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.

Practice

6-26-2004 Two flights. One solo practical test sequence practice, one with P. He says I'm flying doing fine, need to make boxing and stalls crisper. He had me test the G-meter with a pullup and he tested it with a steep turn.

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.

Turbulence

5/22 - Ground school with T, 2.5 hours on aero and ground tow procedures, stalls, spins.

One flight. Variable head/crosswind about 10-15 kts, but I had a real good takeoff. I intended to go to 4000' AGL and try the test sequence, but I pulled off at about 2800 AGL because I kept getting lots of slack - lots of turbulence! I did put up the landing gear - first time. I found a bit of lift and stayed up about 25 minutes. Really got bounced around a lot, tough to have good speed control when thermaling.

On approach, wind was strong right down the runway. Instead of shortening my downwind, I extended it. Fortunately I was high. I used too much spoiler then had to close them up and try to extend my float. I had to avoid a glider in the right front spot. Touched down about 50' short but very smooth and very straight. When I stopped, I had a nice headwind so I "ground flew" for a good 15-20 seconds before letting the wings down.

J suggests I not worry so much about hitting the front of box 1 - I just need to touch down IN box 1 and stop IN box 2. He's right, since my rollouts had been quite long in the beginning before I got good with the break, I've been tending to try to keep all the box length available. I should aim closer.

J suggests M's approach to slack removal: don't yaw, just get dead center and level and let the glider bounce the slack out gently two or three times.

C gave me a cable spool to use for half the autotow cable. I took it to the field to check it out... the right size, but it needs a wooden hub instead of cardboard.