Cremona

The first thing I thought about when I met I3 was how much better she would fit in the cockpit with me. The weight and balance book at the club had her listed at 120 lbs (they have weights for all of the instructors so you can complete your weight and balance) but I'd say she couldn't weigh more than 105 soaking wet. We talked about some of the exercises we'd be doing today and I updated her on a few things that I felt I needed improvement on - as if they weren't all listed in my PTR already.

It was after I mentioned the practice area that she told me there was a change in plans.

Rather than flying out to the practice area today - we flew out to Cremona. This is a small town 22nm north of CYBW with a thriving population of 463 as of 2006. Apparently the ride is much smoother heading out there and over the area, so my assumption is that CFI wrote something down in the book about me feeling ill last flight. I suppose this is a good thing. We talked about the various numbers from the POH that we'd need to know - glide speed (73), Vx and Vy for both cruise (60/75) and t/o flaps (57/68), and standard rotation speed for takeoffs (55). She then spoke briefly about the relationship at cruise between power and speed. For some reason I also remember this one --> +100RPM = +5 KIAS. Rough math - but a good guide in any event.

We headed out to CFIFA which was waiting patiently for us with 5 1/4 qt of Oil and 15 gallons of fuel. The pre flight had gone very smooth for me earlier and I think I might be ready for a walk around from memory next flight. She made it very apparent that during this flight I'd be taking care of almost everything. I remembered to hang the ignition keys on the attitude indicator setting knob before climbing in this time ;). The checklists were completed, engine fired up, radios set, and we headed for the taxiway. This time I didn't feel like a complete freak calling ground for taxi. I also did an OK job of keeping the aircraft on the centerline and managed to set us up for the runup next to a high wing without any troubles.

As we were coming to the hold short line for runway 25 we finished our takeoff briefing. Rotate at 55, climb out at 68, retract flaps at 300' AGL and accelerate to 75 for the climb. I kept the pressure up on the right rudder during the takeoff roll this time and as a result didn't stray so far left of the line only to over correct to the right. At 55 I pulled back gently and we took to the skies. The acceleration to 68 was simple - she called 300 feet and I pulled the flaps up and put the nose down until we hit 75 knots. Calls to tower were simple enough to do and I was surprised that I had no troubles switching over to outer tower without messing everything up.

Soon we were established at 6000 and cruising away - following Highway 22 to the North. This is when she told me to pull out my map. I had to identify a number of things on the map for her - some of which I could and others which I could not. Highways, intersections, communication towers, rivers, lakes, valleys, even small "towns", and curves in the road. I spent a lot of time with that map on my lap and to my amazement - I kept the altitude spot on following the highway. It's amazing what constant power and some trim can do! Then she started asking me to tell her how far we were from present position to Cremona, or from an intersection ahead to our position, or from there to Cremona - etc. I found it REALLY hard to count the distance lines on the map. She kept pressing me to do it and to be honest I really sucked at it. Mental note - work on map reading. We did a few timing points to calculate our ground speed - even though the GNS430 told us exactly what it was. 105 kias and 127 over the ground. Nice little wind.

Once we arrived at Cremona we did a number of exercises - turns at altitude, climbs, climbing turns at specific speeds, descents, and descending turns at speeds. I am happy to report that my altitude deviation was FAR better than the previous flight.

Then she added more to the exercise - now before any idle descents I had to turn on the electric fuel pump and richen the mixture. After levelling off I had to turn the pump off and lean the mixture. I must admit that my throttle control was far better than the day before - but the mixture really required lots of my attention.

To make things even more fun - we started doing descents with target speed and vertical rates. So now it was "Descend to 6500 at 75 knots and 500 feet per minute". I found it strange that I was able to control this so well - who knows? After doing many of these we ended with a descent from 8000 to 6500 at 70 knots, 500 feet per minute, and a right turn until we are parallel with the highway (a 210 degree turn). I think the process went very well from my perspective. I was pleased with myself.

On the way back we had a quarter headwind that really knocked us around. It was very cool flying a 15 degree offset from the highway and yet staying parallel with it. After checking in with outer tower properly we got shipped to inner. My radio work was growing in confidence - I checked in with "Tower, Diamond FIF checking in over Cochrane 6000 with Charlie, full stop". I thought I sounded sooooo cool. Perhaps tower thought I did too because their response was about 15 minutes long (or so it seemed). I did understand all that they said to me and as I prepared to key my mike I hesitated for a few seconds. I realized then that I could never read all that back so just did a "FIF". I3 asked me "did you actually copy that?". I was able to explain to her what I understood them to say and apparently I got it right.

We entered a right downwind on a 45 with no traffic anywhere around us. I3 called my speeds, altitudes, and base, and asked me to turn final on my own. It wasn't absolutely perfect but it did the job with a few minor corrections. We completed the landing checklist and she told me "You're landing the plane.". I just did my best to put out the flaps and fly the speeds she told me to fly and kept the RPMs where they needed to be. She got louder as we got closer "less power", "Nose down, nose down, nose down, nose down" (I guess I wanted to pull it up for some reason). In the flare I pulled the power all the way back, made a few adjustments for rudder and settled it down a bit left of center. Sounds great but it was a bit harder than the other times of landed in a GA aircraft. I kept us somewhat straight on the rollout, left the runway, completed the checklists, and taxied back to the club (with ATC permission of course).

I was definitely satisfied with the flight. I felt very comfortable at the controls the entire time - I had a better expectation of what ATC was going to say. I had less trouble thinking what I wanted to tell ATC. I knew where all of my gauges and switches were on the panel and what they all meant. Traffic awareness was no better but no worse. I was especially happy that I wasn't climbing during my turns, that I was much smoother on the throttles, that I trimmed instinctively, that I held my altitude during an idle descent without letting that nose down, and that I did OK at descending with a target forward and lateral speed.

(EDIT: When I say "I held my altitude during idle descent" I realize it doesn't make much sense. What we were working on was descents at a specific forward speed. My instructions were to pull back the throttle to idle and maintain my present altitude until my speed had bled off to the target speed and only then should I start the descent. This of course is tough since cutting the power causes the aircraft to instantly want a nose down attitude. The amount of pressure required to keep the aircraft level increases relative to the decrease in speed. We were operating well above stall speeds, but during my discovery flight we did idle stalls and I can remember how hard it was to keep the nose up while approaching the stall speed. Anyhow - wanted to make sure that line made more sense now! - Flightnewbie)

I need to improve on the map reading. I need to get more familiar with all of the "VFR Routes" in the area. I need to get through the checklists a little faster (I am REALLY SLOW). Hopefully the next flight will see me with even better taxi, takeoff, and landing performance.

When I asked for what to prepare for the next lesson I was told to read up on takeoffs (again), landings (again), Aircraft Endurance, memorize the numbers from the POH, and to do some practice scenarios with the VNC so that I could read the map better. My personal notes here tell me that I need a smaller clipboard for writing notes - and a shirt with a pocket in it to stash a pencil.

I3 was very calm and gave excellent cues during the flight. Apparently she was taught to fly and got her instructor rating from I2 - go figure. I would definitely fly with her again and in fact started looking to change some bookings with other instructors to her.

Oh ya - I didn't feel sick!