Cloud Ahoy Cessna 152 Discovery Flight 01/25/2024

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

The embedded video is from my Discovery flight at Holladay Aviation here in Florida. Since (hopefully by June) I'll be assembling my F5, I decided to take the time in between now and then to get some professional assistance with flying again. The first flight was on 01/25 at 1pm. The plane is a Cessna 152. Flight time was for about 35 minutes. Since I didn't have permission to pop cameras all over the plane (and I didn't have the few cameras I have unpacked), I ordered a bunch, which of course arrived after I returned home from the discovery flight. I hope to be able to use some cameras in the future, but for all flights, I should have Cloud Ahoy flight data for the debriefing. In this flight, I placed my phone on the floorboard of the plane, dumb. I should have put it behind me in the back bench. My CFI didn't want me to put it in the front window, so that was a nixed option. The data that Cloud Ahoy recorded was somewhat funny. If you watch the video, you'll see what I mean.



Hopefully in my future flights I'll have better video and better Cloud Ahoy data. My next flight, which should be a real lesson, is scheduled for the 7th of Feb. I hope you enjoy the video.

Todd

PS> Sorry about the phone alert going off a couple of times. It's been a while since I've done YT videos, and I forgot to shut off anything that makes noise.

[LA F2 Flyer]

Todd: "Dear FAA, we definitely did NOT do stall-spin training, hammerheads and steep dives in the Cessna!"

Meanwhile Cloud-Ahoy is telling a very different story. Hmm. Todd, you didn't mention that you were renting a 152 Aerobat for your discovery flight!

Funny thing, I was going to ask you about these "anomalies" after I watched the video, but I had a feeling they had to do with the GPS losing signal. The sudden jumps to one side were pretty funny, as was the airspeed at times dropping to almost single digits.

Very cool software nonetheless! It's probably a great way to track the flight and use some of the cues as reminders of what happened during that point in flight training (If you don't have the option of mounting cameras.) I like it.

[GaryR]

Todd enjoyed the cloud Ahoy video very much. I need to look up where to get that app on my phone. I am currently trying to get back up with my local CFI in a 152 or even the 172 just to try and keep the lesson I had almost a year ago from going to waste. They seem so reluctant to spend time with someone that at most would want a sport license and not the full PPL. Even though the instructor time and plane time would pay the same, although admittedly not as many hrs. I did talk to Chris the other day and there is hope that we can get together this spring or early summer now that he is getting full time help and he can hopefully get on a path to getting caught up. !!! The thought is that he would be in my ear on the radio for a flight or two. I am also looking at upgrading to a gaming type computer and some flight simulator equipment. I know it’s not the same but most say it does help. I know it really helps with flying RC as most all the guys in our local club all train on the computer and crash their expensive planes a lot less! If you have any advice on any of that equipment, maybe you could share. Every time I talk to Chris I ask how far along the F-5 is. This new guy sounds like he will be a real asset to Badland aircraft and I hope it proves to be so. Maybe when you come to pick yours up I could schedule a trip to my daughters place (only 20min from Truman) and help you load or watch your maiden flight from his runway!

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Todd: "Dear FAA, we definitely did NOT do stall-spin training, hammerheads and steep dives in the Cessna!"

Meanwhile Cloud-Ahoy is telling a very different story. Hmm. Todd, you didn't mention that you were renting a 152 Aerobat for your discovery flight!

Funny thing, I was going to ask you about these "anomalies" after I watched the video, but I had a feeling they had to do with the GPS losing signal. The sudden jumps to one side were pretty funny, as was the airspeed at times dropping to almost single digits.

Very cool software nonetheless! It's probably a great way to track the flight and use some of the cues as reminders of what happened during that point in flight training (If you don't have the option of mounting cameras.) I like it.

Now that's funny! We'll find out if the problem is the location of my phone on the next flight for sure. Exactly the design of the software, for debrief after a flight. I have seen this software mainly used to evaluate take off and landing, but also in accident investigation and in some cases, locating a downed aircraft and survivors as well as those who have sadly perished. Plus the data is valuable in finding out what may have gone wrong, especially true for small aircraft with no onboard data recorder. I'm using it just as you say, to help me with my flight training. I can see what happened during the flight as well as fly the same pattern in my flight sim.

Todd

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Todd enjoyed the cloud Ahoy video very much. I need to look up where to get that app on my phone. I am currently trying to get back up with my local CFI in a 152 or even the 172 just to try and keep the lesson I had almost a year ago from going to waste. They seem so reluctant to spend time with someone that at most would want a sport license and not the full PPL. Even though the instructor time and plane time would pay the same, although admittedly not as many hrs. I did talk to Chris the other day and there is hope that we can get together this spring or early summer now that he is getting full time help and he can hopefully get on a path to getting caught up. !!! The thought is that he would be in my ear on the radio for a flight or two. I am also looking at upgrading to a gaming type computer and some flight simulator equipment. I know it’s not the same but most say it does help. I know it really helps with flying RC as most all the guys in our local club all train on the computer and crash their expensive planes a lot less! If you have any advice on any of that equipment, maybe you could share. Every time I talk to Chris I ask how far along the F-5 is. This new guy sounds like he will be a real asset to Badland aircraft and I hope it proves to be so. Maybe when you come to pick yours up I could schedule a trip to my daughters place (only 20min from Truman) and help you load or watch your maiden flight from his runway!

Glad you enjoyed the video Gary. The app can be found for both Google and Apple phones on their respective stores. I'm doing exactly what you mention, it's been 24 years since I was in a small plane and need to build back those lost skills. The way CloudAhoy works is once you set up your account, the trial period will not start until your first flight. At that point, it'll record your flights for 35 days for free. After that, they have a subscription service. The service is $20.00 a month in 3 month increments, or $65.00 for a full 12 months. Obviously, the latter is a much better deal. I figure I'll get the year subscription, and it'll be my black box, helping to figure out what went wrong during my flights and how I can correct them. As well as helping to locate me if I have to make an emergency landing in the middle of nowhere. As long as the phone has cell service, the data will be transmitted to CloudAhoy.

Agreed on the problem with finding CFI's and schools that'll spend some time with us non-certified pilots. They do get their seat time, so I agree, I don't know what the issue is. However, I did learn that part of the issue is with the US government! Yep! Because of 9/11, flight instruction has to fill out a bunch of documentation. This of course is to ensure they aren't training someone to fly a plane into a building. However, it appears that since we aren't certified, this makes filling out the forms difficult. I'm going to be going through this process on the 7th, my next flight so I'll be able to tell more about it after that.

I like your idea of having the radio and him guide you in your first couple of flights. The trick there is similar to an aborted landing/go-around. If it don't feel right, no matter what he's saying in your ear, just throttle up and go around, try again. Close to me is a private grass strip. I'm going to talk to the owner, and hopefully he'll let me do low and high speed taxi's, and then some lift off and touch downs. Once comfortable, then I'll try some pattern flights with touch and goes - same thing though as I mentioned, if it doesn't feel right, throttle up and go around, try again.

Agreed on the flight sim. I was very surprised when I first set up my sim. I had one way back in 1999, but the difference in how the aircraft handles is amazing today compared to then. As Peer and I have discussed, using the sim to take off from KCRG where I'm learning to fly again will be nice too. I can get more accustom to the air field and entire area in the sim quicker than if I didn't have it. I look at it similar to how Dale Jr. used the NASCAR racing came to practice for his races. He commented on how accurate the tracks were and that helped me with his racing. As for the equipment, check out the end of the following YT video -





I list the hardware and software used. Of course, you don't need everything I have, but you can look up each on the Internet and see if you want the item or not. That should get you started. I listed out for Peer what it takes to run MSFS, and it's not cheap to get into, but much of it depends on what all you want. My computer is pretty old, but with a solid state hard drive, 32GB of memory, and an older but still fast enough high-end video card, my sim does a fair job.

Agreed on the new guy Chris has hired. I'm looking forward to when he comes on board at Badland. The trip to Chris's place sounds great, however my F5 is a kit. I'll be hauling it back to Florida for assembly. Once built, set up the way I want, and I've got some seat time with several long flights, I plan on flying up to Chris's place just to show him what the end results are for the F5. After all, Chris's aircraft are much closer to full size small aircraft than they are to ultralights!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Eventually we will get together and get some flight time.

Todd

[GaryR]

Thanks for the response and the information. I did remember the you were getting a kit and not a ready to fly Badland but only after I had hit send! But it would still be fun to meet at Badland when you pick up the kit or when you fly it back to Minnesota at a later date. Will be watching for your build log. And your retraining progress

[Badland-F5 Pilot]

Thanks for the response and the information. I did remember the you were getting a kit and not a ready to fly Badland but only after I had hit send! But it would still be fun to meet at Badland when you pick up the kit or when you fly it back to Minnesota at a later date. Will be watching for your build log. And your retraining progress

You bet Gary. Isn't that always the way it works - click - send - oh wait!

I'll be sure to post here when I get the call from Chris so you'll know when I head that way. I'm looking forward to the next flight on the 7th, and at the same time a bit apprehensive!

I hope you're having a great day.

Todd