Lesson #11 The Circuit II

What a difference...

For those of you that read my last blog entry regarding my first lesson in the circuit, it was pretty obvious how bummed out I was. The whole time I felt overloaded with too many tasks, and as such I was constantly behind the aircraft for most of the lesson. After a few days of reflection I began to feel much better and decided to look at that lesson as half full, instead of half empty. I stopped dwelling on everything I did wrong or poorly, and I listed the things that I was did right, then I asked myself what I needed to do to make my next lesson in the circuit better.

After I finished up my duty crew requirements at the Firehall on Sunday, I went out to the airport a bit early. I felt much more confident and I was looking forward to my second lesson in the circuit. As luck would have it I was able to chat with a commercial student named John while watching Dave and a third student (Huey) do some touch and goes in the circuit. Yes, we critiqued each landing... it's hard not too!

To make a long story short, Dave and Huey wrapped things up, then I went out and preflighted the aircraft, a few minutes later Dave showed up and we were off.

My first circuit was OK, but I forgot the carb heat and my downwind call was late, Dave assisted me with the flair. My second circuit was good, I remembered the carb heat this time but forgot the downwind radio call, made up for this by doing a nice flair and landing all by myself. The next three circuits were great, other than forgetting the downwind call once more, I managed to do everything by myself and I made three nice landings all by myself.

During my last circuit I was feeling pretty confident, we got off topic and started chatting about all the new construction sites that are springing up everywhere. By the time I stopped yapping I found myself high on final. (I think Dave let me talk myself into this to teach me a lesson - very sneaky). We landed long at the thousand foot markers and we had to do a 180 on the runway to backtrack to the last taxi-way.

Dave helped with this landing, although I didn't think I needed it. At about 50 feet I noticed that we were long and a bit fast so I brought the nose up to scrub off a little speed, (I already had the throttle at idle). Dave told me afterwards that he thought that I was trying to flair way too early, which I wasn't. I was content to land long, but I wanted to bring my speed down to what I'm use to before getting down to flair height. looking back, I now relize that I should have told him what I was doing, instead of having him guess.

What went right with today's lesson:
At the end of my last lesson in the circuit I was exhausted and pretty stressed out about sucking at everything, today's lesson in the circuit was great! I knew what needed to be done, and when it needed to be done, I never felt overloaded or pressed for time. I flew the plane and managed to make four great landings all by myself -what a feeling! I'm also getting much better at dialing the trim in correctly the first time.

What I need to improve on:
On one takeoff I was slow rotating, I knew it before Dave called me on it. I forgot my downwind call twice, and I was pretty late with it another time. Twice I found myself a hundred feet low on the downwind, and I was high on final once during my last circuit. During one touch and go I managed to wander back and forth pretty good while I was prepping the aircraft for takeoff.

So... I still need to work on a few things, and I certainly need alot more practise time in the circuit, but I finished this lesson pretty pumped and feeling great!