| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 05 Feb 2013 | N21481 | 5G0 (LeRoy, NY) - local flight | 1.7 | 1117.2 |
I recently started transcribing my logbook into an electronic format after a computer crash last year wiped out my previous electronic version. While this activity was the very essence of tedium, it was also enlightening. I realized that I used to spend a lot of time drilling on the basics: airwork, performance take-offs, simulated engine failures, etc.
Although I still drill on the basics, I do so less frequently than I used to.
So today, I made time to fly and the weather (for once) was cooperative. I ran through much of the private pilot repertoire, starting with the pattern. I made eight trips around the pattern, performing a mixture of take-offs and landings that included: normal, short field, and soft field. Some of the landings were done with full forward slips, with simulated engine failures, or without flaps. I have not performed a no-flap landing in some time, but was pleased with tonight's result.
Thus warmed up, I departed the pattern (yes, I realize that the pattern exit is non-standard, but it kept me from busting Rochester's airspace). I flew north at minimum controllable airspeed (MCA), turned west and did a set of power-on and power-off stalls, ending with a power-off stall in a right turn. After recovery, I executed a set of steep turns (two complete 360° turns in each direction), then descended for turns-around-a-point. I made three turns around my ground reference point to the left and two to the right. I cannot even remember the last time I did a turn-around-a-point to the right, but I am reasonably certain that it was in a Cessna 150 about ten years ago (I know, shame on me). Regardless, both look reasonably round to me in the GPS ground track above.
As an added bonus, I got to see some blue sky for a change.
Though I was a bit rusty at times, every maneuver was within tolerance. At the end of it all, I shut down the airplane with a sense that I had given myself a good workout.
I suspect that most pilots have a maneuver or two in their repertoire that they do not practice often.
What are you waiting for?
I also did some basic work today. Doing take-offs now, but my instructor is still doing the landings. Steep left turns are coming along very well, but I still need work on altitude control in steep right turns. (That happens when the pattern is almost always counter-clockwise due to prevailing winds.) The loops almost all went well. :-) Ended with a $15 hamburger on the way home. It was fun, but full scale would have been even better. Ah, well . . .
ReplyDeleteSounds like things are really coming along, Terry! For whatever reason, my altitude control has been historically better with left steep turn than right, too - though I imagine that my sight lines are a bit different from yours!
DeleteYeah, my burger breakdown is a bit different too. $7 for gas for the trip to the field, $3 for fuel for the plane, and $5 for the actual food. Happy Landings.
DeleteIf you could make these economics work for manned flight, the world would beat a path to your door!
DeleteGuilty! I fall into that comfort zone of back and forth to the beach on the weekends that I really don't practice enough. I really need to do better!
ReplyDeleteMary does not appreciate the steep turns, stalls or slow flight maneuvering. I will say that while flying I do run through the engine out procedures and always look for a place to land but I know that's not enough to keep really sharp.
Great post! I need to get out there and putz around, working on the basics more often.
I knew there would be some guilty parties out there and I obviously include myself in that. It's a good feeling to knock some of these maneuvers out and find that the skill is still there. Try it! You'll like it! :-)
DeleteI love practicing the basics! Nice turns, too. Nothing like a GPS track to keep one's self honest.
ReplyDeleteCoincidental timing on this post. I went to a WINGS/CFI seminar on Monday about stalls. One thing that came up was a brief discussion on slow flight. Although I still practice stalls somewhat regularly, I realized I don't putz along in slow flight all that often. It's going on the to-do list!
When I did my original training, slow flight was more benign...more like cruising around at approach speed. The PTS changed not long after I got my certificate such that the first time I did minimum controllable airspeed slow flight (as reflected in even the most current version of the PTS) was during my Warrior checkout before I bought my airplane. I was immediately struck by how much difference there was in that change (MCA is about 20 knots slower than approach speed for me) and how much more challenging it was. "Oh!" I said to the instructor, "this is much more valuable!" I've practiced the current version ever since. Cruising around at 60 knots is not much of a challenge. Cruising around at 44 knots (Vso) - though sub-gross I can easily do 40 - is a completely different activity.
DeleteAnd on a cold day, flying around nose high like that, even at reduced power, is a great way to heat up the oil.
Interesting - I didn't realize they'd made such a change. We used to hang the 150 on the prop, stall horn blaring (about 41 knots indicated, if I recall correctly) and make 360-degree turns with 20 or 40 degrees of flaps out. Good times!
DeleteYup...that's how I do them now, but it's not how I was initially taught. Looks like this changed in the 2002 PTS, the same year as my checkride. I think the way I had been doing them was allowed because the new PTS version was still so new.
Delete