I’m a Av8tor!!

Looking back on my twenty year law enforcement career my most exciting times was when I was assigned as an undercover narcotics officer during the mid 80’s. During this period a large percentage of the drugs smuggled into the southwest from Mexico came in by small private aircraft.

Therefore I spent allot of time working with other federal and state law enforcement agencies working air interdiction. I would fly with DEA or DPS in fixed wing or helicopters searching out clandestine airstrips that would have extra full barrels hidden in the weeds, then stake out the location(s) for days if not months.

Even though I have a fear of heights during this assignment I developed a very strong passion for general aviation, however it took an additional twenty eight years to fulfill this dream.

Last November I signed for private pilot training at Buckeye Flight School and in April purchased Cessna 182T that had over 2500 hours that was rebuilt from a previous encounter with a taxiway sign. As this was a much more complex aircraft with a glass cockpit and a high performance engine additional training and certification was required so I set back my solo back till July until I felt completely comfortable with my own bird.

After completing my solo I decided that I wanted to add my own “personal touch” to my bird and registered the N-Number of 918RR. 918 is the police code for “mentally ill” and RR is my initials.

A few days before Christmas and eighty flight hours and 245 landings since starting my training in my Instructor felt I was FINALLY ready for my FAA check.

One of my biggest obstacles during my flight training was trying to get over the fear of doing power on nose high stalls. For some reason putting the aircraft in an unusual attitude and waiting for the plane (and your stomach) to start plunging from the sky just didn’t feel right. But knowing that I would be tested in this procedure during my check ride my instructor and I practiced these the entire afternoon prior to the test.
That evening I laid awake thinking of all the questions and my answers to the oral questions the examiner would ask such as airspace, airspeeds, stalls/spins and then the final one hour flight with the FAA examiner. I knew I was ready but would I choke?

The following morning without much of any sleep, I reviewed my notes, headed out to the hanger to do my preflight, taxied out in front of my home waving to my wife and flew out to Buckeye to meet with the examiner.

The oral exam was a little tougher than I expected but I was pleased when the examiner ended the test saying that I did somewhat better than average so then I knew that I knocked out part one. Then we walked out to my bird, did another preflight and climbed aboard 918RR (Crazy Radar Roy).

Arizona is home to numerous flight schools that cater to international students and because Buckeye Airport is a rural non towered airport, many of the schools send their students to practice their take offs and landings there.

While taxiing to the runway I heard one of these students announcing his placement and intentions in the pattern in broken English. I realized then that my checkout ride just got a little harder because I had to take the time and watch for him in the pattern because I had no clue in hell he was saying..

The evening before I had prepared a flight plan to Flagstaff airport 200 miles to the north and the examiner wanted me to set my departure up for this airport knowing that the entire town was under two feet of snow.
After my run-up at the end of the runway, I announced my intentions on the Buckeye Unicom and took off from the airport setting up my departure north to Flagstaff. After getting all setup and ten minutes into the flight the examiner says “Hey, we can’t go there, it’s snowed in. Let’s go to Blythe (California).

THANKFULLY my bird is GPS equipped so after entering a few coordinates into the panel we were flying west.
After reaching 4500 feet the examiner says ok now the fun stuff, get it set up for a power on stall.
I slow my bird down to 50 knots, added full throttle and begin my nose high climb. What seemed like an eternity looking directly up into the sky with the yoke pulled into my chest the plane finally began to buffet and entered a stall. As soon as I did I lowered the nose, adjusted the throttle and fell into straight and level flight!

The rest seemed easy a short field take off (the airstrip at my home is VERY short field), a landing with no flaps and a go around. Finally an hour into the ride the examiner said “Take us back Captain”.

Now came what ended up being the hardest part of the test, trying to keep my excitement level down to grease this final landing as a student pilot, taxi to the FBO and get my BIRD shut down in one piece!

Then that moment arrived, while coming in on my 45 degree entry into the downwind leg, the Chinese student announces that he is turning crosswind placing him directly into my path! Glancing over to the examiner I announced that I was doing a 360 to re-enter the pattern. After putting the plane into a forty five degree bank I realized that I didn’t mark a location on the horizon nor did I set my bug. At this point I assume that the examiner sensed my disorientation and pointed to the GPS with the airport displayed six o’clock off my nose.

I leveled off, announced that I was re-entering the pattern, landed and taxied back to the FBO. After shutting down the engine the examiner reviewed the good points and the not so good points (momentary disorientation due to stress) and ended by congratulating me saying that I passed!

I feel very fortunate that after being bitten by the “aviation bug” that I was finally able to live out my dream and followed through what seemed to be one of the biggest challenges in my life in controlling my fear of heights. No longer do I look up at all the aircraft circling my neighborhood and wonder what it’s like to be way up there, because I’ve been there and I can return whenever I want!