Airborn once again

After spending most of yesterday digging crabgrass out of the dirtpile that used to be my front lawn, today I decided that it was time to break the 8 month 8 day drought.

Today I went on a flying lesson.

I qualify with "lesson" because I've flown 25 legs (I think) so far this year due to work. And last Sunday I engaged a pilot and aircraft to take a friend and I sight-seeing tour around Ottawa. But it was time for me to drive.

Before leaving home I read through all of my notes from the last spate of lessons, and arrived somewhat prepared, but fully expecting that I've forgot most everything. We started with a very brief pre-flight briefing, but she (and I) thought it best to have a list of things to do, get back into the air, get to know each other, and get a realistic assessment of what the next steps will need to be.

I did the W+B correct (I asked the instructor to check it in detail since it had been so long since I completed that last one), pre-flighted the bird, then we climbed aboard. I scanned through the checklist and realized that I had not checked the (wooden) Sensenich propeller, so I called myself on the oversight and climbed out, did the check, then climbed back in.

Run-up etc - good (but slow due to unfamiliarity with the checklists).

Taxi - good. I think back to the drunken-sailor taxiing I did when first learning, today was decent (the Eclipse does not have nose-wheel steering, so it's rudder and tow brakes). I may have set a land speed record when backtracking, comment was that I should be slower - but at least the rudder was effective.

Take-Off - one of my best (so far). I've managed to create a few hairy take-offs, with wheel barrowing, wild weaving, yank-it-into-the-air-and-nearly-stall, etc... but this one was pretty unremarkable.

Radio work - good, somewhat stumbly due to rust.

Upper air work - turns good, altitude holding poor, straight flight (including drift) not bad.

Slow flight - not bad. No problem with stall recognition and recovery. I was always trying to hold the nose way up until we have a honking good stall and then recover (student procedure), but in The Real World you start recovery at the first sign of a stall.

Turns - OK. I hold altitude better in a right turn than in a left turn.

HASEL, observation, eyes-outside - very good.

Climbs and Descents - good. Actually, I spent most of the day climbing because I tended to lose altitude in turns, and because we were doing stall recovery practice.

Slips - new. I had not had a lesson those in power flight, flew a few in a glider some time back, and we covered those today. I think I want the rudder pedals a bit closer next time.

Circuits - I'd never done circuits before, always just coming in for a landing. But we did two touch&go, followed by a full stop, with a gentle 80 degree crosswind. Flared a bit high on the second T&G with a somewhat firm Tough, the third (the landing) had a not-too-bad flare and touchdown.

Total Hobbs: 1.7

Next lessons: Slow flight, I need much work on holding altitude in straight flight and turns (no surprise), but ready to start circuits.

Really good: percentage of time with eyes-ouside was very high.

Needs work: Altitude maintenance.

Surprise: I was uncomfortable with slow flight (it used to be fine). 80kt - 120kt was comfortable, when we got slow my spidey sense was tingling. More air time in slow flight will bring this into my comfort zone.