I’m exhausted. Part of it is because I got up at 5am, a feat to which I’ve recently become unaccustomed. Most of it is that, for some reason, flight instruction is physical exhausting. It’s not like you do much physical. Sit around, talk, stand around, talk, sit in a plane and move levers while talking, and sit around and talk. Part of it’s the heat– it may have only gotten up 85 today, but that was hot. Density altitude was over 9,500ft before 10am, which is never a good day. By the time I finished my last flight, we were standby for thunderstorm activity.

My first flight was with the glider IP. He’s got tons to learn, but he knows something as opposed to nothing which is very nice from my perspective.

My second flight started out okay, and I realized just how much I had to explain. We went out to preflight early, and instead of having 20 minutes, he had 40. It took all of it. Then, after starting the engine, it took what seemed like forever to go through the checklists. I haven’t really had to teach the basics since the new semester started in January, so I’ve gotten used to students who can fly. This guy didn’t get a chance.

While waiting for takeoff, I noticed that oil temp gauge was pegged at redline. That’s not at all cool, and of course I looked next at the oil pressure gauge. The lowest number on there is 10 PSI with a red line, and it was below that. I immediately called ground and requested taxi to the north ramp. The told me to taxi to the north ramp, and I did a 180 on the hammerhead, thinking “they have no idea where I am.” Sure enough, I heard, “Talon 30, where are you?” I responded with “Talon 30 is heading back to the North Ramp from the hammerhead.” “Uhh.. that’s approved but you’ll need to give way for opposite direction traffic.” “Talon 30 is reading no oil pressure, and either needs priority or I’ll be shutting the engine down right here.” I didn’t want to to have the damn thing seize on me– an event which seemed imminent. “Talon 30 you have priority, continue taxiing.” It made it back to the ramp, where I shut it down immediately.

The readings were normal during engine runup, and I think that the problem may have been triggered by a starter engagement while the engine was running. I don’t know that the student actually engaged the starter during the mag check (even though I specifically warned him of the possibility), but he said “whoa, I think I went too far”. It looked like he did go too far, but I didn’t hear anything, and assumed, as such, that the starter didn’t engage. Now I think it probably did engage, and I just couldn’t hear it. What seems likely to me is that the part of the starter gear sheared off and became lodged in the oil pressure relief valve… When I turned the aircraft into MX, they seemed to think that was likely.

So, I feel pretty stupid for attempting to continue a flight after a possible starter engagement. If there hadn’t have been two planes waiting to take off in front of me, along with several landing planes, I could have easily gotten airborne before the problem presented itself. And those gauge readings would cause me to immediately declare an emergency. And at full power the engine may well have seized very quickly. I’ve gotten this far without declaring an emergency and would like to keep it that way.

My third flight of the day was with my first female student. She too was well prepared for the flight, at least, study-wise. She had a lot of difficulty just maintaining straight and level flight. Admittedly, it was pretty turbulent, but she wasn’t making much in the way of correction. At one point she managed to put us right into a spiral dive. I chopped the power, and waited to see if she was going to recover. She did, pulling about 3 G’s, and scaring herself a bit. Toward the end of our time in the practice area she asked where the airsick bag was. She’d looked a little queasy early on in the flight, and I’d asked how she was doing. “Great!” she’d responded at the time. Now my suspicions were confirmed. It took me what seemed like forever to get an airsick bag for her. She asked if I could fly, and I did. After a few minutes, she said she felt better and could try to fly again. About three minutes after that, she asked if I could fly again. I did and started the arrival. And she got out the airsick bag. And damn near filled it up!

I’ve had quite a few pukers before, but holy cow. This chick just filled that bag right up.

I finished the day by making a really crappy approach, slipping it in and landing way down the runway. I probably should have gone around, but I didn’t want my student to have to be airborne any longer than necessary. I guess I’m out of practice– I haven’t made an approach that crappy in a very long time. I think the wind and conditions had a lot to do with it.

So I’m finally home, and am exhausted. Joanna said “I won’t be late, I should be home by 7:30.” Yeah. I’ll probably be in bed by then, so I can do it all over again tomorrow.