practice what you've learned

It's been sunny and nice here for days, and today was a good day to fly. I checked the weather, as always, but no surprises there: some clouds at 25,000, a NOTAM for rocketry tomorrow, and that's it.

When I got to the airport, Tim had left to go to KACK (Nantucket) all day, and Sean was off. I checked in with Bill, and headed out in 976. The winds are calm, so I have my choice of runways. I go out on 5 (the default anyway) and head to the east. This time, unlike last week, I remember to set my transponder correctly before going to the line.

Above 1500 feet, everything is perfectly smooth. I haven't yet had a flight like this. Even the ponds and small hills go under me without even a small bump. I level out at 2500, heading 090, right on the nose.

As I get to the coast, I pull carb heat and the power back to 1900 RPM, pull back to hold altitude, and trim up for 80MPH. Then I drop in 20 degrees of flaps. A few seconds later, I drop back to 1700, trim up for 70, and put in 30 degrees. Then I trim down to 60 MPH. I'm in slow flight, just like with Sean, and my altitude is the same.

I do some slow clearing turns, then do my first power-off stall. The horn comes on and I keep the pressure coming. It takes effort not just to pull the elevator, but to keep my eyes outside on the nose to keep the plane right on course with the rudder. The horn starts to get more insistent and I feel the nose dropping, so I push in full power, establish climb attitude, and let my speed build back up to 80.

That's one successful stall. When I put the power back in, I didn't push enough on the rudder, so I'm now flying around 080. I turn back a bit, then do two more stalls.

Next, I did some maneuvering. First, I do a right turn to 180. Then 270. On that second turn, I blow through to about 290, because I'm paying too much attention to a deviation in airspeed. Next, after I realize what I'd done wrong there, I turn to 360 and nail it straight on. I take out the flaps, bring up airspeed, and retrim. Then a turn to the left back to 270.

Now I set up for a power-on stall. I establish a climb at around 80 MPH, then keep the elevator coming back. It's much harder to hold the nose in place, but I know I have to do it and watch the clouds for reference. Finally, after what seems like a long time, the horn starts to come on, and I wait for it to get a little more annoying, then drop the nose back to a normal climb and recover.

That's enough for one day, so I radio LWM and head back. The tower gives me a straight-in for 23, so I fly along the river until I'm lined up with the Cat-in-the-Hat water tower. As I'm coming in, three Mooneys are doing run-ups, all for departure on 23. The air's getting a little rougher as I get below 1500 feet. I'm at the 2 mile checkpoint, so I call the tower, and I'm cleared for 23.

I'm trying to fly the plane by reference to the outside. That means putting the nose where it looks like it should be, then just glancing at the instruments to make sure the airspeed is what I expect it to be. I drop in my last bit of flaps and get myself stable at 70. I cross the numbers just below 70 and get in level flight. I slowly pull out the last bit of power, pulling back, and I hear the stall warning come on as the wheels touch down. It's a fairly smooth landing, and just a few inches to the left of the centerline.

The tower tells me to turn off when able and to park with him. I could possibly get off by Echo, but I'd have to brake a little hard to do it, and I'd rather not lose control due to a braking problem after such a good flight. I motor my way up to Delta, and those Mooneys will just have to wait a few seconds.

I pull in to park, and I'm right on the yellow line. As I secure the plane, I note just 0.6 on the Hobbs. I could have gone a bit more, and gotten some pattern work out of it, but this was a successful day just the same, and cheap fun at $66. I'm getting a good bit more confident. I don't think I'm quite near ready for a practical test, though. I'm at about 40 hours, and have a few more things on my checklist to get done, but it's really the consistent practice that I need.

Posted at 10:43AM Apr 18, 2008 by carlson in Aviation  |  Comments[2]