Getting Back Into It

I've flown twice in the last 24 hours, after flying only once in the previous 4 weeks. I was definitely rusty, which really showed yesterday when I went out by myself in 9849L, just to do some pattern work. I did five landings in six attempts, in variable light winds. I think they were occasionally shifting to tailwinds, because I kept coming in high, every single time. The first attempt, I ballooned, added a little power to try to correct, but then wasn't sure how far down the runway I was so I went around. Good decision, I'm very proud of myself. I landed the rest of the attempts, but none of them were very smooth at all. The 4th one was particularly nasty -- I tried to correct a bounce. I did it, and had a little bit of a heavy impact but not too bad. The 5th one was the best, but I still added power when maybe I didn't need to on the approach. I need to not underestimate the effect that a _very_ little bit of power can have.

This morning, I went out with Kevin for the first time in..what, 2 months? More? It was great. I felt really comfortable on the radio, which was nice. We went out over the Woodside VOR to do some more navigation practice. It went pretty well! I remembered all the procedures, though the acronym that Chris had called TITT became the much more vulgar and memorable TITS, for Tune, Identify, Twist, Select heading. Nice.

Then came the real fun: He put the hood on me. The hood is a helmet-like contraption that prevents you from seeing anything but the instruments. He had me do turns, climbs, descents, climbing and descending turns with the hood on. I actually did fairly well, but there were definitely moments where my senses told me either something completely fictitious, or the EXACT OPPOSITE of what was really happening! What a trip -- you have to really trust the instruments, and at the same time not OVERreact. There was one moment in particular, I'd have sworn the plane was banking to the right, and I started to correct left. But I looked at the instruments -- I was already banking left! Weird.

Then, there was the unusual attitude recovery. This is something that will happen in my check ride -- I lower my head, the instructor steers around madly to disorient me, and then puts the plane in an "unusual attitude" -- usually a steep climbing steep turn (both the climb and the turn are steep), or a near-spiral steep descending turn. I then raise my head (still to see only the instruments; the hood is still on), and determine what's happening and correct for it. In a climb, priority one is to avoid stalling, so power full, nose down, then straighten the wings. In a descent, priority one is to avoid a spin, so power idle, straighten the wings first, THEN nose up.

We did a soft field take off and landing as well, but I need a lot more practice. The good news is that I set up the landing beautifully, which I was having a lot of trouble with yesterday. So, comfort level is back. I feel like going again right now!