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Flight 10 at SpanaFlight (Total: 12.9 Dual, .6 Sim IFR, 34 Landings)

10/14/99

Well, Seattle is known for it's crappy weather, and the last week has seen a lot of it.  Monday's flight was cancelled, and I ended up hanging around the FBO watching videos and talking to the owner.  And of course, time slows to half speed while waiting for the next scheduled flight to arrive.  Eventually, Thursday came, and I saw a blue sky, and was thanking God for my good fortune, as the weather was supposed to continue to be crappy for another 3 or 4 more days.

I arrived at SpanaFlight at my usual 15 minutes early, and filled in my schedule for the next 2 weeks or so.  Matt was flying when I arrived, and I had to wait some.  Not a big deal, as there are always someone there in which to speak.  I got to show off this website some too.  Matt arrived, and wanted to start some ground lessons.  I asked him if we could skip these today because I was itching to get up in the air.  He agreed, and after shooting the breeze for a couple of minutes, we went out to pre-flight the plane.  

4705G was in for it's 100 hour, and I had to use 20481 today.  I was a little bummed, but know that I need to learn other airplanes eventually.  I won't end up flying 05G forever.  Went out, pre-flighted, started up, and took off  from runway 16 to the practice area. 20481 has a 180hp engine and likes to about leap off the ground at 65 knots or so.  We arrived at the practice area without incident.

Steep turns were the first order of business.  As usual, my altitude was all over the place during these.  Although I actually had my 45 degree bank angle this time.  I'll get the hang of these eventually.

Next, the instructor demonstrated some stalls that I wouldn't be performing.  He started with a elevator trim stall.  That one, threw my equilibrium off some.  We didn't actually stall, but he showed me how to recover.  The next one, was the secondary stall.  Which is basically a stall after a stall.  The last one was a cross-control stall.  That one we had some difficulty doing, but after the second try, Matt stalled the plane.  That one was the most dramatic of them, and shows some of the mistakes that beginning students might make.  I will watch out for these.

We then went out and did a couple of power off stalls.  With the exception of pulling the carb heat, I performed these well. Ground reference maneuvers were next.  I found that same farm that we have been practicing around for the last month, and headed towards it.  The winds were light, and from the east, so I entered on the downwind and started to circle.  My circles this time were more like ovals.  I started to improve things towards the end of the maneuver, and actually made 2 completely round turns. 

We started rectangular courses next.  I did ok at these, and we did 3 laps around the farm.  The wind had now shifted to being from the north, so we found a road running east-west and entered downwind for s-turns.  I had a lot of trouble with my altitude on these.  The steep turns required are throwing me off here I think.  I'll have to improve these quite a bit more if I am going to ever fly alone.

We then headed back to the airport to practice landings.  The runway in use was 34, and we entered the pattern as usual.  My pattern work today was a lot better than before, especially since I wasn't used to the plane I was flying.  The first time around, we landed a little hard, but the last two, were a lot better.  The last landing, I was too high in the pattern, and we extended the flaps earlier than we normally do.  I wasn't unhappy with these today at all, although as usual, Matt helped some.  Matt mentioned that my turn to final seemed to be getting better, but I was still cutting it short some.  I was correcting it during the final leg, but should have turned out a little later so that I wouldn't have to.  

We parked the plane at the fuel pumps, and went inside.  He had debriefed me in the plane, and I just borrowed a couple of videos from the school and went home.  I feel that I am at the "plateau" I'm my learning that most students end up getting stuck at for a bit.  I hope I get over it soon.  I did, however, feel pretty good about this flight.  Saturday looks promising for weather, and 05G is done with it's 100 hour inspection.  I am going to attempt to talk my instructor into practicing in another area next time.  I need a change in scenery I think.  I'll probably bring my digital camera again for some more photos.  WooHoo!

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