1.4hrs - Pattern, landing, power off landing, go-around, loss of power in pattern practice, steep turn, MCA (minimum controlable airspeed), power on/off stall, rinse and repeat.
Lesson 14 was primarily review and practice. My CFI explained the he was going to remain mostly quiet, primarily telling me what maneuver to do next, but not how.
We departed Twin Oaks, and headed for Aurora. There has been a temperature inversion with a stagnant air warning, so it was very interesting to see the top of all that haze and fog filling the valleys, and go from a temp in the mid 40’s on the ground to 61 degrees at about 3000ft.
The distance covered over a short amount of time still comes as a surprise to me from time to time, and I had to make a large descending 360 to lose some altitude so I could enter the pattern. The pattern at Aurora was a little busy, keeping me quite busy, but we were able to get some good practice in.
My flare and touchdown has suffered a bit on past few lessons, no bounce or anything like that, just off center and a little hard, and is frustrating because I know I can do and have done better. Fortunately each subsequent trip around improved, as had my speed control in the pattern. I would often end up quite fast on downwind, and need to really work to lose some speed to reach Vfe (maximum flaps extension speed).
After seveal trips around the pattern at Aurora, we departed to a practice where I spent time practiceing slow flight while making some clearing turns, then a power-off stall and recovery, as well as a power on stall. I’m able to identify the signs of the approaching stall, and properly recover from a power-off stall, but have difficulty identifying a power-on stall. I can identify the approach to the stall, but often recover before the full stall. When I do get a full power on stall, my recovery is much better, and I’m less likely to drop the right wing as I was before.
Next up were steep turns, which I understand and really enjoy doing, but I still need some practice.
So time to head home. I had Twin Oaks all dialed in to the GPS, which was the fun new toy to play with on this trip, and was happily letting it guide me back when my CFI flips if off “Oh too bad…. your GPS just shorted out”. Fortunately I could see my familiar landmarks anyway, and entered the pattern. Then “Oh, too bad...” says my CFI “your altimeter just quit”. I’ve had a little trouble maintaining correct pattern altitude, so a couple times as we went around he asked how high I thought I was, and would let me take a peek to see how far off I was. I was off a little, but improved on the second trip around the pattern.
Really a good lesson, and great to be airborne.
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