Lesson Three

[Scott]

After almost three weeks of bad weather and other delays, things finally
lined up for my 3rd flight lesson yesterday. It's weird how quickly a break
in flying can get your head out of the game, but it ended up being a good
lesson. The new material included hood time, slow flight and stalls.

The hood time was pretty neat. It took a while to find the rhythm of
scanning the gauges, and I have a tendency to fixate on one factor while
something else is going pear-shaped. But I got about .6 hours in, and I'm
already getting better at it. Being a child of the video game revolution
isn't all bad! I'm looking forward to more.

Configuration changes. Flaps go down, flaps go up, why does the airplane do
that, I recite basic aerodynamics, etc.

Slow flight, with a full 40 degrees of flaps on our old 172N. Very
educational. I've read many accounts of how the airplane feels mushy in
this regime, and now I know how it feels -- not just the soft flight
controls, the whole airplane feels like it's squidging around in jello, and
basically telling you in every way possible that it's about ready to quit
flying. With so much flap down, I also got to experience the back side of
the power curve, running WOT and still unable to arrest a mild descent.

Stalls. Whee! I like riding them as my CFI demonstrates, but I had the
hardest time forcing myself to put in enough elevator to bring one on. When
it finally broke, I shoved over and got a windscreen full of earth, and
completely forgot to add power. Not good. On the second one I remembered
the throttle, but still put the nose way too far down. I know that all I
have to do is quit pulling, but the urge to actively push the nose down is
strong.

We ended by flying back to the airport on instruments, all the way to short
final before I went back to visual. I came pretty close to actually landing
this time, only bungling it at the end by flaring too high and forcing my
CFI to save us. Which is, in truth, my best landing to date.

But the important thing is that after we were down, I was able to keep the
airplane on the runway and brake to a stop without veering off the edge,
which is a significant affirmation of my ability to control the airplane
with only one leg. Of course we haven't gotten to the hard stuff yet. I
can't say I'm looking forward to short-field practice.

[Tom Duhamel]

Post by Scott
After almost three weeks of bad weather and other delays, things finally
lined up for my 3rd flight lesson yesterday. It's weird how quickly a break
in flying can get your head out of the game, but it ended up being a good
lesson. The new material included hood time, slow flight and stalls.

Scott, I'm following this group exactly for this reason: hear these
stories. Read the first two chapters, and waiting for the next one.
Please do not stop writing, I love it :)

Tom :)

[Moiv]

Scott, I enjoy reading your lesson posts. They very much remind me of doing
my initial training a few years back and I can relate to what you're saying.

I thoroughly enjoyed hood time as well. To date I probably only have about
3.5 hours of instrument flight. Fun stuff!

With flap changes it wont be long before you learn to instinctively push
forward on the control column as you add flap without even thinking about
it, and vice versa when retracting.

I can especially relate to your stalls. I remember the first time my
instructor asked me to reduce power to idle and pull back on the control
column to keep the plane level I thought "Is this guy insane or what?!" hah.
Instinct tells us don't be rediculous, if I do that the plane will fall out
of the sky! I was fairly aprehensive about stalls until I had done quite a
few.
Once you master the normal stall you will probably start power on stalls and
this will be a new challenge in itself :)

Keep up the good work mate!

Post by Scott
After almost three weeks of bad weather and other delays, things finally
lined up for my 3rd flight lesson yesterday. It's weird how quickly a break
in flying can get your head out of the game, but it ended up being a good
lesson. The new material included hood time, slow flight and stalls.
The hood time was pretty neat. It took a while to find the rhythm of
scanning the gauges, and I have a tendency to fixate on one factor while
something else is going pear-shaped. But I got about .6 hours in, and I'm
already getting better at it. Being a child of the video game revolution
isn't all bad! I'm looking forward to more.
Configuration changes. Flaps go down, flaps go up, why does the airplane do
that, I recite basic aerodynamics, etc.
Slow flight, with a full 40 degrees of flaps on our old 172N. Very
educational. I've read many accounts of how the airplane feels mushy in
this regime, and now I know how it feels -- not just the soft flight
controls, the whole airplane feels like it's squidging around in jello, and
basically telling you in every way possible that it's about ready to quit
flying. With so much flap down, I also got to experience the back side of
the power curve, running WOT and still unable to arrest a mild descent.
Stalls. Whee! I like riding them as my CFI demonstrates, but I had the
hardest time forcing myself to put in enough elevator to bring one on.
When
it finally broke, I shoved over and got a windscreen full of earth, and
completely forgot to add power. Not good. On the second one I remembered
the throttle, but still put the nose way too far down. I know that all I
have to do is quit pulling, but the urge to actively push the nose down is
strong.
We ended by flying back to the airport on instruments, all the way to short
final before I went back to visual. I came pretty close to actually landing
this time, only bungling it at the end by flaring too high and forcing my
CFI to save us. Which is, in truth, my best landing to date.
But the important thing is that after we were down, I was able to keep the
airplane on the runway and brake to a stop without veering off the edge,
which is a significant affirmation of my ability to control the airplane
with only one leg. Of course we haven't gotten to the hard stuff yet. I
can't say I'm looking forward to short-field practice.
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