I checked the schedule for my flights this weekend and got a bit of a shock — N1727V was out of action! My reservations had been moved to one of the school’s C172R’s, N430EP. Saturday was a bad weather day so I wasn’t flying anyway, but what did this mean for my Sunday flight?
I called my CFI and he told me I wouldn’t be able to solo in the C172R, but we could go up and practice some stuff if I wanted. I figured more practice is never a bad thing (and I wanted some more experience in the different model plane), so I agreed.
When I got to the airport, he told me to buy a pair of foggles. For those of you who don’t know, foggles are special glasses where the top halves of the lenses are obscured. You use them when practicing instrument flying — they effectively block your view outside the plane and force you to focus on the instruments.
We went out to preflight and my CFI showed me the procedure for the C172R. It is a bit more complex than the C172M, especially when it comes to sumping the fuel. There are a lot more drain points on this plane than 27V!
I took off and put my foggles on. From here on out, my CFI gave me instructions as if he was ATC and I had to follow using the instruments. This actually felt a little easier for me since I had so many hours using MS Flight Simulator with my eyes glued to the panel!
We flew out to the practice area and worked on straight and level flight, turns, and following the “ATC” instructions. My CFI handled the real comms so I could focus on flying. It was a bit strange flying around without being able to see outside — I had to resist the urge to cheat a bit by using my peripheral vision to see a little of the outside world. It was a little tricky keeping everything where it was supposed to be — I would focus on airspeed and realize my heading was changing. Then I would lock down the heading and realize I was in a slight climb. I worked on the instrument scan, constantly checking everything and making small adjustments to keep the plane where it was supposed to be.
After a bit of practice, we headed back to the airport. I still had no idea where we were and just followed my CFI’s instructions. I only knew we were coming in for a landing because he had me descending and I could hear him calling for clearance from the tower. When he told me to take the foggles off, we were on final approach straight in for the runway. I brought it in for a mediocre landing and we were done for the day.
This is something we’ll be working on every time we head out to the practice area from now on. It was a short flight overall, but it was something new and different and it was quite a bit of fun!
Click the image below for the CloudAhoy track for today’s flight.
Flight time today: 0.8 hours
Total simulated instrument flight time to date: 0.6 hours
Total flight time to date: 37.0 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 125
Total landings to date: 121