Started the walk around from the inside, making sure to get the Hobbs, check the beacon, and check the rudder cables.
Half fuel, 5 1/4 quarts of oil. Everything else looked good, except the inspection panel was missing again on the left wing. Batelle arrived by this point so we grabbed a replacement and jumped in.
She's been giving me a lot more responsibility, which feels nice. I pulled Sharkie out by myself, verified the preflight checklist, and started her up with three pumps of primer because it was colder environmental conditions. Batelle told me she wasn't going to say anything to correct me unless I was going to damage the plane, but to verify what I was doing with the checklist card. Feels good to be more in control.
Did the runup procedure while verifying everything with the checklist card. Almost forgot to check the oil temp and pressure during the runup, though, so I mentally slapped myself on the wrist for that one.
"Citabria niner zero niner one Lema, ready three one right". Got cleared for takeoff, did the takeoff roll, and climbed to 3500 toward Mission Peak.
Lots of maneuvering practice over the Calaveras area today, south of KLVK. We practiced climbs, descents, shallow turns, medium bank turns, and steep turns again, along with climbing and descending turns. I have a good picture of where the nose should be during climbs and descents, but I'm still working on getting the picture right for normal level flight. Gotta remember to throw in some left rudder during descents, and throw carb heat on first before reducing power. Then, to level off from a descent, take carb heat off and throw in power about 50 feet above intended altitude.
Slow flight was definitely a new experience! I've done a little bit of pattern work in Little Spiffy (the Loveness 172) but because there aren't any flaps on Sharkie, things feel pretty different.
To get to MCA (minimum controllable airspeed): Throw carb heat on and pull back power, while pitching the nose up. Fine adjustments to power to maintain airspeed and adjust pitch to keep angle of attack below a stall, but without descending. The sweet spot was at about 2000 RPM for me. Trim off the pressure for the nose high attitude.
We felt the edge of the stall, where roughness kicks in. Then we did shallow bank turns, which was mostly rudder pressure. Batelle told me to be easy on the stick (two finger grip) to avoid stalling and the spinning during a turn. To get out of slow flight, carb heat cold, throw in power, and reduce pitch to level flight. We went in and out of slow flight a few times, and then headed back.
I missed a few of the radio calls on landing, so Batelle jumped in and laughed at me, while telling me to not feel rushed by the tower. Fly the plane first. I'm definitely trying to keep on top of everything, though :)
Next lesson we'll be doing power on and power off stalls, and maybe some pattern work if there's time!
Got 1.4 hours in today, and I'm up to 3.6 hours now. Goal: to have 10 tailwheel hours logged by the end of July :)
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