Today, we do another instrument pattern, practice flight, and we have

another beyond the check ride for you.

So I hope you enjoy episode 75 of the student pilot cast.

We have that extra foot.

Welcome back SPC listeners.

We've got another instrument practice flight for you today.

And to beyond the check ride segment that we obviously hope you're going to like.

While I'm thinking about the beyond the check ride, please let us know

what you think of the new segments.

More importantly, what topics should we cover in the future?

Those of you who have run into a situation where you thought to yourself,

why didn't anybody teach me this?

Reach out to us and let us know what it was.

We love We love stories as much as the next guy.

And if you hadn't noticed.

We like telling them to, and we want to use yours if we can.

You can reach out to me at bill at student pilot, cast.com.

And we can't wait to hear from you we'll include this week segment,

which is about some tips and things to think about when securing an

airplane when you're done flying.

Especially when you start going places away from your home airport.

But we'll include that after the flight.

First let's get to the flight.

By the way you may hear a third person on this flight.

We had a stowaway or, alright, I guess it was just a backseat

passenger for the flight.

He was another student who was about to start his instrument training and it

asked to fly along to start getting a feel for what the training would be like.

And since I was just starting to, it seemed to make sense.

So as my instrument training was continuing, we had another flight

to do some more instrument patterns.

These were supposed to be a little more complex than the first ones.

Uh, we kind of forgot about that until part way through.

So I'll get to that during the flight, when we get there.

Again, if you didn't hear the previous flights, these instrument patterns

were designed to get me quote in the cockpit, if you will, under the hood

and getting more used to using my scan and controlling the airplane,

just by reference to the instruments.

Remember, this was all pretty new to me.

So practice was certainly needed.

So as usual, we'll start with the weather and we'll go from there.

Back to our original Tango, time one four five four zero,

wind zero four zero at eight.

Temperature eight.

Two point minus six, Altimeter three zero, two six.

Approach in use, runway four left and right in use.

Attention all aircraft, 5G numbers in effect for Falcon Airport.

For further information, contact flight service frequencies.

All arrivals contact tower one two four point six.

Advisors contact, you have tango.

Okay.

Full reckless take 71 19.

Room four left.

Clear and go.

Complete.

3, 2, 9.

Whole position pattern is full at the moment.

Uh, probably be like a 10 minute delay.

Did you want to wait or do you have another request?

Okay.

Uh, we will try.

Brakes are working.

3, 2, 9.

go out this way, right?

Yep.

You can just hold short to spot.

Five, four, continue.

Taxi.

3, 2, 9.

Okay.

So with the weather in hand, we could start our taxi toward the movement

area and then make our initial ground call to get a taxi clearance.

Red Rock 91 a firm.

Falcon Ground Red Rock.

91 is at spot five with like a south departure and we have Tango,

red Rock.

91 second ground four.

I texted Delta.

All right, we'll taxi to four, right via Delta Red Rock 91.

All right.

When we cross the ramp, we can start our instrument.

C CrossFit check, C, CrossFit check.

So when we're out of the ramp and into the active area, okay.

Yep.

So you're gonna hit left router.

See that six?

Perfect.

Back around right four.

Right.

Texas V Delta.

Now we check airspeed indicator, reading zero as it should be.

Attention indicator within ten degrees of the horizon.

Altimeter.

3026.

3026.

Thank you.

Uh, 3026 is set.

Got it.

That was the current altimeter for Tango?

Yes.

Okay.

Within 75 feet of field elevation.

Yeah, there we go.

2 1 0 within 30 degrees of each other.

Perfect.

RPM's good.

With that, inclinometer's working, and then, um, a clock,

right now we do the run-up and get ready for takeoff.

Flight control.

Free and correct Falcon ground.

Oxford 2060 9 78 at spot to five Chandley departure with tank up.

Oxford 69 78.

Fucking ground behind the right Delta Magneto first, but oh yeah.

Find the traffic for right Delta 69 78.

Same drop back up.

Amps gotta be over here, right?

Amps and op.

So we check the vaults.

So above reading zero, so 15.

Good.

Yep.

15.1.

Uh, vacuum, there's no vacuum.

No vacuum.

Um, oil and fuel gauges, green, green, green.

Pressure is rising.

And throttle to idle.

And it didn't die on us.

Cool.

Good.

Back to a thousand.

Alright, GPS.

Want me to put like Chandler in there or something?

Yeah, you can throw KCHD.

Oh, that glared.

Yeah, KCHD, perfect.

I can't see it at all.

No, you're good.

I'll just hit enter.

And it's activated.

It has some sort of cover on it.

It's making it glare.

Uh, it's just there.

Is that better?

Yeah.

That's my reflection.

Or my shadow.

Uh, transponder.

Should be 1200.

1200.

VFR.

Okay.

Oh, that's what I was squawking last night.

Uh, before takeoff, brief.

Alright, so we're going to be taking off from 04R.

Uh, we're going to be doing a normal takeoff.

We have, um, initial altitude of 3, 300, basically.

7.

3 7 on the way out.

3 7.

3, 700.

Field elevation is 1394, with the density altitude that we have here.

Uh, we should definitely be off the ground by the time we get to taxiway Bravo.

Yeah, we uh, we have a little bit of extra passenger in the back, so

it might, might be a little further.

Uh, I was going up a gross.

Oh, okay.

Perfect.

Alright, and um, so if anything happens before we reach Bravo, we're gonna

Bump on the brakes, going to stop, um, if we are below 2, 394 feet and

something happens, we're going to go forward, shallow turns, Uh, we are

going to keep a sterile cockpit till then, no checklists, memory items only.

And, um, let's see, we are, okay, we're going to be on a right pattern, right?

So we'll go out to the south that way.

Alright, best glide is 79.

And, um, I'll be under the goggles shortly after takeoff.

Yes, you will be.

I'll just kind of vector you around.

Alright, any questions?

I do not have any questions.

Anything to add?

Alright.

All right.

So we're done with the run-up and we headed over to tower frequency

and we're waiting our turn and something strange happens.

The number one airplane or the one that's at the front of the line.

Gets asked by the controller if they were number one.

And I.

Guess they were assumed from that, that they were cleared or something.

I mean, They must have not listened or heard what he said, but that was not it.

Or even close.

So listen to this exchange.

I'll let this go until after our own takeoff.

I just had to trim it out, he did.

Tower, you're number one at 4 right, correct?

4 right, cleared for takeoff, 329.

That's not what I asked, just put your name on it.

You're number one, verify you're number one at 4 right.

Affirm, 329.

He wasn't even listening.

Okay, we'll show it, 329.

I assume he cleared me.

Four.

Delta contact delta

citation.

A Charlie Bravo across runway.

Four.

Left at uh, Charlie Traffic turning Archer about a mile and a half.

Final taxi parked via echo This frequency.

Good day crossing four.

Left at Charlie taxiing to the ramp on Echo.

Stay with U.

Other bow Cessna three.

Two Niner Right turn approved.

Runway four.

Right cry off.

Right turn approved.

Four.

Right.

Clear takeoff.

Three, two Niner.

Falcon Tower Cherokee 2 3 6 1.

Romeo AJ.

Arrival, uh, requesting full stop parking on the north with information.

Tan Cherokee.

2 3 6 1.

Romeo Falcon Tower.

Roger.

Fly to midfield down.

Uh, right.

Traffic runway four.

Right.

Midfield down.

Wind.

Four.

Right, right.

Traffic.

2, 3, 6, 1.

Romeo, what's that?

96.

10.

I thought he was gonna ask us.

Number two.

I think he knows by now who we are though.

Yeah, . We're broadcasting it.

I'm gonna do the before takeoff, so field jump on landing light on nine 16.

Lap up Chandler traffic is going.

The gateway runway four right or takeoff is complete.

Takeoff off the 9 23 4 Go to 1 2 4 0.67

19 runway.

Four left Cleared.

A touch and go.

And a left go Traffic crew.

Four left, cleared touch and go, Oxford 7119.

Oxford 609, number two, rolling four left, cleared touch and

go, left coast traffic approved.

Number two, uh, four left, cleared touch and go, left coast

traffic, Oxford 6239, thanks.

Citation, HR Bravo, change to monitor 121.

3, please.

Control, monitor 121.

3, HR Bravo.

Roger, tower,

Oxford 2384, at four left, uh, holding for about four left, ready for departure.

Oxford 2384, if I understand right.

Red Rock 53, uh, turn, uh, turn right at Charlie without delayed traffic inside a

mile final, hold short of runway 4 right.

Right on Charlie, right on 53.

Falcon Tower, Red Rock 91 is holding short of 4 right, ready to go.

Cleared for takeoff on 4 right, southbound approved, Red Rock 91.

Cool beans,

takeoff a little, a little later today, a

All right.

SA

Tower Sky Engine Instruments are green.

Green Delta one.

Ready.

Air speed is alive.

There's 60.

We're gonna go a little higher there.

Tower out right

straight out.

Alright, take

little bit heavier today.

9, 6, 10 adminis instructions.

Continue straight.

Very nice.

Straight out.

You'll call out ten ninety six ten.

Checking 6R, traffic 1 o'clock, 2 miles, southbound of Gateway, Cessna 2900.

Traffic in sight, 28336R.

28336R, traffic 3 miles southeast, northwestbound, Archer after

case 2400, heads in sight.

Uh, looking for traffic pictures.

Uh, they're EC99VH, short 4 right, northbound.

Alright, I'll do controls, you can throw your hood on.

Eh.

You're controls.

I got it.

Red Rock 91, continue straight out in these, do you have the uh, Seminoles

heading to your left higher inside there in the right turn there?

Do you see him?

Uh, we don't have that traffic we're looking for, but we'll

continue straight out, Red Rock 91.

Do you have controls?

I got the controls.

Hold on.

Isn't that traffic right in front of us?

Uh, just,

yeah.

Oh, I think that's him right there.

That's Seminole.

Red Rock 53, holding short 4 right at Charlie.

There's another guy off to our left.

There he is.

There's one diamond star of the seven holes up there.

Yeah, I see that guy.

Alright, you can take the controls.

I've got the controls.

Alright, and continue flying straight out.

Follow a diamond and left crosswind and downwind.

Cross, uh, uh, crossover runway for left traffic, four left, and follow a diamond.

Red Rock 91, right turn approved.

Right turn approved, Red Rock 91.

This is a 217, a traffic archer heading to your right, should be making a turn.

Want me to turn to 180?

Yeah, turn to a 180 for now.

Southbound, follow down, right turn approved.

After 3, 700.

Harvey, 2 3 5 Papa Sierra, Falcon Tower, flash you down

runway 4R, clear for takeoff.

RV 5 copies, we got a flight crew down here.

And you'll keep us in between all this airspace?

Christian 119, rolling forward left, clear touch and go.

Cleared for touch and go.

Let's go to, go to 185.

We have the traffic in sight, 611 Romeo.

Cherokee 61 Romeo, number 2, follow the diamond, they're touch and go,

rolling forward left, clear to land.

Number two, clear to land.

Follow and dive at 2, 000 Romeo.

Falcon Tower, Oxford 3373, holding short, um, for runway forward left, ready.

Oxford 3373, follow, coming departing to make left traffic, runway

four left, cleared for takeoff.

Okay, you come right heading two zero zero.

Two zero zero.

Cleared for takeoff, Oxford 3373.

Red rocket, 53, again, thanks for your patience, press runway four right

at Charlie contact, ground good day.

There you go.

Cross four right at Charlie contact, ground good day.

if I didn't say it already, we'd be heading to the south practice area

again, to do these instrument patterns.

So we'd head that way and get started on the patterns.

Let's just head out a little bit more, uh, out here to get away

from everyone, and then you can start your instrument pattern.

Thanks.

And before we do that, we only have a minute left before we hit the timer,

so I'll throw your fuel pump on.

Okay.

You can switch tanks.

Switching to the left.

And throw the fuel pump off, always check the fuel pressure, still good.

Still good.

And we'll do ours heading south.

So, let's turn left heading 180.

Left heading 180.

And when you're established 000, you can start your instrument pattern.

Okay.

And let's do it at 100 miles an hour.

Okay.

Southeast practice area, Skyhawk 63371, over the Wichita, headed

towards the GAP 3, 500, last call.

Southeast.

South

practice area, Rock 91 is at West crop circle, 4, 000 simulated instrument turns.

Alright, good deal.

And, so our first one, First leg is one minute.

One minute.

500 20 seconds to go

30 seconds Southeast Bacisteria 2646, 3 miles east of central Arizona College

at 4000, Lazy 8, Southeast Bacisteria.

Alright.

Southeast Bacisteria 2741 is entering the gap, last call southeast.

And go.

All right, I'm gonna have you hold this heading just for now.

Okay.

'cause of traffic.

Stay right here.

Yep.

And when you're, don't mind the timing on this leg.

I'm gonna let this guy pass us and then we're gonna continue on.

Got it.

And you'll restart from there.

Southeast practice three nine 4,502 miles to the northeast of the witches hat.

Headed southeast bound.

Headed southbound to, uh, Southeast

. I'm looking for him.

Lucas, you see anyone off our right hand wing?

Same altitude as us?

Oh, I see him.

Alright, see that white dot over there?

Yep, there it is.

Alright, now you're good to continue.

Alright, we'll continue to turn to one, three, one, five.

Three, one, five.

Sorry about that.

Alright, at standard rate.

Altitude.

Altitude.

More than standard right southeast side area, Oxford 10 10 is 6,500

feet over Secon beak headed westbound towards oxygen southeast.

A lot more sensitive than a Manu, than a analog gauge

Southwest practice area on 8 0 6.

Just north, uh, Firebird Lake, 4,500 we're.

Alrighty.

Oh, I got to start my timer.

30 seconds.

And we're going to go to south.

Yeah?

Or north I think.

Looks like it.

Yeah, because we started south.

So you're going to head to north.

Doing good Bill.

Staying ahead of the airplane.

Always on your timer.

Watching your headings.

Watching your airspeed.

Doing your scan.

I can tell you're not fixating or using omission on one of your instruments.

So, that's good.

As you say that, I start to go right.

Don't get complacent.

No, I'm just kidding.

Yeah.

You suck!

One thing I would like to see, though, I haven't really checked, seen you

check the engine instruments too much.

So, once in a while, take a glance at those.

you start your timer?

I did, oh my gosh, I thought I did.

I hit it, but I must have reset it.

Alright, you have about 30 seconds left in this leg.

Alright,

got to check my equipment too I guess.

Oh yeah.

And we're going to be turning right,

45.

2

miles to the west of Coolidge Town, 4, 500 tracking towards Coolidge Airport.

Over, second on peak, 4, 500.

Headed southbound, practicing basic attitude for flying.

Southeast approach, sir.

Actually going.

Alright, 45 seconds.

Southeast Praxair Oxford 2781 is about 7 miles northeast of Florence.

Maneuvering at 5, 000 southeast.

We'll be doing a left turn to south right now.

Southeast Praxair Oxford 4263 is about 3 miles north of Florence.

Southeast Praxair Oxford 4263 is about 3 miles north of Florence.

should end at two minutes on my timer.

South area 6 59 is in the so

Okay.

Here's where my instructor finally reminds me that these patterns were supposed

to have speed changes included in them to start making them more complex.

Oops.

Okay.

So we started adding the speed changes, and you'll hear that conversation here.

Let's start doing the change to approach speed and all that good stuff.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't even reading that.

Normal cruise, what do we call that?

100.

And then, after that turn, after this next 180 degree turn,

you're going to change to 90.

Got it.

Then 100 again.

But hold the altitude, right?

Yep.

Okay.

All right.

We have 20 seconds

and we are gonna be going 180 degrees.

to north

now.

We want to slow it up.

After the turn.

After the turn.

Okay.

Okay.

I got a little fast on that.

Yeah.

Slow it down to 90.

We're going

to go on this for two minutes.

Probably going to be around 1, 900, right?

Yeah.

That should give you a good control performance for 90,

about a minute.

45.

2 7 29.

Are you heading to the gap right there?

We're doing some unusual latitudes.

Two.

Alright.

7, 8, 0.

We're heading to the Gap.

We got your insight.

Two.

Thank you.

Uh,

it's a 4,000.

Yep.

Southwest Bracket Area, Expert 4263 over the north test track.

Yeah, I'm good sir, I'll be there.

Sorry.

Oh, you're good, never mind.

I know you know what you're doing.

There you go.

Alright, I'm out.

30 seconds.

Satisfac 8 1 0.

AlphaGo.

Which hat?

Oops.

Wrong way.

It's a little harder when you're trying to maintain speed

chasing it a little bit.

Alright, two minutes.

Where are we going?

Are we on this leg?

So right turn.

So it will be a right hand turn.

Right turn to south.

And when you reach, when you reach south, you're going to go back

to normal cruise setting of 100.

So just maintain 90 for now.

don't know quite yet.

Southwest practice area 3752 is 12 miles to the north of Coolidge

town headed towards Coolidge.

Southeast practice area at 5500.

Southwest

practice area 6.

453 over Maricopa mountain climbing 5000 for 5500 Southwest.

All right.

Um, I'm gonna take the controls from here.

You got the controls?

Yep.

I'm gonna take the controls.

Oxford, 1593.

You up.

All right.

Good job.

There's some traffic that I wanted to avoid.

Sure.

head home again.

So we'll take you back over Chandler's airspace on our way back in.

Alright, with that good job Bill.

All take me back home.

All right.

I've got the controls.

So you've got the controls.

Let's get the weather.

Four.

Seeing hit com, one approach, use four left and right use.

Engine lock has five genomes in effect.

Trip Falcon Airport, for further information, contact

flight service frequencies.

All arrivals contact tower 124.

6.

Advisors contact, you have Tango.

Back to information, Tango.

Time 145.

40.

Wind 040 at 8.

Temperature 8.

Dewpoint minus 6.

3 0 2 6.

Alright, let's make a left hand turn to go to Chandler.

Trip Falcon Airport, for further information, contact

flight service frequencies.

Did you already do it?

Yeah.

I couldn't see it cause it was I know.

You want me to go down to 3, 300?

So at

20 miles out we got the first call.

Or at 20 miles out we got the weather.

At 10 miles out we're gonna get the first call.

Yes sir.

And then after that we'll do our, we'll continue on the before landing checklist.

So over at Chandler you can make your first call when

we're 10 miles out from Falcon.

Yep.

Houston, Maricopa Mountain.

Maneuvering.

I'm gonna, yeah, yeah.

Let's slow ourselves down to 90 Southwest practice area ourselves.

A little bit of traffic separation.

Three over Maricopa Mountain eastbound, back to Chandler Factory.

2 23 4,000 feet.

Volcano, southbound stall Southeast.

All right.

It looks like they're going into Chandler, so that's no factor.

So you can speed back up to a hundred

and

you can throw in KF

63.

Okay, gimme one second here.

I'm at my altitude.

Look.

Alright,

Southeast 52 with the town of Coolidge at 5,500 southbound

Southeast Practice area Southeast.

Obviously, don't follow that line because it'll take us to the Bravo.

Yes, sir.

I'll stick going over Chandler.

Yeah, let's go.

One zoom in.

There we go.

Perfect.

Good job sir, good ADM.

So Lucas, what he's doing has been basic attitude.

This is the beginning of instrument course, so this

is what you're going to do.

You have to fly a lot of patterns, and he hasn't looked outside

once since we've taken off.

How many, uh, like, How many lessons is in flight, or in instruments?

This is my fourth, oh, oh.

There's like 23.

23, gotcha.

But this is lesson four.

Where do you do a lot of instrument training, like down at the Stanfield?

Yeah, Stanfield VOR into Casa Grande is a lot of approaches.

Gotcha.

But for this, this is the first level, just kind of get

used to instruments, and then.

The next step is approaches and all that.

Yeah, I haven't even started that yet.

All right, sir, you can switch over to 1 2, 4 0.6.

It's always good to listen in.

There you go.

Actually, tower runway four right now.

Four left runway four.

Right.

Clear in clear.

The left four Right two.

Nine x-Ray turning please.

That direct button's sticky.

There you go.

Bryan Delta eight Park 98 32.

King Air five Romeo Bravo.

Traffic Mirage on a right base.

Fly straight out Christian.

Nine eastbound.

Four East Tango, right?

Yep.

Five Parkview Delta Park Bay, Delta X 98 32.

Have a good one.

You're

gonna say 10 miles to the south.

Inbound.

Full stop with Tango.

Tango.

Yep.

Remember to look over here once in a while.

Alright, and then you can switch your tanks now.

Fuel pump.

Switching back to right.

Fuel pressure.

Turn off the fuel pump.

Good.

Still have fuel pressure.

Alright, we're basically over the top.

Yeah, they don't, so their radar only goes out 10 miles, or 11

miles, so if we call them now, they're just going to say call back.

Yeah.

No, I'll wait until we're 10.

But I think we're safe to follow the gentle line now.

frequency's not very busy right now.

Surprising.

Yeah.

Cross generic.

Actually turn, I shouldn't have said that.

Yeah, left at the end.

Two nine x-ray.

Sometimes it's too early.

Quiet.

And then I checked for radios.

1988.

you heard me.

Just say it was not very busy on the frequency right now.

Let that be a lesson for you.

If you're ever about to make a radio call.

Don't say that.

At least not out loud, don't ever say that you're amazed at

how little traffic there is.

So now, as you can imagine, When it was time to make my call, it was of course.

Super busy on the frequency.

So I had to try a couple of times actually.

To squeeze in a call to get back to Falcon through the gap.

I talked about the gap in a previous episode.

Um, but it's just, you know, between airspaces getting back into Falcon.

So I made my first call quickly.

Uh, but as I let go of the push to talk button, it was clear that the

controller had been talking over me and blocking my transmission.

Which you can hear me immediately recognize and react to.

So I knew I would have to squeeze in another call and get two way

radio communication going before I could get back into the airspace.

Here you go.

Alrighty, sir.

Start to make your radio call.

Oxford 1122, follow Cessna 2 miles ahead, base to final.

Following Cessna on base to final, uh, Oxford 1122.

Ross 2 9 Xray, hold short runway 4 left.

Hold short 4 left, 2 9 Xray.

Falcon Tower, Red Rock 91 is 10 miles south, inbound, full stop with Tango.

119.

7, have a good day.

Dang it!

119.

7, 2 9 Xray.

For the 39 and 66 stock tower traffic mile crash four I.

When that happens, Delta, I did it fast too.

I know.

Four.

Right?

Delta four, right?

Delta six.

Six.

Delta six.

And contact correct.

Falcon Tower Red Rock.

91 is nine miles South inbound.

Full stop.

Tanko nine one.

Falcon Tower four.

Right.

Straight in for 4 right, Red Rock 91.

Roger, land 22, number 2, runway 4 right, clear to land.

See, I never should have said that the frequency was not very busy.

Yeah, now it is.

Did he say 4 left or 4 right?

4 right.

4 right.

I thought I heard him say 4 left.

I'll confirm.

We can do that when we're closer.

Okay.

Alright, so when we cross Chantler's airspace, then we'll

start our descent at 2, 400.

Because by the time we hit the delta, they want us at 2, 400.

Okay.

So here's my favorite part of the recording.

Mostly because I like sarcasm.

But if you're not super familiar with the airspace, she might

not even get the sarcasm course.

You might not get it anyway, because my jokes aren't usually very good, but

at least you'll have a fighting chance.

So the class Delta airspace for Chandler has a top of 3000 feet.

So you have to be above that to stay out of their airspace.

But in this case, on the chart where it depicts that top as the number

30 in the square segmented box, that's on the chart, you know, to.

To indicate 3000 feet.

It's proceeded by a minus sign.

Which means that the top of the airspace goes.

Up to, but does not include 3000 feet.

This always seemed kind of silly because the bottom overhead Phoenix class Bravo

in that area starts at 4,000 feet.

So you basically have a thousand feet between the two

to shoot the gap back to Falcon.

But, you know, you also have that extra foot.

Because 3000 feet is not included in.

Chandler's airspace.

I know it's not technically a foot probably because just

3000 feet isn't included.

So really anything below exactly.

3000 feet to the ground would be included.

Anyway, the whole thing is kind of silly.

So I did what I do and I made a joke of it.

Sometimes people don't get me, but that's all right.

My instructor warned me to watch my altitude and not get too low.

So I didn't wander down into Chandler's airspace accidentally.

I don't remember how close we were.

Uh, but it was probably at least a couple hundred feet above their airspace.

And I wasn't worried, especially because we still had 3000

feet MSL that we could use.

So right after that, we cleared the perimeter of the airspace and started

the descent to Falcons pattern altitude.

I'll let this go all the way back down to the ground.

Alright, Watch your, watch your altitude.

You're getting kind of close to Chantler.

We have that extra foot though, only two nine nine nine.

True.

True.

I'm playing.

We have the extra foot.

Alrighty sir.

I can't tell from here, am I clear?

Yeah, you're clear now.

And if you're always in doubt, just zoom in.

Yep, alright.

And then you can do the rest of your before landing checklist.

Number two Oxford, holding short of runway four right.

What is your call sign?

Alright, before landing, fuel pump on.

Number three Oxford, is now holding short.

Fuel tank, we just did it.

Mixture rich.

Carb heat is in.

Landing light is on.

Pre landing checklist is complete.

Beautiful.

2, 900 feet.

Let's get down.

Fast.

Watch out for that Bravo.

I want to come right 5 degrees, 020.

There, perfect.

Alright, now

Fox, Qatar, Oaxaca 2477, holding short runway 4R, ready for takeoff, Oaxaca.

Oaxaca 1988, AJ approved, runway 4R, cleared for takeoff.

4R, cleared for takeoff, Oaxaca 1988.

Oaxaca 2477, Oaxaca, Qatar, roger.

Uh, this is in the future when you pull out of the run up area on the ground side,

otherwise you need to be on my frequency, I was trying to get a hold of you.

Okay.

Yes sir.

Alright, turn left Heading 3 6 0 3 6 3 6.

Left three six

in terminate with uniform.

Red Rock, 91.

Number two, follow Sesa midfield Downward number two, we'll follow Red Rock 91.

All right, you can take your goggles off.

Welcome back.

Calling.

There should be someone on midfield downward so we can slow ourselves down.

Let's get us in the slow flight inbound close.

That's 1 3 9 5 Tower make ion, right, right four, right.

Two.

1 3, 2 9.

I need your help here.

I'm looking down.

On a right downwind?

Yeah, it should be circling.

I'm just going to turn kind of a long base, is that alright?

Yeah, that's fine.

That'll give you a better view over there anyway.

Just

put us in a slow flight at flaps.

There he is.

Got him.

Yep.

Where?

He's about crossing, uh, whatever valve is to Oh, there he is.

There he is.

Yeah, it's probably 200 feet.

Whatever you do, do not cross into 4L approach path.

I won't.

So we can add in that second notch of collapse.

Alright.

Alright, we've got the traffic.

Red Rock 91.

Clear to land.

4R, clear to land.

Clear to land, Red Rock 91.

Perfect.

Good deal.

Okay, I've lost him.

Okay, no, you're good.

Keep turning.

Watch out, there's another guy over there, so just stay in your approach path.

I will not go across.

Okay.

3 0 2 8 and uh, we're showing 2,400 right now.

Seven.

Seven, nine or seven.

See you landing seven helicopters.

Total clock is foot.

South, south, westbound.

And you can start your no factor.

Seven, nine, or seven.

Thank you.

Go full flaps.

I am.

Pull just Roger.

Follow.

You can slip if you need to.

I, oh, he's over the traffic as well.

Seven.

Seven.

Oxford.

24.

Seven.

Seven.

Right.

Traffic to slip.

Yeah, I know how to slip.

I'm just not sure I need it.

Alright, well, you do you.

You do, ok.

You do you.

I'll slip a little bit here.

Oh, other way.

Go the other way, because there's traffic.

7 9 7, traffic on final in sight.

There you go.

7 9 7, number 2, rolling 4 right, clear to land.

Number 2, 4 right, clear to land, Cessna 7 9 7.

3 1 7 5, do you have company archer crossing in sight?

We have the archer in sight, 3 1 7 5.

3 1 7 5, I saw that traffic, AGS approved.

3 1 7 5, I saw that traffic, AGS approved.

AJ approved, Doc, for 3175, appreciate it.

Oh butter.

Butter

and i'll those laps southbound helicopter case thousand 900.

We'll go right on Delta six.

We're looking for that helicopter.

Little bit more break six contact ground.

Good.

Right on Delta six, contact one.

Come, right, come right.

There you go.

And that nose wheel is tower's got 2 0 8 8 4 short four on Bravo.

Did he say contact Graham?

Yep.

Right four.

Right.

Taxi Delta.

Advised right complete Oxford 51 47.

All right, I'm clear.

Say you pump us off.

Landing light is off.

All right.

You're on Delta six.

Falcon Ground.

Red Rock.

91 is off of four right at Delta six one to taxi ramp, we rock

nine one Falcon Ground Taxi, true to the ramp via delta, right?

Delta seven via Delta, right Delta seven.

We'll taxi you to the ramp.

Red Rock 91.

Nice.

Smooth criminal.

Very nice, Bill.

I've got some music in my head.

Oh yeah.

No, you should have some Frank Sinatra smoking a cigar scene

in your head after that landing.

Give yourself a pat on the back.

That was nice.

Yeah.

I greased my, that was landing last night too.

Nice.

Oh, you flew with Ryan.

Yeah, that's right.

We were coming out as you were coming in.

That's right.

And we can finish the after landing checklist and then we'll do the

parking and secure checklist.

Nice.

I did my memory items.

Good.

Um, but I haven't done the checklist yet.

Alright, after landing it's zero.

Fuel pump is off.

Landing light is off.

Carb heat is off.

Alright, parking, parking brake, we don't need it.

Um, mixture cut off.

Magnetos, after it's done, is off.

Avionics.

okay.

So that's it for the flight lesson today, but we've got the beyond the check

ride segment right now for this one.

We're going to talk about securing the airplane.

A lot of pilots who have done mostly training might not have a lot of

experience going to other airports and leaving a plane overnight, or

even buttoning what up nicely at home.

If they're flying a new airplane outside of the school, for example, So we

wanted to talk about some of the things.

That we've learned over the years.

Hope you enjoy.

All right, Kent, welcome back to the student pilot cast for

another beyond the check ride.

What have you got for us today?

Well, let's talk about securing your airplane when you're all done flying.

Oh, that's a good one.

Yeah.

And it's, it's easy to miss some stuff.

It's easy to just, you know, walk away.

And, you know, if you're a student, you're probably used to kind of running

into the FBO with your instructor and talking about how the flying portion went.

And you might not be thinking about, well, what do I need to do to make sure that the

airplane stays safe while it's unattended?

It's kind of like having a little kid, right?

Yeah.

And there might be an MO for your flight school.

That you're at, but then when you go off, start flying on your own, maybe

you're in a club, maybe you're renting an airplane from somewhere else,

something like that, you go on a trip.

And you're tying down the airplane overnight somewhere

you've never been before.

It's going to be different than how you trained, most likely.

So there's some things to think about.

And I think that's what we're going to cover today.

Right?

For sure.

And there's really.

We kind of came up with four scenarios here.

I'm flying in the north most of the time, based in Wisconsin, so

we're usually in hangars up here.

It's a royal pain to get snow and ice off your airplane to go flying.

So, uh, most people up here, they don't buy an airplane

unless they can get a hangar.

Um, so I've got my Mooney in a hangar and it's been in a hangar since

the day I got it like 12 years ago.

Previous to that, and actually even more recently, I was still

in the flying club for 14 years.

Up until 2018, and all of our airplanes were in a hangar as well, but that

was a little bit different situation.

That hangar was one that was pretty FBO and there were maybe

a dozen airplanes in there.

So that's a little bit different of a situation.

And of course when I'm flying other places, I'm usually getting a tie

down and less, you know, getting a hanger for a single night often

costs a good percentage of what a hanger for an entire month would be.

So yeah, I usually put the plane outside and you know, we have a

really nice Bruce's cover for it.

So usually lives outside on the road, so it's going to be tied down and.

You know, I think you're getting into the world of instructing and you

probably are keeping rental planes outside down there as much as you

probably wish they were in an air conditioned hangar most of the time.

Yes.

Yes.

But even most of our hangars aren't air conditioned, but yeah, that's true.

And out here in the Southwest, we generally have good weather.

We are going to talk about some bad weather.

We do get pretty violent storms sometimes in the summer and the fall, but.

We generally have good weather, uh, it can be hot, and so you, at

a lot of our airports, we see a lot of airplanes tied down, even

when they're at their home airport.

Sometimes it's undercover, most people would want it covered, tied down, uh,

but there are a lot of planes that, uh, They live a portion of their life

tied down, you know, just outside, just outside in the weather around here.

So we don't get the snow and we don't get, you know, we just don't have a lot

of bad weather other than those storms.

So it is more common down here to see airplanes sitting outside.

Makes us all a little sad, of course, but yep, that does happen.

Yeah.

Well, a few things that we can kind of talk about just related to the

airplane to start with fuel selectors.

This is probably a really frequently forgotten one on Cessnas.

Um, you know, if you leave the fuel selector on both on most Sestas, your

fuel can drain from one wing to the other.

Even if the ramp looks level, I can almost guarantee you it's not.

It really doesn't take much to start moving fuel from one wing to the other.

I know that I have forgotten to put the fuel selector in the proper

position after shutting down.

You come back to the airplane later and some of your very expensive fuel

is just dripping out the little tube under the wing because the opposite

wing is draining into that wing.

And so, that's probably not what you really want to be doing with your fuel.

You want to be burning that fuel, flying around, having fun, right?

So, make sure that fuel selector is in the right place.

And you know, your, your airplane may have a securing checklist just

in the normal procedures somewhere,

you know, airplane manuals kind of are all over the board as far as what's in them.

You know, a lot of the older airplanes don't have that sort of

thing, but something like a brand new one 72, I would imagine probably

does have a securing checklist.

Yeah.

And sometimes in a high wing like a Cessna, that might be putting

it on either left or right, or it might be shutting it off.

And I know in a lot of flight schools, that might not even be part of the

checklist because those planes are flying six, seven times a day, right?

And so it may not even be part of the checklist.

So you may get done with your primary training or even

in more advanced training.

Um, and.

You've never really gotten in the habit of shutting off the fuel selector or

in a Cessna, changing it to one or the other, because you know, somebody else is

going to be taking it in a few minutes.

But when you're out in the world beyond the check ride, that's something you

definitely want to be thinking about.

If the airplane's going to be sitting for a while, it really should be.

Secured properly.

Yeah.

And you know, this really does make the most difference on the last flight

of the day when the plane's going to be sitting at least overnight.

So it's one thing if you're in a rental that is going to be flown again right away

or at least flown again the next morning.

Um, it's an entirely different story when you've got your own airplane or.

Maybe you're in a club or something like that.

And that plane might not get flown for a while after you fly it.

So, um, another thing that I've always done, maybe you do too.

I always leave my rotating beacon switch on no matter what, that way

I know that if I walk away from the airplane and I see a flashing light,

Hey, I forgot something important, better run, turn that master switch off.

So I'm able to battery switches

on.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So having something that it's okay to leave on is a good thing.

That's a good standard operating procedure that a lot of times you don't think about.

And we are going to do one of these probably on standard operating procedures,

but as it comes to securing the airplane, kind of buttoning it up for the night

or for a few days, that is a good one.

If you do it that same way, every time, you know, when you're walking away,

that beacons on, you forgot something.

You forgot something that's going to keep you from flying the next day.

Right.

And then good one.

I think probably most of us don't use parking brakes a whole heck

of a lot in small airplanes.

There are occasions where you may need to, I know I have parked on some ramps

where you're not going to be able to get out of a non moving airplane if

you don't put that parking brake on.

If you do return the parking brake on, a lot of FBOs will have signs available that

will say things like, Parking brake on, do not tow, or, you know, they usually have

one red side that says do not tow and the other one says brakes off okay to tow.

So you might be able to just grab a freebie, uh, at some point to

put in your plane if you need to put the parking brake on.

Now we want to start talking about Making sure that airplane's not going anywhere

before the next person comes along.

Not really that big of a deal when you're in a hangar, but you know when

I'm flying the Mooney around the country I'm not gonna be in a hangar most of the

time unless the weather's really bad.

So I need to tie it down.

I know there's a lot of people who just don't have a hangar and so they're gonna

be tying their plane down all the time.

And so this stuff gets to be really important and And we both have stories

for you about why they're important.

So, why

don't you go ahead.

Yeah, tying down a couple of things that I wanted to mention.

One, a lot of the airplanes I fly are tied down.

I am in a club where we have a shared hangar.

The FBO manages it.

Kent's got a great story around that situation.

Uh, but from a tie down perspective, one thing I've seen done a couple

of times, it hasn't resulted that I know of in any damage to the

airplane, but it certainly could.

When you are tying down an airplane, make sure that the tie down for

the wings is not behind the wings.

You want the tie downs on the wings going forward because the tie down on

the tail is going to be going backwards.

And that sort of opposition is what's going to hold it in place.

If all of the tie downs are behind the wings, They're not going

to, they're going to be loose.

They're not going to do their job.

The whole thing can move backwards.

And now all of a sudden they're all loose and they can even come unhooked.

Some airplanes, especially light sports and some types of airplanes,

maybe don't have hooks on them that are big enough for those big steel

ends on webbing to go through.

And so this is where this story comes in.

My wife's uncle is also a pilot and he has a light sport airplane that

he ties down at the airplane that at the airport that I fly out of.

And unfortunately, last September, Falcon field had a crazy

freak microburst come through.

And a year before that, the same thing happened at Chandler airport, which

is where I did my primary training.

It's just.

10 nautical miles south or so.

When that happened two years ago, that might actually have technically been

a tornado, which doesn't happen down here very often, but it was really bad.

And a lot of airplanes were lost in both of those storms.

Sometimes it wasn't the fault of the tie down.

In some cases, it was actually pulling the, the anchors out of

the concrete or out of the asphalt, which is buried in concrete.

And there's not much you can do as a pilot about that.

If the tie downs themselves are not anchored well enough, um, not much

you can do, but in my uncle's case, he was under a covered tie down

and that cover saved his airplane.

We're pretty sure, but because his airplane, his light sport

airplane had very small.

areas for the tie down.

He couldn't get the end hooks of his webbing down the webbing held just fine.

So he had to use carabiners to hook through the hook in the airplane.

But unfortunately he didn't use carabiners that were really actually rated for.

heavy duty use.

And so those carabiners failed under pressure.

They literally just broke apart and his airplane was turned loose and

it wedged sideways tail down under the big heavy duty awnings that were

over the metal awnings that were over the top of these covered tie downs.

And If it weren't for that, his airplane would have been a

total loss and it almost was.

Anyway, his airplane is composite and it damaged both wings and the tail,

but luckily nothing struck the prop, the engine, the, um, the, there was

no damage to the spinner fuselage.

Everything was fine.

There was just damage on the tail and the two wings.

And so he was able to convince the insurance company to fix

it instead of totaling it.

So they ordered new wings from the factory and, uh, a new elevator and he's

getting those replaced, but it has taken that whole year for that to happen.

And so those replacements are going to be happening this week, actually.

None, I guess it's 11 months after it happened.

So it's important to tie these things down properly.

And if you're going to have to use something along that chain of tie

down, that is not part of the tie down, um, make sure it's heavy duty.

So cautionary tale for everybody out there, these storms can happen.

And when they happen, you want to make sure your airplane is properly tied down.

A lot of airplanes made it through that storm just fine out in the

storm, but, um, a few were lost.

And a few like this one where we're heavily damaged that has been,

you know, taking a year to repair.

So something to be thinking about.

I've been hearing a lot of people saying chains really

aren't a good idea at all either.

Um, I don't know if that's a popular thing down in your area.

I've honestly only seen chains at an airport once, I believe.

Yeah, it's pretty

common.

It's pretty common down here.

But like I said, I think the most common these days is nylon webbing.

That has become one of the most common.

They're lightweight.

Um, they don't damage the airplane if they, well the ends, the steel

ends might, the hooks on the end, but, but the webbing itself of

course is soft and they're extremely strong if you get the right kind.

Yeah, and they do have a little give toe, so, yeah.

Okay.

Well, time for my cautionary tale about an airplane.

And, uh, this is actually an airplane that Bill and I have flown in together.

One of our old club planes.

271 Golf.

My first

flight into Oshkosh was in this airplane.

Yes.

Uh, that's right.

I think it was what, maybe 2008 and I had been in Oshkosh already and set

up my campsite and then I, I flew down to Milwaukee and picked you up and we

flew the Fisk arrival into Oshkosh.

Later that same year, we picked up Troy Wisman.

And did it again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I know I did at least three arrivals that year.

That's right.

But yeah, this one was particularly sad for me because I have about 500

hours in that airplane and had some really great adventures in her and, um,

the plane was totaled after this, but basically we had a guy who had flown

out somewhere in New York State, came back, and there it is on the screen.

Yeah, he came back and he called up the FBO and this was a shared hangar

situation that was all managed by the FBO.

So the pilot called up the FBO and said, Hey, I'm back.

I'm, you know, ready for the plane to be fueled and put away.

And they came down and they fueled the plane.

completely topped it off and then didn't put it away for some reason.

Forgot about it.

It's not their main ramp.

So I guess easy thing to do, I suppose.

But for whatever reason they left it there and they never came back to put it away.

And overnight there was a storm that came through that had straight

line winds of 60 knots or so.

And they were kind of from, Back into the side, and so the tail lifted up and went

over on, you know, basically one main came off the ground and then went over on the

prop and the spinner and flopped on its back, and a high wing airplane that does

that is not going to be having a good day.

So the struts were bent, the wing was flattened out so it had no dihedral,

quite a bit of damage to the skins on the top of the wing, the vertical

tail was crushed, in fact the whole aft section there was kind of buckled.

So yeah, that plane was totaled unfortunately.

And uh, yeah, at this point.

Now the club forces everybody to tie down the plane unless they are

standing there and watching the FBO put it away while they're still there.

Just so we don't have another incident like that.

So something to be aware of if you're relying on someone else to put your

plane away or tie it down or whatever is, you know, sometimes things

get busy and things don't happen.

So make sure you stay aware of that.

Responsible for your own airplane.

I've thought about this quite a bit because in the club I'm in right

now, we're in the same situation.

We have a bigger hanger and it's got multiple airplanes in it, all

of ours, plus a couple of others.

And when we return it, the FBO handles putting it away.

What we're required to do is chalk it and, um, call for them

to fill it and put it away, but we're not required to stay there.

And I've thought about this often, if I know there's a storm approaching.

Or it's windy when I land, I'm not going to walk away from that airplane.

I'm going to call, go find somebody from the FBO, or I'm going to call them and

I'm going to say, Hey, I'm waiting here.

I'm going to put this airplane away with you.

So, yeah, it's, it, it's something to think about.

And if you're traveling.

And you're going somewhere and you're relying on an FBO to put it away.

Yeah.

If it's a beautiful night, no storms in the area, maybe you just leave it to them.

But if there's any chance, if it's windy, if, if you're worried at all

about it, do it with them, you know?

Sure.

Yeah.

That's a sad, well, that's a sad picture.

Seeing that thing turned upside down like that.

It is.

Well, let's talk about a few other things.

Once your airplane is actually tied down, what else do you do with your

airplanes once they're tied down, Bill?

Well, um, one of the first things, whether it's tied down or chock ready

to go in the hangar, I always wipe it down, get all the bugs and grime

off, especially the leading edges.

Not only is it courteous, but that stuff will, it'll eat away at your paint.

So even if you know, you're going to be the next one to fly, it's still a

good idea to get those leading edges, especially clean, because there's

going to be bugs all over them.

One thing people don't think about that's a leading edge on the Cessnas.

I was thinking about this cause I just did this the other day.

I flew one of the one 72s in our club, and I always make a

habit of Opening up the windows.

Cause on those Cessnas, those, you know, the side windows open up and

everybody taxis with those open, right?

I mean, when it's, when it's hot, like around here, those are

always open while you're taxing.

And between the taxing itself and the, the.

Stream from the propeller.

You're throwing bugs into the sides of those windows.

And most people don't realize that, but there's going to be bugs over

all over the leading edge of those, uh, window sills when they're open.

And if you close the airplane, when you button it up and you go to wipe

it down, you're not going to see them.

So open up those windows, wipe those down.

So there, you don't have bugs sitting on those windows for months at a time

because you never noticed they were there.

So something to be thinking about.

So wiping it down is one of them.

Definitely.

And, you know, the bugs come off a whole lot easier if you get them off right away.

Yes, they do.

Before they harden up and, yeah.

Yep.

Um, well, even in a hangar, there might be some things that you

still want to do for securing.

Uh, we were talking about putting chocks on the airplane in the hangar.

And, uh, you know, that's a good idea.

We'd just leave ours on the tug, but, uh, that has a, an

automatic that keeps it secured.

So yeah, it is basically like a really, really big, heavy,

expensive pair of chalks.

We also have.

Battery minders.

And if you're an airplane owner, I definitely recommend having these.

Most of the time a battery is going to last you maybe three years.

Um, my airplane has two batteries on it.

They're switched so they're, you know, separate, but one of them's 10 years old.

One of them's 15 years old and both of them are so good.

And that's thanks to the battery minders.

They actually are able to break up sulfur deposits inside the battery and get those

solids back into solution and keep that battery lasting for a good long time.

So, you know, not something you might care about for a car battery that you can go to

the local parts store and replace yourself for 40 bucks or something like that.

But I know that even 10 years ago, the last time I replaced

an airplane battery, it was 500.

And so being able to run that battery, You know, three, four, five times

longer than I otherwise would have been able to, man, those pretty

incredible paid for themselves long ago.

Um, but you do need to plug them in, make sure you got three green lights on

there and then plug them into the wall as well, because I know that once I

accidentally was in a hurry, plugged him into the airplane, saw my green lights.

Got distracted and left, and, well, they do suck the airplane battery dry if

you don't plug them into the wall, so.

Has the opposite effect.

Right.

Right.

Not exactly what you want to happen.

But, um, anyway, so if you have something like that, you know,

go ahead and plug those in.

Um, for those of us in the great white North here, we have engine heaters that we

plug in whenever it starts getting cold.

Um, I pretty much plug them in anytime.

It's going to be below 50 degrees except for overnight.

There is of course a whole debate in the aviation community about whether it's a

good idea to leave your heaters plugged in all the time, but um Even though I

have one that heats both the oil sump and all the cylinders it can take, you

know Four to eight hours depending on the outside temperature to to heat up

that giant block of metal under the cowl So yeah, we generally leave them

in all winter plugged in all the time

Now we do use engine heaters, uh, down here, but it's called the sun.

So we don't worry too much about turning it off and on.

Um, but I, and I really, I honestly know nothing about engine heaters

because I've never used one personally.

We, we don't use them down here really, but I have heard things about them.

And I hear that they have some now that, um, you know, if you have

wifi at your hangar, you can connect to them and turn them on remotely.

You know, the day before or hours before your flight.

So you don't have to be at the hangar to do it.

So that's pretty cool.

Yeah.

And that's actually not a function of the engine heater.

Those are these little outlet boxes that you can buy and plug the heater into.

Um, and yeah, then they're normally off and you can remotely switch them on.

Um, I told you I knew nothing about engine heaters.

Well, there are some engine heaters that they only heat the sump and on

those you should not plug them in all the time because what happens is You

keep your oil nice and warm and all the water vapor You know stays out of the

oil or comes out of the oil even and then it gets into the cold Top end of

the engine and condenses and, you know, that causes things to rust and, you know,

you really don't want that to happen.

So definitely, if you have one of those, don't leave that

one plugged in all the time.

But, uh, we have one from rife.

And it has bands around all the cylinders that are heated, so, um, you know, there

is some heat distributed around the engine, and even though we're in the

hangar, we do also leave cowl plugs in and a blanket over the top of the cowl,

and so that helps to keep a lot of that heat inside the cowling and just keep,

uh, you know, a real consistent level of heat throughout the engine so that, uh,

None of the engine is below the dew point.

That's the thing that's really important.

Uh, so maybe we'll settle some debates there, but probably not.

I'm sure there's still some people who will disagree with me, but, um, you know,

up here when it gets cold, we need to make sure that our oil is able to flow.

And it's not this sludge that it can turn into when it's cold, because you want that

oil to be protecting your, your engine right away, as soon as you're starting up.

And if it's really cold, the oil does not flow so well.

And 90 percent of your engine wear happens during your startup.

Um, so you definitely want to make sure that you're not making that any worse.

That's good.

Let's see what else.

That's definitely an area that.

I don't know much about, but there is one more thing I wanted to add.

And when we talk about SOPs, standard operating procedures, at some point,

we'll probably talk about this, but I think it's a great idea to make one of

your standard operating procedures, you know, before you do your pre flight or,

um, even right after you're completed the pre flight to walk around your airplane,

kind of look at it all the way around.

But I think it's a good idea to do that.

When you're walking away from the airplane as well, at the end of a

flight, you buttoned her up and just before you walk out of the hanger or

you walk away from the tie down, just walk around the airplane one more time.

Take a look at it.

Make sure that you haven't left a baggage door open, or there's a

seatbelt hanging out of the door or any number of things you left here.

You know, your windshield wiper, wipe solution sitting on the horizontal

stabilizer or whatever it may be.

You just take one last look at it and just make sure it is actually

buttoned down the way you think it is.

That's probably another good standard operating procedure.

Absolutely.

And I, I like what you said about looking back when you're walking

away from the airplane as well, because there are certain things.

That you're just not going to see when you're standing

right next to the airplane.

But then you get 50 or 100 feet away and you look at it again and

then you go, Oh, wait a minute.

That doesn't look right.

So yeah, that's, that's excellent advice.

Now, one thing I'm curious about, do you ever open up your oil

dipstick after you're done flying?

I do not.

I have never done that.

So that's a thing that we do also, uh, with the Mooney, um, you know,

something like a rental that's going to fly again right away, maybe no big

deal, but really what, what I'm looking to do is to let some of that extra

water vapor out of the engine entirely.

So we actually leave.

The oil dipstick open on our engine, um, and you know, in the winter I'll throw the

blanket over that, but, um, yeah, we leave that open and just let the engine vent.

There are some products available that will actually dry your engine out.

Um, One that I think is really good is, it's called the DryBot,

comes from the same people that make the DynaVibe prop balancer.

Uh, but there's some other ones out there, and they have various

methods of drying air out and then pumping it through your engine.

That's something I've thought about a lot, but I haven't actually pulled

the trigger on yet myself, but yeah, there's at least one school of thought

that thinks that that's a good idea to, to let some of the water vapor

out of the engine after a flight.

So that's a thing that we do too.

And I, I just learned that from a random experienced pilot at an

airport somewhere along the way.

It's not something that I think is very common at all.

Not only had I not ever done that, I hadn't even ever heard of that.

Well, that was a good one.

We thought that was going to be quick, but we actually had a couple of stories and

it just, you know, there's quite a bit to talk about their button up the airplane.

So appreciate that.

That was a great topic, Kent.

Thank you.

Well, thank you.

It's always a nice to sit here and yak about airplanes.

We can definitely make a short story long sometimes.

We're good at that.

All right.

Well,

we'll catch you next time then.

All right.

We'll see ya.

right.

Again, we hope you enjoyed that segment and maybe learn something from it.

If you didn't learn anything from it, it means you've got some experience.

So you should let us know about some of that experience send in a story

about when you learned something important beyond the checkride.

So we can feature that in a future segment.

I was still happy to be progressing and it wasn't even stressful yet because I hadn't

gotten into the meat of instrument flying.

And the check ride, which wasn't scheduled yet seems so far away.

I had no stress about it.

I hadn't even taken the written test yet.

And wouldn't have passed it at that point yet.

Anyway.

I mean, I hadn't even decided only a week or two before that I was

going to start training again.

So we was all happening pretty fast.

I knew if I didn't stop and look around a little bit.

I might miss the whole training.

All right.

Points for knowing the paraphrased reference there.

The movie.

But it was true.

It was all coming at me pretty fast.

But still manageable at this point.

I was excited to start learning more about the NAS, the approaches.

Various techniques.

The, the rules, this hold thing I'd always heard about.

I mean, my attitude at the time was let it all come.

I was ready.

Well, at least, I thought I was.