Photo Ops

I took advantage of a day off work and booked two flights today with a nice break in between to allow myself to learn and rest.

Both flights were out to the practice area where I focused heavily on stalls, slow flight, and forced approaches. Having flown so much now in the past few weeks I was starting to really get the hang of the minute adjustments required for some exercises.

Slow flight saw the largest improvement in performance. I was able to enter and exit it quickly and with authority. Straight and level, turns, climbs, descents, and turning climbs/descents all mixed with different flap settings went great.

I focused on Forced approaches for the flight later that day and hit a different area of the practice region. While they were much improved over the last time I did them, I made a number of mental notes that need to be addressed. The largest is my judgement of distance. I have absolutely no problem getting trimmed out for glide speed, picking a suitable landing area, a key point, or even knowing which way to turn. My problem is that I absolutely crowd the field. The result is that I would need to make a steeper than desired turn back for the field which isn't something you want to be doing in this scenario. I end up way too high, regardless of how forward of a slip I can do (lol). All I keep thinking about is that I'm supposed to be able to show make the first 1/3 of the field.

There remains some work to be done here - but I think all it is going to take is some more practice!

The best part of these flights (aside from flying for "real" again) is that they are the first time I ventured to take a camera on board with me. During the transition to and from the area I took the time to take photos - but soon after was far too busy to even REMEMBER that I had a camera with me. When I got home I immediately ripped the photos off of the memory card and uploaded them. Not too shabby for a novice.

Note to self: taking a video without having the audio hooked up to the comms panel will give people a good indication of how lout it is in a single engine aircraft without any ear protection!