I had a blast today. The winds were gusting a little bit but luckily, they were heading straight down the runway. That was a relief. Finally I got to go flying after almost 3 months sitting on the ground. Today worked a little different than most days. Instead of reviewing for an hour before, we took care of some small business before the lesson. I told him that I would be flying about once a month until December. After December, there is a possibility that I could fly twice a month. We then went over what Jim and I talked about last lesson. This only took 10 or so minutes. I liked this idea because now we had more time to fly. I went up to the desk, got the keys and dispatch sheet, and we headed out to the ramp. Preflight went pretty normal except I almost forgot to take the chocks out. That would have been pretty embarrassing had I tried to taxi while they were still in. After run up, we took off and headed west for some review. I did straight and level, steep turns, 360’s, and slow flight. We also covered some slow flight turns. I was a tad rusty at first but after doing each maneuver a few times, I was able to compleate most of them within tolerances with a couple almost in tolerance. By this time we reached Hampshire so we started to turn back. On the way back to the airport, we worked on slow flight and some stalls. The hardest part about slow flight is for sure keeping the airspeed inbetween stall speed and stall warning speed. I also got to preform slow flight turns. The bank needed to turn without stalling the airplane was shallower than I’d thought it’d be. We also did stalls on the way back to the airport. Power off stalls were the main focus but we also did departure stalls. They were the most fun. The amount of back pressure needed to stall the plane in this configuration is insane! I love the feeling of recovery; you can feel it in your stomach. It feels really cool. We set up in the pattern for a landing. I didn’t do horrible but I didn’t do good either. We landed and flared around the right spot. Either way it was better than my landings in March. We taxied back to the beginning of the runway to shoot another one. This time wasn’t so hot. I had problems keeping my airspeed and I was making turns with banks in excess of 30 degrees. I lined up to the left of the runway on final like the past time also. The next time I was determined to do better. My third time at it, I did a lot better at keeping the airspeed between 75 and 80 miles an hour. This made everything a bit easier. Everything was looking good until final. Again, I was having problems lining up with the runway. We tried one last time and I’m glad we did. I did a pretty good job at keeping my airspeed in the specified range so that was good, the banks were kept under 30 degrees, and I was able to successfully line the plane up almost centerline. Overall, it wasn’t that bad of a landing. We returned the aircraft to its hangar and debriefed on the way back to Blue Skies. Johnny said that he was very impressed how sharp i was considering I haven’t been up in a while. That made me grin a bit :). When arriving, I turned in the dispatch sheet and keys and also bought a checklist for the plane. Now that the school doesn’t provide them, we have to purchase our own. I prefer it this way so now I can study the checklist at home. Today I received .2 hours of instruction and put 1.3 flight hours in for a grand total of 6.3 flight hours. I can’t wait to go flying next month. Thanks so much for reading!!!
Evan Krueger
Glad to see you were able to get back in the air. With flying only once per month you should work real hard to review what you learned in your past lesson in the days before your next lesson and visualize those procedures to keep them fresh in your mind.
I’ve left the chocks in a couple times and not realized it until start up and try to taxi. So don’t feel bad, haha.
Glad you were able to get back up!