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slipstreamsurfrA beautiful evening was on tap for todays flight. I pick up the book and preflight the plane. Fuel is pumped. I'm briefed. We are to take off, fly south, Mischa will take the controls, I'll don the hood, take back the controls, then tune the MAVERICK VOR and find out what radial we are on and fly along it.
Sounds simple right? Off we go, cleared to take off and I pull out on the runway, line up and apply full power and start the roll. The plane is flying well, my feet seem awake. This will be fine. Rotation and I'm off and climbing, tracking out on the centerline, not bad. He takes the controls and I don the hood. We fly south a little bit further until the tower clears us to change frequencies.
Mischa gives me headings, altitudes. I do my best to match them. It's time to figure out where we are, MAVERICK is already tuned on the VOR and it's time to spin the OBS to find it. Radial 180 we are on. I turn to match the heading, trying to capture it. We climb a bit more. My level offs are good under the hood. Managing power and speed.
He calls for some turns. The first one is sloppy and I overshoot my heading. He calls for another turn and this time I watch it closer and anticipate the roll out and nail it. Very nice Mischa says. Do it again. Another turn, another nail. I can do this stuff. We try some steep turns under the hood. Not as good, but not too bad. One way, then the other. I miss rolling out of them on my heading. I'm spending to much time concentrating on trying to not gain or lose too much altitude on this.
Now it's time to play a game. I am to take my hands off the controls, place them on my knees, close my eyes, put my chin on my chest and try to rest my left ear on my shoulder. Then Mischa will say my airplane and I am to attempt to turn, left or right, a 20 degree bank without losing or gaining any altitude. When he says look, I'm to look at the instrument panel and figure out what I've done and fix it. Sounds simple right? How bad can I mess up a 20 degree bank turn right?
You know what's coming don't you. When I'm told to open my eyes I'm in a 45 to 50 degree banked turn descending and a HIGH rate of speed. I roll the wings level and start to pull the nose up before I pull back the power. Close to the right sequence I'm told. Next time pull the power back first, you were at 130 to 140 knots. Things are settled again and we do the routine again. Again, I keep things a little better for a little longer before I'm told to look again and I've got to recover again. This time the inputs are correct. Power comes out first as I fix my wings and nose, airspeed back in the green arc and it's time to add the power back in and things stabilize. Fun game. Mischa checks, are you doing okay? I'm doing okay I tell him.
Good he says. Now I am to take my hands off and put my head down and he'll do all kinds of strange things and then set it in something for me to recover. Ready? Ready I tell him. The eyes close, the head goes down and he's twisting the plane all over the sky. Recover. I look up, I've never seen the attitude indicator look like that before. It was really way over and the nose was way down. the VSI is showing move than a 2000 fpm descent. Power out, roll the wings level and pull the nose up. Speed back in the green arc, power back in and recovery. Not bad. Again. I close my eyes, he sets another one up. This time I've felt dives, what had to be 45 degree or better turns, climbs. Recover. The nose is way, way up and over to the side. I'm fooled at first because the airspeed is high, but plummets because he had to have just come out of a dive when he released it to me. I fumble a moment with the power before I realize how he's set me up and I fix it. The wings rolled level, the nose is pushed, far too hard and I recover. He lets me know that I don't have to push the nose quite that hard next time. Just enough to start it down. But he admits he set up a weird one for me. Again, we do some more. Each time, the recovery is a bit surer, a bit quicker. The instincts are there now. The VSI has been pegged on both greater than 2000 fpm up and greater than 2000 fpm down during our play. Mischa checks again, are you still doing okay? Just fine I answer, fun he asks? Yep I say, as long as it's only play, sure don't want to ever see it look like that on accident. Good point he says.
Now he calls for some stalls, first power off under the hood. Nicely done. and a recover. Then he calls for a power on stall. I rush the power back in at 60 knots and pull the nose, and keep pulling it hard until we stall. I'm trying for a good solid break and I get it. The nose goes down, the wing drops because my feet were slow and I start the recovery. This one is messy. Back up in a climb Mischa says that next time, just pull the nose back some and let the plane drop speed to stall, don't be so aggressive under the hood. I was thinking you were close to putting us in a spin. But your feet are awake and you picked up the wing when you needed to. Nice job on the recovery but lets try one a little less aggressive. I do another, this time just pitching maybe 20 to 30 degree's up on the nose and the speed comes off and we stall, a shudder, a mush, and I push forward to break it and reestablish the climb. Nice he says. Can we do another I ask? Sure he says. I set it up, pull it back, trying to get a better, cleaner break, a shudder, the wing tries to drop. I fix it with the rudder, we have really started losing altitude yet, a shudder and the other wing drops. I fix it with the rudder. This repeats again twice more before I give up and recover. Through it all we didn't lose much altitude, maybe 100 feet while I was trying to get a cleaner break. Mischa's laughing at me. Cool customer he says. Falling leaf stalls under the hood? I explained that I was trying to get a clean break on the power on stall. He laughs, nothing much is going to shake me he says.
We clean things up and he calls for a 600 to 700 fmp descent to 2000 feet from our current altitude of 4500. He calls for a heading and it's mostly north. So he's taking us back to GKY I guess. I adjust the throttle and start to pull 600 fpm at about 80 knots. No, Mischa says, let's keep it at 100 knots at 600 to 700 fpm. That turns out to be quite a challenge for me. I'm working it out under the hood. Holding my heading, I can get 600 fpm and 80 knots, so I need more speed. Pitch for speed, fpm goes up. That won't work. add power fpm comes down. Boxing it in slowly I get things set and trimmed up for a 600 fpm at 100 knots descent. Not too bad, just took a lot longer than I liked. Tune for weather at GKY I'm asked. Fiddle with the radio and flip the switch and we listen to the wind. I fix my heading that's been drifting a little. Flip the radio back to the tower frequency and I'm leveling off at 2000 feet. Let's turn on the NAV lights, it's starting to get dark. I find them on the panel and they are turned on, the heading wanders again a little, back it comes. Altitude is staying nailed for once. Little changes on the throttle and we are good. I'm instructed to call 7 miles out south east. I do so to the tower, told to report at 3 miles.
I'm asked to drop to 1700 feet and work it out at an easy 400 to 500 fpm descent. I can call 3 miles out. I make the call as I'm vectored in by Mischa. He brings me into a northerly heading and we've GOT to be in the downwind by now. The tower finishes with an IFR readback and I'm talking to them, telling them that we are turning base. Mischa takes the plane and I remove the hood. The plane is given back and he says land it from here. However you like, flaps, or slip. I opt for the slip because I haven't done them as much lately. I'm high, so hold it in at 75 to 80 knots on the way down, fighting for the centerline, it's hard, but it's more or less there. I hold it in a long ways down then let it out, dropping the nose again when I let the slip out and picking up some speed again. Next time will be better. The plane is close to the centerline, but still not quite where I want it and I plant those stripes coming right at my nose. I want no comments from the right seat about missing it this time. An easy flare and the speed is easing out and we are down with barely a chirp from the tires. Power in smoothly and we are climbing out again.
Not bad, about perfect I hear. Mischa and I talk a bit about the slip, how I picked up speed when I dropped the nose coming out of it. We set things up on the downwind. Mischa asks, last one? Last one I tell him. I radio the tower Cessna 956 downwind full stop. We are cleared for landing full stop and as I hit the end of the runway Mischa pulls the power back. Put her down within the first 1000 feet he says. 1000 feet I'm thinking? This will be a challenge. I pitch for 70 knots, but I'm way high, so opt for 80 instead, talking it through on the headset so he doesn't think I'm just flowing my speed for no reason. I start the turn for the runway almost immediately after he pulled the engine. I've been caught before by him by going too far away before turning. I'm high, and know it, so I square up the base leg, trading some altitude for time and distance. Turning final I'm still way high, so put in a full slip at 80 knots. We are dropping, but still going to be high. Flaps Mischa says. Use ALL your tools. I hesitate, the notation in the POH and the placard about avoiding flaps with the flaps extended, it said avoid, not prohibit. The model 172 I'm flying is limited to 30 degrees of flaps anyway, I shouldn't blank the elevator, the flaps go in and I'm being super critical on how things are feeling. Things are steepened up nicely now, I let go of the slip pretty late, and it's getting dark, my attitude is still a bit more nose low than Mischa is comfortable with and I know I should ease the nose up a bit more but I'm trying to lose the speed before I totally blow my 1000 foot limit. I lift the nose a little and feel the speed bleeding off and I work at it, easing it down and Mischa is still uptight. I land, the nose off the ground, but not by much.
He'd have been happier with the nose higher but over all, not a bad landing. We talk about it as we are taxing back to parking, next time, perhaps extend the downwind a little more, he asks about my hesitation on the flaps in the slip, we talk about that one while we walk back to the school. I mention the notation in the PIM, on the placard. He asks me what I think about it, I told him that it says avoid, it didn't tell me NOT to do them. He nods, next time perhaps, I won't be quite so timid as to run them in if I need them. He did notice that I was paying a LOT of attention to control responsiveness after I put them in, and that was good. Next time, lift the nose a little more. :)
We talk about things around the table. He asks what's left. 3 hours check ride prep. He quizzes me on my solo time. I tell him what I'm at, he asks cross country? I tell him that one too. He looks surprised, we really are at the clean up stage aren't we he asked. There's a few more things I want to work on with him. My DE likes to see training for class B airspace operations, so we'll do that, and work on my short field/soft field landings/take offs. Tighten up the maneuvers. Things are looking good. He complimented me on my hood work. He said he was really impressed by my multi-tasking even at this stage. He could tell when I'd start to get overloaded, but I could deal with it, then pull it back together. He said I could make a good instrument pilot someday.
A GREAT afternoon flying.
--1.0 dual
--0.6 hood work (the last I needed!!)
--2 landings
Sounds simple right? Off we go, cleared to take off and I pull out on the runway, line up and apply full power and start the roll. The plane is flying well, my feet seem awake. This will be fine. Rotation and I'm off and climbing, tracking out on the centerline, not bad. He takes the controls and I don the hood. We fly south a little bit further until the tower clears us to change frequencies.
Mischa gives me headings, altitudes. I do my best to match them. It's time to figure out where we are, MAVERICK is already tuned on the VOR and it's time to spin the OBS to find it. Radial 180 we are on. I turn to match the heading, trying to capture it. We climb a bit more. My level offs are good under the hood. Managing power and speed.
He calls for some turns. The first one is sloppy and I overshoot my heading. He calls for another turn and this time I watch it closer and anticipate the roll out and nail it. Very nice Mischa says. Do it again. Another turn, another nail. I can do this stuff. We try some steep turns under the hood. Not as good, but not too bad. One way, then the other. I miss rolling out of them on my heading. I'm spending to much time concentrating on trying to not gain or lose too much altitude on this.
Now it's time to play a game. I am to take my hands off the controls, place them on my knees, close my eyes, put my chin on my chest and try to rest my left ear on my shoulder. Then Mischa will say my airplane and I am to attempt to turn, left or right, a 20 degree bank without losing or gaining any altitude. When he says look, I'm to look at the instrument panel and figure out what I've done and fix it. Sounds simple right? How bad can I mess up a 20 degree bank turn right?
You know what's coming don't you. When I'm told to open my eyes I'm in a 45 to 50 degree banked turn descending and a HIGH rate of speed. I roll the wings level and start to pull the nose up before I pull back the power. Close to the right sequence I'm told. Next time pull the power back first, you were at 130 to 140 knots. Things are settled again and we do the routine again. Again, I keep things a little better for a little longer before I'm told to look again and I've got to recover again. This time the inputs are correct. Power comes out first as I fix my wings and nose, airspeed back in the green arc and it's time to add the power back in and things stabilize. Fun game. Mischa checks, are you doing okay? I'm doing okay I tell him.
Good he says. Now I am to take my hands off and put my head down and he'll do all kinds of strange things and then set it in something for me to recover. Ready? Ready I tell him. The eyes close, the head goes down and he's twisting the plane all over the sky. Recover. I look up, I've never seen the attitude indicator look like that before. It was really way over and the nose was way down. the VSI is showing move than a 2000 fpm descent. Power out, roll the wings level and pull the nose up. Speed back in the green arc, power back in and recovery. Not bad. Again. I close my eyes, he sets another one up. This time I've felt dives, what had to be 45 degree or better turns, climbs. Recover. The nose is way, way up and over to the side. I'm fooled at first because the airspeed is high, but plummets because he had to have just come out of a dive when he released it to me. I fumble a moment with the power before I realize how he's set me up and I fix it. The wings rolled level, the nose is pushed, far too hard and I recover. He lets me know that I don't have to push the nose quite that hard next time. Just enough to start it down. But he admits he set up a weird one for me. Again, we do some more. Each time, the recovery is a bit surer, a bit quicker. The instincts are there now. The VSI has been pegged on both greater than 2000 fpm up and greater than 2000 fpm down during our play. Mischa checks again, are you still doing okay? Just fine I answer, fun he asks? Yep I say, as long as it's only play, sure don't want to ever see it look like that on accident. Good point he says.
Now he calls for some stalls, first power off under the hood. Nicely done. and a recover. Then he calls for a power on stall. I rush the power back in at 60 knots and pull the nose, and keep pulling it hard until we stall. I'm trying for a good solid break and I get it. The nose goes down, the wing drops because my feet were slow and I start the recovery. This one is messy. Back up in a climb Mischa says that next time, just pull the nose back some and let the plane drop speed to stall, don't be so aggressive under the hood. I was thinking you were close to putting us in a spin. But your feet are awake and you picked up the wing when you needed to. Nice job on the recovery but lets try one a little less aggressive. I do another, this time just pitching maybe 20 to 30 degree's up on the nose and the speed comes off and we stall, a shudder, a mush, and I push forward to break it and reestablish the climb. Nice he says. Can we do another I ask? Sure he says. I set it up, pull it back, trying to get a better, cleaner break, a shudder, the wing tries to drop. I fix it with the rudder, we have really started losing altitude yet, a shudder and the other wing drops. I fix it with the rudder. This repeats again twice more before I give up and recover. Through it all we didn't lose much altitude, maybe 100 feet while I was trying to get a cleaner break. Mischa's laughing at me. Cool customer he says. Falling leaf stalls under the hood? I explained that I was trying to get a clean break on the power on stall. He laughs, nothing much is going to shake me he says.
We clean things up and he calls for a 600 to 700 fmp descent to 2000 feet from our current altitude of 4500. He calls for a heading and it's mostly north. So he's taking us back to GKY I guess. I adjust the throttle and start to pull 600 fpm at about 80 knots. No, Mischa says, let's keep it at 100 knots at 600 to 700 fpm. That turns out to be quite a challenge for me. I'm working it out under the hood. Holding my heading, I can get 600 fpm and 80 knots, so I need more speed. Pitch for speed, fpm goes up. That won't work. add power fpm comes down. Boxing it in slowly I get things set and trimmed up for a 600 fpm at 100 knots descent. Not too bad, just took a lot longer than I liked. Tune for weather at GKY I'm asked. Fiddle with the radio and flip the switch and we listen to the wind. I fix my heading that's been drifting a little. Flip the radio back to the tower frequency and I'm leveling off at 2000 feet. Let's turn on the NAV lights, it's starting to get dark. I find them on the panel and they are turned on, the heading wanders again a little, back it comes. Altitude is staying nailed for once. Little changes on the throttle and we are good. I'm instructed to call 7 miles out south east. I do so to the tower, told to report at 3 miles.
I'm asked to drop to 1700 feet and work it out at an easy 400 to 500 fpm descent. I can call 3 miles out. I make the call as I'm vectored in by Mischa. He brings me into a northerly heading and we've GOT to be in the downwind by now. The tower finishes with an IFR readback and I'm talking to them, telling them that we are turning base. Mischa takes the plane and I remove the hood. The plane is given back and he says land it from here. However you like, flaps, or slip. I opt for the slip because I haven't done them as much lately. I'm high, so hold it in at 75 to 80 knots on the way down, fighting for the centerline, it's hard, but it's more or less there. I hold it in a long ways down then let it out, dropping the nose again when I let the slip out and picking up some speed again. Next time will be better. The plane is close to the centerline, but still not quite where I want it and I plant those stripes coming right at my nose. I want no comments from the right seat about missing it this time. An easy flare and the speed is easing out and we are down with barely a chirp from the tires. Power in smoothly and we are climbing out again.
Not bad, about perfect I hear. Mischa and I talk a bit about the slip, how I picked up speed when I dropped the nose coming out of it. We set things up on the downwind. Mischa asks, last one? Last one I tell him. I radio the tower Cessna 956 downwind full stop. We are cleared for landing full stop and as I hit the end of the runway Mischa pulls the power back. Put her down within the first 1000 feet he says. 1000 feet I'm thinking? This will be a challenge. I pitch for 70 knots, but I'm way high, so opt for 80 instead, talking it through on the headset so he doesn't think I'm just flowing my speed for no reason. I start the turn for the runway almost immediately after he pulled the engine. I've been caught before by him by going too far away before turning. I'm high, and know it, so I square up the base leg, trading some altitude for time and distance. Turning final I'm still way high, so put in a full slip at 80 knots. We are dropping, but still going to be high. Flaps Mischa says. Use ALL your tools. I hesitate, the notation in the POH and the placard about avoiding flaps with the flaps extended, it said avoid, not prohibit. The model 172 I'm flying is limited to 30 degrees of flaps anyway, I shouldn't blank the elevator, the flaps go in and I'm being super critical on how things are feeling. Things are steepened up nicely now, I let go of the slip pretty late, and it's getting dark, my attitude is still a bit more nose low than Mischa is comfortable with and I know I should ease the nose up a bit more but I'm trying to lose the speed before I totally blow my 1000 foot limit. I lift the nose a little and feel the speed bleeding off and I work at it, easing it down and Mischa is still uptight. I land, the nose off the ground, but not by much.
He'd have been happier with the nose higher but over all, not a bad landing. We talk about it as we are taxing back to parking, next time, perhaps extend the downwind a little more, he asks about my hesitation on the flaps in the slip, we talk about that one while we walk back to the school. I mention the notation in the PIM, on the placard. He asks me what I think about it, I told him that it says avoid, it didn't tell me NOT to do them. He nods, next time perhaps, I won't be quite so timid as to run them in if I need them. He did notice that I was paying a LOT of attention to control responsiveness after I put them in, and that was good. Next time, lift the nose a little more. :)
We talk about things around the table. He asks what's left. 3 hours check ride prep. He quizzes me on my solo time. I tell him what I'm at, he asks cross country? I tell him that one too. He looks surprised, we really are at the clean up stage aren't we he asked. There's a few more things I want to work on with him. My DE likes to see training for class B airspace operations, so we'll do that, and work on my short field/soft field landings/take offs. Tighten up the maneuvers. Things are looking good. He complimented me on my hood work. He said he was really impressed by my multi-tasking even at this stage. He could tell when I'd start to get overloaded, but I could deal with it, then pull it back together. He said I could make a good instrument pilot someday.
A GREAT afternoon flying.
--1.0 dual
--0.6 hood work (the last I needed!!)
--2 landings