S S S S S Stuff

2009/07/09

Third lesson in three days - I'm loving it. Today's weather was sunny with a large number of Cumulus clouds and a high ceiling - the glider pilots were loving it as well.

The aircraft was back a little late, so RK and I briefed Emergency Procedures. I'm doing the emergency procedures OK, my approach to the procedures is logical and reasonable, but not exactly what the manufacturer has prescribed. Time for some more study.

Preflight was very thorough, since we were going to be doing utility-grade work today. Taxi, checklists, and a normal take-off all went well. We flew up to the practice area, staked out an area between Meech Lake and the Gatineau River, and started the upper-air work. Most of these activities I had not performed since the fall of 2006, so while I knew what I needed to do, I was apprehensive.

Stalls:

• Several power-off stalls (the C172 is very gentle in a stall). I recovered at the first sign of a stall, rather than seeing if we could get a good clean break&drop.
• Power-on stalls. The aircraft breaks a little harsher, but recovery is routine.
• Climbing turning full-power stalls - I've not seen one before. These are really interesting - one second you're climbing to the left in a very nose-up attitude, and the next second you've tumbled down to the right. This was demonstrated only, I didn't recover one myself (time constraint). Must do that someday.

Spins

• My last spin was in October 2006, so I had RK demonstrate spin entry and recovery. We lost 1,000 of altitude in the spin.
• I tried twice to put the C172 into a spin, but was too cautious in kicking it in, or we were not quite stalled enough when I tried the entry, and achieved two spiral dives - which I recovered easily.

Spiral Dives

• RK put the aircraft into a few spiral dives, which I recovered correctly and readily (in addition to the failed spin attempts).
• As a quick demonstration, RK put the airplane into a steep spiral dive and recovered. It felt like we were going to launch a torpedo attack on an aircraft carrier. Impressive. And what I am likely to see on my flight test.

And I put in a few forward slips on the way home, to lose the required altitude when leaving the practice area. Still not slick.

RK quizzed emergency procedures as I made radio calls, scanned for traffic, switched from the practice area to the aerodrome frequency. Nothing like keeping your mind busy.

Circuit good, final approach good, and the touchdown was the best yet.

Overall, I was very pleased with today's lesson. We reviewed a lot of items, I handled all of them (except entering a spin) well. Good enough to move along. I'd like to go back and review all items again, sometime in the near future, just for the practice. I was apprehensive and now feel comfortable, however, I would appreciate some additional practice.

Dual: 1.1
Landings: 1

Every day should be like this - Aug 6

Arrived at CYRP at 5:50 for tonight's lesson. Regardless of the weather, tonight was going to include lots of preparatory work.

We sat in the FBO cafeteria for 40 minutes and reviewed stalls, spins, spirals, emergency procedures, forced landings and lots of other bookwork. While a nasty thunderstorm cell rolled right over the airport and pelted us with rain for 30 minutes. After the book learning was complete, we looked out the window to find blue sky with the odd cu.

Preflight, and off we went.

Takeoff was right down the centre line. Nailed 2,000' right on the money, and maintained, while flying to the practice area, then climbed to 3500'.

Stalls... put the Eclipse into a stall, kept the stick hard back and worked the rudder pedals to prevent falling off to one side into an incipient spin. My previous record (in 2006) was 4 seconds, today I maintained 15+ seconds while losing 1100 feet of altitude, before falling off to the right, where I recovered the spin. Climbed back up to 3500', did a second stall which I recovered right away by lowering the nose and adding throttle.

Spiral Dive... Are routine to recover, the trick is to recognize a spiral dive quickly and recover before Vne (Never Exceed). Flying past Vne is test pilot territory.

Climb back up, and get into Slow Flight. A couple of gentle turns, maintain altitude.

Back towards CYRP, dropping from 3000' to 1400' using a forward slip, radio calls leaving the practice area and joining airport traffic, cross over the airport and join the mid-left downwind.

Final approach was on rails. Just after a major storm goes through the air is quite stable, and the wind for runway 28 was from 300 and slow - maybe 5 kt - so little crosswind effort and no mechanical turbulence. I chopped power at about 600' and glided it right to the landing. Rotate, and a good landing (especially for the first one of the lesson). Flare was slightly higher than it should have been, so it was accompanied by a slow rotation. No bounce, little yaw, and just to the left of the centre line. Touch&go.

Second landing. Final was on rails. Flare a bit lower. Power was at 1200 RPM until I chopped it before flare. Decent landing. Just to the right of centre line. Touch&go.

Third landing we did a simulated engine failure forced landing at the airport. I conserved lots of energy to the runway, but forgot to do the Cause Check. We were at about 40', at 65kt, and a third down the runway when I called Overshoot, throttled up and did a proper overshoot. If I had no engine I could have used a slip to get rid of the altitude and speed, and could have got it down. Or landed without the slip and stood on the brakes. Or both. But I proved I could make it to the runway and knew how to get it down, no need to do anything extreme on a simulated engine failure. Especially as a student, and at low altitude.

Fourth landing was also a simulated engine failure, forced landing at the airport. While flying to the threshold I put in a forward slip and shed 200', then glided to a decent flare and touchdown. Again, I ensured I comfortably made the runway (28 is notorious for sink approaching the threshold), so touchdown was a distance down the runway. Touch&go would have been possible but edgy (and a major issue if there was power failure during the takeoff roll), so I backtracked, worked the pre-takeoff checklist (see yesterday's blog), and did a takeoff right down the centre line.

Fifth landing was a normal full stop. Final on the rails (man, I love smooth air!), a smidgen to the right of centre, with a flare that was a touch high.... but lots of back elevator made it reasonable.

Time: 1.1
Landings: 5

What I did well:

• Final approach was on the rails
• Landing on the centre line
• Minimal yaw
• Forced landings (airport)
• Slips

What I could do better

• Flaring closer to the ground... but today was markedly better than previous.

Next flight:

• Checkride with the Chief Flight Instructor (CFI) Sunday @ 1400. And depending on her assessment.....