So my last lesson (this past Saturday) probably should have been the day I go solo for the first time, but it was very windy and directly across the runway at Westosha (thanks a lot, Chicago weather). So, we worked on crosswind landings yet again. I’m happy to report I had some of my best landings to date this day, even when conditions were extremely challenging. Also, the crosswinds afforded us the opportunity to practice various landing types I’ve done only sparsely in the past: no flaps, little flaps, and shortened runway.
All-in-all, the lesson wasn’t very eventful and I’m very much looking forward to a non-windy day at Westosha so I can finally solo. Hopefully it’ll be tomorrow!
This lesson I logged 1.5 hours of flight time and 10 landings.
As part of my pre-solo check flight last time flying, that CFI recommended I only need to work on crosswind landings before going solo. So, that’s what I worked on this past lesson…for over two hours! 
Luckily there was a fairly decent crosswind of about 10 knots or so, directly across the runway. As such, we had the option most of the time to takeoff and land from either direction, which made for an efficient use of time! All-in-all, the lesson wasn’t terribly interesting as we literally just stayed in the pattern and worked on landings and takeoffs over and over. Some were better than others, some were pretty ugly, but ultimately by the end I had a much improved grasp on this complicated maneuver. I still wouldn’t want to tackle heavy crosswinds all by myself, but that’s what practice is for. I also now finally get (and can verbalize properly) how to put the ailerons while on the ground with wind…that got me last time out.
Hopefully next lesson will be the big one…my CFI told me “not to wear my Armani t-shirts”…I figure that’s a good sign. This lesson I logged 2.3 hours of flight time and 16 landings.
P.S. – While en route to Mexico for my vacation last week I listened to ATC while on my United flight. It was funny and interesting to hear air traffic control in Spanish half the time once we crossed the border. Our pilot/navigator was definitely having a hard time understanding them sometimes and had to have commands repeated multiple times (in the heavily accented English). I was expecting the controller to swear in Spanish, but they always kept their cool.
This past lesson I had my “pre-solo check flight” – a requirement of my flying club. It’s really a stage check for the club to make sure students won’t break the planes and for another CFI to make sure my usual CFI isn’t out of his mind. I rode with the club president, which was a little intimidating at first, but things went pretty well.
This CFI first had me pre-flight the plane and gave me a small verbal quiz. He was definitely asking very difficult and obscure questions, to probe how deep my knowledge was and probably to teach me a little. Some of the stuff I had no idea, but again, he didn’t really expect me to know it either. We then proceeded to taxi and takeoff. It was exciting (and a little weird) to taxi and takeoff without ANY words/prompting from the CFI. Once in the air, he made me show him general flight maneuvers like slow flight, steep turns, and turns around a point. All went fine.
The CFI promised there would be some type of simulated emergency during our check ride, and sure enough on the way back to the airport he said “you see smoke in the cabin, what do you do?” Me being me, I over-thought the exercise and starting reciting back some of the emergency procedures from the Cessna manual. He then asked, “but what first”…of which I started blanking. He then said “get the damn plane on the ground first…you don’t want to be in the air with a fire…screw the checklist at that point.” That makes sense I guess! So, we pulled the throttle, looked for a place to land (which we were over Westosha anyways) and I glided the plane down for a no engine (with simulated fire) emergency landing. Surprisingly, this landing (without any engine power) went great…I was pretty happy.
We taxied back and took off again, this time with a fairly steady crosswind. I was spacing a bit on how to hold the ailerons during crosswinds in general (still not coming natural to me) and verbally I called the wind direction wrong. We remained in the pattern and I landed with the crosswind. The final approach was a bit rough as I overshot the runway on the base leg (not compensating enough for the crosswind). I put the plane down okay, though.
The CFI was generally fine with my abilities at this point and recommended just working on crosswind landings a bit more with my usual CFI (which I can’t argue against). He said I should be solo’ing with just a few more crosswind landings under my belt…exciting stuff! I’m off to Mexico now for vacation, so you won’t hear from me for a week or so.
This lesson I logged 0.9 hours of flight time.
This morning, in lesson #5, we focused on takeoffs and landings. My CFI is also starting to not talk as we go through things, letting me fully control and decide upon controls. It’s exciting and kinda’ scary to know I’m basically totally controlling the plane (he even keeps his hands off the controls most of the time). I also started calling out the radio announcements, like “Westosha Traffic, Cessna 920, Departing Runway 3, Remaining in Pattern”…I felt more and more like a real pilot today.
There was a slight (roughly 9 mph) crosswind on the 3/21 paved runway at Westosha, so we tried a few crosswind landings and takeoffs. Because the turf runway is almost perpendicular to the paved one, we also practiced short field landings and takeoffs on the turf. This was particularly challenging as we even shortened the turf runway further (to about 1/3) because there was a little snow on the crossing between the runways. The turf is surprisingly bumpy and swampy because of all the melted snow…it really felt like “bush flying.” However, after a bunch of those takeoffs and landings, running on the pavement was a breeze!
Obviously we also worked on the climb-outs and approaches, as well as general pattern/traffic flying. There is a LOT to remember and control for…it definitely felt like another sub-par performance by me, but my CFI keeps telling me I’m way ahead of the curve. I trust him and I know with each and every repetition of these maneuvers it becomes more easy and second-nature. It’s just tooo fun!
This lesson I logged 1.2 hours.
I’m told that wind can make flying a very difficult experience. I quickly learned yesterday during my fourth lesson how true that is! There were steady west winds of 20+ mph during my entire flight experience. Besides the challenge of the wind, we worked on some pretty complicated stuff (or at least seemed complicated to me at this point). By the end of my lesson, my head was spinning for a variety of reasons:
1) We worked more on stalls and recovery procedures. This time my CFI had me stall the plane in various situations (power on, power off, while banking) and recover quickly. Luckily, the plane literally DOES indeed want to fly itself and making the corrections came very natural to me (they are all pretty logical anyways) and the plane reacts fine. However, going up and down in altitude as frequently as we did did twinge my stomach of steel even.
2) My CFI demonstrated a spin/spiral and how to recover. Thankfully, I’LL hopefully never be forced into this situation, but my CFI urged me to experience it (even though it’s not necessary). I must admit, heading straight for the ground and spinning (although I knew I was safe and it was indeed thrilling) is not really fun. I’m glad my CFI had the controls and literally had to work to get the plane to do something this unnatural. I’m always glad to see how much the plane wants to fly straight and normal.
3) S-Turns and Ground Reference Maneuvers. These aren’t normally that difficult, but the winds make it really “fun”. Lots of extra compensating to keep the plane from drifting and going off course.
4) Finally, we had to land in a strong crosswind. This is the “most difficult thing to do in flying” and I guess I did pretty good. Obviously my CFI helped me a ton (honestly, I think he landed)…but seeing the amount of extra that goes into a crosswind landing definitely makes me want to review a few chapters in my reference book again!
Needless to say, this was a very busy and complicated lesson and when we landed I had a LOT to think about and process. I AM excited to get back in the air on Saturday though (if the weather plays nice).
This lesson I logged 1.4 hours of flight time.
