[color=#000000] Soon we are taxiing again for Stage 2, which, since we've already used up the free half-hour, is on my dime- or rather 1,000 dimes. The itinerary: useful exercises for the kind of flying I normally do, including recovery from really unusual attitudes.
Climbing out again, I feel like I'm grabbing this airplane in just the right place. Sweet.
"You fly well," J. tells me. I'm sure if I asked for a more thorough critique, he'd have plenty to say, but this part is an add-on, and I'm satisfied with that comment.
The first trick he shows me is something I must have been showed before but have forgotten about: Dutch rolls. To begin to understand this one, you simply pick a point and wiggle the stick from side to side without touching the rudder. The plane responds with more yaw, overall, than bank, and more aileron simply increases the arc of each wag of the nose. This is adverse yaw, in a handful-sized amount, ready to be played with intentionally, instead of waiting until it happens while you're trying to turn properly.
It's an exercise for your feet, which are next added to the mix to limit the movement of the nose. Very simple, but the trick is using stick and rudder together, just so... or it doesn't work.
On my first try, I use too much aileron at first, forgetting the Zlin's brisk roll rate. Jeff shows me again, and my second attempt goes much better.
Next trick is the accelerated stall... this I remember, but I do recall not getting much practice at it, because, I guess, it can be a little hairy if not done properly. But Jeff flies aerobatics often, and is not intimidated by teaching this maneuver.
The idea with this one is to bank as one normally would, but gently coax the plane into the kind of mischief that will kill you quickly if you let it happen by accident in the pattern. At 30 degrees of bank, then 45, then 60, he gently tugs the stick back until the plane buffets (which is quite pronounced in this type), then flicks the stick forward just enough to resume flying, still in the steep turn.
"Stall... recover. Stall...recover," he says as he does it.
It seems easy, and when I try it myself, it is easy. The breakthrough for me is thinking of it as a continuous turn with stalls, rather than a stall you enter with a turn. another thing I realize is that it's impoirtant to practice this in the kind of airplane you normally fly. A 172 doesn't buffet like that... if anything, it's harder to pinpoint that moment when the airflow begins to break up.
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