We were hit with a pretty significant snowstorm on Thursday and I went to bed Friday night not knowing if I would have a lesson today. There was a chance of more snow overnight and the flight school called and told me I shouldn’t come in if the roads were in bad shape.
When I woke up I was pleased to see we hadn’t received any snow the night before and the roads were OK. I figured the airport would’ve had all of Friday to do snow removal… winds were calm with ceilings of 5,000 feet, so maybe we’d be going for a flight after all!
When I got to the school I noticed my CFI’s car was not there… ruh roh! I was his first lesson of the day, so I figured he was stuck in traffic or something. I was starting to get nervous around 8:20 or so when he walked through the door. Turns out he had a bit of snow at his house (he’s a bit north of us) and had to do some snow removal before he was able to get out of his driveway (yay, New England winters!)
We had now eaten up 25% of my lesson time waiting for him — we didn’t really have time to take a trip anywhere, so he suggested we stay in the local pattern and practice landings. That sounded fine to me! I was just happy to get some flight time in. I went out to preflight and took a picture of the icy ramp:
We taxied out to the runup area, where I got a lesson in operating in icy conditions… we couldn’t find a great spot where all of our tires were on clean pavement, so when I increased the throttle to 1,700 RPM for the runup, the plane started sliding to the side! I quickly pulled the throttle to idle and my instructor moved the plane to a slightly better spot… we got through the magneto checks OK and we were off to runway 26!
My instructor actually did the first takeoff since there was inbound traffic and we were asked to expedite. I didn’t have the confidence or experience to taxi quickly with the icy conditions, so I was more than happy to let him have the plane. Once in the air we started our pattern work.
The calm winds definitely helped me focus on the task at hand — one less thing I had to worry about or correct for. I did a total of five takeoffs and landings (my CFI did one landing partway through the lesson to point out some things), all touch and go’s. I’m still not very consistent with my landings or my pattern work. The first trip around the circuit I felt I was just knocking the rust off. I was a bit more comfortable and ahead of the plane for the next orbits, but my actual technique execution still needs some work. I’m banking too much, I’m not managing my power enough, and I’m not trimming the plane exactly where it needs to be.
This is where my instructor took over and showed me how to fly a pattern doing a lot less work than I was doing. He had the plane trimmed for our climb out at 90mph — he initiated his turn to crosswind using just the rudder (relaxing right rudder a bit, then re-applying it and using a touch of opposite aileron to keep the bank angle shallow). When we were at pattern altitude, a quick power reduction and a touch of trim had the plane right at the altitude and speed he wanted it at. We turned downwind, called the tower, dropped the first notch of flaps, and reduced power again abeam the numbers (with another small trim adjustment to keep things where he wanted). Now we were on base at 80mph — another notch of flaps, a quick trim adjustment, turning to final, more flaps, more trim, and now we’re dialed in at 70mph on a perfect glideslope to the runway.
It was humbling, seeing how someone with 12,000 hours can put this plane where he wants it, when he wants it, with seemingly no effort at all. I have to remember I have about 0.16% of his total hours and it will take a bit of time to get this down.
My roundouts and flares were iffy — I was flaring too high. I know I’m not looking down the runway enough, my focal point keeps shifting and it shows in my shaky flare.
I had one trip around where he said I was doing everything right. My trim was better, speed was good, I was ahead of the plane and had a stable approach. Flare was high but not ridiculously so. That felt good. I feel like I’m making progress, I know eventually this will all come together.
Once we landed I was practicing the flare motion (pulling the yoke back as far as it will go) and my CFI noticed my wrist is turning while doing so, which would bank the plane to the right in an actual landing. That might be part of the reason I’ve had trouble with the flare. He suggested I move my seat back slightly, I might try that next lesson. I also practiced pulling the yoke straight back and noticed how it felt different from the motion I’ve been making. Now that I’m aware of this, I’ll be paying a lot closer attention to make sure my wrist is straight when applying back pressure.
I asked my instructor if he was having to provide less assistance on the landings — he said yes, and that he was really only stepping in if necessary. I asked if I had completed any landings unassisted, and I was a bit surprised when he told me most of them were pretty much me doing them by myself. I thought for sure he was helping with the flare, but to be honest it all happens so quickly I’m not really sure what is going on yet!
All in all a good lesson, and we had a good debrief where we spent 15 minutes or so talking about the pattern and how to apply what we’ve learned at DXR to an unfamiliar field. Looking forward to my next lesson, but it will likely have to wait — we have a forecast of ice rain for tomorrow and I suspect the airport will be closed.
PS: I just started using CloudAhoy to track my flights. This is a really cool app that uses GPS to record and reconstruct your flight path and all associated data — airspeed, altitude, bank angle, etc… I’m using my iPhone and not a fancy, expensive, external unit so I imagine the accuracy will be spotty at times, but it’s definitely a cool way for me to review certain aspects of my flights.
Click the image below to view the recording from today’s flight. Aside from that one blue/purple segment sticking out from the rest (an extended downwind as instructed by ATC), the pattern tracks don’t look too bad, if I do say so myself!
Flight time today: 1.2 hours
Total flight time to date: 19.6 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 45
Total landings to date: 41