Lesson 11:

Date: Saturday 1/26/2008
Where: UZA
Aircraft: Cessna 172 N517DL
Instruction: 1.4/.4 hours (air/ground)
Dual Instruction with Bill Grannis

Cross training is a good thing:
So Derek is off the Vegas with his Dad and brother.  I am going to fly with an old-timer, Bill Grannis.  When I get to the airport Bill isn’t there and neither is my plane.  I find out that Bill has the plane in Lancaster getting the tire fixed.  Bill shows up about 30 minutes later and we get going.  Once I’ve completed the pre-flight, Bill joins me in the cockpit.  He begins by watching me go through my checklist.  He stops me a few times and asks a few questions.  Bill, you see, is very by the book.  Which is great.  He tells me what the checkride will be like and what I’m missing.  I am missing it, because I’ve not gone over this stuff with Derek.  Bill shows me some things and we begin taxiing to takeoff.  We are waiting for an airplane to land after I do the runup and Bill says, “OK, let’s go over Emergency Procedures”.  What?!  Derek never did this.  So I flip my checklist to the bright pink pages and go over engine loss on takeoff prior to liftoff and after lift off and after liftoff with no runway remaining.  He asks me the distance of the runway and how much we’ll be using to takeoff.  Wow!!  I’ve never done this stuff before.  Bill tells me that these are things that the FAA will want to hear during the checkride.  OK.  We’ve gone over everything and begin the takeoff roll.  Once in the air Bill begins to quiz me on airspace.  I pass that little quiz and we proceed to the practice area.  Bill has been instructed by Derek to go over slow flight and steep turns.  So we begin.  I slow the plane down and give some nose up attitude.  We’re doing well.  We’re flying slow.  Bill has me make some heading changes while I try to maintain altitude.  I am doing OK.  I am still not putting in enough right rudder.  “Anyone can fly a plane”, he says, “It takes skill to fly it slow.”  We continue in slow flight for a bit longer.  Bill gives me some great tips on trimming the plane for slow flight and I feel confident.  Now we move on to stalls at my request.  I told him my issue with the nose dipping left on both power-on and off stalls.  He asks for a demo and give him a power-off stall.  Sure enough the nose begins to dip left.  I did an OK job catching it and he shows how to correct my mistakes.  Awesome!  We move on to power-on stalls and he corrects my issues here as well.  Now I’m excited to fly again with Derek to show him how I’ve improved. 

We transition to steep turns.  Bill gives me a demonstration both left and right and then passes the controls to me.  I complete my steep turns within commercial standards thanks to his tips.  Bill may be an old-timer, but old-timers come with vast amounts of knowledge.  I think to myself, cross training is a good thing.  Why haven’t I flown with Bill earlier?

We head back to UZA as Bill continued to quiz me on V speeds and airspace.  Once in the pattern we go wide and come back for the 45 to land on runway 20.  The landing was OK, but I could see that Bill was helping a bit.

Conclusion:
Bill is very knowledgeable and will be a great asset when I’m ready for my checkride and knowledge test.
I still like flying with Derek
My steep turns are looking good and I may have fixed my stall issues.

What I learned:
Use the right rudder to fix my stall issues.
Steep turns are still fun, especially when done right.
Can we do some more landings, please.