| Lesson 6 | |
| Flight time logged: | 1.8 hours |
| Total flight time logged: | 8.4 hours |
| Total takeoffs/landings: | 13 |
| Total cost to date: | $1330 |
It's been a week since I've last flown, so I was ready to get back into the air. Today the weather was nice -- some wind -- but overall good. I arrived at the flight school at 5:30pm and spent a few minutes with my instructor going over traffic pattern operations. I did the pre-flight using a new, more detailed, checklist given to me by the instructor. I like this checklist better because it "flows" around the airplane as you check items.
After the pre-flight, I called ground asked to taxi to Runway 25 for a South East departure. I taxied to the run-up area, performed the run-up, and taxied into position holding at Runway 25. After takeoff clearance from the tower, I took off then turned to my departure route.
I flew over to the area between Winder airport and Monroe airport. Another pilot mentioned that there were a few good roads for practicing S-turns, so I picked one to practice my S-turns. I then flew over to Monroe airport to practice landings.
On the way there, I got to do forward slips for the first time. This was an interesting feeling. You're basically putting the plane into a configuration that makes it fall in order to lose altitude quickly. I turned the ailerons completely to the right, applied full left rudder, and down we went. The relative wind hits the side of the fuselage as you do the slip making it even more interesting.
Over at Monroe I was fortunate to not have any traffic at the airport, so I was free to concentrate on touch-and-goes. I made six landings and takeoffs while at Monroe. After one landing, my instructor made me keep the nose wheel off the runway while taxiing the rest of the way down the runway. This maneuver was supposed to help me get the feel of holding the nose up in the flare. It's called popping-a-wheelie in a plane, and I'm sure it looked odd to anyone on the ground around us watching. I put the nose wheel down, taxied off the runway, did my post-landing checklist, then started to taxi back for a takeoff. I also performed a short field takeoff while at Monroe.
After six landings and take-offs, I headed back to KLZU. On the way back, my instructor showed me how to use the GPS while in flight. I entered in KLZU and pulled up the radio frequencies. I also could see my ground speed and the distance to KLZU. Once I was approximately 10 miles out, I listened to the ATIS for KLZU and then called the tower reporting my position and requesting a landing. The tower had me ident my position -- a first for me -- however, I've used this before on the simulator so I knew to press the IDENT button on the transponder. I was cleared to enter a two-mile base.
I entered base and called the tower with my position. As I came to the point to turn to final, I received my landing clearance. I made my landing okay, but not the best in the world. I taxied off the runway and back to the flight school.
In my post-flight briefing, my instructor told me that he had noticed improvement and that I was more confident. I'm starting to feel more comfortable flying as I get the concepts drilled into my head. I definitely need to practice landings. My takeoffs are looking good, but I need to really practice my timing on the flare when landing. During my next lesson, on Thursday, my instructor wanted to do a progress check to see how I'm doing. For this, I will have to do everything that I've learned thus far. Hopefully, I'll remember everything.
