9-28-12
1.1 hours logged
26.9 hours total recorded in logbook
Though I wasn't even scheduled to fly today it happened that they had an opening and so asked if I would like to come down. I said yes of course and so less than 24 hours after my previous lesson was on my way down to HXF again. It was another beautiful sunny day and still fairly early in the morning. Operating as we did from runway 36 we were in the perfect position that the shadow of the Cub was just off the left wing. I've never seen it so clearly before. It's a beautiful sight!
I flew with Steve M. and today we worked on short-field takeoffs and landings for a good portion of the time. I practiced using the throttle to control my rate of descent and using the best climb speed on takeoff. These are all the finer points of takeoffs and landings. In practicing short field landing technique, we made it our goal to touchdown just after a slight dip about at the halfway point of the first half of the runway and still stop before reaching the concrete runway bisecting 36. I did all right with a little help from Steve on the brakes. On my last one, I managed to stop even before the taxiway! I'm not sure how many feet that was but it was short!
Another thing we tried was flying the entire length of the runway "bottle high" as Steve called it--only a couple or three feet off the ground but never letting the wheels touch. Finally you give it full power and soar up and away. "It's a great way to check a field over before landing if you have to make an off-airport one," he told me. We also did a go-around, simulated engine out landing and a few more wheel landings. That's quite a bit to cram into an hour's worth of flying time.
Back in the office however, after filling out the logbooks, Steve and I spent another hour working on ground school--preparation for the oral part of my checkride which may be coming up sooner than I think. Steve said I could be ready by Christmas. That's really not as far off as it sounds. Well, let me just say, it looks like I'll need to do quite a bit of studying to be up to par. This lesson, perhaps more so than any I've had up to this point really challenged me and caused me to realize how little I really know and how much I've got to learn. I guess what it really boils down to is the difference between the actual flying part of learning to fly and all the brainwork of memorizing terms, tables, formulas and figures that go along with it. Steve told me there are those to whom the bookwork and study is the easy part and flying is difficult and there are others to whom flying comes naturally and they struggle with the study part. He put me in the latter category. I knew he was right. The flying does come pretty easily to me--the rest, not quite so much. I've got a lot of studying to do.
Before I left, Steve M. gave Steve K. the report on what we worked on. Steve K. listened and nodded approvingly. It's all good stuff to know if you're going to be flying in any kind of back-country. The two of them told me regaled me with stories of the landing strips they've heard of in bush flying. One way in, one way out, uphill, downhill, strips that take you off the edge of a cliff or have trees or terrain that must be cleared on takeoff. All part of the exciting world of bush flying!
Speaking of exciting, one other thing we discussed before I left was initial plans for my first dual cross-country which we agreed we'd plot the following Thursday and fly the next day. After suggesting a few destinations we decided on Iola. This little airport holds a fly-in lunch each Friday, semi-famous with both locals and "not so locals" because, to a pilot, distance means less than to an automobile driver. The world becomes smaller in more ways than one once you've entered the "aviation brotherhood." We casually decided the route would be Hartford to Manitowoc, Manitowoc to Iola, and Iola back to Hartford. Despite feeling a little discouraged over the ground school session, I was already looking forward to this with much anticipation.
