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Jeff · Guest

Finally got another lesson in today. Here's the writeup...enjoy.

Jeff

Full blog is at http://n1451f.blogspot.com

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Back in the Saddle.....

Well, well well........[sigh]

WELL, WELL WELL.......[sigh]

Well, today, I had my first lesson in over a month. With the holidays, the
crappy weather and an insane amount of work to do at my real job, I just
haven't been able to get to the airport. Several days have passed with
perfect weather, but I couldn't get away. Then in a lull at work, the wind
would be blowing (ala monsoon) and the ceilings were more like floors.

Anyway, I scheduled with Kary to fly yesterday morning, but woke up with
light winds and predictions of 15kt quartering crosswinds by 9:00 (about
mid-lesson). I called him up and we pushed it back till this morning when
the isobars were supposed to be farther apart (that's pilot talk for less
wind Wink

). So, this morning I popped out of bed at 6:00am and headed for
LUG.

I got to the airport about 20 minutes ahead of Kary, so after the plane was
out, I decided to go ahead and preflight it. It took about 30 seconds for me
to realize that 1 month, 2 days, 23 hours and 34 minutes on the ground was
NOT a good thing this early in my flying career.

I started by unlocking my steed and then stood there in the 23 degree wind
(that wasn't supposed to be there) thinking "What the heck am I supposed to
do now?". Luckily it all started coming back to me and the preflight was
done in no time......I think.

Kary drove up as I was wrapping up and was just trying to get warm again. I
reintroduced myself to him, just in case the lapse of time had purged me
from his memory. And before long we were saddled up and ready to go.

I still haven't gotten the hang of starting the plane when it's cold. Warm
days are a breeze, but starting an airplane engine is much like starting
your grandfathers 46 Chevy truck. You have to wiggle and jiggle and prime
and poke and do all sorts of things just to get it going. Oh well, I guess I
need to keep Kary around for something.

Once we got it started we ran the checklists and slowly taxied out to runway
2. Things were going pretty good up until this point. Then I had to
fly....and WOW did I suck.

It all started with the take-off. I added power for a normal take-off and lo
and behold....my feet didn't move a bit. And then when I realized what was
missing (the dreaded "RUDDER"), I was back into overcompensating mode. We
get off the ground, track somewhere around 45 deg of runway heading and
attempt to climb out. Crosswind turn at 500ft agl, little left aileron and
whadda you know...that freaking ball goes sliding all the way over into
Kary's lap.

So, at this point the frustration level is at maximum. I'm 2 minutes into
this lesson and I'm ticked. At the end of my last lesson (5 weeks ago), I
was ready to solo. Both by Kary's standards and my own confidence level. I
had figured this thing out. I wasn't concentrating on any one thing about
flying the plane, I was just flying the plane.

Now here we are 5 weeks later and I feel like I'm on lesson #1. I'm having
to make myself think about the rudder again. I got past this hours ago! But
now, it's back and I'm thinking "downwind turn...less right rudder, but not
left rudder". So, as I'm concentrating on that, I blow the pattern altitude
by 200 ft. I level off, pull the power and now I'm all screwed up. Out of
coordination, flying the pattern 1200 ft up, moving through the air at
100mph and not tracking parallel to the runway. Oh, brother.

At this point I make up my mind that I either had to cool off or quit for
the day. It was too pretty to quit, so I decided I might as well do this
thing. I was able to lose my extra altitude on downwind and slow down the
plane so that by my base turn, I was in fairly good shape. Turned final,
struggled to get the runway centerline under me and landed. It was a fair
landing. I've definitely had better, but the fight I put on it in the last
10 seconds frustrated me even further. "Dang!" I thought "I've forgotten
everything".

So, we do a few more circuits and come back to do a couple of Short and Soft
Field Takeoff's and landings. They were fun to do again and it broke up the
routine so that I might get the "feel" again.

To be completely fair, the wind was around 5kts and moving from 040 to 070
and back during the hour. There was some very light turbulance all the way
down to short final, but nothing natural was causing my over corrections and
bad foot work. That was all me and it was pissing me off.

By the time we did our last circuit, I was sloooowly getting it right. I was
still having to think about my feet, but the feeling of being overwhelmed
had gone. We did a few slips (one during a simulated engine out), which is
always fun and I did enjoy the lesson. It was both funny and sad when Kary
mentioned during my last landing that I should look around and enjoy this
thing I'm doing. I glanced away from the runway for a couple of seconds and
for the first time in this lesson, I noticed how completely clear the sky
was. I could see all the way to the horizon and above us was a deep blue.
Beautiful.

"Oh yea", I thought. That is why I'm doing this. I'm not making a career out
of flying. I'm doing it for "fun", so ease up the Type A streak a bit and
enjoy the fact that your doing something that people 105 years ago thought
was impossible.

It was a breath of fresh air. I had gotten into such a mindset of conquering
this thing that I forgot to enjoy it. Screw it, if I don't solo for another
6 months, I'm gonna have fun..

Then I commenced to slam the airplane in for one more "arrival", but
hey.....I laughed it off.

jf

Jay Beckman · Guest

"Jeff" <nothere (AT) charter (DOT) net> wrote

tjd · Guest

Yeah, I know the feeling exactly, though it's sometimes hard to conjure
up in the middle of a frustrating day, taking a look around and
thinking "this is supposed to be fun" is a wonderful thing.

I might actually get to fly tomorrow for the first time in 2.5 weeks, I
can't wait... even if I have to get up at 6am to do it. Last time I
went (night XC) was the first time in a month, and I definitely had the
same kind of rust, don't ask me where the runway centerline was after
takeoff but it sure wasn't straight behind me... And the landing -
unfamiliar airport at night, half the width of runway that I'm used to,
with an xwind... let's just say I'm glad that I've adopted the
"go-around is your primary option" mindset. It probably wasn't as bad
as I thought it was, but it certainly added to my doubts about my
instructor's sanity Smile

For once I'm happy to see x-wind forecast for
tomorrow, I could sure use the practice.

The thing that worries me, after seeing how fast skills can erode, is
how to keep that from happening post-PPL. Like you, I'm just in it for
fun, which I think is cool, but I think it's going to be a challenge to
keep the proficiency up. I guess the only answer is "just do it", but
as both of our stories indicate, it's tough enough even when you're
working towards a goal like PPL, so what's it going to be like
afterwards when there's no particular reason to go fly. Hopefully I'm
just getting too far ahead of myself, I guess if I think about it there
are plenty of things I want to do - pick up some endorsements, maybe
even learn some aerobatics, and of course I have a lot more people that
want to go for a ride than will fit in a 172. Maybe I'm just freaked
out today because I'm visualizing the new furnace+AC I have to shell
out for as a whole ton of flying hours flying out the window Smile

But,
life is funny that way, I'd be interested in hearing from people who do
it "for fun" (and aren't blessed with gobs of money) how do you do it?

hmph, I seem to keep hijacking (oops, bad choice of word around here?)
your threads... maybe someday I'll start one of my own...

have fun,

todd.

tjd · Guest

Well, Saturday did turn out to be the kind of CAVU day you dream about
- especially since it's been so crappy here lately it makes you
appreciate it all the more. And, I certainly got some of my confidence
back, I think I underestimated the impact of "night" on my last flight
because things looked much better in the light of day. Surface winds
were mostly from the SW; the first landing at KJST, they have rwy 23 so
almost no xwind at all. Then we diverted to KIDI, where we had a
decent crosswind on 28, the approach was a little sloppy but it
certainly felt good to feel that left wheel touch down while headed
(and pointing!) straight down the runway. Back to KAGC for another
good xwind landing on 28 (although not as nice as the previous one). I
would have liked to do some T&Gs (on 31 if I could get it, even) but
the plane needed to get back. But, it sure was nice to get that
ear-to-ear grin back again.

todd.