October 4, 2011 - (NOT) Circuits with Tatiana
Having been abandoned once again by Korkka, who has gone on holidays for a two weeks, I signed up for a few lessons with Tatiana. Tonight after work was the first of three. The plan was to fly a few dual circuits, hopefully get to solo... it's been a while since I've soloed!!
Alas, the sun was brutal, and I had forgotten my good sunglasses, so we elected to just head east to the practice area and run the pre-solo stuff a bit, since Tatiana had not flown with me in some time. We started with a few stalls (both power on and off, with and without flaps) and then she suddenly cut the power. The realism of the exercise's suddeness was goo practice! But not having briefed for forced landing practise, my first approach was somewhat less than stellar. Specifically, I was way too high above the field. The second time, though, Tatiana encouraged me to pick a key point for final (for the same field), and consider my altitude (approx 500 ft AGL) at that point. Those two tips really helped, and the next time I "made the field" so to speak.
The stalls before that were okay, but I will need to practise not letting the nose drop too far below the horizon. As per Korkka's instructions, the plan, weather, etc. permitting, is to send me solo to the practise area next time I fly, so I will soon be able to practise all that good stuff. In the meantime, it was time to head back to city, so we turned south west and flew into the sunset -- a lovely evening to end the flight, and since the sun was now below the horizon, much easier on the eyes.
The crosswind landing was not one of my best, however it was deemed "safe", which is good, I guess.
Once on the ground, we reviewed some old basics, i.e. checking flight instruments during taxi (Korkka has rattled off the routine many, many times, however, early on I was too overloaded to take it in, and now I am supposed to know all that stuff, it feels a little silly asking for confirmation of what it all means). So, for anyone in the same boat...
1. turn indicator - plane turning left, ball to the right
2. heading indicator -- numbers decreasing
3. VSI, ALT, artificial horizon and ASI all steady
4. compass free and swinging
Cool!
Here's hoping for decent weather on Sunday morning..................
Alas, the sun was brutal, and I had forgotten my good sunglasses, so we elected to just head east to the practice area and run the pre-solo stuff a bit, since Tatiana had not flown with me in some time. We started with a few stalls (both power on and off, with and without flaps) and then she suddenly cut the power. The realism of the exercise's suddeness was goo practice! But not having briefed for forced landing practise, my first approach was somewhat less than stellar. Specifically, I was way too high above the field. The second time, though, Tatiana encouraged me to pick a key point for final (for the same field), and consider my altitude (approx 500 ft AGL) at that point. Those two tips really helped, and the next time I "made the field" so to speak.
The stalls before that were okay, but I will need to practise not letting the nose drop too far below the horizon. As per Korkka's instructions, the plan, weather, etc. permitting, is to send me solo to the practise area next time I fly, so I will soon be able to practise all that good stuff. In the meantime, it was time to head back to city, so we turned south west and flew into the sunset -- a lovely evening to end the flight, and since the sun was now below the horizon, much easier on the eyes.
The crosswind landing was not one of my best, however it was deemed "safe", which is good, I guess.
Once on the ground, we reviewed some old basics, i.e. checking flight instruments during taxi (Korkka has rattled off the routine many, many times, however, early on I was too overloaded to take it in, and now I am supposed to know all that stuff, it feels a little silly asking for confirmation of what it all means). So, for anyone in the same boat...
1. turn indicator - plane turning left, ball to the right
2. heading indicator -- numbers decreasing
3. VSI, ALT, artificial horizon and ASI all steady
4. compass free and swinging
Cool!
Here's hoping for decent weather on Sunday morning..................