hours are accumulating

sorry i didn't update sooner...had two more flights last week: thursday and friday mornings. thursday, we did some more work on steep turns. it was nice, i showed a definite improvement from tuesday's introduction to the maneuver. i had much better control of the roll in and out, of holding altitude, and of holding bank the entire way around the 360. it also meant i had much improved form in my regular four fundamentals. much better control at holding altitude and speed then making changes to either one without changing the other. also did my first landing. tower cleared us for landing 24r and so i was flying as we entered the pattern downwind, turned base, then final like we had in the past. but then instead of taking the controls like he'd done the previous times, he just kept talking me through it and then i realized we'd landed. the taxi back and tie down was uneventful.
friday's flight was all about slow flight. friday was also quite a beautiful day out, so to say we were joined by others in the sky is not an understatement. we actually got responses when talking on the radio out in the practice area. after doing another steep turn or two, we set out about slow flight. steve demonstrated the technique: pull back, decrease power, add flaps once in the arc. then it was my turn. as friday was quite a bit of a bumpy day, there wasn't the level of cooperation from the plane that might have been optimal. the goal was to maintain altitude while flying along at barely above stall speed. but this was frequently interrupted because we would hit an updraft or downdraft and 4gm just wouldn't climb.
anyway, after tooling around about to stall all day long, we headed back. tower gave us 24l this time, and i flew the entire approach to landing under guidance again myself. however, did have a minor snafu at maybe 15 agl. asi was showing a speed that was very close to stall and it seemed (to me, anyway) like we were still a bit high to flare. so, exactly how does one counter a stall? glad you asked! stalls are best avoided by lowering the nose and/or adding power. of course, it looked perfectly fine to steve. he continued to round out to the flare, while i attempted to lower the nose then flare. so we ended up with a combination of both. we definitely got our cardio for the day with that little stunt. i blame it all on the p-51 mustang that was holding short waiting for us to land.

flyin' again

had another flight yesterday (well i guess it's now technically thursday, so tuesday)! we apparently spent the longest time aloft yet. it almost got cancelled on account of weather, but by time we finished pre-flighting and got around to taking off, it had cleared up enough to allow us vfr conditions for our area of flying. lesson of the day was steep turns, but on account of it having been a good bit of time since i last flew, we spent a few more minutes on four fundamentals as well. it was a little challenging because although the clouds had cleared in our area, they were not gone completely. consequently, the clouds and the horizon were not very far apart and made establishing straight & level a little more challenging than last time. this was not at all helped by the choppy air that required constant inputs to return the plane to the desired altitude.
once we got that all figured out, we proceeded to the steep turns. main difference between regular and steep turns (at least imo) was how to increase alpha without increasing bank angle. i actually started out doing perfect steeps: holding altitude, holding bank angle. not sure what happened, but that regressed as the lesson progressed. on landing, he had me fly all the way until we were crossing the fence, when he took over for the actual landing part. i feel like i will probably be getting an opportunity to land the plane myself within the next week or so. i'm not sure whether to be excited about that or scared. but in either case, i'll have a clearer picture after the lesson tomorrow. got a meeting scheduled for 0900. more steep turns are on the menu, then we'll see what else he has for me. until then, au revoir!

time: 1.1 hrs
tt: 3.5 hrs
tit: 3.5 hrs

third time's the charm

sorry i didn't update sooner. i need to get better at this. anyway, i had my third flight friday. another fun time flying around. took off from 24r again, then headed over to the santa fe practice area. worked on getting my straight and level flight perfected, but it was liberally interspersed with climbs, descents, and turns. i'm getting the hang of the whole thing now. managing the power for an ascent or descent out of a cruise. also tried a few climbing/descending turns with varying degrees of success. i'm definitely not going to be winning awards for those yet, but they're coming together reasonably well. my cfi also added the element making some of those turns compass turns and noting the corresponding accelerations depending on which direction we turned.
after i'd say a good 45 mins of sky play, went back down. i flew the entire approach until we were very far downwind on final, at which point he took controls and we glided with the stall horn for probably a good 500'. (yes, downwind on final. as it turned out, the variable winds suddenly found direction suspiciously close to 080.) then more time with taxi. doing much better following centerline (taxiway is somewhat sloped and the plane has weak right rudder), and didn't hit the wing on any taxiing crj-700s.
next flight is planned for wednesday. since we didn't do steep turns friday, wednesday will probably be the day. i have my reading already done too. he didn't mention anything else in the plans, but i'm guessing a couple more shots at compass turns as well as climbing/descending (turns). and maybe we'll get into the lower end of the planes operating regime aka slow flight.

lesson one

kinda forgot about this [b]log for a while, but not anymore. had my first lesson last week, on tuesday at 0700. traffic on the way over was much better than i expected, but i'm thinking i just was actually too early for the rush hour rush. anyway, this first lesson did not get us in the air due to time restrictions. what we did do was go over some final paperwork in getting the flight training started and the policies/procedures of flying with them. then we went over the syllabus and what was expected of me as a student as well as what i would expect him as the cfi to provide for me. after that, we went out to the plane.
the flight school i'm flying with is known as college aviation, and is affiliated with the mt. san antonio college in walnut, ca. the flight training itself happens out of brackett field (kpoc) in nearby la verne, ca. makes for a real easy trip between class and the hangar. they serve between 60 and 70 students with five aircraft: a cessna 150, two cessna 152s, a cessna 172, and a piper arrow. flying isn't cheap, but in the grand scheme of things, and especially considering current fuel prices, their rates are reasonable--about $30/hr cheaper than any of the other schools i've seen across all models and including instructor.
anyway, back to the lesson. this instruction was pure ground only, but not ground classroom work. we went out the the plane and did a walk-around. for my training, i am planning to do most of it in the 150/152s since they're the cheapest. (a checkout in type is much cheaper than total training in type, and flying is about experience in the air first, then what the experience is in.) so the plane we had last tuesday was one of the 152s, n--968.
instructor showed me how to do the walk-around. (not necessarily in this order) fuel--amount and all sumps. airframe for any damage or corrosion. control surfaces and their connections, checking for rust and the like. making sure everything was connected correctly. oil level, cowling, prop. and that was more or less where we left off. i presume that on monday, we'll probably continue on into a more thorough preflight, with starting the engine and checking for oil pressure, checking mags, etc. maybe get up in the air for a lap or two around the pattern. can't wait to start making marks in my logbook (:. auf wedersehen.