Lesson 16 -- First solo in the practice area

Great flight today even though I made one major mistake (more on that later). Today I scheduled to take N5359K out for my first solo into the practice area. I tried this yesterday but the winds were over both my overall and crosswind limits. Today's winds were forecasted to be light and sure enough the 0547 metar from Addison reported winds as calm.

So I got my standard briefing from Duats (there's a lot of stuff there, 25 printed pages worth!) and there was no Addison metar for the 0600 hour but the other area airports were reporting calm winds (Love field, McKinney, Mesquite) or 360/300-degrees at 4kts (DFW, Redbird).

Preflight was uneventful even though this was my first time with 59K. My first lookover, though, I did find a full quart of oil in the baggage area so I made sure to triple-check the oil level reading when I got around to the nose. I got in and strapped in ... hey it's so roomy in here all by my lonesome. Got the engine started on the first try. I tuned in the Addison ATIS and there was a new report ... 0747L winds 040 7kts 15sm vis sky clear altimeter 3014 . Well now there's a little wind but I can handle that.

So I finish the checklist, call up ground control and are cleared to runway 15. Can you see my mistake yet? I didn't.

Takeoff was great, lifted off around 65-knots and instantly weathervaned into the crosswind. But I hit my 74 kias climbout speed, made my left turns and was soon at 2000' and following Preston Road to the North.

There was another Monarch student soloing ahead of me and I couldn't see him but after the "good day" from the tower I switched to the Aero Country frequency and heard him giving position reports. Aero Country is a small uncontrolled airport in the middle of the practice area that (now that Spring is here) is really busy on the weekends. I made one position report and then after just listened to everyone else and kept my eyes outside the plane. I saw the other Monarch student once but other than that didn't see a soul the whole time I was in the area.

Despite not having C in the right seat the plane didn't feel as unusually light as it did when I did my solo in the pattern. I had no problem trimming and maintaining my altitude and heading on the way outbound. The air was very smooth and clear for about 10 miles or so, then you could see the usual smoggy haze.

I went to a rural area south of where the other student was practicing and did a lot of s-turns and turns around a point. They sucked at first, but I quickly got the hang of it and managed to keep everything within standards. After doing that I climbed back up to 2500' and did a couple of forward slips following a road. In the past I get nervous entering and exiting from this maneuver. I still need to do more but these are beginning to feel more comfortable.

Then I decided to have some fun and climbed up to 3000' to do steep turns. On my last progress check flight I did these pretty well, but today .... umm not so good. I had a hard time controlling my speed and my altitude. So it's obvious that I need to practice this more, which is great because I love doing them! It reminds me of that old amusement park ride where you'd get in this spinning barrel-like contraption that spins and pins you against the wall. Like a NASA centrifugal trainer but without all the safety features and operated by a guy named Bubba. OK OK so steep turns aren't quite like that but this is all new to me.

I gave myself a good half-hour to get back in to Addison and I needed it because the regional controller was super busy. I put myself into a holding pattern about 15 to 16 miles from the airport while I tried to get his attention. I was very careful to wait for a gap in the flow (that was the hard part) and then I'd call "Skyhawk 5359K with you." After three attempts he responded with a "standby". After a looooooong silence he gave someone else some instructions and then gave me a squawk code and asked me to ident. I did that and read it back but I finally had to prompt again because I got lost in the flow. He had me ident again, told me to hold altitude and head straight in and contact the tower. So I did.

The tower cleared me to a straight in landing on runway 15. The winds now were 050 at 8 kts but I was ready for the challenge. The other student ended up behind me because he had traveled over to McKinney Airport; I think he was doing his short cross country. The landing was pretty uneventful though I was rather nervous about it. A biz jet took off before me and the tower warned me of wake turbulence and I took note of where he rotated (a long way down the runway). I easily landed before that point, though I did float a bit. The landing was decent, on the centerline, nose pointed forward, left wing down a bit though both mains plunked down at the same time with the nose wheel following quickly. Not a flat landing but a bit close. At least my speed was in the correct range.

I made the taxi back, secured the plane and handed over the paperwork at 1005. 5 minutes late, but I didn't notice anyone waiting and pacing.

So what did I do wrong? Well there were some little things ... I need to get more comfortable with the chart and giving position reports. I always knew generally where I was but I couldn't always put my finger on the map and say "I'm here". Also, I need to learn how use the GPS. Not as a replacement for pilotage, but because if I do get turned around I will know how to use it to get myself oriented. After all, it is there blinking at me.

The big thing? Awareness of the wind and get-there-itis. Now, if you had asked me when I was climbing into the plane if I was determined to do this flight I would have said no. But, subconsciously I obviously was determined to make the flight because even when I set the heading bug on the HSI to the reported wind direction (and saw that it was a 110-degree crosswind) I didn't stop and check the crosswind table. The crosswind was 7 kts and my limit is 5 kts. I absolutely should not have made this flight.

And again, returning to Addison I wrote the ATIS report (040-degrees at 8 kts which is an 8 kts crosswind) down on my lapboard but it never entered my mind to check the crosswind table. Not that it would have made a difference, all the local airports that I could divert to have runways oriented in basically the same direction (except DFW but that's not an option).

Now, I could say this is no big deal because the 5 kts limit is an artificial limit set by the school, it's not a limitation of the aircraft. And I've landed in an 8 kts crosswind before with my instructor in the right seat. But I consider it a big "head up my ass" moment because as much as I'm absorbing .. studying, flying the simulator, reading every magazine and training article I can get my hands on, every freaking waking moment, cd-rom lessons, watching dvd programs on safety ... I still had my head up my ass. And this flight could have easily turned out worse.

The more I write this and think about this the angrier I'm getting at myself. I think it's time to step back and take a hard look at my commitment to the training. Though I only plan to fly recreationally I cannot take a "recreational" attitude to the training. It's not enough to just say I'll do better next time. I really need to talk to my instructor about this flight. I'll let you know what happens.

This flight 1.5 hours
Total time 24.3 hours

Lesson 15

Finally!!!!! After 39 days I get to fly again! The wind was finally in my favor today. I met the Assistant Chief Instructor, S, at Monarch a little for a 1 pm progress check flight.

Today the winds were from 190 at 5 knots, broken clouds at 4500', 24-degrees centigrade and an altimeter of 3030. So on the ground it seemed like a great day for flying. But in reality under those clouds it was really choppy.

So, I was pretty nervous about today. It has been over a month since my last flight (8 March), not counting the trip around the pattern I made a couple of weeks ago. I feel pretty rusty, so I spent the last couple of days immersing myself in the Skyhawk information manual and my maneuvers book. And I think it paid off.

The pre-flight went pretty smoothly. This was my first flight in N72675, a 2001 172S. S came out when I was about halfway through the pre-flight and started asking me questions about the plane. How are the flight controls actuated? What kind of engine does it have? What's this thing (pointing to the pitot tube)? All pretty easy to answer and so I start to focus and relax.

We hop in and get settled and I start the plane on the first try ... =;-) ... I explain to S that I had never really used the GPS. Cameron had set it up sometimes to give me position information but mostly I just use the chart. And so I wasn't planning on using it today. He said that was fine.

We taxied out to the active and were just in time to see a gorgeous Cabin Waco landing. At least, it sure looked like a Cabin Waco. Unfortunately, I didn't get the reg number.

Take off was OK, I hit the target of 74 kias on climbout until we got into the chop. From here on our everything I did was "-ish". So that 74 kias became 74-ish kias. Two turns to the left and I was following Preston Road heading North to the practice area. On the way S asked me some questions about what altitudes where allowed when and where ... Addison is under a Class B. Once we got past highway 121 S asked me to climb to 2500'.

Once we were S asked me to make a couple of turns. First one 90-degrees to the left and then one 90-degrees to the right. OK, let's do some slow flight. "So I should consider those last turns my clearing turns?" That's right, he says. OK, so power out and the speed starts to drop off but so does our altitude. I have a lot of trouble holding 2500'. S recommends that we climb to 3000', so we do and try slow flight again. The air is a little smoother up here so I can actually get down to 45 knots without the stall warning horn going off like Morse code. If I was able to read Morse code it was probably saying something like, "hang in there chester". =;-0

Once stabilized at 45-50ish kias S had me do some turns and some climbs and descents. All went pretty well. Once we were stabilized the plane was pretty easy to handle. It was just getting there that was hard. Then S asked me a power-off stall. Yikes ... is it me or is it really hot and dry in here all of a sudden? It's just me. I'm already going slow so I say, let's use 2700' as the floor so I start pulling back on the yoke around 2800'. Pretty quickly there's the stall horn and the nose drops. I let the pressure on the yoke off and add in power and we're climbing again. S seemed pretty happy with it but I think we got down to at least 2600' so that's not good. But I did handle the rudder pedals correctly and had the wings level so I'm happy with that.

Next was a power-on stall. We climb back to 3000' and then I slow down to 55 kias which is our usual rotation speed. Now, the last time I did this my instructor, C, told me that all I needed to do was watch the attitude indicator and put the dot on 20-degrees and eventually the plane will stall. So that's what I did. Well, we just kept climbing and climbing. I was getting a lot of practice keeping the controls coordinated but finally I saw S reach for the yoke and start to gently pull it back. Finally, I felt the buffet and felt the bottom drop out. I never really did feel like the nose was falling, it was more like we had become an elevator instead of an airplane. So I initiated recovery and returned to 2500'. S seemed pretty happy with those.

Then S pulled the power out to simulate and engine failure. I got all the big stuff right, trim for 68 kias, look for a field to land in. But he started prompting me for the other steps. I know what they are and I know what to do but I felt like he was rushing me. We were about 2000' AGL so I had plenty of time to go through the checklist. And C had always told me to fly the plane first and do the un bolded checklist items when time allowed. Later, in the debriefing that was one of the things S mentioned, that I need to review the emergency procedures and act on them faster.

Next, S took the controls and handed me a hood. Oh boy, this is going to be an adventure. Once I had the controls back he had me do some turns, climbs, descents, climbing turns, and descending turns. I remembered from the last time I did this that all I needed to make were small inputs and I would get the results I wanted. Well, that is really really hard to do when the wind is bashing you around. I would start a shallow turn and then the wind seemed to bash us from underneath and I was all of sudden in a 30-degree bank. This seemed to go on forever, about 20 minutes only, though. But I was very relieved when he asked me to take off the hood.

So I got a good look around and realized I had no idea where we were. And of course, S says "Let's go to McKinney and do some touch and goes." Oy!

Well, I know our general position in relation to McKinney so I turn to the West and start comparing my chart to what's sliding by outside. Eventually, I come across a town with a really straight rail line running through it ... aahaa! We're over Celina. Next step is to find the interstate highway. Before I expected it we were there and I was having to hurry and set up the radio to call McKinney Tower (I should have done that earlier). Now I was getting rushed, there was some other traffic coming into and out of McKinney and so it wasn't until we were on base that I realized I hadn't done the approach checklist! Doh, so I quickly did the gumps check and made sure our lights were on. Then we were on final and I did a fairly decent touch and go. Taking off again I realized I wasn't sure which way the pattern was. The other traffic was either departing or was inbound so there had been no radio calls about it. So I got on the radio and asked "confirm left traffic" and they answered "affirmative". S commended me for that ... "if you're not sure about something always ask."

But then I went and made a 40-degree turn and S immediately told me to shallow out the turn. "Never made more than a 30-degree turn in the pattern!" We had to extend our downwind for an Aztec that was inbound. We didn't spot it until the tower mentioned it was on short final. Another mistake. I turned base and then quickly on final and S asked me to come in high and do a slip. I started to do the slip to the left and he suggested I do it to the right. When we straightened up on short final a gust hit us and everything went to hell. The nose yawed way over to the right and I tried to get it back straight and overcompensated and so we started yawing left. Just as I was thinking it S said go around. Whew, I really didn't want to make that landing. S said it was a wind shear. Whatever it was it wasn't fun.

We did one more pattern and this time S pulled the power out when we were abeam the numbers. This is no problem. I put the nose down a little to keep the speed up and turned base. Almost immediately S prompted me to turn more toward the runway so we really made more of a circling approach. I put the flaps down 10-degrees and then 20 degrees when it became obvious I was too high, imagine that. So I did a small slip to lose a little height and made a decent landing.

Leaving McKinney, S asked me to take us back to Addison and then he started looking out the window and singing to himself. Well, McKinney to Addison is actually pretty easy, stay 2500' or under and follow the highway. But watch out for that 1500' tower just to the west of McKinney. I tuned in the Addison ATIS and got the charlie information, winds were now 180 at 6 knots and the altimeter 3028. I then tuned in regional control and called them up. They asked me to turn to 170-degrees and maintain 2500'. That put us on course direct to Lake Lewisville. So we cruised along for a while and finally S asked me where Addison was. "Oh, it's right over there at our 10 o'clock." "Good, glad you know where we are."

Now S started asking me about different scenarios. What would you do if ... Some I got right some I didn't. Some were things I had never considered before.

After what seemed ages of this regional control calls us and hands us off to the tower. The tower gives us clearance for a straight in landing on runway 15. But while on final the tower asks us if we wouldn't mind stopping and picked up a piece of black plastic that was blowing on the runway! HA! S jumps on the radio and says sure we will. So I land and then S takes the controls and steers us over to the plastic ... it's hung up on one of the edgeway lights ... and he hops out and grabs it.

Then it's back to Monarch for a debriefing.

S gives me a few things to pay attention to ... never never bank over 30-degrees in the pattern ... memorize the emergency procedures ... and pay attention to holding altitude better. He said I was rusty but not that rusty and that overall I did a good job. Whew!

That's it. I'm cleared to make my first solo flight into the practice area, probably next weekend.

This lesson 1.7 hours
Under the hood 0.4 hours
Total 22.8 hours