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.