I was back at the airport today for another flight. If yesterday found me leaving the airport with a sense of accomplishment, today was the opposite.
The plan was to stay in the pattern at DXR and practice pattern work and landings again. Unlike yesterday, today there was a bit of wind that had to be compensated for. When you are dealing with wind, your heading has to be adjusted to compensate so you keep a straight ground track. This is especially important in busy airspace like an airport pattern, where not being where others expect you to be can create a very dangerous situation.
From the first takeoff, I felt like I was behind the plane the entire time. I was banking my turns too much for the wind, so my turns wound up being too early or too late. I had trouble keeping the nose on the right point during final — my instructor tries to help me out by giving me visual cues, but I think his sight picture is a bit different than mine so they aren’t helping very much. I’m just going to have to get used to my own visual references. This is one reason using a consistent seat position is important — you don’t want the sight picture changing every time you fly. Luckily, I find the best seat position is fully-raised and as far forward as it will go — this makes it easy to adjust things to be the same for each flight.
We were also doing touch and go’s today, so it was a pretty intense, rapid fire lesson. If my instructor saw I was getting overwhelmed we would do a full stop to give me a chance to collect myself. We also practiced some go-arounds and even a simulated engine-out landing where my instructor killed the throttle while we were on base and I had to glide into an approach to the runway (I actually think this was my best landing of the day!)
We logged six takeoffs and landings before returning to the ramp and shutting down. My instructor told me not to worry, that this takes practice and it will come in time, but I still left the airport feeling very melancholy. In hindsight, my flying wasn’t as bad as I felt it was at the time, but it was incredibly frustrating to keep forgetting when to do certain steps, to keep messing my turns up, and to feel like I was letting my instructor down.
On a positive note, this flight filled up the first page of my logbook!
Flight time today: 1.5 hours
Total flight time to date: 12.8 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 14
Total landings to date: 10
Today was a milestone I’ve been waiting for since I started my training — I recorded my first landings in my logbook!
Luckily, my landings were on the runway!
We started the lesson with some classroom time going over the pattern and each phase of the landing. The landing pattern has several distinct parts — after taking off, you turn to the crosswind leg, where you turn 90° from the runway heading (either left or right, depending on the airport or what ATC tells you to do). Then you turn 90° again into the downwind leg — this leg has you flying parallel to the runway with a tailwind, approximately one mile laterally from the runway. Once you pass the end of the runway and it is behind you at an approximate 45° angle to your wing, you turn 90° to the base leg. Then, you turn the final 90° which puts you on final approach to the runway into the wind.
Standard (left hand) traffic pattern
There is a lot to do when preparing to land and it got a bit overwhelming. We started with my CFI showing me the full process from takeoff to landing. Then it was my turn! My instructor handled the radio calls so I could focus on flying the plane. At DXR, we have a noise abatement procedure which requires turns to be made at 1,200 MSL, so after taking off we climbed to 1,200 feet and turned left to crosswind. My instructor gave me some local landmarks to use to judge when to turn — this is fine while I’m learning but eventually I will need to be able to do this even if I am at an airport I’ve never been to before. It is important to understand what the various distances look like so you don’t need to rely on a landmark that is specific to a certain location.
Turning crosswind, we continued our climb to DXR’s pattern altitude of 1,700 feet MSL. At this point, I reduced power and brought the nose down to hold the altitude and then turned downwind. While on the downwind leg, I lowered the flaps to 10° and my instructor called the tower to report we were on the downwind. Our speed for the downwind leg is 90mph (the Cessna 172M I am flying has its airspeed indicator in mph instead of knots), which is controlled with the elevators (pitch) and not the throttle (power). We received landing clearance to runway 26 and when we were abeam the runway numbers I reduced power once again to start descending.
I then turned onto base and dropped the flaps to 20°. I slowed the plane to the base leg speed of 80mph and turned to final.
On final approach, the flaps were lowered to 30° and the speed was lowered to 70mph. At this point, you switch to controlling the speed of the plane with the throttle and use the pitch to keep the nose held steady on your landing target. My plane has 40° of flaps and my CFI intends to teach me how to use them, so we lowered full flaps while descending to the runway. While on final approach, you use the ailerons to keep the plane tracking the centerline of the runway while using rudder to move the nose left or right to keep it centered.
As you get just about the runway, you perform the roundout where you level the plane and allow it to start to settle into the landing. At this point, my CFI says the goal is to prevent the plane from landing — you look at a point down the runway (instead of fixating on the runway right in front of you) and gradually apply back pressure to the yoke to keep it from landing — this pitches the nose up so you land on the main gears instead of the (very weak) nose gear. This final part of the landing is called the flare.
Now, from this description it may sound like I had everything under control and came in for a great landing — the real story was quite different! My instructor had to continually coach me through the process and help me with the roundout and flare to teach me when to apply the back pressure and how much pressure to apply. We did full stop landings today, which means you actually exit the runway and clean the plane up before taxiing back to the runway to takeoff again (opposed to a touch and go, where as soon as you land you clean the plane up and apply full power to go right into another takeoff without stopping).
Another new item I learned today was how to do a short field takeoff. This technique is used when you are departing from (wait for it) a short runway and need to get to speed and off the ground as quickly as possible. Instead of pulling out onto the runway like we normally do, I taxied right up against the very edge of the threshold to maximize how much runway I’d have to work with (we were doing these on DXR’s runway 26, which is over 4,000 feet long, but sometimes you just have to pretend!) In a short field takeoff you hold the brakes while applying full throttle, and once the engine is at full power you release the brakes and off you go!
I wound up doing a total of four trips around the pattern, with four takeoffs and landings being recorded in the logbook. The winds were pretty calm and I felt like I was starting to get the hang of flying the pattern. I still wasn’t completely confident on my final approaches, but I’ve been told landings take a lot of practice. I’m confident that in time I will be performing all of the steps smoothly and confidently (at least some of the time!)
I left the airport feeling like I had taken a big step towards actually being a pilot — it was a great feeling of progress and I can’t wait to get some more practice in!
Flight time today: 1.2 hours
Total flight time to date: 11.3 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 8
Total landings to date: 4
Today I got one step closer to being able (and allowed!) to land the plane.
We started off in the classroom reviewing the traffic pattern. Basically, the traffic pattern is a standard set of rules planes are supposed to follow when arriving at and departing an airport. This way everyone knows where everyone else is supposed to be and there is less chance of a collision in the busy airport environment.
Standard (left hand) traffic pattern
Well, my instructor wasn’t going to set me loose in the actual pattern just yet. Instead, we headed out to the practice area and flew a simulated pattern. He gave me some reference points to base the pattern around and we went through the whole process as if we were in the real pattern — slowing the plane down for landing, lowering the flaps at the appropriate points, etc… Then, when we were on “final approach” he had me initiate a go-around procedure.
The go-around is a very important tool in the pilot’s arsenal. Anytime a landing doesn’t feel right — if the approach is not stable, or if anything seems off — you should immediately initiate a go-around and start over. A lot of pilots have killed or injured themselves by trying to force a landing when they should’ve gone around and set up again. You also need to be able to do a go-around if ATC instructs you to — maybe there has been a runway incursion by another plane or they need to close a runway for some reason — you never know!
I performed the go-arounds by applying full power and starting a climb, gradually cleaning up the flaps as we gained altitude and speed. Then we just transitioned right back into flying the pattern again and setting up for another landing.
My instructor also threw me a curveball when he “failed” my airspeed indicator for a little while — covering it with a rubber disc so I couldn’t see it. I was expected to get the airplane to the correct speeds by feel — listening to the engine, looking at the pitch of the place, how quickly we were moving across the ground, etc… I nailed this a couple of times, and others I was as much as 10mph off. It was a good learning experience. It sounds impossible but my CFI compared it to driving — you can drive without looking at your speedometer and be pretty close to your intended speed. You know what 30mph looks and feels like, you know what 60mph looks and feels like… eventually I will have that same level of intuition and comfort flying this plane.
When we were done practicing I started flying us back to DXR — I was hopeful that I might be allowed to do my first landing, but alas! It was not to be. A couple of planes were all converging at the airport at the same time as us and my CFI deemed it a bit too busy.
I’m still not confident in my ability to fly the real pattern, but my instructor assured me I will get a LOT of practice in this area!
Flight time today: 1.0 hours
Total flight time to date: 10.1 hours
Total takeoffs to date: 4
