The Final Push

The past month has been medical hell. I'll put up a post about it later but I finally started flying again. I have until the end of the month to get this completed or I have to take my written test over.

We started out as if this were the practical portion of the flight. As I finished the pre-flight, I was getting ready for the cockpit portion of the pre-flight and I made sure that Richard had his seat belt and harness on. I also gave him the pre-flight briefing and exit procedures and how we would egress. Once I got my clearance to taxi, I did the runup and finished my pre-flight. We were ready to go. It was a little windy as the winds were from 150@14 knots gusting to 23, a little left crosswind. Richard asked me to do a soft field takeoff. In low or calm winds, this is easy but on a windy day with a crosswind, it was a lot harder. We got in the pattern and did a short field landing over an obstacle. Good.

Now we went off to the practice area over the lake where we went up to 3500 feet to get away from the heat. It was 86 when we took off. It was 68 at 3500 feet. First on the list, steep turns. I was asked to do 2 complete turns to the left and 2 to the right. The PTS says that you have to maintain +/- 100 feet from the altitude you started at. Good.

Next was turns about a point. This one was new. We kept a tighter circle than we usually do and it meant you had to stay way ahead of the airplane and make your banks a lot quicker. Good.

Here is where I started having some issues. We started S-turns across a road and I was having trouble keeping my turns correct to make smooth arcs. Not too Good but passable. I need to work on this.

Next we did an emergency engine out procedure. He pulled the power on me and we started looking for a good place to land. After finding a field that was suitable, I did a circling turn, like a turn about a point, until I was sure that I could make it, added flaps and at about 300 feet off of the ground, went full throttle and got out of there before the people who owned the field got too annoyed. Good.

We climbed back up to 3000 feet to cool down and begin power off stalls. I started slowing down but maintaining altitude when I was sure that I was sufficiently trimmed, I pulled the power and kept the nose up and waited for the nose to drop. As soon as it dropped, I added full power and pulled up. I only lost about 75 feet but I could have done better. Semi-good.

Here is where it started getting tough. Next up was a power on stall with a twist. He wanted me to put the airplane in a slight right hand turn for the stall. So I did. and he wanted me to guess which wing would stall first. I had no idea. It seems that the right hand turn wasn't coordinated and I needed some left rudder. As soon as we got the shudder, the plane dropped the left wing and I had to add some left rudder and also pull up. This shook me up a bit. I had never experienced this before so we did it again a couple of more times, each one equally difficult. Not very good.

As I continued to sweat, it was time for some hood work. We have been having trouble with the AI (Attitude Indicator, formerly called the artificial horizon) in this airplane. We have had it removed and sent back numerous times with a failure with in a couple of weeks. What seems to be happening is that in straight and level flight, the AI shows a bank to the right. If you fly the AI and have it set for straight and level, you are in a left hand turn. I think it is as simple as turning the unit, in the panel, a couple of degrees to the right. Meanwhile, after fighting the AI and the DG (directional gyro) he had me do some turns to maintain altitude and direction but the DG kept processing. At one point I was asked to turn to a heading of 270 degrees. The difference between the DG and the magnetic compass was as much as 30 degrees. Not a desirable effect. Me, semi-good.

After we did our turns and found out that the airplane is having some instrument problems it was time for some unusual attitudes. I was rusty for not having flown for a month. He had me look at the yoke as he put me through a bunch of turns as he prepared me for an unusual attitude. Heh handed the airplane off to me in a dive as the speed was coming up. I hesitated a little and didn't get the power off quickly but did start to pull out of the dive. I finally got the airplane back to straight and level flight as I looked at my now unreliable instruments. Hey, if it was easy, anyone could do it. One more unusual attitude where I was handed an airplane in a climb. I added power and pused the nose over to get back to a level attitude and tried my best to get the the wings level with just the turn coordinator. Semi-good.

When we finally finished, we realized that the wind had blown us back into McKinney airspace, but above it. We called the tower, asked to join the pattern for some touch and go work. I did a soft field landing and a slip where we called it a day. Semi-good and I was tired.

I still need to work on S-turns, power on stalls and I need some more hood work to get more comfortable. I'll be flying again Friday and Saturday. We will see how I fare Friday and Saturday to judge how soon I can go take my test. There is also that medical thing I have to get finished too, but that is a whole other post.

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