Students perspective

[drseti]

What is the wind limitation on these lsa's in general?

Generally, 10 to 20 knots crosswind component, and 15 to 25 knots surface wind limitation.

My SportStar has a demonstrated crosswind component of 10 knots (though, like all aircraft, it can be operated in higher winds if properly handled, by a sufficiently experienced pilot). The POH says 24 knots max surface wind for takeoff and landing, and that seems appropriate for the way it flies.

Today wind was 10 gusting to 17, and I had a primary student scheduled. We cancelled.

[yozz25]

It's a judgement call indeed. The days I took off were surely too gusty, too windy.

I also judge it by the amount of activity. KHND usually is pretty active in GA. If the activity slows down quite a bit, then you don't even need an official reading, it indicates that most people are going to sit it out.

In an lsa, that means double sitting it out.

Have to wait till the march winds do their thing.

yozz

[3Dreaming]

Yozz, it also depends on where you are at in your training. I,ve told students we can go fly if you want to, but it will be a waste of your money. Most will likely insist on going the first time, and the agree that I was right. Tom

[Doss79]

A student needs to experience the wind and gusts at least once so he/she knows not to fly in that kind of weather. I flew in 30+ gusts stuff in a fabric airplane and that was enough for me.

[3Dreaming]

A student needs to experience the wind and gusts at least once so he/she knows not to fly in that kind of weather. I flew in 30+ gusts stuff in a fabric airplane and that was enough for me.

I agree with that, but when you are learning take offs and landings in a new aircraft is not the time for the wind.

[yozz25]

I'll sit out the wind.

first learn to be proficient w/o wind, then advance slowly into wind. My landings need work, when I'm better, we add some wind.

CFI says he wants to take me up in wind, yeah right, he took me full throttle into stall that almost turned to spin.

Let him ride remos in wind for about 10 hours, let him become proficient with light craft, which he is not, then maybe I'll try 3 kts.

I have to survive this gig, I have a business to run
yozz

[MarkGoolie]

I guess I've really lucked out with my instructor. He is a young guy, early 20's, great teacher, excellent pilot and with all the time crammed in a LSA together I can also call him a friend. He is very patient, supportive and provides a lot of good constructive criticism. He lets you experiment with your technique and lets you make your own mistakes. I don't think I could have found a better instructor.

-Mark

[yozz25]

Well went up again today and did touch and goes at the controlled KHND

Felt like I was chasing my tail

I went out and did pre-flight check at request of CFI. He met me after mucking around in office, and sat down and asked if I had a check list. Am I supposed to? It's usually in plane, or should it be? Should I carry my own around with me and guard it with life?

We'll duhhhhhhhh. We searched the cabin for list, only found the poh and worked our way with that. There used to be a checklist, a coyote must have ate it. I know the coyotes clean the planes, perhaps one got hungry, or perhaps he smoked some dope and thought the check list was food.

POH was so so, so we guessed what to do, or rather I guessed.

But there is good news, my brand new cheapo headset worked like a charm, now I won't risk getting mouth rot using the schools. I had to stretch it a bit, it was somewhat tight, and my brain has enough to contend with.

Take off uneventful, got up into pattern, now hmmm, what is the correct rpm setting in remos to cut to when lined up with numbers to my left. Looked at CFI, puzzled look, Duhhhhh again, so I guessed, put it at 3000 rpm, chased my tail, sometimes high sometimes low upon final.

Oh, I forgot, should have stopped plane in mid-air, called up Girlie CFI down in PHX and asked what to do with RPMs, she would have told me, then all would have been glatt kosher.

One of us should know this, should I? Should he? Should the coyote know it? He ate the checklist!! Yeah, the coyote knows, but it's only a 2 seater, where am I going to put him when it is only a 2 seater? Oh, I know, in place of the CFI. Coyote can even land the sucker, no wonder he is always laughing at me.

So much energy was placed on this guessing game, that my concentration when it came to landing was terrible. Always to the left of line, fighting to get on line.

Just quite frustrated. After 20 hours of flight, should be able to do this with eyes closed, but I guess changing instructors, changing planes, changing coyotes does this to my fried brain.

CFI says it will come with work. But WTF are the correct rpm settings? Duhhh again, even the coyote says duhhhhh, he just wants to get paid.

So CFI asks me if I want to fly next week, I say sure, he looks at schedule and says the manager/owner/superman is using remos himself for all week, out of about 15 or so craft, where I'm the only student in remos. Don't us cash paying students have rights? Guess not.

so, screw it, said bye bye, see you in a fortnight, and going to san diego just to do some mucking around, visit the zoo, check out beach babes, go to Mehico, and see if I get shot at,(coyote won't cross border, says he forgot to renew his passport, liar, just scared.), take in some sea food, and then when wife decides to go shopping which is all de time, check out the local lsa school for a spin and see how many craft I can put on my resume before I even know how to land them, looks good at the bottom of my posts.

By the time this is all over, I will have spent 20k, not know how to land, but have in my resume about 15 craft I have taken off in, buzzed around with and almost crashed trying to land. My face will posted up on the boards of the local examiners office with a clowns hat on.

So goes in the life of Yozz and the coyotes. But what the hell are the landing pattern specs for Mr. Remos, does anyone know? My coyote doesn't know, neither does my CFI. It's a secret.

yozz

[drseti]

asked if I had a check list. Am I supposed to? It's usually in plane, or should it be? Should I carry my own around with me and guard it with life?

Well, I don't know about your life, but yes, I recommend that each student have his or her own set of checklists. I put PDFs of four different checklists on my website (preflight, wt/bal, normal procedures, emergency procedures), and suggest that my students print and laminate personal copies, which they carry with their logbooks. There's also a set in the plane, but one shouldn't count on that. Having your own lets you study them at home, at your leisure, and rehearse flights in the comfort of your easy chair.

POH was so so, so we guessed what to do

I find that's generally the case with LSAs. Certified aircraft have a POH that meets GAMA standards. LSAs don't actually have a POH, rather a book of Aircraft Operating Instructions (AOI) that don't meet the GAMA format. Their format is determined by ASTM, and is probably not scrutinized by FAA -- so, generally they're not as thorough or well organized.

But there is good news, my brand new cheapo headset worked like a charm, <snip> I had to stretch it a bit, it was somewhat tight,

That's because your brain has been growing, Yozz!

Oh, I forgot, should have stopped plane in mid-air, called up Girlie CFI down in PHX and asked what to do with RPMs, she would have told me,

No, that's a preflight activity. You should have called her before the flight!

Just quite frustrated. After 20 hours of flight, should be able to do this with eyes closed,

I'm sure you can land left of the center line just fine with your eyes closed!

check out the local lsa school for a spin

By all means, check out the flight school in San Diego. But, remember that most LSAs are placarded against spins.

what the hell are the landing pattern specs for Mr. Remos, does anyone know? My coyote doesn't know, neither does my CFI. It's a secret.

I'm going to forward this post to a friend of mine who flies the Remos. Hopefully, he'll log on to this board and respond.

Safe skies,
Paul

[bryancobb]

Yozz,

I mean this with all due respect! I have been trying to help and encourage you since the very beginning of this, and your other threads.

As you have given us more and more insight into what makes you tick...
...I have these humble words of advice for you:
Aviation is an activity for "CONFORMISTS." A "cooperate to graduate" mindset is needed to enter AND to continue to successfully participate in the fraternity.

Most of us who learned to fly, have learned from less than stellar instructors, flying in aircraft that we only slightly understood. My first 42 hours was in a 1979 Tomohawk with an instructor who slapped my hand, yelled, and made me feel like a dumbass. I soloed at 7 hours and took my private checkride with 22 hours of dual in my logbook. All 22 of those hours were tense, unenjoyable, and humiliating. He sent me on my 1st solo cross country, in Florida, with LAKES as my checkpoints!!! (How many thousand lakes are in FL?) I was lost for days. Did I EVER complain?... NO...I never felt unsafe with him or in danger. (Then I would have complained) He just was not good. BUTTTTTTTT... He got me through my checkride in 42 hrs and I appreciate him for it. Thirty years later, I remember Warren Slagle with a smile, and appreciate him.

You are 180 degrees from being a conformist. You called yourself a "difficult" student. The fact that you have flown several hours in two of the best trainers in the world, (Warrior & Tomohawk) with typical Subpart H instructor(s), and didn't manage to solo, speaks VOLUMES of the boatload of Barriers to Learning that you carry around.

So here's my advice: Stop butting your head against the wall and move on to another activity, or look in the mirror and Change. I think you'd be much more suited for a hobby in Political Protesting.

[Doss79]

My airplane did not come with a POH from the manufacturer (Piper Cub). All we have is a little one page sheet with some very basic limitations (never exceed speed, etc), but nothing about landing approach speeds, glides, etc. Over the years there became a consensus at what speeds to use.

You wonder why there are less and less people flying every year, I think Yozz's experience is one of the reasons. Flight instruction is not like it used to be, but that doesn't mean there are no good instructors out there. I went through 4 instructors and had to do everything myself from book learning to looking up stuff on the internet.

Yozz, if you're not sure what speed to land at, always try to land a little faster than what you think. Doolittle flew all kinds of aircraft for the first time and had no one check him out, etc, but he said he just kept things simple and always landed a little fast.

Good luck!

[drseti]

if you're not sure what speed to land at, always try to land a little faster than what you think.

The old rule of thumb has always been to approach at 1.3 times stall speed. Since all the modern LSAs stall at 45 knots clean, add 30% to that, and approach at 58.5 knots if clean (OK, you can round that up to 60).

Stall speed with flaps will be lower, so you'll have to experiment. Go up to a safe altitude, put the plane in the landing configuration (with whatever flap setting you would use for a normal landing; in my SportStar, that's 30 degrees), and stall the plane. Look at the airspeed indicator at the onset of the break. Let's say it reads 35 knots, as an example. Tack 30% on to that to come up with a speed of 45.5 knots going into the flare with 30 degrees of flaps.

This is how the recommended numbers in the POH or AOI (if your plane has one) were determined, by the way: somebody did a flight test, stalled the plane in various configurations, and then added that 30% safety margin.

[Doss79]

That's true, but what I was thinking was that lets say you had an engine out situation or needed to get on the ground ASAP and have no time to find the stalling speed of the aircraft.

[drseti]

lets say you had an engine out situation or needed to get on the ground ASAP and have no time to find the stalling speed of the aircraft.

I guess you'd best run this experiment before you have an engine failure!

[yozz25]

Gee Brian,are your knicikers in a twist?

""""You are 180 degrees from being a conformist. You called yourself a "difficult" student. The fact that you have flown several hours in two of the best trainers in the world, (Warrior & Tomohawk) with typical Subpart H instructor(s), and didn't manage to solo, speaks VOLUMES of the boatload of Barriers to Learning that you carry around.

So here's my advice: Stop butting your head against the wall and move on to another activity, or look in the mirror and Change. I think you'd be much more suited for a hobby in Political Protesting.""""

Political protesting, are you trying to tell me something here?

Had I stayed in the warrior, I would have soloed just as you have, perhaps even quicker. I'm no different than you, pehaps a bit more intelligent, but no differnt.

But had to leave since I cannot go for the ppl. This is when I ran into the anal types. One was just too old and stayed in his ways and the other was an anal military wanna be type.

Yes, I don't conform, as for politics, have no interest, that's a nasty thing to say. It has a bad connotation to it, no need to get nasty. My bitching may very well wake up some students here who are subjected to such types.

Any idiot can learn to fly a plane, myself also an idiot is just having some difficulty, no big deal,, but no reason to put up with crap in the process, there is no excuse for a CFI not to be prepared, no reason to slap hands, no reason to insult, and no reason for a school not to make sure the plane, the CFI and all else is properly prepared. In today's day and age of no integrity in business, there is no reason to accept that.

I do my best, I pay excellent money, I expect average service. Not below par.

When you are young, yes being insulted by an instructor may work, but these guys may have been good at what they do, but have no insight into the older mind, and perhaps even the younger mind.

An older student has to be treated differently, to do otherwise, does a disserice to the whole lsa industry, where few licenses are doled out anyhow. I'm trying to get one.

I'm sure if I insulted you now or slapped your hands at your ripe old age, you would not like it. You;d be crying the blues. So to tell me what went on 30 years ago means nothing. We are at a different time and place.

As for barriers to learning, you call bitching a barrier? Bitching is a way of expressing your thoughts instead of keeping them clogged in your head.

Thank G-d for people who complain, otherwise we'd be stuck with any old crap that is doled out to us. Most people eat crap and enjoy it, those days are over. Do you still like crap, tasty isn't it.

I should be a conformist, are you crazy?
yozz
Just kiddding Brian, figured I'd piss you off a bit, now go have a case of beer.