Getting Close

July 1, 2011

Since my last post I flew solo to practice landings, which went pretty well. Then Matt and I met for three hours a couple days ago for some ground school. This was to help prepare me for the knowledge exam that I need to take. It made a huge difference and I'm about 1-2 weeks away from taking the test.

Today however, we did a mock checkride. I always feel a little awkward doing this because the instructor no longer acts like an instructor, but as an examiner. We don't make small talk, and I can't ask any questions. Matt instructs me to perform a maneuver and I must deliver.

First thing we did was a soft field takeoff. My technique was correct, but Matt said there were a couple little things I should work on. They're not things that would fail a checkride, but just things I should keep in mind. We then departed to the northwest and climbed to 4000ft. to work on steep turns. I busted the limit on my turn to the left because I decreased the power too much and lost too much altitude. Then on my turn to the right, I added power and the turn was much better.

Next up was slow flight. For some reason this has been a weak point for me since the beginning. Today was fantastic though. I impressed myself and Matt. I remember him telling me that it was the best slow flight he has ever seen me do, which is a pretty big deal to me. I then returned to cruise and once stable, Matt told me to perform a power-off stall. Stalls are another maneuver that I'm not entirely a fan of. I did a good job, so Matt had me do a power-on stall. The first time I recovered before even stalling the plane, so Matt said try again. This time I waited for the full stall and then recovered. Big difference, and less pleasant...

Once back to cruise, Matt pulled the throttle to idle to simulate an engine failure. There were no private runways in the area, so I chose a field and decided to land into the wind which was coming from the south. I was at about 2500ft, so after getting to the plane's best glide speed I made a 360 degree turn to lose altitude. Once I felt that I could come in to land, I began flying straight ahead and started adding flaps. If we were to actually land, I would've been in the perfect position and in my selected field. Once we were a couple hundred feet above the ground, I added full power and began climbing out.

Now it was time to do turns around a point. Nothing special there, I did pretty good but there's a couple little things I could work on. Afterward, we gained some altitude and then I handed the controls over to Matt. He had me close my eyes, put my head down and had me keep my hands and feet off all controls. This meant we were about to do unusual attitudes, one of my favorite things. He flew the plane in different directions to throw off my equilibrium then told me to open my eyes and recover the plane from whatever attitude it was in. No problems there.

We then flew back to the airport, entered the traffic pattern and made a short field landing on Runway 18. I landed just a little short of my intended point but still within the limits of passing. After coming to a full stop on the runway, I held the brakes then applied full power to begin a short field takeoff.  That went well so we came in for a soft field landing. I came in too high so I ended up doing a go-around. The second attempt was a success. 

During the debriefing, Matt said I did really well today. He's asked me to fly solo one more time to polish things up, then schedule another mock checkride with a different instructor to get a non-biased opinion. Meanwhile, I need to take (and pass) the knowledge exam ASAP, and schedule a mock oral exam with Matt. My goal is to take the knowledge exam within two weeks, and hopefully take the checkride in 3-4 weeks. Wish me luck :)