Started my PPL in May. On to lesson 13. Would there be any interest in people hearing an autobiographical account of training?
2 Likes
Hi there!
First of all, congrats on living your dream, and second: yes, I may read your adventures from time to time. I wish all the success and may you live your aviation life the way you want
Yes would be great to listen
As along time PPL holder, but currently unable to fly, reading your adventures would certainly bring back some fantastic memories.
Stalls:
So, yesterday we did power on and power off stalls. We did our ground briefing first which meant that he went over: âwhen we start a stall maneuver we start with ourâŠ? HASEL check: Height (are we at an adequate altitude to perform our maneuver and recover within 2,000 AGL?), Area (is this a reasonable geographic region to perform a maneuver? Like non-densely populated?), Security/safety (is everyone secure with belts, doors closed, are there any loose items in the plane that could hurt you?), Engine (7up check - mix, carb heat, primer, fuel, oil pressure, brakes, belts) and Lookout (90 degrees one way than 180 degrees the other making sure no one is there trying to kill you). Then, we went through the stall maneuvers (Iâm not going to go through all combinations because there is power on, power off, flaps down and flaps up options). But, for power-off with flaps up we start with our HASEL check, then throttle to idle, and maintain altitude by pitching up, up, up, up, up then right at around 16 degrees pull all the way back into a full elevator pitch and put the plane into a quick stall where the nose is no longer climbing (donât hang around between 16 and 17 degrees angle of attack because thatâs asking for a spin). Then, quickly recover by pitching the yoke down about 1.5â (horizon should be half sky and half ground) but avoid a secondary stall by trying to re-correct an over-correction. Once youâre at 55 kias, pitch for level attitude, full power, carb heat cold and pitch for climb. Done. For flaps on, repeat the above but set your power for best endurance (1,800 rpm) and dump the flaps. Pitch up, up, up, up to maintain altitude and once you hit stall, weâre going to recover by pitching down 2.5â this time so that your horizon is now 2/3 ground and 1/3 sky. Once youâre at 55 kias youâre going to pitch for climb and start to bring in flaps 1/3 at a time (never bring in your flaps while in recovery because you might overspeed the flaps). You also donât want to try bring in all the flaps at once because youâll balloon up pretty quickâ Sounds simple enough.
Grab the keys, documents, headset and preflight the C172. The usual checklist with walkaround and scraped myself trying to sample fuel from the engine compartment and catch it down below (who has arms that long?). Went through the remaining checklists and performed the run-up. Taxied out to the runway and we got out of there - âtakeoff power, oil pressure green, airspeed alive, 55 kts, rotateâ. I still have this issue with not correcting with enough rudder to counter asymmetric thrust so the plane was going ever so slightly left at first. Then, trimmed for a 70 kias climb and radioed that we cleared the control zone and announced our intentions to switch to the en route frequency. We did our HASEL checks and he demonstrated the maneuver. Then it was my turn. HASEL check, kill the power, pitch up, up, up (holy hard controlsâŠ) stall horn wailing, then pitch the elevator all the way back to induce a full stall and recover. Wow, too much recovery.., so much for 50:50 horizon 
. Try again⊠over-correcting again⊠I guess you donât need that much forward pressure. 1.5â is not a foot - who knew? Oh great, whatâs that sound? The stall horn again. Not a good idea to correct your over-correction. Grrr. Then tried flaps down stall. Guess what? Donât retract the flaps while in your 1/3 : 2/3 lest you overspeed the hell out of yourself. Tried that again, that went better. Already time to head back. Apparently there are two aircraft in the pattern ahead of us. Hmmm where? Why are these Pipers so small? Ohhh there it is. Thatâs easy now, Iâll just follow them more or less to the runway. Normally we land without flaps so thereâs one less thing to think about. But, weâre a little high this time so, dump the flaps, line up with the numbers in the horizon and down, down, fiddle with the ailerons and rudder to stay lined up and un-crabbed. Bang. Touchdown. A little heavy but it works. Taxied clear of the active, checklists completed and powdered down. Chocks applied,
2 Likes
Loving this, Marcusdoc! There are a lot of gaps in the learning/flying process that we donât see in simulation, and itâs really awesome to read these accounts.
Would love it if you keep it up! (And even recap some of your memories from earlier in the process!)
Thanks for taking the time to share these with us.
I will be an eager reader. Iâd esp love to hear uour take on what aspects of MSFS have the highest fidelity to real-world flying vs. those that donât.
So, last Friday, (I missed a couple weeks due to vacation and unexpected CFI cancellation) I got to the FBO and the wind was a-whalinâ like the kind of wind that the trees are bent 1/4 way (see pic). Iâm thinking âshoot I drove all this way and I bet weâre not going anywhereâ. I got there very early so I sat in the car and listened to Max Trescottâs Aviation News Talk hoping the wind would settle over next hour. I looked up the aviation graphical forecast and there was an incoming low pressure system and just north there were wind gusts up to 40 kts).
So, went in to the office. After some chit-chat my CFI was like âsooo weâve got two options: one, we could go out to the practice area and practice stalls and such or we could take advantage of the wind and practice crosswind landings - itâll raise your blood pressure⊠make you sweatâŠâ Iâm like âwellll okay letâs go for the blood pressure optionâ. I went out to preflight the plane. With the wind gusting so much, the second I removed the control lock, the control surfaces (rudder, elevator, ailerons) were whipping around like mad and I didnât want to break something. So I (I think wisely) left the lock pin in. Checked the brakes, tires, pitot tube, static ports, fuel vents, fuel level and fuel quality, flap rollers, aileron hinges, access panels, tail hook, rudder, oil, air intakes, propeller (non-exhaustive list). Iâm like âthis plane has no parking brake so Iâm leaving the chock onâ. I went back into the CBO to get the CFI. We hopped into the plane and belted in, went through the checklist andâŠâcovers, chocksâ. â â â â ! Thereâs the wheel chock right in my eyes on the left wheel! See, checklists work. Unbuckle, open the door, remove the chock, back into the airplane, buckled in. Back to the checklist. Got the ATIS (âŠwinds 180 - 26 gusting 31⊠you have information Golf. Runway 01 in use⊠altimeter xxx dropping rapidlyâ. My CFI pipes up âhmm, gusts 31. Well, let them know weâre ready for circuits using runway 25â (I calculated the angle versus wind direction and the wind velocity which resulted in a runway crosswind of like 30 kts. I think the demonstrated crosswind on the C172 is more like 15 kts incidentally). So we taxied out to the runway, back-tracked and took air. So the first time around the circuit, he took full controls and had me observe. Definitely windy! Itâs almost amazing that a plane this size isnât tossed around like absolute crazy in this wind but it did what he wanted it to do. We did a low-wing/sideslip approach where the plane is straight and not yawed most of the way in but the wing facing the wind is way down. We pretty much used up all the available right rudder to keep the plane from yawing. So imagine, basically full left ailerons and full right rudder to keep straight. We executed our missed approach and up we go again for a second pass. This time I work the rudder and he controls the ailerons on the approach. That went okay⊠Up we go again. This time I control the ailerons and he controls the rudder. That was tricky too. Up we go again. This time heâs like âwell you can try it all if you wantâ. I said âsureâ. So we made our downwind, base leg with an early turn to final since the wind would keep blowing us toward the runway and I actually managed to keep the plane pretty much straight, controlled, and down the centreline! What a cool feeling. Heâs like âlook at you (pat on the shoulder) good job!â. Then up again and heâs like âsooo how are you feeling? Tired?â. I said âhonestly, a little brain-friedâ. So last approach was going to be a full-stop landing. Again, he let keep the controls and perform and landing. I had it except on the touchdown I forgot to release the rudder pedals which made the plane want to deviate to the right . Thatâs the advantage of a good CFI he said âlet go of the pedalsâ and we were all good.
One thing I didnât know about but he mentioned while we taxied back in was that we have a flight school for ATP at that airport. They were taxiing on the runway about the same time we were and when they received the ATIS they turned back. How are these guys going to get used to adverse conditions if they only fly in 5 kt winds and 30 mile visibility? Itâs kind of scary to me that tomorrowâs commercial pilots arenât consistently flying in whatever conditions there are. Keep in mind this airport has cross-runways so they didnât have to fly the full 30 or-so crosswinds. Yet, still they went back. Weird. My CFI says to me âwell you can go home and tell your family you flew in winds even the âinsert major carrier hereâ wouldnât fly in lolâ.
So, after we did our usual shutdown (avionics off, mag check, full lean, full idle, (engine poops out), mags off, master off, control lock inserted) and got our stuff and headed back in. He bragged to the next student (who had wayyyy more time than me) that âon the second last approach he got it near-perfectâ⊠[blush]. I didnât think it was thaaat big a deal until I went back home and figured out that that crosswind was twice the demonstrated speed. So, that was pretty sweet lol. Below is a picture of how bent the trees were.
2 Likes