Almost ready to solo

Two lessons scheduled this weekend, only one flight. Saturday, my CFI and I went over my pre-solo written test. Of the 40 or so questions, I nailed 35 of them w/out needing to look the answers up. One that I had no clue was "If a plane is in front of you, and appears to not be getting closer, what does that mean?" Short answer, as given by my CFI, is "You are on a collision course. Take evasive action." Let us remember this for later on.

After an hour of going over the test and reviewing where we are at, it was off to the plane. All went well until it was time to bring the flaps up after the engine start. Flaps wouldn't come up. Jiggled the switch, popped and reset the breakers, wiggled the flaps. Nothing. Since the other DA20 was out, no flying for me.

Today the other DA20 was back, so away we went. Instead of just pattern work, we instead did a mini-stage check. Fly out to the practice area, slow flight, power off and power on stalls. Hadn't done this in about two months. Slow flight and power off stalls are no problem. Power on stalls still scare the bejesus out of me. I know, if the wing comes up, step on it. For some reason, I find the Diamond to get very slippery and squirrely right before the stall. The right wing dropped, and spooked me pretty well. I did two more just fine, but I'm just not at all comfortable with this move.

From there things got exciting. We headed over to Culpepper for some landings. To start with, we were cut off my a Mooney who entered the pattern on the crosswind below pattern altitude. It was a zoo in terms of radio traffic. One bright side is I got to see what I think was a T6 doing some take offs and landings. That is one big-honkin' engine.

Landings were solid all around. I haven't really had the typical struggles with landings, mostly because I've read every tip here. I used a forward slip to salvage an engine -out landing without my instructor prodding me on it.

Last bit of excitement was leaving Culpepper. We turn crosswind and leave the area. We notice a Cessna to our right. And wouldn't you know they are at our altitude. And don't seem to be moving towards us. My CFI says "Hey, remember that question?" I was already moving to the throttle, full power, Vx. Our guess was that he went directly under us by roughly 100 or so feet. When I asked how close it was, she replied "Just about as close as you'd ever want."

So next up is a stage check with the head honcho of the school. Nervous? You bet. But after today, I left like a pilot.

Flying Xmas List

So, here's the part where I keep a nice tidy list of flying related stuff I want for Xmas. Links will be provided.

Aviation flashlight

Kneeboard

2007 FAR/AIM

Landings/Takeoff DVD

Lessons Learned this Weekend

Another weekend, another pair of lessons. After two weeks off, it took a little to shake the rust off. Saturday we had a strong wind, but coming almost straight down the runway. Sunday, almost no wind, but I flew in a new plane. Here are the lessons learned. I'd say it was the most learning I've had in a lesson. A lot of things that I'd read, or sort of knew were presented and experienced first hand.

• Every single tip about landings and flairs are 100% spot on. Especially the ones about nailing your airspeeds. And how to visualize being on the centerline.
• When nailing said airspeeds, don't be wishy-washy with them. It makes less work for you in the long run.
• You can do pattern work without a attitude indicator. In fact, it gives you one less thing to glance at as a crutch.
• Particularly during the engine-out landings, you get a great feel for what flaps really do. Dump them in, feel that initial push in the butt as the plane lifts a little.
• A 10 knot gust straight on the nose feels like an increase of a few RPMs on the throttle. - I really, really don't like forward slips.
• Different planes, even of the same make/model can feel very different. 228NH was down, and it took awhile to get the feel for the "stiffer" 40SE, both DA20 C1s.
• At some point, you can't focus on one more thing. On one loop, I had an extended downwind, other traffic using me as a reference, a plane on base on a parallel runway, and then a jet taking off on my runway while I was on final. "Be advised of jet wash". CFI jumped in and said "You fly the plane, I'll worry about the jetwash."
• I'm taking my pre-solo written test this week. I'm having a blast. My CFI is the personification of all of those "Make sure you and your CFI mesh" discussions.