Author Archives: mstroud

Too Much Travel, Too Little Flying (GA)

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It seems that I’ve been on the road constantly, and that I’ve done very little general aviation flying.  Upon looking back at my schedule since January, it does appear that most every week and weekend I’m in another city or country, talking to a different customer or partner, eating at a new or similar restaurant and staying at another hotel chain.  I certainly have the flight miles (and nagging cough) to prove it.

I also have started lacking in my ability to get to the local airport and fly, and when I do get out to the airport these day my skills aren’t what they used to be.  That’s a bummer, as I feel like I’m going backwards in my training, and that really bites.  The learning to fly stuff is what helps me keep my head clear of all the work related mumbo-jumbo, but  when it isn’t going well its hard to have a good outlet.

Here’s hoping I get some serious downtime in the near future and can get back on the pilot learning curve, pointed upward again.

Soloed, Finally

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After a lot of travel and very, very few continuous days at home I have managed to get the first solo process completed at Palo Alto Airport.  This is, I’m told, a pretty important milestone in my flight training, and I’m glad to have finally done it.

However, as part of this process, I was nearly landed on, twice, by another student flying the pattern.  The infraction was bad enough that the tower started asking planes in the pattern to land full stop and clear the traffic so that they could concentrate on the problem pilot.  I was also asked a series of probing questions from the club’s chief pilot, to see if they could determine how rough it was up there.

All in all, I’m glad its done, even if it was a blur.  I’m sure I’ll remember this flight for a long time to come.

Lessons 30, 31, and 32

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In between flights all over the US, I managed to sneak in a few more flight lessons.  #30 was to get me back in the swing of things again, doing another flight over to Livermore and some pattern work.  #31 was all about doing some ground school learning, something I don’t do often enough.  #32 was a bunch of touch and goes in the strongest wind (nearly 18 knots) I’ve seen so far.

I’m told that I’m nearly ready to solo, again.  Now I just need to study up and be in town long enough to actually do the check ride.

Bad Weather Lessons: 28 and 29

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I managed to sneak in a couple of hours of flying this weekend, between downpours and crazy work scheduling. The net-net of these flights were that I’ve now picked up a bad habit or two: flying the pattern too fast and loose at times, and under-rotating at touchdown.  Needless to say both are bad and I am working to correct both.

What was really rough, however, was flying in 14+ knot winds with low clouds and crummy visibility.  My instructor loved it as it pushed me about as far out of my comfort zone as I could be at the home airport.  Having to work all the controls to keep the plane level, getting rained on inside the plane, and losing total sight of the traffic around me were just the start of these two lesson sessions.

I’m sure that later I’ll look back and be thankful for this training.  But right now all I see is more tough work ahead to be able to fly right.  3 miles of visibility in rain and low clouds is just not a fun way to fly.

And to top everything off, I’m signed up for a pre-solo check ride in the near future.  Assuming I can find the time to be in town (a tough task right now with weekly flights somewhere each of the next 3 weeks) I’ll be handed off to an inspector to see if I’m ready to fly the pattern on my own.  Yikes!

Lessons 26 and 27: Back on the Horse Again

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My two most recent flying lessons were proof of what happens when I spend a long time away from the cockpit.  On lesson 26 I spent the entire time bobbling around, blowing landings, and generally being a mess while flying.  It was as if I had erased several months worth of flying skills and had regressed to a much earlier phase of flight.  I knew I’d be a bit rusty, but this was bad news.

On the 27th lesson, after around 5 touch and go’s, some of the old flying skills returned.  It was truly maddening to think that the effort I had put in so far was gone in just 3 weeks of non flying.  It is obvious to me that I still have so far to go to really “get flying” to the point of it being a learned behavior.  Throw in flights started at a new (San Carlos) airport and I have feel as if I need to start a few steps back from where I was just a month or two ago.

Thoughts on CES and Such

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I have just about recovered from the ordeal that is getting ready for, staging, shipping, demonstrating, and tearing down a full show load out for CES.  I can’t say that I enjoyed it, or that I’d volunteer to do as much work again, but I’m glad its all done.

Severe pain came from the logistics of getting people (namely me) and equipment (some 80+ boxes of it) to and from the show.  As the largest single event in Las Vegas, CES is uniquely positioned to stress out every part of the infrastructure needed to travel, house, transport, and sustain a group of nearly 200,000 people for a week.  As much as I dislike the driving situation in the Bay Area, I now have to thank Las Vegas and their elegant street construction planning for reminding me of how much fun driving 5 MPH for an hour can be.

I now get to start planning for the next series of events, customer contacts, and traveling.  One can only hope that things go smoother the next time around.  A little less smoky smell and a lot more sleep per day can’t hurt, either.

Holiday Downtime, Drivers, and Renewals Oh My

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After a short 3 days and change in OK, plus a day and a half in Tahoe, I get a short rest in San Jose for the next week.  Well, that isn’t really true, as I must now scramble to get all of the work done to make it to CES this coming weekend and all next week.  But at least for today it seemed a bit more subdued than usual, or maybe I’m just not sure what to call the time you have outside of work.

What did get me wondering about stuff is the temperature at the house, which is hovering in the 65F area and can’t seem to recover from that range.  Perhaps its from a week of having the heater turned off, but the poor thermostat just can’t seem to catch up to the temperature/time settings as they arrive on schedule.  In the meantime I’ll be wearing my fleece, thank you very much.

On the heavily annoying side of things are drivers who clearly don’t understand where they are or what they are doing, thus preventing me from making to or from any location in my usual speed and grace (which is to say I provide neither).  I’m not sure, but it seems that during the holidays people must fly to the Bay Area and drive around like lost, drunken lemmings just to spite me.

Finally I am spanked again for not having all of my end of the year memberships done.  I went to the R/C field to fly today and my membership in that club wasn’t completed, so I was sidelined.  I come home to find my AAA membership expired, and I’m sure all of my magazine and professional organization memberships have lapsed as well.  Can’t any of these things be setup on auto-pay?

Flight Lesson 25

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In a last ditch effort to squeeze in a bit more flying and learning time, I drove up to Palo Alto to fly one more hour in the Citabria, my last flight for the year.  It involved more touch and goes, slow speed turns, stalls, spin recognition (scary) and slips.  This is just what I need to help get me through the muck that is sure to be known as commercial air travel.

Grr! Holiday Air Travelers

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I had to fly to Orange County, CA for work today and I thought that I’d have a pretty clean trip, what with it being Tuesday and all.  The day started off simple enough: get up at 5:30am, get to the airport by 6:10, and on the plane by 7:30.  No security lines, no delays, no parking issues.  This seemed great.

But when it came time to fly home tonight, via LAX, I could see the problems mounting.  Awful traffic getting to the airport (not unusual for LA), really crowded check-in areas in most terminals, spotty seating at the food court, and a band of unhappy and obviously very non-regular-travel-savvy people at the gate complaining about lost luggage, TSA confiscations, and the way the airports work.  When I arrived back in SJC I found a snarled traffic line leading well up into the 2nd story of the parking garage, people pulling into and stepping out of every possible space (just in time to be nearly hit by the cars), blinkers turning on in both directions, slow/lost drivers, and the general inability to understand how to get out of the airport.

Oh how I long for the ability to fly myself to and from smaller airports to avoid this nonsense.  People could save themselves, and more importantly me, a lot of headaches if they would just research the airport website and see how things work now, rather than tie up everyone as they wander around aimlessly looking for that perfect parking/storage/surprise space.  Geez!