Landings, wake up the feet - Lesson 10
Jun. 12th, 2006 02:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfrToday our lesson was going to be landings, and a few brush ups on air maneuvers. We left GKY on runway 16 this morning. I was supposed to do a soft field take off from GKY. I goofed it and it turned into a short field takeoff. I was so focused on not pitching up too far and getting too slow that I forgot to stay in ground effect longer. Ah well, we laughed about it and next time we'll do better.
My CFI said we would head to Spinks this morning. He wanted to get me used to hearing the tower, as well as get a little experience at a different field. He pointed out the grass runway that Spinks had and told me we'd be doing some practice at a later time on it.
I let my instructor handle the radio calls with the tower. I've only sort of got them worked our for an uncontrolled field. But I think I can handle them next time. We were cleared on a straight in and I proceeded to phone in some of the worst landings I've done in a long time. We didn't even have THAT much of a crosswind. They weren't all bad, but I just couldn't seem to get my feet to work. We persevered at it and they got a bit better as we went along, I still am having a lot of trouble holding the centerline in the flare. Plus I'd touch down and not be aligned and then we'd head off towards the weeds at the edge of the runway. I'm sure the tower guy was having a good laugh at my inability to land it straight today.
We did a full stop for one of them and taxied back. This time I did a soft field takeoff and did it more correctly. It's really different flying that close to the surface accelerating. They will take some more work. The rest of the landings were so, so. Some better than others. Once of twice he had to step in and prevent me from either flaring it in from too high and dropping it out, or that I'd let a wing dip on a landing. My problems were all operator induced though. I couldn't even really blame it on the wind or thermals. The last one I botched a forward slip to lose altitude and by the time I'd gotten all that cleaned up I was behind the airplane. (note to self, forward slips should be all or nothing, no half-ways here) In hindsight, a go-around was probably in order for it. If I had been on my own, that's what I would have done, but I knew my CFI wouldn't let me let things get too out of control so I kept working at it and we got it down, it wasn't pretty, but it was put on the ground.
My instructor decided we needed to head out for a bit of air work so we departed south and climbed. There we did steep turns both left and right. After a good bit of work they started to come together. Then we did some power on stalls straight ahead. I did a pretty poor job on the first one, but we kept at them and I got them in pretty good shape.
Then he said he had been trying to thing of something we could do to wake my feet up. He'd decided that we'd play with the falling leaf stall again. So we set up, pulled the power and pulled the elevator back and set it up for the stall and my job was to keep us level. The first one I did was pretty messy. I kept us more or less level, taking a LOT of aileron input do to so. It was a real workout. We climbed back up and my CFI told me that this time he wanted me to try to catch it as soon as it started to fall left or right and keep us level. Noting that I had to back out the correction almost as soon as I put them in. I tried a second time and it was better, but still an E ticket ride. We climbed back up and he said 'okay Mitch, now let's see this done with the rudders and only a little aileron.' And he proceeded to demonstrate. We'd shudder a little, the nose would start to move, he'd catch it with the rudder, only a little aileron needed and it would repeat again, and again, and again. No need for all the wild things that had been happening to me. We climbed back up again and he turned it over to me.
'Got it this time?' 'Got it.' We entered into the stall. This time I found my feet. You know those things at the end of your legs, that you stand on, yeah, those. The the nose would start to drift, and I'd step, then I'd back it out and be ready for the next movement, nudge, watch, a little aileron, back and forth, the feet would move. Yeah, feet, those things you walk on, the things sitting on those rudder pedals. Feet, are supposed to move. We rode the stall down, I kept my heading, the feet dancing left, right, left, right. Whatever it would take. I broke into a grin, it made sense, I don't know why I couldn't have done it before. "Better?" I said into the mic, and my instructor laughed. 'Now your feet are awake! That's exactly what you need to do! Now do that on the landings too!"
We cleaned it up and he said 'I'm tired, take me back home.' Then he studiously looked out the side window to see if I knew where I was. Luckily I'd been paying attention, even during the steep turns and stalls. I knew we were south west of airport, and south of Spinks. Ever since he'd gotten me turned around in this area I have tried to pay a LOT of attention to where I've gone, and how long I've headed that way. So I started looking for the landmarks I knew should be around and fairly quickly found the plant in the far distance and saw the south end of the lake in the distance. So I made sure we were at 2500 feet and headed for the lake.
He seemed to like how quickly I located myself, asked where I'd land if I had an engine out, I said this field here, he asked how about that grass strip over there? I hadn't even noticed it. We talked a bit about how so many of the farmers have little strips on their property, and if I'd open my scan up a bit more I'd likely find one almost anywhere out in this area. He pointed out another one just ahead that was hard to see. As we tracked towards the end of the lake I kept looking for GKY. I thought I saw the hangers but couldn't see the runway. I mentioned how hard it was for me to see the runway from here and he asked what I could see, he told me to look again, but a little more to the right and then it was time for me to turn red. The runway was almost head on and easy to see, I'd just been looking in the wrong place for it. Just when I think I'm figuring out how to see those dang runways from the air they have to go hide and make me look foolish. ;)
As we came in over the south end of the lake he asked me where I'd land if I lost my engine now, I pointed to a field we could make if we did a 360 to lose altitude to get into it, or the other one just up off the left 45 of my view since we had no wind reported in the area by now. I called on the inbound 45 and joined up on the downwind, making all the radio calls. He told me this would be a power off landing, simulated engine failure. He pulled my power and I did my best to nail my glide, make my turn, make the radio calls. Make the last turn and keep half an eye on the airspeed. We looked high, I started to reach for the flaps and hesitated. 'You're instinct is right, follow it' So in went 10 degree's, then 20, then the full 30 and I kept me feet alive this time on the rudder as we went into the flare, I started to drift again, tried to keep it straight and we touched down. It wasn't perfect, but it was one of the best of the day.
All in all, a good lesson. Playing in that falling leaf stall REALLY pushed home the rudder usage at slow speeds to me. I may have to do that again a time or two. It really seems to wake up my feet and connect the neurons.
solo? what's that? sometime after I figure out how to stop making mistakes in the landings, sometime after I get the centerline nailed. I'm not worried. I'd much rather be a safe, competent pilot than one who solos at 10 hours. It'll come :)
--2.1 hours
--8 landings
My CFI said we would head to Spinks this morning. He wanted to get me used to hearing the tower, as well as get a little experience at a different field. He pointed out the grass runway that Spinks had and told me we'd be doing some practice at a later time on it.
I let my instructor handle the radio calls with the tower. I've only sort of got them worked our for an uncontrolled field. But I think I can handle them next time. We were cleared on a straight in and I proceeded to phone in some of the worst landings I've done in a long time. We didn't even have THAT much of a crosswind. They weren't all bad, but I just couldn't seem to get my feet to work. We persevered at it and they got a bit better as we went along, I still am having a lot of trouble holding the centerline in the flare. Plus I'd touch down and not be aligned and then we'd head off towards the weeds at the edge of the runway. I'm sure the tower guy was having a good laugh at my inability to land it straight today.
We did a full stop for one of them and taxied back. This time I did a soft field takeoff and did it more correctly. It's really different flying that close to the surface accelerating. They will take some more work. The rest of the landings were so, so. Some better than others. Once of twice he had to step in and prevent me from either flaring it in from too high and dropping it out, or that I'd let a wing dip on a landing. My problems were all operator induced though. I couldn't even really blame it on the wind or thermals. The last one I botched a forward slip to lose altitude and by the time I'd gotten all that cleaned up I was behind the airplane. (note to self, forward slips should be all or nothing, no half-ways here) In hindsight, a go-around was probably in order for it. If I had been on my own, that's what I would have done, but I knew my CFI wouldn't let me let things get too out of control so I kept working at it and we got it down, it wasn't pretty, but it was put on the ground.
My instructor decided we needed to head out for a bit of air work so we departed south and climbed. There we did steep turns both left and right. After a good bit of work they started to come together. Then we did some power on stalls straight ahead. I did a pretty poor job on the first one, but we kept at them and I got them in pretty good shape.
Then he said he had been trying to thing of something we could do to wake my feet up. He'd decided that we'd play with the falling leaf stall again. So we set up, pulled the power and pulled the elevator back and set it up for the stall and my job was to keep us level. The first one I did was pretty messy. I kept us more or less level, taking a LOT of aileron input do to so. It was a real workout. We climbed back up and my CFI told me that this time he wanted me to try to catch it as soon as it started to fall left or right and keep us level. Noting that I had to back out the correction almost as soon as I put them in. I tried a second time and it was better, but still an E ticket ride. We climbed back up and he said 'okay Mitch, now let's see this done with the rudders and only a little aileron.' And he proceeded to demonstrate. We'd shudder a little, the nose would start to move, he'd catch it with the rudder, only a little aileron needed and it would repeat again, and again, and again. No need for all the wild things that had been happening to me. We climbed back up again and he turned it over to me.
'Got it this time?' 'Got it.' We entered into the stall. This time I found my feet. You know those things at the end of your legs, that you stand on, yeah, those. The the nose would start to drift, and I'd step, then I'd back it out and be ready for the next movement, nudge, watch, a little aileron, back and forth, the feet would move. Yeah, feet, those things you walk on, the things sitting on those rudder pedals. Feet, are supposed to move. We rode the stall down, I kept my heading, the feet dancing left, right, left, right. Whatever it would take. I broke into a grin, it made sense, I don't know why I couldn't have done it before. "Better?" I said into the mic, and my instructor laughed. 'Now your feet are awake! That's exactly what you need to do! Now do that on the landings too!"
We cleaned it up and he said 'I'm tired, take me back home.' Then he studiously looked out the side window to see if I knew where I was. Luckily I'd been paying attention, even during the steep turns and stalls. I knew we were south west of airport, and south of Spinks. Ever since he'd gotten me turned around in this area I have tried to pay a LOT of attention to where I've gone, and how long I've headed that way. So I started looking for the landmarks I knew should be around and fairly quickly found the plant in the far distance and saw the south end of the lake in the distance. So I made sure we were at 2500 feet and headed for the lake.
He seemed to like how quickly I located myself, asked where I'd land if I had an engine out, I said this field here, he asked how about that grass strip over there? I hadn't even noticed it. We talked a bit about how so many of the farmers have little strips on their property, and if I'd open my scan up a bit more I'd likely find one almost anywhere out in this area. He pointed out another one just ahead that was hard to see. As we tracked towards the end of the lake I kept looking for GKY. I thought I saw the hangers but couldn't see the runway. I mentioned how hard it was for me to see the runway from here and he asked what I could see, he told me to look again, but a little more to the right and then it was time for me to turn red. The runway was almost head on and easy to see, I'd just been looking in the wrong place for it. Just when I think I'm figuring out how to see those dang runways from the air they have to go hide and make me look foolish. ;)
As we came in over the south end of the lake he asked me where I'd land if I lost my engine now, I pointed to a field we could make if we did a 360 to lose altitude to get into it, or the other one just up off the left 45 of my view since we had no wind reported in the area by now. I called on the inbound 45 and joined up on the downwind, making all the radio calls. He told me this would be a power off landing, simulated engine failure. He pulled my power and I did my best to nail my glide, make my turn, make the radio calls. Make the last turn and keep half an eye on the airspeed. We looked high, I started to reach for the flaps and hesitated. 'You're instinct is right, follow it' So in went 10 degree's, then 20, then the full 30 and I kept me feet alive this time on the rudder as we went into the flare, I started to drift again, tried to keep it straight and we touched down. It wasn't perfect, but it was one of the best of the day.
All in all, a good lesson. Playing in that falling leaf stall REALLY pushed home the rudder usage at slow speeds to me. I may have to do that again a time or two. It really seems to wake up my feet and connect the neurons.
solo? what's that? sometime after I figure out how to stop making mistakes in the landings, sometime after I get the centerline nailed. I'm not worried. I'd much rather be a safe, competent pilot than one who solos at 10 hours. It'll come :)
--2.1 hours
--8 landings