Lesson #22 Forced Approaches (solo)

I had the aircraft booked for 9:00 AM this morning, the weather looked good so I made an effort to get there on time. I often run late in everything I do, but I managed to arrived a 8:50 AM, Fern was still in the hanger.

I filled out the flight log on the desk and then went back downstairs and hauled her out of the hanger, put the tow bar back inside and shut the hanger door, then did the preflight. She needed both fuel and oil, great. So much for getting up for a 90 minute solo. There's usually oil in the baggage compartment, but all I find when I look is an empty oil bottle. Nothing under the rear seats either. I then go back inside to see if I could find some oil in the Seneca, no joy. I couldn't get into the front baggage compartment because it requires a key, which I couldn't find. I then call Dave, his line's busy.

Ten minutes later I finally get through and was told to look behind the rear set of seats of the Seneca, I do and I find a bottle of oil. Back outside to Fern, I add the oil which is always a messy task. There's a spout that you put on the bottle to keep from spilling oil on the aircraft, unfortunately it's always covered in oil. Then I walk over to the fellow sitting in a Cherokee in front of the fuel pumps, he says that he's just about done and that he'll be moving in about "ninety seconds". I go back inside to wash the oil off my hands, check the METAR to confirm the cloud heights and then I go back outside to pull Fern over to the fuel pumps.

I fill both tanks up, put the static line and hose away. I get back inside and nicely situated with my kneeboard on, my headset wire tuck under my right leg and the belts done up and seat adjusted forward. I go to reach for the keys to fire her up and realize that I had left them in the pump. Shit! I then unbuckle and take everything off, hop out and grab the keys, get back in and get everything back on and look at my watch, it's now 9:40 AM.

Fifty minutes, I felt somewhat flabbergasted to say the least... The plane is book for 10:30, I think about it quickly and with everything I've been through this morning, adding fuel and then going on a mini easter egg hunt in search of oil, I figure that I desearve at least an hour. A few minutes later I'm levelling out Northwest of the airport at 3,000 ft, I call clear of the zone and ask the tower to confirm that my Mode C is working properly, it is.

A few minutes later I do my HASEL checks and start my upper air work review.

First thing is some turns at 30 degrees of bank, left and then right, stopping at a predetermined heading. I'm sloppy on my height and I'm overshooting my heading. I do a few more and things get much better. Next up are some 45 degrees turns to the left and then right. Initially I'm a little sloppy maintaining my height but I quickly adjust. I add a little power to maintain my A/S and height, I also need to add some rudder to keep the ball centered when I turn to the right, but not to the left.... interesting, must be engine torque.

A few minutes later I finish with the turns and then I do three forced approaches, all of which I make. I still need to work on my radio calls and Pax briefings, my cause checks and restarts are down pat though. After some trial and error I find that I prefer to use a forward slip with twenty degrees of flaps, rather than 40 degrees of flaps, for bleeding off any excess altitude on final. The forward slip allows me much greater flexibility in that I can both turn it "on and off" very quickly, or dial in a little or a lot as needed. The really nice thing is that I don't have to mess with my trim settings when I come out of it, (the trim has to be set after each flap change).

I check my watch and realize that it's time to head back. I won't be able to get any stalls, slow flight or any practise in the circuit with my crosswind landings today.

I join the circuit on downwind, I extend it a bit for spacing due to other traffic in the pattern. I float a little over the runway during the flair, there's only a 5 kt crosswind. I bring her back down without adding any power and then get her straightened out for a really nice touchdown.

I taxi back to the apron and shut down with 1.1 hrs on the hobbs. I'm late as usual, but the next guy doesn't have to spend any time adding fuel or oil...

My next lesson with be a dual with Dave, we're going to be doing some precautionary landings.