Finishing Stage 1

December 17, 2011

Almost done with Stage 1 of my instrument training! Went flying with Mark this afternoon to practice the remaining items that we didn't have the opportunity to do last lesson. The weather was beautiful; the sun's rays were shining through the occasional cloud and a crisp 50 degrees kept us just warm enough. The winds were light from the west. We departed from runway 27 and began our journey to the northwest. Moments later, I hear Mark saying that he has the controls and asks me to put on my foggles. My view limiting glasses keep me from seeing outside. I watch and interpret the airplane instruments to safely fly the plane. Mark gives me a series of headings and altitudes to fly and I perform. He tunes the radio to the local tower frequency so that I can get accustomed to hearing the communications. We will not be in contact with them today however.

The first maneuver of the lesson is slow flight. "Slow the airplane down to 60 knots but use no more than 20 degrees of flaps. Maintain an altitude of 3000ft and remain on this heading," Mark states. I pull back the throttle and watch the power decline, carburetor heat on, raise the nose of the airplane to maintain altitude. Now at a safe enough speed, I lower 10 degrees of flaps. Keep waiting... airspeed drops... lower flaps to 20 degrees. Now slowly bring back some power to keep from descending. Alright, just keep steady. Mark then tells me to make a series of turns but keep 60 knots and 3000ft. Gentle turns are a must in slow flight.

"Good, now return to normal cruise." Once situated, he tells me to drop back down to 60 knots without using flaps. "We're going to practice a power-off stall. When you feel any sign of an impending stall, recover." I acknowledge Mark's request and pull the power all the way out to idle and raise the nose. I watch the speed; 60 knots, 50 knots, the stall warning horn starts whistling, nearing 40 knots, and there's the buffeting. Recover now. I lower the nose while maintaining coordination and add power. Once back to normal cruise, I'm asked to do a power-on stall. Drop back down to 60 knots, then add full power and raise the nose to a high angle of attack. Airspeed drops and no matter how much rudder I add, the plane loses directional control. As another sign of an impending stall, I recover.

That's enough stalls for today. We practice a couple timed turns using the magnetic compass, then advance to the next maneuver. I wasn't prepared for my next assignment. Mark tells me to completely close my eyes and fly the plane based on feel and sound alone. "Close my eyes?!" What on earth is Mark trying to teach me here? I close my eyes; it's pitch black. I 'feel' the plane. My heart is racing as I trust Mark to watch over me. After approximately 30 seconds of flying blind, Mark tells me to open my eyes. I immediately scan my instruments. Ahhhh I get it now, we were practicing unusual attitudes. I had just put myself into a slight turning descent. I recover, then Mark tells me to do it again. Eyes shut, I feel the motions of the plane. I feel level, but I hear the the engine changing tones, I think we're climbing. I don't think it's much so I slightly lower the nose then we hit a couple pockets of turbulence that freaked me out. I work through them before Mark asks me to open my eyes. He had covered up two of my instruments! I interpret the available instruments to see that I did it again; in a very slight turning descent. When you have no visual references to the horizon, you experience spatial disorientation which makes you feel like you're in a position that is false. Although I felt like I was flying straight and level, I clearly wasn't. This can come from many situations, such as flying in the clouds, or perhaps you were just leaning down to pick up that pencil you dropped, only to look back at your instruments and find that you put yourself into an unusual attitude. This was a great learning exercise.

We practice more flying with the partial panel (two instruments covered indicating a simulated vacuum system failure). Mark then assigns headings to take us back to the airport. I hear him announce over the radio that we're flying over the airfield and will be turning back to do a teardrop entry for runway 27. I'm still wearing foggles. He watches for traffic. I'm now allowed to take the foggles off, and I notice that we're on the 45 degree entry into the traffic pattern. Airplane is mine, time to land. I set up and guide us in. After touching down, we taxi back to the hanger, park, and head inside.

After debriefing, Mark tells me that I'm approved to take the flight portion of the Stage 1 Check. My written test is done, so once I complete the flight portion I can advance onto Stage 2 of 3!


Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 93.0