Phase Checked!
All I can say is, this phase check was a lot better than the last one. My phase check CFI (let's call him Mary; if he reads this he'll laugh) was a really nice guy and a really experienced pilot, which is a good thing -- you figure if someone's been flying for such a long time and is still alive, he's got to be doing something right.
We started with the ground session. It went fine, but I was definitely doing some guessing on the chart, and at times not guessing very well. I need to review the meanings of the designations on military routes. I also need to review the effects of loading; i.e. forward or aft CG means what for handling? And weather -- I still need to study weather. Types of fog, etc. But all in all it went pretty well.
So out to the plane. It's funny, most of the time, the planes I fly have full fuel and adequate oil when I get to the ramp. Today, of course, I had less than 1/2 fuel (when I need full for sure), and low oil. Naturally. Anyway, no problem, just additional time and stress.
We took off out of PAO on a right Dumbarton departure, using a soft field takeoff. The takeoff was a little rocky -- Mary told me later that I didn't correct for the crosswind, and therefore had trouble. But not too shabby. We flew out over Sunol, out past Tracy and to Modesto. I'd forgotten to mark down my departure time (big no-no) but he didn't ding me too hard for that one. I marked my time at Sunol, and was late to Tracy. So I did a back-of-the-envelope recalculation on the remainder of my trip, and wound up being exactly right! Funny how this stuff actually works. I was instructed to come in on Runway 28L, but as I was entering the downwind, another aircraft was instructed to use 10L, so I called in to verify. Not a bad thing IMO.
We did a soft-field landing in Modesto, and it was not my best. I should've gone around, actually - I forgot I was doing a soft field landing in the middle of my flare, and then remembered, but the power out then in disrupted my flare enough to make my landing not very soft. But oh well. On taxi-back, I had an embarassing moment where I almost drove the plane off the taxiway because I was looking at a chart or something. Ugh.
So we took off, tracked toward Manteca VOR, and then he asked me to divert to Byron. This didn't go so well; I had a lot of trouble estimating time, given speed and distance. Later he told me, I should really pull out my plotter and E6B computer -- but Kevin had told me I'd get crucified if I did that, and to use back of the envelope calcs as much as possible! Stylistic differences, looks like.
I got to Byron, overflew and circled a couple of times. My radio work started going to pieces, because I was getting tired. I made a decision to land on Runway 23 even though 30 seemed more central and more active. The wind favored 23. So I got into the pattern pretty well, but my base turn was early and my approach ended up high. So I went around. The second time was great, I landed perfectly.
After leaving Byron, we did some hood work. I did quite well with hood work; only once did he have to say "watch your heading" or anything like that. Not bad! And my unusual attitude recovery was good. Then, he told me to find out where we were. My VOR triangulation should have worked, but I should've used the sectional chart -- I think I completely misread the Oakland VOR, so my triangulation put us somewhere over Fairfield when I knew full well we were over the San Antonio Reservoir near Livermore! Oh well. That was bad.
Then, back to Palo Alto for a soft field landing. That was also a disaster, but I didn't bother going around because I was tired and didn't care.
In the review afterwards, Mary gave me some very good advice, especially about practicing making a very consistent pattern. Put in 10 degrees flaps on the 45 to the downwind, to control airspeed and make adjustments easier. Reduce power abeam the numbers. Look at the runway all the time. Don't put the flaps down during turns -- what if they don't come out evenly? Put in 20 degrees flaps on base, and descend if on path (or high) but just hold altitude if low. Put in full flaps when turning final. This is opposite to what Kevin had said...I guess there are just many ways to do it. In any case, consistency is the key, and I don't quite have that yet.
But, all in all, I'm doing things safely, and that's the important thing. So, looks like I'll be flying to Modesto all alone on Wednesday morning!
We started with the ground session. It went fine, but I was definitely doing some guessing on the chart, and at times not guessing very well. I need to review the meanings of the designations on military routes. I also need to review the effects of loading; i.e. forward or aft CG means what for handling? And weather -- I still need to study weather. Types of fog, etc. But all in all it went pretty well.
So out to the plane. It's funny, most of the time, the planes I fly have full fuel and adequate oil when I get to the ramp. Today, of course, I had less than 1/2 fuel (when I need full for sure), and low oil. Naturally. Anyway, no problem, just additional time and stress.
We took off out of PAO on a right Dumbarton departure, using a soft field takeoff. The takeoff was a little rocky -- Mary told me later that I didn't correct for the crosswind, and therefore had trouble. But not too shabby. We flew out over Sunol, out past Tracy and to Modesto. I'd forgotten to mark down my departure time (big no-no) but he didn't ding me too hard for that one. I marked my time at Sunol, and was late to Tracy. So I did a back-of-the-envelope recalculation on the remainder of my trip, and wound up being exactly right! Funny how this stuff actually works. I was instructed to come in on Runway 28L, but as I was entering the downwind, another aircraft was instructed to use 10L, so I called in to verify. Not a bad thing IMO.
We did a soft-field landing in Modesto, and it was not my best. I should've gone around, actually - I forgot I was doing a soft field landing in the middle of my flare, and then remembered, but the power out then in disrupted my flare enough to make my landing not very soft. But oh well. On taxi-back, I had an embarassing moment where I almost drove the plane off the taxiway because I was looking at a chart or something. Ugh.
So we took off, tracked toward Manteca VOR, and then he asked me to divert to Byron. This didn't go so well; I had a lot of trouble estimating time, given speed and distance. Later he told me, I should really pull out my plotter and E6B computer -- but Kevin had told me I'd get crucified if I did that, and to use back of the envelope calcs as much as possible! Stylistic differences, looks like.
I got to Byron, overflew and circled a couple of times. My radio work started going to pieces, because I was getting tired. I made a decision to land on Runway 23 even though 30 seemed more central and more active. The wind favored 23. So I got into the pattern pretty well, but my base turn was early and my approach ended up high. So I went around. The second time was great, I landed perfectly.
After leaving Byron, we did some hood work. I did quite well with hood work; only once did he have to say "watch your heading" or anything like that. Not bad! And my unusual attitude recovery was good. Then, he told me to find out where we were. My VOR triangulation should have worked, but I should've used the sectional chart -- I think I completely misread the Oakland VOR, so my triangulation put us somewhere over Fairfield when I knew full well we were over the San Antonio Reservoir near Livermore! Oh well. That was bad.
Then, back to Palo Alto for a soft field landing. That was also a disaster, but I didn't bother going around because I was tired and didn't care.
In the review afterwards, Mary gave me some very good advice, especially about practicing making a very consistent pattern. Put in 10 degrees flaps on the 45 to the downwind, to control airspeed and make adjustments easier. Reduce power abeam the numbers. Look at the runway all the time. Don't put the flaps down during turns -- what if they don't come out evenly? Put in 20 degrees flaps on base, and descend if on path (or high) but just hold altitude if low. Put in full flaps when turning final. This is opposite to what Kevin had said...I guess there are just many ways to do it. In any case, consistency is the key, and I don't quite have that yet.
But, all in all, I'm doing things safely, and that's the important thing. So, looks like I'll be flying to Modesto all alone on Wednesday morning!
posted by MKT at 10:40 PM
1 Comments:
Regarding point #1 -- wow, that is an excellent point. Thanks for sharing that! I guess there's a balance somewhere in there; I'll try to figure that out next time I'm in the pattern (hopefully soon!).
Re: #2 -- yeah; I'd been putting flaps out during turns pretty regularly, and now my timing's kind of all off. Once again -- need pattern work :-)
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