Flight Lessons

The weather is clear for the first time, but with a strong wind from the north. I propose going to Bremmerton for more landing practice plus some low passes over the runway.

The ride over is bumpy. My first approach is rough and I let my speed drop too low on base. Climb out is also slow because I don't pull back enough to set a climb at 80. But on each subsequent descent I do better setting the trip and holding a (mostly) steady speed.

On the low passes over the runway I work on moving the plane from one side to the other using low wing technique. This is good practice, but there is enough turbulence that I don't feel it is entirely me moving the plane. I need to revisit this exercise on a calm day.

By the final circuit I'm have enough spare attention that I can make most of my radio calls. There are a few other planes in the pattern and I get experience sequencing myself in with them.

Deane is always encouraging me to anticipate what the controller will say. As we return to Boeing I anticipate runway 31 left or 31 right. I get a string of words I can't parse followed by "31 left". I think about it, can't figure out what was said, then ask the controller to say again. She's telling me to "enter left downwind for 31L". I consider this a significant milestone in my radio communication: I'm taking responsibility for making sure I understand what I was told and will ask for a repeat of what I did not get.

I repeat the instructions back for confirmation. Deane is also encouraging me to keep communications brief so I don't tie up the radio. His recommendation is to just repeat the runway and any instructions that were a deviation from standard practice. I agree with him, but on consideration I decide that for now it is better for me to read back most instructions. Just about nothing is standard practice for me now. Standard theory yes. I understand left pattern approach to 31L is standard. But this is only the second time I've flown it and perhaps the first time I've heard and responded to those instructions. Since I'm so inexperienced I think my longer read backs will help catch errors I may make and increase safety enough to be worth it.

Lesson 12: Night Landings

Thursday, 1/8/2004
Ride in back of 172 for another student's lesson then practice night landings at BFI
Cessna 172, 1.1 hours, 6 night landings

Deane's late, which is unusual, so I call him. He had us flying tomorrow. He invites me to ride with his 1500 student then fly after that. This is the guys 4th hour and he's making all the same mistakes that I was making at my 4th hour. In addition, riding in the back of the 172 I learn:

Passengers get to see a lot more than the pilot,
As a passenger I'm susceptible to motion sickness, especially during maneuvers,
I feel a lot safer when I'm in control, even if it is Deane who is ultimately insuring a safe flight.

By the time I'm flying it's dark and I'm doing night landing. Night landings are about the same as day landings - you have to make the plane do the same thing. The important thing is to not get distracted by the lights and to stay very aware of where you are.

This evening Deane is emphasizing setting an attitude on final (slightly nose up) and flying that to the runway. My first landing is decent and the rest get progressively better. Night does not seem to be a problem for me and landings are getting progressively easier.

That is, until the controller tells us to do a short base. Deane takes control do demonstrate how quickly you can get the airplane down. He turns base and does a left slip through the turn onto final. We are left of the runway so he rolls to a right slip. We descend to 100 ft and cross to the right of the runway before he rolls out of the slip and guides the plane back to the runway. I realize that I have a ways to go before I feel I have such positive control over the airplane that I'm ready to try something like that.

The 172 floats a lot more than a 150. Maybe that's because with the two of us it is only half loaded where the 150's are fully loaded. Maybe the 150 will float more when I'm solo and the 172 less when I have 4 people in it. Because of this float Deane emphasizes speed control so I don't end up coming in too fast. Later I realize that it is no so much about speed as it is about energy. Energy is represented by the planes height above the ground. Planes convert this to forward motion with an efficiency specific to each model. If you fly the pattern by the numbers for that airplane you covert the potential energy to forward motion at a rate such that you end up at the runway with the correct amount of energy remaining. That is, just the right height and speed to land. If you don't allow enough distance, or add too much energy from the engine you'll arrive too high, too fast, or both. If you recognize that you are going to be too high you can burn off energy by adding distance in S turns or by making the plane less efficient in a slip. If you recognize that you are going to be too low you can add energy from the engine.

At night, for some reason that Deane can't explain, landings must be done to a full stop for them to count. Initially I thought this was because the dark would make it more difficult for people doing touch and go to recognize when they didn't have enough runway to get back off the ground. But that does not make sense because we are now doing stop-and-go. We come to a full stop somewhere mid-runway then take off from there using somewhere around half the runway. Stopping does not make it any easier to judge how much runway is left AND guarantees that there will be less. But it's the rule, so we come to a full stop each time.

On one take off I see that there is a large jet just past the end of the runway. Many of our takeoff have been just at the end of the runway and I can't say for sure that we'll clear the jet. I ask Deane if he is sure about this and hear "No, I'm not." But he does not tell me what to do. So I decide. I say "I'm taking the power off" and pull the throttle back to idle and break to an easy stop. I don't know if Deane knew what to do and was just waiting to see what I decided OR if he really didn't know what to do and hadn't made a decision. Either way, in the absence of instruction I did not hesitate to make a decision and am satisfied with myself for choosing the conservative action.

Lesson 13: Touch and Go at Bremmerton

Friday, 1/9/2004
Take off boeing field (BFI), fly pattern at bremmerton practicing landings, return BFI
cessna 172, 1.1 hours, 5 landings

This is a repeat of lesson 2: we fly over to Bremmerton and do touch and goes in the pattern. All my landings are good. On final the plane seems to hang in the air, moving slowly toward the runway. I feel there is plenty of time to correct. I'm able to bring the plane down reasonably close to the start of the runway.

Deane has me do some slips to landing. Each time I feel I'm getting too close to the runway to hold the slip I roll out and discover that I really had plenty of time and distance left. Now that my brain isn't busy paying attention to everything time seems to expand and I can notice more.

I do have some trouble on the final landing back at Boeing Field. First, I get a little low in the pattern. Then I get a little slow on final. Finally, a light cross wind pushes me off center and I land a little hard and with some sideways motion. I got messed up by the cross wind because I was too slow, which didn't give me enough time to adjust. I got too slow because I a) didn't want to put the nose down because Deane told me to fly an attitude and b) didn't want to add power because that would take me further down the runway. I'll have to ask Deane about this, but I don't think there is anything wrong with pointing the nose down for speed, provided I'm far enough up to still flair and land on the main wheels. In fact I remember many landings where we were fairly nose down until just above the runway.

But this has got me thinking more about the intimate relationship between attitude, power, speed, and climb (or descent). Attitude and power are my inputs to the equation. It is a relationship that I don't understand intuitively. I know some parts, but not all of it. On straight and level flight I'll find my speed or climb rate creeping out of my targets with out realizing it. I was low in the pattern because I didn't add enough power or set the right attitude to maintain 800ft. And I don't immediately know which input to adjust to get what I want. I could have either increased attitude and let my speed drop OR increased power and kept my speed up.

On approach to landing speed becomes fixed (that is, there is a target speed to fly final at). I need to be able to adjust both attitude and power to get the plane to where I want it on the runway. If I fix attitude then there is only one power setting which will achieve the target speed and that will determine the descent, which may not take me to where I want to go.

So, I'm sure that Deane was saying something important in lesson 12 when he told me to fly a given attitude, but it could not have been to hold a fixed attitude for all of final.

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Page last modified: Aug 20 03:23 2008 by Tom Unger