Oh. My. God.
I am completely fried.
Today was my introduction to flying the pattern.
The weather was awful as I drove down the mountain with Carie this afternoon at 1. My lesson was scheduled for 3:00, giving me a little time to babysit Dakota while Carie got some things taken care of at her office. So, after dropping Carie off at the office, Dakota and I went over to the hangar to get a look at the weather and see the airplanes.
In the time since driving down the mountain, the weather had deteriorated. The beacon was on on top of the tower as I headed toward the GA ramp. Got to the hangar and walked across the tarmac in a drizzle to sit with Fletch. It just kept getting worse. Fletch was typically optimistic and said as long as we have 3 miles and 1000' at 3 o'clock, we're good. I was a little skeptical. Turned out he was right. In the time that it took to go back and pick up Carie and get back to the hangar, the weather had improved to VFR in the pattern, which was all we needed.
We drew it on the whiteboard and talked about pattern procedures: Take off and climb at Vy (77kts). At 400', make a 90° turn to fly crosswind. Watch wind drift and crab as necessary to maintain 1 mile separation from runway. At about 1 mile, make a 90° turn to fly downwind, watching the runway. Level off and reduce power to 2200rpm at 800'. Abeam the numbers apply carb heat, reduce power to 1700, slow to 85kts and drop 10° of flaps. At 45° from the numbers, make a 90° turn to base leg, descending and watching the end of the runway. Decide whether you're high, low, fast or slow and apply corrective pitch/power. Watch the wind and turn 90° to final and stabilize the airplane in a 70kt descent, apply more flaps if the wind is light (it's not). Keep the nose of the airplane on the centerline with slips, turns, rudder, constantly correcting for wind and turbulence. Power to idle as we cross the threshold. Begin rounding out the descent and slowly descend to an altitude that would be safe to drop from (about 3'). Use light, light pitch movements to hold the plane at this altitude, gradually increasing the angle of attack as the airplane slows and using aileron and rudder to keep the nose lined up with the centerline. Touchdown. When the nosewheel drops, maintain direction control with rudders. Raise flaps, power to 100% and push in carb heat. Check full power, oil pressure and airspeed. At 55kts rotate. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
We did that for 1.4 hours on the Hobbs. The whole time, we're getting ATC directing us to all kinds of variations. Carry long downwind, wait for ATC to call base leg turn. Short final. Short field landing. Make right traffic for runway 2. Make left traffic for runway 5. Full stop landing for United heavies' wake turbulence. Traffic is 757 4 miles at 2 o'clock, follow traffic in.
Fletch pretty much handled the radios and just let me fly the plane.
It is SO HARD. I watched my airspeed creep all over the place in the climbs and descents. I kept getting pushed off the centerline by the crosswind. Wanted to round out and flare with too high an angle of attack almost every landing. Man, there's SO MUCH to keep straight!
This was the lesson I've been waiting for, the one where I encounter a task that I don't already know how to do. I learned today and it was wonderful. Fletch was really patient with me in spite of me just totally death-gripping the yoke and ignoring his directions.
We made 11 touch and goes. About 4 of my landings were OK, the other 7 were pretty ugly. I only bounced on 2, but had problems on most of them. Too fast, too much crab when I touch down. Too much drift when I touch down. Too much nose high in the round out.
It was a really good day in the airplane.
I'm going back for more tomorrow at 8am and can hardly wait.
Posted by johnpeace at December 3, 2003 07:55 PMI'm glad you are being challenged. I KNOW you will be able to do this and when I get there I won't worry if its cloudy, windy, or not. I know you'll be ready.