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.