Not many skills-based updates in this one, but there were definitely important learnings from the lesson today.
Knowing your body is really important in flying, and in relation to being PIC of an airplane. With practice, I've learned to leave the stress out of the airplane. This has actually been a great form of therapy, in relation to everything going on in my family. Stuff that's going on with your body? A little harder to ignore.
This was the latest lesson I'd done (time of day-wise), and because I was rushing back from the city, I didn't get a chance to eat even a little bit before. Add to this a night of poor sleep, and it was a perfect recipe for being in a low-energy/low brain power state. I was also flying Snoopy (1806G) for the first time, so I had to familiarize myself with the instrument locations, different rudder feel, different stick feel, and different radio. All great things to teach adaptability and feeling different airplanes.
We practiced slow flight and ground reference maneuvers again. Turns around a point, S-turns across a road, and rectangular pattern. I remembered everything conceptually about turns from downwind needing to be steeper and turns into upwind needing to be shallower, but it took me a few tries to feel in the zone again. We had strong winds (15-18kts on the ground), which made me instinctively grip the stick a little too hard and made it harder to feel what the plane was doing. After two rough turns around a point, I transitioned back to a thumb-and-middle finger grip, and did a whole lot better. Phew. I still have a problem with pitching the nose up slightly during ground reference maneuvers, so I need to watch out for that.
Toward the end of the lesson I felt more in the zone. Turning back to RHV, setting up the approach, forward slipping to descent, and flaring/keeping the plane straight with the rudders all felt good. Slight hiccup on the flare - after the plane touched the runway, there was a small bounce because I let off some back pressure on the stick. Gotta remember to keep the nose high attitude so the plane stays on the ground!
Things I noticed - missing some things on the radio calls, like saying "Runway 31" instead of "31 right". Super important detail when there are two parallel runways. I left this bit of info out during taxi to takeoff, but luckily remembered when I was inbound to land. And I'm glad I did, because tower had me and a Skyhawk landing at the same time on the parallel runways at RHV.
Overall, I'm more aware of some of the mental/physical things that happen to me when I'm in a tired state. Gotta remember to give myself more time if and when I fly like this in the future, and maybe keep a small snack on me at times when I'm rushing back from the city. I told Batelle I felt off my game today, but she said I wasn't as bad as I thought and it was a good experience to have. She's got a good mix of being a hard instructor and a constructive instructor at the right times.
On a reallllly high positive note, I finally broke the cycle of not getting to fly on days where I came home from work early! I didn't report the snafu on an attempted lesson from last week, but basically, Sharkie came back from an 100-hour inspection and needed some work because of a crack in the exhaust. The test flight went a little long and made it nonsensical to fly that day because I'd only basically get to take off and land. Anyway, things are looking up.
I have two more lessons on Thursday, one on Saturday, and one on Sunday. Batelle said that I might be ready for the Stage 1 check ride after my lessons on Thursday, but I said I wasn't in a huge rush. I want to feel competent at every stage.
Thinking about being in the air, and not at this stupid desk right now :P
❤️
ReplyDelete