Date & Time: Tuesday, 8th July, 1997, 07:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 0.9 hours solo. Running logbook total: 28.3 hrs, 7.7 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

How can there be this many people out this early?
   This morning was an early start. Up at 6 a.m. to get weather data, out at the airport at 7 a.m. Unfortunately, scheduling on our 172 has gotten very tight. Not many people seem to want to go out very early, so to get myself some time in, I'm putting myself on the sheet to go before work. Fortunately, I'm soloing, because Lee can't make it out here this early.
   The good thing about mornings are (a) it's cool, and (b) it's calm. Thunderstorms tend to build up in the afternoon, and it's always hot by about 10 am this time of year. At least it's only in the mid-70's this early.
   I was out an hour before the FBO office actually opened - this meant I had to go and use the self-serve fuel. You use your credit card, and enter the N-number of  your airplane, and turn the pump on. There's a grounding line to prevent static sparks which you attach to something like the exhaust. Then you pull the hose out. The reel is spring-loaded, and boy did I have trouble getting up onto the top of the wing to put the fuel in! It kept trying to pull me off! (It was only afterwards that I noticed (a) a ratchet to stop it from doing this, and (b) a step ladder, which is easier than using the step-points attached to the fuselage and strut...)
   This morning was devoted to getting 40 degree flap landings straightened out. I have a habit of ballooning a little during the flare - not seriously, but enough to thump down a bit or bounce. The lack of turbulence and wind would give me good conditions to get a good feel of it (plus in the normal crosswinds you have here, it's advisable to use less flap since you get a bit more control as you hit the turbulence just off of 13).
   Surprisingly, there were 2 people already in the pattern before I took off. One was just finishing up as I was starting, the other was doing touch and goes (a blue Cessna 152 that you see frequently doing training around here - it must be one that belongs to Golden Eagle). I taxied out to 13 - a pity because the fuel pump is right next to 31. There was no wind, but everyone else was already using 13.
   My first two times around the pattern turned out to be normal 20 degree flap landings. I found I had to deliberately make short finals to get a satisfactory 40 degree flap landing without having to 'drag it in' using quite a bit of power (which is not too good, because firstly, if the engine quits and you have 40 degrees out, you'll land very short, and secondly, if you have to throttle right back from a higher setting when you do have the runway made, the nose pitches down quite a bit adding another thing to watch out for when you are already busy in the final stages of your approach).
   By the end of the session, my full flap landings were getting much better. If only Lee was there to hear the stall horn go off, and feel the airplane settle gently onto the runway!

Conclusion.
   Well, since the full-flap landings are really coming, I'll practise some short field ones next time. I still need to use more aileron to hold the centerline - next time I will pay special attention to keeping the centerline and not allowing the airplane to land 2 feet to the left...

What was learned.
   Next time, use the step ladder when refuelling...it'll make it a lot easier!
   To do a nice touchdown with full flaps, you need to gently and gradually come back on the yoke. I found the easy way to make small corrections was instead of using your arm to pull or push, just flex your wrist to "play with it" during the flare. I found that allowed me to make much smaller adjustments and therefore not balloon. (Of course, you still need to keep your arm coming back gradually as well, so that you have the yoke full back when you touch down).

Date & Time: Thursday, 10th July, 1997, 07:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 1.1 hours solo. Running logbook total: 29.4 hrs, 8.8 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

Another early session.
   This morning I decided to get out in the practise area to get the hang of my other weak spot - altitude control. I fuelled up and got ready to go, and went off 13 since the very small amount of wind present was favoring takeoffs from that end.
   When I got to the practise area, I found that someone was already there (in the shape of a Cessna 152, which wasn't based at SPX, although it did later come and do some touch and goes at SPX before heading back to its particular base, probably Ellington). So much for ground reference manoevers. I went to the outer parts of our practise area, and kept my altitude. All I could really do was to practise holding altitude in turns - I made some S-turns with 30 degrees of bank, and tried to keep the altimeter as close as possible to the desired altitude whilst keeping a sharp eye for other aircraft. I found the best way was as with the adjustments needed in flare - flex your wrist. Pulling with my entire arm tended to make the aircraft oscillate in altitude - I'd pull to hard and start gaining altitude, and then release too much and lose some. Just flexing my wrist seemed to get better and smaller control movements.
   I also decided to make sure I could quickly trim the airplane to a power off glide as an engine-out procedure. I pulled out the carb heat, and reduced power back to idle, and established a 65 knot glide speed. It's quite easy to creep up to 70 knots whilst you look outside for a suitable landing site... but if you do that, you're losing altitude too quickly - Lee kept telling me 'you can lose altitude easily if you don't want it, but it's hard to get back'. It seemed with full nose up trim and no flaps that with just myself in the aircraft, it would rather glide at 70 knots, and required a little backpressure to maintain the correct airspeed.
   I headed off back to SPX to get in a few more touch and goes. Once again, I thought I'd try to improve my 40 degree flap landings, since this is important for short and soft field work. My landings were pretty nice - I got the stall horn to go off each time, and the airplane settled nicely onto the ground. I paid good attention to keeping it on the centerline, too, and it resulted in a very satisfying session. Now I have to just repeat this with some crosswind...

Conclusion
   On looking at my logbooks, I realise I've neglected steep turns - the next session should have a few of those thrown in. I'm also chomping at the bit for my first solo cross country. I'll have to get with Lee to get all the appropriate signoffs for Bay City.

What was learned.
   Altitude holding works well if you start the clearing turn and manoever already trimmed out level. To keep it sweet, just use wrist movements, otherwise you may oscillate. I'll have to see how this works with steep turns.

Date & Time: Saturday, 12th July, 1997, 18:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local flight
Instruction: 1.1 hours solo. Running logbook total: 30.5 hrs, 9.9 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

Steep turns...
   As I had planned, I went out to perform some steep turns. The weather was the most pleasant we had had in quite some time - there were just a few scattered cumulus clouds, and visibility was at least 15 miles. There was a distant cumulonimbus cloud, but that was on the distant horizon and breaking up. I unhurridely performed my preflight since it wasn't too hot, and it was quite nice to be outside.
   On arrival at the practise area, I made a clearing turn, followed by a steep turn to the right. I decided to start off with 45 degree turns. That worked out well, and I worked up to 60 degree bank angles. I held altitude well - I managed to stay well within limits, and I got no turbulent 'bumps' at the end of the manoever (which indicates that you lost altitude and hit your own wake turbulence). However, I could not hold altitude in left hand steep turns. I usually aborted halfway through because I had actually begun descending too quickly on a couple of them. I managed to get one of them sweet and holding altitude, but that was it. I need to work more on left hand steep turns.
   I headed back home to do some more touch and goes. All except one went well. On one of them, directional control went completely to pot during the flare, and I had to really give it some rudder and aileron to get it straightened up again. The touchdown was smooth though, but I cursed myself for allowing it to get so far from the centerline. I still need to get better at touching down on the centerline!

Conclusion.
   Steep turns to the left need more practise. You never know which way an examiner will make you go when it does come to checkride time...
   I still need to use more aileron for sliding me over the centerline when landing. What I really need now is a reasonable crosswind session to practise this.

What was learned.
   A prolonged session of steep turns really takes it out of your wrist! You constantly need to apply back pressure whilst performing them. I spoke to Lee about my difficulty with holding altitude in left hand steep turns, and his opinion was that it was probably the different picture out of the window - due to where you sit, a left hand steep turn will look different to a right hand one as to where the horizon intersects with the glareshield.

Date & Time: Sunday, 13th July, 1997, 08:30 CDT
Where: From SPX -> LCH -> LFK -> SPX
Instruction: 2.0 hrs (ground) 4.2 hrs (air) total 6.2 hrs. Running logbook total: 34.7 hrs, 9.9 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F
Dual instruction with Lee Simmons

The long dual cross country
   I didn't expect to be doing this particular dual cross country for another week. However, when I checked the club airplane schedule just before I went out on Saturday, I noticed another student pilot had canceled their long cross country. I quickly put my name on the schedule for the entire morning to early afternoon, and made a mental note to call Lee when I got home to make sure he would be up to it.
   It turned out that that was a good time to go for. I got up bright and early, and called the FSS for a weather briefing. The weather forecast I looked at the night before said it looked good - and the briefing was very short, with nothing that would stop a VFR flight either happening or forecast. We should be in for a good day. I calculated ground speeds and WCA's, and added these to my navigation log. My flight plan was filed and we were ready for action.
   The first leg, to Lake Charles, Louisiana was to be done by using the nav radios. Before we rolled onto Houston Gulf runway 31, I had the nav radios set to where I wanted them. Our flight plan as filed was to go to SBI VOR direct, then on Victor 70 to Lake Charles. I opened the flight plan on the FSS frequency, and requested flight following from Houston departure. However, as is the case of a lot of flight plans, we changed plans shortly after departure. As we came towards Trinity VOR on Smith Point, it was clear that there was far less scattered cumulus if we just followed the Beaumont VOR inbound, and went directly over Beamont then directly from there to Lake Charles. Adjustments made on the NAV radios, we headed on our way. As we approached the Beaumont TSRA, Houston departure handed us off to them, and flight following continued. We passed over Beaumont, flying way above its class D airspace ceiling at our altitude of 5,500 ft. As we got close to the Lake Charles TSRA, we were handed off from Beaumont approach to Lake Charles approach.
   We had kept visual checks as we continued on our path, and soon I could see the body of water that was just outside of the LCH class D airspace. We began our descent, gradually enriching the mixture as we came down until it was full rich at about 3,500 feet. Funnily enough, Lake Charles approach advised us to start descending mere seconds after we actually started! Seemed like we had excellent timing there. Soon afterwards, we were handed off to Lake Charles tower. It was quiet at LCH, so our conversation went something like this:

Us:  "Lake Charles tower, Cessna 1219F"
Tower: "Cessna 19F, left base for runway 33, cleared to land"
Us: "Lake Charles tower, Cessna 19F, cleared to land on 33..."

And that was it. So much for the big encounter with air traffic control! Once we had landed, the tower asked us if we were familiar with the airport. Since Lee had been there more times than I've had hot dinners, we responded affirmative, and taxied in to the general aviation ramp.
   I went to the phone, closed our flight plan and got an abbreviated weather briefing for our next leg, and filed the next flight plan, from Lake Charles to Angelina County, Lufkin. We were refuelled and ready to go.
   This leg was to be dead reckoned, using ground references as checkpoints. I checked my navigation log. For some reason, I had 040 degrees marked in as the true course. That seemed odd since we were going to be going northwest not northeast! I don't know what posessed me to put that down. (Important lesson - double check your nav log!) I put the correct course down, and we set the radios. I listened to the ATIS, and contacted ground control. We rolled off back to runway 33, did our runup, then switched frequencies for tower. I told the tower that I was ready to go, and he immediately told us that we were cleared to take off from 33, and should turn to a heading of 300 once we were off. Our course was to be 310 anyway, so this was pretty good.
   We were soon told to switch to the departure fequency for the Lake Charles TRSA and resume our own navigation. Shortly after our frequency change, departure vectored us...straight at a cloud! We replied unable due to clouds, and suggested that we could turn either left or right of that heading, depending on what the contoller preferred. He told us to turn right to a heading of 300, which kept us clear of the clouds, then shortly afterwards told us we could resume our own navigation. We got back on course, almost directly above our first checkpoint - a town called Sulphur. Below were some oil refineries, and an airport that served Sulphur called 'Sulfy'. This checked off, I looked at my navigation log for the next checkpoint, and noted the time. We kept doing this holding our heading and ticking off checkpoints. All in all, it ran very smoothly, and we had one really nice checkpoint - the Steinhagen Resevoir that can be seen for miles (twenty from our position, at least!)
   As we came to Lufkin, we needed to deviate around a cumulus cloud that was in our flight path on our descent, and then got back to our course and headed in to Angelina County airport. We called UNICOM and asked them for an advisory, and they advised us that Runway 33 was in use. We made our normal announcements and landed. This is a nice airport - all the runway markings are fresh, and it even has a localiser. There wasn't much activity on the ramp - it was just us, a Search and Rescue helicopter, and a Cessna Caravan (a large turboprop single) out on the ramp. There weren't many tiedown spots so I expect most of the aircraft based there were hangared. I closed my flight plan, and got a briefing for the rest of the journey home, and filed the final flight plan for the day.
   I had planned to just do pilotage all the way home - just follow US 59 until Livingston, then break off on a south-south east heading towards Galveston Bay, then follow the coast to SPX. However, Lee had other ideas... hood work! My task was simple. Follow the Daisetta VOR inbound, holding altitude and heading. Lee would occasionally vector me just to make it more interesting (turn to this heading...now go back to your original course... follow this heading etc.) I used fairly shallow turns to go to the assigned headings. Once I had levelled out, I really had to fight the feeling that I was banked pretty hard. My senses told me I was in what felt like a 20 degree bank. Denied of an outside visual reference, I had to just trust the instruments. The attitude indicator (artificial horizon) was showing me straight and level. It took a real internal struggle to fight the feeling that I was banked and not roll the airplane into an actual bank! I kept checking the attitude indicator, the directional gyro, altimeter and airspeed to keep going on the assigned course and altitude. Lee told me to cross check - if the DG was turning - then you were banked. This could be cross checked against the attitude indicator. If airspeed was picking up, you were probably going down - cross check with the altimeter and so on.
   I had done some brief hood work with Lee before, but this was more extensive. It taught me just how much the senses lie. You have to really get in the pilot's seat and feel it for yourself to find out what it really feels like - you can't get any comparison from sitting in the back of an airliner (mainly because you aren't actually flying it!)
   4.2 hours of Hobbs time, and around 6.2 hours from initial departure, we were back home. I closed the last flight plan of the day and tied up, having learned many lessons!

Conclusion.
   I'm on the schedule for next Saturday for a similar period...so I'll be facing the full force of Air Traffic Control...alone! It's a little daunting, but I know the procedure now.
   It was great to get out of the pattern, and we had nice weather for it. At our cruising altitudes (we used 5,500 east and 6,500 west) it was nice and cool.

What was learned.
   Flight following - we did get some traffic callouts, so this proved an extra safeguard to our own 'see and avoid' actions. It's really worth using - plus you are talking to somebody in case you need them in a hurry...
   How to file and open flight plans - don't forget to find out what the FSS frequency is, and when you call the FSS, tell them what frequency you are on - they may be working on multiple frequencies.
   Dead reckoning works really well. I read somewhere (I think it may have been in the book "I Learned About Flying From That - volume 3") that the primary means of navigation is dead reckoning - everything else (ie radio naviads, GPS etc.) is just a backup.
   Always double check your navigational log...it's easy to accidentally write in the wrong heading. This doesn't help navigation if you go off following the wrong heading... (Our groundschool instructor told us that when she was a student pilot, she wrote something like 12 on the nav log, and ended up following 120 instead of 012 - so don't drop the leading zero either!)
   Talking to ATC isn't that big of a deal that I imagined it to be. If you don't hear them the first time, say 'say again'. If you miss a particular part of the message, you can say 'Lake Charles ground, 19F, say departure frequency again', like we did when we missed the frequency that we needed for departure control (as it happens, we already had it on the standby, so we were good to go anyway).