This month I completed my Part 61.56 Flight Review at the Penn Yan Flying Club which is good for two years. Here’s the break down of the time involved:

2.7 Hours Flight Instruction
2.5 Hours of Ground Instructions

Total Cost:  $350.40

Not bad! And I was able to get in 3 instrument approaches under the hood. I was glad to get it out of the way, but delighted that I was in the air again and keeping very busy in the cockpit!

I was flying the clubs Cessna 172 – N73450 which has gauges and a GPS, so it’s good enough for instruction for IFR – but we would hesistate to use it in hard IMC. I will try to continue what I learned on my flight simulator at home. Now that I have a better understanding of instrument approaches.

Well it’s been a long time since I posted anything. But what I have managed to do since the last time I wrote is to join the Civil Air Patrol. I’ve completed Level One training and have moved on to Level Two and will be working toward flying one of several Cessna 182 aircraft based out of Rochester, New York. (KROC)

A ton of things have changed in my personal life that I won’t get into here, however in spite of these changes I am still committed to aviation and my training. I am a member of the Rochester Senior Squadron that has 28 members, most of which are pilots. “Senior” is used because there are no young cadets in this group.

As many of you know, money has been an issue in my flight training,  and I am not alone since this problem affects hundreds if not thousands of other pilots. This is because pilots are not the rich lot that you hear about. In fact, the truth is that if you don’t hear a plane in the air near your airport, it’s probably because someone ran out of cash just like you! The result is that someone stopped learning, a plane stands idle, fuel is not sold and taxes are not collected, a plane isn’t serviced and a mechanic is laid off or another flight school closes. None of these outcomes is acceptable.

If you are in a position to help the flight training of myself or someone else, please do so. Your support would be greatly appreciated and it helps many other people who are behind the scenes keeping our birds in the air.

It has been a lean flying year for me. In 2008 I flew 7 times and so far in 2009 I have flown twice. Why? Well it’s not for the lack of wanting to. Sadly my absence has been due to lean times and since I try to be frugal, I only fly when I know I can afford it.

To combat this problem I have decided to join the Civil Air Patrol. I completed my application for the Rochester Senior Squadron and need to complete a finger printing card for membership. Why do this? Well here are a few reasons in no particular order:

1. To learn about other aircraft besides the Cessna 172 (like the 182 & 206)
2. To be around other pilots.
3. To learn the ins and outs of Class C airspace and ATC.
4. To give myself a more structured environment to grow in.
5. To earn time and become a Mission Pilot.
6. To be a better pilot.
7. To perform a volunteer service.
8. To find a career in aviation…if possible.

So that’s what’s going on. As always, donations are greatly appreciated since it still costs money to fly in the Civil Air Patrol.

Hi All – this blog is in a holding pattern until the Spring thaw!

I am up for an annual, as well as my medical in May.

I should never start blogging at 3am, but I just couldn’t go back to bed after waking up, so I hit the keyboard and had at it. I updated the look of this site with a new design and started typing a few entries to help get me in the mood for sleep.

If you know me, you know that I really love aviation but with my job situation and the fact that I have my boys living with me permanently, its been hard to demonstrate that affection. I have put out several one page sites for Middlesex Valley Airport and Canandaigua Airport as my way of supporting general aviation. I love going to Middlesex and having breakfast as the taildraggers come and go from the grass field tarmac.

Anyway, I have been studing for my Instrument Rating. Its been a slow process. This rating is under-rated and if you decide to go this path, be sure to have cash to burn because you will need it to earn it AND have it mean something to you. This rating is excellent and will really make you an aviator or it will kill you if you do not stay current and fly in IMC. If you have an Instrument Rating but do not fly in IMC, you are only fooling yourself and could be setting yourself up for a fall. The currency requiremment is not enough (in my humble opinion) and will not give you enough experience to keep from having a bad day as we like to call them. Single Pilot IFR is serious stuff and it seems like there is plenty going on to distract you from flying the plane. With that said I have begun studying to become a Basic Ground Instructor. You still learn, you save money, might even make money, but more importantly you help others interested in the same things that you are interested in.

Ground Instructor is a certificate issued in the United States by the Federal Aviation Administration; the rules for certification, and for certificate-holders, are detailed in Subpart I of Part 61 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, which are part of Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations. The Ground Instructor certificate allows the holder to offer various kinds of ground instruction required of those seeking pilot certificates and ratings. Ground Instructor certificates are issued with ratings, and these determine the exact areas in which the holder may give instruction.

The Basic Ground Instructor(BGI) rating allows the holder to give the ground instruction required for a sport pilot, recreational pilot, or private pilot certificate, and associated ratings; the holder may also approve (by endorsement or “sign off”) a student to take the written knowledge test for these certificates. The holder of a Basic Ground Instructor rating is additionally allowed to give the ground instruction required for a sport pilot, recreational pilot, or private pilot flight review.

So I am now studying Gleims Fundamentals of Instructing and Flight/Ground Instructor in order to take the FAA Exams to earn the BGI rating.  Ground Instructor certificates do not expire. To be eligible to give instruction, though, I must have either served as an instructor for at least three out of the preceding twelve months or have received from a ground or flight instructor an endorsement certifying that I am proficient in the subject matter which the certificate authorizes teaching. There’s always a catch. But what I am thinking of doing is using the Internet to help teach ground school to people who might not be local or some distance away where there is no ground school instruction. This way I can combine my Internet experience with aviation. Could it be a match made in heaven???

My name is Barry Orlando. This is the new home of my flying adventures for 2008 and beyond.  I will be posting items of interest for the would-be pilot and pilots in general. Family and friends can catch up on my flying here as well. I am a private pilot living in the Finger Lakes region of New York State and earned my ticket in mid-October of 2007 after three years of training, four different flight instructors, and by attending three different flight schools. I moved three times during all of my flight training and during this same time period I married my wife Sherry and together we built a house in the hills over looking Canandaigua Lake. My home base is the Penn Yan Flying Club in Penn Yan, New York and I fly N73450 – a 180 HP Cessna 172 built in 1976. It’s a nice plane and the flying club has various other aircraft to fly.

My flying drought continues as I exist on a tight budget, while the government continues to scare the hell out of the American consumer and bails out failing enterprises. I generally don’t like talking politics or religion in a blog, but I pray that the right people in high places start to do the RIGHT things and not the political thing to release the stress on the economy.

Anyway. My current condition is grounded until I complete my annual flight review (yes…the flying club requires an annual to fly the club planes) with an instructor. I have been working part-time days from the time my kids go to school until they come home.  I then help with homework and fix dinner for everyone while I tend to my clients needs later in the evening. Since we are in November, night-time is here by 6pm which leaves weekday flying as not much of an option for me.

In any event, I have completed two wings safety courses online and will be going to Williamson-Sodus for another next Thursday, November 20th at 7pm. This more than satisfies the flying clubs requirement for safety classes. I don’t like it if I fall behind on courses and at least this time of year gives me the opportunity to study while there is no flying going on in my life.

Today I teamed up with my flight instructor and flew for the first time in a Cessna 150. This is the two seat version of the Cessna 172 that I fly regularly. After getting over the initial shock of not seeing many of the things that I normally see in the cockpit, like a GPS, two com radios, ADF and so on…we took off from Canandaigua for a flight to Wellsville.

This flight was not an official training flight so much as it was a flight to get use to the plane. However, anyone who flies with their instructor knows that ANY flight is a training flight. A 150 is a lot like a leaf in the wind, you don’t have as much power and things sound different. As I was climbing to 4,500 feet, I noticed that I had a few clouds ahead of me. Now I do know what pitch and power are and how to use them…really…but I started to fixate on the clouds and not on my flying. The result was a desent and an airspeed increase into the yellow arc. I didn’t know you could go 120 kts in a 150…but I did. My instructor took over for a bit and I felt foolish about being so stupid as to not notice my situation as quick as he did.

I was looking at the clouds. My mind was on the regulation for cloud clearances…1000 ft above, 500 feet below and 2000 feet to the side. Which is why I was decending and turning right. Since the RPM gauge was now on the right side of the cockpit and not in front of me (out of sight out of mind) I didn’t catch it. Would I have made the same mistake in the 172? Probably not since I was a bit more timid in the 150 and still building up my confidence.

I was slightly disoriented in that I was looking and not seeing and wasn’t smart enough to remember to look right toward the RPM gauge. Did I look at it when I took off or was I just looking at my air speed? I think the truth was that I was looking solid at my airspeed and not at the RPM’s at all when I took off. All I cared about at the time was my rotation speed. Simply stupid…and dangerous…but in the 172 I look at the RPM’s religiously.

I guess this is why you take your instructor with you on such a flight!

Thanks Gordy!!!!

Today I went to Penn Yan and fired up N73450 (a Cessna 172) and performed a number of takeoffs and landings. Every private pilot who wishes to carry passengers must perform 3 takeoffs and landings to a full stop every 90 days in order to stay current and comply with the FAA regulations. It was a popular thing to do apparently since there were 3 or 4 other aircraft doing the same thing. In all I performed 7 takeoffs and landings, which will keep me current until 11.22.08.

This will be a short post since I am writing it at 1:30am. Having logged a whopping 1.6 hours of flight time in July and nothing yet in August. I am starting to long for an opportunity to get some IFR ground school and take the written test this fall. Right now I am studying for my instrument (IFR) exam, but my eyes are wandering around at the Ground Instructor certificate. Since I am working hard to grow in my internet business, I haven’t had the time to do too much of anything with aviation. I have have also been busy with my two sons this summer now that they live with me during the week, which is why I am so looking forward to September and having them in school during the day.