So - I purchased a share of an airplane back in October 2010 (more about that in a later blog post).
I flew during the fall, with my previous flight with my son and daughter-in-law on December 24th (more about that in a later post as well).
But, due to weather, work, and mechanical problems, I didn't fly for more than 2 months. One of the rules our group has is a 60-day currency rule - if you don't fly in 60 days then you need to go fly with an instructor to regain the PIC capability. Even if we didn't have this rule, at my level of experience I'd do it anyway.
Last Saturday was a beautiful day - big wind but steady right down the runway centreline. Sunny. Below zero, but not too cold. I booked the bird and an instructor, Steven.
I have to take a flight with an instructor to re-PIC, but what I need to do on that flight is not explicitly specified. Technically, one circuit is sufficient.
But I like to fly. And I booked Steven for 2 hours, not 6 minutes. So in our pre-flight briefing I request everything I want to cover. Steven is going to have fun with me, since we did everything on my list and little more.
To save reading to the end: I re-certified. I'm safe. I forgot all sorts of little things due to rust, but caught myself on almost all of them (or the checklists caught me). I didn't do anything stupid or dangerous.
Checklists were slow - they didn't flow, and I was methodical while working through them. I missed checking the brakes after we started moving (but checked all the instruments). I missed doing a carb lean test while at 1700 RPM (Steven caught that one).
I chose to do a soft-field take-off. I find it the most difficult one to do, especially in a lightly loaded 180HP Cessna 172 with a good headwind. I may have leveled out a bit high, and I forgot to raise the flaps once we were climbing, but I did remember to turn off the landing light.
Standard straight&level flight on a heading, then climb once in the training area.
We started with steep turns. Left or right? I answer "let's do both". I prefer turning to the right over turning to the left. Turn was good, rolling out at the end was excellent, my altitude control was within limits but pretty loose. I'm grabbing the yoke too tightly. No spiral dive though.
Slow flight, with turns to a heading, and then speed recovery. Pretty good. I'll want to practice this alone, however, since my airspeed fluctuated. And it didn't feel very comfortable.
A power-on stall. Routine.
Simulated emergency landing to a field. Done well, but I should have given a passenger briefing at a higher altitude when I was less rushed. And I forgot to "transmit" a Mayday or a 7700. Sheesh.
The we get the foggles out for instrument work, and climb, descend, change speeds, turn to a heading, etc.
With the foggles still on, Steven decided my vacuum pump has failed, we cover the AI and HI, and we do some more turns, flying a heading, and then we fly back to the field.
Back to Rockcliffe, descend from 1700 to 1200 feet on the quiet side with a procedure turn, and I take the foggles off as we cross over the field to join the mid-right downwind for R27.
We do an inspection pass to see that the runway is indeed bare&dry (since we didn't run through the precautionary landing out in the practice area), then climb out and remain in the circuit.
On the soft-field landing I'm not descending on base because I have some power on, so I remove power and side-slip, losing air at about 1200 FPM, and I set up for the final Real Pretty. The landing was not great but OK - soft-field landings are also my least favourite.
A heavy workout after more than 60 days of no flying, and with very short air time -0.8 in the air, of which 0.3 was instrument (and some of that was partial panel).
One other observation - when recovering after a stall or slow flight I need to use full throttle (I'm timid on the throttle because the airplane accelerates faster than the flaps come up, and the speed limit with flaps extended is 100 MPH).
And I still need to always put the carb heat back in so I get that last 10% of power from that nice thick cold air (I sometimes forget).
But it was good to be in the sky again.
Showing posts with label Steep Turns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Steep Turns. Show all posts
Monday, February 28, 2011
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Why is the stall horn sounding.....?
March 10, 2010
The weather this week has been terrific, work has been long hours, I am coming up on a month since the last flight, time to go drill holes in the sky for an afternoon. So I invite one of my daughters, and her friend, to go for a flight. I need to fly at least monthly (or else I need to go rent an instructor for a lap), so I may as well take someone along for the ride.
Krysten (daughter) and my wife took the co-pilot course last fall, and Krysten has not gone for her two rides. This way she can get up for an initial flight, do some handling of the controls, and get some of the shine off so her two lessons with an instructor will be more fruitful.
Unlike the last two flights, the temperature is above zero, +6C. The pre-flight check is not as brutal.
I've not flown this aircraft before. It's a C172M - generally I've flown November models. Review the different V-speeds before climbing aboard, locate all the controls (flap lever and indicator are different), and make sure there are no surprises. The left strobe light is burned out, but otherwise everything is clear.
The flow of the passenger briefings is getting better. During flight training I did very few briefings, so I'm working up to having a "flow".
Start-up, taxi, run-up, backtrack to the button on 09, apply power, gauges checked green, rotate, and we smoothly leave the earth.
As we're climbing out, I notice that we're climbing slower than usual. Mixture is rich, RPMs are good, gauges still green, flaps are not extended, airspeed is good, attitude is normal. Weird, but nothing is out of agreement and things look good out the window.
To the practice area, flying past the casino and the ski hills. Krysten does some straight&level flight. Just north of Wakefield I demonstrate shallow turns, and let Krysten take the yoke. She puts in a bit of a turn (while I manage the yaw with the rudder), and mixes in an assortment of nose-up and nose-down attitude. At 3200' there's lots of time to recover, she gets a bit better over time. There were a few times where we were noticeably nose-down, but the altitude wasn't spinning down, nor the airspeed significantly increasing. Weird.
Megan (in the back seat) is fine, so I do a HASEL check and show them a medium turn (30 degrees of bank) both left and right. Everyone is still happy, so Krysten tries a medium turn - she shows the usual hesitation about putting a "real" bank on the airplane, but does set up for a spiral dive. I have control, and we climb back to 3200'.
I ask them if they want to see a steep turn - warning them that it will likely feel uncomfortable with that much "tilt", and if they look out the side window then there will be lots of air and not much airplane between them and the ground. Gotta love kids, they say go for it. I tell them to speak up the instant they feel uncomfortable, announce our position, do a lookout, and put it into a right steep turn. I wish I flew this well on my flight test, I nailed the nose on the horizon and didn't vary more than 20 feet from altitude.
Everyone is still fine, so I put it over to about 60 degrees, still maintaining altitude. The secret to making a good steep turn is keeping your eyes outside, keeping the nose up on the horizon, and making a quick glance, at most, to the altimeter.
Next stop is towards Ottawa, so Megan can see her apartment building from the air. It will have to be from a bit of a distance since she's inside the Ottawa control zone and I don't have a transponder code.
The Prime Minister's summer residence has a restricted airspace above it to 3500', so I climb to 3900' and head southwest towards the river.
Past the Gatineau Hills it is time to lose some altitude, as we want to fly down the river under the 1500' floor of Terminal's airspace. I brief my passengers that I'll reduce the power to idle, the nose will drop, and we will descend. Everyone is still good.
Partway through the descent (when still plenty high) I point out the VSI and our rate of descent. To get down faster, I tell them about a forward slip being basically plowing the aircraft somewhat sideways through the air, and again, if it feels too weird then say something. Full left rudder, a bit of right aileron to maintain direction, and we plow down through a thousand feet. Remove the slip, descend a bit more to 1300', apply power and fly over the river while the girls try to find Megan's building. Left turn short of the CZ and head east (keeping a sharp watch for traffic heading southeast over the Descehnes Quarry towards CYOW), climb to 1700', pass north of the casino, overhead procedure at CYRO and join the mid-left downwind for 09.
I'm stabilized on final, attitude is normal, flaps are extended, airspeed was about 65-70 knots, and through my headset I hear the stall horn start to sound. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Attitude is good, airspeed is good. Weird. But I put in a bit more power, adjust attitude to stay aimed at the numbers, and get rid of the horn.
Greased the landing, but just left of the centre line. Quick backtrack to Charlie and park the bird.
I discussed the sounding of the stall horn with two instructors after I entered the clubhouse. There was no obvious cause - my attitude and airspeed were good, there were no noticeable gusts... Later that evening I received a phone call - they had taken the plane for a later lesson, and there was a partially blocked static source.
Time: 1.0
Weather: SKC, 10003KT, +06C
Skills: Steep turns, forward slips, normal takeoff and landing
Need to improve:
The weather this week has been terrific, work has been long hours, I am coming up on a month since the last flight, time to go drill holes in the sky for an afternoon. So I invite one of my daughters, and her friend, to go for a flight. I need to fly at least monthly (or else I need to go rent an instructor for a lap), so I may as well take someone along for the ride.
Krysten (daughter) and my wife took the co-pilot course last fall, and Krysten has not gone for her two rides. This way she can get up for an initial flight, do some handling of the controls, and get some of the shine off so her two lessons with an instructor will be more fruitful.
Unlike the last two flights, the temperature is above zero, +6C. The pre-flight check is not as brutal.
I've not flown this aircraft before. It's a C172M - generally I've flown November models. Review the different V-speeds before climbing aboard, locate all the controls (flap lever and indicator are different), and make sure there are no surprises. The left strobe light is burned out, but otherwise everything is clear.
The flow of the passenger briefings is getting better. During flight training I did very few briefings, so I'm working up to having a "flow".
Start-up, taxi, run-up, backtrack to the button on 09, apply power, gauges checked green, rotate, and we smoothly leave the earth.
As we're climbing out, I notice that we're climbing slower than usual. Mixture is rich, RPMs are good, gauges still green, flaps are not extended, airspeed is good, attitude is normal. Weird, but nothing is out of agreement and things look good out the window.
To the practice area, flying past the casino and the ski hills. Krysten does some straight&level flight. Just north of Wakefield I demonstrate shallow turns, and let Krysten take the yoke. She puts in a bit of a turn (while I manage the yaw with the rudder), and mixes in an assortment of nose-up and nose-down attitude. At 3200' there's lots of time to recover, she gets a bit better over time. There were a few times where we were noticeably nose-down, but the altitude wasn't spinning down, nor the airspeed significantly increasing. Weird.
Megan (in the back seat) is fine, so I do a HASEL check and show them a medium turn (30 degrees of bank) both left and right. Everyone is still happy, so Krysten tries a medium turn - she shows the usual hesitation about putting a "real" bank on the airplane, but does set up for a spiral dive. I have control, and we climb back to 3200'.
I ask them if they want to see a steep turn - warning them that it will likely feel uncomfortable with that much "tilt", and if they look out the side window then there will be lots of air and not much airplane between them and the ground. Gotta love kids, they say go for it. I tell them to speak up the instant they feel uncomfortable, announce our position, do a lookout, and put it into a right steep turn. I wish I flew this well on my flight test, I nailed the nose on the horizon and didn't vary more than 20 feet from altitude.
Everyone is still fine, so I put it over to about 60 degrees, still maintaining altitude. The secret to making a good steep turn is keeping your eyes outside, keeping the nose up on the horizon, and making a quick glance, at most, to the altimeter.
Next stop is towards Ottawa, so Megan can see her apartment building from the air. It will have to be from a bit of a distance since she's inside the Ottawa control zone and I don't have a transponder code.
The Prime Minister's summer residence has a restricted airspace above it to 3500', so I climb to 3900' and head southwest towards the river.
Past the Gatineau Hills it is time to lose some altitude, as we want to fly down the river under the 1500' floor of Terminal's airspace. I brief my passengers that I'll reduce the power to idle, the nose will drop, and we will descend. Everyone is still good.
Partway through the descent (when still plenty high) I point out the VSI and our rate of descent. To get down faster, I tell them about a forward slip being basically plowing the aircraft somewhat sideways through the air, and again, if it feels too weird then say something. Full left rudder, a bit of right aileron to maintain direction, and we plow down through a thousand feet. Remove the slip, descend a bit more to 1300', apply power and fly over the river while the girls try to find Megan's building. Left turn short of the CZ and head east (keeping a sharp watch for traffic heading southeast over the Descehnes Quarry towards CYOW), climb to 1700', pass north of the casino, overhead procedure at CYRO and join the mid-left downwind for 09.
I'm stabilized on final, attitude is normal, flaps are extended, airspeed was about 65-70 knots, and through my headset I hear the stall horn start to sound. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Attitude is good, airspeed is good. Weird. But I put in a bit more power, adjust attitude to stay aimed at the numbers, and get rid of the horn.
Greased the landing, but just left of the centre line. Quick backtrack to Charlie and park the bird.
I discussed the sounding of the stall horn with two instructors after I entered the clubhouse. There was no obvious cause - my attitude and airspeed were good, there were no noticeable gusts... Later that evening I received a phone call - they had taken the plane for a later lesson, and there was a partially blocked static source.
Time: 1.0
Weather: SKC, 10003KT, +06C
Skills: Steep turns, forward slips, normal takeoff and landing
Need to improve:
- Forgot the check the snags book before flying
- Forgot to do the rolling instrument check when leaving the apron (I did it after the run up)
- When doing my 360 check before taking the runway, my wing extended past the stop line.
- Steep turns
- Forward slip
- Checking with the passengers - making sure they were comfortable. I hope they felt they could speak up if they were uncomfortable.
- Reaction to the stall horn. The stall horn was disagreeing with the other instruments, but the worst that would happen with a higher airspeed would be a longer float over the runway. The worst that would happen from ignoring it would be a stall-spin. Though it made no sense (according to the other instruments), I reacted correctly in adding a touch of power and eliminating the horn.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
RFC Flight 1
2009-06-30
I was scheduled to take my first two flights with the CFI, as an assessment of where to put me into the "curriculum". Tomorrow is Canada Day, with a fly-in, breakfast, the SnowBirds fly-by, airplane rides and much more, so there were many too many last-minute details. A different instructor, SH, substituted.
We started with a briefing, especially managing the landing circuit (when to reduce throttle, drop flaps, etc). I was well-prepared with the V-speeds for RFC's aircraft, had reviewed the checklists and emergency procedures from the RFC website, and I have manuals from two other (different year, different model) C172s so I had a general awareness of the aircraft characteristics.
The pre-flight took the better part of a half hour, as I poked, prodded, looked into all the nooks and crevices, understood the inter-relationships of the different systems, and so forth.
The checklist has a section where different combinations of carb heat and throttle are used, to ensure the engine is not going to stall on a certain combination. I skipped a step, which was caught.
Taxi with a steerable nosewheel is again different. Being used to a castoring nosewheel I was not at all hesitant about punching the rudder to gain directional control, which is much more effective with a semi-steerable nosewheel. Once again, we meandered down the apron and taxiway like a drunken sailor as I over-controlled my way down the taxiway. Shades of the summer of 2006.
Takeoff was on 09, so we did the run-up at the start of taxiway C. Positioning was OK, checklists were slower to process due to unfamiliarity.
On the takeoff roll I found the elevators to be very heavy - we stayed on the nosewheel too long and rotated 15nmph late. Takeoff was fine, as was the climb out. We proceeded to the practice area east of the Gatineau River.
The air lesson was on the fundamental manoeuvres, including straight & level flight, turns to a heading, climbs, descents, climbing turns, descending turns. We spent quite a bit of time in 45-degree steep turns, I initially had difficulty maintaining altitude but eventually got working. The turns sometimes approached 60 degrees of bank, so I need to work on the smoothness. I spent quite a bit of time trying to keep my eyes outside, getting re-acquainted with the over-the-dashboard view from a different aircraft.
In preparation for the landing we spent some time getting used to slow flight - getting the flaps out, and handling the aircraft in a mushy and nose-up attitude.
Flew the approach into Rockcliffe, landing was with 20 degrees of flaps. Not pretty, but not too bad. No yaw, the flare was not a last-second panic but it wasn't a smooth flowing transition.
Filled the tanks, and pushed the aircraft to the parking spot.
Need to work on:
Did well:
Time: 1.2 Dual
Landings: 1
First flight in C172.
If all the instructors at RFC are cut from the same cloth as SH, I am going to have a very enjoyable time here. I have a very positive reaction to his laid-back, mellow, observant-as-a-hawk, teaching style.
I was scheduled to take my first two flights with the CFI, as an assessment of where to put me into the "curriculum". Tomorrow is Canada Day, with a fly-in, breakfast, the SnowBirds fly-by, airplane rides and much more, so there were many too many last-minute details. A different instructor, SH, substituted.
We started with a briefing, especially managing the landing circuit (when to reduce throttle, drop flaps, etc). I was well-prepared with the V-speeds for RFC's aircraft, had reviewed the checklists and emergency procedures from the RFC website, and I have manuals from two other (different year, different model) C172s so I had a general awareness of the aircraft characteristics.
The pre-flight took the better part of a half hour, as I poked, prodded, looked into all the nooks and crevices, understood the inter-relationships of the different systems, and so forth.
The checklist has a section where different combinations of carb heat and throttle are used, to ensure the engine is not going to stall on a certain combination. I skipped a step, which was caught.
Taxi with a steerable nosewheel is again different. Being used to a castoring nosewheel I was not at all hesitant about punching the rudder to gain directional control, which is much more effective with a semi-steerable nosewheel. Once again, we meandered down the apron and taxiway like a drunken sailor as I over-controlled my way down the taxiway. Shades of the summer of 2006.
Takeoff was on 09, so we did the run-up at the start of taxiway C. Positioning was OK, checklists were slower to process due to unfamiliarity.
On the takeoff roll I found the elevators to be very heavy - we stayed on the nosewheel too long and rotated 15nmph late. Takeoff was fine, as was the climb out. We proceeded to the practice area east of the Gatineau River.
The air lesson was on the fundamental manoeuvres, including straight & level flight, turns to a heading, climbs, descents, climbing turns, descending turns. We spent quite a bit of time in 45-degree steep turns, I initially had difficulty maintaining altitude but eventually got working. The turns sometimes approached 60 degrees of bank, so I need to work on the smoothness. I spent quite a bit of time trying to keep my eyes outside, getting re-acquainted with the over-the-dashboard view from a different aircraft.
In preparation for the landing we spent some time getting used to slow flight - getting the flaps out, and handling the aircraft in a mushy and nose-up attitude.
Flew the approach into Rockcliffe, landing was with 20 degrees of flaps. Not pretty, but not too bad. No yaw, the flare was not a last-second panic but it wasn't a smooth flowing transition.
Filled the tanks, and pushed the aircraft to the parking spot.
Need to work on:
- Flow with the checklists
- Keeping my head ahead of the aircraft - I felt like I was struggling to keep up for most of the flight
- Carb heat - the Eclipse was fuel injected and so carb heat is a new control I need to manage
Did well:
- I can fly an airplane. After the layoff and with my low time I am quite rusty, and sometimes I need to think through things to figure out what I am doing... but I fundamentally have a clue.
Time: 1.2 Dual
Landings: 1
First flight in C172.
If all the instructors at RFC are cut from the same cloth as SH, I am going to have a very enjoyable time here. I have a very positive reaction to his laid-back, mellow, observant-as-a-hawk, teaching style.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Upper-air work - Nov 23
Today was upper-air work review, as a step towards cutting me loose to travel to the practice area solo.
Power-off stalls - Maintain altitude, slow nose-up while shedding speed, pull the stick right back into the gut and get the stall to happen, use rudder to keep the wings level (never aileron), stick forward to recover, pull back to level flight (do not induce a secondary stall) and add power.
Power-on stalls - Same as power-off stalls, but require more nose-up to make the stall happen, expect the "break" to be stronger, expect a need for right rudder to counter-act the slipstream against the fuselage. Stick forward to recover, pull back into level flight (do not induce a secondary stall), and add power.
Slow flight - Reduce power to idle, nose up to maintain altitude, when flying slow add some power to maintain altitude, keep lifting up the nose and adding power until we are at cruise RPM, but with a very slow airspeed (just above stall speed). Watch the CHT (Cylinder Head Temperature) to ensure the engine does not overheat (high RPM, low volume of cooling air flow). Practice turns (always shallow), level flight. To exit slow flight one has to lower the nose and add power (if not already at full power).
Forward slips - Throttle to neutral, left (or right) rudder to get the nose pointing away from the direction of flight, using as much aileron as required to maintain the same ground track. Use elevator to maintain speed (aim for 70 knots with no flaps, 60 knots with full flaps). Rudder should be at full deflection, use more/less stick to determine ground track, aircraft should be descending at a significant FPM due to plowing through the air sideways. To exit from the slip gently, and simultaneously, remove both the rudder and the ailerons.
Steeps turns - Oddly, I found this most difficult. Hours or grinding out circuits have get me very used to left-hand turns, and shallow-banked turns. Lots of aileron to get a 45 degree bank, use rudder to keep the turn coordinated, add some elevator to hold altitude, and some power to maintain airspeed. I had trouble maintaining altitude.
Coming back home I did two touch&go circuits, then a full stop.
Time: 1.5 hours dual
Landings: 3
Need to work on: All the upper-air work was OK, but rusty. Need to get practiced so it is once again second-nature.
Next steps: Briefing on forced-landings and precautionary landings, off-airport. Practice same, plus continue to review upper-air work. Do a W&B, and review spins and spiral dives. Then, assuming all is satisfactory, I'll be signed-off for away-from-the airport solo flight.
Power-off stalls - Maintain altitude, slow nose-up while shedding speed, pull the stick right back into the gut and get the stall to happen, use rudder to keep the wings level (never aileron), stick forward to recover, pull back to level flight (do not induce a secondary stall) and add power.
Power-on stalls - Same as power-off stalls, but require more nose-up to make the stall happen, expect the "break" to be stronger, expect a need for right rudder to counter-act the slipstream against the fuselage. Stick forward to recover, pull back into level flight (do not induce a secondary stall), and add power.
Slow flight - Reduce power to idle, nose up to maintain altitude, when flying slow add some power to maintain altitude, keep lifting up the nose and adding power until we are at cruise RPM, but with a very slow airspeed (just above stall speed). Watch the CHT (Cylinder Head Temperature) to ensure the engine does not overheat (high RPM, low volume of cooling air flow). Practice turns (always shallow), level flight. To exit slow flight one has to lower the nose and add power (if not already at full power).
Forward slips - Throttle to neutral, left (or right) rudder to get the nose pointing away from the direction of flight, using as much aileron as required to maintain the same ground track. Use elevator to maintain speed (aim for 70 knots with no flaps, 60 knots with full flaps). Rudder should be at full deflection, use more/less stick to determine ground track, aircraft should be descending at a significant FPM due to plowing through the air sideways. To exit from the slip gently, and simultaneously, remove both the rudder and the ailerons.
Steeps turns - Oddly, I found this most difficult. Hours or grinding out circuits have get me very used to left-hand turns, and shallow-banked turns. Lots of aileron to get a 45 degree bank, use rudder to keep the turn coordinated, add some elevator to hold altitude, and some power to maintain airspeed. I had trouble maintaining altitude.
Coming back home I did two touch&go circuits, then a full stop.
Time: 1.5 hours dual
Landings: 3
Need to work on: All the upper-air work was OK, but rusty. Need to get practiced so it is once again second-nature.
Next steps: Briefing on forced-landings and precautionary landings, off-airport. Practice same, plus continue to review upper-air work. Do a W&B, and review spins and spiral dives. Then, assuming all is satisfactory, I'll be signed-off for away-from-the airport solo flight.
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