Lesson 58: Pre-solo brush up

The last time I flew with Mac it was explicit that he’s going to give me a solo check ride and clear me (if all goes well), and I left him my log book to review and sign.  But that was almost two weeks ago, before Ellen and I went to San Francisco for a one-week vacation.  He told me that once I got back I should go up with John at least once to sort of air the cobwebs out and get back into the groove.  So that’s what I did Thursday.

John and I flew up the coast and then went inland a bit to do some steep turns and climbing turns.  Mac and I did these way back when, and now I need to start focusing in them (and a few other things) for my FAA practical exam that will happen at some point in the not-too-distant future.

There were a couple of cool things about the lesson.

First, as we were taking off and at about 300 feet, John asked me what I would do if the engine failed right then.  Keep in mind that at 300 feet, there would be no time to try all that engine-starting stuff I discussed during the last post.  At 300 feet you had better be ready to just land somewhere.

And I was on it.

I had a street already picked out directly ahead of us that was right in line with our direction of flight.  I pointed to it and said, “There.”  And he was OK with that.

Then, we got to 3,500 feet — our planned cruising altitude — and I leveled out and had us flying a direct course right up the coast.  And I remarked to John how different it was from about a year ago, when leveling out was like a roller coaster ride, and maintaining a course was almost impossible.  But now I can do both with no problems and no auto-pilot, just pure flying.  It was nice.

And I was very happy with the turns, too.  When you do a 360 degree steep turn (which is what we were doing), you lose the vertical component of lift and the plane wants to descend.  So you have to pull back hard on the yoke, and sometimes even add thrust.  All the while keeping the ball centered with appropriate rudder control.  I’ve had problems coordinating it all in the past, but I pretty much had it down this time.

So after a bit of that we went to Oceanside to do some landings.  Mac was right…there were cob webs.  My first landing I actually had to do a go-around.  I had turned in too soon, and consequently was a bit too high when I crossed the runway threshold.  I probably could have landed it, but there would have been some fierce braking action to stop the plane before reaching the other end of the runway.  So I just pushed in the throttle…climbed back up…and went around.

The next four landings were all good.  What was really cool was that Mac was out instructing another student in another plane, and as luck would have it they were at Oceanside, too, practicing landings.  I didn’t realize that the other plane had Mac in it, and when I did my fourth and last landing there, they was at the end of the runway waiting to take off.  So I did a really good landing, which Mac got to see from an outsider’s vantage point.  (And he commented on it when we got back.)

So that was that.  And now, with luck, I will be successfully evaluated for solo flying the next time I fly.  Fingers crossed…