Demonstrating air work for my instructor
I really thought I wouldn't get to fly today. Last night thunderstorms rolled through North Texas and the forecast for this entire weekend is for thunderstorms. But as luck would have it, by the time 2:30 rolled around the clouds had moved East and the sky was mostly clear.
So I met my instructor, Y, at 2:30 and we agreed to go ahead and fly and check out my airwork ... things like slow flight, stalls and ground-reference maneuvers.
I pre-flighted and everything looked good except some hangar rash on the vertical stabilizer and the rudder. I showed it to Y and he agreed that we should squawk it but it wouldn't keep us on the ground. We taxied out and took off, turning out toward Denton to follow the first part of my Addison to Lubbock flight plan.
Once we were over Lake Lewisville, Y had me divert toward a large tower between Lake Lewisville and Lake Ray Hubbard. So I turned toward the general direction of the tower and reset our timer. Once I was straight and level again I found our location on my sectional chart and determined the distance to the tower, about 13 miles. Then I whipped out my e6b computer and determined how long it would take us to get there.
We ended up arriving about half a minute later than I calculated, that's well within the PTS limits. PTS stands for Practical Test Standards, which is what I'll be judged against during my checkride.
Once we passed the tower Y had me climb to 3000' where we started some slow flight. That's pretty easy. After some clearing turns, I pulled back the power to about 1500 RPM and let the airplane slow until we were at about 48 knots with full flaps. By that time you have to put starting power back in just to maintain altitude. That's called flying behind the power curve ... meaning that once you slow to a certain point it takes more and more power to maintain that slow, nose-high attitude. Once I was established at 48 knots and 3000' Y had me turn to some specific headings. All the while the stall horn is blaring away.
Then we did some stalls. First were power-off stalls. These simulate a stall while coming in for a landing. At 3000' you pull the power back and begin a typical landing approach descent and speed at full flaps. Then at a pre-determined altitude you pull the nose up until the wings stall. Immediately you let the nose fall and put in power to recover, then you climb back to 3000'. Once you have a positive rate of climb and a speed over 60 knots you pull the flaps back in. Those went pretty well.
Next were power-on stalls. These simulate a stall while climbing after take-off. At 3000' you slow the 55 knots (which is a Skyhawk's takeoff rotation speed). You push in full power and start climbing and you keep pulling the nose up until the wings stall. Immediately you let the nose drop so the wings start flying again. Then since you're already at full power you just keep the power there and put the airplane in a slight ascent so your speed increases until you're climbing back to 3000' at 74 knots.
During my first stall we ended up in a dive. We recovered and Y asked me to demonstrate the stall again. This time he watched my hands and sure enough we ended up in a dive again. He said that instead of just release pressure on the yoke to let the nose fall off I was actually pushing the nose down which put us in the dive. So we did it two more times with me being very concious of not pushing the nose down. It went much better! Next we did a couple of engine-out emergency simulations.
Y pulled the power all the way to idle and asked me what I should do next. So I went through the steps .. trimmed to fly at 68 knots, looked for an appropriate field to land in and then ran through the steps to restart the engine. We did this a couple of times and then while down low Y had me pick a spot and do a turn-around-a-point. After one and half turns Y was satisfied that I could do this within the PTS standards.
So I climbed to 2500' and flew us back into Addison. Probably the highlight of the trip was watching a B-17 land after us. Y was gracious enough to take the controls and taxi us while I watched.
I'm on the schedule for tomorrow so with a little more luck the weather will cooperate and I'll be making a solo flight into the practice area.
This flight: 1.4 hours
Total: 54.4
So I met my instructor, Y, at 2:30 and we agreed to go ahead and fly and check out my airwork ... things like slow flight, stalls and ground-reference maneuvers.
I pre-flighted and everything looked good except some hangar rash on the vertical stabilizer and the rudder. I showed it to Y and he agreed that we should squawk it but it wouldn't keep us on the ground. We taxied out and took off, turning out toward Denton to follow the first part of my Addison to Lubbock flight plan.
Once we were over Lake Lewisville, Y had me divert toward a large tower between Lake Lewisville and Lake Ray Hubbard. So I turned toward the general direction of the tower and reset our timer. Once I was straight and level again I found our location on my sectional chart and determined the distance to the tower, about 13 miles. Then I whipped out my e6b computer and determined how long it would take us to get there.
We ended up arriving about half a minute later than I calculated, that's well within the PTS limits. PTS stands for Practical Test Standards, which is what I'll be judged against during my checkride.
Once we passed the tower Y had me climb to 3000' where we started some slow flight. That's pretty easy. After some clearing turns, I pulled back the power to about 1500 RPM and let the airplane slow until we were at about 48 knots with full flaps. By that time you have to put starting power back in just to maintain altitude. That's called flying behind the power curve ... meaning that once you slow to a certain point it takes more and more power to maintain that slow, nose-high attitude. Once I was established at 48 knots and 3000' Y had me turn to some specific headings. All the while the stall horn is blaring away.
Then we did some stalls. First were power-off stalls. These simulate a stall while coming in for a landing. At 3000' you pull the power back and begin a typical landing approach descent and speed at full flaps. Then at a pre-determined altitude you pull the nose up until the wings stall. Immediately you let the nose fall and put in power to recover, then you climb back to 3000'. Once you have a positive rate of climb and a speed over 60 knots you pull the flaps back in. Those went pretty well.
Next were power-on stalls. These simulate a stall while climbing after take-off. At 3000' you slow the 55 knots (which is a Skyhawk's takeoff rotation speed). You push in full power and start climbing and you keep pulling the nose up until the wings stall. Immediately you let the nose drop so the wings start flying again. Then since you're already at full power you just keep the power there and put the airplane in a slight ascent so your speed increases until you're climbing back to 3000' at 74 knots.
During my first stall we ended up in a dive. We recovered and Y asked me to demonstrate the stall again. This time he watched my hands and sure enough we ended up in a dive again. He said that instead of just release pressure on the yoke to let the nose fall off I was actually pushing the nose down which put us in the dive. So we did it two more times with me being very concious of not pushing the nose down. It went much better! Next we did a couple of engine-out emergency simulations.
Y pulled the power all the way to idle and asked me what I should do next. So I went through the steps .. trimmed to fly at 68 knots, looked for an appropriate field to land in and then ran through the steps to restart the engine. We did this a couple of times and then while down low Y had me pick a spot and do a turn-around-a-point. After one and half turns Y was satisfied that I could do this within the PTS standards.
So I climbed to 2500' and flew us back into Addison. Probably the highlight of the trip was watching a B-17 land after us. Y was gracious enough to take the controls and taxi us while I watched.
I'm on the schedule for tomorrow so with a little more luck the weather will cooperate and I'll be making a solo flight into the practice area.
This flight: 1.4 hours
Total: 54.4
posted by AirmanChet at
18:44
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