My first evening flight after work, and in fact my first proper flight of the PPL training including a white board learning session and some challenging flight maneuvers. It was also my first landing.
So why is California on Fire? Apparently there was a lot of lightning over the weekend and there are as much as 700 small wild fires spread across the state. See this story on Yahoo. In fact, when I flew back from England over the weekend while flying over California I could see various fires spread through the countryside. The haze in the air from the smoke has been bad at the ground level and was no better at altitude, except you could fly above it.
Pre-flight
The practical part of the lesson started with the usual pre-flight. The test for me was to see how much I could remember from my discovery lesson. Also Patti didn't tell me I would have a test :) Luckily I did ok, the checklist for the plane is a great help, it lists everything you need to check, and it's much like a short service on a car. As usual the fuel was low and we needed to radio the gas truck (Avionics on, switch to speaker, "PA Exxon, this is Cessna xxxxx in West Valley, refuel please").
Slow flying
The flying lesson started with some theory about slow flying. The concept is that if you pitch up the nose of the plane and lower the flaps you can fly very slowly, 45-50 knots compared to a more normal cruise of 90 knots. The interesting thing is that at both of these speed the thrust from the engine is the same, around 2100 rpm. The reason for this is that the drag is very different. When flying straight and level the plane is efficient, there is some 'parasite drag' and the usual lift generated over the wings. In slow flying the front of the plane is pitched up, more of the plane is creating drag and more of the lift is Newtonian, the drag is mostly 'induced drag'. At this slow speed the plane is not efficient, there is very little extra power, and the controls are much less effective than normal. Also the way the propeller cuts the air means that a lot of rudder is required to keep the plane straight.
The aim of slow flying was to keep the speed constant at 50 knots and keep the altitude fixed. After this we slowed down to 45 knots by pitching up further. Then we experimented by adding more power to see if we could gain altitude. The surprising thing was that even at full throttle it didn't make any difference, we continued at the same speed and altitude. This shows you that if you have a bad landing approach and are running short of the runway then extra power and pulling back may not help, in fact it would be better to pitch forward and increase airspeed and glide.
Notes: Carb heat on, Throttle off, Full flaps, pitch up, Throttle 2100rpm.
Rudder turns
Another learning point from this lesson was getting a feel for the Rudder. I found out it's possible to turn the plane with the rudder only. It's not efficient, it takes a lot of pressure on the rudder pedals, but it's interesting how it even causes the plane to bank. The most important use of the rudder is to make the normal turns smooth and efficient, this is called a coordinated turn. If the turn is not coordinated then it is either a slip (tail inside the turn) or a skid (tail out of the turn, like a car skidding around a corner with over steer).
Steep turns
After the success of the slow flying we did some practice on steep turns. The aim being to get a feel for when to pull back on the elevator while transitioning from straight and level flight into the turn. In a steep turn the lift from the wings has two components, one working up against gravity, and the other to the side to turn the plane. As less lift is going up the elevator needs to be pulled back to balance this to keep at the same altitude. The challenge for PPL flying test will be to perform a steep turn keeping the speed within +/-5 knots and the altitude within +/- 100ft! Apparently, to my surprise I managed to do this a couple of times.
Airspace
Another thing I learned today was some basics of air space. When leaving the airport we need to get above 2500ft by some boundary line on the GPS (I need to understand more about this). The other constraint was that we need to stay below 4000ft, else we would be in SFO air space (as I understand it). Clearly I need to learn more about these details!
The views!
This time I was disappointed I didn't take a camera as the views were great. The fog was covering the ground east of the Santa Cruz mountains so we were constrained to fly over the bay area. We flew up and down the east side of the hills and during the flight we watched the sunset. The wild fires added an interesting smoke layer which we passed through, and in the small plane you can smell the burning wood.
The landing
At the end of the lesson it was time to head back, the fuel doesn't last forever, nor does the daylight. Back to Ikea, 101, then a left turn into the airport. Patti helped direct me onto the correct glide path onto the runway, and controlled the throttle to get the airspeed right etc, but apparently I did most of the landing (though it felt like Patti helped fine tune this one).
What an excellent second flight!
Lessons covered: parts of 5 and 6
Next time: Lesson 8, stalls
No comments:
Post a Comment