I've been told by several licensed pilots that I'm going to have some rough lessons, where no matter what I do, I can't demonstrate a skill properly, and might even feel like I'm regressing. I think it's safe to say that after today's lesson, I have reached my first plateau.Tom and I met at the FBO lobby, and he asked me to pre-flight N737ME (shown to the left). I used the checklists to examine the airplane, look over the rivets (no loose screws this time), make sure the control surfaces move freely, check the fuel for water or sediment, check the tires for inflation, check the oil level, examine the propeller, pitot tube and static port, and climb up on top of the wings to visually check for the fuel level. All is well, and I've gotten into a pre-flight flow where I know what must be done and I am more comfortable with it. This doesn't mean that I'm going to ever gloss over details of the pre-flight. I learned during my pre-flight walkaround of N172NT yesterday that irregular indications can pop up even when the same aircraft has been flown only hours before!
On that note... Tom admitted to me today that the airspeed indicator and altimeter in N172NT are giving incorrect readings. The problem has more to do with the instruments themselves, as opposed to the pitot tube or static source. Tom told me that the mechanic knows about these problems, and the flight school is addressing them one at a time. Hey, it's an old plane! There are bound to be little idiosyncrasies. As long as the plane is safe, we'll be flying in it.
Taxied to the edge of the tower apron for run-up, and read each item from the checklist in my hand. All of a sudden, Tom stopped me.
"You missed something."
I looked back at the checklist, and sure enough, I had skipped over the Flight Controls section of the run-up, where I move the control wheel and rudder pedals to ensure that all of the control surfaces are working properly. Remember how I was saying that I'm getting familiar with the checklists? Well, sure, but I'm not so familiar with it that I can do it from memory! Part of the problem must be that as I am reading the checklist silently and performing the steps, my eyes might skip a step or two. I can't afford that, so I promise myself that I will read checklist items out loud from this point forward.
I hoped that this would be my last mistake of the lesson.
Tower gave us a taxi to runway 31L via F, F4. I contacted tower, announced that we're ready to go. He gave us takeoff clearance, with a left turn to heading 180.
I start to pull back on the control wheel at about 50 knots indicated airspeed, and the plane slowly lifts off. Within seconds, the nose is pitching up too high, and the airspeed is dropping below 60.
"Not so much! Push forward!" Tom warned... not panicking, but not calm, either. Okay... yes, we're supposed to practice some power-on stalls today. But it is NOT a good idea to practice them 300 feet over the ground! I pushed forward on the control wheel and achieved a pretty good climb rate of 75 knots. At this point, I was a little frustrated with myself. I've never made that mistake on takeoff roll before. I hoped that this would be my last, last mistake of the lesson.
Levelled off below 2,000, trimmed for cruise. A little bumpy today. The air is thicker and warmer than usual, which Tom points out can cause the aircraft to lose performance. Flew clear of MDW's airspace, then turned to the southwest to reach the country roads and practice ground reference maneuvers.
I've watched the ground school DVD repeatedly and I completely understand the concept of ground reference maneuvers. The purpose is to track a predictable path over the ground while holding altitude, either making a circle around a stationary point, tracking a rectangular course which follows four different roads, or making S-turns across a road. I performed two clearing turns and pointed the aircraft to the south, with the wind at my back. I pulled the throttle back to 2,300 RPMs, and trimmed the aircraft to hold altitude at maneuvering speed, 97 knots. The first task to make a turn around a point.
Tom asked me to pick a point on the ground. I chose an intersection of two country roads, and when I was abeam the intersection off my left wing, I began to bank.
After a few seconds, Tom said, "Steepen the bank. You're turning too wide."
I followed directions, and looked over my left wing at the intersection. It seemed to be the same distance from the aircraft. If I were in fact turning too wide, the intersection would slowly seem to get further away as I turned around it. No sooner did I steepen the bank then Tom said, "More shallow, now!"
Argh! So far, I'm a little bit behind the airplane. Changes are happening that I am not responding to fast enough. I looked over my left wing, and NOW the intersection seemed a little closer.
"Don't let the nose drop. You're descending."
Pulled back on the control wheel to compensate. Crossed the road after 1/4 turn with the nose of the airplane pointing slightly to the outside of the circle. At this point, I realized that when I originally steepened the bank, it was too much for too long. Now I was heading slightly away from the center of my circle, and my problems continued in the second 1/4 turn.
"Don't level out. Bank the wings more. You're climbing. Push forward on the control wheel."
I'm behind on everything! Halfway through the turn, I had lost almost 200 feet and I had overcompensated for my bogus heading in the first quarter turn, and now I was closing the circle too much. By the time I made it back around to the beginning of the circle, I levelled the wings, secretly glad that the horrible turn was over.
One small problem.
"Turns around a point are always two turns. When the first turn finishes, you just continue turning into the second one."
I knew that.
"I'm going to try again," I said, determined to make this right.
Trimmed for 1,800 feet @ 97 knots, chose another intersection, but Tom pointed out that the intersection I had chosen was too close to a bank of power lines. Granted, our altitude would allow us to fly well above the power lines, but in the event of an engine failure, we do NOT want to make an emergency landing anywhere near power lines! During my checkride, I will have to choose points for my ground reference maneuvers, which pretty much makes me the agent of my own success or destruction. I will need to choose a point that are distinctive, and far away from power lines, towers or other obstructions.
Continued for another 1/2 mile, and found a farm house with a red roof at a country road intersection, not a power line in sight. Lined myself up for the maneuver, and when I was abeam the point, I began my turn.
Tom had told me that my initial bank in my last turn was too shallow, so I made certain not to make the same mistake twice. Instead, I made entirely new ones.
"Your bank is too steep. Shallow out a little. The nose is dropping. Pull back on the control wheel. You've lost 100 feet..."
I was just all over the place. And once again, I levelled off after one turn when in fact I am supposed to perform two. I sighed with frustration when Tom reminded me for the second time in 10 minutes that I must make 2 full turns around the point.
"You were much better at this last lesson," Tom commented, tongue-in-cheek.
Good point. What was going on? I had been receiving compliment after compliment with each thing I had done during lessons, and now, it seemed that I couldn't do anything right. It was time to move on to S-Turns, and I vowed that my problems in turns around a point would be my last, last, last mistake of the lesson.
But, I never broke out of my funk. I had trouble holding altitude in the turns, banked too much, banked too little, rolled out late... it was a sloppy mess. I completed my second S-turn, and Tom pointed out the altimeter.
"You've lost 300 feet. What's with your altitude today?"
"I really don't know! I guess I'm tired," I shrugged.
"Don't get frustrated," Tom encouraged. "I've beat you up enough on this stuff. Let's do some slow flight."
Slow flight wasn't much better! I slowed the aircraft down and extended full flaps. At such slow speed with full flaps extended, the plane's nose must point up in order to hold altitude. 'Tried' being the operative word. It took me a while to balance the power I needed to hold altitude while maintaining only 40 knots. And P-Factor was consistently pulling the plane to the left.
"You need more right rudder," instructed Tom.
I pushed down my right foot, but the plane continued to pull to the left.
"I'm already pressing it as far as it will go!"
"No, you're not!" laughed Tom.
Tom pushed his right foot down along with me, and I was absolutely shocked by how far down that pedal could go. The wind resistance from the propeller makes it very difficult to deflect the rudder as far as is necessary to overcome the turning force generated by P-Factor and keep the plane going straight. I had to push my body down so far in the seat to reach the full range of the rudder pedal, I could barely see over the nose. It took all of my leg strength to keep the pedal down.
As it turns out, the solution to my rudder problem is simple. My seat was too far back! I'm used to driving my big pickup truck, with the driver's seat all the way back, where I can have all of the leg room in the world. I can't do that when I'm flying, because I need to do more than simply touch the pedals... I need to be able to push that right rudder pedal as far down as it will go when I'm in slow flight. From now on, I'll be pulling my seat forward further when I fly to ensure that I don't have this problem anymore.
There was a bright moment in the lesson... I am becoming more comfortable with power-on and power-off stalls. I'm not as good at recovering from the stalls as I need to be; I'm still losing too much altitude before recovering. But, I look forward to working on that in coming lessons.
Time to head back. Approached Midway from the south, called up Tower, was given a squawk code and instructions to fly straight in for runway 31L. Followed Tom's instructions to set up the approach. RPM's back to 1,600, flaps to 20. When glide was assured, I pulled the throttle to idle and the flaps to full. I tend to be left of the centerline, and today wasn't any different, so Tom instructed me several times to line up on the centerline properly. Tom let me fly the plane all the way to the ground, but kept his hand near his control wheel in case I made a mistake. I pulled back too early, floated a little high, burned off too much speed, and came down on runway 31L a little hard. This is a running theme for me. I'm learning more and more that the point at which I should pull back on the control wheel and level out on landing is about 5 feet lower than I am actually doing it. I guess I have this elaborate fear of the ground, but to level out too early is to my detriment, as well as the landing gear's! Tower gave us a backtaxi on 13R, a right turn on 22L, and a left turn on F to the tower apron.
A rough lesson. I feel like I did almost nothing right, and the real kicker is that I was better at ground reference maneuvers just two days ago. Am I regressing?
No, of course not. I just had a bad day. Tom told me that he can think of several occasions where one bad thing happened to him, then another, and another. Tom assured me that the key to get through it is to address problems one step at a time, and don't let them throw you, or you might make new mistakes while you fixate on the old ones.
I'm back in the saddle in two days... not that I'm counting or anything!
- Airman Eric
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