Lesson 19

What a fun lesson today! I was scheduled to take N358TW out at 0800 with my instructor, C, to practice VOR tracking. I was really looking forward to this new addition to the school's fleet because today's temp was to be in the low 90s and this plane has air conditioning! For the same rental charge as the other non-air conditioned Skyhawks.

(In Texas you would think they could charge extra for that)

But it wasn't to be. This beautiful, shiny 300-hour aircraft has an inoperative right fuel gauge. Doh!! I tried recycling the power a couple of times. I tapped on the gauge. I even tried tapping on the bottom of the wing. Nothing. Not even a flicker off the needle.

So I wrote up a squawk sheet and got dispatched with N21760 instead. 760 is a nice plane too. It's got about 1100 hours on the hobbs ... but it doesn't have AC. And when you're not going to get above 3000' on a 93-degree day, it sure would be nice to have that cool breeze.

I joked with C about it when he joined me during my preflight and he just laughed and said, "It doesn't matter. The AC on 8TW is broken."

Doh!

I show C my sectional where I had marked out the radials to take us to the Bonham VOR and then over to Grayson County Airport (KGYI). "That's nice, but I'm going to have you flight out here East of Addison and identify where we are and then track to Bonham." Oh, ok, sure that sounds easy.

So I finish the preflight and we hop in and taxi to runway 15 ahead of a Cirrus SR20 giving demonstration rides. And right behind a Liberty XL giving demonstration rides. Damnit! How do you find out about these things, I'd love to demo a Liberty.

After a normal takeoff and climb we depart to the Northeast and C asks me to locate what radial we're on. I already have BYP tuned into Nav 1 so I just turn up the volume and listen for the morse code. I have no idea what the morse code is really saying but what I hear matches what is printed on my sectional so I say, "yep, that's BYP." Then I start spinning the OBS until I have a TO indication and the needle centered.

"OK, just follow that radial until we cross the VOR." C tells me. Along the way he has me put on the hood and just use the instruments for reference. It's ok, the haze is unbelievable bad today so the view sucks. Unlike the CDI in MS Flight Simulator, in real life the CDI moves more like it has a mind of it's own. I quickly got into the situation of chasing the needle rather than flying headings and correcting for deviation. So this was a great lesson and I learned it's not as easy as the simulator makes it out to be.

Once we crossed BYP, C took the controls and circled and had me pick out the VOR on the ground. It was actually really hard to spot ... it's such a little thing out! I wonder if the people living around it have any idea what it is?

Then C twisted the OBS and said follow this radial. It looked strange but I didn't pick up quickly enough on why it didn't seem right and we ended up in a turn while I followed the needle away from the radial ... reverse sensing. Another Doh! We had talked about this but I still didn't recognize it when it happened.

Then we followed the 290-degree radial from BYP to Grayson County Airport. Arriving we had keep an eye out for a group of three Bonanzas practicing formation flying. We finally spot them heading the opposite direction to us and we all agree to use the one East-West highway running through Sherman to keep us separated. Then on the South side and us on the North. Once we get to Grayson C asks me to show him some soft field landings and takeoffs. The first one goes ok but the second one is sloppy. It's pretty bumpy down at pattern altitude and I don't do a good job of holding my speeds. Then he asks for a couple of short field landings and takeoffs. The first is OK and the second one is better but just a few feet short of the target. But I do a much better job of holding the correct speeds in the pattern and through to final. And I do a better job of flaring this time. I suppose it helps that the wind was straight down the runway at 8 knots.

The bonanzas return and do a break pattern from the North. Thanks to the discussion here I knew what they were planning. But we were on the upwind after taking off when they came in so I didn't actually get to see it.

We started heading back to Addison and C tells me that we're going to do recoverery from unusual attitudes. Oh boy! This ought to be fun. At first he says I can do them with the hood off, but then I'll have to put it on and just use instruments to recover. So he has me put my head down and close my eyes while he maneuvers. Yikes ... the unusual attitude I think refers more to my stomach than the plane! What a roller coaster ride. "OK, you're controls". I open my eyes and I'm staring at a lot of green pastures. Easy, power back ... level the wings ... start pulling the nose up and establish a climb .. then level off and bring the power back to cruise.

We do it again. This time we're nose high and quickly losing airspeed. I hesitate for a second and then push the nose down while putting in more power and re-trimming. C didn't like me hesitating ... "did you feel the buffet? We were close to stalling. Don't hesitate, immediately start your correction."

I go under the hood and we do it again. This time I get to do two of the nose up attitudes to make sure that I'm quick on the correction and it goes well. Whew!

Now C turns off the GPS and says, "take us to Addison". Well, as you can imagine after all the climbing, diving and turning I am thoroughly turned around. So I trim us out in level flight and look around outside. I don't see anything I recognize. So I pull out my chart and tune in the Cowboy VOR near Addison and DFW. I identify it and then figure out which radial we're on. And I turn to start tracking it. While I'm doing this I look out the window and see a railroad track running under us. I mention to C, "That looks like the track that runs from Addison through Sherman but it's heading in the wrong direction. Too bad". Mind you, I'm comparing the ground to my heading indicator.

So I'm trying to track the Cowboy VOR and I can't keep the needle centered. And C meanwhile is poking at me, "wow, this is some lesson you're learning. I wonder what could be wrong. What, you haven't figured it out yet?"

I finally throw in the towel. Something's wrong but I don't know what it is. C reaches up and taps on the magnetic compass. We're heading East! I look at my heading indicator ... it says South.

Doh!

Now it all makes sense. That railroad track WAS running in the right direction. I could have just followed it all the way home.

The rest of the flight went well. I called up regional approach and got my squawk code. And was cleared to left base for runway 15 at Addison, right ahead of the Stearman from the Cavanaugh Flight Museum. C asks for a short field landing, the top of the numbers is your target. I come in just a little too fast and float a few feet past my target, but only by a few feet. We easily make the turn off for Golf.

All in all a good lesson. I learned a lot about VORs and heading indicators and got some more good landing practice in, not to mention the recovery practice. Next up is another progress check.

Landings: 5
This lesson: 2 hours
Total: 29.5 hours

PS: The heat wasn't that bad. C opened his window while we flew patterns at Grayson County and that helped cool us off. Of course, we weren't really flying during the hottest part of the day though.

Lessons 17 & 18

Lesson 17

Beautiful weather for flying this weekend. A front came through Friday night and we had some typical Texas thunderstorms. Loud! Lots of lightening and thunder, buckets of rain. Then Saturday morning everything moved East and we were left with a few scattered clouds here and there but otherwise a beautiful clear sky. And by clear I mean that all the crap was washed out by the storms. You could see forever up there!

My lesson on Saturday was at 0800 and was an introduction to short field takeoffs and landings and soft field takeoffs and landings. After the preflight we strapped in taxied out to runway 33. The ATIS was reporting winds from 350 at 8 knots. I asked C about what happened during my solo flight, when the active runway was 15 even though the winds were coming from 040 giving me a slight tailwind. He said that since regional approach is involved with routing traffic into and out of Addison sometimes this happens where they don't switch runways until the wind is decisively favoring the other runway. He said that I can bring it to their attention but I have to pretty much use the runway they specify. So my option becomes whether I continue the flight or not based on that.

No problems with wind today. We take off into the clear sky and head Northwest toward Denton. Once we're cruising and I finish the cruise checklist C says "take me to Denton, I'll sight see." So getting close to Lake Lewisville I tune in Denton's AWOS and get the info and then when I'm over Lakeview Airport (30F) I call up Denton Tower and report my position and intentions. Then I run through the approach checklist and pull back the power to descend to pattern altitude, 1500'. The only other aircraft in the pattern is a helicopter doing circuits. I report base and the tower clears me for a stop and go.

The first one C does to demonstrate a short field landing. Then I do a short field takeoff. Pretty easy, though I let us creep forward when standing on the brakes. Full power ... check for gauges in the green and 2250 RPM ... release the brakes and put in some right rudder to hold us on the line ... pull back on the yoke at 51 kias and we're climbing at 62 kias. Over the imaginary 50' obstacle I allow the nose to drop and we're climbing at 74 kias. Once we're over 65 kias I also remove the 10-degrees of flaps we had.

Then C asks me to do a short field landing. I don't have a problem holding the speed down to 65-ish kias but at the end it all goes to hell. Runway 35 at Denton has a tree filled creek running perpendicular to the runway at the end of the runway. And everytime I cross it the plane bobs and yaws and that smooth final just isn't that smooth anymore. So I add to much power and we start floating and then I pull the power out to fast and we drop like a rock. Hard landing. No damage though. Ugh.

I do another short field takeoff (goes ok) and try the landing again. This time is a little better but I'm still floating and landing long. Basically, this was the whole lesson. I did 7 landings and C did a couple demonstration landings. Mine got better as we went along, but it's definitely trickier than I expected. But fun!

After trying everything but a soft field takeoff we decide to head back home. Clouds have formed at 2000' which keeps us down at 1500' most of the way back (the usual approach to Addison is at 2500'). Another lesson learned, over Lake Lewisville C asks me where I'd go if the engine quite. "Hmmmmm probably right over there," I say pointing to the nearest land. "Good choice, too bad you won't make it."

Then he tells me how to ditch in water. Float it just above the water getting as slow as possible and let it stall and drop in. The less forward momentum you have the less chance you'll injure yourself or your passengers. Or ... the other lesson ... always remain within glide distance of solid land!

Tomorrow, more short and soft work.

Lesson 18

I'm back for more. After a day of yard work I head to Addison for my 1600 flight with C. I get there early and my plane is available so I go out to do the preflight. The planes in great shape. Eventually, C arrives from his last lesson and we go over the plan for today. More short and soft work, but this time we'll go to McKinney Regional Airport.

Things are really "on" today. I'm quick with the radio calls. My taxiing is good .. not too fast, not too slow, and on the centerline. We go to taxiway Charlie and do the runup. Everything looks good. "OK, give me a soft field takeoff," C says. I get clearance from the tower and start out onto the runway. I keep it moving so we won't get bogged down in the "mud" and slowly push in full power. Before I could blink we were off the runway and floating in ground effect. You REALLY have to push hard to keep the nose down. I was worried about pushing the nose back down the runway but that just doesn't seem possible. Once the airspeed is in the 60's we start climbing and I retract the 10-degrees of flaps. Then I just do a normal 74 kias climb to 2000' and we're off to McKinney.

Again, C tells me to take him to McKinney and leaves all the work to me. I get the AWOS info and set the instruments and call the tower. Pretty good if I say so myself, I remembered all the checklists ... dialed up the aiport on the GPS and got our distance, radioed the tower and got approach clearance. I was pretty proud of myself. C didn't seem to notice. =;-)

Today we knocked out 11 landings ... all either short or soft though we did switch to doing regular takeoffs toward the end. That was because C wanted me to work on my short field landing accuracy. So no distractions after landing, just do a normal touch and go.

I did OK today, enough that C signed off on that lesson and we'll move on to VOR navigation next time. But I do have a couple of things to work on. One is maintaining the centerline. I can't believe I had trouble with that today. I think it might be a case of having just one too many things to concentrate on so one thing gets dropped. And today, maintaining the centerline was the thing that got dropped. And C also need to work harder at keeping the nose up on the soft field landings. I was still letting it come down too fast.

After today I felt great! It was fun lesson, I really felt in tune with the airplane and flying in the pattern. At one point we had six other planes in the pattern. As a matter of fact, at one point the tower had me and another guy fly left traffic while everyone else flew left traffic. Unfortunately, the guy in front of me was in a C150 so I got to practice slow flight too. =;-)

I'm so jazzed that the next lesson is going to be VOR navigation. It's just one step closer to actual cross-country flight! C told me to prepare for it. We're going to track to the Bonham VOR, cross it and track the radial on the opposite side and then turn to intercept a radial that'll take us to Grayson County Airport (KGRY). There'll we'll knock out some more soft and short takeoffs and landings.

This is going to be so much fun!!!

Saturday 1.6 hours (7 landings)
Sunday 1.6 hours (11 landings)
Total 27.5 hours