I feel like I took a step backwards today. Saturday, my maneuvers were smooth and nice (read benign stalls). Today, different story. I don't know if it was weather or what, but my stalls were more violent than they've been for some time. The first power-on stall was downright scary. But I got back on the horse and did another that was better. I wonder if warmer, more humid weather made the stalls worse. Most likely, it's just me.I flew the same routine as my last practice session. Out over the beach for maneuvers, then pattern work back at Whitted. The GPS track does not look so good, but I thought my steep turns were perfect. I caught my wake on both the left and right turns. I would have landed right on my selected emergency landing site. If not for those wicked stalls, I would have called it a great day. My pattern work was fair. I'm still having trouble moving from normal to short field to soft field landings. Practice will iron that out.
Tuesday starts my cross country. I hope to get some photos in route to Crystal River. My family used to spend weekends there when I was a teenager. I'm hoping Rob will let me fly low over the springs and get some good shots. We'll see.
You'll need google earth to open the lesson 14 flight file.
Statistics
Dual Instruction Time: 13.0 Hours
Solo/PIC Time: 5.4 Hours
Landings: 80
Posts
4 comments:
I hated power on stalls until I really focused on keeping the ball in the center. Now I just don't like them.
You were way out there over the water (3 1/2 miles) - the 2 instructors I've flown with like to stay near the shore just in case, maybe within a mile. I figure if we're 3,000 feet up we should be able to glide at least 20,000 feet realistically, but they don't listen to me. I tell them there are plenty of boats to pick us up and far fewer power lines, but I'm ignored. Next time I'm over the bay I'll see how far the plane can go if the engine quits.
Nice parallel downwind, by the way :)
We've all got our up an down days, so don't worry about one bad session. Even on my good days, there's usually something that could have been done MUCH better.
Have fun getting into the XC flying, you'll really enjoy it!
Paul,
My instructor wants my eyes outside of the plane during stalls. He has me pick a cloud or something and keep my heading relative to the cloud. Just for grins, I'm gonna try one using the DG and turn coordinator next time.
I was a bit further out over the water than usual. If I lost power, my only options are beach or water. There's just no other place to put it down over St. Pete. Matter of fact, my istructor told me early on that if we lost power over the city and could not make the airport, head for one of the lakes.
Many years ago, when I was training in T-41As, I learned to fear power on stalls. Lack of right rudder would stall us to the right and then incorrect rudder input had us entering a spin. Twice I did that, and I carried that fear for 22 years.
My current instructor said, "that's easy to fix - keep the ball in the center." Sure enough, that did it, but because of my earlier experience I watch the ball like a hawk.
I've tried looking outside more, though, to get an idea of pitch. I'm more comfortable with the stalls now...I have newfound faith that opposite rudder actually works :)
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