Lessons Four and Five

[Scott]

An object lesson on fitness for flight. Friday I went out for my fourth
flight lesson. This did not go as well as I might have hoped. I had spent
a long, hard day at work and I was exhausted.

We began with more simulated instrument flight, working on the basics of
achieving stable flight (nailing specific numbers for altitude, airspeed and
heading at the same time). I didn't do so good, I must have flown for a
good twenty minutes without ever getting really stable. Then we did more
slow flight and configuration changes, and then more power-off stalls. Some
improvement, but on this flight I was just not able to nail anything down to
my own satisfaction. I flubbed the touch-and-go so badly that my CFI felt
motivated to (re)demonstrate a normal pattern and landing. Bad day.

Today was my fifth flight, and a much better flight it was, coming at the
end of a relatively easy workday. We did a little more hood time, then
stayed in the local practice area to do stalls. The local area is nice in
that it's about two minutes away from the airport, saving about 20 minutes
of commute time to the other areas. The downside is that the local practice
box is small, a few miles on a side and only 3,600 feet high, but sufficient
for our purposes: do a stall, do a climbing turn; do a stall, do a climbing
turn; and so on.

This time we graduated from power-off stalls to approach stalls. The chief
difference isn't so much in the flying, it's in defining a "floor" altitude
to represent the runway, then flying an approach into a stall at ~100ft
"AGL" and recover it without hitting the "ground". I managed it two out of
three tries, but I guess not getting it right the first time isn't
unexpected. My biggest problems are beginning my stall recovery a bit
before the airplane actually stalls (inner voice: "nose *down*, you damn
fool, let it fly!"), and then neglecting to take out a notch of flaps while
trying to fly out of the stall.

The real bugaboo, though, is keeping the wings level prior to the stall, and
keeping my heading afterward. Apparently I can identify a roll and put in
rudder to cancel it, but then I get sidetracked (what with the airplane
falling out of the sky and all) and fail to let off of the rudder afterward.
Surprisingly, this isn't an issue with my missing leg, I've started moving
my foot to the appropriate pedal almost without thinking. But it's an area
that deserves a lot more work.

Finally, more hood time as I flew some steep descending turns back to the
airport. My landing was survivable, barely. I would be happy to spend more
time in the pattern to begin refining that skill.

Oh, yes...radio work. My CFI has started refusing to use the radio from
time to time. Gotta start somewhere.

[Mike Ash]

Post by Scott
The real bugaboo, though, is keeping the wings level prior to the stall, and
keeping my heading afterward. Apparently I can identify a roll and put in
rudder to cancel it, but then I get sidetracked (what with the airplane
falling out of the sky and all) and fail to let off of the rudder afterward.
Surprisingly, this isn't an issue with my missing leg, I've started moving
my foot to the appropriate pedal almost without thinking. But it's an area
that deserves a lot more work.

This story sounds familiar. When I first started flying my own glider I
ended up doing similar things. The what caused my trouble is that my
glider has flaps, and all the gliders I'd flown up to that point did
not. My flaps aren't just used for landing, but go both above and below
the midpoint of the wing to fine-tune the efficiency of the wing to a
particular speed range.

The upshot is that when entering a thermal, the procedure is to roll
into the turn, slow down, and at the same time reach up with the left
hand and pull the flaps back a notch to optimize the wing for the slower
thermalling speed. When exiting the thermal, roll out, speed up, and
push the flaps forward a notch. On my first flights, maybe the first 6
or so, I'd screw up the exit all the time. Normally there are three
things that I had to do pretty much at the same time: stick to the side,
stick forward, rudder to the side. Now I was adding a fourth: flaps up.
My brain could still only do 3. The funny thing was that I wouldn't
always miss the same step. Sometimes I'd screw up the rudder, sometimes
the flaps, sometimes the stick. After some practice it all settled down
and I was in good shape again.

Anyway, my point here is that it's normal to screw up a control like
this when you suddenly have more things going on than you're used to,
and with practice it will all become natural again.

[Mark Hansen]

Post by Mike Ash
Anyway, my point here is that it's normal to screw up a control like
this when you suddenly have more things going on than you're used to,
and with practice it will all become natural again.

This is true.

To the OP: It can be frustrating at first, because it can really
feel like you're just not qualified to fly (I know I felt like that
many times). However, after some time you'll begin to "get it", and
it will all just start to come together. Practice, Practice, Practice :-)

Best Regards,

[Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe]

Sounds like you are making good progress.