Flight Journal: flight 16

[beaky]

Flight 16
06-19-95

1979 C-172N
TEB-CDW-TEB

Sky clear; vis 7mi w/haze; wind 260/13

1.0 dual
4 landings

"Normal t.o and landings"

I'm finally going to fly a proper lesson again, after nearly two months ... as it turns out, that brief flight in Orlando will not have done much good.

I'm not very comfortable today, and I get off to a bad start when I forget to enrichen the mixture before takeoff. This sets the stage for more errors: takeoff is a bit squirrely, and I just don't feel comfortable with the airplane.

Not the best day to get back in the saddle: the air is hot and soupy, and once aloft, I see that there's no real horizon visible, thanks to the opaque wall of haze surrounding us.

The good news is that we are headed to Caldwell for touch-and-gos. Struggling to keep it straight and level, i follow M's directions to get there. A storm front will soon enter the area, and its impending arrival is heralded by occasional trumpet-blasts of wind- one of which simply rolls 23F past 30 degrees in an instant, even though I'm holding neutral aileron. I recover easily, almost thankful for the upset- it's helping me break out of my funk.

But I'm still having trouble sorting out tasks: scan the horizon, scan the panel, where is the wind now? What did M. just say? Watch your altitude... whoops, there's the wind again...

Once in the pattern at CDW, I'm not really ahead of the plane. I shoot four landings. On the first I am high on final (what else is new?), but I flare okay.. then land hard. Flared too high...
As I throttle up to take off from the landing roll, M. says "That was a good one..."
I'll be damned if I agree- that approach scared me...

One of the first strange and wonderful things I learn about touch-and-gos is that one must remember to think about the trim setting before rotating again... it may not be set quite right for takeoff, especially if one has made a high approach just before touching and going. This can make that next takeoff a bit of a chore as you haul mightily to get the reluctant bird to fly ("But I"m trimmed nose-down!")...

Around the patch we go... this time, I assure myself that the approach will be better. I am mistaken. I flare too high, and once again the tower controllers are witness to dramatic proff that Cessna's spring-steel gear legs are perfectly suited for student landings. fortunately, this touchdown is not rough enough to injure our spines, which were not designed by Cessna...

For the next attempt, M. takes over and I follow along, feeling what he's doing. It's illuminating watching how he easily establishes a proper approach. Plenty of flaps early on, power way back- a steeper, more nose-down descent... but very slow.

I go around for one more, and overshoot my turn to final... ugh! I hate when I do that...but I manage to salvage the final leg without doing anything stupid, and land reasonably well. A short roll, then I power up and we're off again, headed now to Teterboro.
My approach and landing there are much better than the last four sets, but I still feel a bit dazed.
I feel certain, though, that if I mentally review the rudiments over the next week, I will be able to make a better showing... then get the nod to solo.

Next: flight 17

[Brett_Henderson]

It's never something that can be learned from watching and feeling how the instructor does it. He'll get you in the ballpark, but thuds, bounces and porpoises are all annoyingly close to each other and you just gotta get your own feel for it.

I had this weird problem about someone else on the controls. We just resolved that if he tried to help, even a little, it might as well be "his plane". Once I felt his control inputs, it was like I disconnected completely.

Is this where you learned that two-month breaks between lessons wasn't a good idea ?  

More great stuff  

[beaky]

Is this where you learned that two-month breaks between lessons wasn't a good idea ?  

Oh, I already figured as much...
Didn't have much choice at the time... I so could not afford to be taking flying lessons at that time!!  I was sporadically employed, and always seemed to be behind on everything. Not sure now how I managed it. The other thing-of course- that would later ground me for months at a time was weather... sometimes I got shut out twice in a row by weather.

That was the usual story during that period: money and wx. Later, during my long hiatus, it was mostly money. I was earning more, but working more often and paying more for everything... funny how that works...

I suppose  I could've skipped that vacation, but I needed a break. At least I got in the air while I was down there (could afford it due to cheap airline ticket and a free place to stay)... and had I stayed home, the wx would've probably forced me to cancel a lesson, anyway!