Saturday, October 29, 2016
Stats: 1 hour, 3 landings, .2 simulated instrument
Today’s lesson went better for me than last week’s lesson did. The weather was beautiful and calm. We practiced slow flight first. I spent time in the foggles (view limiting device) practicing instrument work and did steep turns, power off stalls, and power on stalls. Mr. King said I showed improvement in the foggles.
Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Stats: .8 hours, 5 landings
Saturday, November 19, 2016
Stats: 1 hour, 1 landing
It was windy today, so no pattern work, and we went to the practice area. I felt like something clicked and suddenly I was more coordinated. I was coordinating use of the aileron and rudder better when entering and rolling out of turns.
We did steep turns 45 degrees to the left and right a couple of times and I maintained altitude well. Then we did two power off stalls. I had begun to do the steps to recovery from a stall almost automatically prior to this lesson, but today it seemed like I was having to think about it too much. I also need to guard against accidentally turning slightly right when pulling up.
Then we did two power on stalls. I have never felt totally comfortable with those and today was no exception. The gusts of wind added to this. I just need to do more of them, maybe a few each week.
I asked to do steep turns again and so we did a couple more. Then 2 or 3 more power off and 2 more power ons, followed by more steep turns. I don’t remember exactly what order we did some of this in, but we also practiced slow flight and constant speed maneuvers.
Mr. King said I was doing a lot better today at everything especially keeping constant airspeed and staying within 100 feet on the step turns.
Even though today’s lesson was a lot more work because of 16-21 gusts and I was constantly adjusting something, it was a very satisfying and fun hour of flying. Mr. King said I did especially well considering the wind situation. The weather was pretty cool and the sky was beautiful. Looking down you could see spots of fall color, especially the isolated red trees. As an added bonus, it was a comfortable temperature in the cockpit.
Before the lesson I was worried I would have forgotten everything, or suddenly become newbie awkward again, but everything was alright. I hated missing on November 5th and 12th, but it couldn’t be helped. A few things I did while not flying that were flying related were: go to a WINGs seminar and study. Not as fun as actually flying, but still productive.
Waving At Airplanes 