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.
No comments:
Post a Comment