More stuff to straighten out...

7-31-04 Missed four weeks due to wedding preparations and my back pain. One practical practice with B. He pointed out six things to work on:

1. Thermalling too slow. I forgot to raise my speed due to the extra weight of the instructor. Plus, I was shooting for about 40 kts based on an article I had read about using minimum sink during thermalling, but that was based on a glass ship. I thought I was in a turbulent thermal, but actually I was near stalling - I was feeling the buffet and not recognizing it. I need to go back and calculate the speeds for varying bank angles, both solo and dual.

2. Not using full opposite rudder during turning stall recovery.

3. Not combining maneuvers, i.e. use the end of a 360 turn as one of my clearing turns.

4. Not turning steep enough.

5. B thinks it would be wise to do no more than two stalls after each set of clearing turns. Not sure if there's a reg on this or not.

6. Landed about 15' short of the box. Need to choose a landing point closer to the box, and use spoilers more actively to place the ship where I want it to touch down.

Shear line lift

7-3-2004 One solo flight, first part was the practical practice. After that I went looking for lift and found a mix of thermal and (for my first time) shear line. I stayed up for 1:07, went from about 3000' MSL to 5100'. Good landing, a bit short.