Lesson 25

Well I took a long break from flying, nearly four months. But I went back up today, this time for a refresher flight out to the practice area to do maneuvers, followed by some landings. When I scheduled this, I was hoping for a nice Spring day. Instead it was temperatures in the 90s and a bit humid. But at least the wind was light.

I feared I would be really rusty. But the takeoff and trip out to the practice area went smoothly. I started with steep turns, feeling my own wake at the end of the second turn. I did slow flight, which was pretty easy. Then a couple of stalls, nice & easy. Then the instructor did something new. For the unusual attitude recoveries, I had my foggles on. I did the recoveries, but it was really weird. I kept the foggles on for the return trip, taking them off once on downwind. I was afraid this was where the rust would really show, but I brought it in for a squeaker of a landing. The second time around was OK, but the instructor remarked that I was slower than he liked. Last time, he pulled the power on me so I had to land it "engine out". I misjudged when to turn in so I wound up on final high. I had asked before the flight about slips, so this was a good time to do one. I still came in high and floated and missed the midfield turnoff, but if I ever have to do a true engine out landing, I hope it's as smooth as that one today.

So I'm cleared to solo again. It worked out much better than I expected and I'm looking forward to that next flight.

Medical Exam Renewal

I got busy, the weather got bad, and I stopped flying for a while. My medical certificate lapsed, so I renewed it this week. Much easier than last time. I'm going on vacation in 2 days, so I'm hoping to get back into the air when I get back.