Practice for the Practical

6-7-04 Ground school with A.

Then two 4000' in N5 to practice the test sequence. A smooth, stable day. No one else on the field, so D helped push.

Both flights nearly identical except the left-quartering headwind picked up from about 10kts to about 15kts. Great takeoffs. Boxed the wake fine. Some problems keeping speed up. Turns pretty good, paid attention to coordinating aileron and elevator during turn entry. (I had spent some time thinking about the proper curve for the stick during turn entry.)

Stalls pretty good. First time doing stalls with spoilers. Both flights: forgot to put in spoilers on first such stall, had to try again. So I ended up with 5 stalls per flight. No problem completing all tasks with plenty of height. Focused on landing checklist and crosswind correction. First approach, only announced 45 entry, then got busy. Second time, announced all points.

Both landings, glide slope a little erratic due I think to gusts and wind shear. Both landings bounced and ballooned but then stopped very short in box. (Later reading The Proficient Pilot, it seems that taildragger landings with the tail high can produce this. So maybe I was nosing down too much and forcing the main wheel to the ground instead of floating and letting speed decay, then pulling the stick back.)

Very windy putting away. I helped someone named Geri (sp?) put away her Libelle.