Flying Lessons

Lesson 8: Wheel Landings

August 19,2004. Wheel Landings

We go up to Paine field and use the large runway to practice wheel landings.

Lesson 9: Inversions and more Wheel Landings

August 20, 2004.

Over Lake Samamish George asks me what I would do if I found myself flying upside down. I forgot the acronym but the procedure is:

• Power back.
• Elevator forward
• Rudder and aileron to rotate airplane upright.

Elevator forward to keep the airplane from diving toward the ground. Use moderate aileron supported by rudder.

So then he demonstrates by bringing the airplane nose up and banking way over. I instinctually reach for the door to brace myself but that is not how airplanes work. Just because you are rolled 90 deg does not mean that I am going to slide into the door. I and the airplane are both falling toward earth together. Also, the plane is still moving forward and generating lift so it mainly pulls up, pressing me into the seat.

Then we go up to Paine field and practice more wheel and 3 point landings on the big runway. I think I find wheel landings a little easier. Perhaps in a wheel landing I keep flying the plane where as in a 3 point landing there is a point where I give up control. That's not a good thing and would explain why3 point landings seem a little harder for me to control. Or possibly it is because in a 3 point landing I have to fly the airplane at slower speeds before touching down.

Oh, and George gives me my tail wheel enforcement, but I don't feel like I'm ready yet.

Lesson 10: Small Runways, Cross Winds, and Gusts

August 25,2004

Clouds and rain have moved in to the Seattle area. I tell George that I had thought of doing smaller runways this day. Before I can continue with the thought that now maybe it is too windy George is running with the idea. We make landings at Apex, Leisure Land, and Bremmerton. Apex is mainly aligned with the wind but is a narrow paved strip so I have to be right on. Leisure Land is a grass strip with a variable gusty cross wind. And Bremmerton is a large strip mainly aligned with the wind. I make many mistakes, and am often rescued. My landings improve slowly. A wheel landing at Bremmerton is particularly good. I felt like I knew which way the plane was going to swerve and had the rudder correction right there. But mostly it was a discouraging day for me.

Lesson 11: J-3 Cub

August 31,2004

I've done 16 hours of lessons in the Maule. Insurance will probably require 25. I want to save the remainder to train a Maule I purchase. So we switch to the J-3 Cub. I did one lesson in this airplane 6 months ago when I had around 20 hours. It's parked on Boeing field and when George is comfortable with my skills I'll be able to rent it from him and build tail wheel time.

It is also certified for spins. And that is what we mainly do today. Spins are not quite what I expected. The name made me think of slow descending rotation with the plane mainly upright. If I though about the spin stall recovery that we have practiced I would know this is not what a spin is like, at least at the start. Usually the airplane is over to a 90 degree bank before I stop the spin entry.

George sets up the first spin. Left turn at slow speed, prop up the wing with aileron, inside rudder and wham we're heading straight for the lake. The inside wing stalls and drops, the nose drops, and the cub dives toward the ground. George recovers by neutralizing the rudder and stick and the cub stops rotating and pulls out of the dive.

George takes me through a couple then I try. I actually have a difficult time initiating the spin. George says this is because he has rigged this cub with more washout (wing twist), making it harder for his rental clients to inadvertently stall it. I do manage a sort of roll over. It is basically going from a poorly coordinated turn to a nose down dive. It is easy to pull out, given enough altitude.

Back at Boeing there is a 6 knot tail wind. We do 3 landings, nearly ground loop on the second, then George calls it a day, seeing no point in practicing landings in a tail wind.

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