Stage II Check

At long last, I did my stage II check today with the chief flight instructor. I had to plan for a flight to the Eastern Shore, then to Atlantic City, then to Hagerstown, then to Baltimore, then back to home base. He didn't even look at the flight plan, maybe because he arrived late and then he had a lesson immediately after mine.

We flew over to the Eastern Shore, did a couple of landings at Easton, then we went to Ridgely, did a landing and a couple of simulated engine-outs, and then did some of the basic maneuvers, including hood work. Then it was an uneventful flight back to base.

I botched the initial approach to Easton, approaching from the wrong side. He also said I wasn't aggressive enough getting the nose down on one of the stalls. And on one of the three simulated engine-out tries he said I would have come up short so we did a go around.

So, room to improve, but I passed the stage check. Now I get to fly my solo long cross country flight.

PS: It seems I neglected to mention some things that I should have... We had to dodge some clouds here and there. That's not a big deal, but I was inclined to descend to get at least 500 feet below them, but the instructor didn't seem so concerned about them. Maybe he was testing me. Maybe he wasn't so worried because he's an IFR pilot. On one of my unusual attitude recoveries, I had to quickly add power (he left me nose high). When I did, it sounded and felt like something suddenly rattled the engine. That was my first experience with carbeurator ice.

Solo 5

Pattern work today to brush up on landings. It started out with light but direct crosswinds that increased as time passed. Wind at pattern altitude kept pushing me toward the runway and had to crab a lot to keep from drifting toward the runway on downwind. So the downwind-to-base turns took forever, and then it was hard to avoid overshooting the base-to-final turns. And then the landings were interesting, with winds variable from calm to 7 knots, always with a crosswind, sometimes with a slight headwind, sometimes with a slight tailwind.

So I got six landings in and called it a day before the conditions got any worse.

Lesson 26

Another long layoff from flying ended today. I had been on vacation for two weeks and other events meant that I didn't get to fly for a month. I wanted to prepare for my next stage check, and ultimately, for the check ride. So we flew over to the Eastern Shore with the plan to let me get familiar with some new airports and practice diversions.

We flew toward Easton, then diverted to Cambridge, where I had to do a power off, no flap landing. That was different. Then I had a few minutes to check the chart and then we took off and flew to Easton. We did a touch and go, then departed toward Ridgely, navigating by using the chart and following a railroad. Then we did some unusual attitude recoveries. After one of the times when I was looking down while he flew the plane around to set up the next unusual attitude, he pulled the power on me over a bunch of fields, with a grass strip directly below, and I had to set up to make an emergency landing. We descended pretty low, then I was allowed to add power and climb away.

Then he told me to proceed to Ridgely, but of course in the rush of dealing with the unusual attitudes and emergency landing, I lost track of where I was. So after we sorted that out, we proceeded to Ridgely, where we promptly encountered traffic that included a biplane that was too close for comfort until I did a 360 degree turn. Then I had to do yet another power off landing, which was pretty ugly on that narrow strip.

Finally, we returned home with me under the hood.