Wings on High.

1.9 Hours, on a nice day.

Took a lesson this morning, even though I’ve wretched my back out so bad I’m walking with a cane (it’s quite a sight).  Aside from not being able to bend over during the preflight, or climb up and refuel after getting back down, I’m grateful I wasn’t in so much pain I couldn’t fly.  I could scoot close enough to the pedals I wouldn’t twist or turn in a way to aggravate it.  Even driving my car (a stick shift) hurt more than flying.

So it was a nice clear day out of the field.  When we first started, there wasn’t a lot of wind, and it was early enough the thermals weren’t very noticeable, but we sure started to feel it as the day went on.  Out of this field, there are trees and high power lines just a couple hundred feet down either end of the runway, which is new for me.  It’s a different sensation knowing that you have to rotate or set up your approach at the right point, because otherwise you’re flying through wood, which the plane wouldn’t appreciate.

We started the morning doing steep turns and getting adjusted to the feelings of the plane.  I’ve been flying very gently, keeping stability and comfort in flight ahead in the priorities.  I know we started to pull a few G’s because my head went wonky a number of times during the turns.  45 degree bank, pulling fairly hard back on the stick, and I go very light headed.  Fortunately, I remembered what Air Force pilots do, and why you hear them grunt (they’re tensing up their legs and abdomen to force the blood to stay up in your head, rather than filling in your gut and legs).  So I started doing that, and it worked.  Going to have to work out some more though to keep that up.  But it certainly helped me appreciate the plane, and push the envelope a bit. 

Then we started into touch and go’s out of Crest and Auburn.  Each time around, my CFI was pushing me to be aware of my profile.  He kept nudging me every time I drifted off the runway heading, or when I wasn’t maintaining speed (too fast or too slow).  Today was the first day we went through trimming for speed, which is an interesting concept to get as soon as you understand that the trim is part of a triangle.  I’m going to try and explain this, but I may be off because I’m still getting a grip on it myself (write a comment with your take, I’m curious what other perspectives on this detail). 

The triangle is composed of engine power, pitch, and speed.  To trim for speed, set a power level, work with the nose until the pitch holding the speed stable, and trim the nose until it holds itself.  To trim for pitch, hold the nose where you want to maintain it, and adjust power until it holds where you want it, then trim it out to hold itself, and pull the pressure off the yoke.

So it’s kind of like algebra, and the Pythagorean theorem – a^2 + b^2 = c^2 .  If pitch and power stay the same, speed will be constant.  If power and speed stay the same, pitch will be constant.

Anyway.  Further into the lesson, we started to hit some crosswinds on the landings.  So I learned (the hard way), I have to understand better how it’s OK to crab coming in for a landing.  One thing you quickly learn about driving, is that all things being equal, the car will go the direction you point it, unless you’re turning.  But landing in a crosswind, you point your plane a little more over into the wind to counter, and even though you may be 5-10deg off the runway heading until 100′ or so above the runway, you’re flying in the runway’s direction.  Put another way, pointing straight at a runway in a crosswind won’t work. 

Also did some work on landing flares.  This is something I’m still getting used to as well.  I’m still operating on the principle that the plane will go where I point it.  I.e. if I put the nose down below the horizon during a landing, I’m going to hit the ground where my nose is pointed.  This is wrong, and I need to learn so!  I need to get used to bleeding off altitude and using pitch (both positive AND negative) to hold speed on approach.  So then comes the landing flare. The nose is pointed down, aimed at the runway, and with between 100 and 150′ to go as we come over the runway, I pull back on the stick to even it out, set idle power (if haven’t already) and we float along because of ground effect.  We coast like this for 100′ or 200′, then pull back on the stick again to (essentially) put the plane into a stall.  The angle stays the same, and we glide in to land.  This took a few times around to get, but by the end, I was able to grease it!  Definitely a moment of pride.

I’m working on prep for the written, which I’m hoping to have done by the end of the month.  But at the very least, I know I’m making progress (well, my CFI says so anyway).  A little more progress, but I’m glad I’m pushing forward!

On a side note, I’m now a member of AngelFlight West.  Now I just need to find pilots who need a mission assistant out of Seattle!