Back from Holiday

All the wrong combinations of work, weather, holiday, and travel led to a two-week hiatus. Needed to get flying again, but also needing cross-country and some hood time, I was going to just go up and do some maneuvers to stay in the game. It was supposed to just be some nice, easy flying to keep the skills fresh. Unfortunately, the weather didn't clear up quite as much as it was supposed to, and the winds were up in the 15-knot range...too much for solo work. But, of course, a pilot's luck is a valuable thing.

The only reason I was planning on solo was that the instructor was all booked up for today. The maintenance gods had different intentions, and three of the planes (but not mine) were down for service of one sort or another. One was a DA-40 with some kind of stress crack in a virtually brand new prop. The pieces fell into place such that my instructor was then free to do some dual hood work, which is exactly what I need.

So, with a brisk 32-degree, 15-knot wind, I pre-flighted(flew?) the plane and off we went. The surface winds weren't even as strong as the winds aloft, and we had a huge crab angle on climbout (and just as large coming back for landing, which really messed up my turns.) Under the hood I went, and we did some VOR tracking and slow flight, which I did all right on, but I think the two weeks off took its toll. I was not quite with the plane, and I had to spend some extra moments just keeping the plane on course and at the right altitude. Then, we did some steep turns, which really turned into a roller coaster. My instructor said its one of the hardest maneuvers in the DA-20, but I was still all over the sky.

The hardest part was keeping the pitch just right. Too much and the plane slows down and starts a climb. Too little, and the nose drops like a rock and the airspeed gets way into the yellow. And if you go into it wrong, it just gets worse as the plane oscillates between a diving spiral and a climbing not-quite stall. So, I was at least able to hold it together and keep the banks steep, and I was able to come out on the right heading, but I definitely wasn't in the zone. We did quite a few of these and then did a couple "VFR" on the way in. Those were much better.

Finally, we came in for some nice crosswind pattern work. This was actually fairly straightforward, except for some pretty wonky turns in the strong winds. I did one with half-flaps and three with full. I also practiced transitioning into a slip at about a 1/4 mile final (which is what my night instructor had me do). I actually like doing it that way, and it doesn't seem too weird, although I've read that uninitiated passengers get a bit ill from long sideslips.

Of course, there's always a gremlin...

Upon shutting down and getting all my things, I reached to shut off my GPS (which, up until now, has logged each of my flights). Somehow, it failed to ever lock on to the satellites, and I didn't get a track this time. Oh well. I would have liked to have seen my turns and pattern work, but I guess it will just have to go into the mental vault.