Beautiful Day to Fly!
Today was really a great day to fly. It was a bit warm but cooled off quickly as we got some air moving into the airplane. Things are starting to get fun now, each lesson I am picking more and more up. Like I talked about yesterday though I don’t want to forget what I have done so far. One big thing was to remember right rudder on takeoff, not a big deal I corrected for it but still it was not very smooth. Today we spent the day moving out again working on the fundamentals and slow flight. We also added in power off stalls, which is basically slowing the airplane to the point where it will not fly and the air basically spills off the wings. The plane basically starts a decent to the ground with no forward momentum, a bad thing for an airplane to do when it is not expected which is why we do it in training to be able to recognise the signs and feelings of a stall and how to correct for it. After some stall training we went into some ground reference maneuvers. Basically flying a box around a fictitious air strip and correcting for wind to stay on course. This mimics flying in the traffic pattern of an airport without the traffic. That was actually pretty cool and helped cement a bunch of concepts in my head. From here we started our brief flight back to KMIC, where I called the tower and brought the plane in for landing. Once we had clearance to land on runway 14L Will had me bring the plane all the way to a full landing. Though he did help a bit to keep us out of any big trouble he said it went pretty well for a first attempt. So I have a new thing to start working on and looking forward to. It is nice to be able “baby step” into it. Actually it was not all that bad, it was actually pretty damn cool. All in all another good day in the air. Tomorrow I will fly again so I can “make up” for next Wednesday that I will not be able to fly. Though the weather is not looking too good for tomorrow it is still to early to make a fly/no fly decision. I guess If I wake up and it is still storming I won’t be going flying.
A little wind = good training »
Comments
Comment from Seth
Time: 7 September 2007, 2:23
The only reason is because I have pretty much been on a radio since I joined the military, the same just a few new words. That and the first time he let me try it I pulled out the tree, tree, and niner. He said he was impressd at the tree, then I said I had been on the radio for the past year and a half in Iraq. So I have been doing them, not all but most.
I bet everytime you take off you think of of her giving you a dirty look or tapping her foot =D
Comment from Christine
Time: 8 September 2007, 3:57
Aaron, that’s just mean. You’re hurting my feelings now.
-C.
Comment from Aaron
Time: 6 September 2007, 3:06
You’re already using the radio with tower? My first week I was shitty on the radio. Hell, 30 hours into it I was still shitty on the radio. At 110 hours I think I still need a lot more practice really.
Using more right rudder on climb is something that I understood well right away but got yelled at for constantly because I kept forgetting. For some reason didn’t instinctively start doing it consistently until towards the end of my training. I frustrated my instructor on that I think.
I can’t count how many times she told me “right rudder.” It was so frequent that sometimes she could tell me “right rudder” with just a dirty look or a tap of her foot on her set of controls. I think it’s pretty well drilled into me now though. 