Lesson 26 3/11/09

1.5hrs – Becoming comfortable with the 40H, stalls, steep turns, landings, and class D airport.

I scheduled this lesson with the primary intent of becoming more comfortable with 40H, which is one of three 172’s available at 7S3, and one that I have not felt comfortable with the few times I’ve flown it. It's a nice airplane, it's just a differant model with a differant instrument panel, radio, and flaps switch. Also 30 less hp.

Also, my landings have been pretty inconsistent lately, which was also something I wanted to work on in this lesson.

I got out to the airport at 8:30am (a very chilly 8:30am), pulled 04H out of the hanger and into the sun to pre-flight, and by 9:00 we were up in the cold clear air. I beautiful morning!

First we did a little slow flight, which is done in the full landing configuration, airspeed just above a stall, and a surprisingly high power setting (called "being behind the power curve). We then did several power off stalls (done in full landing configuration) . The recovery from the first was very poor, and earned me some words of disapproval from my instructor (rightfully so). After the stall, you release back pressure, full power, carb heat off, and climb away while bringing the flaps up in increments. I let the flaps come full up at once, which can cause a secondary stall. The subsequent power off stalls were much better. Power on stalls were good, except for a little turn off heading right before the stall. Surprisingly, given my early and still very occasional fear of flying, I do really enjoy practicing stalls.

Next we practiced several steep turns in each direction, and managed my best to date. The final couple were within PTS even.

We practiced and engine out from 3000ft above McMinnville. I cut my last turn a little tight, and we were quite high over the numbers with a little tail wind. A very poorly executed slip helped lose some altitude, but lead to an even more poorly executed flare. Landing number one of the day was not so great….

We departed McMinnville and headed towards Hillsboro for more tower and pattern work. My communication with the tower was smooth, and my instructor was able to remain quiet. My landings and pattern were also quite good, and I was happy to shake off the earlier landing at McMinnville.

With time running out we turned towards Twin Oaks, and had the pattern made until short final. With 40 degrees of flaps available, 40H slows down fast (4KU is limited to 30 degrees), and soon was close to a stall without me noticing. Bad… bad… bad... My CFI reminded me to watch my airspeed and I quickly pushed the nose down and gave it a good amount of throttle while cursing myself for not watching the airspeed. The landing was okay from there, but the thought of how quickly the airspeed dropped out on me really got my attention.

A good lesson, and a lot of good lessons learned. A tough lesson as well.

On the bonus side, I do feel much better with 40H. I also have another lesson scheduled tonight for my first trip to a class C airport (PDX), and to wrap up the 5 remaining required night landings.