08/01/03 – Today’s flight was my Stage 1 check. There was nothing new to cover, but it included anything and everything that I have done to date. It is just a review to make sure that I am learning everything Drew says I am learning. I would say it is more of a cross check for the CFI’s than the students. Anyway.
The wx was pretty good, but there were some clouds in the area. We departed 28r for a SW bound departure. I had to perform some climbs, descents, etc… to various headings and altitudes. That went good and did not last for long. It even elicited a good reposne from Marsha on my level offs. They were better today than they had ever been. Then it was time for steep turns; I only had to do one because it worked out so well. After the turns I lost my A.I. and D.G. and it was time for some timed turns. They worked out great and I only had to adjust one time after rolling out on the requested heading. Marsha was not able to trip me up on the turns.
The clouds were starting to drop in on us so it was time to head back. I took a peek and the clouds were not far from the top of the plane. We could barely climb as high as we needed in order to safely do the maneuvers. She had me take us back to the airport by whatever means necessary. I dialed in the VOR and tracked that inbound. I called up the tower about 8 miles out and was told to make the usual call at 3 NM for landing. After I called up the tower, Marsha had me flip up the hood and take us in for a visual landing. That was a nice relief to enter the pattern with my sight instead of Drew giving me the headings to fly right until the end.
Marsha was just about to ask for the crosswind correction when I got lined up with the centerline on final and had the speed nailed. Just as I was getting close to Hwy 212 before the apt I put in the crosswind correction and crossed the threshold at the correct speed. I started to flair a little high and corrected with no problem. I was bleeding off the airspeed and Marsha asked for a smooth landing (she is with child) and I thought crap. Smooth landing is not in my vocabulary. I am working on getting the landings in a new plane (C172), I will work on smooth later. The speed bled off nicely and this turned out to be the best landing that I have had in the Cessna. I was happy to end on a good note. I was slightly misled at first because as I touched down Marsha said, “Jeepers !”. All I could think was jeepers (good) or jeepers (bad). It was jeepers good and the flight was no over. I taxied back to Tbird and shut down the plane.
Main Lesson For Today:
FIND A SCAN THAT WORKS AND STICK WITH IT.
