Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Lesson # 16 The Circuit VII

Sunday morning was a beautiful day for flying, sunny with light winds.

I went out to the airport at 10 AM and chatted with my FI for a couple of minutes, then went out to preflight Fern, for the first time in about three or four lessons she did not need oil or gas. I finished with the preflight and a few minutes later we were off.

I banged off a few nice circuits with some decent landings right away. Dave commented that everything was going well but my approaches on final were a bit on the low side and that we should be shooting for the 500 foot runway markers. I told him that I was going little low on purpose, and that I was aiming for the numbers on final. He said that it's better to hold a bit more altitude in case of an engine problem, and that I should be aiming for the 500 foot markers.

The next circuit I waited until the runway's threshold on downwind to haul the power back, 20 degrees flaps and then set the trim for 75 mph. I adjusted the power to 1,500 RPMs to make sure that I was between 450 - 550 ft AGL when I turned final. I found that this height really helped set me up for a nice glide slope on final. This time I touched down on a 1,000 foot markers on purpose, but by mistake. I aimed for them instead of the 500 foot markers... my bad.

I did a few more nice circuits touching down on the 500 foot markers each time. Some of my landings were pretty sweet, stall horn blaring, nothing but sky in the windscreen and then just a gentle touch of the mains.... I even got a "nice" from Dave a couple of times. I don't know what it was but during this lesson things just clicked. I was hitting my altitudes, being careful to get her trimmed for 75 mph and 1,500 rpm, making sure that I was hitting the proper altitude when I made my turn to final. I just started to feel more relaxed during the landing phase and I'm also getting better at identifying and correcting minor mistakes earlier.

Dave said that I should make my next landing a full stop, which is what I called into tower on final, pulled off another nice landing. As we were rolling down runway 21 Dave asked me the magical question every student pilot wants to hear, "So... you think to good to go by yourself for one"? To be honest, this question caught me by surprise. I thought about it for a few seconds and then asked him if he thought I was ready to go... he replied, "Yep", then I said, "Well... where can I drop you off at?" Dave made a quick call to tower to let them know that I'd be coming back out for my first solo, then he gave me a few pointers while we taxied back to the apron. Before I knew it, I was all alone.

This is your captain speaking:

I gave Dave a wave, called tower and then taxied all the way back out to the active, which took a couple of minutes. It was certainly a new experience being all alone in the aircraft... roomy. I rolled out onto the active, doubled checked everything for the third time and went to full power, then called tower to let them know that I was rolling on 21.

Just after rotation a rather large and angry looking bee flew out of the backseat area and bounced off the windscreen in front of me.... oh this is lovely I thought to myself. It must have gotten in when Dave got out. Fortunately it sat on the top of the panel for the rest of the circuit.

Everyting went well, and before I knew it I was on final and about a minute later. After a nice flare and landing I was back on terra-firma, taxiing back to the apron in an aircraft that was still in flyable condition. I has just taken off, flown and then landed an aircraft all by myself..... WOW!! I had a permenent smile on my face for the rest of the day.

In case any of you are wondering I solo'd at 16.9 hours, which is about two hours longer IMO than it should have taken, due to nasty weather in the circuit for most of my circuit lessons and my lack of ability in mastering a consistent approach, landing and flare.

Till next time...

3 Comments:

At 12:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Way to go! Congrats!

 
At 7:54 PM, Blogger Oshawapilot said...

Woohoo! Big congrats as well.

Great feeling, eh? ;-)

And 17 hours to solo is nothing to feel bad about in any way, shape or form - that's actually quite impressive!

 
At 7:56 AM, Blogger Rob said...

Thanks alot guys...

I thought that I'd be a bundle of nerves up there all by myself for the first time, but actually I found myself surprisingly quite relaxed.

 

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