It's been a while since I've been able to post anything. I actually have been doing some flying but I need to get serious now. I have completed all of my requirements and have been doing touch up work with Richard getting ready for my check ride.
1/21/2009
I went up with Richard today and we did some of the usual stuff like soft field takeoffs, soft field landings, short field landings and slips to a landing. After he got bored, he said that we should go do some stalls. I said that would be great since I haven't done any yet. His response was that we had. I challenged him to find the word stall in my logbook anywhere.
We went out to the practice area and he had me start out with some slow flight. I had a friend tell me that she flunked her check ride because she didn't do the slow flight part correct. You have to take the airplane down to the absolute minimum airspeed that you can control the airplane. If you do it right, you will get the stall warning horn to go off, yet you will still be able to maintain altitude and directional control. Just remember that as you slow down, you will need more and more right rudder. Next he had me clean up the airplane and do about the same thing except that I wanted to stall it. All you have to do is wait for the buffet and then when the wings lose their lift, the nose comes down, add full power and pull out of the dive. Get it level and trim and you are good to go. Finally I got under the hood and did some unusual attitudes (along with a 3G turn).
Time was up so we headed back. I go a good 1.4 hours out of this lesson. I needed it and I got my confidence back.
2/07/2009
I needed some more work so we headed out to do some turns about a point. I have always had a problem with these but Richard had given me a new way to approach them. I picked 4 spots out on the ground that were equa-distant from the object I was flying around (a water tower). Once I did that, it was a lot better at keeping my bank angles to where they should be. Next he had me do something I have never done. It was 8s across a road. You basically fly a figure 8 pattern but at the apex of the 8, you have to have your wings level and transition from a right to left turn or a left to a right turn. It is a lot harder than it sounds.
Next we did a little more slow flight and I did a slow 360 at about 47 knots indicated. Finally we headed for McKinney to do some more short, soft and slips. I really wish I had the money and time to do this all of the time.
3/1/2009
I really needed to knock off some dust so I had the foresight to reserve a plane 2 weeks out. We only have 1 C172 right now because the other one is in the paint shop getting painted and getting a new windshield. This makes it very difficult to watch the weather and try to schedule. You just have to schedule and hope for the best. This time, I got lucky. The day before we had 35 knot winds behind a cold front. when I got to the airport, winds were 330@12 which meant we had a crosswind. Anytime there is a crosswind, Richard begins to salivate. He loves him some crosswind.
I was actually surprised at how well I did being so rusty. I did have one that I "removed some rubber" on the landing. It never fails in gusty situations everything is tracking perfectly until the last 2 feet. When you get into ground effects and are slowing down, the wind really has the ability to push you more. In this case, I side loaded the landing gear more than I wanted to. Nothing damaged but a good lesson in flying the airplane into the ground. There is a saying that says that you always fly the airplane all of the way to the crash. I did a couple of more and was putting it on the centerline and looking for the optimum place to put down to avoid the worst of the winds. After our 6th landing I asked Richard if he felt like going up to Sherman and getting some cheap gas. We had about 50 minutes befoe we had to be back. So we pointed the nose to the north and in about 15 minutes, we were in Sherman filling up with $2.55/gal 100LL.
I made a good landing in Sherman but while we were on final, I had the wind do something I had never experienced. The wind was out of 300 and the runway in Sherman is 34 so I had about a 30 degree crosswind. The whole trip to Sherman was very bumpy with a lot of CAT (clear air turbulence). Once on final the wind was swirling and actually turned ind gave me a big push from behind. I was a very strange feeling and I noticed that the ground speed jumped really abruptly. I eventually flew out of it but it was a bit unnerving.
A lot of people from McKinney go to Sherman to get their cheap fuel because McKinney is $4.99/gal (our rate is $4.69). Our flying club reiumberses back at McKinney's rate because we have a contract with them and we use that price to calculate our rental rates. To encourage people to actually leave the pattern at McKinney, we use that rate for reiumbersment. So I took on 23.7 gal @$2.55 for a grand total of $60.44. I will get reiumbersed $111.15, which is the McKinney rate (it makes flying cheaper).
We took off and headed back to McKinney and since we had a nice tailwind, we were able to get there in about 13 minutes. I was tracking about 118 knots across the ground. All in all, it was a beautiful (but windy) clear day for flying. In fact, it was so clear that after we took off from Sherman and were at 2000 feet, I could see downtown Dallas. That's about 60 miles away.
We got back into McKinney just in time for the next member to take N737TY up for a while. I just need to do this a lot more real soon to get ready for my check ride. I have some other adventures I'll post but I have to get back to work.
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