Passion for Learning

Aircraft: C172
Registration: C-GBRI
Dual Time: 1.3 Total: 49.7
Solo Time: 0.0 Total: 13.8 

Since last time, I have not gone flying.  There was bad weather, I had to re-write my PSTAR because my student permit expired and this preempted me from any solo flight and I also had a lot on my mind due to the wedding coming up on the 18th!   Mat had made a good suggestion that if we forget the Kingston Solo X/C and just get the flight test done, then the pressure will be off and I can go on honeymoon with little worry.  I like the way he thinks.  

I was scheduled to fly in QUO but was told by dispatch that there was a funny thing happened to her.  I guess after a maintenance issue the aircraft was returned to service.  An instructor and student were ready to fly and after starting the engine, turned on the avionics master.  They then smelled and saw smoke in the cockpit!  After shutting down and checking things over there was no fire, but the aircraft would need inspection before flying again.  Back into our favorite C172, BRI!  

Simon and I flew out to brush up on all the things Kathy was not happy about.  We did steep turns, stalls and then climbed up to 3500′.  Simon then did something grand.  Instead of pulling the throttle and watching me flail about, he said “I have control”.  

Simon went on to execute an act of beauty.  I’m talking real serious stuff here.  When Simon flies, time stands still.  He really has mastery of the aircraft.  What he showed me was not where to look or what field to pick (I knew that!) he showed me that if you are SMOOTH then you can literally take your sweet time in getting down there and lined up.  He chose a field and managed to get us right lined up nicely.  As we climbed back up to 3500′ he discussed how one can make time stand still by being ahead of the aircraft and by flying smoothly.  I then executed a perfect 4 out of 4 forced approach.  Simon commanded another,  this time I did it using the circling method, also perfect.  I was happy!  

As I climbed out of the third attempt Simon had me don the IFR hood and vectored me back to Rockliffe.  I am pretty good under the hood but I don’t ENJOY it.  I flew along, feeling out where we were based on his radio calls and by using deduction.  As he commanded a descent from 1700′ to 1200′ in a turn to the North I could tell we were on the South of the field making an overhead entry.  Normally the instructor will vector you overhead the runway then have you go visual before turning downwind.  Simon commanded the turn under the hood.  Woah!  This doesn’t compute..  He then asked for power reduction,  flaps, turned base then final.  As I rolled out on final I lost my smoothness.  The VSI was moving from 300 to 1000 FPM.  The ASI was moving about in sync.  I was losing control and as it became apparent, it got worse!  Simon then said “Okay, let’s lift the goggles now” which I did then flew on down to a beautiful soft field landing.  Full stall, nice runway long wheelie.  It felt GOOD!  I asked if that was loggable as an IFR approach,  he told me “It would have been had you kept it in line!!”.  No deal because my flight test was to be booked for Wednesday!  

Tags: Dual, Flight Test

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 11th, 2008 at 11:07 am and is filed under Flight Training PPL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.