Up, Up and Away

Free as a bird....with FAA imposed restrictions

I just realized that my last blog entry never made it to the page (or was deleted). I flew about 3 weeks ago in my second supervised solo and made about 4 landings on my own. In an effort to keep from being so high on final, I was extending my downwind and then would end up low. So, by the time I was on short final, I was having to keep power in to fly the plane to the end of the runway ("dragging it in on the prop", as Kary says).

Well, today, I was determined to NOT do that again. So, I met up with Kary at 9:00am and we did a couple of quick circuits just to prove that I could actually still fly. Kary got out and told me to do a couple, or three and then check in with him.

It's kinda funny. I noticed about the time that I rotated, that I don't get the "jitters" anymore about flying solo. In fact, it doesn't even bother me at all (when the weather is good :) ). My first trip around the patch found me turning too soon to base. Then I was high on final, so I pulled everything out and let it start settling. I was never in danger, but I landed about 1500ft down the runway and had to taxi back to do it all again.

I lifted off on the second time and realized that I was being pushed slightly to the right. I adjusted a tad and brought it back in for another Naval Aviator level approach. I'm beginning to think that I just need to aim for the middle of the runway, so that my goals can be attained.

Number three was another repeat. I'm slowly getting this thing down faster. I'm really starting to pay attention to the Vertical Speed Indicator. If I'm not dropping 500ft/min by my base turn, I'm pulling more and more power. Number three was better, but still not perfect. I also had my first experience with thermals playing heck with short-final. About the time I crossed the threshold, life became more interesting. Nothing too dramatic, but my sink rate almost stopped and the plane bounced a bit more. The thermals coming off the hot asphalt can do interesting things to your pretty landings. I floated a bit on this one and even ballooned a touch before recovering and putting it on the ground.

I taxied back and checked in with Kary. He wanted me to go shutdown and take a break. The point of this exercise was to let me get out, clear my head and then be sure I was comfortable coming out, firing up the plane and flying without him being in there at all. So, we took a 15 minute breather and then went back out went again.

One thing that we realized during the break was that the wind had started favoring the other runway. So, part of my floating problem MIGHT have been due to the fact I was landing with a small tailwind.

So, I go out, check the oil, start it up and do 2 more landings on the opposite runway. This was a great way for me to see how my turns were (or were not) helping me come down like I needed. Even though I tell myself not to, I tend to use ground references to determine if I'm square in the pattern or if I've flown my downwind too long, etc. Rather than using only my relationship to the runway. By turning around the pattern to land on 20 rather than 2 (er 02 if your in that camp), I made myself only use the runway (likeI'm supposed to).

Both finals were high. The last one was VERY high. But this gave me a chance to start playing with the flaps. At one point in the last approach, I had my hand on the back of the throttle about to do a go around. Then I thought "well, lets just see what happens here" I was still at 300ft and had time to wait. So, I added in a few more degrees of flaps and viola! down I came.

For those of you who read this that aren't plane nuts, flaps are used to allow you to increase your descent rate (come down faster) without increasing your airspeed (diving). When you have ALL the flaps hanging out there, it feels like your nose is pointing straight down, but the angle of attack on the wing has just changed. It's important that you don't try to land FASTER, but you might need to come down from up high QUICKER. So, adding flaps basically gives you an increased AOA and tons of drag to let you do just that. And, hey! I just proved that it works!

cool.

The only real "issue" I had today was on my last landing. The landing was good. I floated a tad again and the thermals were getting worse, but I coped. When I finally landed, I felt like I slammed the nose on the ground. Kary was standing close by and didn't notice it, but inside the plane, I felt like I had just dented the strut. Really, it wasn't that bad, but it just was enough to get my attention and remind me that I have to keep the yoke back until I'm not flying at all.

Oh well. With this flight, my 3 supervised solo's are out of the way! WOOHOOO! This means that I can now drop by the airport and fly on my own to build some time/experience and not have to have Kary with me every time. After all, who needs an instructor? This stuff is easy.

jf

posted by Jeff Franks @ 5:51 PM