Learning to Fly: January 2006 Archives
Come in for landing.. touch down.. uh.. go up..touch down again!
Today I had my third lesson; today's focus was entirely on landings. We left Sacramento Executive (SAC) and went to Franklin Field (F72) [map], an uncontrolled airport. This is a tiny airport out at the south end of the county, and is used primarilly for training and for ultralights.
This is my first day of landing, and it shows. For someone who's never done it, it can only be described as "total perspective fuck". Are you sure we're gonna make it to the runway like this? Yes. Uh, ok!
So, we practiced touch (and touch) and goes, patterns, landings. Keepin the runway lined up, even with the wind hitting us a fair clip, not so much a problem. What things look like visually on the approach? Okay, I can acquire that with some practice. It looks entirely wrong, but.. practice. The flare at the end? Definately.. a lot of practice.
During the flare, I had a couple of landings I didn't quite flare really. *bump*!. Wee ha! And, a couple of landings, I over compensated. Almost there, almost there, and hey.. look, we're climbing again.
I did call one approach off, and initiated a go around - I didn't like the way things looked. We seemed to be coming up short on our approach, and I didn't want to try and make up for it with speed. Go arounds, I'm gonna have to practice, until it becomes purely muscle memory. Cram the heat, throttle, climb, watch the nose... *then* ease the flaps. Don't slam the flaps, much less immediately after hitting the gas. My instructor passed his cardiac test on this flight..
I'm giving the poor guy a break. Until next Saturday..
There seem to be two common reactions when I tell people I'm learning to fly... "Are you crazy?" and "Is that safe?". I can assure you, that as to the former, there is probably little I can do to change people's opinion. But, on the topic of safety...
Flying is dangerous. So is my motorcycle. So is an average car. What you need to do, is learn to manage those risks. Many (but definately not all) of you have mastered this in a car, for example. All things are relative, and the only way you'll escape danger, is to hole yourself up and treat yourself like a mushroom.
Finally! Seven-three-niner-golf-yankee got off the ground. My first few scheduled days of flight lessons were cancelled due to weather. I'm not sure why, since this California, but we seem to be getting rain, wind, and fog out here.
First lesson is designed to cover the basics. Last week I did get a bit of the lesson early, so I've had instruction on preflighting. Today, I got to do it nearly solo. The checklist was missing from the binder, so I broke out the POS, er, POH. Turns out, the checklist in the POH is pretty different, and certainly suboptimal. I went ahead and checked out the plane, and when the intructor came back with the checklist, went over whatever was missing. Note to self: there are
Other basic instruction involves getting around and off the ground; and simple things like going up and down (intentionally), turning, and for bonus points, turning without intentionally loosing altitude.
Much of the point of today was look/feel during those operations, such that there is not a high dependence on the instruments and more looking out the window.
Our practice area was over the Sacramento Delta. We left south Sacramento, and travelled southwest, and stayed in the region bounded by I-5, 680, 80, and roughly Walnut Grove. The view from up there is definately something. After a fresh rain in the middle of the night last night, visibility was excellent - we could clearly see downtown Sacramento from 20 miles away.
The air was pretty smooth - mostly. When we got near the hills by 680, it was impressive at how far away they were yet how much we were impacted by the winds. I will definately want mountain training before going up into the hills flying. This probably means Auburn is out for my first solo cross country..
Tomorrow, it will be a reitteration of today, plus rudder control. The instructor had the rudder to day, to minimize how many things I had to manage and get aquainted with.
