeoff.

Hey, airspeed is alive.

It's green.

Nine eight forty six, traffic ahead is, uh, Chandler.

Cessna 38J, number 2, follow the Archer, runway 22L, go to land.

Red Rock 46, resume on navigation, make left traffic, runway 22L.

Number 4, follow Archer, beam the numbers, runway 22L, go to land.

Runway two two left, cleared to land, Red Rock forty six.

Alright.

Cherokee six five seven, Joe and Julie, you up?

We are turning in front of the other runway.

What's up?

Well, the other runway is closed.

I know.

Yeah, that's what I mean.

Alright, we're at

five hundred feet.

Alright, who's number 1?

Red Rock 83, number 1.

Who's number 2?

Experimental 5 2, Hotel Blank.

Who's number 3?

Oxford 45 60.

Who's number 4?

Skyhawk 2 0 8 8 4.

Who's number 5?

Okay.

It was time to get under the hood or put my foggles on in this case.

No more looking out of the plane until we were coming into land.

The rest of this flight, I'd be blind to the outside.

Red Rock 46, do you have company?

You want me to go ahead and find through pattern altitude, right?

Yep, so I'll take the airplane and you can throw on your hood.

you have the controls?

I have the controls.

Alright, turn left heading 360, please climb to maintain 3, 700.

3, 700, and turn left to heading what?

Uh, to heading 005.

005.

So along with some of the other flubs, I was encountering in my skills.

I was having a hard time managing my altitude.

It was a pretty bumpy day.

It was turbulent and there were.

Updrafts and downdrafts, which were contributing to this, but I should have

been able to manage my climbs and descents and my altitude better than I was.

This added to my frustration with myself, as well as my task

saturation, as I had to constantly allocate attention and brain power to

recovering from my altitude mistakes.

have been going to other tasks and preparing for what

was coming up in the flight.

It's one of the ways you get behind.

Also in this segment.

Patients was running thin.

Probably with a lot of people, but you'll hear on the radio.

One of the controllers clearly nearing the end of his rope.

He stayed professional as usual, but was.

Pretty clearly done with some of us.

Luckily it wasn't me this time that was doing the frustrating, but

maybe I had contributed who knows.

Here you go.

feel the airplane start to climb, so just watch your, um, This is a 38J,

Delta 6 is the one heading to your right, hold short runway 22L at Delta 6.

Holding short 22L, stop, you're moving too fast, hold your position, it's

right there heading to your right.

And you're holding short 22L, the runway is 922L, hold short runway 22L at Delta 6.

Thank you.

Okay.

So at this point I really needed to get dialed back in, back into the

flight, to my altitude, to where I was headed and what I'd be doing.

I wasn't even doing anything complex yet, and I was struggling.

So I had do my best and we'll see where this would go.

We'd head out to the Northeast practice area to do my maneuvers there.

What's the warning?

Here are

RPM's.

Say again the call sign one more time.

Thank you.

You can just honestly pull your power back to below that.

Just pull it out a little bit if you're struggling to battle the airplane.

Small corrections, you don't have to shock cool it, but

Red Rock 83, runway 22L, line up and wait.

Cool, you're out of the airspace and you can switch over to the common traffic.

Okay.

All right.

Take me direct to VPF, the N, please.

All right, go back on altitude.

This is good.

Hey, you can make your first radio call saying, uh, north

Practice area where you are.

And we're gonna be heading north at four thousand five hundred

four thousand five hundred.

Yep.

North Practice area.

Red Rock 71 is two one and a half miles south of Fountain Hills.

And we'll be heading.

north into the practice area at 4, 500.

It's for northeast.

Oh, northeast, not north.

Alright, we'll just continue on this heading a little bit longer at this

altitude because of the Bravo shelf.

Okay.

And once we cross BPFTN let's climb to 4, 500 and then, uh, on a heading of 360.

Okay.

And let's do this at, so you're in that little RPM setting that doesn't like, so

you can start to bring your power back up.

Oh, back up?

Yep, so we can just get back, because we're going to climb now, right?

So you can bring that throttle way up.

Okay.

And there is VPFDN, so we climb 4, 500, heading 360.

Heading 360 and climb 4, 500.

Yep, and then you're going to set up for slow flight.

It's like I haven't flown in a week.

No, you're fine.

Geez.

Nice and bumpy out here.

Yeah, you know it's bumpy because we have these cumulus clouds right above.

Not that you can see.

Nope.

Don't cheat.

I would have to cheat to see.

Don't cheat.

I tempted you.

Don't do it.

I was just saying, like, aircraft limitations for, like, spins and stuff.

Yeah.

Oh, I was just holding this while I was checking also.

Oh, gotcha.

Just to keep myself stable.

A little bumpy today.

So we'd start with slow flight.

Again, the idea is to stay under the hood and do various private

pilot level maneuvers to feel the airplane and control it.

Without being able to look outside.

Using only reference to the instruments.

Like I said before the practice for the practice of instrument flying.

We'll see how this goes.

Alright, you can make another radio call saying you're at the Orchards.

And you're 4, 000, 3, uh, climbing to 4, 500.

When you level off 4, 500, you'll make a call saying you're

at the Orchards northbound.

Slow flight for northeast.

Northeast practice area, Redbox 71 is 4, 500.

We're headed north for slow flight over the Orchards northeast.

Perfect.

Alrighty, sir.

Okay.

You can do your pre maneuver checklist when you get yourself nice and set up.

Alright, clearing turns.

Fuel pump is still on.

Uh, I can't do a clearing turn.

Yep.

No, I have an eye out for traffic.

It doesn't look like there is any.

Okay.

So, I'm the safety pilot right now.

Landing light is still on.

Mixture is rich.

Carb heat and throttle as required, so I need to be back at 22,

little high.

This is really hard to do slow flight and like maneuvers in

because of the power settings.

So you want me to go below it then?

Yeah, we'll just go below it.

Okay.

Just slightly.

There you go.

Ready, sir.

Okay.

You're at 100.

Get to 90.

What's your altitude?

4, 500.

Okay.

If you want, you can just kind of set yourself up again.

Descend back down.

Okay.

Leave the flaps the first notch.

Yeah, you can leave that first notch.

So you can just pull your power out and get you where you need to go.

Power is your friend.

Northwest Fax Area, we are 14 over Antel 5, 000.

We'll be doing some stalls.

Northwest.

There you go.

Okay.

4, 500 and there is just about 90.

Oops.

More.

Watch for that.

Balloon.

Yeah, compensate for that.

Extra lift that's being produced.

Come on.

Anything just pitch up a little bit.

There you go.

And then, uh, what's my speed?

You should be looking for between 65 to 70.

Okay.

So, plus 10.

And we're doing?

And we're going to go no lower than 65.

Because the standards are plus 10 minus zero.

So, let's maintain 4, 500 so you can add a bit of power.

Let's do a slow flight climb with 4, And do not go below 65 because

that's what would mark you.

Okay.

So you can stay a few knots above that.

Okay.

Very nice.

Alright, keep that power in just a little bit longer.

You've still got a little ways to go.

Yep.

Alrighty, when you get to 4, 500, let's do a left hand turn to west.

And it's 2 o'clock, so when you make that left turn to west, let's,

uh, let's switch our fuel tanks.

Uh, no more than 10 degrees of bank to your left.

Okay, here we go.

I'm

going all the way to 090.

I mean 270.

Yeah, 270, I was about to say, that doesn't sound right.

Yep, 270.

Traffic not available.

Don't worry, that's just the RPM thing.

Descend down to 4, 500.

When we get to 4, 500, we'll do another turn to the north.

While you're doing so, and you're not task saturated, you can

switch the fuel tanks please.

Alright, fuel pump is on.

You can leave the fuel pump on.

Yep, left tank.

It was already on, I was just verifying.

Okay,

we still have pressure.

Oh, getting work today a little bit.

A lot going on.

I'm on.

So if you are still high, just point nose down a little bit and pull that power.

Alright.

Okay.

There you go, you're pretty much on it.

Perfect.

And let's do a turn back to north.

Okay, turn to north.

Right 360, no more than 10 degrees.

Remember, when you're turning, you have a little bit of that loss of

vertical component of lift, so maybe just a hair of power if need be.

Or a little bit of back pressure.

Yeah, I can't get any more back pressure in that 65.

There we go.

Alrighty,

you can recover from slow flight.

And we'll just stay at 4, 500.

Good job on correcting.

And all examiners really like and appreciate verbalism, so if you say, oh,

I'm off on altitude, I'm off on heading, correcting, correcting, correcting,

correcting, instead of just being silent.

Okay.

Kind of explain to me what you're thinking, what you're doing.

Alright.

On my heading, on my altitude.

Alrighty, sir.

Let's head, let's turn to a heading of west, 4, 500, and then you can set

me up for power off stall, please.

West?

Yep, let's go back to west.

And you can make a radio call.

Um, and you're at, you are 3 miles, 4 miles to the east of street pattern.

Northeast practice area, Red Rock 71 is 3 miles east of street pattern.

4, 500 northeast.

I would say normally just like heading west stalls or something

like that, but that's fine.

Alright, once you hit a 270 you can start to set me up for, uh, power off stall.

Well, that didn't go great, but it shouldn't be that much of a surprise.

This seemed to be turning into a shakedown flight for my skills,

getting back into the swing of things.

Next step would be a power off stall.

Okay, start to set up I'm gonna go to 2, 200 RPM or as close as I can do it.

Yeah, as close as you can.

That's fine right there.

Okay.

And you're almost at one hundo.

Correcting my altitude.

Very nice.

Now you can bring that first notch of flaps in.

Alright, we're almost to ninety.

Slow it down.

Correcting my altitude again.

Power off, stall.

Power off, yep.

So you're descending to that 500 feet per minute descent, then

you can pull your power to idle,

and slowly start to pitch up.

Maintain coordination,

Pulling back,

you're going to go to a full stall,

and there's a stall.

Full power, and immediately take out a first notch of flaps.

And I'm going to get back up my west heading.

Actually it wasn't terrible, just on the next, next time we do

stalls, just make sure you really add that power in right away.

Got it.

There was like a two second delay.

That's true.

I'm going to get back to 4, 500.

Yeah, we'll go back up to 4, 500, and you can take out um, last notch of flaps

once he has a positive rate, right?

Yep.

Alright, go to 4, 500 and then we'll do a 180 degree climbing

turn to the, uh, to east.

If you can come to the left, and we'll do a 180 degree turn.

I'm sorry, say again?

Yeah, we'll do a climbing left turn to east.

Left, okay.

Yep.

On the way to 4, 500, so you can start your turn.

Oh, on the way, got it.

Yep.

Okay, so I'm starting the turn.

Yeah, climbing.

Got it.

There you go.

Here's the power on stall with Eddie helping walk me through it.

Uh,

we want to get down to 2, 000 RPM, in this case.

It's a little hard, but.

You got it?

Yep, 2, 000 RPM, we're going to slow down to 70.

Oh, 70, got it.

Yep.

heading.

Okay, there's 70.

Alright, so you can bring it up 2, 000 RPM so you can add a little bit

of power, just a hair, and then you're going to start to pitch up, pitch up,

and maintain coordination, and then when you feel the buffet, not the light,

there's a stall light, when you feel the buffet, then you can lower your nose.

Keep it coming, keep pulling back, and

there's the buffet.

Feel it, there you go.

Push down, yep.

A little bit of forward pressure, keep it coordinated.

Got it.

Okay.

Perfect.

There's 80, there's, perfect.

And then climb back to the altitude, right?

Yep.

Okay.

Time to move on to the steep turns.

How do you think this is going to go for me?

Yeah.

Probably not great considering the rest of the flight.

Alright, cool.

Next thing we're going to do is we're going to do steep turns.

So you can set up for steep turns.

So we'll just continue on this heading to the east.

Okay.

And then we're going to bank to 45 degrees.

Okay, right there.

We'll do a steep turn to the left.

We're going to do this at 100.

Okay, there we go.

You're doing one steep turn.

You can keep it in this for now.

Okay.

Just no more than like two minutes.

This is feeling weird.

Should be giving you up trim.

It's, feel it.

Yeah, it's like stuck.

Yeah.

Well, I'm definitely going to right that up.

I don't even know if it's moving it.

Oh, it just loosened up.

Oh, yeah, there it is.

Okay.

Cool.

Alright, you've been in this power setting for a while, so just

increase your power for a while.

Increase it?

Okay.

Yeah, just get it out of that red zone.

Just push it in for a minute.

Getting back on my heading.

Yeah, and you know what?

Let's, uh, let's come right.

Okay.

180 degrees, let's go back to, go back to east.

Okay.

Or excuse me, back to west.

In fact, you know what, since we're almost done with west, we'll

just do it on a south heading.

Kind of towards, uh, back towards, uh, Fountain Hills.

So we'll turn to the south.

Okay.

So 180, and then you can do your steep turns.

And we'll go to 4, 500.

Power setting.

Skyhawk 881, Lima Alpha is heading eastbound over Dynamite Road.

4, 500.

Okay.

You may make a radio call saying we're over Rio Verde at, uh, 4, 900.

We're going to be doing steep turns over the orchards, uh, same altitude.

Okay.

Northeast practice area of Red Rocks 71 is over Rio Verde, 4, 900.

We're going to be doing steep turns over the orchards, same altitude.

Northeast.

I don't know why this guy's climbing.

81 Lima.

4 4 500.

That North Road gonna be heading westbound with Ized Road four five Northeast.

All righty, sir.

He should be no factor anymore.

Okay.

You want to just do this altitude?

Yeah, we'll just stay at 4,900 and we'll do a turn to the left.

Our first turn is gonna be a turn to the left.

All turn to the left, and we'll go all the way around to 180.

Uh, we're gonna do a 360 degree turn right back to one, back to 180 0.

Yeah, I should have said that.

Okay.

Alright, watch your descent rate.

Small movements.

Ah, that was pretty bad.

Alright, get yourself set up, and go back.

It's 4, 900.

And just make a small, really, really slow, gradual turn into the steep turn.

You don't need to be aggressive with it.

Get yourself set up first.

Alright, Will.

You can do it at 5, 000, that's fine.

Okay.

Alright.

5, 000.

You can start your turn to the right.

Very shallow.

Just nice and steady.

Get yourself to 45 degrees of bank.

There we go.

There you go.

22.

A little bit more bank.

And keep that back pressure right.

Compensate.

There you go.

A little bit more.

A little bit more bank.

There you go.

You added a little too much power on that turn.

So that's why you kept climbing and kept having to battle it.

Okay.

Alright, we can do one more to the left.

We'll do one more to the left and then one more to the right.

Heading of 180.

You can make another radio call.

Where are we?

We are at the orchards.

Northeast practice area, Red Rock, 71 is at 5, 000 feet over the

orchards, doing steep turns northeast.

Come on.

Okay, you want to go right or left?

Uh, we'll go to the left.

Nice and small, gradual turn to 45 degrees.

There you go.

Really slow.

And when you see that

airspeed, that means you're losing altitude, so just give it

a little bit of back pressure.

ATC chatter Look how much better this one is.

See how little movements you're making?

Yep.

There you go.

Much, much better.

Alright, perfect.

Alright, you can start to roll out on one eight zero.

And then when you do that, you can come do the same thing to the right.

All traffic is clear, so that's a good thing.

And watch your altitude.

Start to descend.

Pick up a lot of airspeed.

Give yourself some back pressure.

There you go.

6511

just north of the fountain, 3, 200, heading back to town, last call.

See ya.

Ah, losing my banger.

Alright man, no you're good.

So obviously that wasn't my best work on steep turns.

I had to do them twice just to get like, okay.

Status.

Not, not only was it time to head back, but it was time to head

back if you know what I mean.

I had done all the learning I could probably do for the day.

And it was time to get back on the ground and contemplate my choices in life.

Nah.

All right.

Not, not really that bad, but it does feel like that sometimes.

I'm sure those of you who have gone through training or, or

done other difficult things.

You know exactly what I'm talking about.

It just feels like sometimes it's not going to work.

In any case we would start to head back now.

One quick comment before we move.

Move on.

So ho hold on.

Let me get my soapbox all set up here.

All right.

at the end of the segment, when Eddie helped me make my last call on

the practice area frequency before talking to Falcon tower again.

You'll also notice my hesitancy to use the non-standard phrasiology of last call.

Well, When I say nonstandard it's standard around here.

I mean, seriously, everybody seems to say it.

You've probably heard it a ton in my episodes.

You've heard a lot of instructors using that phrase, ology.

But I also happen to know that it's not standard from a regulation perspective.

You're not going to find that terminology in the AME, for example.

Unless I'm wildly mistaken and missing something.

It's not there.

It reminds me a little of back in the day when I was learning

to fly for the first time.

People would always use the phrase phrasiology on a CTF frequency

of any traffic in the area.

Please advise it was really common for people to do it.

And it kind of felt standard to people that were learning around

people that set it all the time.

There was a big push to get away from saying that because

it was nonstandard and it, it.

It wasn't helpful.

And it became almost kind of an aviation meme.

So everybody pretty much stopped saying it.

So as not to get made fun of.

You might still hear it from time to time, I guess, but it's much less common now.

I think that's probably going to happen with this last call nonsense.

Now I don't blame anybody for using it.

Seriously.

Everybody seems to say it.

So it's not like Eddie was necessarily doing anything wrong or any of the.

The flight instructors are doing anything wrong.

Everybody's doing it.

It seems pretty standard.

That's how they were taught to do it.

But again, up on my soap box, it just doesn't seem like it's

necessary or helpful really.

You've already announced what you're doing, where you're going.

Who you are, where you are and you're leaving the practice area.

So obviously it's going to be your last call.

And even if it's not obvious that it's going to be your last call, it's

not really helpful for everyone else.

That's in the practice area to know that.

Because you're gone from the practice area.

So it just, it just doesn't seem meaningful.

wasting time and.

And we'll get to the other time.

It wastes in a minute.

But anyway, I, I have a feeling and a few years it's probably going to

go out of style as people realize it's non-standard and not necessary.

But for today, It wasn't worth a discussion in the cockpit.

Maybe sometime later, but it's not really the most important thing I could

be worrying about when I couldn't even stay ahead of the airplane mentally

and make normal radio calls properly.

So it certainly wasn't something I was going to bring up at the time.

And it's not the most important thing to bring up.

Anytime really.

And besides maybe I'm maybe I'm wrong on this whole thing and it is helpful.

And I should just get with the program.

But I doubt it.

In any case?

I didn't say I didn't the phrase, you know, last call at first.

But then when I was prompted specifically to do it, I did it, and

I didn't really worry about it later either when I'm teaching, I can do

it how I want to do it and not say it, but until then, If it's not that

important, I'll just do what I'm told.

Honestly.

I think the main reason instructors keep saying it.

Is to get all the, see us.

From everyone else, which incidentally is one of the main reasons we

probably shouldn't use this phrase.

Ology is it jams up the frequency for awhile, but with everybody saying, see ya.

But it's likely social.

And after all we're social characters, aren't we, that stylized SIA is probably

part of the secret handshake I'll get shown once I become a CFI and then

I'll realize all the value in it.

But until then, I'll try and keep the last call stuff out.

Unless I'm just told to do it and then I'll just do it.

Because it's not the most important thing to be worried about.

And it's not the hill I'm going to die on.

But I did want to comment on it since it's my podcast and I can do that.

So there you go.

Now, let me step down carefully off of the soap box.

So I don't fall and hurt myself and we can keep going with the flight.

Alright sir, uh, that should be enough for today, so let's do a,

uh, left 360 descent down to 3, 300.

And you can start to get your weather.

Okay, left 360 descent to 3, 300.

Yep, and you can start to get your weather.

Okay, there are 3 0 0 6 visual approaching use landing standard right two left

northeast practice area, Lima Alpha at 4,000 at Pinco P heading West Zero Valley.

Last call two two.

Right closed taxi eight.

Charlie closed taxi eight.

Echo from echo.

Four to echo six closed.

Unable pattern work, all arrivals.

Contact tower on 1, 2, 4 0.6.

Advise on initial contact.

Do you have information Mike?

temperature niner, two point minus seven, altimeter three zero zero six,

visual approaching you, two two five.

Alright, alright, you can throw it, uh, okay, you're already

direct, so you can hit, I'll hit direct, enter, enter again for you.

And I'll draw that line.

And I'll kind of give you some factors actually.

So, let's uh, maintain a heading of 2 4 0, descend down to 3, 300 please.

2 4 0 and 3, 300.

Yes sir.

What's up?

Yep, so now you can do your post maneuver checklist.

Okay.

Carb heat, um, landing light, off, fuel pump, off, next year lean.

Alright, I was trying to man, I was looking out for traffic,

this one guy's kind of closer to us, but now he's no factor.

You can make your last call saying, uh, Fountain Hills 3, 300

last call, southbound to Falcon.

Northeast practice area, Red Rock 71 is heading towards Falcon, uh,

over Fountain Hills, uh, northeast.

3, 300 last call.

3, 300 feet last call, northeast.

There you go.

I know there's a lot going on right now.

Oh, I got my head.

You still want me on 230, right?

Uh, for now.

I'm gonna give you a vector shortly after that, but a lot of instrument

is them giving you 10 degree vectors like every 10 seconds.

Okay.

Yeah.

Thanks a lot.

Kind of mimic that here.

It's a bumpy day.

Yep, it is.

Alright, so you can maintain 230, 3, 300 for now.

Okay, so we're headed back now.

Got to get in touch with the tower.

We gotta head back in the land.

This would be for netic and a little wild.

So, let me give you a preview of things.

You can be listening for one.

It's crazy busy.

Two.

I'm behind the airplane.

Three.

I'm given a non-standard pattern entry and pattern assignment that

neither one of us had seen before.

For.

I messed up another call.

Not surprising.

Right.

Which made things worse for me.

I didn't say right downwind.

And then I had to do it again.

Five.

We stayed too high, too long, and I should have gotten to pattern altitude sooner.

So again, caused me to stay behind the airplane cause I had to correct.

Six.

I know I'm saying this again.

This gets a little hectic.

So this should be fun, right?

I also listen to the radio.

It appears that there's a Cherokee that lost comms during our approach

and landing while we were on final.

So kind of interesting.

And just so you know how frantic it was.

I'm going to let this play real time.

From the time I contacted the tower until we pulled off the runway, no

editing, no gaps removed nothing.

Real time down to the ground.

So enjoy my nightmare.

Well, it was still fun, but still kind of a nightmare.

Here you go.

And you can call, make your first call to Falcon Tower.

Okay.

You can say over Fountain Hills inbound and we'll stop with Mike.

Bonanza three zero, tell roger, continue flying that heading, I'll stall your

turn left heading two zero zero.

Two zero zero.

Fox sixty five eleven, follow company ahead two miles, runway

two two left, go to land.

Five eleven.

Cherokee one seven three eight, Juliet, do you have traffic heading

to your right in a mile and a half, three thousand on final?

Uh, negative, we're looking for traffic one two two, uh, three eight Juliet.

Cherokee one seven three eight, Juliet, roger, turn right and fly

due southbound to joint final.

Runway two two left, go to land, number three, they'll be at

your twelve o'clock in a mile.

Slow down just a little bit, because we're going to enter their delta seven, so.

Yeah, sorry.

Runway two, hospital land, that's throttle tires four four.

Requesting Yankee two extended.

180.

Universal.

4 4 2 approved.

AL four four.

Alright.

Call up Rock 71.

Yep, that's us.

Red Rock 71 is over Fountain Hills, uh, with Mike Inbound.

Red Rock 71 Falcon Tower, roger, fly due southbound and join a

midfield right downwind runway 22L.

You understand you're going to be flying south and you're going to

make a hard left turn to join a midfield right downwind runway 22L.

We will fly directly south and we'll make a hard left turn

to join the downwind for 22L.

Red Rock 71.

Red Rock 71, it's going to be a right downwind for runway 22L.

Sorry about that, right downwind for 22L, uh, Red Rock 71.

Roger, 53 45, extend downwind, I will call the base.

Extending downwind, you'll call base, Roger, 53 45.

Ascent, Liam Papa, when able, expedite your climb for 3, 000.

This is weird, I haven't done this before.

Yeah.

You can do your, uh, Red Rock 71, when able, descend to TPA as soon as able.

Now we're going down to 2, 400, Red Arc 71.

Alright, 2, 400.

2, 400.

Yep, let's do that quick.

Tower, left Delta 7, come to ground.

9 1 Mike, you're number one.

Affirm, 9 1 Mike.

9 1 Mike, Falcon Tower, left turn approved, runway 22L cleared for takeoff.

25 is on.

Left turn approved, two two left, clear for takeoff, Cessna one zero nine oh one.

Landing light.

Five fifty three forty five, file traffic, two mile final, Cherokee.

Looking for that traffic, we got that traffic inside off our left wing.

Sorry.

Throw your picture in the ridge.

There you go.

It's gonna help you out a little bit.

Three Sierra Hotel, start a right turn towards the airport to join

straight in runway two two left.

Right turn straight in to two two left, Sierra Hotel.

Red Rock seventy one, reduce speed, enter right base runway two two

left, now over the Granite Reef Dam.

Alright, we'll reduce speed and enter right base, two two

left, Red Rock seventy one.

Alright, turn left.

22L, cleared to land, turn base.

Fuel timer's going off again.

Yeah, it's fine, I'll take control as you got it.

Alright, right.

Reducing speed to Sierra Hotel, roger.

Looking for traffic.

Bonanza, 3 Sierra Hotel, runway 22L, clear to land.

Alright, just for uh, just for safety's sake, because there's terrain,

you're gonna take your goggles off.

Because there's terrain all around us.

Clear to land 22L, Sierra Hotel, sorry.

Thank you.

Looking, Red Rock 71.

Alright, you got controls?

I've got the controls.

Pre exchange approved, see you later.

And slow yourself down a little bit.

Alright, you can come right a little bit.

See that big building over there?

That big building.

Yeah, I see that one right between the two mountains.

Yep.

Yeah.

4955 Falcon Tower, roger, northbound for left base 22L.

You want me at 85, something like that?

Yeah, just maintain 90 for now.

22L when able to send a TPA.

Left traffic, two two left, then we'll get down to two four.

Oxford, ninety eight, thirty two.

Red Rock, seventy one, Bonanza heads to right on final.

We're looking for traffic, Red Rock, seventy one.

Oh, I got him.

Above the little tip of the mountain.

Okay.

Red Rock 71, start a right turn now to joint final.

Number 4, follow the Bonanza runway 22L, clear to land.

Alright, we're making a right turn, 22L, clear to land.

We have the traffic, Red Rock 71.

Cool.

Alright, you can give yourself separation, so don't speed up.

Put yourself into some slow flight to give yourself a little bit of separation.

I don't want to go around.

So you can pull that power back.

Honestly, you can add in your first notch of flaps now.

Alright.

Just kind of help yourself out, right?

Yep.

5345, good.

Julie left.

Turn on Delta and taxi Park on the ground.

Oh, we're going pretty fast right now.

Turn on the ground and actually we're going to the, uh, north parking

for a three a Juliet Cherokee.

Three Juliet, Roger.

Left.

Turn on Delta.

Hold short runway.

Two two left at Delta six.

Left.

Turn on Juliet or Delta and, uh, hold short.

Two, two left.

Three a Juliet.

I'm gonna put that last short runway.

Two two left at Delta.

No, we're a little lower.

Actually two two left to Delta 6 3 2 8 98 32.

Reduce speed.

You'd be following traffic.

Uh, heading, you're right in three miles.

Northbound base company Cherokee.

When you level with the runway.

So when you're aligned then you keep throw.

That's the second knot.

We're low though, so yeah, just maintain this for now.

And 2 6 0 5 53 45.

Help straight in, monitor.

Ground rolling.

Come to the right.

Just a hair left.

Delta to seven.

Uh, we'll go straight in.

Monitor ground.

Looks like we got a right cross wind.

9 55 runway.

Two, two left.

Continue traffic lane position.

Taylor runs into the wind, then nose to the toes.

Continue.

Officer 4 9 5 3 8.

Julia Delta six is behind you making 180.

Cherokee 3 8 Juliet, tower.

Cherokee 1 you out a little bit.

Thank you.

1 2 1 3.

Cherokee 1 7 3 Juliet, Falcon Tower, radio check.

That's third actually.

You good with that?

That's not your third.

That's your second.

Cherokee 1 7 3 8 Juliet, are you on tower 1 2 4 point 6?

Please respond.

If you cannot hear the transmission, rotate your aileron.

You can go full.

There you go.

Alright, he's good now.

He's on the runway.

So now just maintain a stabilized approach.

Got it.

Falcon Tower, Falcon 7 about 8 miles to the We're clear to land.

We are clear to land.

If you need help, if you want me to take over, let me know.

Delta 3 and Connecticut Grounds to your hotel, roger.

Alright, I'm here if you need it.

Alright, I'm gonna get the slip I need.

2477, confirm your number one full length.

2477, runway 22L, line up and wait, traffic base.

Alright, try to make Delta 5.

I left on Delta 5.

Just

trying to keep my speed up just a little there.

I know they're trying to get traffic out.

Did he say contact ground?

Yep, so you'll come to a stop after these solid lines.

Yeah.

I'll switch over now.

Right here, right here.

Delta five and hold short two two right at Bravo for a three two eight.

Red Rock seventy one is off of Delta seven.

Taxi the ramp via Delta.

Taxi the ramp via Delta.

Sorry, that was the wrong exit.

Red Rock seventy one, start your taxi.

You're at Delta five.

Delta 5.

ZF404, we can take Delta 9 if it's easier for everyone.

ZF404, uh, roger.

Well, the guy holding at Delta 9 is off on IFR departure.

So, you're going to be several minutes, just because we

already have those earlier.

You know, cool guy in front of you.

Um, so, tower would like you full length for now.

Okay, we'll plan on that, and we'll just hold right here because that's our 404.

Oh, we're over here, right?

Yep.

Okay.

Whoa crazy.

Right.

Like I said it was still fun.

But honestly, if I'm being honest, I was pretty glad to be back on the ground.

I needed some time to think about my limited capabilities and the practice

it was going to take to get proficient.

And not just instrument flying, proficient, but flying in general.

What an opportunity I had to fly and build that proficiency.

Sometimes when things go perfectly, you start to think you're all that right.

So there's nothing like a flight, like today's flight.

To bring you back to reality and remind you.

That you cannot get complacent.

It's one of the reasons I love so much the art and science of flying.

It kind of reminds me back when I used to play golf, it kind of reminds me of golf.

In that there's a ton of nuance.

There's rules and regulations.

There's always something for you to learn and get better at.

But the big difference is flying has much bigger stakes than, than golf.

So it means more and in the end is way more fun for me.

But also like golf.

As soon as you start to think, you've got it all figured out.

You get humbled in a big way.

This was one of many humility flights for me.

And it gave me some things to think about and learn mostly about myself

and my ability to focus on the most important things during a flight.

Stay ahead of the airplane, all of those things that I needed to be working on.

Could I have been safe if Eddie wasn't there.

I don't know.

Maybe not.

Especially with my limited view out of the cockpit.

And obviously I wouldn't be doing that if I didn't have a safety

pilot or, or an instructor.

But what if I was in actual IMC and again, obviously I wasn't ready for that.

But in the future, we still have the same issues.

What if you're not proficient right now, and you find yourself

in a situation like that.

Can you stay safe?

I don't know.

But that's why we practice.

It was a Testament to how important it is.

To keep practicing and stay proficient.

Especially when you're taking a big feedback mechanism out of the

mix, in my ability to see outside.

So it was starting to sink in for me.

How important this instrument training was?

So even on a humbling and hectic day, like today, I was so grateful.

To have the ability to learn this stuff and practice in a safe

environment with an instructor.

I was still having fun.

It was difficult, but I was still having fun.

I just had more things to think about and learn.

So I hope you enjoyed the lesson as well.

As usual.

Let me know if you did, or if you didn't.

And send in those beyond the check ride stories.

So we'll finish it up for today.

I'm headed back to the safety of the ground.

And leaving the SPC practice area now.

Last call.

See ya.