Buddy pilot

Last year, in ground school, I met another student pilot named Doug. During our flight training, we'd often see each other at the airport. He finished about 3 months before me and we've kept in touch thanks to social media and the occasional coincidental plane rental booking times. A couple of times, we commented on each other's social media postings, saying we should fly together sometime. Eventually I figured we should actually go and do that so I asked him if he wanted to book a time. So, yesterday we flew from Cooking Lake to Drumheller, 117 NM to the south. It was fantastic!

Taking off out of Drumheller; Doug in command

The town of Drumheller in the Red Deer River valley

The weather was awful in the days leading up to our flight and even on the morning of our booking, it was questionable. We watched the forecast and weather reports right up until we had to head out to the airport and finally decided it was worth a try. At the airport, the weather seemed dicey due to some very low scattered cloud. We conferred with a couple of the flight instructors and everyone agreed we should go up, see what it was like, and turn back if it was no good.

The low cloud kept us at only 1000 ft above ground level for most of the way down but other than that, the weather was no issue. Visibility was perfect and the views were beautiful. By the time we left Drumheller, the clouds had lifted a bit and we were able to come back at 3500 ft above ground. The views were even more amazing at that altitude!

We had a blast! What was great was that we were able to confess some of our stupid moments from our flight training as well as some of the things we still worry about. Learning to fly can be an isolating experience because you don't spend much time with other students, it's scary to confess your fears to others, and you can't judge whether you're doing alright. So it was awesome to just lay it all out there with each other as we flew along! What you find out when you open up and talk is that you aren't the only one! Besides being a confessional experience, it was also very reassuring to fly with another pilot who is at the same level. We were able to ask each other questions and talk about how we each did things. Both of us said that the nervousness we usually feel before we fly was completely gone with each other there. I flew us down to Drumheller and he flew us back. Neither of us helped each other very much, other than general how-do-you-do-things discussions and questions, but just knowing that there was someone there who had my back was comforting and he said he felt the same way.

I found it to be such a relief to fly with him. Plus, it was just super fun. Drumheller is beautiful, too, located in the badlands of southern Alberta, so it was a stunning place to visit, if only for a few minutes. And what's more is we actually made it! We aviated and navigated and communicated without any issue. We do know how to do this. But it sure is nice to have a buddy pilot.

That was fun!

This morning, I flew out of Villeneuve, with my dad, to Barrhead. It's a 33 nautical mile trip over beautiful prairie and lakes. It was a very fun flight!

South of Barrhead

I've been nervous to fly the planes at my new flying club at Villeneuve. They are 172s, which is what I trained on, but they are slightly different than what I'm used to. They have analog instruments (affectionately known as 'steam gauges') and carbureted engines (which means you have to know when to heat the carburetor so it doesn't ice up), along with other slight differences such as how the flap levers and radios work. As well, Villeneuve is a towered airport, whereas I trained at a small, uncontrolled airport. I joined this club precisely for these different experiences but, right now, while I'm a new pilot, the lack of familiarity with the planes at Villeneuve has caused me some stress when I think about flying there.

I was terribly nervous when I did my first flight there as pilot-in-command in August, although it turned out to be perfectly fine. Today, the weather looked good and the wind seemed manageable, so we were looking forward to going up. I wasn't nervous at all today! I have never been so relaxed before a flight and it was a nice feeling. I had reserved the flying club plane with which I'm most familiar so that helped. As soon as I sat in it, and scanned the equipment, I felt good to go.

My favourite flying club plane - C-GJJL

The airport was quiet and the sun was shining. I taxied down to the active runway, did the run-up, and then got take-off clearance. We turned out of the circuit and set the GPS for Barrhead. I always set the GPS because it's a back-up and a double-check, but I navigate mainly with the map so I can stay proficient at that. This time I had to keep three big lakes on my left and then cross over the Pembina River just south of Barrhead. We were there in no time since we had a decent tailwind. I joined the circuit and did a pretty nice landing.

I recorded the times, reset the GPS, and took off again. The flight back was beautiful, too, even though we had an incredible headwind! It was smooth but our ground speed was 60-70 knots, in a plane that normally cruises around 100 kts. It felt like we were crawling. We joked about whether we'd have enough fuel for the hours it would take to get back or whether we'd make it in time for the next rental.

I switched back to the tower frequency a little over halfway there, just to be ready, but a few minutes later, I decided to make a position report on the enroute frequency since we were still a ways out and it seemed like it might be forever before we got back at that ground speed! Silly me, though, I had forgotten that I had switched over and I made the broadcast on the tower frequency. In the moment that it dawned on me: "Juliet Juliet Lima, this is the Villeneuve tower frequency." Me: "Tower, I just realized that. My apologies." Thankfully, there was nobody else on the radio so it was probably just a laugh for ATC. 😜

When I contacted Tower again a few minutes later - this time for real! - I was cleared straight in for Runway 16 and did another perfectly fine landing.

This was really a great flight! I felt good about how I performed (except for that silly radio thing but that was minor). We talked and soaked in the views. I enjoyed being a pilot today and my dad enjoyed coming along!

Still becoming a pilot

Since getting my license, I've done about 10 flights, half of them as pilot-in-command (PIC), so I have kept my hand in it for sure. But confidence doesn't magically come with the license and I seem to be developing some anxiety again; I have a lot of nerves before I fly.

I noticed this acutely when I planned to fly my dad to Barrhead from Villeneuve, a 30 NM flight, on August 23. As is my custom, I obsessed about the weather, mainly the winds, the day before, and in the morning, I became quite concerned that the crosswind would be too much for me to handle upon landing in Barrhead. Dad and I drove out to the airport but I was so stressed on the way, thinking of all of ways that this planned flight was overwhelming me. Besides the wind, this was going to be my first flight as PIC in one of the Namao planes, which were still somewhat unfamiliar to me. To top it off, my reservation had been transferred to a different plane than the one I had booked, one that I had never flown (this was done because my plane was too close to its hours for its next maintenance). It was just too much. I didn't think I could do it. Once at the airport, I confirmed that the winds were fairly strong, about 12 knots, which isn't that bad but it's too much for me if it's a crosswind. Dad was unconcerned at first but when he realized how much uncertainty I was faced with, he suggested that we fly but we just do circuits at Villeneuve, where we could have an into-the-wind runway. I was greatly relieved by that suggestion. The club manager gave me a briefing on the equipment differences in the airplane I was assigned. Feeling like it was all more manageable, we did go and do some circuits. It all went very well in the end. I was able to fly that plane and handle that wind.

So, I should know from that experience that I don't need to worry and stress as much as I do. But it seems that as time goes on, I am increasingly afraid to fly. I don't trust myself. It's very easy for me to be hard on myself and judge myself. Sometimes I wonder if I just suck as a pilot. But, I did really well on my flight test. My Namao instructor was complimentary, too. My dad thinks I'm OK. So I must be OK! Interestingly, my Namao instructor said he really enjoyed flying with me when I was a brand new pilot because he has a particular interest in helping people make the leap from student pilot to licensed pilot. I've since thought back on that; obviously this transition is a thing. Also, it's interesting that once you start to admit your worries to others, they are free to admit theirs, and then you both know that you aren't just awful at it when everyone else is great. I admitted my insecurities to a couple of fellow pilots just this week. One of them, a guy in my commerical ground school class has been a pilot for a few months and he started telling me stories of silly things he's done. It was so reassuring and validating. Another is a friend from my private pilot ground school class, who told me that he still feels especially pleased when he does a good landing. So rather than beat myself up, I am trying to analyze and understand this situation so I can do something constructive to remedy it.

First of all, I complicated things for myself when I joined Namao. The planes are different and the airspace is more complex there and it's still new.

Second, I am not comfortable with crosswind landings and that has a huge influence on how comfortable I feel taking off in the first place.

Third, I am a new pilot. I just haven't seen a lot or had to deal with that much yet so not knowing what each flight will bring is a bit stressful.

What can I do about this? Well, I have to keep flying. I can't run away from it because it's a challenge right now. Thinking back to the fear I felt before I did my first solo flight away from the airport, I know that I have to do it anyway and that I have to do exactly that which I fear in order to improve.

I need to do some crosswind landing practice with an instructor. If I can get the hang of that, I won't be as attached to the ground and I will be able to handle a windy landing if I find myself at another airport where conditions are different.

Although Namao is cheaper, which is partly why I went there, money isn't everything and I can still fly at Cooking Lake where I am more familiar. I have to fly once a month at Namao to stay current but I can always do a few extra flights at my home airport so I can get used to being a pilot without adding another layer of stress.

I can fly with other pilots! Both of my ground school classmates that I mentioned are interested in flying with me so we can learn from each other and offer each other some security.

I just have to keep at it. Underneath it all, I love flying and I want to get better at this! I now have some ideas to make the transition easier. One step at a time.

Commercial ground school

My flight school is running commercial ground school classes this fall and I decided to sign up! The first class was on Monday. There are four of us. Tonight was the second class. On Wednesdays, we join with the much larger private pilot ground school class, since half of what we do is review. The people are very friendly. One of my commercial classmates owns a Cessna 340 - a big, corporate-sized twin engine - so we went over to his hangar after class to see it. He's going to give us rides - often! Another of my classmates is a new pilot as well, and we are going to fly together sometime. I think this is going to be a very positive experience.

I am 55 years old and most people get into aviation as a career when they are much younger. However, there is a terrible shortage of commercial pilots right now and that makes this a good time for me to consider a flying career of some sort, even as a retirement job in years to come. Who knows? Maybe I can fly a float plane someday or teach others to fly. At the very least, these classes will teach me more and make me a better pilot. It will most likely take me a couple of years to get a commercial license but that's fine with me. I'm flying anyway!

Night

My awesome instructor moved on to a new job about two weeks before I did my flight test. I spent the last couple weeks flying with the chief flight instructor anyway for my flight test prep and I was just grateful that my instructor had been able to see me through my lessons. For a month he flew with a company up north and then he got scooped up by a regional airline and moved to the coast. Even though I was finished my lessons, I was sad to see him go. I was very happy, then, to have a chance to fly with him again at the end of July. It was partly just an excuse to fly together and partly a chance for me to get familiar with the one plane at my flight school that was different and I had never flown. We decided to make it my first night lesson to make it even more worth it.

Wow! It is fabulous to fly at night! It's so calm and peaceful. On this night, we took off just at sunset so we could watch the transition to night from the air. We didn't do anything complicated but it gave me a chance to experience the different perspective and feeling of flying in the dark. Perhaps the conditions made it so but we were both feeling a bit philosophical and we talked about how amazing flying is and what it teaches you about life. 

It was a pleasure and a treat to have another chance to fly with my instructor and it was truly a surreal experience to be flying at night.

We have tried twice since then to schedule another night lesson but it has been too complicated for him to manage now that he has another job. This evening, after the second attempt to book something, we realized that this is probably not going to work out anymore. He is moving onward and upward and so am I, both of us into new adventures. My night lessons will continue with another instructor. 

Smoke gets in your eyes

Every flight is a learning experience and this one was quite unique! Today, my dad and I flew to Camrose, just to land and come back. It's just 20 minutes in the air one way. We had planned to go to Vegreville but when I checked the NOTAMs (notices), I found that the Vegreville airport was closed for the day. So, I pulled out my map and quickly checked the headings for Camrose instead. Once we took off, it turned out to be very, very smoky, due to the extensive forest fires in BC. If I had not had a GPS and had had to rely on my map for navigation, I probably would have turned back. Visibility was about 3 miles. I suppose I could have done it because I could have made sure I held my heading and gone from lake to lake until I was there but I felt much better setting the GPS for Camrose and following the line. Despite the smoke, I was actually able to spot the airport at Camrose fairly easily since coming in to there from Cooking Lake, you're pretty much looking straight down the runway. I find it awkward to join the circuit at Camrose because of the arrival path so I ended up doing a pretty crummy circuit at Camrose but still a beautiful landing. Heading home, I set the GPS again but could see Cooking Lake well enough in advance because it's a pretty big lake. Coming back, I did a beautiful circuit but a bouncy landing. Oh well. You can't win them all and everything is learning. This short flight taught me a lot!

Joseph Lake in the smoke, midway between Camrose and Cooking Lake