Yet more pattern work.
Winds were calm to variable, up to about 4 knots. It was a beautiful, low-humidity day with visibility unlimited. At one point the instructor even pointed out the Washington Monument off in the distance.
Boy was I rusty. The first time around, I was awful, landing long, basically just trying to get the hang of things again. The next few times around were better, but I kept coming in high, which meant I carried more speed on final, which made for longer landings. I tried to turn final a little lower, but that was weird because the ground seemed so much closer.
Over the runway, I'm flaring at the right time, but pulling too much and balooning it. Then we float along and eventually slam it down. There was one landing where we bounced twice. So I need a softer touch in the flare.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Lesson 10
More pattern work...
Yesterday, temperatures in the 70s, variable crosswind, ceiling reported at 1200 (but the AWOS is known to be unreliable), and visibility less than 5 miles. But we were staying in the pattern so we decided to fly. I seem to be getting the hang of the whole process on the ground, the preflight checks, the engine start, and the run-up checks. I filed the ADIZ flight plan and got the weather briefing and transponder code.
As soon as we left the ground, we got blown around and, as usual, I had a hard time staying over the runway on climb out. We immediately weather-vaned and all lesson long the instructor was admonishing me that I was turning and straying off course when I was just trying to steer straight. In retrospect I think I need to focus on steering toward landmarks. The low visibility made it impossible to see the horizon, so I was looking down a lot. But my biggest challenge was speed control - we got too slow several times. Nowhere near stall speed, but on base and final I slipped below 60 knots, which is definitely not what I want.
On final, I seemed to be all over the place trying to keep on the glide path, lined up with the runway, and keeping my speed under control. More than once I had to drag it in with power because I got too low.
I guess the only real new development is that I managed to bring it in a few times with the stall horn chirping just as we touched down. The last landing was pretty good so I said I'd had enough and we called it a day.
This time I remembered to bring my hiking GPS receiver with me. I turned it on and threw it in the back before we started the plane. The track looks pretty cool in Google Earth.
Yesterday, temperatures in the 70s, variable crosswind, ceiling reported at 1200 (but the AWOS is known to be unreliable), and visibility less than 5 miles. But we were staying in the pattern so we decided to fly. I seem to be getting the hang of the whole process on the ground, the preflight checks, the engine start, and the run-up checks. I filed the ADIZ flight plan and got the weather briefing and transponder code.
As soon as we left the ground, we got blown around and, as usual, I had a hard time staying over the runway on climb out. We immediately weather-vaned and all lesson long the instructor was admonishing me that I was turning and straying off course when I was just trying to steer straight. In retrospect I think I need to focus on steering toward landmarks. The low visibility made it impossible to see the horizon, so I was looking down a lot. But my biggest challenge was speed control - we got too slow several times. Nowhere near stall speed, but on base and final I slipped below 60 knots, which is definitely not what I want.
On final, I seemed to be all over the place trying to keep on the glide path, lined up with the runway, and keeping my speed under control. More than once I had to drag it in with power because I got too low.
I guess the only real new development is that I managed to bring it in a few times with the stall horn chirping just as we touched down. The last landing was pretty good so I said I'd had enough and we called it a day.
This time I remembered to bring my hiking GPS receiver with me. I turned it on and threw it in the back before we started the plane. The track looks pretty cool in Google Earth.
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