stalls and the nose

As promised, I went up with Sean again today for some remedial work. Yesterday was a perfect day, and this morning the clouds were coming in at 11,000 feet with an afternoon storm on the way. The skies were crowded with people enjoying the last few hours before the weather turns.

We took off from runway 5, ahead of a Saratoga that was taking a longish while on run-up, and headed to the east. Sean seems to like to imitate ATC vectoring the student around, which isn't bad in terms of practice. Fly 090, reduce speed to 80. Now turn left to 360, climb to 3000, and add 30 degrees of flaps. Last time, I was doing each instruction one at a time, now I'm trying to combine them as requested.

We went through several clearing turns and slow flight practice, first at 80, then 60 MPH. Then he had me do some power-off stalls. I mushed the first one, as I left in too much power and had only a weak stall going with the elevator all the way back. He asked me to recover, and I didn't hold altitude. The second one was a bit better.

We went around a bit in a few more circles, and then he had me do a power-on stall. I got a bit of a better break this time, and he pointed out that I need to watch the nose of the plane so that I can detect the smallest amount of yaw, and correct right away with my feet. The clouds make a pretty good reference point, so it's good it wasn't so clear.

Next is an emergency landing practice. He first asks me to describe the "we're on fire, and we need to get down NOW" procedure, so I do. He then pulls the power and says, "ok, show me." I set up at 80 MPH and drop in 40 degrees of flaps. I have to push over pretty far to hold airspeed, and then trim up. He asks where I'm going. I point to a nice, flat-looking patch of ground at about my one-o'clock position. He asks me about Plum Island. I have to admit that I'm not sure where I am in relation to it, so I don't know if I could make it.

He takes the controls and does a dramatic all-I-see-is-dirt 45 degree (or more) turn around towards Plum Island, and points out that, as the stewardess says, "the closest exit may be behind you." He asks where we should go, and I correctly point out that we should head to the runway, and not fly a pattern. He notes that people have lost it trying to do that, so I got that one right.

After climbing back out, we head back to the pattern over LWM. The tower has me enter a left downwind for runway 5, which is pretty much dead ahead of me. Sean asks, and I point to exactly where I'm going; I have the field, runway, and pattern in sight. For some reason, he always leaves me wondering whether *he* thinks I answered his question correctly, though (at least for this small part of the flight) I know what I'm doing.

I set up and make my calls. Sean is asking me to identify the traffic, and the increased workload (and burn-out from the exercise) causes me to make mistakes there. I've got the traffic in sight, but I'm not correctly identifying it against the instructions I'm overhearing from the tower.

We ask for a touch-and-go, and I'm second in trail behind what looks like a newer-model Skyhawk. The wind is light, and I don't pull enough power, so I end up high on final. He asks what I'm going to do about it. I don't hesitate. I tell him and the tower that we're going around. Later, on the ground, he criticized that move on two points: first, I should initiate the go-around *before* saying anything, because it's "aviate first." Second, I didn't apply full power initially. I know I didn't do that because with 30-40 degrees of flaps, the nose pitches up dramatically with power, and with all the extra altitude I had, I didn't want that. But I wasn't following procedure.

We go around again, and on final he asks if I'd make the field if my engine cut at that point. I say I'm not sure, but it doesn't look like it. Actually, I've been low this whole pass, mostly as I'm at least trying to correct for being too high the last time. He pulls my hand off the throttle and idles the engine. I set up for best glide (well, I was there already), and the intercept looks to be a good 50 feet short of the runway. Power back in, and lesson learned: don't be so low you can't make it. It's at least embarrassing to miss the runway from pattern.

The landing that follows is just awful. My speed is good -- perhaps a little low at 65. The winds are variable, and when I touch down, they're quartering from the left. I don't correct the right way, and I'm unsteady on the runway. I end up in a not-good state and asking for help to recover before we end up in a ditch. This is the first time I've had to deal with that kind of wind.

In the briefing after the lesson he recommends: (1) that after I get the license, I should take an emergency procedures course to practice unusual attitude recovery (I'd planned on that anyway), (2) next week I should go out solo and practice slow flight and stalls, (3) I have to get it in my head that I'm in charge, and I have to do all the flying; I can't delegate if I get in trouble.

Posted at 04:24PM Apr 11, 2008 by carlson in Aviation  |