Experimental

Today was simply a beautiful day for flying, and the schedule lately has been fairly flexible -- the instructor and I tend to decide "on the fly" as it were what to do on any given day. So it was today, when T.I.'s schedule dictated that he prepare for a last minute class that it sounds like he was suckered into by the other instructors. I had called earlier about possibly changing the schedule to to a "stage check", and based on consulting with the chief instructor, it was decided that I was competent enough to leave the pattern and venture out to spread my wings.

The end result was a flight to take advantage of the calm winds and clear sky to solo out in the practice area. I was actually free to fly around pretty much as I pleased, within reason of course, and it was a really neat feeling. Sure, it was my third solo flight, but now, I was outside of the tower's airspace, and I didn't need to remain focused on flying the pattern and constantly changing power and altitude. As expected, though, I still had to work on the various tasks for the practical test. So, while there was work to be done, I had complete control over my course, the radio, and whatever I felt like working on.

Even though there was only a little wind, I wanted to go through the ground reference maneuvers to improve my altitude control. As it was, because of the strong winds last time, I could at least mentally go through the necessary steps, without needing to make the turns quite as extreme. On the other hand, I found that my S-turns didn't work quite as well today, and I can't pin down what happened. I seemed to do them better in the wind... I also saw that I still need to work on my steep turns, especially keeping the full 45-degree banks and maintaining altitude.

In between turns around a point and S-turns, I tried some slow-flight maneuvers -- straight and level and shallow turns. In doing so, I also realized that I'm a bit scared of practicing stalls solo. It's still a bit nerve-wracking, and I will probably need to have the most practice with these in the near future (besides all the new stuff to come along.)

Then, partly to do something new, and partly because another plane was in the same practice area, I just went off and played with power, pitch, and trim to observe how the speed and altitude change with certain settings. I also experimented with leaning the engine at cruise power by reading the exhaust gas temperature gauge, but it was getting to be time to get back to the field, so I made a turn back and concentrated on getting set up to enter the pattern again.

Today was a very busy day, and it was hard to get a word in edgewise. Usually, when I report inbound, I give all my information (ATIS received, intentions, location, and altitude), but today just limited it to my call sign to give the controller time to work out the other traffic. I was also coming in on the wrong side of the field, and so I had to spin around a few times to let several approaches finish and let a departure get off. I also think I may have bungled my position report (or at least didn't give the controller enough advance notice) because I think he thought I was somewhere else. Hence, my very confused-looking track out to the northwest of the field.

Even with that, I didn't let it affect flying the plane and staying out of everyone else's way. So, while I was a bit rushed to get down once I was cleared and made a half-flap approach, the landing was nearly perfect, and I felt pretty good about handling the situation. I probably gave the controller a few more gray hairs, but I think it was actually about the busiest day I've seen since starting lessons here. I suppose since it was my first solo trip out of the pattern and back in, I shouldn't expect flawless quite yet...