And this time... More pattern work.
It was hot. Damn hot. How hot was it? In the 90s, 70% humidity. The field elevation is 150, the density altitude was about 2100. And boy did I notice it - the plane's climb performance was not what I was used to. The fuel vents were steadily dripping with the expanding fuel. I kept getting dripped on. And I did not want to close those doors to start up (the cabin was stifling), but we had an uneventful startup and runup. Uneventful, except for one radio that sounded awful and the other that seemed not to work. But the winds were calm to 4 knots, blowing right down the runway.
OK, so we did more trips around the field. Because it was so hot, we made each takeoff a short-field takeoff, with 10 degrees of flaps, and no touch-and-goes. So we checked the manual for the takeoff performance beforehand, found out that it should require about 1400 feet, and concluded that we should be airborne by midfield. And we were. Each time.
The good - I seem to have finally managed to master the takeoff. I'm pulling back at the right time, smoothly climbing out, staying over the runway (although with no crosswind it's not that hard). I've finally developed the habit of looking for a target to aim for once we climb over the tree line. It seemed odd to climb out at 54 (well, I was usually closer to 60) instead of 67 (well, I'm usually closer to 70). The other thing I've struggled with is turning the right amount on crosswind. I've finally developed the habit of looking for a target to aim for before beginning my turn. I also made a conscious effort to make more gentle turns - 20 degrees of bank. I was mostly able to manage that. And this time I was pretty consistently able to hit my altitude target (650) base-to-final. So at least I was able to come in to short final on glide path, on speed. One other thing that I've struggled with - I'm supposed to shift my focus from the near end of the runway to the far end just as I enter the flare. I'm finally doing that.
The bad - I'm still not setting it down smoothly.
All-in-all - this was a pretty productive lesson.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Lesson 11
Yet more pattern work.
Winds were calm to variable, up to about 4 knots. It was a beautiful, low-humidity day with visibility unlimited. At one point the instructor even pointed out the Washington Monument off in the distance.
Boy was I rusty. The first time around, I was awful, landing long, basically just trying to get the hang of things again. The next few times around were better, but I kept coming in high, which meant I carried more speed on final, which made for longer landings. I tried to turn final a little lower, but that was weird because the ground seemed so much closer.
Over the runway, I'm flaring at the right time, but pulling too much and balooning it. Then we float along and eventually slam it down. There was one landing where we bounced twice. So I need a softer touch in the flare.
Winds were calm to variable, up to about 4 knots. It was a beautiful, low-humidity day with visibility unlimited. At one point the instructor even pointed out the Washington Monument off in the distance.
Boy was I rusty. The first time around, I was awful, landing long, basically just trying to get the hang of things again. The next few times around were better, but I kept coming in high, which meant I carried more speed on final, which made for longer landings. I tried to turn final a little lower, but that was weird because the ground seemed so much closer.
Over the runway, I'm flaring at the right time, but pulling too much and balooning it. Then we float along and eventually slam it down. There was one landing where we bounced twice. So I need a softer touch in the flare.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Lesson 10
More pattern work...
Yesterday, temperatures in the 70s, variable crosswind, ceiling reported at 1200 (but the AWOS is known to be unreliable), and visibility less than 5 miles. But we were staying in the pattern so we decided to fly. I seem to be getting the hang of the whole process on the ground, the preflight checks, the engine start, and the run-up checks. I filed the ADIZ flight plan and got the weather briefing and transponder code.
As soon as we left the ground, we got blown around and, as usual, I had a hard time staying over the runway on climb out. We immediately weather-vaned and all lesson long the instructor was admonishing me that I was turning and straying off course when I was just trying to steer straight. In retrospect I think I need to focus on steering toward landmarks. The low visibility made it impossible to see the horizon, so I was looking down a lot. But my biggest challenge was speed control - we got too slow several times. Nowhere near stall speed, but on base and final I slipped below 60 knots, which is definitely not what I want.
On final, I seemed to be all over the place trying to keep on the glide path, lined up with the runway, and keeping my speed under control. More than once I had to drag it in with power because I got too low.
I guess the only real new development is that I managed to bring it in a few times with the stall horn chirping just as we touched down. The last landing was pretty good so I said I'd had enough and we called it a day.
This time I remembered to bring my hiking GPS receiver with me. I turned it on and threw it in the back before we started the plane. The track looks pretty cool in Google Earth.
Yesterday, temperatures in the 70s, variable crosswind, ceiling reported at 1200 (but the AWOS is known to be unreliable), and visibility less than 5 miles. But we were staying in the pattern so we decided to fly. I seem to be getting the hang of the whole process on the ground, the preflight checks, the engine start, and the run-up checks. I filed the ADIZ flight plan and got the weather briefing and transponder code.
As soon as we left the ground, we got blown around and, as usual, I had a hard time staying over the runway on climb out. We immediately weather-vaned and all lesson long the instructor was admonishing me that I was turning and straying off course when I was just trying to steer straight. In retrospect I think I need to focus on steering toward landmarks. The low visibility made it impossible to see the horizon, so I was looking down a lot. But my biggest challenge was speed control - we got too slow several times. Nowhere near stall speed, but on base and final I slipped below 60 knots, which is definitely not what I want.
On final, I seemed to be all over the place trying to keep on the glide path, lined up with the runway, and keeping my speed under control. More than once I had to drag it in with power because I got too low.
I guess the only real new development is that I managed to bring it in a few times with the stall horn chirping just as we touched down. The last landing was pretty good so I said I'd had enough and we called it a day.
This time I remembered to bring my hiking GPS receiver with me. I turned it on and threw it in the back before we started the plane. The track looks pretty cool in Google Earth.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Lesson 9
More pattern work...
Winds were calm at the surface, a little choppy at pattern altitude. I couldn't see the horizon to the south because of bad weather off in the distance, but the weather was fine at the airport. I think I'm doing things mostly right, but I'm having trouble now with knowing when to turn on final, and I consistently came in too high. We got several landings in, and the last few seconds floating along in the flare seem to be giving me fits. The wind blows the plane around and I have a hard time keeping the nose aligned with the runway.
On the ground, I had a tendency to have too heavy a touch on the rudder pedals. With any real speed, the plane really reacts to the lightest pressure and I found I was oversteering, with the plane making uncomfortable veers left and right as I tried to steer.
Another thing - the instructor kept telling me to keep the ball centered. I found it really weird to be holding right rudder while turning left on the crosswind leg. It felt like the rudder was keeping the plane from turning.
So things that I really have to work on is just smoothing things out on landings, looking down the runway (because I'm looking too close in), trim adjustments in the pattern, and a lighter touch on the rudder pedals while there's still a lot of speed on.
I guess I'm making progress, but it sure doesn't feel like i.
Winds were calm at the surface, a little choppy at pattern altitude. I couldn't see the horizon to the south because of bad weather off in the distance, but the weather was fine at the airport. I think I'm doing things mostly right, but I'm having trouble now with knowing when to turn on final, and I consistently came in too high. We got several landings in, and the last few seconds floating along in the flare seem to be giving me fits. The wind blows the plane around and I have a hard time keeping the nose aligned with the runway.
On the ground, I had a tendency to have too heavy a touch on the rudder pedals. With any real speed, the plane really reacts to the lightest pressure and I found I was oversteering, with the plane making uncomfortable veers left and right as I tried to steer.
Another thing - the instructor kept telling me to keep the ball centered. I found it really weird to be holding right rudder while turning left on the crosswind leg. It felt like the rudder was keeping the plane from turning.
So things that I really have to work on is just smoothing things out on landings, looking down the runway (because I'm looking too close in), trim adjustments in the pattern, and a lighter touch on the rudder pedals while there's still a lot of speed on.
I guess I'm making progress, but it sure doesn't feel like i.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Lesson 8
More pattern work. I'm getting the hang of preflighting the plane and filing the ADIZ flight plan. The weather briefing also seems routine now. No news there.
So this time we did 8 landings. This time I think I mostly made the radio calls at the right times, mostly turned when I was supposed to, and didn't overshoot the climb to pattern altitude too terribly often. So I feel like I've got the procedures down, and I'm mostly managing to do the right things at the right times.
But all hell breaks loose when I reach short final. Maybe that's too strong. But I was consistently high, requiring me to pull the throttle to idle and put in full flaps, then we would really sink and then I had a tough time judging the right time to add power back to avoid sinking right through the glide path. Over the runway threshold I had a terrible time trying to keep the airplane on the center line. And just like last time, I felt like we were screaming right down to the runway and I was pulling the yoke back too early, levelling off too high.
So clearly I need to figure out how to use the rudder for alignment and ailerons for left/right drift. And I have to let the plane descend more before I pull back on the yoke.
I tried my first soft field takeoff - it was weird. We lifted off, I didn't push forward on the yoke enough to keep it in ground effect, we even chirped a tire again before finally getting to climb speed.
We did 2 simulated engine-out landings. Those were strange, delaying the flap extension, having to pay really close attention to airspeed. And on a couple of landings, I was way too high, so the instructor did forward slips. Boy was that a sinking feeling, and it seemed like the bank angle was enormous.
Oh, I almost forgot. During one takeoff, at a couple hundred feet off the deck, there was a big bird right in our path. I didn't get a good look at it, but I'm guessing it was a hawk. The instructor grabbed the yoke and turned us before I could react (I had been glancing at the altimeter for a moment to see if we were high enough to retract takeoff flaps). I'm guessing a bird strike would not have been pretty.
So this time we did 8 landings. This time I think I mostly made the radio calls at the right times, mostly turned when I was supposed to, and didn't overshoot the climb to pattern altitude too terribly often. So I feel like I've got the procedures down, and I'm mostly managing to do the right things at the right times.
But all hell breaks loose when I reach short final. Maybe that's too strong. But I was consistently high, requiring me to pull the throttle to idle and put in full flaps, then we would really sink and then I had a tough time judging the right time to add power back to avoid sinking right through the glide path. Over the runway threshold I had a terrible time trying to keep the airplane on the center line. And just like last time, I felt like we were screaming right down to the runway and I was pulling the yoke back too early, levelling off too high.
So clearly I need to figure out how to use the rudder for alignment and ailerons for left/right drift. And I have to let the plane descend more before I pull back on the yoke.
I tried my first soft field takeoff - it was weird. We lifted off, I didn't push forward on the yoke enough to keep it in ground effect, we even chirped a tire again before finally getting to climb speed.
We did 2 simulated engine-out landings. Those were strange, delaying the flap extension, having to pay really close attention to airspeed. And on a couple of landings, I was way too high, so the instructor did forward slips. Boy was that a sinking feeling, and it seemed like the bank angle was enormous.
Oh, I almost forgot. During one takeoff, at a couple hundred feet off the deck, there was a big bird right in our path. I didn't get a good look at it, but I'm guessing it was a hawk. The instructor grabbed the yoke and turned us before I could react (I had been glancing at the altimeter for a moment to see if we were high enough to retract takeoff flaps). I'm guessing a bird strike would not have been pretty.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Lesson 7
Finally - pattern work. Everything seemed to happen really fast. I had a hard time turning the right amount; it always seemed that I was not managing to turn 90 degrees. I would roll into a turn, then realize that I need more rudder, apply it, then the turn would happen really fast and I would overbank. In the turn to crosswind I had a tendency to stop the climb. And sometimes at the beginning of the downwind leg I would find the airspeed really high because I hadn't pulled the power back enough. And I seemed to always pull up too soon as we approached the runway, usually resulting in a baloon. And I often either forgot the radio calls or botched them. One other event - a plane came straight in on final as I was turning base, putting us on a converging course that was uncomfortable. I reacted by rolling wings level, putting us on a course that placed us well behind that other plane. That pattern was more house-shaped than rectangular.
So here's the sequence - line up on the runway, full throttle, hold the center line with the pedals, rotate at about 50 knots, fly off. Climb at Vx (54) until clear of the trees, thereafter at Vy (67). In reality I think I just climbed out at about 70 every time. At 500 MSL, I would pull the flaps in (if they were out, at 10 degrees, which they were for our touch and gos. At 650 MSL, I turned right, leveled the wings only long enough to look for traffic, then turned right again. At 1000 MSL I pulled the power back to about 2200 RPM and leveled off for a few seconds. Then at midfield it was time for carb heat, then abeam the numbers power back to about 1600, hold altitude as the speed bleeds off, then 10 degrees of flaps once the airspeed drops into the white arc. Then pitch down to hold 70 knots, turn right when the numbers are 45 degrees behind us, hold 70 knots, extend flaps to 20 degrees, and get ready to turn right once again. Turn to get lined up with the runway (and I frequently turned too soon), and use pitch and power to control airspeed and rate of descent. When established on the stabilized descent, last notch of flaps, power to idle, bring it in over the numbers at 60 knots, flare, hold it off, let it settle. Then power to full and off we go (instructor pushed in carb heat and pulled the flaps in to 10 degrees). And around and around.
I got too slow a few times. And sometimes when I needed to speed up I had a tendency to increase my pitch attitude when I should have reduced it.
In summary, a lot was happening, it seemed to happen really fast, I need a lot more practice with this stuff, and I had a lot of fun.
So here's the sequence - line up on the runway, full throttle, hold the center line with the pedals, rotate at about 50 knots, fly off. Climb at Vx (54) until clear of the trees, thereafter at Vy (67). In reality I think I just climbed out at about 70 every time. At 500 MSL, I would pull the flaps in (if they were out, at 10 degrees, which they were for our touch and gos. At 650 MSL, I turned right, leveled the wings only long enough to look for traffic, then turned right again. At 1000 MSL I pulled the power back to about 2200 RPM and leveled off for a few seconds. Then at midfield it was time for carb heat, then abeam the numbers power back to about 1600, hold altitude as the speed bleeds off, then 10 degrees of flaps once the airspeed drops into the white arc. Then pitch down to hold 70 knots, turn right when the numbers are 45 degrees behind us, hold 70 knots, extend flaps to 20 degrees, and get ready to turn right once again. Turn to get lined up with the runway (and I frequently turned too soon), and use pitch and power to control airspeed and rate of descent. When established on the stabilized descent, last notch of flaps, power to idle, bring it in over the numbers at 60 knots, flare, hold it off, let it settle. Then power to full and off we go (instructor pushed in carb heat and pulled the flaps in to 10 degrees). And around and around.
I got too slow a few times. And sometimes when I needed to speed up I had a tendency to increase my pitch attitude when I should have reduced it.
In summary, a lot was happening, it seemed to happen really fast, I need a lot more practice with this stuff, and I had a lot of fun.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Lesson 6
Too windy. I went for a lesson today, only to find that the gusts were pretty bad, over 20 knots. The airplanes were all getting rocked around and pulled against the tie-downs and chocks. I asked the instructor whether I'd be able to learn anything useful in our planned pattern work today. He said that he'd wind up doing most of the work because of the high winds, so at that point we cancelled the flight. We did a little ground instruction and left.
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