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
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
posted by AirmanChet at
10:36
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