| Lesson 5:
Date & Time: Thursday 01/03/2008 Where: UZA Aircraft: Cessna 172 N818SP Instruction: 1.6/.5 hour (air/ground) Dual Instruction with Derek Alter Lefty: So, I decided to take a half day off of work while the weather was nice so that I could get some flight time in. I preflighted the aircraft myself (under Derek's watchful eye). It took a while for me to preflight it - the procedure is new to me, but Derek assures me as we go on, we'll need less ground time! Today's flight was an interesting experience. I did my first takeoff! After the initially zigzagged taxi to the active runway and the runup check, I rolled out onto the runway, and took off, a bit left of center, again. Thus earning the nickname, “Lefty” from Derek. We spent the time with me learning how to fly the plane in turns, straight and level, the use of the trim control, and a little slow flight to demonstrate how the controls lose effectiveness at low airspeeds. The turns went well - I kept them coordinated for the most part. Now for something that had me approaching with much trepidation. The STALL! More specifically the power-off stall. Derek told me to just keep the ball centered, and we would avoid the spin. I cut the power back and kept pulling up the nose. I was waiting for a gut-wrenching zero-G plummet towards the Earth as the airspeed indicator kept winding back to the start of the green arc. On came the stall warning horn! On the 172, it comes on before the stall actually happens and gets more insistent as we approach the critical angle of attacks (stalls are determined by angle of attack, not airspeed - a stall can happen at any airspeed). I was waiting and waiting - but we hadn't stalled yet, and Derek told me to keep pulling the yoke back. The needle was now at the bottom of the green arc, and then the aircraft stalled. It had taken quite a bit of work to get it to do this! The left wing dipped a little as we stalled. Recovery was to just release the back pressure to put the nose down, put on full power. The stall didn't feel too bad, and recovery wasn't difficult - but we did lose some altitude, and I wouldn't want to do that on a turn from base leg to final approach (guess where most stall/spin accidents happen?) We did a few more of those because I wasn’t very comfortable with them. I just wasn’t using enough right rudder to keep the nose from falling off to the left. Too soon we were heading back towards the traffic pattern for UZA Runway 2. Entering the pattern at a 45 degree angle and then turning downwind towards the water tower near my house. Then base, and final. Touch down, slow and take off again. This was a touch and go. We’d be doing lots of these, Derek explained. We re-entered the pattern and came around for another landing, this time I had control. I was good all the way down, but I flared too early Derek jumped in to help set her down. Conclusions: So, I need some more taxiing work and I want to practice landings and stalls. Still a little overwhelmed at times by the things you have to keep track of, but I could feel it coming together this lesson. What I learned: Straight and level flight and trim: the airplane can fly itself once you have the trim set for a given airspeed. Don’t be afraid to kick in that right rudder to maintain altitude during a stall recovery. |