Flightblog

Lesson #4: Slow flight, steep turns, stalls, ground reference maneuvers: reviewed and perfected.

Today was mostly review. I rescheduled my lesson to get the plane for 3 hours (instead of the usual 2), but it turned out I didn't need all that.

Today was mostly review. I rescheduled my lesson to get the plane for 3 hours (instead of the usual 2), but it turned out I didn't need all that.

Arrived at the hangar watching scattered clouds build along the north shore all the way down the hill. Some of these clouds had showers under them. I was telling Carie on the way down how when you're flying airplanes on Maui, there's a lot more good weather days than with hang gliders. Looking up the hill to our HG launch revealed thick, gray, overdeveloped rain clouds upcountry. Toward the south, blue skies with scattered cu's and light wind, an excellent day for flying!

Fletch and I reviewed some stuff: airport operations, the pattern, using the DG for setting up pattern legs. A wind check showed us a pretty good crosswind on RWY 5, which is the only RWY we can expect to be cleared for T & G on, so we planned a flight out to Kihei to review some stuff. Fletch wanted to review since we had bitten off such a large bite in my first 3 lessons.

I got the Aerobat ready and we taxied down to the runup area. Runup looks good so I got Maui Ground on the radio and was cleared to taxi to RWY 2 at taxiway Echo, hold short on 2. My read back was good, Fletch tuned Maui Tower for me and I asked for takeoff clearance as we were taxiing, they cleared me for 2 at Echo immediately and we lined up on the centerline. Lights, camera, action.

Takeoff roll was smooth, 55kts and rotate. Pitch for 75kts and note crab into the wind. We noticed another huge difference between the real thing and MS Flight Sim: In the simulator, to crab into the crosswind on takeoff, you have to apply some input. In the real airplane, the plane wants to weather vane into the wind and it pretty much finds it's own crosswind crab angle, requiring very little input to maintain crab for RWY heading. At 600' I started my turn to 165 and tuned Maui Departure. I still love the radio!

'Maui Departure, Cessna 7332Lima with you. 165 and 1000 for area Alpha'.

'Cessna 7332Lima, traffic is helicopter at 11 o'clock, 2000''.

'32Lima, traffic in sight'

'Cessna 7332Lima maintain 1-3000' in area Alpha'

'32Lima, maneuver at 1-3000. Good day'.

:) It's FUN!

As we approached the practice area (lol...Kihei, the largest urban area on the island. You'd think we'd practice out over the water or over some lava field or somewhere away from people.) Fletch asked me for some 360s around our water tank on the Monsanto lab/farm over there. Turns around a point in 15 kts...no problem.

Next we did S-Turns on the Highway. Again, no problem. Hardly any altitude deviations, even through 45-60° of bank and my ground track was alright. I think I can get these perfect with just a little more practice, but they're already checkride quality.

So we did some power off stalls. This is pretty fun because it's flying the airplane all the way to the limit of what it can do. I like it because it shows me just how tenacious that little plane is. Even at the placarded stall speed (45kts) it want to keep flying! My descent rate goes up a little as I hold heading and altitude through 45-50 kts, but I swear the airspeed indicator shows 25-30 before the nose starts to waggle and the plane stalls. It makes me feel safe, knowing that stall speed, real control losing stall speed, is way below what I will ever do just flying maneuvers or the pattern. It seems like you'd have to be completely inattentive to stall this airplane unintentionally.

Next up, power on stalls. This was really fun! We fly the airplane in climb configuration. Flaps up, power full (2500rpm) and pitch for best climb (70-75kts). Then, I start easing back on the yoke. In seconds, all you see is sky. The airplane starts to slow down. The climb rate gradually decreases and all of a sudden the plane just shudders under tons of torque and p-factor, wanting to drop a wing and stall. I keep holding it until it breaks, then pitch for level and hold heading while the plane accelerates. Very fun! The first one we did, the right wing dropped and I fell through 90° of heading, looking straight at the reef, before I corrected it. That was exciting, but a good example of what not to do on my checkride. Or with first time passengers :)

Since we'd gained some altitude in the climbs and were about to bust our clearance, we did a simulated engine out to get down. Fletch cut power to idle and told me to go through checklist. Pitch for best glide. Look for a field. Radio emergency. Try to restart engine. Set up approach. This was so much fun, it was just like landing out XC in my hang glider (except we didn't really get to land). About 100' Fletch gave me power back and we climbed back out toward the ocean.

Then steep turns. I had to ask about the indicator lines on the attitude indicator. In our last steep turn session, I had mistaken the 60° for 45°. 60° is a lot of bank. We got clear on what 45° looked like on the instrument and proceeded with 4 perfect steep turns in figure 8. Today, my right turns were as good as my left and they were well within checkride tolerances. Excellent. I found myself looking outside the airplane for attitude and using my kinesthetic senses to correct for climb/descent and airspeed deviations. The only thing I need to practice still with these is coordinating the turns, that little ball just does not want to stay in it's cage.

After that, we were at a loss for what to do. Fletch told me that all of my maneuvers were checkride quality and that there's no need to keep doing them over and over again. So, instead of burn more gas and needlessly run up the Hobbs meter...we headed back for the airport.

About halfway there we get vectored back away from the charlie airspace by some lazy controller who can't (or doesn't want to) handle landing 2 planes at the same time. Go do S turns for 10 minutes while he vectors a 777 for long final then follow the 777 in. I got to do all the radio work and this time the landing was all me!

On the straight in final for RWY 2 at Maui, you have plenty of time to go through pre-landing checklist and get stabilized on glideslope. I did just that and was surprised to see how much crab into the wind I had to do to fly down the RWY. The E6B calc at http://www.csgnetwork.com/e6bcalc.html shows me landing today in a 9kt crosswind. I kept the nose pointed over to the right and just flew down the pipe, straight toward the numbers. Pitch for speed, power for altitude.

I did fine until we got through the gradient and into ground effect. Then I felt like I had my right wing just a little low and started to drift toward the right as we rounded out. Instead of leveling the wings, I countered with more left rudder. Touched down on the right wheel first, just before the stall horn went and had a respectable landing. I'll keep practicing for beautiful. Want to get them butter smooth for Carie.

As we taxied, I asked Fletch about my progress and what we'd do from here. He wants to get me into pattern work starting with my next lesson. He wants me doing touch and goes at Kahului, working the radio, flying the pattern. Then more engine outs. He anticipates I'll solo in another 3-4 lessons. I thought 3-4 more lessons seemed like a lot considering how much we cover every time we fly. So he told me that the average student here solos in 20 hours. It didn't hit me until after lunch that he was anticipating me soloing with less than 10 hours, even though the average is 20.

That's progress.

1.3 hrs

Posted by johnpeace at November 29, 2003 05:05 PM