Return to flight

 After last week's sessions to knock off the rust, both the CFI and myself thought it wouldn't take much more to be official with the flight review sign off.  Once had agreed that once I could smooth out my landings, he (and I) would be comfortable signing if off and returning me to currency.  While this wouldn't necessarily mean everything was perfect and there wouldn't be room for some additional polish, I could be counted on to get the plane back down safely and make good decisions about go-arounds, engine failures, flap settings, and overall approach stability.

 

 

When I arrived for the flight, we had both individually thought it would be sufficient to stay in the pattern and just practice those landings.  I also thought it would be good to practice some engine-out landings as well.  On top of that (and adding to the CFI's confidence in my abilities) we had a nice crosswind to practice against.

 

In all, we did ten circuits around the pattern.  On each one, I worked on maintaining a proper wind correction angle and ground track, using surface landmarks to guide my turns.  Happily, every landing was a little better than the one before as I became more accustomed to the proper power and flap settings at each point around the pattern.  Unfortunately however, on the first power-off descent (perhaps by design on the CFI's part) I found myself too far out to make the runway without cheating and adding a bit of power.  On the next few tries, I kept the downwind leg much closer, and managed to finally make a couple of them with no additional power.

 

One of the trickiest parts of a crosswind approach and landing is transitioning from a crab angle into the wind to a wing-low orientation aligned with the runway.  The first couple of tries I was flying the plane down to the runway but pulling the power out at the point I would have in the Diamond.  With the Cessna, it was smoother to keep a bit of power on until transitioning to the landing attitude and then pulling it out as the speed bled off.  

 

By the end, I was able to land consistently and safely and we called it a day as a small thunderstorm started to roll in.  But we were both happy with the quick progress and my ability to execute a safe flight from beginning to end.

 

With that sign off, I became current once again to fly solo (or, with any willing souls) with passengers.  The next step however would be to keep practicing and working on all the aspects of a flight to ensure I stay safe and competent.