Lesson 9
This morning's lesson was to be about steep turns and forward slips and touch and goes. But it also turned into a lesson on frost.
I got to Monarch a little early for my 8 am appointment and since it was the first flight of the day the plane was ready for me to preflight. I noticed that the plane was covered in frost but I figured I'd go ahead and do my preflight to get it out of the way and then find out from my instructor, C, what they normally do about the frost. There were a few other students preflighting as well. And pretty soon the hangar doors opened and the instructors filed out to their students and had us pull the planes in.
We managed to fit three Skyhawks in what seemed like an already crowded hangar. Mine was just a whisker away from a Citation with the engine nacelles and the radome removed. When I stopped drooling I continued with my preflight. In the meantime the instructors got out the engine warmer ... essentially a small fire-breathing dragon on wheels ... and used it heat up the surface of the planes.
It really didn't take long at all, probably 15-20 minutes in all to get them clear. There was a solo student who's plane didn't make it into the hangar. So one of the instructors decided to hose it off with water ... I seem to remember my dad doing this with the car window when I was young. Mind you, the temperature was hovering right around freezing though the sun was starting to warm things up. He was hosing this plane in the shadow of the hangar though. So even though it was clear when he finished, by the time the student was doing her preflight she discovered icecycles hanging from the wings! Doh! I think they gave her a different plane.
Anyway, fun over and preflight done we hopped in and to save time C got the plane started and handled the radio getting clearances. I taxied us out to runway 33 (winds 340 at 10 knots) and we launched into the crisp morning air. With temperatures so low the Skyhawk climbed like a scalded cat! With hardly a blink we were level at 2000' and leaving the area.
We went into the North practice area and C demonstrated a 45-degree banking turn. He warned me that he was actually a bit rusty on these so I shouldn't expect much. But, of course, he performed it well within the PTS standards. Then it was my turn. I think I did six or eight full turns, first left and then right. I actually found the right turning ones easier as I could just line the left corner of the cowling up with the horizon. But I did have two consistent problems:
1) I initiated the turn with too little back pressure so the nose would start to drop. Though I generally kept the altitude variations with the test standards it was difficult to keep the nose from bobbing up and down across the horizon.
2) For the last 45 degrees of the turn I kept letting the bank angle degrade to around 30-degrees. I think I was over-anticipating the roll out. Well, that and for most of the turn I kept looking outside but then C would remind me to glance at my instruments and I'd do that and start letting the bank out. I need to practice glancing in and out of the cockpit without letting it affect what I'm doing to the controls.
Those were pretty fun!
Next we turned toward Denton to return to KDTO and do some more touch and goes. I had less of a problem finding the airport this time and again we were cleared to enter base from the right and then continue with a standard left pattern. I did five touch-and-goes with C helping me out on a couple of them. The runway is oriented toward 350 and the wind was from 340 at 10 knots so I had more to deal with than yesterday. I mostly had trouble with keeping aligned with the center line at the flare. I'd be ok coming in, maybe a tad too fast, then I'd start to flare and have to hold it off to let the speed go and I'd start drifting. I would use the rudder to get back over the center line but now that I think about it I'm not sure that's a good idea.
So I'm flaring and I'm just a few feet above the concrete and dropping. I start to drift off the centerline, if the runway is wide (say 100' or more) then wouldn't it be better on the landing gear to just get the plane aligned with its groundtrack when I touch down instead of trying to get back over the centerline? I'm thinking that in the process of trying to get back over the centerline if I touch down then I'm putting a side load on the landing gear. Right?
I should ask my instructor about this. I guess this is where my judgement as pic comes in, right? I should recognize that I'm drifting and get back over center quickly. But if I'm drifting too much or I don't recognize it early enough then perhaps I should go around!?
This time C let me do some of the radio work as well. All in all, I felt like I had a good enough workload but I did get behind the airplane a couple of times. For the next lesson C says we're going to go to an uncontrolled airport and do a boatload of landings. I'm really looking forward to that.
On the way back to Addison we had to stay under some clouds that were forming at 2600'. Believe it or not that's the first time I've seen low clouds during a lesson! Most of the time the ceiling is way up there or there's no clouds at all. It was neat ... they were kind of thin and whispy and were going full throttle so they went by in a hurry.
Coming in on downwind we were asked to watch for a plane on final and follow him. C radioed that we were looking and I spotted him first, he was down low on short final. C radioed that we had him in site and had me turn base. Once the guy was down and turning toward a taxiway I turned final. C helped me out in the flare again because I was a bit fast but it was an OK landing.
Even with all the excitement about the frost we still managed to fly 1.3 hours so it was a good lesson. Learned to do a steep turn and got some more landing practice in. During the week I plan on doing some chair flying and also trying out something I read in a magazine. A glider instructor has his students actually walk a pattern on the ground calling out the tasks they have to do. I think that sounds like a good way to visualize the whole process while also making your neighbors think you're crazy. Well, maybe I shouldn't hold my arms out like wings and make engine noises!
This flight: 1.3 hours
Total: 12.1 hours
I got to Monarch a little early for my 8 am appointment and since it was the first flight of the day the plane was ready for me to preflight. I noticed that the plane was covered in frost but I figured I'd go ahead and do my preflight to get it out of the way and then find out from my instructor, C, what they normally do about the frost. There were a few other students preflighting as well. And pretty soon the hangar doors opened and the instructors filed out to their students and had us pull the planes in.
We managed to fit three Skyhawks in what seemed like an already crowded hangar. Mine was just a whisker away from a Citation with the engine nacelles and the radome removed. When I stopped drooling I continued with my preflight. In the meantime the instructors got out the engine warmer ... essentially a small fire-breathing dragon on wheels ... and used it heat up the surface of the planes.
It really didn't take long at all, probably 15-20 minutes in all to get them clear. There was a solo student who's plane didn't make it into the hangar. So one of the instructors decided to hose it off with water ... I seem to remember my dad doing this with the car window when I was young. Mind you, the temperature was hovering right around freezing though the sun was starting to warm things up. He was hosing this plane in the shadow of the hangar though. So even though it was clear when he finished, by the time the student was doing her preflight she discovered icecycles hanging from the wings! Doh! I think they gave her a different plane.
Anyway, fun over and preflight done we hopped in and to save time C got the plane started and handled the radio getting clearances. I taxied us out to runway 33 (winds 340 at 10 knots) and we launched into the crisp morning air. With temperatures so low the Skyhawk climbed like a scalded cat! With hardly a blink we were level at 2000' and leaving the area.
We went into the North practice area and C demonstrated a 45-degree banking turn. He warned me that he was actually a bit rusty on these so I shouldn't expect much. But, of course, he performed it well within the PTS standards. Then it was my turn. I think I did six or eight full turns, first left and then right. I actually found the right turning ones easier as I could just line the left corner of the cowling up with the horizon. But I did have two consistent problems:
1) I initiated the turn with too little back pressure so the nose would start to drop. Though I generally kept the altitude variations with the test standards it was difficult to keep the nose from bobbing up and down across the horizon.
2) For the last 45 degrees of the turn I kept letting the bank angle degrade to around 30-degrees. I think I was over-anticipating the roll out. Well, that and for most of the turn I kept looking outside but then C would remind me to glance at my instruments and I'd do that and start letting the bank out. I need to practice glancing in and out of the cockpit without letting it affect what I'm doing to the controls.
Those were pretty fun!
Next we turned toward Denton to return to KDTO and do some more touch and goes. I had less of a problem finding the airport this time and again we were cleared to enter base from the right and then continue with a standard left pattern. I did five touch-and-goes with C helping me out on a couple of them. The runway is oriented toward 350 and the wind was from 340 at 10 knots so I had more to deal with than yesterday. I mostly had trouble with keeping aligned with the center line at the flare. I'd be ok coming in, maybe a tad too fast, then I'd start to flare and have to hold it off to let the speed go and I'd start drifting. I would use the rudder to get back over the center line but now that I think about it I'm not sure that's a good idea.
So I'm flaring and I'm just a few feet above the concrete and dropping. I start to drift off the centerline, if the runway is wide (say 100' or more) then wouldn't it be better on the landing gear to just get the plane aligned with its groundtrack when I touch down instead of trying to get back over the centerline? I'm thinking that in the process of trying to get back over the centerline if I touch down then I'm putting a side load on the landing gear. Right?
I should ask my instructor about this. I guess this is where my judgement as pic comes in, right? I should recognize that I'm drifting and get back over center quickly. But if I'm drifting too much or I don't recognize it early enough then perhaps I should go around!?
This time C let me do some of the radio work as well. All in all, I felt like I had a good enough workload but I did get behind the airplane a couple of times. For the next lesson C says we're going to go to an uncontrolled airport and do a boatload of landings. I'm really looking forward to that.
On the way back to Addison we had to stay under some clouds that were forming at 2600'. Believe it or not that's the first time I've seen low clouds during a lesson! Most of the time the ceiling is way up there or there's no clouds at all. It was neat ... they were kind of thin and whispy and were going full throttle so they went by in a hurry.
Coming in on downwind we were asked to watch for a plane on final and follow him. C radioed that we were looking and I spotted him first, he was down low on short final. C radioed that we had him in site and had me turn base. Once the guy was down and turning toward a taxiway I turned final. C helped me out in the flare again because I was a bit fast but it was an OK landing.
Even with all the excitement about the frost we still managed to fly 1.3 hours so it was a good lesson. Learned to do a steep turn and got some more landing practice in. During the week I plan on doing some chair flying and also trying out something I read in a magazine. A glider instructor has his students actually walk a pattern on the ground calling out the tasks they have to do. I think that sounds like a good way to visualize the whole process while also making your neighbors think you're crazy. Well, maybe I shouldn't hold my arms out like wings and make engine noises!
This flight: 1.3 hours
Total: 12.1 hours
posted by AirmanChet at
09:57
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