Up, Up and Away

Getting better at it.....

This morning I woke up to a beautiful clear cool morning. Stratus clouds several thousand feet up and abou 33 deg. My older brother (who is also working on his PPL) called and had setup a great opportunity for us both to get some flying in this morning. He had worked it out with our Dad to pick us up at our local airport (MRC), fly us to the airport where we hangar the plane and train (LUG) and fly us back. Woohoo! can't beat that with a stick.

Well, we get to MRC, load up in Dad's C172 (all...ahem...700lbs of us...good thing it was cold) and off we go. Man it was smooth as glass on the way over. 10 minutes later we're on final for LUG and life is good. The plan was for Scott (my bro) to go up with Dad in our training plane for a few circuits, then he was going to fly an hour of solo. While he did that, I was going to fly some T&G's with Dad in his plane.

When we get to LUG we find Kary (our CFI) milling around looking lonely. So, he jumps in with Scott to get him back on track after a 4 week layout and Dad and I jump in his plane to hop around the patch. Dad's plane is several years newer than our H model (I think his is an "N" model) and the differences were interesting. His has 15 more hp under the hood and the panel is laid out completely different. Heck, even the seat height difference was noticable.

At first I was concerned that flying a different plane this early on might screw me up. But I'm really glad I did it. It made me realize that I was doing the "things" of flying because I knew why/when to do them, rather than just some memorized routine. When I had to FIND the Tach everytime I need to look at it, I was reminded of that. We managed about 8 T&G's, each a little different than the other and all was good.

At one point, we left the pattern because I wanted to try something I had read in a newsgroup discussion (rec.aviation.student Ton's of info there, check it out!). It was called "pinning the nose" in turns.

Basically, the idea is that you should be able to "see" whether or not your coordinated in your turns as soon as you start your bank. If you are coordinated, the plane will appear to spin on a "pin" and then start turning into the bank. So, you can pick a hill directly in front of you on the horizon and when the turn starts, the plane will never move off that hill. You just roll as if that hill was what was holding the "pin".

If you are uncoordinated (assuming too little rudder), then the plane will actually yaw OPPOSITE of the direction you roll for a split second (due to adverse yaw) and then will start back in the correct direction. Well, I had to try this. So we tooled around a few minutes with me flying sans rudders just to see what it was like. And I be dern, but thats EXACTLY what happened. As the day progressed, I realized that I was actually watching for the yaw as I started any turn. If it went the wrong way, I knew I was too light on the pedals. Neat.

After I'd flown with Dad, it worked out that I could get an hour in with Kary, so I swapped planes and away we go. Flying the 2 different planes (albeit both were 172's) didn't screw with me too bad. But it did make me realize what just a little more power can do for you. So, Kary and I managed another 8-9 landings. We did a couple simulated engine failures and a go-around, but nothing that new. Just more of the same (I sound bored don't I? lol, I'm anything but).

I keep finding myself "surprised" that I can do certain things. Since I was a kid flying with Dad, I always noticed that just as the wheels touched down, the yoke would be all the way back in his (and my) gut. When I flew a couple of lessons last year in a Champ, the CFI told me then that the stick would need to come all the way back at touchdown. So, I assumed that this was fairly important and something I should try to do.

Well, the first time I tried to make the yoke come back that far, I ballooned. And the second time too. Then today as I was doing my last landing, I flared, landed and it hit me.....the yoke was in my gut and had been on every "good" landing I've been doing.

Not that this is revolutionary or anything, but it re-enforced what I was saying about the flare in my previous post. Yes, the yoke should be most of the way back when you land. But you don't pull the yoke back for the sake of having it back. The yoke naturally comes back that far when your trying to hold the plane in the air during the "Flare". Again, not ground breaking, but was still a cool revelation that I WAS, in fact, doing it like the big boys :)

Well, a GREAT day of flying. I managed to get in abou 2 hours worth with approx 16 landings (takeoffs too). Not a bad way to celebrate the 102nd anniversary of the Wright Bro's flight.


jf

P.S. I've gotten a few emails concerning my last post and the "Flare" discussion. I wanted to clarify that I am NOT saying that a flare isn't necessary or that you should just fly the thing into the ground. What I am saying is that if you level off at a 3-4ft altitude and try to maintain that altitude without power, you WILL flare. It's just that I don't have to think to myself "flare now". The "NOW" part comes with the "don't let it land". Just like the above mentioned issue of the yoke being all the way back at touchdown. I'm not thinking to myself "ok now is when the yoke should be in my lap". I'm just flying the airplane until it won't fly anymore and viola! The yoke is all the way back (and I've flared). Magical :)

Just wanted to clarify that. I got some concerned emails that I wasn't flaring and I got a couple of people who think I've missed the boat completely. From my point of view, it's neither.

Thanks for the feedback though!

jf

posted by Jeff Franks @ 9:35 PM