Windy - 4th lesson
May. 27th, 2006 03:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfrToday we launched into scattered clouds @ 4000 ft and lots of wind at 11 am. The wind today was 20 gusting 25 and coming in on 18. Our runway of choice today was 16. Which according to my crosswind component chart gave us a headwind of 18 to 19 knots and a crosswind of about 7 knots. Well within the allowable range in our 1976 C172M model. We decided to take 508 up again today. In fact, I am going to try to stay with 508 for the rest of my ppl training. She's a good plane with few squawks to contend with. And we seem to get along with each other.
On tap for today is some practice on power off stalls and slow flight. We did our 90 degree clearing turns at 3500 feet and he asked me to set up for slow flight and after we had stabilized to go ahead and do a power off stall. I did well in setting things up and keeping us on heading. It was windy at 3500. I had taken a heading of 18 so we were directly into the wind. With a full 40 degrees of flaps my indicated airspeed was somewhere around 40 knots. I added power to keep us from sinking. Looking out my side window at the ground I noticed we weren't moving forward at all. It was very apparent when I would get lazy on the controls and fall of my course as the wind would start sliding me to the side. It was really very neat to just be hanging there at 3500 feet hovering in the wind. At his request I increased my angle of attack and stalled the airplane. My stall recovery is a bit abrupt, the nose doesn't HAVE to be pushed down, just let it fall on it's own and add power. He talked me through what I had done wrong and we did another. Hovering around like that is a lot of fun.
He had me clean up the plane and sent me off towards Midway. He asked me where I thought it should be and I told him we should head east a bit, maybe a bit north east. I pointed out the plant to our north, the private glider strip (TSA) and told him it should be up the other side of that road over-that a-way. He seemed happy that I was keeping a little bit of a mental map of where I'm at.
On the way to Midway he pulled the power and said 'Look at that, you just lost your engine, now what do you do?'
Pitch to 70 knots indicated, trim off the pressure, look for a field. I found one, made sure I could land the long way on it INTO the wind. He suggested we do the engine restart drill. Which I did, a bit slow, but remembered everything. Then he asked where the field was I was going to land at. I looked outside and it was gone. I'd flown past it while I had my head in the cockpit. I told him it was somewhere back there (gesturing over my shoulder) and said that that one in front of us was a better one anyway, it was longer, and I didn't have to go looking for the one I'd let slip out of my sight. He said okay, set it up, lets see how you do. I kept the approach pretty well, kept the speed where it needed to be, had to s-turn a little in order to lose some altitude and he had me initiate the go-around once he said I had the field. So full power, pitch to positive climb at 75. He chuckled at me and said he wasn't upset in the least about me letting the first field go. My alternate field was better, and I would have made it fine.
Midway was an adventure in landing. The wind had shifted to 19 by this point and Midway's runway is at 18. My first landing there was only so so. I had a lot of problems getting the right crab angle in for my approach, and I turned far too late onto final and had to fly back to the runway. With a lot of help I got 508 onto the runway. We did the touch and go and off we were again. I botched the climb out, got distracted in the cockpit and let myself get blown off the centerline. We set up and flew the pattern again, this time my approach was much better. I had a good crab angle going on, I was holding a stabilized approach, the glidepath was right. I got into ground effect and ended up ballooning and I didn't catch it soon enough so we puffed up and out of ground affect. Because I didn't catch it soon enough there wasn't a good way to salvage the landing and he requested full power, go around. Power to full, carb heat off and I started to nurse back in the flaps. He took the plane and we departed back to GKY, in large part because the plane was due back and we were going to be late.
I flew the approach on the 45 into arlington, the pattern, set up for the landing. I started to balloon again, but caught it quicker this time and we didn't have to go around. It took a lot of help from my instructor and we landed first on the left gear, then the right, then the nose as 508 stopped flying... Crosswind landings with lots of wind.. wow...
All in all, it was a pretty good lesson. He's not too concerned with the balloon on the landing. It was a challenging day for landings and he says I did really well. He seems to think that another 4 or 5 lessons and I'll be soloing again. He said I need to loosen up on the rudders. I'm doing well with aileron inputs as needed, and even with the rudder most of the time, but I'm standing on them with both my feet and having to push a little harder with one than the other in order to get movement. That he noticed it when he got on them to help with the last landing. Just lighten up, relax on them. I don't need to hold things that rigid. It keeps me from feeling things when I do that.
I don't know how you tailwheel folks do it...
Next flight, Monday morning. :)
--1.4 hours dual
--3 landings
On tap for today is some practice on power off stalls and slow flight. We did our 90 degree clearing turns at 3500 feet and he asked me to set up for slow flight and after we had stabilized to go ahead and do a power off stall. I did well in setting things up and keeping us on heading. It was windy at 3500. I had taken a heading of 18 so we were directly into the wind. With a full 40 degrees of flaps my indicated airspeed was somewhere around 40 knots. I added power to keep us from sinking. Looking out my side window at the ground I noticed we weren't moving forward at all. It was very apparent when I would get lazy on the controls and fall of my course as the wind would start sliding me to the side. It was really very neat to just be hanging there at 3500 feet hovering in the wind. At his request I increased my angle of attack and stalled the airplane. My stall recovery is a bit abrupt, the nose doesn't HAVE to be pushed down, just let it fall on it's own and add power. He talked me through what I had done wrong and we did another. Hovering around like that is a lot of fun.
He had me clean up the plane and sent me off towards Midway. He asked me where I thought it should be and I told him we should head east a bit, maybe a bit north east. I pointed out the plant to our north, the private glider strip (TSA) and told him it should be up the other side of that road over-that a-way. He seemed happy that I was keeping a little bit of a mental map of where I'm at.
On the way to Midway he pulled the power and said 'Look at that, you just lost your engine, now what do you do?'
Pitch to 70 knots indicated, trim off the pressure, look for a field. I found one, made sure I could land the long way on it INTO the wind. He suggested we do the engine restart drill. Which I did, a bit slow, but remembered everything. Then he asked where the field was I was going to land at. I looked outside and it was gone. I'd flown past it while I had my head in the cockpit. I told him it was somewhere back there (gesturing over my shoulder) and said that that one in front of us was a better one anyway, it was longer, and I didn't have to go looking for the one I'd let slip out of my sight. He said okay, set it up, lets see how you do. I kept the approach pretty well, kept the speed where it needed to be, had to s-turn a little in order to lose some altitude and he had me initiate the go-around once he said I had the field. So full power, pitch to positive climb at 75. He chuckled at me and said he wasn't upset in the least about me letting the first field go. My alternate field was better, and I would have made it fine.
Midway was an adventure in landing. The wind had shifted to 19 by this point and Midway's runway is at 18. My first landing there was only so so. I had a lot of problems getting the right crab angle in for my approach, and I turned far too late onto final and had to fly back to the runway. With a lot of help I got 508 onto the runway. We did the touch and go and off we were again. I botched the climb out, got distracted in the cockpit and let myself get blown off the centerline. We set up and flew the pattern again, this time my approach was much better. I had a good crab angle going on, I was holding a stabilized approach, the glidepath was right. I got into ground effect and ended up ballooning and I didn't catch it soon enough so we puffed up and out of ground affect. Because I didn't catch it soon enough there wasn't a good way to salvage the landing and he requested full power, go around. Power to full, carb heat off and I started to nurse back in the flaps. He took the plane and we departed back to GKY, in large part because the plane was due back and we were going to be late.
I flew the approach on the 45 into arlington, the pattern, set up for the landing. I started to balloon again, but caught it quicker this time and we didn't have to go around. It took a lot of help from my instructor and we landed first on the left gear, then the right, then the nose as 508 stopped flying... Crosswind landings with lots of wind.. wow...
All in all, it was a pretty good lesson. He's not too concerned with the balloon on the landing. It was a challenging day for landings and he says I did really well. He seems to think that another 4 or 5 lessons and I'll be soloing again. He said I need to loosen up on the rudders. I'm doing well with aileron inputs as needed, and even with the rudder most of the time, but I'm standing on them with both my feet and having to push a little harder with one than the other in order to get movement. That he noticed it when he got on them to help with the last landing. Just lighten up, relax on them. I don't need to hold things that rigid. It keeps me from feeling things when I do that.
I don't know how you tailwheel folks do it...
Next flight, Monday morning. :)
--1.4 hours dual
--3 landings
