08/05/2009 - "I'll have the $100 hamburger."

Another lesson where everything turned out right.

First, here we are parked outside the Chicago Business Air Center, the FBO in Lansing (shown at left). We stopped off here to refuel after I practiced all of the maneuvers that I will need to exhibit during the checkride: Turns around a point, S-turns, steep turns, power-off stalls, and power-on stalls.

I started with turns around a point. The wind is light and variable, so I was able to pick the cardinal heading from which to start my turn. I decided to start out facing south. Tom asked me to pick out a point around which to make my two full turns. I chose an intersection between a country highway and a country road. Maneuvering speed, 1000 feet AGL, and I've verified that there aren't any tall powerlines in the area. Time to begin.

Well, I'll admit that I didn't really have a rough time holding the correct bank angle because the wind was hardly a factor. During a windy day, I would require more drastic bank angle changes, but today, I held a steady 10 or 20 degrees of bank, holding my altitude at 1,800, looking out the left window to maintain my ground track. With each quarter turn, I glanced forward, continuing my mental projection of the circle. By the end of the first turn, my ground track had made a perfect circle around the intersection, and I knew that my second turn would be just as good. Lo and behold, my second circle was just as good as the first, and I rolled out of the turn at almost exactly the spot where I started.

"Very nice," Tom says. He's congratulating me more often these days.

Moving on to S-Turns. I found a long north/south road, far away from power lines. As I drew closer to the road, I picked out a farmhouse about 1/2 mile away along the road, and once the farmhouse was directly off my left wing, I banked the wings to the left 30 degrees, and then steadily began to take the bank back out, ensuring equal distance from the farmhouse at all times. As I continued to circumvent the farmhouse and began to come back to the road, I looked to the right to choose my second landmark. Within a few seconds, I chose a large white house. Passing over the road, I banked the wings to the right, and continued to make my S-turn around the white house, keeping perfect distance. And at the conclusion of the turn, as I passed over the road with the white house directly off my right wing, I levelled out, and smiled.

"Very nice, once again," Tom said. "I think your ground reference maneuvers are good. We really don't need to practice those until we're doing final practice for your checkride."

Awesome.

Climbed to 2,800 feet to practice stalls. Reached altitude, trimmed the aircraft for level flight. When I felt ready, I prepared for the power-on stall. Throttle back to 1,600 RPMs, holding level flight as the plane slows to 65 knots. Throttle to full, pulling back to climb at 75 knots. Pulling back, more and more, the stall horn sounds. Just as the stall manifests and I feel the buffet, I push the control wheel in for less then a second, then neutralize it completely. I hold slow flight attitude as my speed picks up, and my right hand quickly double-checks that the throttle is full, carb heat is off, and flaps are up. It's textbook.

"Very good," Tom smiles. "Recover here, and perform a power-off stall."

Throttle back to 1,600 RPMs, pulling back on the control wheel to maintain altitude. Slowing to 65 knots while steadily adding flaps. As flaps are fully extended, I begin pulling back on the control wheel, more and more, until the stall horn sounds. Continuing to pull back until the stall manifests, and as the nose starts to dip down, I push the control wheel forward and neutralize it to maintain slow flight attitude. Then I bring my right hand up to push the throttle to full, push the carb heat to off, and lift the flaps to 20 degrees. Once I verify positive rate on the vertical speed indicator, I retract the flaps back to 10 degrees, maintain altitude, and retract the flaps when I reach 75 knots.

"Very good, again!" Tom says. "Let's finish up your maneuvers with steep turns."

Maintaining 2,900 feet and maneuvering speed of 97 knots. Just before entering the turn to 45 degrees of bank, I add 100 RPMs and pull back slightly on the control wheel to keep from losing altitude. I can feel the extra G-Force pushing me down in my seat; it's only 1.4 G's, which means that the plane and everything in it feels like it weighs 40% more. It's not alot; a 60 degree bank would be 2.0 G's, and I would feel like I weigh twice as much! Still, it's an interesting feeling, like being in a roller coaster that suddenly changes direction. I'm losing a little bit of altitude, so I pull back on the control wheel to compensate. As I complete my first turn, I've lost more than 100 feet. Tom points this out, then instructs me to complete another steep turn in the opposite direction.

Banking the wings to the right, 45 degrees. Pulling back on the control wheel to prevent any change in altitude. Remarkably, I am actually better at holding my altitude in the right-hand steep turn than I am to the left!

"Most students are better at the left-hand steep turn. I've never seen a student who was better at the right-hand steep turn."

Well, it is my intention to become proficient on both right- and left-hand turns, but I'm not there yet. Something else to work on.

"Let's go to Lansing and do some takeoffs and landings," Tom said. "I'll slap the hood on you on the way."

I was a little sloppier holding headings and altitudes today while wearing the hood. I've done quite a bit of reading about mistakes pilots make when they lose visual reference with the ground, and I have an explanation for my difficulty.

When a human being flies an airplane, he is primarily dependent on his sense of sight to determine whether he is climbing, descending, turning, etc. When a pilot is deprived of his sense of sight, either by flying through a cloud, or fog, or at night, he must rely on instruments. Without instruments, a pilot would have to rely on his sense of motion, which is primarily governed by the inner ear canal.

Human senses, especially our senses of touch and motion, have evolved to perceive the world on the ground, and relying on one's sense of motion can be very dangerous in an airplane. If a pilot enters a banked turn, for example, the inner ear will sense the change in orientation and tell the brain that the plane is turning to the left. However, if the pilot keeps that turn constant for 10-20 seconds and is unable to see the ground, the fluids in the inner ear will settle, causing the pilot to believe that the plane is level when in fact it is still turning. You can imagine that if a pilot continues to bank the wings too far, he can cause a terrible accident.

The reason why I am having difficulty, after I had been so successful yesterday, is because there is more of a wind factor today. Since my first lesson, changes in wind direction can make the plane turn off course or generate bumps. But I have always relied on my sense of vision to right the plane and put it back on course. When I have the hood on, I don't have that luxury. I find that even though I am looking solely at the instruments, my body is feeling the motion of the airplane bopping around, and I am trying to respond to my sense of motion. I need to learn to completely ignore my sense of motion and trust the instruments implicitly.

It's not easy!

Tom has asked me to follow a heading of 010 at an altitude of 2,100, and I've been trying to hold it for a long time. I'm not horrible, but I am definitely not holding the altitude +/- 100 feet as I am required to, so I will obviously need more practice.

"Okay," Tom says, "Take off the hood."

I remove the hood, and plain as day, there's Lansing Regional Airport. Time to land.

"Let's land, then you'll do three takeoffs and landings in the pattern by yourself."

Actually...

"Tom, to be honest with you, I'm feeling a little bit tired. I wouldn't mind a 10 minute break."

"Well," Tom says, "We can park, top off the plane, and get out to stretch our legs. Sure."

"Well, Tom, do you have a lesson after this? Do you want to go up to Shannon's Landing and get a bite to eat?" I ask, earnestly.

Tom thinks about it for a moment. "Yeah, I can do that. I'll just give Bill a call to make sure no one else is using the plane."

"Awesome," I say. "I'll have the $100 hamburger."

"What!?" Tom smiles.

"You haven't heard of that? Getting in the airplane to fly out to an airport with a restaurant on the field. The burger doesn't cost $100, but getting out to the airport sure does!"

"HA!" Tom likes it. "That's funny."

A perfect landing at Lansing, a quick phone call to Bill, and he green-lights our little lunch break. As the plane fuels up, Tom and I take a walk over to Shannon's Landing and have lunch (shown here, to the right).

Except, I didn't order the $100 hamburger. I had the $100 Caesar chicken salad, instead.

Finished lunch, did three more solo takeoffs and landings before picking up Tom and heading back to Midway.

It's all good.

- Airman Eric

06/22/2009 - "Much better!"

Today's lesson was all about getting back in the saddle after my sloppy performance last time. I've thought about my last lesson quite a bit, and I've come to some conclusions about it.

Conclusion #1: I am still combatting my bad Flight Simulator habit of fixating on the instruments. When you're flying on the computer, the scenery just isn't that reliable for helping you determine the plane's attitude. The scenery all looks the same, and simulating VFR on the computer, especially ground reference maneuvers, is almost pointless. Picking an intersection on the ground to fly around is almost impossible because the scenery all looks the same. Instead of picking a red farmhouse to fly around, when you're on the computer, you constantly have to ask yourself, "Now... which red farmhouse was I flying around!?"

When you're flying on the computer, the scenery doesn't provide a lot of information, so you wind up relying on the instruments a lot. In real life, however, using visual references while flying, by looking over the nose of the airplane, over the windowsill, or out to the wing, is so much more effective than trying to gauge your attitude by looking at the instruments. In a previous blog entry, I had said that the flight instruments show altitude changes 2-3 seconds after that change is already happening. In fact, I have learned through my ground school study that those instruments are showing where the airplane was 6-9 seconds ago! No wonder I'm having trouble holding altitude in ground reference maneuvers; I'm chasing the needles! During this lesson, I'm going to concentrate so much harder on the visual picture the airplane is giving me, and use the instruments only as backup information.

Conclusion #2: The warm, humid air last lesson was definitely affecting my ability to hold altitude. Instead of whining about it, what I must do as a pilot is compensate for it! What if the air during my checkride is bumpy? I can't reschedule for another day! A pilot must work with what Mother Nature gives him, within reason. When I fly on hot, humid days, I'm going to have to be aware of that fact and be prepared for the plane to handle differently. The wind may change direction unexpectedly, causing heading and altitude fluctuations, and the controls will require more input to get the same result. As I conducted pre-flight check today, I could tell that the air was much smoother and much more arid, so I don't expect to have the same problems today. However, I know that it's summertime, and I will have to face the same humid conditions again before too long.

Conclusion #3: I forgot to eat before my last lesson! I thought back, and I realized that I had eaten only a few chicken strips the night before, and only had a cup of coffee in the morning. As I was flying, I began to feel tired, and a little out of touch with the plane. Well, no wonder! I hadn't eaten a respectable meal in more than 12 hours, and my blood sugar was probably quite low. Before today's lesson, I was certain to have a big bowl of cereal for breakfast, and even munched a quick Snickers bar in the FBO before going out to the plane. I already feel better compared to yesterday. In the future, I will be certain to eat some food before flying, and I will instruct my passengers to do the same!

Flying 737ME today. Pre-flight, taxi, and takeoff uneventful. The air definitely was much smoother today, and my climbout from Midway was exactly 75 knots.

"You've got your airspeed pegged," commented Tom.

That's a good start!

When we were clear of Midway's airspace to the south, we turned to the southeast to practice ground reference maneuvers. Tom pointed out a very interesting rock quarry as we neared Lansing, and I snapped a couple photos (shown above and to the right). I still cannot get over the beauty of viewing the world from the air. Sure, I've seen plenty of aerial views out of the window when I have flown on commercial aircraft. But everything goes by so fast, and once you climb above 10,000 feet, all of the detail is lost. Oh, and of course, you can only see the world through a little peephole compared to the full range view you enjoy as a pilot! I love it when the sky is clear except for a few puffy clouds, because those clouds generate shadows on the landscape on such a huge scale that only pilots can appreciate them. I still haven't flown during sunrise or sunset, and I still haven't viewed the city skyline from the water. I am required to do some night flights as part of my training for my license, and I hope that I can start as the sun is going down so that I can enjoy the sunset from the air. These are the things to come.

Compared to my last lesson, things are already looking up. I am finally getting the hang of the attitude necessary to maintain level flight. The difference in nose attitude between level flight, climb and descent is very, very subtle! I still sometimes start to descend without realizing it, and Tom says I am making too many trim adjustments. I need to set the trim to a nominal position, and then use the control wheel to fly the plane!

Time for ground reference maneuvers. 2,300 RPMs, 97 knots. We'll start with turns around a point.

My failures to hold altitude fresh in my mind, I looked to the ground and chose a T-intersection next to a school building. I know that it was a school building because I could see yellow school buses parked in the back! I thought about the wind at my back, and I remembered that I would need to bank up to 30 degrees initially to overcome the plane's inertia, then slowly shallow out the bank as the plane turned into the wind. At the end of the first quarter turn, I was holding altitude very well and seemed to be tracking a circular course over the ground. Shallowing out the bank more. Pulling back on the control wheel to keep from sinking. Halfway through the first turn; still holding altitude, still keeping a good ground track. Steepening the bank steadily as the plane continues the circle and begins to turn away from the wind. Finishing the first turn, continuing into the second.

"Much better!" congratulated Tom. "You've got your altitude and airspeed pegged."

Keeping an eye on the school building. Maintaining altitude +/- 50 feet, and the ground track looks good. Completed the second turn and leveled out.

"That was very good! Let's move on to S-Turns."

I'm on a roll and I have no fear. S-Turns are just like turns around a point in terms of execution, except I'm going to make an "S" over the ground rather than a circle. Took a few minutes to trim the airplane and find a road that was long enough and far away from power lines. Finally, I found a suitable road and began the turn.

In the first half of the "S", I began with a steep 30-degree bank to the left, than steadily shallowed all the way to 10 degrees as I crossed the road again. Immediately as I crossed the road, I banked to the right until I had 10 degrees of bank the other way, and steadily increased the bank until I reached 30 degrees as I crossed the road a second time.

"Wow! You've really improved since last time," Tom encouraged. Yahtzee!

Moved on to slow flight, remembering how hard I had to push down on that right rudder pedal in order to hold my heading. Carb heat on, throttle to 1,600, extended flaps step by step until 40 degrees, throttle back up to 2,100 to hold altitude at 40-50 knots. Stall horn is whining. Sinking a little; pulling back on the control wheel to hold altitude. Still sinking; adding a little throttle to keep my speed up. Tom asked me to turn to the west, and I did so, only 10 degrees of bank. The plane seems to turn unpredictably; I can't depend on the bank to turn the plane as consistently as it does at higher airspeeds. I need to work on using rudder pressure to turn the plane in slow flight. I've certainly improved my technique since last lesson, but my slow flight maneuvers are still not satisfactory. Much more work to be done.

Worked on power-on and power-off stalls. Still very sloppy in the recovery. The purpose of practicing stall recoveries is to establish an automatic response that will kick in if I should ever stall the plane accidentally. In the power-on stall, I need to allow the stall to develop, but recover before the plane reaches level flight attitude, and double check that the carb heat is off, throttle at full, flaps retracted by physically touching the controls. In a power-off stall, I must recover before the plane reaches level flight, push the throttle to full and flaps to 20 degrees to establish slow flight attitude, and slowly retract flaps once I have a positive rate until I can resume normal climbing speed. As I worked these stalls today, I repeatedly allowed the nose to dive too far down. I need to find a balance between quickly recovering from the critical angle of attack and avoiding unnecessary altitude loss. I've got room to grow on this one.

We were pretty close to Lansing Regional, and it was time to get in a few landings. It's going to take some time for me to become comfortable with the traffic pattern. I'm getting used to the power settings required for landing, and I never seem to be able to keep the runway centerline. We did three landings on runway 27 at Lansing today, and they were pretty rough. All three times, I landed to the left of the centerline, and landed flat on all three wheels rather than sticking most of the landing on the main gear. It is very important to touch down with the main gear first, because it is much more stable and much stronger than the nose gear. I'm going to be making many, many more landings before I can feel comfortable with the procedures involved.

It's time to head back. Nothing remarkable about the entry into Midway's airspace, although Tom commented that I am holding my altitude of 1,900 much better today. Tower told us to make straight in for runway 31L, and just before we set up on final, the tower controller told us to make a left 270 degree turn to ensure that we wouldn't be landing parallel to a big Southwest 737. I made the turn, and came out a little high on the approach. Tom took the airplane to the ground so that he could make sure that we bled off enough altitude for the landing, and Tower asked us to turn left on 4R/22L to K, and Ground gave us our taxi to the apron.

Today's lesson was all about vidication. I had a bad day last lesson, and today I corrected those mistakes. As Tom told me, flying a plane is a unique activity. I'm going to have a bad day or two, but the important thing is to get back in the cockpit as soon as possible and try it again. Tom was pleased with my ground reference maneuvers, and says that we are going to give it a rest for a little while. Next lesson, we will concentrate on slow flight, stalls, and make a whole bunch of takeoffs and landings.

Can't wait.

- Airman Eric

06/20/2009 - "What's with your altitude today?"

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

06/18/2009 - "Maneuvering speed is 2,200 knots!?"

I've been driving on Chicago roads for 17 years, and summertime around here is always marked by ridiculous amounts of road construction. It seems that every time you turn a corner, another orange construction sign gives you an irritating command. And the delays! Long lines of cars wait to merge into a single lane that isn't going any faster... and don't you hate the drivers that make the problem worse by cruising down the emergency lane and thicken the bottleneck even more?

Here's a fun photo of four aircraft lining up for Runway 22L as we turned base for runway 22R today. Pilots don't have an emergency lane that they can use to jockey for a better position. They line up on the taxiway and wait their turn! If only the drivers on the highways would do the same thing... but I digress...

Guess what? Summertime is marked by airport construction, too! Taxiway K is still closed between Y and F, and Taxiway F is closed from Runway 4R all the way back to Taxiway W. As I conducted preflight walkaround of good ol' Cessna 172NT, I looked down F and saw half a dozen trucks with yellow flashing lights zipping around working on the taxiway, kicking up a good amount of dust. Just like the repair trucks on I-94!

A couple irregularities on preflight today. I found a loose screw on the right side of the vertical stabilizer (a.k.a. the plane's tail, shown here to the right). Luckily, the fuel sample cup has a screwdriver attachment, and with a couple turns, the screw was tightened. This is, of course, exactly the reason we do preflight checks. The fuselage undergoes stresses in flight and when landing, and the vibrations alone can be enough to loosen a screw or two. I noticed a second irregularity during the preflight; when I powered on the avionics, and set the altimeter according to the METAR's specifications, the altimeter was reading 560 ft. at ground level. The elevation of Midway Airport is 620 feet, so the altimeter is 60 feet off, which isn't a reason to abort flight, especially because we're a small Cessna flying under VFR, but it isn't a good thing, either! Also noticed just before taxi that the suction gauge was reading outside of the green arc; a little bit high. I asked Tom about these irregularities, and his response, "The readings are a little weird. But it'll be fine."

Taxied to the edge of the tower apron, and pulled the throttle out to 1,700 RPMs for run-up checks. I glanced down taxiway F and watched those construction trucks buzzing around. Midway is departing from the 13's today, probably because of the construction. Taxiway F is the only way for us to get to Runway 13R. Tom and I wondered how we were going to get up there... As always, Tower had the solution for us.

"Cessna 172NT, turn right on 4R, turn left to backtaxi on 13R, contact Tower when in position."

Ha! We're using runways as taxiways! At Midway! Weird day.

Taxied into position, contacted Midway Tower. Cleared for takeoff, heading 180. Applied increasing right rudder to counter P-Factor and keep the plane on the centerline. Glanced down at the airspeed indicator, and it showed 40 knots. Just then, the nosegear of the airplane began to shudder.

"Pull back on the control wheel," Tom commanded.

The plane lifted off, and I began a turn to 180. What happened?

"The nose gear was on the ground too long. When you're applying right rudder, you're also turning the nose gear. The shuddering was caused by the friction of the tire turning to the right while the plane rolls straight ahead."

I was waiting for the airspeed indicator to increase to 50-55 knots before rotating, and the shuddering happened at just above 40 knots. Just as I was thinking it, Tom commented, "I think that the airspeed indicator is a little screwy. I'm going to have them look at it."

Chances are that we were rolling at 55 knots even though the airspeed indicator said 40. This can be caused by a blockage in the pitot tube, such as debris or ice. It's 80 degrees today, so I doubt that ice is the culprit, but a tiny bit of dirt in the pitot tube can have significant repercussions. I did look at the pitot tube during pre-flight, and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but these strange airspeed indications are a good reason to have the pitot tube checked out.

As I levelled off to cruise altitude, I remembered that the altimeter reading was also a little bit off. These symptoms might be pointing to a blockage in the static port; that's the tiny hole on the side of the fuselage that measures static air pressure, which is used by the instruments to determine airspeed, altitude, and vertical speed. A blockage in the static port can cause all of these instruments to show irregular readings or fail altogether. In a small Cessna such as ours, a failure of these instruments is not as serious as it would be in an aircraft flying under IFR in bad weather, because even in the event of a complete failure of these instruments we will still be flying primarily using visual references. Still, I'll be asking Tom if the problem has been remedied before flying 172NT again.

During today's lesson we will be performing turns around a point and S-turns. Before doing these maneuvers, a pilot must perform "clearing turns", which means that he/she performs a 180-degree turn or 2 90-degree turns to scan the skies for traffic before concentrating on the turns. I am not yet in the habit of doing clearing turns before maneuvers. Tom keeps prompting me by asking, "We're going to do a turn around a point. What do you need to do first?", and I instantly want to answer anything except the answer he's looking for: clearing turns! Safety is paramount when you're a pilot, and performing clearing turns before executing ground reference maneuvers is a very important safety precaution.

All of these maneuvers are conducted at maneuvering speed, which is the highest speed at which full deflection of the controls about any one axis are guaranteed not to overstress the airframe. In this aircraft, maneuvering speed is 97 knots, which is maintained at 2,200-2,300 RPMs. Once we reached maneuvering speed at an altitude of 1,800 feet, Tom asked me to pick an intersection of two country roads down below. The goal is to fly a complete counterclockwise circle around this intersection, tracking a perfect circle over the ground. The wind exerts horizontal force on aircraft, so the pilot must apply varying degrees of bank and stabilizing rudder in order to keep the circle round. For each 90 degree section of the turn, I chose a feature on the ground that was equidistant from the intersection, such as a farm house or a conspicuous line of trees. This process made a lot of sense to me. As long as I kept the sight picture of my reference points and made sure that the plane's arc was wide enough to reach the reference point when the wings were parallel with the road.

Tom quickly quizzed me on how to achieve maneuvering speed in the aircraft.

"Now, what is maneuvering speed in this aircraft?" Tom asked.

"2,200 knots," I responded.

"Wha!?" Tom smiled. "Maneuvering speed is 2,200 knots!?"

OOPS!

"I mean 97 knots, which I can achieve at about 2,200 RPMs!" I corrected myself.

Well, maybe you had to be there, but this was funny! 2,200 knots is 2,200 nautical miles per hour... almost twice as fast as an F-22 fighter jet's maximum speed with thrusters at full! I'll be sure not to say that during my oral exam... such a response is sure to get an eyebrow raise out of my examiner!

Moving on to S-turns. S-turns are similar to turns around a point, but instead of making a circle around a single point, the pilot makes a half circle around the point, then makes a half-circle in the opposite direction around another point further down the same road, to make an "S" over the ground. I was having trouble closing the first half-circle with the wings parallel to the road; in other words, my first circle was too shallow, and my second circle needed to be wider to compensate. On the bright side, I was reasonably good at holding altitude during the maneuvers, although my altitude fluctuations are still outside of tolerances that I will be expected to meet during the checkride. I look forward to continuing to practice S-turns in my next lesson.

With about 30 minutes of lesson time left, we practiced some slow flight and power-off stalls. This is still by far the scariest part of my lessons. Just like practicing stalls, we practice slow flight to get used to how the airplane handles when it is at the very limits of lift. We begin by climbing to 2,800 feet, which is a safe altitude that will permit us to recover from any accidental stall that occurs during slow flight. Our goal is to hold altitude and make shallow turns while the plane is flying just above stall speed. In order to do this, the throttle must be pulled back to 1,600 to slow the plane down (accompanied by activating carburator heat to avoid carburator icing), and I must hold altitude with backward control wheel pressure, setting flaps to 10, 20, 30, and finally 40 degrees. As the stall horn activates, I push the throttle in to around 2,000 RPMs, and the plane will be able to hold altitude at an airspeed of only 40 knots! It's going to take me awhile to feel comfortable when the plane is in slow flight; everything feels wrong! I am deliberately placing the airplane in a configuration which could cause a stall quite easily if I fail to maintain the correct attitude. And the P-factor is so strong in slow flight that I have to depress the rudder very hard just to keep the airplane flying straight, and even then, I'm yawing all over the place. I understand the concept of slow flight, but I'm still very sloppy. I will definitely need more practice in slow flight before I am comfortable with it.

Oh, and on a side note... the stall horn is supposed to sound continuously during slow flight, and this is the moment when another problem with 172NT made itself known. The stall horn would not sound at all. Tom isn't really sure why the stall horn isn't working. There isn't anything electronic in the stall horn... it is simply a reed in the leading part of the wing that makes a whining sound when the wing comes close to exceeding the critical angle of attack that will cause a stall. The best explanation that Tom can come up with is that the reed might simply be so wet that it cannot make a sound. What can we do except be more mindful of our airspeed?

Transitioned from slow flight to power-off stalls. Just like two lessons ago, I would struggle to keep the plane in slow flight, and then pull back all the way on the control wheel until the wing exceeded the critical angle of attack and the wings stalled. The goal is to push forward on the control wheel just enough to reduce the angle of attack and resume normal flight while losing a minimum amount of altitude in the stall recovery. But again, deliberately stalling the plane is very harrowing! During one of these stalls, I felt my heart go straight up into my throat! You know that moment in a roller coaster just when you reach the top of one hill and start to go down another? Same thing here, except in the back of my mind I'm thinking, "There's nothing holding me up!"

Well, I continuously tell myself that the Cessna wants to fly. It wants to recover from the stall. And I can see this in practice because the stall recovery requires very little forward pressure, and the plane begins flying again within a second. Still, stall recovery is another thing I'll have to get used to!

Another lesson is coming to an end, and it's time to head home. Standard approach from the south... and while we were gone, Midway switched to landing 22L and 22R. Tower first instructed us to enter the pattern for runway 22L, but near the end of our downwind, Tower told us to switch to 22R so that he could depart the first of several aircraft waiting to go off from 22L. I had arranged with Tom for him to take the full approach into Midway today, so that I could get this shot of the runway right before we touched down. And of course, Instructor Tom brought her in for a smooth landing, we exited left at F, and I took over the airplane to taxi to the apron. Had plenty of space to park the aircraft this time, and taxied her to the center of the parking space on the first try.

Another 2.2 hours in the logbook, totalling 7.9 hours. Continuing to study the Sporty's DVD to review ground reference maneuvers and prepare for cross country flight planning.

Lovin' it.

- Airman Eric