Another Commercial Update

I haven't flown this past weekend. The weather has not been very cooperative... Saturday the plan was to go out, practice some maneuvers, including steep spirals, and then come back and work on spot landings. Then, I was going to take the plane to Hoquiam for a $100 hamburger and potentially fly around the Olympics while practicing maneuvers on my own. To finish it off, I'd practice spot landings.

So, what happened? Well, even though most of the Puget Sound was SKC by early Saturday afternoon, Paine Field was reporting 300 overcast. Normally this would not be a problem, since we could get out IFR and find SKC weather just several miles away, and then get back by shooting an ILS approach. Normally. Of course, as luck would have it, the glideslope at Paine is out of service until early November. So we could get out, but we couldn't get back in... Not good.

In slight dismay, I scheduled a flight for Sunday. But that was not meant to be, either. Initially I was encouraged by the weather: 3,900 scattered, and broken above -- plenty good for maneuvers. Alas, when I got to the airport, it went down to 1,400 broken (although it cleared up a bit later -- the forecast for "SKC" never quite came close to being true). What's even more important is that there were numerous PIREP's in the area about moderate and greater turbulence. And, folks were going up to fly only to return after one turn in the pattern... Certainly not ideal weather for flying a small airplane on a training mission.

On the other hand, I did make progress towards the certificate. Mark, my CFI, and I used a portion of the scheduled time to go over the Arrow, pointing out various features, antennas, etc. I now know which antenna on the bottom of the fuselage is for DME, and which one is for the marker beacon. We didn't have a "systems cheatsheet" for the Arrow, but I decided to make one up, basing the formatting on Mark's sheet for the Piper Seminole. We also took off the cowling, and that was really the first time I got to look "up close and personal" at an aircraft engine.

I'm out of town this upcoming weekend for a trip to Boston, but after I get back, I'm planning to do some mid-week flying. I'm also taking the written that week, and Mark says that I should go ahead and schedule the checkride for November 11th! I may be a commercial pilot this year after all!