Up, Up and Away

Nothing left but the finishing up....

Well after 2+ weeks of bad timing, I finally made it back in the air today. Seems like since my last flight, every time I could get away from work, I'd have crappy weather. Then the weather would be gorgeous, but I couldn't get away from the job. Oh well, I'll do it when I can.

It also just occurred to me that I'm only a couple of days away from the 3 month anniversary of my first lesson......and I thought I'd be working on my IFR ticket by now! This life stuff has got to stay out of the way.

Today's flight was the best yet. I have figured out the key to this whole thing. The single piece that will make or break me as a pilot. The holy grail of flight training! The one thing I'd dump into someone's head if they had zero hours and wanted to start learning to fly. "What? What?", you say? "Tell us, please!??!"

Stop begging, I'm getting there.

Today we started out like any other day, except this time I had my keys. Preflight, check. Engine start, check. Runup, check.

For the entire lesson, we did takeoffs and landings. A few times, we exited the pattern so that we could re-enter and get out of the circle (or rectangle) flying mentality. But for the most part it was just T&G's over and over and over and over (it's fun really, you'd just think I'd catch on eventually :) ). As I've said before, I think I learn more in the last 20 seconds of a circuit than the rest of the time combined. I'm doing pretty good on my takeoffs, climbouts (gotta hold that climb speed a little closer to 80) and downwind/base . I'm even moving my feet more!!! yea me!

I told Kary at the beginning of the flight that I was going to "over do" the rudder this time. In the past, I've been waaaaay under doing it, so I figure if I tried to intentionally over push in the direction I needed, I might come up about right. And waddayaknow?! It works! When I thought I needed about X amount of pressure, I'd push X+50% just to see. There were a few times the ball would go plumb to the other side, but at least I knew. On a scale of 1-10, I did about a cool 8 on the rudder this time (in my humble opinion, ask Kary for the truth :) ). It's amazing how much better the plane flies when you do it right. I may just have to rethink this anti-rudder binge I've been on. We'll see.

So, anyway, the first landing was a bit disheartening. Nothing too bad, but I still didn't feel like I was controlling the plane when we touched down. I have no problem getting the thing to the threshold, but then the concept of power, pitch, roll and yaw all become beasts of their own. Each one requiring input, but not necessarily to fix the same problem and sometimes causing new problems of their own that have to be solved by something else! I like to think about this stuff way too much. After about 3 circuits, I was getting a bit more comfortable and started thinking less about *SOME* of the things I had to do. But, as usual, I still have to concentrate to make the rudder keep me straight.

Also, today was the first time I've had to compensate for any crosswind at all. It wasn't much (4 kts from 50 deg right of the runway), but it was enough that when I turned final I could tell it was pushing me left. So, as we progressed (and the wind picked up a tad) I got some good experience with the ancient Chinese art of landing One Wing Lo (I know, old joke).

But you know what you have to do when your landing "crooked"? YOU HAVE TO USE THE RUDDER MORE!!!! My life sucks.

But, as we go through the flight, each landing made a little more sense. It seems like I'm learning exponentially during this lesson.

Something I figured out (in theory) many moons ago while tinkering with Flight Sim games, was that the "flare" wasn't really anything but the act of holding a plane off the ground until you stall. In reality, it seems that I always try to make the flare into something short of a snap-roll type aerobatic maneuver. I make it something that I have to "DO", but it's really not.

In my mind, as I round out and start settling, I think "I have to do something else", when in essence all I have to DO is hold it right there and let the plane land. The mysterious flare isn't really a "thing" at all. It's just what happens when you hold an altitude of 1 ft until all your energy is gone. (at this point Kary stands up at his computer, screams "Debra! HE CAN BE TAUGHT!" and does some tribal looking happy dance).

After I started letting this sink in again today, it all worked for the better. Stop trying to "flare" and just don't let the plane touch the ground until you can't keep it from it. Simple enough. I think Kary even said this a few times....ok a LOT of times.

After several of these Touch and Go's, we taxied back and shutdown. And I have to say it felt good for a change. I gave myself a little credit this time, where I'm usually focused on how I screwed X, Y and Z up. Not to say it was perfect, but it's coming.


Now, for the answer you've been glued to your screens for. My answer to all the aviation woes of the world for student pilots? Confidence. I know, that sounds like some Tony Robbins type answer, but it's so true for me.

When I first started this thing 3 months ago, I was unsure about everything in the plane. From how much and when to push/pull the throttle to "should I call in on CTAF now"? I know it's just something that you have to learn and something only experience can get you. But if you could make a zero time student truly understand that he's not going to break the plane (usually) and that he's expected to use the controls to fix whatever problem is in front of him, then I think that person would grab on to the "learning" part of flying much faster. How to do that? I have no idea. But for me, timidity has held me back.

That may make no sense, but after today's flight I realized that for the first time in my life, I was confident in an airplane. Not in an arrogant or cocky way, but I felt like I knew what I was doing in the confines of the Touch and Go's that we were performing. In many cases, I knew what was "wrong" with the situation (too high, too low, too fast, no rudder, etc) before Kary could say it.

Again, don't get me wrong, I've not even soloed and I KNOW there are some things I'm going to have to feel better about before I let Kary get out of the plane, but to have some level of confidence....ANY level of confidence makes the learning much easier and flying much more fun.

jf

posted by Jeff Franks @ 5:53 PM