WEEK 20

Date & Time: Wednesday, 10th September, 1997, 19:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local
Instruction: 1.2 hrs dual instruction with Lee Simmons. Running logbook total: 56.6 hrs, 22.3 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

An action packed evening...
   The agenda for the evening was pretty packed. Whilst it was still light we would check my progress on ground reference manoevers, then as dusk fell, perform some hoodwork, and when it got completely dark, go and do some night touch and goes. By the time I had preflighted, it was already getting darker, so there was no need for sunglasses! This trip had two purposes - one, Lee could check my ground reference manoevers, and secondly, we could get the last night landings in (I only need one, but it didn't hurt to do a few more).
   In the remaining light, we did some turns around a point (well, 2 points, and we made it figure 8's, like 8's around pylons). This went OK except I need to check for drift more. The altitude tolerances stayed within 50 feet - twice the PTS standard (which says + or - 100 feet). I'm going to try and get better altitude control, though. We also did some S-turns over a road (railroad, actually!), but I have a tendency to make the turns too tight making it unnecessarily difficult for myself.
   As it got darker, on went the hood and we did some more unusual attitudes. Less light outside certainly makes hoodwork harder (more like IMC I expect) as visual cues such as the sun shining on the instrument panel as you turn are absent. However, I didn't have any problems recovering from the unusual attitudes - it just took a quick instrument scan, ignore the senses that say you are straight and level when in fact you are in a 60 degree bank (!), and then do what's needed to correct the unusual attitude, and then ignore the sense that says you are actually banking more and more when you are in fact straight and level.
   As we returned to SPX, it was starting to get completely dark. The sun had already set for a while, so it wouldn't be long before we were in the thick of night. We performed the touch and goes. The trick with night landings is to not bore in on the landing light (in fact, it's helpful to fly with it off for a few landings) and use the runway lights as a visual cue. They make a good visual cue, and you just have to look at the shape of the runway they describe. As it flattens out, flare, and use the lights to indicate when you have a nose up attitude whilst still flying level in the ground effect. Then keep that picture, by pulling more and more on the yoke until the airplane quits flying, and the wheels touch down.

Conclusion.
   Well, the last night landings are done, so all that's left is 0.4 hours of hood time, and the requirements are done. I'm getting nervous just thinking about the checkride! I do feel confident about flying at night, too...which is good. The new Part 61 cross country requirement at night is a good thing too, since now I'm confident that I can go places at night. In reality my first night work was also a mini-cross country, even though the rules at the time didn't call for it - Lee likes to do this with his students to give us some experience of real night work, which is better than just doing 3 hours of night touch and goes.

What was learned.
   I need to give myself more space on ground reference manoevers. However, the hood work is all good, so I will have no problem with that come the checkride.

Date & Time: Thursday, 10th September, 1997, 17:30 CDT
Where: From SPX, local
Instruction: 1.2 hrs dual instruction with Lee Simmons. Running logbook total: 57.8 hrs, 22.3 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

Stalls and steep turns.
   We went through the PTS book, and Lee wanted to come back to stalls and steep turns to check my progress on this. I hadn't done stalls very much (mainly because I thought that they were easy), but I had been practising steep turns quite a bit.
   It was very hazy out. After takeoff, Lee took the airplane, and I put the hood on, and then I was vectored to the practise area. This made the steep turns quite hard since it was difficult to get a good view of the horizon where I normally like it. However, I did stay within altitude limits. I had to keep checking the AI to make sure I was still at a 45 degree turn! Then onto the stalls - we did all combinations. Power off, clean. Power off in landing configuration. Power off in turns. We did three full flap stalls, mainly because on the first one I tried to recover by taking out all the flaps instead of cramming in the throttle! You are supposed to get the throttle in, then immediately come to 20 degrees of flaps and recover. Lee agreed I need to practise this more!
   Stalls in a turn were also tricky because I kept letting it lose altitude and gain airspeed. These need practise.
   Power on stalls were fun. I hadn't done a turning power on stall for a long time. I throttled back, got the airspeed down to 55, put in 20 degrees of bank and crammed in the throttle, whilst at the same time pulled the nose up more and more to try and stall it.  A lot of right rudder was needed to counteract torque, and I had to cross control quite significantly to maintain 20 degrees of bank...basically a recipe for a spin. This made me a little nervous - I'm not sure why, I have done spin training and loved it. I think the thing I'm worried about is doing a spin when I didn't expect it, wereas if I'm deliberately trying to spin, I'm expecting it to come. Sure enough, when the stall broke, we did drop a wing fairly agressively and start to yaw quite a bit. However, I picked up the wing with rudder alone and there was no chance of a spin (one good lesson of spin training is to NEVER mess with the ailerons in a stall - they can flatten or steepen a spin or even start the spin, but they won't make you recover. You can only stop the stalled aircraft  from yawing with rudder). I was pleased that I had cured the aileronitis  I had in my pre-solo days (trying to level the stalled airplane during recovery with aileron rather than rudder).
   We returned to SPX with me under the hood, following the VOR-A approach towards SPX. Since we didn't actually want to go right in at this point, we broke off at LAZZY intersection, and followed a normal pattern into 13 to do some soft field landings. Although one landing was more of a soft squelch landing, it didn't come out too badly. The last one we did was a short field, over an imaginary obstacle on the last third of the runway to make a genuine short field of 2000 feet with an obstacle. The performance figures for the 172 says this is no problem, and in fact it wasn't too hard to stop well before the end of the runway with confidence. Following the numbers once again worked well, and the last stage of the approach was performed at 59 KIAS or thereabouts with 40 degrees of flap. It's also important to pitch down before cutting power if you need to drag the airplane over the obstacle like I did! Incidents have happened where the pilot cut power first and the airplane simply stopped flying at that point, which results in a very hard landing (or to give it it's technical term a "crash").

Conclusion.
   I need to practise stalls some more (especially power off) so I don't go for the flaps and retract them all during recovery! I need to practise the turning power on stall as well - the PTS says no more than 20 degrees of bank, so I need to make sure that happens.
   Lee also jumped a practise checkride on me! I'm very close to the real thing now. Next week, I will be doing a practise checkride with another instructor in the club. He'll give me extra feedback, and Lee said it's always good to get feedback from another instructor who has not seen you fly yet!

What was learned.
   OK, stalls are easy, I say. Just pull up until the airplane quits flying. Well, the extra variations make it a little trickier. We did start with a soft-field takeoff, and I need to practise keeping the aircraft in the ground effect smoothly (I had a tendency to be a bit jerky on the controls).

Date & Time: Saturday, 13th September, 1997, 18:00 CDT
Where: From SPX, local
Instruction: 1.1 hrs solo. Running logbook total: 58.9 hrs, 23.4 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

Altitude perfect.
   Today was another practise session, so this will be short. It was extremely satisfying - all the manoevers were performed with a very steady altimeter hand! The only fault was when I did S-turns over a road, I was going perpendicular to the road just before reaching it. All other manoevers went well. I practised stalls, and they were all textbook - I did banked approach, full flap and departure stalls.
   I tried some slow flight in a different configuration than normal, and even that went well with all the numbers right. I tried using less flap than usual - 55 KIAS with 20 degrees of flap - meaning a more nose-up attitude, less power and less drag. Altitude was maintained well within double the requried standard. I did one touch-and-go soft field landing, and it wasn't a soft squelch!

Conclusion.
   That was a very satisfying trip. Lee had to re-sign me for solo because it's been 90 days now since the first solo. I'm feeling more confident about the practise checkride next week. The air was also as smooth as glass, which made for a pleasant flight.

What was learned.
   What needs practise is those S-turns - I nearly had them...

Date & Time: Sunday, 14th September, 1997, 15:30 CDT
Where: From SPX, local
Instruction: 1.0 hrs solo. Running logbook total: 59.9 hrs, 24.4 hrs solo
Aircraft: Cessna 172, number N1219F

Final preparations...
   Today I was making final preparations for the practise checkride. I did some more ground reference manoevers - turns around a point and S-turns over the road. I did the turns around a point both left and right. There was enough thermal activity around to make altitude holding quite a challenge, but I did it well within the required standards. I also did some ADF tracking because I knew I had not done a lot of that, and followed a track for about 10 miles from near Houston Gulf, over the practise area and towards Galveston bay. There was enough wind to require a correction on this short trip. I also did a power on banked stall and made sure I held back the yoke to really aggrivate it and get a good stall break. The recovery was quick - I'm confident that this will be good in the checkride (just remember the clearing turn - so many people have been busted on stalls, not because they couldn't perform them but because they didn't clear the area first!)
   Once I was done with manoevers (the S-turns actually went OK today), I went off home for a few touch and goes. Climbing our was quite interesting with the thermal activity we had - I could get ascent rates of better than 1000 fpm at 80 KIAS (Vy - best rate of climb airspeed - is 73 KIAS for the 172N). There was enough of a headwind to make short field landings very easy to accomplish, and enough tailwind on the downwind leg to really extend the downwind if the power wasn't pulled right back!

Conclusion.
   I now feel ready to handle whatever I get in Wednesday's practise checkride. Once I've done that, I should have good feedback on what remains to be improved...then the real thing! (gulp!)

What was learned.
   Altitude control is possible, even when the air is bumpy. Lee's acronym for the things you need to do for good ground reference (and pattern) work is RAT - Reference, Altitude, Traffic. (Reference is the thing you are looking at on the ground, and of course under VFR you need to be frequently checking for traffic).

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