More Circuits - July 13

Back flying with the CFI today. More circuits. I know why they put cross-country into the PPL curriculum - it gives you something different to do when you get sick to death of circuits. And I've only just started.

Today we have wind at 220 degrees, and we're using runway 28. The wind isn't a lot, but it's there and it passes over a forest and lake before it gets to the final approach path, so there is a bunch of mechanical turbulence and more.

The usual remained good.... checklists, taxi, radio calls, climb, flying, headings, maintaining altitude.

I didn't watch my speed a few times, and got going a bit fast. And when climbing out after takeoffs I climbed through 1000' AGL a few times - maybe to 1050' or 1100' AGL. Need to hit the altitudes precisely.

Because I got going fast, and because the Eclipse is slippery, the first few landings I had problems with shedding enough altitude soon enough. I just got on that sooner, and had no further problems.

The final to 28 has some interesting sink (or wind shear, or mechanical turbulence) when the wind is from this direction. I recall one short final where we had sink (add a touch of power and change attitude), then we ballooned up (kill power), and then we hit sink again (add power, then add more power, then "gee, Jim, those orange lights are getting even larger, more power please)". I punched in a good shot of power, made the runway, killed power, and the let it slowly sink into the rotate and flare.

During landings, there is a bunch of flying in the circuit, then a final, and then a very busy 5-8 seconds of actually landing the airplane. During those seconds the student is busy doing the landing, and doesn't have much time to look out and get perspectives and so forth. It takes a while to get proficient at landings because you're only learning 5-8 seconds at a time.

I asked the instructor to make one landing - she didn't touch the wheels, but we flew down the runway at about 40' before climbing out. I took that opportunity to get a nice long look outside, look in different directions and establish a frame of reference.

Next landings I concentrated on looking in the right places. The approach wasn't on rails, but was were getting better. I made many more (fine) adjustments to attitude and speed, trying to maintain a constant rate of descent. Because I was looking at the end of the runway and the horizon I suddenly got much better at rotating into the cruise position, and then using more elevator to rotate and hold us off the runway as the forward velocity decayed.

In all, it's coming!!

Hours: 1.3
Landings: 6

What's improved:

• Speed management on base and final (basically, getting rid of speed)
• Vertical rate of descent on final
• Flaring - changing attitude from descent to cruise to nose up
• Visuals on the descent - getting away from the tunnel vision, and getting the eyes wayyyy out in front of the aircraft during the last seconds of a landing

Need to work on:

• Directional control on take-offs - correctly using rudder at the start of the takeoff roll. Sometimes it's OK, sometimes it isn't, and this runway is long enough that I am gently applying power and working the throttle and rudder in concert. Need to get it quicker (in preparation for short field takeoffs)
• Lateral stability during landings (vertical tracking is coming along)
• Take-offs!!! They're not smooth. I reach rotate speed (44 knots), and then pop the nose up, the aircraft leaps into the air, then the stall horn blows due to the rapid change in relative wind, then I drop the nose from the silly nose-up attitude, then I get established in the climb, and then I have a smooth climb-out.