Lesson #23 Precautionary Landings (Solo)

Everything went this weekend as planned.

I arrived at what I thought was basically on time but I had slightly messed things up and actually left and arrived back at the airport a half hour later than I had actually reserved the aircraft for in the book. I preflighted Fern and a few minutes later I was up in the warm Saturday morning sunshine. Visibility was about twenty miles due to the haze.

I had the aircraft for an hour and a half so I had plenty of time to do precautionary landings, slow flight and some power off stalls.

I did a soft field takeoff, this time I was much better during the transition from driving to flying, practise brings one closer to perfection. I kept her from balloning and let the speed build before I climbed out of ground effect.

This is a picture of the north shore of PEI. I took it about three minutes after takeoff at about 3,000 ft enroute to our training area. (I've edited it a bit to remove some of the haze).




The precautionary landings we're a no brainer. I used both of the private landing strips that we had used in the past, this time I was able to find them without any problem. I find that the more time I spend flying the better I'm able to spot things on the ground. I can only assume that it takes time for you brain to learn how to "see" thing looking down from height rather than always from the ground up.

I used the map for the first time to locate and fly over my buddy's house, actually I used the field behind his house to practise a precautionary landing. No I didn't buzz his house.

With everything completed that I wanted to get done today I headed back to the airport but due to the haze it was somewhat harder than normal to pinpoint visually. I knew where it was in reference to the harbour so I simple flew towards the spot where it should be and I eventually spotted it from about 8 miles out.

Here's a pic as I enter the downwind for runway 28:




On final:



A great solo lesson, flying by myself is starting to feel somewhat routine and a normal thing to do. I got everything that I wanted to get done today and topped it off with another sweet landing.

Next lesson looks like it will be on diversions.