| Lesson 18 | |
| Flight time logged: | 1.4 hours |
| Total flight time logged: | 25.3 hours |
| Total takeoffs/landings: | 95 |
| Total cost to date: | $4245 |
This hot weather just keeps getting hotter! You know it's hot when you are sweating when doing the preflight before getting in the cockpit. Today my instructor had me fly "under the hood" again on departure from the airport. He had me fly headings and then do a VOR cross-check to determine my position by using a sectional chart. Since the air was really bumpy, I was really having a hard time dialing in the nav radio and setting the OBS since the plane was not steady. I'm sure with practice it will get better. Again, it's one of those things I know how to do; it's trying to do it while doing ten other things at once that makes it a challenge.
Anyway, I found that I was on approximately on the 85 degree radial from the ATL VOR and the 235 degree radial from the AHN VOR. Looking at my sectional (while also watching airspeed, altitude, keeping the wings level, looking out for traffic, etc.), I picked the spot where the two radial crossed. According to this point, I was just north of the Covington airport. My instructor had me remove the "hood" so that I could see outside. I looked around, made a turn to the right, and then noticed Covington airport off to my right.
I then proceeded to Covington airport to do some short and soft field takeoffs and landings. My instructor showed me how slow I could actually fly on final and still keep the airplane from stalling. This made me feel much more comfortable with slowing the airspeed below what I was used to flying. After a few touch-and-goes, I flew back to LZU.
It was just barely VFR flying conditions because the visibility was only three miles. We had tons of haze and smog. As a matter of fact, the news reported that today was a red alert smog day. At 3500 feet, it was really hard to make out objects in the distance.
We both we glad to get back to the air conditioned office. Rain was forecast for the weekend, and I was really looking forward to it.
