| Lesson 26 & 27:
Date: 3/29/2008 & 3/30/2008 Where: UZA Aircraft: Cessna 172N N517DL Instruction: 1.5/3.4 hours (air/ground) Dual Instruction with William Grannis Let�s Cover Everything Another gray day today. I�m scheduled to fly at 11:30 today. It�s a bit windy, 7 knots, gusting to 14 knots, and the ceiling is low, 2,900 feet. I arrived at the flight school and Bill briefed me on today�s lesson. We were going to be covering everything in preparation for my second solo. I went out and completed my pre-flight, then jumped into the cockpit and waited for Bill. I checked the weather and taxied to runway 2 for takeoff. We were going to depart the pattern to the west and head to the practice area. Since the ceiling was 2,900, I had to fly at 2,400 feet max today. I took off and climbed to 1,200 feet, then turned crosswind and headed for the practice area. On the way, Bill had me initiate slow flight. I did pretty well, except that I lost over 100� of altitude. I was too busy watching my speed and heading. Bill had me do a right and left turn while in slow flight. No problems. I leveled out and resumed cruise speed. Bill had me complete a left hand steep turn followed by a right hand steep turn. Again, no issues. Now, Bill had me go into a power on stall. I immediately applied full power. WRONG. Bill let me know it and I remembered that I needed to slow down to takeoff speed and then apply full power. I did so and pulled back on the yoke. As we approached the stall, the nose fell off to the right. Damn, not enough rudder. I didn�t even stall the plane. I leveled out and started the maneuver again. This time the plane stalled and the nose, again, fell off to the right. OK. What the hell? Bill said that I may be using too much right rudder and that I needed to get my eyes outside and stop staring at the instruments. �You know the plane is going to stall, you don�t need the instruments to tell you that.� Bill said. He was right. I entered the maneuver again and watched outside the plane and I completed the maneuver�the right way. Now Bill wanted to do a power off stall. I pulled the power and slowed to landing speed and dumped in flaps. Once I had held 65 for a few seconds I started to pull back on the yoke. The plane stalled. I was able to keep the nose level, break the stall and complete the maneuver correctly with no issues. Cool. At this point Bill had me fly to different headings then he suddenly pulled power. I looked down and saw the grass strip below me. I established a 65 knot glide and started to go through my checklist. I circled my touchdown point and simulated a mayday call. I continued my checklist as we spiraled down. When my touchdown point was to my 11 o�clock, I decided that I could make one more turn before trying to land. I was wrong. By the time I had turned about 270 degrees around I knew I wouldn�t make the strip. Bill knew it too and I applied full power and climbed back to 2,400 feet. I know what I did wrong. �Poor judgment�, Bill retorted. We tried it again. Everything was going well. This time I had excellent judgment. I simply extended my downwind, then made a short base and ended up in perfect position for landing on the strip. Once in the air again, we headed back to Rock Hill. We checked the weather again. I made my radio call that I was maneuvering for the 45 for the runway 2. We were going to be landing with a crosswind of 7-14 knots. I had some trouble seeing the airport, but used the GPS to find my way. Once I had the airport in sight, It was time to make a radio call that I was on the 45 for runway 2. There didn�t seem to be any other traffic around. I made a normal landing, pretty smooth, and was getting ready to head back to the ramp. Bill said, �Whoa, let�s takeoff again�. �Oh, I thought we were done, sorry.� I said. �Oh no, we have time for 3 or 4 more landings.� Said Bill. I cleaned up the plane and took off. Bill said, �This time, once you�re abeam the numbers, pull power and do a power off landing.�. I did as Bill said and pulled the power once I was abeam the numbers. I heard a plane enter the downwind leg of the pattern behind us. I applied carb heat and established a 65 knot glide speed, then I made my base turn. I was heading into the wind and Bill reminded me that the wind would be pushing against me. I made a turn for final, calling it on the radio. I heard the plane behind me enter his base turn. I was doing well, I put in my flaps and made the landing. It was a bit hard, but we were on the ground. I came to a stop, still thinking about the plane coming in behind me. I cleaned up the plane, applied full power, and made a call that we were rolling. Once I was abeam the numbers, I pulled power again. I did the same thing as before, this time, noticing a plane waiting to takeoff on 2. I was doing well and once I had the runway made I dumped the flaps in and floated just above the runway. I kept pulling back trying to keep the plane off the ground and I porpoised, just like a swimming dolphin. As we were coming back down, hard, Bill and I both reached for the throttle and applied some power to keep from slamming into the runway. We ballooned up again and finally came down somewhat softer and rolled to a stop. I figure the guy waiting to takeoff got a good show on that one. Now, I do realize that this could have been somewhat my fault or it could have been that 7-14 knot crosswind that made me balloon up at the last second. I hadn�t had a landing that looked that bad�.well...ever. We started rolling again. Bill complimented me on my decisions so far. I was making my turns short enough to allow for us to make the runway and I was using my flaps! When I pulled power this time, Bill said, �I�d go ahead and turn for the runway now, instead of continuing my downwind, then base, then final.� �OK, I�ll try that�. I turned for runway 2 and since we were high Bill suggested making a longer base leg. I did and we flew past the runway. I wasn�t liking this approach at all. I turned back to the runway, dumped in flaps, and pointed the nose down since we were high. Once we were closer to touchdown, I stared to pull back to stall and settle. Too late. We touched down on all three gear and rolled to a stop. Bill joked that it's me causing the front wheel to shimmy with landings like that. We were done for the day. I headed to the ramp as Bill went over landing attitudes and emergency judgment with me. We parked the plane and called it a day. Sunday was windy and the ceiling was falling as I got to the airport. Bill wanted to do some more landings, but with the wind kicking up the way it was, I figured it best to just complete a ground lesson today. I didn't feel like getting whipped around today. We settled in one of the classrooms and did a lesson on Navigation. There is a lot to do in planning a trip. Lots of numbers to figure and lots of things to write down, before you even get into the air. Once you�re in the air there are just as many things to be looking for and writing down, all in the name of safety and making it to your destination in one piece. Good lesson. Complicated, but good. Conclusion: Keep my eyes outside the plane most of the time. Make good decisions during emergencies to make sure that I can land the plane. What I learned: Landing attitudes and better judgment during an emergency. Navigation is going to be a learning process. |