Flight lesson #3

[cjsmith]

When I got sick last week I had to cancel a flight lesson on very short notice. We rescheduled it for today, and I judged myself well enough to go. We did short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings.

"Fifty-two. Get the nose up! It's higher than you think! All right, now you've cleared the obstacle." Meanwhile the stall warning horn is screaming.
"Heavy braking. Now. No, REALLY heavy."
"I want you ON the centerline. Where's the centerline now?"
"Watch your airspeed. Put the nose down."
"Have you completed your after landing checklist?"
"I wouldn't have added the flaps that early."
"I'm worried about the flock of birds too. I'll watch the birds, you watch the runway centerline." That damn centerline had flown away to the right again.
"Now you see why you put the nose down BEFORE getting rid of the flaps."
"You'll need to add some power."
"You did a GUMPS check, didn't you?" Um, not yet.

By the end of the day I was tracking centerline better, and my radio work has been fine from day one for some odd reason, but yech, the rest of it... I'm really glad I didn't wait any longer to do this. It's bad enough now.

Comments

[hot-turkey.livejournal.com]

Yay! Practice makes perfect. Like riding a bicycle, it will all come back. :-)

I have to say, I really miss flying myself. spicy_turkey and I had our first date in a glider -- I took her on a flight over Mount Palomar. Congratulations for getting back into it.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I wish that, like riding a bicycle, it would all come back quickly! :-)

I bet that was a wonderful first date! Sounds like it'd be a beautiful flight.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Soon you'll be able to take me into a hurricane. ;-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes! The high-performance checkout, the multiengine license, the commercial license, winning the lottery and getting my hands on one of those planes -- no time at all! :)

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Aw, you don't think a Cessna 172 would work very well for that? ;-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Hey, feel free to send one of those into a hurricane. I'll be waaaay over here. ;-)

[redgrrl.livejournal.com]

Yay, you're flying again!!!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks! :) I distinctly remember this being easier in 1997.

[sunnydale47.livejournal.com]

I can't even imagine what I'd be like if I started flying again. I'd need to start practically from scratch! It's been ... oh, at least 15 or 16 years! I can't even remember what most of the acronyms and mnemonics stand for. (It all came back instantly when I looked GUMPS up, though. It would be a lot easier to start over, even now, than it was the first time.)

I'm so glad you're flying again. It gives me a little connection to the aviation world, tenuous though it may be, and it's great to read about your progress!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I feel like I'm starting from scratch with the physical command of the aircraft -- and it's only been four or five years! I retained a lot of the intellectual knowledge and the acronyms and such, though. And I do suspect that, as you say, even the rest of it is coming more quickly to me than it did the first time.

I'm glad you're enjoying reading about it! It's great to have people on my friends list who have been there. 52 knots is an awfully nose-high climb, isn't it? :-) (Short field takeoff with obstacle, 25 degrees of flaps.)