Buying your own plane for training

[drseti]

I just saw one on the road for the first time yesterday. Didn't even know we had a dealer around here. But I'm happy with the CanAm Spyder. If I wanted another sports car wannabe, I'd buy another Porsche.

[Cluemeister]

It looks like Karen's saying "Where are we going to put the groceries Eddie?"

[Half Fast]

Plus, I'm having enough of a time convincing my wife that flying is safe given that there's been 7 crashes on Long Island so far this year.

You're using the wrong technique.

Every time I want to start a new sport, I first increase my life insurance. Next thing you know, my wife is actively encouraging me to take up motorcycling, auto racing, cave diving, wreck diving, flying,.....

[Half Fast]

Eddie, every time I've seen one of those Slingshots on the road, it was going hideously slow. Remember the one you and Russ and I followed on the Foothills Pkwy last year?

They look kinda neat, but frankly, if I can't be on my bike, I'd rather be in my MINI or my ZX than one of those.

But if Karen likes 'em, you might want to take the plunge!

[rcpilot]

Well, more takeoffs and landings yesterday. I did three touch-n-go's with the instructor then I did 4 full stops by myself. Most were pretty good except one time I touched down just short of the runway. I didn't notice any big bump going from the grass to the runway, but my instructor saw it. I was probably over compensating for the previous landing which went a little long. Hey, I'm still learning. The instructor is out of town till next week. Tuesday we'll try and get a lesson in before bringing the plane over to Islip for some work. That will probably be my only flying next week. Of course now my instructor is quizzing me on things he thinks will be on my practical. Like yesterday he asked me the 4 left turning tendencies. Of course I remembered torque and P factor. The he reminded me about geometric progression and slip stream. I think next weeks lesson will be short and soft field takeoffs and landings in addition to flying to class C.

[rcpilot]

Ok, so for those who want to see my plane:





As soon as I get the videos of my first solo I'll post them too.

[FastEddieB]

Very nice!

Eagerly awaiting those videos.

[Cluemeister]

Beautiful plane! Congratulations!

[rcpilot]

Well, my instructor's "part-time" job is getting to be a pain. We were scheduled for a lesson today (soft field and short field takeoffs and landings) followed by a trip to ISP to drop my plane off at the avionics shop. Unfortunately, my instructor got a last minute job flying to the Caribbean. Looks like barring any last minute changes first thing tomorrow morning we'll just take my plane over to ISP (that will be my lesson). Hopefully, we'll get a chance to fly it back before I leave for vacation next week. Geez.

[Half Fast]

Now, if you would have negotiated flying the Carib trip with him as your lesson, ......

[rcpilot]

Ok so after missing my lesson yesterday, the instructor picked me up this AM (I'm like 5 minutes from my home airport) and we went to the plane. Did our usual pre-flight check and talked about the plan to fly to the Class C, Islip airport. Of course today the wind was "calm" and so I asked under those conditions is there a "preferred" runway at Brookhaven to use. He said usually 33 is used but technically you could use any runway. So my instructor tells me after we takeoff and clear Brookhaven airspace we'll tune to the ATIS for Islip. Once we have that we'll contact approach and inform them of our intentions. He had a copy of the airport diagram with him on his iPad and we discussed the runways at Islip. I had a paper version with me along with the pertinent radio frequencies on my kneeboard. For this being our first trip to class C he'll work the radios. Do our run up, no other traffic so off we go. We clear Brookhaven and dial in the ATIS. Apparently runway 6 is active at Islip and we have information Whiskey. We dial up ATC and they are apparently quite busy as they ask us to standby. When they get back to us we give them our position and intention to land at Islip. They give us a transponder code and apparently because they're so busy we have to repeat our acknowledgments a few times. Finally we hear the words "radar contact". We continue our approach and then ATC tells us to tune the tower. We contact the tower, apparently they're not so busy and we're cleared to land runway 6. We get on our downwind and the tower tells us there's jet taking off and to watch to wake turbulence. We see it go and it's well ahead of us. When we're abreast the numbers I pull back on the power, add some flaps. Pick what looks to be a good spot to turn base, my instructor tells me we're a bit high give full flaps. I do and then we're on final looking good. Touch down smooth as silk, the tower tells us where to turn off. Fortunately the school and avionics shop are just off the approach end of runway 6 so we taxi over. Hand off my keys to a mechanic and he verifies they have the work order and it's correct. We walk over to the school, where I had left my car the night before and we're off. Hopefully my plane will be ready by tomorrow as my instructors weekend gig was canceled which means I can get a lesson in before the weather gets nasty this weekend. He'll probably let me do the radios on the trip back for the experience. We also discuss our proposed dual x-country to South Jersey Regional. So I ask are we going to fly through the class B space between here and there. He says no because they most likely would not clear us so we'll fly under it. So looks like we'll have a very scenic flight along the beach.

[Cluemeister]

Great update! If you mentioned earlier I neglected to note it, how are you at hours now?

[rcpilot]

Great update! If you mentioned earlier I neglected to note it, how are you at hours now?

Probably about 22 hours now.

[rcpilot]

Well, no lesson today. Picked up my instructor and dropped him off at Islip. By the time he got back to Brookhaven there were low clouds over half the field. If runway 6/24 was in use we could have got some flying in but the wind was 160 so we didn't bother. Going to try for tomorrow weather permitting.

[Cluemeister]

Bummer.