April 22, 2011 - Good Friday
Dual
Winds weren't so much an issue as the distraction of the most formidable cloud this morning. It hung ominously over the horizon along the downwind of 08, lovely and distracting in its magnificent beauty, and cousins came to visit, wafting by gently and reducing visibility ever so slightly. The western-most part of the main cloud seemed to fall slowly from the sky, forcing a 1000 ft circuit, 250 ft below regular circuit alt, to maintain a safe and legal distance from cloud. Interestingly, but the third or fourth circuit, the cloud had suddenly disappeared altogether, and by the time I went up solo, skies and horizon were pretty clear again!
In the midst of all this fascinating distraction, my instructor attempted to teach me soft and short field take-offs and landings. Again, for soft field take off, we used 10 degree of flap, then taxied and embarked on the take off roll in one continous movement so as not to get stuck in the hypothetical mud or long grass. Nose was slightly up such that we could become airbourne as soon as possible, then release the control column ever so slightly to stay in ground effect, just above the runway, picking up speed rapidly, and then climbing out smoothly.
For the landing, power is needed in order to not get stuck again in the soft field, and so in the demo he advanced the throttle ever so slightly just before or in the flare, touching down slightly nose up again, and keeping the nosewheel off the ground a little.
Solo
My solo circuits this morning were average at best. I did okay on the radio and most of the actual circuits were fine, but the landings were complete garbage with the exception of the final full stop on 08, which was smooth and perfect for soft field. I think the problem was that I had not really had enough sleep the previous several nights, and it was catching up with me.
I could do the procedure, but I couldn't really focus effectively to fine tune things as needed. My landings were clunky, approaches were a bit sloppy... also need to remember to look outside and really align myself with the centre of the runway. I'm not sure I'm doing that effectively. AND I think I may be flaring too early. I should check out the altimeter sometime and see how how high I am...
Something I was still confused about while I was reading and prepping for this lesson was the whole concept of Vy (best rate of climb, 68 kts in a C150), and Vx (best angle, about 56 kts, I think...) The latter is used for clearing objects, but I couldn't get my head around how it all works... happily, a friend put together this great animated slide for me. Download and play it to see an animated mini-lesson on the hows and whys of Vx and Vy! If I were a good student, I would also describe short field as well as soft field. Alas, I am tired. So sleep wins out over reading/review/studying tonight. :-P |
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