Most of my flying for the last little bit has been solo, but today was a dual lesson. The plan was to cover everything and take stock of where I was with regard to maneuvers and then call it a day. After a brief conversation about what we would be doing, I headed out to preflight where I found everything in working order as usual. It didn’t take long and I was ready to safely depart. In fact the theme for this lesson is short, sweet and to the point. We departed the airport normally and headed out to Walland Gap for maneuvering flight.
We started with slow flight. Josh had me set up for and enter slow flight once we got close to the practice area. Overall, it was good considering the air was bumpy. I had a really good recovery from turbulence that was really messing with my slow flight. After about 5 minutes of slow flight (turning and flying, turning and flying), I recovered to normal flight.
We followed the slow flight with stalls – yes, intentional stalls. I did a power off stall, a power-off stall, and then a correct version of each. I need to remember what each version simulates so that I implement the procedure correctly. My initial power-off stall was characterized by adding the flaps to late and starting to rotate to early, thus I gained a ton of altitude and pitched back much further than necessary. I recovered decently and proceeded to perform a power-on stall. This time, I didn’t slow to 74 knots before initiating the procedure. I gained about 500 feet before the full stall. I recovered, but I was still a good 300 feet high. So after a quick reminder about what I was simulating, we tried again. This time both were much better. I was closer on my altitudes and, were I to execute them in this manner on a check ride, I would pass.
The next maneuver on the menu was steep turns. I enjoy steep turns, but my execution is hit or miss, I either do perfectly or I’m searching for the altitude. Today, I was searching for the altitude. I was climbing and descending all the way around. Part of the issue is my speed going into the maneuver, which is either too fast or too slow. The other part is my application of back pressure is reactionary – I need to apply more sooner. Overall, my execution of the maneuver is decent, I just need to work on consistency.
The next maneuver was turns around a point. In striking contrast to everything else, these were alright on the first go. They could be better, but they were good enough. This is amusing to me, because ordinarily, I can’t do turns-around-a-point with out messing at least one entire orbit up. Sadly, I’m starting to recess on my high air work while I seem to be improving on my ground reference maneuvers.
The lesson culminated with a thoroughly normal landing which was excellent. It was another landing that really made me look good and really makes me feel bad about the terrible landings I had been making. After securing the plane and paying for the lesson, I received a bit more debriefing. As things stand right now, I’m looking to be done by end of year and that is a distinct possibility given the schedule we worked out.