Flight Review

Lots of time has passed since my last flight. The flying club requires low-time pilots to fly at least once every two months to maintain currency. And they require an annual review with an instructor. I waited too long, and my medical certificate lapsed, and other priorities came up, and there was a lot of bad weather, and the list goes on.

Excuses are now over. I got a new medical certificate. I did the written tests that the club requires. I did the FAA flight review (a superset of the club flight review), and I'm current again.

I expected to be rusty and I was. I nailed the steep turn to the left but couldn't get the steep turn to the right. The plane just wouldn't stall. Slow flight went OK, with the stall horn going most of the time. The unusual attitude recoveries went well. And I did some hood time. Finally we went back for the landings, which I was expecting to be really ugly.

I set up for the first one, only to have an airplane take the runway while I was on final. If the pilot broadcast his intentions, it wasn't on the right frequency. If he was on the right frequency, he would have heard my broadcasts. At any rate, I got to do my first forced go around. I kept the other airplane in sight as it climbed, accelerated past us, and departed straight out, so I was able to simply climb back to pattern altitude and circle back. I landed a little fast and long, but it was pretty smooth. The next one was even better. Finally, the instructor pulled the power on me on downwind and I made the best dead-stick landing I've ever made.