Lesson 11
My last flight was on 1-23 and so I was really looking forward to today's lesson. Last weekend I was sick and cancelled and the weekend before the weather kept us on the ground. The outlook for today was looking pretty bad ... rain and low clouds. So this morning I got up and checked the NOAA Aviation Weather website and got the following:
Addison ADS
1247Z
temp 50F/dew point 39F
a3015
wind from 180 at 5 knots
visibility 15 miles
cloud cover info "missing"
Grayson County GYI
1245Z
temp 46F/dew point 36F
a3013
wind from 200 at 9 kts
visibility 10+ miles
scattered clouds at 4300
scattered clouds at 12000
I also looked up the latest TAF for Love Field (KDAL) and they were predicting that ceiling wouldn't come down until around noon (they predicted 4000'). My lesson was scheduled for 8am so things were looking up. I called the Fort Worth FSS and talked to a briefer who told me there was light rain reported at Grayson moving to the east at 30 knots and that the ceiling at Addison was reported as FL250. He also said that the winds at 3000' were reported as 24 knots from 230-degrees.
So the lesson is on!! I packed my stuff in the car and drove to Addison. I was a little apprehensive about today because I really felt rusty. And I haven't been studying as hard as I should be. But I just kept telling myself that I could handle anything my instructor threw at me and that the plan was to do a bunch of touch and goes so the worst that could happen would be a simulated engine out in the pattern.
C gave me the keys to the plane and asked me to preflight and then come back in the building, and then he asked for my logbook. Hmmm, ok. So I preflight the plane, everything on it looked great except the nose had a wash of what I first thought was oil streaked down one side. But it started right at the front edge of the cowling which would be a difficult place for oil to come out (we're talking Skyhawk here). So I stuck my finger in it and it definitely didn't feel like oil. Later, C said that it was some kind of graphite powder (maybe) that was used around the cowling as a fire retardant (maybe). It wasn't something that we needed to worry about.
Finishing the preflight I walked back in the building and C and I went upstairs to brief. He asked if I was ready to solo!? Umm, no, not really. We talked about where we left off last time and that I hadn't been to an uncontrolled airport yet. "Oh, OK, I thought we'd gotten further than that." Whew, no solo today. While I feel that in general I'm up to it. Having taken three weeks off from flying I definitely wanted some more practice before trying that.
So we took off for Grayson County to learn the uncontrolled airport pattern and do a bunch of touch and goes. The taxi and runup and takeoff went fine. I managed to do the flow during the runup and not rely on the checklist. I handled the radio and got all our clearances, etc. The takeoff was straight down the centerline and at 60 knots I gently pulled back the yoke and we started a 75 knot climb. And I managed to keep the speed pretty close to 75 all the way up to 2000'. After leveling off and turning north I did the cruise checklist ... checked fuel, brought the power down a little, pulled out the mixture, and trimmed for level flight. But I didn't SAY that I did this until finally I realized and said something to C. He laughed and said that he was about to pull out the POH and point to the section on checklists. Doh! I really got to remember to verbalize what I'm doing and thinking. Though, I'm sure he did see me doing the checklist items.
The flight up to Grayson only took about 18 minutes. Our southerly tailwind helped tremendously. The GPS said our groundspeed was around 143 knots. When we arrived we found one plane, another Skyhawk, in the pattern doing touch and goes. We had been monitoring the CTAF but hadn't heard anyone but once we got there we saw him. So we announced our intentions. The first couple of times around this guy kept silent. And I could tell that C was getting more and more angry about it. Then a twin arrived and announced a full stop (I can't remember the make and model). With three of us in the pattern this guy finally started making radio calls. But that was limited to once per pattern, generally when he was turning downwind.
Anyway, the first couple of times around C handled the radio so I could concentrate on flying and good thing he did because I was all over the place! Those three weeks really hurt! What was happening was that I was getting behind where I should be doing things. So intead of dropping my first notch of flaps at midfield on downwind I would do it when I was abeam the numbers. My speed was all messed up and I would lose too much altitude and come over the runway really flat. So when I pulled the power back to idle and flare the bottom would drop out and we'd smack down on the runway. Or I'd pull too hard on the yoke and we'd float. Once (ok maybe twice) we bounced pretty hard.
Finally, C took the controls and demonstrated the pattern and approach. After that it started getting better, but then he had me start to make the radio calls. The radio bit was easy, but I was getting distracted and would let the altitude drop too much in the turns and so was still coming in flat.
C did pull the power for a simulated engine out once. We would not have made the runway, I completely mismanaged the situation. I didn't trim for best glide quickly enough and we lost a lot of altitude before turning final. We did a go-around and C pointed out what I was doing wrong. That was an eye-opener. There's no fooling around here, I have got to get this right. Finally, it all started to come together and I started to do better. The last three were ok. On one my final approach was a mess but salvaged it and managed a decent landing. For the next two I was more controlled all the way around and managed a good approach and a good landing. All in all I did 11 touch-and-goes and all of them were great learning experiences, especially the really ugly ones.
For the flight back our lovely tailwind turned into a vicious headwind that at times made seem to be barely moving at all. The ceiling was most definitely dropping though the Addison ATIS was still reporting a ceiling around 8000'. Sure enough, we passed under some low clouds and got rained on but then it opened up and was remarkably clear near the airport. This was the first time for me to fly in the rain and it was much less of an experience than I thought it would be. It was a light rain though but it did give the plane a nice washing ... except that graphite stuff. It's incredibly stubborn.
I'm on the schedule for a lesson tomorrow but we're going to play it by ear. If we get a good crosswind then we'll go do some crosswind landings. Otherwise we're going to do a ground school session.
This flight: 2.1 hours
Total: 15.3 hours
Addison ADS
1247Z
temp 50F/dew point 39F
a3015
wind from 180 at 5 knots
visibility 15 miles
cloud cover info "missing"
Grayson County GYI
1245Z
temp 46F/dew point 36F
a3013
wind from 200 at 9 kts
visibility 10+ miles
scattered clouds at 4300
scattered clouds at 12000
I also looked up the latest TAF for Love Field (KDAL) and they were predicting that ceiling wouldn't come down until around noon (they predicted 4000'). My lesson was scheduled for 8am so things were looking up. I called the Fort Worth FSS and talked to a briefer who told me there was light rain reported at Grayson moving to the east at 30 knots and that the ceiling at Addison was reported as FL250. He also said that the winds at 3000' were reported as 24 knots from 230-degrees.
So the lesson is on!! I packed my stuff in the car and drove to Addison. I was a little apprehensive about today because I really felt rusty. And I haven't been studying as hard as I should be. But I just kept telling myself that I could handle anything my instructor threw at me and that the plan was to do a bunch of touch and goes so the worst that could happen would be a simulated engine out in the pattern.
C gave me the keys to the plane and asked me to preflight and then come back in the building, and then he asked for my logbook. Hmmm, ok. So I preflight the plane, everything on it looked great except the nose had a wash of what I first thought was oil streaked down one side. But it started right at the front edge of the cowling which would be a difficult place for oil to come out (we're talking Skyhawk here). So I stuck my finger in it and it definitely didn't feel like oil. Later, C said that it was some kind of graphite powder (maybe) that was used around the cowling as a fire retardant (maybe). It wasn't something that we needed to worry about.
Finishing the preflight I walked back in the building and C and I went upstairs to brief. He asked if I was ready to solo!? Umm, no, not really. We talked about where we left off last time and that I hadn't been to an uncontrolled airport yet. "Oh, OK, I thought we'd gotten further than that." Whew, no solo today. While I feel that in general I'm up to it. Having taken three weeks off from flying I definitely wanted some more practice before trying that.
So we took off for Grayson County to learn the uncontrolled airport pattern and do a bunch of touch and goes. The taxi and runup and takeoff went fine. I managed to do the flow during the runup and not rely on the checklist. I handled the radio and got all our clearances, etc. The takeoff was straight down the centerline and at 60 knots I gently pulled back the yoke and we started a 75 knot climb. And I managed to keep the speed pretty close to 75 all the way up to 2000'. After leveling off and turning north I did the cruise checklist ... checked fuel, brought the power down a little, pulled out the mixture, and trimmed for level flight. But I didn't SAY that I did this until finally I realized and said something to C. He laughed and said that he was about to pull out the POH and point to the section on checklists. Doh! I really got to remember to verbalize what I'm doing and thinking. Though, I'm sure he did see me doing the checklist items.
The flight up to Grayson only took about 18 minutes. Our southerly tailwind helped tremendously. The GPS said our groundspeed was around 143 knots. When we arrived we found one plane, another Skyhawk, in the pattern doing touch and goes. We had been monitoring the CTAF but hadn't heard anyone but once we got there we saw him. So we announced our intentions. The first couple of times around this guy kept silent. And I could tell that C was getting more and more angry about it. Then a twin arrived and announced a full stop (I can't remember the make and model). With three of us in the pattern this guy finally started making radio calls. But that was limited to once per pattern, generally when he was turning downwind.
Anyway, the first couple of times around C handled the radio so I could concentrate on flying and good thing he did because I was all over the place! Those three weeks really hurt! What was happening was that I was getting behind where I should be doing things. So intead of dropping my first notch of flaps at midfield on downwind I would do it when I was abeam the numbers. My speed was all messed up and I would lose too much altitude and come over the runway really flat. So when I pulled the power back to idle and flare the bottom would drop out and we'd smack down on the runway. Or I'd pull too hard on the yoke and we'd float. Once (ok maybe twice) we bounced pretty hard.
Finally, C took the controls and demonstrated the pattern and approach. After that it started getting better, but then he had me start to make the radio calls. The radio bit was easy, but I was getting distracted and would let the altitude drop too much in the turns and so was still coming in flat.
C did pull the power for a simulated engine out once. We would not have made the runway, I completely mismanaged the situation. I didn't trim for best glide quickly enough and we lost a lot of altitude before turning final. We did a go-around and C pointed out what I was doing wrong. That was an eye-opener. There's no fooling around here, I have got to get this right. Finally, it all started to come together and I started to do better. The last three were ok. On one my final approach was a mess but salvaged it and managed a decent landing. For the next two I was more controlled all the way around and managed a good approach and a good landing. All in all I did 11 touch-and-goes and all of them were great learning experiences, especially the really ugly ones.
For the flight back our lovely tailwind turned into a vicious headwind that at times made seem to be barely moving at all. The ceiling was most definitely dropping though the Addison ATIS was still reporting a ceiling around 8000'. Sure enough, we passed under some low clouds and got rained on but then it opened up and was remarkably clear near the airport. This was the first time for me to fly in the rain and it was much less of an experience than I thought it would be. It was a light rain though but it did give the plane a nice washing ... except that graphite stuff. It's incredibly stubborn.
I'm on the schedule for a lesson tomorrow but we're going to play it by ear. If we get a good crosswind then we'll go do some crosswind landings. Otherwise we're going to do a ground school session.
This flight: 2.1 hours
Total: 15.3 hours
posted by AirmanChet at
10:15
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