| Lesson 19:
Date: Thursday 2/28/2008 Where: UZA to 9A6 Aircraft: Cessna 172N N517DL Instruction: 1.8/0.2 hours (air/ground) Dual Instruction with Jill Cagle Emergency Procedures Nice day out today. I took the day off work to get some things done and I figured that I'd get a flight in. I arrived at UZA around 1PM. After completing the preflight Jill joined me in the cockpit. I was on lesson 8 and Jill and I discussed what we could go over in the allotted time. We decided on the most time consuming items; Ground Reference and Emergency Procedures. We took off on runway 20 and headed southeast to work on ground reference. I picked out a red barn in the middle of a field to do turns around a point. I did OK at this and we moved on to S-Turns. This maneuver helps to develop positional awareness, demonstrate corrections required for wind drift, and improve performance for forced landings. We found a long straight road and began the maneuver. Jill explained the maneuver well. This was only the second time that I have attempted it, so another explanation didn't hurt. I did a good job, but we ran out of road. Jill spotted a railroad track that was a lot longer. I flew over to it and did some more S-Turns. Afterwards we moved on to flying rectangular patterns. I haven't done this before, except of course when flying the pattern. This was slightly different, only because it was out in the open. The rectangular course is a useful exercise for preparing to deal with traffic patterns. Flying the maneuver requires an appropriate division of attention between the flight path and the ground references. The object is to maintain altitude and airspeed while flying a rectangular track that keeps the airplane equidistant from all sides of a rectangular shape on the ground. Jill picked out a field and demonstrated the maneuver explaining each turn. I took over the controls and completed the maneuver. This wasn't that difficult. As I mentioned before, I was used to flying the pattern at UZA. The trick was make sure each turn kept me equidistant from the field with corrections for the wind. When complete we could see Chester airport in front of us. Jill asked that I fly in that direction so that we could practice emergency procedures. I was on approach for a straight in final. I announced my location and intentions to Chester Traffic. We didn't hear anything on the radio. No response, nothing. Jill pulled power to simulate engine out. I was lined up for runway 23 and put the plane on the ground with a solid landing, as in WHAM! We solidly hit the runway. The runway here was total crap. It was almost like they were trying to grow a lawn on the rough and cracked runway. Grass and weeds were popping up all over the entire runway surface. I turned the plane to taxi back to the start of runway 23. I made another call to announce our intentions, still no response and no radio traffic. There were two windsocks on the ground at Chester. Each one showed a different wind direction. Great. We decided we were still OK to takeoff from runway 23. I gave the plane full power and increased my speed. Jill immediately reached over and pulled the mixture. I put on the brakes and stopped the plane, the engine quit. She explained the correct thing to do, which would've been to pull power back to idle. Whoops. OK. Full power was again applied and we took off. Once I was around 500 feet, Jill pulled the power to simulate engine out. I made a turn back towards the runway we just left. The turn was tear dropped shaped and I made the landing, after a clearing burst. I taxied all the way back to beginning of runway 23. We took off again and as I climbed I looked up and saw three C-130's flying over in a straight line formation. We were well below them so I continued my path and made a crosswind turn. We headed back to UZA. The whole way back Jill quizzed me on different emergency procedures, like radio failure and the transponder going out, as well as many others. I checked the weather at UZA. We were going to be using runway 20 so from our direction we were able to enter the downwind on a 45 degree angle. We didn't have any problems and I made an OK landing. I taxied back to the ramp and parked the plane. After securing it Jill and I continued to discuss some emergency procedures before logging my time calling it a day. It was a good flight. Conclusion: Be prepared for emergency situations. Be ready to react to whatever happens in the cockpit. What I learned: Emergency procedures should become second nature. If something happens I should be able to react appropriately and/or use a checklist to rectify the situation. |