Lesson 11 12/11/08

Lesson 11 1.3hrs - Basic navigation, pattern, and landing practice.

My assignment after last lesson was to study the sectional, airport directory, and any other sources I wanted to use, to plan a trip from 7S3 (Twin Oaks) to 4S9 (Mulino), including heading, frequency, pattern direction, calm wind runway, etc.

It's only a distance of approx 20 nautical miles, but a first step for me.We departed 7S3 and followed the heading I'd determined, with a little correction added for the slight crosswind. At about 5 miles out, I realized that I had over corrected a little for the wind, and was a little farther north than I'd planned, but it did make the descent to pattern altitude, and entry into the pattern for runway 22 easy.

I made a total of 5 landings, all really very nice, but still am consistently high on final and touch down left of the centerline. It seems to go back to needing work on judging my descent on base. The left of center I think comes from seeing all the runway width in front of me. At Twin Oaks, which is a half to a third the width of the UAO, MMV, or 4S9, I consistently touch down on the center.

I also need to use the trim more. My CFI did one trip around to demonstrate that the whole pattern, from takeoff to the beginning of the flare can be flown with a light two fingers and thumb, if you use the trim well. He actually was able it complete the flare as well without adding fingers.

We departed the pattern at 4S9, which during the time we were there had not one other aircraft around, and followed my heading right back to 7S3.

I made my way around the pattern, came out of the turn to final a bit high, but was able to correct for a nice landing to end the evening. Now with a total of 15.3 hours logged.

My CFI feels that I'm getting very close to solo, and will soon spend a lesson with one of the other instructors as kind of a stage check. With each lesson, I feel more confident.

So another very good day!

Lesson 12 will be to somewhere else new, so I have a couple of possible destinations to plan for. One possibility is TMK, near the coast, which would be very cool, but would require unseasonably good weather. We'll see, it looks like the weather is going to really go down hill here for several days, but I have the pre-solo test to study for to keep me busy while waiting to go up again.