Ground Reference Maneuvers

Lessons 5 & 6
5-3-12
2.1 hours logged
7.5 hours total recorded in logbook


Lesson 5

Today at last, in spite of the storms and lots of rain last night, I was able to go flying again! My last two scheduled lessons were both cancelled due to bad weather so I was afraid to be too hopeful that this one would pull off especially with the weather last night and more storms forecast today. Despite the forecast, after a couple calls back and forth to/from CubAir, I was on my way down there at 8:20a.m.!

It was cloudy and very steamy but the sun shone through here and there in places. When I arrived at Hartford, the sky was overcast but we nevertheless got right down to business. We preflighted the Cub, got in, fired up and I taxied us out (doing a pretty decent job) to grass runway 18.

With our pre-takeoff checklist complete, I taxied onto the runway where, instead of me following Joe on the controls, he followed me! I increased the throttle to full power, kept us going straight with rudder and followed Joe's instructions on what to do with the stick--hold it back, let it come forward gradually as you accelerate until the tail lifts then, with slight back pressure, the plane will fly itself right off--and we were airborne!

It was so warm today, we flew both lessons with the door open--my first time with that experience and it was pure bliss! That's the only way to describe the way I felt those first few moments after lift off as the wind whipped about us and the airport quickly grew smaller below. There's nothing like being in the air for certain but, more specifically, there's nothing quite like being in the air in an open-cockpit (or semi-open-cockpit in this case) plane. I've loved it since the moment I first had the experience in an old PT-3 biplane which I won a ride in several years ago. Here are a couple pictures of that since I, unfortunately, don't have any of today's flight.

We found the ceiling a bit lower than Joe was hoping but we did all right. This first flight was mostly review again--steep turns, slow flight, a couple stalls--but then, since there was some wind today, we practiced tracking a straight course along a road by using a wind correction angle*. After practicing this for a while, we headed back toward the airport (which I am slowly getting better at spotting from a distance, as well as other local landmarks).

I lined us up for landing then Joe took the controls to demonstrate a crosswind landing which he did admirably. He let me taxi back to a stop in front of the hangar, shut down the engine and that was our first flight of the day.

*The airplane's nose is pointed slightly into the wind to counteract drift. Thus the nose is pointed at a slight angle to the airplane's actual direction of travel producing what looks like a sideways motion through the air called "crabbing."


Lesson 6

After filling out the necessary paperwork and taking a little break, Joe talked me through our next lesson which would focus on ground reference maneuvers which I'd had a little intro to on our previous flight. The whole purpose of these is to teach you how to fly a straight course while in the landing pattern when there is a wind. Even a little bit of wind can drift those Cubs quite a ways! You must constantly be aware of which direction the wind is from and adjust the direction the nose is pointing or your bank angle accordingly.

Emerging from the office, we found it had sprinkled a little but overhead was a patch of blue sky. Again, we taxied out this time, to takeoff on the concrete surface of runway 29. After our pre-takeoff checklist, I taxied us out and again, Joe let me control the takeoff--sort of. I had a bit more difficulty keeping us going straight this time then found myself concentrating so much on that that I forgot to increase throttle! Oh well, we made it off the ground and into the balmy, windy air.

First, we practiced flying a rectangular course first one way, then the other. It didn't take too long for me to get the idea and it wasn't as hard as it sounds in theory either. That's not to say I did it perfect but I  did understand what I was doing at least!











Next was turns around a point which I found a bit more challenging but after the first two or three times when I found myself corkscrewing toward the center as I drifted with the wind, I started to get the hang of it. Again, we did them both left and right and switched locations a few times so as not to annoy the groundlings who's farms and houses we circled. Finally, we found a church to circle and here, using it's tall steeple as my point of reference, I made the best one yet! "Not bad, not bad!" Joe encouraged.

Then it was back to the airport once more. I flew the pattern, then Joe took over and this time showed me what a slip looks/feels like. Pretty neat! Back on the ground, I taxied us in and shut the engine down. Flight #2 of the day complete! We found the engine cowling splattered with oil from a leak but we experienced no bad effects from this while in flight. Joe filled out my logbook and gave me the rundown for next time. Thank God the weather held off once again! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for next week!