The Balloon

After a short business trip to that hot steamy chunk of concrete commonly known as Houston, I was ready for back to back flights. I5 was back in the saddle with me this time and I was excited.

The focus for today was to review the engine out procedures done during the last flight and to "just fly circuits" so we could identify any kinks that needed to be worked out. It was obvious during the first circuit what I needed to work on:

1) Nailing my speeds on the climb out, including the climbing turn.
2) Reducing drift caused by the winds resulting in a poor ground track.
3) Better power reduction and planning on approach to get rid of my steep angles
4) Keeping the aircraft on the center line during landing roll out and especially on the takeoff.

During our 8-10 touch and go's, the landings were all pretty good and I will admit that my confidence level is increasing. My speeds, ground track, and procedures were improving with each iteration and I'm starting to feel a lot less rushed. We did tackle better power reduction and planning for the approach, but I still don't seem able to get rid of my steep descent angle. I am able to manage it by slipping but I5 still wants a shallower approach angle.

I absolutely suck at keeping the aircraft on the center line. My roll outs aren't great and once I add power it looks even worse. I5 must have been saying his prayers a few times as I aimed us for the grass on the left side of the runway (if he was I couldn't tell). We continually spoke about what went well and what didn't during each circuit and came to the conclusion that I needed to take my time on the roll and concentrate.

Prior to this flight, I had an opportunity to chat with a friend who has been acting as sort of a "mentor" during my flight training. When I explained my drunken sailor rolls down the runway he brought up the fact that whatever control pressures you exert need to be constantly adjusted. In other words "what worked 10 seconds ago isn't necessarily going to work now". This was good advice, but for some reason I was still unable to make steady improvements during this flight.

I mentioned earlier that everything else improved with each circuit. I definitely feel more comfortable looking at what I need to on the panel without taking my attention away from what is happening outside the window. The downwind checks and approach checks are happening almost naturally now as are the flaps/pump up/off after we reach a safe altitude (usually 400' AGL). However, I did have two major brain farts during the flight. As we turned final with takeoff flaps, I moved toward the lever and called "flaps down to landing" and subsequently put the flaps up to clean. I5 caught it and immediately moved them back to landing. A few circuits later I made a similar mistake when on departure I called "Flaps Up" and flipped them from takeoff to landing. Again, I5 caught it and made the required adjustment. He wrote it off as a mental error that I should have caught myself. The silver lining is the fact that I always call my flaps out loud, though I'm not sure how that is going to help me when the right seat is empty!

During one of our downwinds he asked me if we had discussed the balloon yet. I told him that we had reviewed it during a circuit ground brief back in October, but nothing since then. I mentioned briefly that I had started a discussion about this with some "friends" recently - simply because I was curious. I know that I am lucky to have some great resources for aviation related questions, and I tried to take as much advantage of that as I could. I sent an email to three friends: a private pilot with his IFR rating, a CFI teaching at Embry Riddle, and a commercial pilot flying for one of the US majors. The responses I received were all similar and contained slight nuances that when all put together really helped me understand. One friend (the private pilot) went so far as to put the discussion a blog entry titled "Landing Tips: Floating and Ballooning".

During our base leg I5 told me we were going to do some balloon work. After I flared he would pull back on the stick and put us into a balloon. He said he would then recover for us, but then reconsidered and asked me if I wanted to attempt to recover. Armed with the knowledge from the discussions I had with my friends, I indicated I wanted to do it. Established in the flare, I5 pulled back on the stick and we went into the balloon. I added a small amount of power, put the nose down a bit on the horizon, went back into a flare, cut the power, and landed.

We continued doing this 4-5 times and each time the adjustment was a bit smoother, even going so far as not to cut the power which was causing us to have a less than stellar landing due to vertical speed.

After the lesson I5 told me that the next day we could either do an oral review of the entire set of emergency procedures (including electrical, fire, etc) or if we had some crosswinds we could fly. I told him that I had a lot to do this evening and with the NHL playoffs starting - there was a good chance I wouldn't properly review. We decided that we would probably go with flying in the circuit to work on the remaining issues I had and perhaps take advantage of crosswinds.

18.5 Hours and counting...