Date & Time: Saturday, 24th May, 1997, 11:30 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 0.4 hours (ground) 1.1 hours (air) - - Total 1.5 hrs. Running logbook total: 8 hrs
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F
Dual Instruction with Lee Simmons.

The Flying Simulator.

   Today started a bit slow. There was a Rockets game on last night, so I went out with some friends, leaving my truck parked at work, as we all went off in one car to get some food and watch the game. I thought I was flying at 2pm, so I could sleep in, get on my bike and cycle to work (about 4 miles) to pick up my truck, have lunch then go flying. I got up around 9:30, did some reading, practiced a few crosswind landings on Flight Simulator, then double checked the schedule to make sure 2pm was the right time. Uh oh! I'm due to go at 11:30! What's the time? 11 am! So I got on my bike and cycled to the airport instead (fortunately it's only about 20 minutes bike ride along some quiet rural roads). Fortunately I had all my gear at home and not in the office, and I have a convenient bag for putting my headset and logbook in.
   On arriving at the airport, I saw that N1219F wasn't in her usual spot - she was undergoing her 100 hour. Lee and I talked about today's flying as we waited for the aircraft to be ready.
    About half an hour later, the aircraft came in, so I preflighted, got some fuel, and off we went. The wind was pretty much straight down the runway today, with only a little crosswind component. There was a scattered cloud layer above, and it looked like a pretty good day for flying. Runup complete, we taxied out, and took off. My best takeoff yet! The wings stayed level, I didn't overcompensate and go shooting off to the right, and we climbed on up into the slightly turbulent air. We decided to clean the windshield a little - there was a small rain shower a few miles off, so we flew through the edge of it, turned away, and went up above the scattered cloud layer.
   Today we were going to do some simulation - simulated landings. What you do is this. You find a convenient ground reference (we used a canal) and imagine it's the runway. You then set up to land - fly downwind, base and final as if you were going to land. You use a certain altitude as your "ground" - we used 2000 feet, and then as you touch down on the altitude level you selected, you flare and stall the airplane (and do a normal stall recovery). We prepared by first doing some slow flight, then flying out to the canal. My slow flight was the best so far today as well! I was a bit worried that because I hadn't managed to get out for a week, I'd have gone rusty on it, but I kept everything at their assigned places. My altitude holding needs a little more work in turns,  and that's about it.
   So we set up to "land" on our 2000 foot deck. We flew downwind, base and final, and did all the normal landing checks and procedures (power back, carb heat, trim, flaps). As we descended, I tried to hold the airspeed at 65 knots. Other than the airspeed building a little in the turns, I got it down pretty good. Stalling isn't really a big deal any more either - I can recover from these pretty quickly now.
   We did a couple more simulated landings and stalls, then it was time to head back to the house, and do it for real. I've done a couple of approaches alread during the last couple of flights - but that strip of tarmac looks pretty narrow as you come in for real... The mild turbulence put me off course a little as a wing would drop from time to time, but I had it reasonably on target as we came in on final. It took a little banking whilst holding the nose straight to keep lined up with the centerline, and soon it was time to pull the throttle all the way to idle as the threshold drew nearer. More flaps, throttle idle, and the we were nearly to the runway. Lee had told me earlier that it's best to look a little to the side of the runway to help judge when to start flaring - so I did this. I started the flare at the right time, but...oops! A bit too much, and we went up a little. Lee gave me a little help, and we touched down. We landed a little further from the numbers than most people do...but I'm sure I'll get it down earlier with some practise!
   So, next time it looks like I'll be starting on the touch-and-goes! I've now also got my medical...so I'm starting to think a little bit about the Big Day when I go solo...can't be too many hours away now!

Conclusions.
   Well, I'm getting the feel of flying more and more, and it's meaning that the manoevers don't need half as much sheer concentration as they did a couple of weeks ago. I'm now scanning the outside for traffic and the instruments for what's happening far more effectively, and I'm feeling much more confident with slow flight. I'm getting better with the radio work, and understanding what others are about to do from what they say, too. I'm looking forward to the touch-and-goes! I think getting landings right will probably be the most challenging thing so far - requiring everything I've been learning so far to do effectively.

What was learned.
   Check the schedule the night before, before you decide to leave your truck at work! Fortuantely, it's only a short bike ride to the airport...
   When landing, keep the nose pointed in the same direction by using the rudders, and use ailerons to move left and right to stay on course. When you touch down, you want to be straight to avoid putting sideways strain on the landing gear.

Date & Time: Sunday, 25th May, 1997, 13:30 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 0.5 hours (ground) 1.0 hours (air) - - Total 1.5 hrs. Running logbook total: 9 hrs
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F
Dual Instruction with Lee Simmons.

Bounce-and-go!

   Well, it's time for touch and goes! I got to the airport as Lee was finishing up getting a commercial student ready for his checkride, so I studied the 172's handbook some more to ensure familiarity with the numbers. I then went out to preflight. The wind was gusting a bit, and was blowing about 30 degrees or more crosswind over runway 13. I had hoped it would be a bit calmer for my first touch-and-goes. I could feel the gusts rocking the plane a little as I checked the fuel levels. Looking at the windsock, the wind looked more or less blowing from around 160 to 180 degrees (Houston Hobby's ATIS was reporting 210 degrees or thereabouts). The wind was shifting a bit, too. We taxied on out.
   It was a quiet day. The UNICOM was quiet, with the occasional traffic report at LaPorte (which shares the same CTAF frequency as we do). The ramp was also fairly empty - many people had flown off for the long Memorial Weekend holiday. So, off we go into a quiet traffic pattern for a change. I made a really nice crosswind takeoff without being blown off course! The wind got stronger as we climbed, and it took quite some crab angle to keep climbing straight out. There was a fair bit of turbulence, and it took continuous correction with the ailerons to keep the wings level and the horizon where I wanted it to be. It was also hot (high 80's) and my palms were already sweating.
   First, we went off to do a little ground reference work to see what it was like correcting for this wind when it was a direct crosswind. I found a suitable road, and experimented with the required crab angle to keep us going paralell to it. We needed a surprising amount - around 10 degrees or so (working it out on the E6B gives a wind speed of 18 knots at our altitude as we travelled along at around 100 knots). Then we returned back to SPX and did 4 touch and goes, and a full-stop.
   The trick here for the crosswind landing is to keep the nose pointed straight (if not on the centerline, then paralell to it), and use ailerons to slip left and right to get on the centerline if you are off it, as you come in on final approach. I've been practising this on Flight Simulator to make sure I know which pedal to press, so I managed to more or less get this bit right. However, Flight Simulator doesn't really prepare you for how much rudder you have to put in (my pedals on the computer have less travel than on the C172), so it still takes some getting used to. Today was one of those high concentration days again, where it takes a lot of concentration to get it down right! As I came in for the first touch and go, I saw I was off to the left a little...so I had to slip the airplane right whilst keeping the nose straight. You have to keep doing this all the time as the runway gets closer (a 60 foot wide runway looks like a miniscule target when the wind is doing it's best to gust you off course). As the runway drew near, I smoothly started the flare, but overdid it again...so I relented a little. We were now floating about 10 feet up! I had to let it down a bit more, then I kept pulling, but not enough as I felt Lee give it some more, and we touched down. Once the nosewheel was down, I retracted the flaps, put the carb heat back in and applied full power. Very quickly we were back in the air and riding through the very active air that bobbed us around.
   As the touch and goes proceeded, my approaches got better. We did one simulated engine out (holding 65 knots is quite hard to do when your'e trying to get to the runway by the most direct way without using the flaps - I had the yoke pretty far back through the turns). However, the flare is taking more practise...one time I flared a bit too late and not smoothly enough and I bounced (can we count that as two landings in the logbook?), and all the other times I pulled back a little too far and started going up again, but managed to get it back to a point that we didn't slam it down when we finally did touch down. This is something that'll need plenty of practise!

Conclusions.
   Well, it was certainly fun with that gusting wind! Lee didn't need to touch the controls once I'd done my first approach (except for a little help with the flare), and I could hold it pretty well straight with the rudder, so Flight Simulator had taught me a thing or two about the type of control input needed to get you going down the centerline. What surprised me as that as the airspeed bled off, you really do need agressive control input (almost all the way back on the yoke, a lot more rudder and the yoke turned quite some ways into the wind) to keep it going straight in the flare.
   I'm now feeling very good about flying. It's coming on more, and I realise that this eagle still has a few chicken feathers (but that's a good thing - a fearless pilot isn't necessarily desirable as the saying goes: there are old pilots, there are bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots!) As I listened to the gyros spin down as I filled in the airplane log, I had a big smile...

What was learned.
   Today reinforced further what I learned yesterday about keeping the airplane pointed in the right direction as you come in, and it reinforced the theory of how the controls lose effectiveness as the speed decreases. I also followed in another airplane as we did our final full-stop landing, and to keep good spacing we had a practical use of slow flight to keep a good safe distance in the pattern as the other aircraft went on around. Afterwards, we talked about the traffic pattern and how this (as well as around navaids) is the most dangerous part of airspace as aircraft are around it like flies. This months (or next month's, really - the June edition) Flying magazine has an interesting 'I Learned About Flying From That' when someone nearly had a Seneca land on top of their Mooney (disaster was averted by a Cessna pilot on base leg who saw it about to happen, and put a call out on the radio) which just goes to show that you really have to keep your head on a swivel for any traffic that might be coming at you. Also, at our airport you need to look down as well as you turn to final - there's a Learjet based here, and that comes in fast and low (he has a wide traffic pattern, and he comes into land at about 130 knots, versus our 65 knots!)