Zen of Flying

Zen, the spiritual one-ness. I had it on a bike. I spent countless hours roaring thru the woods (or on twisty roads), in the zone, the bike an extension of my being. No thought is given to shifting , application of throttle & brake. Balance and direction are instinctive. There is a rhythm, a flow, harmony in motion. In flying, it is the same. One builds zen a bit at a time, some achieve it faster than others, but all real pilots experience it. Zen is one of the things that drags us back into the air, time & time again. A good CFI will sense it in his student in each seceding take off & landing, in the flow of motion required to tame the unseen winds. After a while he is no longer repeating the instruction " Ball! center the ball" as you stomp right rudder and swing wildly in the opposite skid.When you solo you first demonstrate that it is indeed your own Zen that safely returns man & machine to the tarmac. It begins for me as I finish my final pre-takeoff checklist and roll onto the active runway. As my craft gathers speed I begin to sense the song it plays in my hands , feet & seat. No longer does an airspeed indicator determine the moment of flight, instead we are drawn into the ether by a force greater than any amount of horsepower, a moment when everything is in harmony. And flight is achieved.
Climb is only noted on panel, it's rate is a function of weight , power and air. Our muscles are commanded by zen to climb higher into the sky. Vx & Vy become innate feelings that are summoned forth at our whim. Zen brings us over the fence at a steady rate, duplicating the same speed over & over, the indicator only serving to provide visual proof that it is Zen that pilots the craft. No dial, no gauge, no computer can tell the pilot when it is time to kick the rudder and break the crab, the moment of the flare is signaled thru zen to the proper airfoils. And we know flight has ended.

3 for 3

I Flew a Cessna 172 today. Breakfast At Hoquim , less than 2hrs round trip in a plane, over two hours each way by car.It is just great, From the coast, see the ocean, and back to Seattle in less than an hour. The view from a plane is good anyway, but here in the Puget Sound that is magnified. Today there was a lot of low fog , it covered most of the inlets in the S. Sound area, it only added to the beauty of the scene. Of course Mt Ranier looms over all, & St Helens, Adams & Baker are all visible on the horizon. Three days, Three different planes. That I could not do if I owned only one. I might fly a different one tommorow, but the weather doesn't look like it will be ok. The 172 was cruising at 120mph @ 2500'. Not as fast as the Cherokee, but it burns less than 8 Gallons per hour.The Cherokee uses@10gph. the c150 @6gph.The Cherokee was busy today, it was taken all day before I could book it. I had to return the 172 for another club member. It had a small fuel leak from the LF wing tank sump(drain). Not a safety of flight issue. Not enough leak to affect the range, or to be a fire hazard. But I just called Tom, the maintanence officer, reported it, and advised the next pilot of the situation. We will try to burn off most the fuel in that tank & Tom will fix it or have it fixed. If I were the sole owner I would be cold & dirty, wet with fuel, to fix it myself. Yea, I think the Clubs are working well for me.

It's not fast.

It's not fast. Especially after a month of flying the Cherokee. I flew 12J today. My favorite little plane, the Cessna 150 that I trained and tested in. I mostly stayed near the airport, doing landing practice. I did power off simulated engine out landings, no flap landings spot landings even cut power on take off landed then exited the runway. It sure was not the power house the Cherokee is.. but it is a lot lighter on the controls than either the C-172 or PA28-180. As long as I am solo the 150 is fun to fly, not so good if you're in a hurry, but fun. And 12J is my favorite. 98J has a fresher engine and better radio's, I even think it it a tad faster. 12J likes a lot of right rudder at times, but it is friendly and easy to fly. Steady and predictable. I at one time departed the pattern S toward Auburn, but the closer i got the hazier it became at Auburn. I heard someone doing T&G's but could not see them, I turn bact to BFI about 3 miles out. The fog/Virga seemed to be coming closer to Boeing. I beat it to BFI , did a T&G then a full stop & taxied to parking, I sat it out but the haze never quite reached BFI & after a while it dissipated. It was clear again, I had time so up I went for some more laps. I flew over an hour before heading home to do the shopping.

It's Huge!

For my birthday, TJ, Lauri & I flew to Mc Minnville, Or., from Auburn, Wa.. In the Cherokee180 it took a mere hour & a half. The Museum built a second building as big as the first and added an Imax theater between them. The Building is barely bigger than Hughes Spruce Goose, But that is still HUGE. A B-17 parks under the right elevator. Under the right wing is a collection of WW2 & cold war fighters. Way bigger than a scarebus380. I was thrilled to see they had added Six. Having worked on the F-106 During my service, (attack radar tech),I am a big fan. It is still to this day the fastest Single engine Jet on record. 100 mph faster than the F-104. 1525mph. The plane they used was one stationed at McCord. The second building is a Space museum. It has all three type capsules, Mercury. Gemini, & Apollo. + moon buggy's a simulated missile silo, w/ a missile . You can activate s "launch sequence". The Imax was Fighter Pilot, about a F-15 jock at red Flag at Nellis. Great ! The Cherokee really hauls the mail. We had to go over 6500' to find smooth air, and the Cherokee loved it, cruising 135= @ 75%. It really made me think about buying and what I would give up. Now I can fly a variety of planes. 3-C-150, 4- C172, Pa28-180, C-182. I am not even checked out in the 182 yet. I need to fly more of these first. If I bought that Tri-Pacer, sure I would "own " a plane. And a fairly nice little PA-22. In 5-6 yrs it would have a runout engine and the skin would probably be shot from being old & outside. It burns maybe 6-7 GPH, & flys maybe 120. Nice for two, with room for baggage, cramped taking three golfers to Lopez. And, I have the risk of a breakdown. In the club, I don't have to work on it, if it breaks I call the club Maintenance officer. All I need is dry weekends. I hope I can fly on my week off between Giftmas & Debbie's birthday(New Years).

almost pulled the trigger

I fell sleep Early Thanksgiving evening (can we say tryptophan?), and so awoke about 2:30AM, saw this on Barnstormers; Piper 1955/56 PA-22-150 2685TT 1375SMOH VAL 760 com Transponder and Intercom Auto Fuel STC Very Clean, Located in Battle Ground, WA $13,000 firm • By noon I had called the guy, talked to a Tri-Pacer owner I know from S50, and been approved at the bank for a signature line of credit to cover it.The $'s at 90-100hrs per yr SEEMs to be a push. but No, I just am not ready, I am not sure about an older rag wing and storing it outside. But the Tri-pacer does fill my mission needs by just barely being a 3 person aircraft, yet still able to use smaller & grass airports. Looks like a sweet plane, very basic (all I need), but nice looking. Anyone in the market for a tri-pacer? I am going to save up and look for metal wings, like a 172. I like the Piper, as much for the 180 as it's a piper, but my wife cannot enter the cockpit without serious gyrations. I think I do want to own my own, but my current plan is by age 60(at 60) & I'm almost 56. The club will allow me to continue to get training, and to fly different planes. With a mere 200+ hours I am still finding what works for me. Ideally a 180 hp 172, but the $ means a 150 hp w/1000+/-SMOH, is more my price. Edit: TriPacer is sold 12/4, one week, It was a good deal, someone snatched it up.

The Cherokee

Our flying club has a Piper Cherokee 180. I have wanted to get checked out in it for a while. weather & maintainance kept me out of it in October, but on November 1, I finally passed the check ride.On the first takeoff i pulled back firmly like it was a 172, promptly over rotated and nearly stalled . After the usual stalls turns and slow flight we returned for a few landings mostly T&G's. the final no flap one was the only greaser. The CFI signed my log & recorded 8 landings. Tuesday evening , needing to pay dues at both my flying clubs i drove to S50 , left and envelope in the box, then grabbed the Cherokee keys. Wary of the powerful 360 mill up front, I used 25 degree flaps and was very gently pulling the bird off the runway. After establishing a stable climb @ 300 fpm for about a second as it gathered speed, I eased the yoke back a bit and was rewarded with 1000 fpm climb @ over 100 mph. I had been wary of the winds, Sea was 12 knts RNT 11 knts, but BFI only 3, S50 6 and PLU calm. I figured there were winds just above the surface that seatac got cause it is up on a plateau, and RNT is on the water and gets a lot of wind. Things were smooth up to about 900', then it started really rockin'. There must have been shear layer between the calm surface and the aloft winds. Holding back, I throttled down to about 120 mph , made my radio calls and was told I was number two, for a straight in on 31R. I was a bit high at 1/2 mile , but the sink rate of the Cherokee corrected that for me and I added a touch of power to reach the numbers. I love those manual flaps, why did they go to electric I wonder? I made A-4 and called for NE parking. When I fired up after paying my tab at Alt Air, I noticed I was still on tower. HMMM ,... He did tell me to contact ground, I had selected 121.9, but i forgot to punch the flip flop. the Controller was nice, when I called in on tower he cleared me to taxi without a reprimand. Using a regular takeoff I again gently broke ground then steepened the climb, the power of the 180 had me 200 feet high entering the downwind at 120 mph. I was the only one around, it was late so the altitude was buffer to the neighbors below. Making a Valley departure I found myself at 1200' over Southcenter mall at nearly 140mph, needing to slow for the rough air. a year ago I would have been a stressed out white knuckled wreak. Now I guided my craft with my fingertips of one hand, as it rocked and yawed, only concerned that the general direction was south bound. I have always been a high wing guy, but that is by default. I had never flown in a low wing single. I like the Cherokee, but it might be the horse power more than the position of the wing.

not so chicken anymore

Since chickens don't fly in clouds, & because I wlll be ranging much further from the'coop'. I have deleted the Chicken pilot reference from my forum posts. As an IFR pilot I am less of a chicken pilot. IFR training is not for the faint of heart. One must steel their mind against the messages from the middle ear. It is like a deadly game of blind mans bluff, the gauges are guiding us thru the dark. Failing to 'pin the tail' results in death. A steady hand and a quick eye keep things smooth & stable. The reward comes at the MDA, when upon removing the hood, a beautifull row of brilliant runway lights guide me to a safe landing . DaveR