Lesson 3: Sea of Clouds

9:00 AM. I arrived at Advanced Aviation this morning for my 3rd

lesson. It was cloudy and windy today. Chris was finishing up a
ground school lesson with another student.

We got our stuff together and headed out to the ramp. Last class, he suggested I look into getting my own headset. I researched headsets this week but decided to wait and see what Chris used and find out what the Advanced Aviation folks thought about Active Noise Reduction (ANR) headsets. ANR greatly reduces ambient noise by emitting "anti-sound" that cancels out the constant background noise. Other than ANR being more expensive, I was concerned about the possibility of ANR canceling out important noise, like engine sounds, radio, or warning indicators like the stall horn. Chris and Darrick didn't have any concerns with ANR. Darick in fact uses ANR headsets. Chris uses passive Dave Clarks, but wants a set of the new Bose ANRs. That takes care of my ANR concerns. I'll get some off Ebay or Craigs List.

We pulled the cover off the DA-20 and did the preflight. I taxied us to the runway area. Because of the high winds, Chris decided to handle the takeoff. I was disappointed but appreciate Chris's cautious attitude about safety. Darick was with another student beside us in the other DA-20 doing their pre-takeoff. They were first up.

"Hey Darick," Chris radioed. "Your front tire looks low."

It did look very low, pancaked at the point of contact with the road. Darick replied that it felt ok on taxi.

"Ok," Chris responded. "It might be the angle I'm looking. Just keep an eye on it."

"Yeah, I will. Thanks," Darick responded. Pilots look out for each other.

After Darick was in the air, we taxied to the line and stopped. ATC cleared us for take off. Chris throttled up and we were in the air within 5 seconds. We couldn't have been going more than 30 mph.

"Wow - we're already in the air," Chris exclaimed. We were facing a 20 mph wind. That means as far as the wings knew, our true ground speed of 30 mph was more like 50 mph. Wind moving over the wings creates lift. Strong headwind combined with the DA-20s light weight put us into flight in no time. I took control once we were up. Winds were strong and gusty, which meant lots of bumps and drops. I did not feel nervous at all though. I'm getting used to the sensations.

Although I didn't get to take off, I was in for a rare treat: a low cloud ceiling. Because the DA-20 is not IFR certified (its plastic airframe lacks lightening protection), flying through clouds is not allowed. But that doesn't mean we can't get above them, as long as we don't fly into them on the way up. So we had to find a hole in the clouds and climb through it.

"See that opening," Chris pointed. "Climb us through that to 4500 feet." This was really fun. I pushed full throttle for power and pulled the stick back to about a 700 ft/min climb. As we climbed through the hole in the clouds, I looked around at the surreal gaseous layer just below us. I asked Chris to take the stick for moment while I snapped some pictures. Here are few just after we leveled off. You can see the hole we climbed through.

Just through the hole

Sea of Clouds: Pilot side

Sea of Clouds: Co-pilot side

Above the clouds, the turbulence was completely gone. Except for takeoff and landing, I flew the entire time today. For an hour, I practiced turning, ascent, descent, trim control, and throttle adjustment. It was over before it began and we needed to head home. I descended and brought us into LZU controlled space where Chris took back over for the landing.

"This is going to be interesting," Chris said. We were landing under heavy winds. Chris slowed us down and lowered the flaps. As we got down to around 300 ft above deck, it looked like we were barely moving. Chris touched down to an amazingly smooth landing. There wasn't a single bump or jolt. I don't think they get any better than that.

"Nicely done!" I complimented him. "Thanks," he replied. Chris was smiling, clearly happy with his touchdown. He had a right to be. It really was remarkable.

We were supposed to do more stall recovery today, but the high winds prevented that too. It's looking like Friday Oct 17th will be the next lesson. The agenda will be more stall recovery and steep bank turns. Chris also said we would start landing practice called "touch and go"s. That's where you line up for a landing, descend, get wheels on the ground, and then take back off to circle around for another pass: touch and go. Even with the instructor present and helping, completing an entire flight from take-off to landing will be a huge milestone.