What a trip (a little long)

Its been a very long time since I have last posted about any of my flying.
That is because I have been saving up for about 2 months, without flying
to make a very very long flight.

This last monday, my flight instructor and myself took a flight from Long
Beach to Marysville Airport. The reason for this journey was to partake in
Altitude Training at Beale Air Force Base. The trip out took 4.4 hours
total time, and we made a stop at Los Banos for a fuel stop. In order to
get the most out of this flight we did it under IFR, and I flew most of the
way under the hood as well as making instrument approaches at both airports.
It was a very good workout since I havent done any instrument work since I
got my PPL.

The training at Beale was unbelievable. I would highly recommend it. It
was an 8 hour class with 2 in the chamber. This would be a very long write
up if I detailed the training out, but here is the gist of the chamber ride.
a) Breath 100% oxygen with a fighter pilot breathing apparatus for 45
minutes to purge the body of Nitrogen. b) During purge take the chamber to
5000' and back to 0' to see if anyone is having sinus or ear problems. c)
After Nitrogen purge the chamber is taken to 12,000'. We sit at this level
for a little bit to get everyone comfortable and to remove the oxygen masks.
d) Taken to 18,000' and given a skills test. It takes a few minutes at this
level to begin to feel hypoxic, but you can tell pretty easily that you are
becoming unproductive. e) Taken to 25,000' to see what a rapid decompression
would be like. As soon as you know what your fully hypoxic symptons are you
go back on 100% oxygen. f) Once everyone is back on oxygen you are taken
back to 12,000'. g) Continue to breath 100% oxygen until you are fully
recovered, then take off oxygen. h) They dim the lights and are given a
color card. Wait to watch the colors fade out as you become slightly
hypoxic. i) Go back on 100% oxygen to see the colors return.

It was fun, and highly informative. Best of all the Airforce staff were
very welcoming. Not at all what I expected. Now for the best part. Beale
airforce base is where they train U2 pilots. We got to see U2's flying all
day long, and got to see their full pressure suits, etc. It was rad all
around.

Now for the flight home. We flew out probably 1 hour after we got out of
training. The flight back to Los Banos was perfect. We fly under VFR, but
again I flew under the hood and did the approach.

Now for the best part. It was about 7:30 pm as we got ready to leave Los
Banos back for Long Beach. The weather looked like it would require IFR, so
we filed a plan. Good choice, we flew about 2 hours in solid IFR in the
dark. That was intense. My instructor has 2800 hours, and I have 80. We
shared the piloting duties, and it was one hell of a workout. My instructor
even admitted that in those conditions he wouldnt want to have done it
alone.

It was 48 hours of flight training. When it was over I was glad to go home
and get some serious rest. However Im really glad I did it. The flight
home netted 5.5 hours, so it was 9.9 hours in the log book, mostly IFR, plus
the altitude training.

--
John Huthmaker
PPL-SEL P-28-161

http://www.cogentnetworking.com