More circuits. Various instructors have told me that this is the most boring phase of learning to fly - doing laps around the circuit, scrubbing rubber off the tires and squishing bugs, taking ~6-8 minutes of flying to get 30 seconds of final approach experience and 8 seconds of landing.
I'm trying to counter the boredom by developing precision in the rest of the circuit. Hit 1000' AAE exactly on the climb out, no banks more than 30 degrees, track altitudes exactly, crisp radio calls, fly the circuit at 90 degree angles with accommodation for the wind, work the checklists exactly from the checklists themselves (often, when you look down to read a checklist, the plane wanders from the intended path).
Approaches are getting better. They are not there yet, but there is much less of the wild pendulum stuff as I work down final. My goal is to get her coming down on rails.
Speed management in the circuit and on final remains good.
My angle of descent isn't right. I tend to start out high, fly in with a steeper angle of descent with the engine at near-idle, and then when it comes time to flare my speed erodes quickly because I need to arrest a steeper angle of descent.
Part of the problem is that it's just tough the get the very slippery Eclipse down from 1000' AAE (the altitude when turning from downwind to base) down to the right height in time for the turn to final. Absolutely essential is shedding speed in the last stage of the downwind before turning base, from about 115kt to 60-70 kt, and getting the flaps from cruise to take-off. Today I tried getting the speed down to 60 kt, and flaps to landing, while maintaining altitude and before the base turn. It helped - I was lower when turning final, so I could keep in a bit of engine, and have a lower angle of approach.
Sometimes still some yaw while touching down.
Touchdowns have all been on the mains. Nosewheel landings are a Really Bad Thing - not only is it hard on the nosewheel - which is not intended to take that weight - but you can have a prop strike.
Today I noticed that when the nosewheel touched down it was chattering, so I kept the plane on the ground but lifted the nosewheel, then touched it down again. My control touch is getting finer, and landing expertise is growing so I have the bandwidth to be aware that things like this are happening, and how to fix them.
Did 5 landings initially - the first one had a nasty bounce, two were not bad, two were somewhat OK, none were pendulums or scary. None had a slick final approach, but we were not dancing about the centre line. For too many of them I turned from base to final in a pear-shaped turn, so I had to come back to the centre-line extended. Must work on that.
When landing you pull the stick back, then further back, to keep the plane (hopefully barely) off the ground as long as possible. It is always a Bad Thing to push the stick forward, as you can easily end up nose down (see prop strike). The trick is to not pull the stick to far back too quickly or else you will balloon and be a good height off the runway at a slow&decaying speed (handle it by adding a smidgeon of power, then coming in and flaring again). No stick pushes today.
There is another subtle change - my instructor has a set of objectives for each lesson, but I have influence on that list and can expand or modify it. It's more of a learning partnership, than master/student. Two lessons ago he demonstrated two forced landings at the airfield. Forced landings require shedding a lot of altitude in a hurry, so I suggested we head north to the practice area, practice entering forward slips (I've done lots of recent side slips, but am rusty on entering a forward slip), then come back and do some forced landings. He agrees, and so off we went, practiced left and right slips, came back, and did three forced landings (see next blog entry).
One more circuit, the ninth landing was surprisingly good but with a bit of yaw, off to the apron, run-up, shut down, and put it in the hanger.
Time: 1.5 hours
Landings: 9 (including three simulated forced at the airport)
What went well:
- Using the circuit to be productive practice time, not just looping around time
- Take-offs - of the 9 take-offs, 7 were good, one had tracking problems (on the left side of the runway), and on one I pulled up too aggressively and kicked off the stall horn. Since starting to work on making the take-offs slick there has been big improvement, now I want to be perfectly on the centre line every time.
- Forced landings
- Forward slips
- Side slips
- Taxi, radio, checklists, lookouts, stable flight, climbing turns, etc.
- Turns from base to final - need to roll out on the centre line, not past it
- Smooth final - there is less pendulum, but it isn't there yet
- Speed management during flare
- I want to end up in cruise over the runway at a lower altitude - this should come with less fear of the ground
- Landing it not just near the centre area of the runway, but on the centre line.
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