More Practice Makes More Better

With just a day to prepare for the next flight, I did a bit more "chair flying" to practice the flows of stalls, landings, and go-arounds.  Today was a focus on landings, so we stayed in the pattern and did touch and go's for an hour.  Included was practice on short and soft field takeoffs and landings.  Of course, just for fun we had a light crosswind and a mix of right- and left-traffic.

Starting with a soft-field takeoff, the key is to keep the nosewheel off the ground as soon as possible, then lift off and stay in ground effect.  The only problem was too quickly getting out of ground effect, which slows the climb since we lift off at such a slow speed.

But once in the pattern the next landing was a normal touch and go, which was a bit wobbly in the crosswind.  The next was a short field landing, which also needed work.  Again, the instructor took the controls and let me focus on the sight picture.  The main thing I was doing wrong was getting too low too quickly and not flaring high enough to let the plane settle gently through ground effect.  With that in mind, we did a few more of both short- and soft- field touch and go's, which overall were better but still not as smooth as we'd like.

For the last landing, we switched to the smaller runway, and also conveniently the wind shifted to straight down the runway.  Against all odds (or maybe due to all the practicing), this landing was the smoothest ever.

After a quick debrief, we set a plan to do the formal flight review in a few days.  The review isn't a re-do of a checkride, and while the pilot is still expected to meet every standard exactly, the main objective is to ensure safety.  While my maneuvers might still need some practice (which is the goal for the coming months), I do already feel safer and more confident.  With a few more flights I might feel comfortable carrying passengers again as well. 

 

Back Up to Speed

After the rusty return to flight last time, the instructor gave me several things to work on, and today's flight was to focus on steep turns and stalls since those needed the most work.  Though last time was a bit frustrating, it's good to know that with practice and good instruction, it doesn't take long to become, if not smooth, at least safe.

To prepare, I did a bit of "chair flying" to practice the flows for the two main stalls (power-on and power-off), plus used X-Plane to approximate the sight picture for steep turns.  A PC simulator isn't great for most real-world flying, but does have a few positives when it comes to this application or things like the "mental" aspects of flow and power-pitch-performance combinations.

The weather today was cooler, with lower clouds we had to maneuver around a bit, but made for a bit smoother day aloft.  We tracked the VOR out to the practice area, and then got right into the steep turns.  Right turns always seem to be a bit harder (from the left seat) due to the different sight picture, but I decided to just go for it straight away.  It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great either.  It takes some practice to combine looking outside at the horizon, watching the airspeed and altitude inside, and keeping the bank angle at 45 degrees.

 

After a couple tries, the instructor took the controls to demonstrate one, and let me get a better look at the sight picture.  After a couple more of mine which were much better, we had an "engine failure" and had to locate a suitable site and go through the flows for restart.  But since we couldn't "restart" we had to go ahead and drop flaps in preparation for an emergency landing in a field.  As we were a bit high, the instructor had me enter a slip to lose altitude.  This had the exact effect of highlighting yet another skill I need to work on...

Now it was time to head back, so we tracked the VOR again and contacted approach to get back into the pattern.  It was a busy traffic day, so as we slotted in, there was a Piper Archer in front which we somehow were overtaking.  We could tell it was a short spacing, and finally the controller clued in as well to have us make a 360 to give everyone a bit more room.

As we turned onto final, the instructor had be try another slip.  Again, not great.  Too much rudder and aileron compared to what I would have been used to from the low-wing Diamond DA-20.  

On the plus side, I handled all the radio calls, which can get a bit overwhelming on a busy day, but went well.  The instructor also gave me a few more tips and a guide to some of the basic maneuvers to read up on before tomorrow.  The main points were the V-speeds and flows for stalls to practice before the next flight.

The takeaway from today was that while it doesn't take long for skills to atrophy, it also doesn't take long to get back into the zone. 

 

And Just Like That...

 Four years slipped away, but not for lack of any non-flying activity.  As before, so many things have happened, and time goes so fast.  Some of the big things we've done since the last flight in 2021:

• More work in Nevada
• Double-project work in Canada, where pandemic-related travel made it very inconvenient to repeatedly cross the border - so back and forth between Ontario and New Brunswick
• Family cruise to Alaska
• Put a new roof on the house
• Tended to my wife who had double hip replacement surgery - both hips at the same time!
• Caribbean Cruise, short Florida Cruise, and another Caribbean Cruise - there was a point to all this, I promise
• Saw Penn & Teller in Las Vegas
• Had another set of projects in Saskatchewan and Alberta - including way up in the Uranium patch at 58 degrees north latitude
• Memorial for a great-uncle in California
• Time off to help mom through a stroke and move to assisted living
• Dealt with mom's passing and handling estate
• Back to uranium projects and Sudbury Nickel (back to a site I started at 10 years ago)
• Took anniversary road trip to Santa Fe
• Studied for and took the CFA Level 2 exam
• Cruise through the Panama Canal
• Bought a new house
• Quick work project in Wyoming 
• Certified Advanced Open Water Scuba with dive trips to Roatan, Grand Cayman, and San Diego
• Officiated daughter's wedding
• Sold a motorcycle 
• And if all that wasn't enough, in the middle of it all took nine months off to sail around the world on Royal Caribbean's Ultimate World Cruise - an amazing trip that took us to 160 ports in over 60 countries

So with a goal of getting some flight hours in before the end of the year, I stopped in at the local school to see what might be available.  With a bit of luck and an open schedule, I went ahead and scheduled some time with just a few days lead time to get some reading done, update BasicMed, and overall refresh the knowledge.

With again so much time off, it was no surprise I was barely prepared.  Originally scheduled for the cooler morning hours with lighter winds, we had to postpone until noon.  Still fairly light winds, but the instructor was ready to throw me back into it.

Just getting started was a tax on my mental energy, not having flown this plane for years.  Preflight went well, until I got stuck with weight and balance since there were two sets of units in the tables and I had to finally ask for help.  With that out of the way and getting settled in the cockpit, I already felt behind.  I'm still not used to the more modern avionics and though we had agreed (and I thought I was ready) that I handle the radios, I was more than happy to have him just do it.  Back at a towered field after so many years, and with a bit of pressure from the controllers due to the busy pattern, I was feeling already a bit overwhelmed.

We took off, which other than rotating a bit late, went well.  Climbing up to pattern altitude and starting the initial turn, so far so good.  But then the instructor decided to test my steep turns - which I haven't practiced since 2011 in Australia.  Suffice to say I was all over the place and working too hard.  He showed me how much trim to use, and my next left turn was respectable (those always seem to be easier) while the one to the right was a mess and I lost way too much altitude.

 

Slow flight?  Not too bad if we look at the results, but need to work on memorizing the steps and the flow to get smoother.  Also need to get more familiar with this plane's instrumentation, which is the small digital display.  I was constantly looking down more than I was used to in the past with steam gauges, since my peripheral vision couldn't pick out the small changes in the numbers scrolling by.  And I need to work on knowing and anticipating the throttle settings needed for each phase.

We came back for a crosswind landing which looked good right up until my three-point bounce and drift which probably could have been more gracefully saved, but we didn't bend anything.

 With this initial flight out of the way and the instructor seeing what I need to work on, we have another couple of sessions planned to continue knocking off the rust and getting the flight review formally completed. 

Stretching the Legs

Today's flight was another in the progression of stepping further away from home plate and practicing some proper cross country navigation.  This allows for putting into practice some of the flight planning, weather briefing, and fuel management skills which don't get much airtime when flying locally.

In this case, the weather briefing and overall real-world weather couldn't have been better (or simpler).  A solid high pressure system kept not only the skies clear but the winds light and temperatures mild.  So while I went through all the steps, there wasn't much that required any special concern, or even any special fuel planning.  With no significant headwinds or tailwinds either direction, it amounted to simply multiplying the fuel burn by the expected time en route.  Similarly, there was no significant wind correction to apply, so simply flying the GPS course was sufficient to arrive at Point B.

Before departing the local field, I did a couple of touch and go's just to get into the rhythm and mentally prepare for the longer flight.  I think this might be a good practice overall, and will try to do it as much as possible, at least when flying solo.  It keeps the skills a bit fresher and adds a bit of a safety factor compared to, say, airline pilots who just hop in and fly multiple hours every day.  After not flying for even a few days, it feels a bit wrong to do that when I have no idea what lies at my destination (or even a few miles out).  Similar to venturing into shallow ocean waves before diving in, this re-acclimates my flying mind to the environment.  

Coincidentally, I decided to just do two landings before departing for the horizon.  It turns out this was a fortuitous decision, as a Cirrus in the pattern right behind me decided to blow a tire and close the runway while it was repaired.  I heard all the commotion as I was climbing out and was glad I didn't have to get into the middle of that.

One of the key decisions for this flight was choosing a cruise altitude.  I wanted to stay relatively low and below the height (3,000 AGL) which would require an FAA-dictated VFR altitude based on my direction of flight.  But I also was a bit cautious of rising terrain and the possibility of some turbulence as I crossed over a particular ridgeline midway through the flight.  I opted for flying roughly 2,500 ft AGL, which provided a nice, smooth ride.  As I approached the ridge (one I have never flown over on my own) I predicted that I would experience some rising and falling air currents.  To my surprise I was actually correct and felt the mild ups and downs about where I expected.  For the return flight, I flew just a couple of hundred feet higher since it was likely going to be a more turbulent headwind, and while I still felt the bumps, they didn't toss me around too much.

 Also on the return flight, I started noticing louder wind noise and a bit of a whistling sound.  Indeed, though my altitude hadn't changed, the airspeed had jumped up apparently due to a bit of a windshear or different flow.  I powered back and rode through it to keep the speed at about 90 knots.  But the strange whistling kept coming and going.  Maybe the wind direction was causing a strange pressure zone around the doors or air vents?  I never figured out what it was.

Returning to home base, the winds had picked up a bit, and there was what felt like a bit of thermal activity - not unexpected for a late summer afternoon.  I also had to blend in with the other traffic again.  In this case, I planned on crossing overhead and then entering a 45-degree teardrop to the downwind.  As I approached the field, I heard an inbound regional jet setting up for the opposing runway direction on a long straight-in.  I asked over the radio how long before they would be at the field and the response was "three to five minutes".  That didn't give me much time to come back around and not rush my pattern, so I announced that I would back off, exit the pattern and stay clear until they landed.  However, another plane had also entered the area, and was sort of stuck behind me.  We both ended up circling for what felt like more than five minutes while the regional jet finally made it in.  I was in the process of coming back around into a base-leg turn, but hadn't had a chance to descend from pattern altitude.  I ended up too high and too fast as I entered final, and knew I would not be making a stabilized approach - so I did a go-around.

This I think was a good decision as it allowed the other plane to come in a bit quicker (they didn't say anything, but something about the tone of their voice made it seem like they wanted to get down) - not to mention it kept me from doing something drastic just to get the plane on the ground when there was no urgency.

I did a couple more touch and go's, with a right crosswind that gave me a bit of trouble and caused my last landing to be quite a bit long.  So, more work needed there.

Since this was still a relatively short cross-country, I didn't need to do much cross checking of fuel burn and progress, but this is a key item for any longer flights in the future. 

Mini Cross Country

Picking up from where I left off last time, I decided on short notice to try again for a mini cross country to a few of the local fields.  Checking the weather the night before showed that it would be a beautiful day for flying, with light winds, clear skies, and much less haze and smoke than in past weeks.  I was also hoping for one of the 172s with the updated avionics to again practice some of the GPS and ADS-B In functions in real time.

When planning the route as a flight-only trip (e.g., no stops or touch and go's) the trip is estimated at just about one hour.  Knowing that I'd want to not be pressed for time and be able to just have a bit of a wander, I scheduled the plane for five hours, and ended up putting nearly three on the Hobbs meter.  This just reinforces how much extra time to allow when planning any long flight, especially for fuel stops or other diversions.

One of the key differences between any "cross country" flight and something more local is that the various waypoints or destination are beyond the visible horizon (even more so on a hazy day).  It's therefore even more important to understand navigation, engine (and fuel) management, and how to use the various tools at one's disposal to stay on course and on schedule for fuel.  In this case, the trip length would be well within the plane's fuel capacity, and I had the tanks topped off before the flight.  So while that wouldn't be an issue, I would be able to try out some of the features on the Garmin GTN650.

Compared to panel-mounted GPS units from 15 years ago, those available today have a great deal more functionality, touchscreens, and more intuitive user interfaces and menu trees.  But this means learning a whole new system even if it is coming from the same manufacturer.  For today's flight, I made sure I could work the basic radio functions, find the right navigation screen, explore the direct-to function, and experiment with flight plans. I must say - even if the features were otherwise identical, the touchscreen interface makes a world of difference and helps (me anyway) quickly switch back and forth between head-down and looking outside.  The old Garmin with menu choices driven by a twist-and-push knob had me looking inside a bit too much.

The flight itself was just fun.  Being able to navigate to unfamiliar uncontrolled fields, pick up weather along the way, enter the pattern, and practice some landings with no glideslope lighting really made this a great day.  Even though the legs between each field were short, I still was able to go through the typical profile of climb, cruise, descent, and approach with time to do the regular GUMPS check.  I even remembered to spend about 10 minutes on the right tank only, with the accompanying mental preparation for an engine failure upon switching tanks back and forth (everything was just fine however).  I also got to just putter around the sky under 3,000 feet AGL and sightsee for a bit.

Each of my three stops were deserted fields, so I would just do one or two landings and then fly on to the next.  But back at the home base, it was a busy day with other school aircraft and a few fast movers - a twin and a regional jet.  

Upon coming within about eight miles, I heard the twin report inbound as I was picking up the weather.  The winds were light, so either direction runway would have been fine for me.  I let the faster aircraft set the pace, and called them up to ask which runway they were setting up for.  When they responded back, we were able to coordinate how I would come in underneath their flight path and enter the downwind behind them.  I even threw in an S-turn to put a bit more distance between us.  

On the next pattern, I was following another school Cessna, but faster plane was also entering the pattern and ending up in front of us all.  I think the other Cessna could have just slowed a bit more, but he decided to do a 360 turn, so I (being just a mile or so behind him) also did the same.  From the ground, we probably looked like a perfectly choreographed formation flight...  The only problem with that is having to reacquire visual contact once I came out of the turn.  No worries.

Finally, on the last pattern of the day, a regional jet blasted its way in from the upwind side of the field.  I could see him coming in as I climbed out, and could also verify his location with the ADS-B In traffic display.  That's a great tool and I hope to be able to make good use of it if I'm ever in some seriously busy airspace.  Around these parts it's more of a novelty item.

All in all, this was a good confidence booster that I could manage the key aspects of the flight - controlling the airplane, navigating "cross country", managing the systems, and coordinating with other aircraft in the uncontrolled (or as some call it, "pilot controlled") airport environment.  Like so many other flights, there are things to improve on but we'll save them for next time.