Not sure whether it is consistency in flying the 172 or things are just beginning to click, but I’m starting to feel more and more confident each time up. Mostly Brett has had me working on repeated landings, at various airports. I am finding that the more effort I put into flying a good pattern, the better my landings are. Being strict with pattern altitude and approach speed (not getting too fast) are the biggest factors for me to be able to fly a good approach, and what is now giving me the most confidence is I am able to recognize when the pattern doesn’t feel right and correct in such a way that the plane feels very much in control. I feel sure that I could safely take off and land without Brett being in the plane. This isn’t to say that I’m setting the Cessna right on the numbers and greasing it on. There is still plenty of room for improvement, but I feel tangible progress and it is exciting.

My biggest challenge now seems to be with the roundout (leveling the plane into ground effect) and flare (slowing airspeed till the plane stalls right as the wheels touch). Many times I end up rushing the roundout into the flare. When this process is rushed and one attempts to flare before bleeding off airspeed, the plane is not ready to stop flying and will balloon up from the runway. I figured out the reason I was doing this was it felt that I was descending too quickly into the runway (which I wasn’t) and overcorrecting by pulling back on the yoke. I guess I don’t intuitively trust this invisible thing called ground effect to be there. I mentioned as much to Brett and he said that was a good thing.

I did have one adequate round out. The difference came from giving just a bit of throttle at the end while entering ground effect. Once the plane was flying in ground effect I pulled the throttle and it eased onto the runway. The humorous part of all this was that Brett felt we were descending too fast with too little airspeed, but was unable to verbalize anything other than a groan like he was bracing for impact. This was followed with a sigh of relief when a split second later I added throttle and settled into ground effect. I imagine being a flight instructor  can have it’s moments of real stress when giving students the leeway they need to recognize problems and correct for them, especially when the consequences are high.

One of the cool exercises we did was to fly the pattern without airspeed or altitude instruments. I was a bit apprehensive, but ended up flying as good a pattern as I’ve ever flown. I was extra careful to pay attention to landmarks for turns, timing for flaps, feel for speed-especially the signs of stall, and get the sight picture I wanted of the runway.  Almost unbelievably it worked. This was another huge confidence booster.

So the process is going great so far. On the ground I am doing quite a bit of studying as well. Learning FAA regulations, route planning, weather, etc… I’ll write soon on this as well.

In between some maintenance work at The Dalles Airport, Brett and I decided to sneak over to Wasco for lunch, using the trip as a flight lesson. I am repeatedly finding if I do not strictly adhere to the checklist, I often get distracted and end up being reminded by Brett to address something I had missed. On this occasion while taxiing I attempted to make a radio call. Brett mentioned that if I wanted anyone to hear me, I sh0uld probably turn on the Avionics Master switch. It was at that point I learned a new acronym, UTFCL or use the freakin’ checklist.

Taking off I dealt with classic Dalles winds of 17 knots gusting to 25 making take off quick and easy, and our flight to Wasco rapid. The turn to base/final was super fun, the wind causing us to  skid around as I lined up with the runway. The gusts were challenging to deal with and I had to juice the throttle once to keep airspeed up and make the runway. On these windy days it is better to keep speed up so that if a gust of wind goes away the plane does not stall while on final and you have no room to recover.

On the return flight we had to battle into the wind. This allowed for a really cool exercise though. Brett had me get out over the gorge, trim for slow flight with fully extended flaps, and see if I could climb in altitude. This took a gentle touch and bringing the nose to an attitude which dropped our airspeed right to the point of stall ~40 mph. With the strong headwind our groundspeed dropped almost to zero. Looking down it looked like we were hovering in space. Wild!

Coming back into the pattern I naturally wanted to point right toward the end of 30 and land. This would have put us on right traffic and The Dalles is left traffic, which is the equivalent of driving the wrong way on a one way street. Brett pointed this out and I changed to flying a 45 over the runway and joining left traffic. The last bit of learning I pulled from this flight came while on final. While adjusting flaps I bumped the switch into the up position. This caused the flaps to automatically retract and would have caused me to lose lift and thankfully Brett saw this before it was an issue. We bounced once on this last landing but Brett seemed pleased given the windy/gusty conditions. When I looked at the wind report after parking I saw it was blowing 25 and gusting over 30.

I am still working really hard while on approaches and landing, but it feels like it is beginning to come together. Now I just need to ingrain that acronym- UTFCL…

-IB

After bouncing around in multiple aircraft and flying from the left and right seat, I finally put the 172 down gently and without control input from Brett.

After my first crosswind landing lesson I was anxious to get back up and reinforce the techniques as soon as possible. First we flew off to the south practiced side slips and Brett introduced forward slips. The forward slip feels very unusual with the low attitude what feels like sideways tracking. I was surprised with how much rudder input was necessary for proper slipping.

Back at The Dalles my first approach felt really good. Previously I had a habit of letting my altitude wander which ended up giving me a different sight picture each time. This time I stayed focused on pattern altitude which helped immensly. I wasn’t mentally ahead of the plane and got bullied around by the wind, bouncing in on the landing. On the second pass I overshot the base leg and went a little wide on turning final. We had time though and I tried to slowly correct and get the sight picture I was looking for. The wind continued to keep me busy all the way in and I could barely believe it when we touched down smoothly. I immediately looked over and asked Brett if he’d “helped” out at all. He shook his head, said, “nice landing”, and shook my hand.

Damn, that felt good.

-IB

After finishing some work on a friend’s RV-7, we decided to fly in to join him and the local EAA chapter 105 BBQ in Parkside, WA. Here are some photos from the evening.

So after a slight hiatus, I got back in the saddle today. Winds were blowing 11 knots gusting to 15, with peak gust at 26 knots. A perfect day to introduce crosswind landing procedures. We would also practice incipient spin recovery and emergency procedures.

First we flew out to the south and climbed to where Brett could demonstrate incipient spins and recovery.  Similar to stall recovery, I found the 172 to give a fair amount of warning before breaking free, and the recovery to be fairly tame. I do really enjoy this practice. It gives confidence with recovery, but also allows for early recognition of trouble during the busy maneuvers of take-off and landing. Plus it’s really fun.

On the way back to the airfield, Brett pulled the power on me simulating an engine out to practice emergency procedures. We’ve practiced this before and I felt more at ease running through the process of setting up a glide, choosing an appropriate landing location, and running through the trouble shooting checklist. During our approach at my chosen road, I reached over to put in some flaps. As I looked over, I saw an incoming cropduster (they often don’t have radios) which rapidly passed within 150 ft and 75 ft below us. The skies aren’t always as big as we want them to be and this was a reminder to keep our heads on a swivel and eyes open. I would have never seen him without reaching over for the flaps. After this slight distraction while on approach, Brett gave me a little reminder to drop the nose a hair. I looked down at the airspeed indicator and we had dropped to 60 mph which is too slow and getting close to stall if needing to maneuver.

We finished our lesson with crosswind landings. Even though these were some of the most challenging conditions in which I have attempted and made landings, I found that flying the pattern, making an appoach, and landing to feel better than ever. I am psyched that some of this is starting to stick! Not only that, I found the crosswind landings to be fun, though very engaging.

This flight was full. It was the first where I felt a bit of wear at the end of the lesson and it was good to stop when we did. At the same time I felt more in control of the aircraft and confident when executing maneuvers. Lots of learning to go, but I am excited with seeing progress.

-IB