More Solo Practice Time 5/15/09

After two weeks of not being able to get in the air I was off on this beautiful morning for 1.7hrs of solo time to practice anything and everything I felt comfortable with.

I started off with a simulated engine out over 2S6 (Sportsman Airpark) from 3000ft about 3 miles out. I was a little high, and though I could have stopped on the remaining runway, decided to go around from the flare. Not what I’d set out to do, but the go-around was good practice. The second attempt was better, though the landing was a little harsher than I was shooting for.

A pretty fair simulated soft field takeoff and I was on my way a little farther south to practice some maneuvers.

Once up to 4000ft, I got all set up in slow flight, and performed a few clearing turns before slowing even further to practice MCA (minimum controllable airspeed).

To this point, I had not performed stalls during solo flight, but my instructor had told me to go ahead and practice some if I felt comfortable with it. Since completing the first stalls early in my training, I had felt completely comfortable performing these with my instructor sitting next to me. He has not had to reach for the controls during previous stall practice, so with my heart racing just a bit, gave a little back pressure on the yoke. From MCA that’s all it took for the buffeting to start, and then the stall break. A quick recovery and I was on my way for another. Feeling good with power off stalls, I set up for a full power on stall. These are a bit more exciting, and feel as though I’m standing the thing on its tail. With very little wandering, and a slight dip of the right wing after the break, I was ready for another.

After another set of clearing turns, I spent some time on steep turns. I think I now have a pretty good picture of what the relationship between the nose on the horizon should look like for turns in each direction, and was able to stay within PTS guidelines.

I dropped down over the farmlands of the Willamette Valley to practice some turns around a point. At 800ft AGL, this was the lowest I have been while on my own. I did several turns around a point, with a little wind, and managed pretty well. Then several more right turns around a point.

Flying that low over those farmlands was really something, and another “this is why I’m learning to fly“ moments.

I climbed back up to 3000 for another simulated engine out at Sportsman. Judging by a column of smoke a little south of Sportsman, the wind now favored runway 35 with a little crosswind and right traffic, adding to the challenge. My approach and touchdown point was the best of all so far today.

I climbed back to 2500ft after departing Sportsman, practiced VOR nav, and determining my position using two VOR’s, and I was time to head home.

A normal approach and landing at Twin Oaks ended a beautiful morning.

Scheduled next Tuesday is a mock checkride, plus a little work on slips (still a weak spot), followed up with some ground time.

Good times….

The pictures are of some scattered clouds over the Aurora area, a couple of pictures from down low, and about 2000ft over the town of St Paul.