Proof of the deed
I've had several folks asking for pictures of the solo, so I've included a few here. Also, below you'll find a link to a hokey little video that I did of the first landing and all.
If you haven't read the post about the solo, you will find it below.
Enjoy!
jf
Video at :
http://www.cedarhouseweb.com/jeff/solovideo.wmv You've been warned! It's hokey and 3MB!
I wish I could say that this is a picture of me fighting the crosswind....but, alas, no. The only real wind was about 50ft off the deck and blowing from the right. This is me overcorrecting :)
Ok, this is better. I think this one was the last one.....looks good in print, anyway!
...and to think I've looked forward to the day when another man would cut my clothes off?!?!?!
And here is one of me (on the left) with my CFI, Little Mac.
Just another day at the airport.....
Well, it's been 3+ weeks since I've updated the blog. Due to vacation and work travel schedules getting all out of whack, Kary and I weren't able to hook up for that time. I was able to get in a flight with my ....er..... "backup" and got in some landings about 2 weeks ago.
Today was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and Scott (my brother) and I decided to get with Kary for a lesson each. Scott is closing in on his checkride in the next couple of months, so I've got some catchup work to do :) Most important issue at hand is getting my instructor out of my cockpit.
So, we get to the airport around 5:00pm with winds
010@7. The runway at LUG is 2/20, so it was almost right down the runway. I preflighted the plane and talked with Kary about the lesson to come. Basically, the idea was to go up, see if I could still fly a plane and "just see" from there. Maybe today was the day for a solo, maybe not.
We takeoff and do a couple of circuits. Neither of which were what I wanted. I have a real problem with being high on my base-to-final turn. Then I spend the entire final approach trying to figure out how to get the plane down. On the first landing, we just bumped it down a little at a time and landed without a problem. There was a slight right crosswind all the way down to about 50 ft, then it disappeared, so it made me have to think more about what I was doing. On the second, I was WAY high on the turn. We slipped that one down......and slipped....and slipped....and then we were good to go. Landed a little harder than I wanted, but no big deal.
"Another one?" Kary asked.
"Yep". I really didn't feel like I needed it, but hey....it was early and I had time, so one more time around just for a little confidence. The third landing was better. I wasn't as high and I managed to bleed my extra speed off during the flare in what felt like a fairly good landing.
As I turned off the runway, I made my first official Pilot-in-Command decision...."OK" I said, "get out of my airplane" (like I really had some say in the matter :) )
We taxied back to the end of Runway 2 and Kary let me know what he wanted me to do. Basically, he wanted 3 landings. If I made the first landing and felt good about it, I could make it a touch-and-go. And just feel it out from there.
Kary secured his seatbelt and laid his headset in his seat. "You trust me enough to leave your headset in here?" I asked. His quick reply, "Well, you'll notice I didn't bring my entire bag".......I love having a smart alec CFI that can keep up with me.
Kary shut the door and I leaned over to lock it. He headed back to the terminal to get his handheld radio and his camera. My Dad and Scott were both in the terminal building and I hadn't seen them since my first landing. I taxied down to the runway and glanced over to see where Kary had made it to. He still hadn't gotten to the building and I was ready to go......I didn't know if I should wait, stall, kill time or just go.
Heck with it. I called in that I was departing Runway 2. Taxied out, set my DG to the runway heading the put the power to it.
I had been warned and had read many times that the loss of the CFI's weight in the plane would be noticable. I did notice that the acceleration was better, but not incredible. I reached rotation speed, eased back and viola! I was flying.......oh crap....I'm flying.........flying.....me..........in the air........alone.........
I noticed immediately that the plane climbed much better without the extra person. I generally turn Crosswind at 1200ft and I was very close to that by the time I was just off the end of the runway. I didn't want to have a rushed downwind, so I eased the nose over a bit and slowed my climb just a tad so that I could get some space between me and the runway before making my first turn.
I made the turn to crosswind and to downwind. Called in my position on CTAF and leveled off at pattern altitude. Now was the first time I had had to reflect on what I was doing. I'm 1000ft off the ground and I have to get myself back on the ground.....and if I do that successfully, I'm going to do it two more times......cool. Then it occurred to me that I hadn't heard ANYTHING from Kary on the radio. I don't know what I was expecting, but the silence was deafening......"who's doing all that breathing in the mic?!?!?!"
Before I turned base, I was determined not to be high. At the numbers, I pulled the carb heat and the power. Dropped the flaps to 10 deg and watched to see if I was coming down...nope...so I pulled more power....and a little more....and a little more. Finally, this lighter than usual plane started falling for me. I had my 70mph nailed and had no trouble keeping it there. It always seems that when I'm with Kary, I have a harder time holding my speed. It's always 75-80mph and I have to make up for it in the flare.
But this time, the speed was perfect, the descent was happening and I was on short final. Out of the corner of my eye I notice people standing about 1/3rd of the way down the runway by the taxiway. "Those dogs" I think "It's the freaking LSO squad that have come out to judge my landings". No worries.....ok...not much worries... I pulled what was left of the power when I crossed the numbers and held it there.....hold it...hold it....squirp, squirp.......I'm on the ground!
Cool! I was ready to do that again, so I cleaned up the flaps, pushed in the carb heat and added full power. Now HERE is where I saw a difference in the weight of the plane. I had no more than gotten the throttle all the way in that the plane was jumping off the runway. So I nail my speed on climbout and key the mic long enough to let out a little "woohoo!".
I managed 2 more landings. Both felt very good. It occurred to me that I never once "thought" about the flare. Something I had been doing before was thinking "flare now" or "do this now". Now it was just kinda happening. My feet were working on their own, my left hand was doing things on its own and it was all coming together to do what I needed to do. This is cool.
My second landing was a full stop and I taxied back to the runway. I stopped by the grandstands to check in with Kary. He was good if I was good, so I taxied back, did another run-up and took the runway for number 3. This one was just flat out fun. By the time I reached the downwind, I was actually looking around enjoying the fact that I was in an airplane....piloted by me!
In my elation, I managed to fall back into old habits on my last approach and was high. But a little coaxing and very little power put me down just behind the numbers AND somewhat on the centerline :)
I taxied back to the fuel farm, shutdown and breathed for the first time in 30 minutes.
We had the normal congratulatory moments. Took some pictures of Kary and me with the plane and........after waiting for 19 years, cut the back out of my shirt. This is a good day.
jf
