I'm human - Lesson 23
Jul. 22nd, 2006 08:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipstreamsurfrSo today was going to be a bit of a recap lesson. Touch on stalls, then shoot some landings.
We departed on runway 34 at GKY today because we had a little front come through. That means it only got to 98 today, instead of 106.
We cut east and across the dam at Joe Pool lake just to the north and east of the Cedar Hill towers. I talked to Grand Prairie tower this time and they cleared us to transition on the south end of them. We headed in the general direction of Midway and proceeded to work on some power off stalls.
They were okay, the feet were staying alive. Headings were staying down okay. Recovery was even well within PTS standards. But Mischa kept fine tuning them with me, trying to get me to get the nose up a bit faster, establish the climb attitude a bit quicker. He's trying to build the tolerance in so tight that when I hit the practical it'll be no sweat, even if I'm nervous and blow it to my standards it'll still be well within the examiners. I don't mind. It's time well spent.
We head over to Midway (JWY) and they are using 36 today. I overfly the field and attempt an overhead teardrop entry into their pattern but botched it. I was too close to the field when I tried to set up the turn. Lesson learned, I'll do better next time.
In the pattern we are following a helicopter around. He's going a long way out on the downwind and finally turns for the base then final. He's moving slow so I delay my turn. I eventually turn somewhere over the next county and call my base and final. Centerline control was good, speed control was fast, I'll claim because I was distracted by the helicopter, but I really should have been flying better than that. So I ended up fast on the approach, flared it, floated a bit got pushed off the centerline by a gust, put us back on it and landed it, the nose came down and I had left in the rudder and we, of course, started to track to the weeds. Fix that, put us back on the centerline and power up and we are off again.
Second time around I managed the pattern a bit better, ended up a bit too far out on my downwind side, so had far too long on base before I could turn final. This one I ended up low at. red over red. I saw red over red. I knew we were low. I delayed adding power. I should have added the power the moment we were low. I know better. Get my head on straight. Added the power, brought it in, flared it, planted it, an okay landing.
Third time around I finally got my pattern together nicely. My turns were good, my radio work was good. I turned and started to ride down final, and we were a little low, I added power, brought her in, cut the power, flared, and landed, decent.. Still a bit off the centerline, next time I'll line up with the runway centerline, not the yellow taxi stripe on the runway.
Fourth time around things were good, but we were low again. I added power, pitched to keep the airspeed I wanted with the new power. Came in, cut the power, but kept the nose up. Of course the airspeed bled off quickly, we were sinking at a much higher rate than I wanted. I knew it would be firm. I should have either pulled the elevator a bit more back at the last moment to provide just one last bit of umph to soften the landing, or a touch of power. I did neither, and I planted it. umph! Rolling it down the runway, tracking it straight, we add power and off we go again. Talking about what I did wrong. Asking why I seemed to give up at the last moment. When I saw that we were going to touch down a bit hard, I stopped working the elevator. The rudders were still going, but the ailerons and elevator were stock still. Don't give it up, keep after it.
I shouldn't have had that problem. I'm better than that. One last chance here today to redeem myself and then we head home.
I fly the pattern, nail my airspeed. Keep it nailed. Make my turns, make my radio calls. I'm low again, power on, keeping it lined up, working it, hit a bit of weird turbulence at the end of the runway that rocks the wings pretty hard, keep things together, line it up, drifting just a bit sideways as I touch down. It wasn't my best landing, but it wasn't bad. If I had gotten rid of the side drift all the way, it would have been pretty close to good.
We head back to GKY, talking a bit about airplanes, we'd heard Carol in her Citabra join up in our pattern towards the end of my time there. He's talking about maybe picking up his tailwheel add on. There is no one in the pattern at GKY, I ask if he'd like something like a straight in for 34, just to do something different. He says sure. I get us over there, get us lined up. We are high, but I keep us high over the trees. I'm afraid of branches. ;) I finally say I need a slip if we are going to hit the touchdown markers.
I put in the rudder, lower the wing and I slip, but I'm sliding away from the runway, and I'm low, and I try to add more aileron, and I'm still sliding, and I add more aileron, and then I do the very bad thing. I pull the nose. It happened when I added the last of the aileron I was willing to commit to move us back to the runway. I unconsciously pulled the nose up, the airspeed fell, I heard it in the cockpit noise, relaxed the slip, dropped the nose as I glanced at the airspeed indicator, then back out of the cockpit. I was far off the centerline. I had work to do in order to get us back to where we needed to be. I got us over, got us lined up, got us straight, flared us, just past the touchdown markers and set her down nice and slow, braked, made the turn off, cleaned up the airplane. He taxied us in.
Asked me what I did wrong. I told him. I pulled the nose up, in a slip, when we were low and slow. He said, and thats? WRONG I told him. I know better. I explained to him why I thought it happened. He asked 'and the next time?' I told him there won't be a next time. Never EVER pull the nose in a slip. He said good. That he'd never seen me do that before, he figured that something just got out of wack accidently, and that this was a good learning experience if it impressed upon me to NEVER let it happen again. He then went on to say though that it was a darn good landing. When I let the slip out I was far out of position but I never once gave up, I worked it all the way into the flare and put us right where we needed to be.
We decided that it's been 6 days since I last flew. Tomorrow, it'll all be fresh again, he's going to try to do the second supervised solo with me, so that I can then take the plane out on my own. He's already had me schedule for wednesday night on my own, shoot some landings, go fly over Lake Arlington a little. Friday night will be my night cross country. Tyler, and someplace else I have to pick. Any suggestions?
I'm human. Tomorrow the landings will work better for me. They'll be fresher. Even at the worst today, I saw the problems, got myself out of them, and fixed my landings. Now I've got to work on not causing the problems to start with. ;)
--1.3 hours
--6 landings
We departed on runway 34 at GKY today because we had a little front come through. That means it only got to 98 today, instead of 106.
We cut east and across the dam at Joe Pool lake just to the north and east of the Cedar Hill towers. I talked to Grand Prairie tower this time and they cleared us to transition on the south end of them. We headed in the general direction of Midway and proceeded to work on some power off stalls.
They were okay, the feet were staying alive. Headings were staying down okay. Recovery was even well within PTS standards. But Mischa kept fine tuning them with me, trying to get me to get the nose up a bit faster, establish the climb attitude a bit quicker. He's trying to build the tolerance in so tight that when I hit the practical it'll be no sweat, even if I'm nervous and blow it to my standards it'll still be well within the examiners. I don't mind. It's time well spent.
We head over to Midway (JWY) and they are using 36 today. I overfly the field and attempt an overhead teardrop entry into their pattern but botched it. I was too close to the field when I tried to set up the turn. Lesson learned, I'll do better next time.
In the pattern we are following a helicopter around. He's going a long way out on the downwind and finally turns for the base then final. He's moving slow so I delay my turn. I eventually turn somewhere over the next county and call my base and final. Centerline control was good, speed control was fast, I'll claim because I was distracted by the helicopter, but I really should have been flying better than that. So I ended up fast on the approach, flared it, floated a bit got pushed off the centerline by a gust, put us back on it and landed it, the nose came down and I had left in the rudder and we, of course, started to track to the weeds. Fix that, put us back on the centerline and power up and we are off again.
Second time around I managed the pattern a bit better, ended up a bit too far out on my downwind side, so had far too long on base before I could turn final. This one I ended up low at. red over red. I saw red over red. I knew we were low. I delayed adding power. I should have added the power the moment we were low. I know better. Get my head on straight. Added the power, brought it in, flared it, planted it, an okay landing.
Third time around I finally got my pattern together nicely. My turns were good, my radio work was good. I turned and started to ride down final, and we were a little low, I added power, brought her in, cut the power, flared, and landed, decent.. Still a bit off the centerline, next time I'll line up with the runway centerline, not the yellow taxi stripe on the runway.
Fourth time around things were good, but we were low again. I added power, pitched to keep the airspeed I wanted with the new power. Came in, cut the power, but kept the nose up. Of course the airspeed bled off quickly, we were sinking at a much higher rate than I wanted. I knew it would be firm. I should have either pulled the elevator a bit more back at the last moment to provide just one last bit of umph to soften the landing, or a touch of power. I did neither, and I planted it. umph! Rolling it down the runway, tracking it straight, we add power and off we go again. Talking about what I did wrong. Asking why I seemed to give up at the last moment. When I saw that we were going to touch down a bit hard, I stopped working the elevator. The rudders were still going, but the ailerons and elevator were stock still. Don't give it up, keep after it.
I shouldn't have had that problem. I'm better than that. One last chance here today to redeem myself and then we head home.
I fly the pattern, nail my airspeed. Keep it nailed. Make my turns, make my radio calls. I'm low again, power on, keeping it lined up, working it, hit a bit of weird turbulence at the end of the runway that rocks the wings pretty hard, keep things together, line it up, drifting just a bit sideways as I touch down. It wasn't my best landing, but it wasn't bad. If I had gotten rid of the side drift all the way, it would have been pretty close to good.
We head back to GKY, talking a bit about airplanes, we'd heard Carol in her Citabra join up in our pattern towards the end of my time there. He's talking about maybe picking up his tailwheel add on. There is no one in the pattern at GKY, I ask if he'd like something like a straight in for 34, just to do something different. He says sure. I get us over there, get us lined up. We are high, but I keep us high over the trees. I'm afraid of branches. ;) I finally say I need a slip if we are going to hit the touchdown markers.
I put in the rudder, lower the wing and I slip, but I'm sliding away from the runway, and I'm low, and I try to add more aileron, and I'm still sliding, and I add more aileron, and then I do the very bad thing. I pull the nose. It happened when I added the last of the aileron I was willing to commit to move us back to the runway. I unconsciously pulled the nose up, the airspeed fell, I heard it in the cockpit noise, relaxed the slip, dropped the nose as I glanced at the airspeed indicator, then back out of the cockpit. I was far off the centerline. I had work to do in order to get us back to where we needed to be. I got us over, got us lined up, got us straight, flared us, just past the touchdown markers and set her down nice and slow, braked, made the turn off, cleaned up the airplane. He taxied us in.
Asked me what I did wrong. I told him. I pulled the nose up, in a slip, when we were low and slow. He said, and thats? WRONG I told him. I know better. I explained to him why I thought it happened. He asked 'and the next time?' I told him there won't be a next time. Never EVER pull the nose in a slip. He said good. That he'd never seen me do that before, he figured that something just got out of wack accidently, and that this was a good learning experience if it impressed upon me to NEVER let it happen again. He then went on to say though that it was a darn good landing. When I let the slip out I was far out of position but I never once gave up, I worked it all the way into the flare and put us right where we needed to be.
We decided that it's been 6 days since I last flew. Tomorrow, it'll all be fresh again, he's going to try to do the second supervised solo with me, so that I can then take the plane out on my own. He's already had me schedule for wednesday night on my own, shoot some landings, go fly over Lake Arlington a little. Friday night will be my night cross country. Tyler, and someplace else I have to pick. Any suggestions?
I'm human. Tomorrow the landings will work better for me. They'll be fresher. Even at the worst today, I saw the problems, got myself out of them, and fixed my landings. Now I've got to work on not causing the problems to start with. ;)
--1.3 hours
--6 landings