Flight 21

February 10, 2011

I flew with Matt this morning. We started off by doing a soft field takeoff and spiraled above the airport before heading out to Greensfield. Once we got half way to the first checkpoint, Matt made up a scenario and said that there was a line of thunderstorms ahead and asked me what I should do. I told him the safest thing to do would be to head back to the airport. He then asked me to make a calculation to make sure we would have enough gas. The answer was yes, so we turned around and started flying back. Once I was on the correct course, he said that was good enough and had me turn around and head back towards Greensfield. After we passed the first checkpoint, he had me do a power-on stall. I made the mistake of adding flaps. I knew I was doing something wrong because I couldn't get the plane to stall. So I stopped and we discussed it before he had me do it again. That time went great.

Once we got to the Greensfield airport, he told me to land on 27. I entered the traffic pattern wrong but I knew that I was wrong. I aborted and flew back around and tried again. That time I did it correctly. The runway was completely covered in snow and ice, so instead of landing, we just did a go-around.

On the way back home, he had me navigate to an area that I could set up to land on 18 by coming straight in, instead of following the traffic pattern. I had never done this before, but ended up doing it great. Matt had me do the landing as a soft field. The touchdown was my smoothest yet!

Once we were back inside, Matt and I talked for a bit. He told me that I need to fly solo this weekend, to help me gain the confidence needed for the practical exam. After that, we will fly one more time together and then he plans on endorsing me to take the checkride. So the plan is to do the checkride in about 1.5 - 2 weeks.

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 26.6