21 June 2008-Flight 48

Today was a nice day to fly. There was a light wind from 340 and almost no turbulence. Despite the nice weather, by the time I was done today I was left wondering if I am ever going to be ready to do a checkride.

Bob went over the logs with me today and quizzed me about what inspections were required and how to find them in the log books. He also quizzed me about what other documentation was needed and what other inspections were required.

In the plane, the first thing Bob pointed out was that I was taxiing too fast today. I should be taxiing at a brisk walk. I did not think I was taxiing any faster than I normally do, but I will make sure I take it a little slower. I don’t want to get failed before I even get off the ground!

We started off with a soft field takeoff. Bob pointed out that I need to have the nose wheel off the ground and no brakes before I even get on the runway. It makes sense. If I it was really muddy I would not want to get bogged down before I even got lined up with the runway. I am going to have to be sure I do this. The softfield take off went okay. I made sure I set 10 degrees flaps, I climbed into ground effect and then climbed out after 70 knots.

We departed to the west to practice various maneuvers. We started off with some steep turns. My first turn to the left was not good. I was not keeping a steady altitude and slow rolling out of the turn. My turn to right was a little better, but my next turn to the left was sloppy again. We did a third turn to the left and I finally got that one right.

We next went into slow flight. I was slow on doing things like setting flaps and getting my airspeed down, so Bob was having to prompt me. We went from that into a low power stall. Again I was slow in recovery and Bob was having to tell me don’t dive the plane, get the throttle in,get the carb heat in, get the plane in a climb. I should be doing this stuff instinctively, but I still keep finding myself having to think about it instead of just doing it.

We next did some departure stalls. Again my reactions were slow. On one stall, I did not keep enough pressure on the right rudder. The plane rolled to the left because of torque and P-factor and Bob grabbed the controls to get the plane straightened out.

We next did some foggle practice. I was doing a good job on keeping the plane steady in straight and level flight as well as in turns. When the VOR was added in, I was having difficulty figuring out which way to go. It made me feel like I was doing this for the first time.

We next did an emergency landing practice. I did get my engine checks right. I remembered to do a flow from right to left. However I left out the steps(simulated of course) of going to 121.5, calling a mayday and setting the transponder to 7700. I made it a point to pick a closer landing area and try to fly a standard pattern. However I turned base too soon and would have found myself in the trees. Maybe I should aim for the trees instead and that way I can miss them and land on good spot. If I had thought about it, I probably could have done some S-turns to bleed off altitude or done a forward slip. As we did our climbout from practicing, Bob had to remind me to push in the carb in.

We went into doing some S turns and turns around a point. Again these were really sloppy. I was not doing a good job of picking landmarks to guide myself with.

We next returned to the field to do a soft field landing. I was slow on adding in the final 30 degrees of flaps and Bob had to tell me to add them in. On landing, Bob was saying I was not keeping the nose up high enough when I am on the ground. We next did a soft field takeoff. I remembered to get the flaps up to 10 degrees from 30 degrees, but I forgot to push in the carb heat and Bob had to remind me. The climb into ground effect and climbout went okay.

We next did a short field landing. Again I was slow on deploying 30 degrees flaps on short final and Bob had to say add in 30 degrees flaps. I think my problem with the 30 degrees flaps is that they generate more drag than lift. So I am reluctant to add them too soon in case I need to climb out. I will have to talk to Bob about that.

After we stopped for the short field Bob asked if I wanted to do a few landings on my own, but I felt like my performance was too sloppy today to want to go up by myself. I declined and we taxied back to the office.

Next lesson is scheduled for tomorrow at 9:30. We also scheduled lessons for 9:30am for 27 Jun to 1 July. Hopefully by 1 July, I will be handling all the maneuvers much better than I did today.