third solo

Finally! A good day. Yesterday was light rain, mist, and then low temperatures with ice forming overnight. This morning, the dew point and temperature were just two degrees apart, and I expected to see advective fog.

But that didn't happen. The sky cleared and the winds were relatively light, at 5 to 8 knots from 260. Last night, Tim called and asked me to go early with Doug. I could tell that Doug was very much interested in getting me in foggles again and practicing unusual attitude recovery, but I just couldn't let this opportunity for a third solo go by.

So, we went up and did five landings, along with a couple of go-arounds. I find it harder to match what Doug wants me to do, because he's used to flying by Navy rules, which are quite different from Eagle East's. For one thing, he doesn't fly a rectangular pattern, but instead wants to see a 180 -- going directly from downwind to final, and putting the first 20 degrees of flaps in on the downwind.

Removing that base means that I don't have time to look at the field, try to judge my position, and then figure out where my turn to final should be. It has to be right from the downwind. I think that's quite a bit harder, so I did most of the approaches the way I learned instead, and talked my way through them so that Doug knew what I was doing.

With the wind at 20 degrees off to the right on takeoff, I had to do a bit of correcting -- maybe 5 degrees on each turn. I then flew a longer crosswind so I could set myself up for a longer base. This worked. I had some trouble controlling airspeed on final, mostly because I'm trying to get the speed down in order to flare better. This means paying more attention when it goes away on me and pushing the nose down.

On the last pass, I had a slightly rough landing. I was going a little too fast, so I pulled up to correct it, but by too much, and dropped quickly down on the runway. Good enough, though, and Doug got out to watch from the side.

Going on my own, I first did things the way I learned -- 10 degrees flaps on downwind, another 10 on base, and the last 10 on final. A decent landing, and then taxi back. The next time around, I try it Doug's way, and completely blow it. I'm far off to the right, and not at all stable on my airspeed. That's it -- power in, going around. I call the tower to let them know what I'm up to.

The next time around, I try the same thing again. This time, I drop right in, with airspeed somewhere between 70 and 80 as I cross the numbers. The plane settles gently and I punch one fist in the air. This is a good one.

The last time around, I'm getting a little tired. I just focus on a smooth landing. In fact, I focus on that so much that I end up drifting to the left and landing awkwardly. I'm down, though, and done for the day.

The next time I have scheduled is next Friday. I'm not sure what will be on the program then, but Doug suggests that I get more time practicing approaches, and I don't disagree. They're harder than they look.

Posted at 01:55PM Dec 28, 2007 by carlson in Aviation  |