This week, my overall school work load got a little more difficult. This was only due to the essay and presentation I had due at the end of the week. I also have my first Aviation Business exam next Monday. Other than that, my classes remained the same as previous weeks.

This week for flying was equally fun and nerve wracking. My first flight of the week was working on some more maneuvers including simulated instrument and stalls. The simulated instrument was pretty easy and nothing new. We did some recovery from unusual attitudes which is always one of the more fun maneuvers as your instructor maneuvers and careens to throw your sense off balance. After that, we worked on some of the basic stalls such as Accelerated, Takeoff, and Departure stalls. The Cirrus refuses to stall at any airspeed so it takes a while before I actually have to recover, making it difficult to perfectly stall each time. Other than that the maneuvers were just going over previously learned material. My second flight was the reason for the exciting and nerve wracking flying for the week. I had my first solo in the SR-20! Although I have soloed many times before at my home airport, I was still nervous to solo in Purdue’s SR-20. I knew all of the procedures and was definitely ready, but was worried about my lack of knowledge in the Cirrus compared to my knowledge of the 172. One of the common problems with the cirrus is how difficult they are to start up. This was another reason that worried me – not being able to even start the aircraft for my solo. Luckily, I started it on the first try! During the flight I performed the same stalls as my first flight this week with the addition of steep turns. The weather was perfect and my first solo landing was really nice too. Prior to the flight I had to take the Purdue Pre-Solo exam and I was fortunate enough to pass that relatively easy. Although, the nights leading up to the exam had me stressed as I wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out to be pretty easy. Also before the flight, I made sure to check Global Air.com’s listing of the Purdue airport to make sure I had all the necessary airport info before my first solo ( https://www.globalair.com/airport/purdue-university-laf.aspx ). My 3rd flight of the week ended up not being a flight at all. I was originally scheduled to solo again but the wind at the field was gusting up to 23 knots (Purdue’s limit for solo is 20). I’m used to flying high gusts like this with my instructor to maximize flight time for the semester but I wouldn’t have wanted to be alone in that. Instead, me and my instructor did an aero-medical factors discussion. Overall, my week was really good and I hope I can solo a lot more next week!

Thanks for reading!

This week, classes remained the same. I am in the middle of my 737 max project for Tech 120 and I had to do interviews. I interviewed a commercial passenger and a pilot in the program with me. Other than that and learning about the history of Pan Am in Aviation Business, classes were pretty normal and boring.

Flying this week was both good and bad. The weather was perfect around KLAF the whole week. For all 3 flights this week, I planned a Cross Country from KLAF to KIKK. In addition to getting a weather briefing, I used GlobalAir.com to check current weather and fuel prices at KIKK – https://www.globalair.com/airport/greater-kankakee-ikk.aspx Despite planning the XC for all 3 days, we only had to do the Cross Country flight once. Our first flight, the boost pump on our SR20 was INOP so we had to ground that airplane. We ended up doing a weather discussion instead. Our second flight, there was a convective sigmet right over KIKK. Luckily for me, the weather was fine locally so my instructor and I worked on power off 180s and recovery from unusual attitudes. Recovery from unusual attitudes was pretty easy since I have done them before. Power off 180s were difficult when judging when to turn base and how to complete the pattern with the current wind. My first one was rough since I didn’t know when to turn based on the wind. However, my second landing was actually really good. I was surprised with how well I judged the landing distance. I’m hoping I can continue to consistently land on the point during this maneuver. My third flight was when I actually got to do the XC flight. It was a 57 NM flight and very standard. KIKK was like the rest of Indiana: flat. But, I was able to see the Chicago skyline once I got closer to KIKK which was really cool. That was all my flying for the week. I got to go to an Envoy Airlines meeting during the week and they gave me info for how to join to become an Envoy Cadet. I can already take one of my interviews but I can’t sign until I have my commercial, instrument, and multi. On Saturday, Envoy Airlines also flew their ERJ-175 from Texas with free BBQ! At the same time, Indiana Air National Guard landed 2 A-10s at the airport in preparation for the flyover at the Purdue TCU game. I got to get a tour of the ERJ-175 and even got to sit in the cockpit! I was also able to walk around the A-10s. They are much bigger in person than in the simulator or from the air. Overall, an ok week for flying but an amazing week for networking and seeing some of my favorite aircraft.

This week, my classes remained to be more rigorous with a fair amount of homework. I had a couple quizzes and projects as well. Although, one of my least favorite classes, Tech 120 (since it has nothing to do with aviation) became more interesting. In Tech 120, we focus on design thinking and ways to come up with solutions to a consumer’s problem. Obviously this has very little to do with my profession or anything I’m interested in overall. Our project this week was to locate a problem in our major that we could research. Our teacher understood the strife the professional flight students had due to the minimal amount of connection this project had with our major. So he allowed us to research the 737 max crashes and do research on that. Made a boring, seemingly useless class into something I can look forward to.

Flying also became more interesting. This week we worked on the commercial maneuvers. The first day, we worked on 360° power turns, chandelles, and lazy eights. the power turns were almost exactly like the steep turns for PPL, however, the bank angle is 50° instead of 45°. Although on paper those 2 numbers are very close in relativity, the application of a 50° turn is much steeper than I imagined. The first time, I had trouble maintaining altitude due to this, but in the next few I got the hang of it. The chandelles weren’t too bad either. I managed to perfect my bank angle and pitch hold during the maneuver. However, they weren’t at the same time. During my maneuver I would get the bank just right then mess up the pitch, and on the later half vice versa. I was able to get them down after a few more tries and overall they weren’t too bad after that. The lazy 8’s were the toughest ones for me. The incredibly slow rate of turn and climb really instilled the meaning of “lazy” in my mind. I had trouble maintaining my pitch up attitude at the 90° point, resulting in weak slicing across the horizon. Other than that, those were pretty simple too. I definitely need a little more work on all of them but I’m not as nervous for them as I was before the flight. The 2nd flight I was able to takeoff right behind the Purdue Phenom, similar to this phenom on GlobalAir.com – https://www.globalair.com/aircraft-for-sale/ListingDetail/Phenom-100?AdId=86620 . After that we worked on more chandelles, steep spirals around a point, and eights-on-pylons. Steep spirals weren’t too bad other than making sure I am at a high enough altitude to ensure 3 turns can be fully made. Eights-on-pylons weren’t too bad either. Entering on a 45 to the downwind was confusing though and it messed up my roll outs after each complete circle. But the turns around a point in eights-on-pylons were pretty easy and I didn’t have an issue with that. Unfortunately, due to a dispatch error, we didn’t have enough time to work on power off 180s but I’m excited to start next week. We weren’t able to fly on our last day so we did a cross country discussion. Basically a discussion over Purdue’s XC requirements and using Purdue’s nav log. In fact I’m going to start working on that right now. Thanks for reading!

This week was the first week where work started to pick up. I was past the
“syllabus week.” Although this was the first week of “real”
work, I wasn’t assigned as much as I expected and it didn’t take too long to
complete. Overall, my schoolwork and academic rigor has increased but is still very manageable.

More importantly, my proficiency in the SR-20 is also beginning to increase.
We started the week with some more private pilot maneuvers in the cirrus to help me get more acclimated since it was only my second time flying it. They are simple and standard maneuvers and I improved since my first flight. The next lesson, I worked on takeoffs and landings, including short field, soft field, and crosswind. Again, these were standard and not very new to me, although, it was tough to get used to the feeling of landing the cirrus as opposed to the 172 I flew beforehand. My short field and soft field were pretty good, but I need some more solo work on them. As for my normal landings, they are getting a lot better than what they used to be. In the Cessna, I can normally flare early and slowly ride it to the ground. In the cirrus, I must keep nose down pitch until I’m right above my touchdown point where I flare. Not a difficult task but hard to get used to. Luckily for me, the weather was VFR for all my flying days so I was able to fly all 3 times. My final flight was doing simulated instrument flying. Again, another easy concept of flight (especially with the G1000). Pretty boring but not too bad. I also somehow managed to have a perfect landing when I returned from the practice area. I was shocked (as was my instructor) and I’m hoping I can replicate it again in my future flights. My instructor and I also had the commercial maneuvers where we discussed all the specifics of Steep power turns, lazy eights, eights on pylons, steep spirals around a point, chandelles, and the dreaded power off 180. Overall, the maneuvers seem simple, but having never done them before, I’m not sure what to expect and will probably struggle with a couple of them.

Overall a pretty normal and fun week. I especially enjoyed listening to the
multiple Kalitta Charters 727s landing and taking off at Purdue university
airport. They are extremely loud but even more enjoyable to listen to. They
look exactly like this 727 on globalair.com. https://www.globalair.com/aircraft-for-sale/ListingDetail/Boeing-727-200?AdId=78357

This week, I started my commercial training in a Cirrus SR-20. Other than Minute interior details, the SR-20s I fly look identical to this SR-20 listed on globalair.com. https://www.globalair.com/aircraft-for-sale/ListingDetail/Cirrus-SR20?AdId=88599

Moving from the steam gauge C172 I got my PPL in, the Cirrus is extraordinarily nice and extremely hi-tech with the dual G1000 display. I was only able to fly once out of my 3 slots this week due to administration stuff (contracts, forms, etc) and weather. When I did fly, it was mostly a familiarization flight, focusing on pre-flight, aircraft controls, and of course, adjusting to the extremely distracting G1000 display. Let me tell you, it is a very different aircraft than the 172. The pre-flight was relatively similar despite the different placing of everything. I expected the side stick to be the hardest part to adjust to, however, I found it was actually the throttle slide that threw me off the most. Being accustomed to the common push pull throttle knob, the cirrus’s throttle slide was very tough to pinpoint exactly where on the slide the throttle percentage I wanted was located. The speeds also confused me at times. Climbing at 96 knots was a very unfamiliar thing to me. The glide speed being 34 knots more than my previous aircraft was also tough to get used to(99 knot glide). The approach speeds were also really weird. Downwind at 100, base at 90, and final at 77 were all drastically larger than my approach speeds in a 172. Moving away from the aircraft, flying out of Purdue was also tough to familiarize myself with. The class D airspace remained the same as my training airport, however, the intersecting runways and LAHSO operations were much different. Departing from runway 5 at KLAF, you get an amazing view of the campus. After that, there is literally nothing else to see when flying in Indiana. I’m already tired of the flat plains and farming land surrounding Purdue. Other than re-familiarizing myself with the aircraft and area, my first flight was amazing and I can’t wait to fly more next week!

As for Purdue classes, they’re actually not to bad. Given it’s the first week, I didn’t expect much and I can’t really provide an accurate estimation of the work load. I’ll update next week on the amount of HW I have once I actually begin class.