October 30 - Solo Practise Area: Slow Flight and Steep Turns
Beautiful morning for a flight -- minimal traffic, and none conflicting, sun-dappled water framed by cloud castles on the horizon. Perfect really.
I went to practise slow flight first. Not great. VFR flight training encourages the development of visual understanding of attitude. I, on the other hand, was glued to the altimeter, chasing it around obsessively, trying to stay within 50 ft. Argh! So I slowed down, and I didn't fall out of the sky, but the stall warning horn was NOT blaring the whole time, I frequently forgot to check my heading, and I certainly lost more than 50 ft of altitude most times. Definately a review of that chapter in the FTM, and perhaps even a review of Ex. 5 - Attitudes and Movements, is in order.
Steep turns were better than last time... I began with two turns to the left; both were good, with minimum loss of altitude, and a nice, coordinated turn. Then I tried a turn to the right, which was complete crap. Major loss of altitude, and rate of turn oscillating wildly between maybe 20 and about 60 degrees, lol! The second one to the right was somewhat better... though I am still confused about the exact attitude, I mean, WTF is the difference between like 30, and say 50 degrees??!! One good thing, I guess, is that I was not terrified the whole time, as I once was when performing steep turns. Amazing.
Slight crosswind from the north west allowed for a little practice of crosswind landings on my way home. My landing was actually very smooth, and -- I think -- pretty aligned with the runway. It wasn't until after I had landed and taxied off the runway that I realised I HADN'T DONE ANY DOWNWIND CHECKS!!!
Good grief!
I went to practise slow flight first. Not great. VFR flight training encourages the development of visual understanding of attitude. I, on the other hand, was glued to the altimeter, chasing it around obsessively, trying to stay within 50 ft. Argh! So I slowed down, and I didn't fall out of the sky, but the stall warning horn was NOT blaring the whole time, I frequently forgot to check my heading, and I certainly lost more than 50 ft of altitude most times. Definately a review of that chapter in the FTM, and perhaps even a review of Ex. 5 - Attitudes and Movements, is in order.
Steep turns were better than last time... I began with two turns to the left; both were good, with minimum loss of altitude, and a nice, coordinated turn. Then I tried a turn to the right, which was complete crap. Major loss of altitude, and rate of turn oscillating wildly between maybe 20 and about 60 degrees, lol! The second one to the right was somewhat better... though I am still confused about the exact attitude, I mean, WTF is the difference between like 30, and say 50 degrees??!! One good thing, I guess, is that I was not terrified the whole time, as I once was when performing steep turns. Amazing.
Slight crosswind from the north west allowed for a little practice of crosswind landings on my way home. My landing was actually very smooth, and -- I think -- pretty aligned with the runway. It wasn't until after I had landed and taxied off the runway that I realised I HADN'T DONE ANY DOWNWIND CHECKS!!!
Good grief!
