Hood Work / Unusual Attitudes / Class C Airport Operations

Saturday was the day to complete more requirements.  I arrived at the airport at 3:45 and the weather was beautiful.  No clouds in the sky.  The wind was a little strong but not more than i or the plane could handle.  I walked into Pentastar and met mike there.  We went into the conference room to start and discuss what we were going to do.  We would start out with some pattern work at Burbank, and then finish with some hood work, unusual attitudes, and VOR work.  This is all easy enough.  He briefed me on Class C operations and had me get Clearance Delivery freq just in case they made us land instead of staying in the pattern. 

We had 29 Gallons of fuel.  Enough for some practice, and reserve.  Since we would be burning roughly 9 gallons per hour.  I did my preflight inspection and run up and we were soon off for a right crosswind departure.  I already had the burbank tower freq in my standby when we departed.  So it was a quick switch over to them.  "Burbank tower, skyhawk 889er lima brave, just out of van nuys, request pattern if able".  They cleared me for the option, left base, runway 33.  So it was roughly 90 degree to the left of us.  So we turned towards the runway.  We came in a little high, and had one hell of a cross wind, wing down, and opposite rudder.  We touched down hard, but mike immediately said "Good Landing, Perfect". As he raised the flaps and i put in full power, we took back off and he mentioned again that it was a good landing.  He said yes, it was hard, but the wind was strong, and that is what is needed, to get it on the ground, and keep it there.

"889er lima bravo, make right base runway 26".  So they are having us doing a figure 8.  This is sort of cool.  So we get cleared for the option for 26.  Upon taking off you can not really go cross wind, as there is a MOUNTAIN right in front of you.  So you need to go a climbing turn while turning towards the threshold of runway 33.  This is a difficult airport at first, because we could not do a normal pattern, where you go downwind parallel the runway, and reduce power at the threshold.  So it takes some thinking and steady control, to judge the distance above the ground and to the runway.  You sort of have to "wing" it.  But it turned out perfect.  Mike even commented on how the pattern was thrown in the trash, but i was still able to fly it correctly and safely.  I also did a decent job on judging the distances.

We land and it was more of a headwind then a cross wind on runway 26, so we touched down really slow.  But it was a nice stead slope and we touched down nice and slow.  Awesome landing.  Mike raises the flaps, and i apply full power, and we take back off.  Once in the air tower tells us to make left base runway 33.  So we get to pattern altitude, and we are cleared for the option.  So we come in and do another cross wind landing, this one was very similar to the last one.  We touched on upwind side first, then downwind side, then nose wheel.  Mike is pretty confident now.  It was a little sorter than the last, but crosswind landings are hard to get down soft.  Since the plane is sort of falling on to the other wheel.  Mike raises the flaps, and i apply full power, and we take off.  Again we get cleared for the option, right base runway 26.

While getting over there, mike said he was happy with the pattern and my operations in the airspace.  He told me after landing to request a straight out departure, and we would go over to the practice area.  We come in for a touch and go on runway 26, and we do another really good landing.  Landings are a second nature now.  I have done them so many times, it's all natural now.  Im amazed at how far i have come in a short amount of time.  Upon takeoff i request a straight out departure, and as expected they handed me off to SoCal Departure.  So we take up flight following and start to our 4500' altitude.  Mike then tells me as we are climbing to put on the hood.



So i say Your controls, he confirms, and then i repeat.  I release the controls and grab the hood and put in on, and get it situated.  I then take the controls, and continue the climb up to altitude.  At 4400' i start to level off to slow our ascent and then level off at 4500'.  The whole time i was doing the instrument scan.  Trying to keep us on the exact same heading, and stay on altitude.  There was a stiff wind out so it was a little difficult to keep us on the same heading, but i was able to do it, by flying slightly into the wind, and using the ground track magenta diamond as the reference in the G1000 glass cockpit.  It seemed like it took us an hour to get out to the practice area, not being able to see anything outside, and just flying by reference to instruments.  Once we got out there, Mike then briefed me on unusual attitudes.  He mainly emphasized one point.  ROLL THE WINGS LEVEL, before pulling out of a dive, or pushing out of a nose high climb.  Easy enough.

Mike then tells me to close my eyes and tell him when i think we go into a left or right hand turn.  It takes a second, but i can sense a left turn.  So i say left turn.  Then he says, tell him when i think we are climbing, or descending.  Again it takes a second, but i then say, climbing turn.  He says wow.  Your good.  Then he says tell him when i think we are level.  I can feel the plane come down and level out.  I told him level.  He said WOW.  Ok.  He then says what do you feel.  I feel a dip to the left, and what seems like a descent, i say left descent, and he tells me to open my eyes.  I do, and i see us left wing down, but right rudder to keep us level.  He talks about it for a second, and asks if i read all this, which i have, so i told him yes.  He was just making sure, and showing me how easy it is to get confused by relying on senses in IMC, or IFR conditions.

He then tells me to close my eyes again.  I do, and i feel a roller coaster.  Up,  Down,  Left,  Speed up, Speed Down, Skid, Slip, then i hear, "Your Controls".  I look and we are in a dive, with wings fairly level but not completely.  So i quickly level the wings, pull back power, and pull up to get us into a level attitude.  Then i add power to re-establish level flight.  Then he asks for the controls back.  I give him controls and close my eyes.  Again.  A roller coaster.  For about 45 Seconds.  Then i hear again "Your Controls".  I look, and we are 30-45 degree turn up in the air.  So level the wings, add power, and pitch down to level flight.  Pull back power, once established, and we are back to level flight.  Again, i give mike the controls, and once again roller coaster.  After about 30 seconds, i hear again "Your Controls".  I look, and we are at a 30-40 degree turn pitched down, and gaining speed really quick.  I pull back power, as i level the wings.  Then pull up not too quick, but quickly so that we can bleed off the airspeed that has built up.  Again back to level flight.   Mike was happy with that.  So now he asked me to tune FIM vor.  He took my sectional that get me the correct frequency.

I put it the frequency, and he asked to track some inbound and outbound radials.  He wanted to make sure for inbound radials i used the reciprocal of the current radial we were on, and wanted to make sure i could get onto the course and track it with little to no deviation.  Then he wanted me to intercept a bunch of radials, and then he was happy with my flying.  The whole time i keep us right on altitude.  By making standard rate turns.  That is what made it easy to not over-bank, and to stay at a constant nice easy bank.  It was well within PTS limits.  I was pretty happy with the whole time.  During the VOR we had a discussion of outbound and inbound radials, as that is what my previous post VOR NAVIGATION is all about.

We start to go back to Van Nuys.  But mike does not give me headings.  He wants to see me get back still under the hood.  I put in KVNY as direct to on the g1000, and boom.  I have a line to follow.  So i follow the line, and close to the airport mike tells me to take the hood off.  I do so, and come back to a HECTIC pattern at Van Nuys.  We got told to keep straight at best possible speed, until told by ATC.  This was because there was a bunch of traffic, and he were vectored out of the way for some jets.  I'm perfectly fine with that.  But soon we are getting right to the edge of Burbanks airspace, but i still cant turn as im not sure if the traffic is next to me, and we can not get a radio call in.  Within 10 seconds we are in Burbanks airspace.  By then Mike chimes in quickly "Tower, uhhh niner lima bravo is IN BURBANKS AIRSPACE".  The controller comes back and says "Ohh yea niner lima bravo, reverse course, and cleared to land 34 left.".  I guess he forgot about us.  Mike said we would talk about that when we got back to the airport.

We did a quick 180 as i wanted to get out of burbank and quickly.  We came in for a landing, and it was a SWEET landing.  There was a bit of a crosswind, so it made it a little bit more difficult, but fun at the same time.  I have done so many landings, that the crosswind landings, add a bit of SPICE to it.  We touched on the upwind wheel then the other, then the nose wheel, and turn off at the reverse high speed taxiway exit.  We taxied back to pentastar, and shut her down and put her to sleep for the night.  We went into the conference room at pentastar, and did out debriefing.

All in all it was an awesome fight.  Mike liked it.  Talked to me about the check-ride, and setting the date for it, and a few other things.  He said he thought it was ready, just need to "tighten the screws a bit to fine tune".  He likes how in front of the airplane i am.  I have steady graceful movements and i lead in when i am suppose to.  He also talked about what happened with the controller.  He said that if we would have went any further, maybe call Burbank and tell them we were vectored into their airspace, and we just wanted to let them know, or if we did get questioned, mention what happened with the controller.  He clearly told us to keep straight, and we did.  We could not get a word in edge wise.  We had really no option due to the controller not telling us where the traffic was, and don't want to turn and hit someone.  So we were sort of forced to break into burbank without clearance.  I guess sometimes stuff happens.  I can see how it would be easy to bust into airspace, if you are NOT using a g1000.  It would be hard to thread the needle between airspace.