Lesson 20

I had a long layoff from flying because I went on vacation. I was afraid I'd be very rusty, but I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't too bad.

We went out to Deale to practice air work to prepare for my stage check. The lowest level of clouds was 2200 feet and we normally practice at around 3000. We use 3000 to stay below the 3500 foot class B shelf. I mention this because it's the first time I had to dodge clouds. Once we got out over the Chesapeake Bay the clouds were no factor. I did steep turns, slow flight, power on and off stalls, and unusual attitude recovery. On one of the stalls, I must have been holding too much rudder and we had a nasty break to the right. We tried again and it was a much smoother recovery.

We returned to the airport, where we did a series of takeoffs and landings, with a couple of touch and goes in the mix. It wasn't as brutally hot and humid today as it usually is this time of year so the flying was pretty pleasant. The line for fuel was long, so the instructor suggested that we do a few more trips around the pattern. I asked to go by myself, so he got out and I went around three times. At one point I had two airplanes ahead of me in the pattern so I was careful to extend downwind for spacing. Once I came around on base and heard an announcement that an aircraft was going to position and hold. As I rolled wings level on final, I saw two aircraft on the runway at the arrival end, one parked, and the other just starting its takeoff roll. I thought I'd need to go around, but both aircraft were gone by the time I was on short final. As I recall, I ballooned the first landing pretty badly, added a little power to smooth it out, ballooned it again, and eventually had a landing that was OK, but a little harder than I like. And I still made the midfield turnoff. The second landing was nice and smooth, with the stall horn sounding as I set it down. The instructor radioed that he was not going to watch any longer and he walked away, so he didn't see my last landing, which was OK (both the landing and him not watching).

Because he walked away, I had my first experience refueling the plane by myself, then I taxied over to the parking area and parked it by myself. After I got the plane tied down, I found the instructor in the club trailer, getting ready for his next student.

So, overall it's just turning into a nice routine. It even seems like I'm getting through everything so quickly that it leaves me wondering, "Is that it? Did I forget something?" Of course the checklists back me up to ensure that I don't forget anything. What once seemed like a long laundry list of things to do now seem so undaunting, just a routine now. I'm finding myself already correcting mistakes before the instructor can point them out. Or maybe he's just waiting to see if I do correct mistakes. Frequently he mentions something that I need to fix after I've already started the control inputs to fix it, like airspeed, or altitude, or heading. And even in the pattern, after that initial power reduction on downwind, I find myself automatically adjusting power and just flying what feels right.

Talking on the radio can be a little unnerving. I was quite hesitant the first few times I tried it, and then after I got the hang of making my radio calls in the pattern, I had the same unconfident feeling again talking to ATC. But now even that's routine. I'm even throwing in the odd "Good day" to the controllers when I switch frequencies.

But I still make mistakes. I found myself rolling out on base-to-final without the flaps at the proper setting. I quickly added them. But even though that was a bonehead move, I'm confident I would have landed safely even without full flaps.

OK, I've rambled enough. My stage check is next week. After that, I hope to go out by myself to Deale. So overall, I'm over the hump with my landings (although I still need to work hard to improve them) and I'm looking forward to the longer trips away from the local area as I get my cross-country work done.