My flying blog.

[Beefitarian]

Well I went for the fourth time this year and the two instructional flights really paid off. Today's flight went excellent. Most of the time I held my altitudes perfectly and my stall recoveries were usually within a hundred feet according to the altimeter.

I need some gliding practice, I ended up a bit too high on my forced approach again. I could not save it even with an excellent slip.

My steep turns to the right were excellent and to the left could use some polishing up.

I did a straight in approach which made for a flat landing. I started the flare a bit high but fixed it up so the only complaint could be I was left of the center line. The instructor was way less put out by that than I was.

Yes Trey I booked again for a couple of weeks. I'd love to go more often if I could get better sponsors.
Hi muskeg.

[Beefitarian]

I'm really getting my feel back for flying again. I noticed I am using the rudder much more instinctively again. I have been making yaw corrections by feel, then looking at the ball to check on what the plane was doing and seeing that it was what needed to be done. I can hold an altitude and heading very well and have started using the trim wheel like it should be, instead of spinning it wildly like the big show case money wheel on the price is right.

Last flight I also started to treat the upy downy/roll the wings thing like a yoke instead of a car steering wheel. Made for nice straight stalls with no wing drop at all.

The only down side to yesterday's flight was getting a late start then sitting on the ground waiting for departure instead of finishing the upper air work they need to see to sign off my currency. Yay Springbank international airport. Oh well, I suppose we didn't need that fifty bucks for something of value.

I don't mind if any Moderator type people want to send this thread to a different area.

[Beefitarian]

I put 1.8 on the clock of November7813gulf. We left OGG this morning and headed north west, flew past the tallest sea cliffs in the world we were told then to LUP for a cross wind landing. I parked on the grass, we took some pictures, made one of the dogs bark, took a whizz and fired up the plane for a short field take off. Flew along the coast of Lanai, looked at some hump backs, went around Kahoolawe, past Molakini then back to OGG.

I don't mind but you should mention you're going to charge $10 for head sets.

Edit: fixed dislexic airport identifier. PUL is someplace else way out of range for a 172.

[CpnCrunch]

I put 1.8 on the clock of November7813gulf. We left OGG this morning and headed north west, flew past the tallest sea cliffs in the world we were told then to PUL for a cross wind landing. I parked on the grass, we took some pictures, made one of the dogs bark, took a whizz and fired up the plane for a short field take off. Flew along the coast of Lanai, looked at some hump backs, went around Kahoolawe, past Molakini then back to OGG.

I don't mind but you should mention you're going to charge $10 for head sets.

Sounds like fun, but was there much turbulence? I hear it can get a bit blowy out there in the middle of the pacific!

[Beefitarian]

There were some bumps but I'd say moderate and they were fairly isolated. I'm pretty good riding them out, keep the plane upright and don't make it worse by over correcting. Fortunately we practiced yesterday by driving that local road on the north east coast of Maui with all the one lane bridges.

The cross wind was not huge but I could use more practice on them. I kind of remembered what to do but was not assertive enough. The instructor put in lots of aileron when he helped correct to the centerline. I thought, "Oh, that much." then whined after, that I wasn't going to note it as one of my better landings but he chuckled and said, "It wasn't that bad."

I highly recommend www.mauiaviators.com even with the extras it was just over $500.

[CpnCrunch]

In a strong wind, as long as you keep the plane going in roughly the right direction and you don't break anything, that's a good landing! Normally I find that I'm yanking the controls like a madman, but it usually settles down when you get down near the ground.

Are there any hoops to jump through to fly on a Canadian PPL in the USA? Or did you just fly with an instructor all the time?

[Beefitarian]

You need an FAA license to fly an American registered plane solo.
Apparently it is just a written air law exam to Get one based on your Canadian license.

Edit: don't read this next part I made red.
It really looks like a good way to purchase an N registered plane, keep it registered there and save the hassle of registering it here.

I was looking for something about this and found a post about a guy getting a million dollar fine for not re-registering his plane in Alberta.

As for these trips I find they are short enough that by the time I would get checked out it will add more than the $60/hour for the instructor to come along.

I must admit for myself, even if you would prefer to talk to ATC, I feel having a local guy that knows all the check points and frequencies is luxury. I do hold the chart.

[CpnCrunch]

Is it possible to fly with an instructor in an N-reg plane in the USA using a Canadian PPL?

[Colonel Sanders]

You need an FAA license to fly an American registered plane

No.

Apparently it is just a written air law exam to Get one based on your Canadian license

No.

It really looks like a good way to purchase an N registered plane, keep it registered there and save the hassle of registering it here.

No.

Is it possible to fly with an instructor in an N-reg plane in the USA using a Canadian PPL?

Uh, yes. If the aircraft is certificated for single-pilot operation, the instructor is PIC and you don't need any qualifications, even a student pilot permit from Tanzania.

[Beefitarian]

Stop saying no and word it properly.

[Colonel Sanders]

My 4th answer was yes.

[Beefitarian]

True Colonel can be difficult but seems to know a lot about the FAA workings. If I flew more often I would be looking for the valuable info he has posted here about conversions and it's not called a license there maybe.

I have a Canadian PPL and flew N registered flight school c-172s with an instructor, both this time with my wife and last year by myself near LosAngeles when I had only flown once since 2006.

If you are doing a short flight I believe it is slightly less expensive this way because doing a check ride might even take as long as the flights I did took. Then you would drop off the instructor to acually do the flight. In the case of this time I would not have wanted to go solo partially because it was nice to have another pilot looking for helicopters.

You need the FAA license to do a rental check and fly solo. If you have an instructor on board you are flying with him as the pilot in command since he has an FAA license. If you clicked the link their website says you need to be a licensed pilot to do the Familiarization flights but he told me they would do one if you were not. I guess you just wouldn't control the plane. For me that was the best part. Both times the instructors I had were like passengers that had local knowledge and were great guys, friendly and helpful because I did not have to know when to call on the way back and they tuned in the right frequencies. I just relaxed and flew the plane this time, I did a bunch of the radio calls last time.

I did very close to all the flying, he just put in some more right aileron since I was being way too timid and started to drift a little left close to touch down. The airport http://hawaii.gov/lup/overview is uncontrolled and so we don't know what the winds were exactly they were pretty fair and slightly from the right of runway 05.

[Beefitarian]

Here's the thread with the first trip.
viewtopic.php?f=54&t=71256&hilit=Catalina
It was also a spectacular way to spend a morning.

[Beefitarian]

You need an FAA license to fly an American registered plane

No.

Apparently it is just a written air law exam to Get one based on your Canadian license

No.

You know I meant solo on the first one. I can't find your post about Canadian pilot's license conversions. I must have imagined it. This could be good because it's starting to make me hate the Internet.

[Colonel Sanders]

In case someone is writing a book:

You don't need an FAA Pilot Certificate to receive dual in the USA from an FAA Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), though technically TSA is supposed to know about it ahead of time. I'm sure you couldn't care less what a federal agency like the TSA thinks.

You don't need an FAA pilot Certificate to act as PIC of an N-registered aircraft in Canada.

As the holder of a Canadian Pilot Licence you can get an FAA Pilot Certificate two different ways:

FAR 61.75 allows any holder of an ICAO PPL/CPL/ATPL to obtain an FAA Private Pilot Certificate which relies upon the foreign licence. No medical, no written test, no flight test. Valid for night, SEL, MEL as appropriate. If you write the IFP you can get an instrument rating on it. All you have to do is fill out the verification form and take the letter the FAA mails you, to a FSDO.

Now for something completely different. The IPL allows you, as the holder of a Canadian PPL/CPL/ATPL, to obtain a normal, self-standing (different from a 61.75 above) corresponding FAA Private/Commercial/ATP Certificate. Same verification letter. You need to do an FAA medical (and keep it valid). You also need to write a little test. Same visit to the FSDO.


PS I'm not sure why people feel they are entitled to the above sort of information, for free. Reminds me of a certain federal Liberal Cabinet Minister:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dingwall

When questioned while giving testimony before Parliament as to why he felt he should receive a severance package after the voluntary resignation, he remarked "I'm entitled to my entitlements."

[Beefitarian]

FAR 61.75 allows any holder of an ICAO PPL/CPL/ATPL to obtain an FAA Private Pilot Certificate which relies upon the foreign licence.

The first time someone told me about that, it was an American. He called it a "Tourist permit."

[Colonel Sanders]

Click on FAA FAR part 61.75 here: http://tinyurl.com/7zu6ogn

61.75 Private pilot certificate issued on the basis of a foreign pilot license.

(a) General. A person who holds a foreign pilot license at the private pilot level or higher that was issued by a contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation may apply for and be issued a U.S. private pilot certificate with the appropriate ratings if the foreign pilot license meets the requirements of this section

He called it a "Tourist permit."

As long as he didn't tell you that you had a "pretty mouth", don't worry about it.

[Beefitarian]

I know, he could have called it a banana but he still would have been incorrect.

The free standing FAA "certificate" sounds best. I have not spoke to him for quite a while but I knew a guy that had an N registered piper twin in Calgary about 7 years ago.

[Colonel Sanders]

a guy that had an N registered piper twin in Calgary

What on earth has that got to do with having an FAA pilot certificate?

You can fly an N-reg aircraft in Canada, with only a Canadian pilot licence.

You can fly a C-reg aircraft in the USA, with only an FAA pilot certificate.

I stated this above. Not sure how to make that any clearer. I will explain
the CARs and FARs that explicitly permit this, but not for free.

The free standing FAA "certificate" sounds best

Get both. NB The order in which you do it is crucial.

[Beefitarian]

Note, it is important you proceed with caution getting you licence converted to certificates. There is a thread here were a person wrote about going to one location in the United States, trusted them to know what he wanted to do, then they did not covert his licenses to the certificates he wanted.

What on earth has that got to do with having an FAA certificate?

Well again this was years ago so I'm probably going to make some mistakes retelling. I actually worked for the person and got the job because of an ad here. I drove dump trucks for him and he was a good employer even though he was using his plane as a carrot to help hire guys to drive his trucks.

He had done his commercial, multi and IFR ratings in the US&A. He bought his twin down there, kept it registered there and would fly it back for maintenance, he suggested this was a great way to go about owning a plane but to me it sounded like a huge pain at the time.

Since then you described the process of converting a Canadian licence to an FAA certificate as being simple provided you are careful to deal with a good FSDO unit (did I get that close?) and I have had two very enjoyable experiences with flight training FBOs while visiting the US. It started sounding better than importing if you found a plane you wanted to buy in the US.

There are many things about flying in the US that are just easier to get along with in my opinion. Maybe some others feel Canada is the easier place for general aviation but I don't anymore.

[Shiny Side Up]

The free standing FAA "certificate" sounds best. I have not spoke to him for quite a while but I knew a guy that had an N registered piper twin in Calgary about 7 years ago.

To do that, the N registered airplane wasn't owned by him, but rather by his company which had an American adress. Said airplane though theoretically has to spend more than half of its time south of the border per year I believe, too lazy at this moment to look up the relavent CAR. If we're talking about the same guy, I think that airplane was written off in a too much air in the tanks incident a while back. He has since bought a Cirrus, which is also still N registered.

[Beefitarian]

He may have had a company there somehow set up to own the plane but did not mention that to me. He just said planes were less expensive and "You should just get an American license, and buy one there." I thought that just sounded like a lot of hassle.

Just to clarify. My opinion on flight training it's self is that it is very dependant on each individual instructor. Much more so than location as that only affects the rules and planes. I don't think I could enjoy a great instructor if I think the planes need better maintenance, that allways bothers me.

This of course can be good or really bad. One person may get excellent training so of course you go to that FTU hoping for the same but there is a new instructor.

I have had great instructors and a couple of times horrible ones at the same two places I did nearly all of my flying.

[robertsailor1]

If you want to take a demo ride or a trial lesson in the USA then nothing is needed. If you have a current canadian pilots license (other than recreational) then you can apply for a USA license and that will allow you to take additional training without TSA approval. For example you can get checked out in a tail wheel or take aerobatic training however if you want to take multi engine or instrument training then you must have TSA approval. TSA approval requires everything from finger printing to background checks and takes a while.

[Lost Lake]

I'm not trying to be rude, but if you are having problems with confidence to pass a flight trest, are you really cut out to be a commercial pilot. I am not trying to be a prick, just wondering. If you showed up at my base and said I'm nervous about doing a PCC, I would say good bye. Good luck getting your commercial. I just have to wonder about the future and your career. Not trying to start a rant, just making an observation. How many hours do you have would be a question. You have obviously been posting for awhile, so I assume you have been flying for some time. I guess what I'm saying is, you don't sound ready to move on. The flight test is nothing compared to the challenges of flying for a living.

Please don't flame me, just making a neutral observation.

[Beefitarian]

I don't mind questions. Once AvCanada introduces currency requirements I will probably have to find a new area of the Internet to annoy.

I never told anyone besides my wife and maybe my dad in person, I was nervous. I posted it here to vent and it indeed helped me feel better. I had just regained my Cat 3 medical after some back problems that still cause me pain most days.

The last five entries in my log at the time were.
May 4 2005 1.1 hours dual.
May 20 2005 1.0 hours solo.
Aug 13 2005 1.1 hours PIC with my dad as passenger.
Dec 29 2006 1.4 hours dual
Oct 21 2010 0.9 hours dual.
Prior to that I had flown 3 days in July 2002, 2 in 2001 and 3 in 1999.

Not only was I not nervous about the renter's check out in 2005 after nearly a 3 year break in flying, the instructor told me, "You're a very good pilot." now maybe I'm not and that was bothering me. I am getting closer to being a current pilot again though and hope to achieve that some day.

So I was not ready to do a check ride and go to work the afternoon I posted about being nervous. I have not been nervous about flying since the flight after that post. I think if I went back to finish getting a CPL I could quite possibly be a very good pilot again. Then again I only flew 5 times last year. So at this rate I most likely won't be dropping by anyone's base with a resume real soon, nervous or otherwise.

I have to be honest, I probably will never own a plane but I like to discuss buying them. Sorry if anyone feels deceived reading posts about those ideas.