Total Time: 7.9 hours
I got to Boeing Field a little bit nervous to fly after the way I ended the last flight. Pre-flight checkout went without incident, and there were no problems until I radioed ground control for clearance to taxi to the runway. I made the call and waited… No response. I made the call again... Nothing. I tried a couple of different frequencies, radios and jacks, but nothing at all. We could hear them, Ed and I could hear each other, but no one outside of the plane could hear us.
Fortunately Ed had his hand-held radio, a gift from his wife. It meant that we had to yell to hear each other while he was radioing the tower, but it was better than calling the flight. It also meant that I didn’t have to worry about dealing with radio calls – a nice luxury that let me focus only on flying.
It was a little bit nerve-wracking not having Ed be able to communicate with me during takeoff, but as he reminded me once he was plugged back into the intercom – yelling over the sound of the engine was the way everyone learned to fly until just a few decades ago.
We flew northeast, towards Redmond and Lake Sammamish, and started by searching for Radar Lake, a lake that my friend Mel’s family had built for waterskiing. Ed took the controls and circled at about a thousand feet above the lake while I took pictures. If you look closely at the pictures below, you can see the water ski jumps in the middle of the lake and the loops for turnarounds at both ends.
Radar LakeFrom there we headed further east, where we practiced S-turns and turns around a point. Turns around a point I nailed every time I tried them, and didn’t have any problem adjusting for the wind – which was easy because there really wasn’t any. S-turns were a bit more difficult, and I had a hard time getting equal half circles on both sides of the line we were following (a road). We followed the road north and south a few times, practicing, and I got a little bit better towards the end. I can tell that this is one area that I’m going to need practice at.
S-Turns and Turns Around a PointNext up was a practice emergency landing over Carnation. At about 3000 feet, Ed pulled the throttle to idle, had me set for 65 knots (the Cessna 172’s optimum glide speed – the speed that gives you the longest distance to glide before coming to the ground), and then identify a spot where I could land. I found a farmer’s field, and circled over it until I’d lost enough altitude to line up for final. While circling, I went over the checklist, which has an emergency section. Once you’ve gotten lined up so that you can land if you have to, you start working on getting the engine going again. Of course, Ed didn’t actually shut the engine down, so I just mimicked the steps that I would take in that situation.
After a few loops, we had dropped to 1000 feet, and I extended my loop out, turned around and continued to descend like the farmer’s field was a runway. At about five hundred feet, I put in full throttle, raised flaps, and gained altitude.
Practice Emergency LandingWe practiced slips as we flew west towards Lake Sammamish, where we were planning on doing a fly-around of my apartment and Marymoor Dog Park. Just as we were flying over the east shore of the lake, an Eagle dove in front of us and flew directly towards us. He swerved side to side a few times – reminding me of a deer in headlights – before diving out of our way with little room to spare.
The Eagle, My Apartment and MarymoorAfter a few loops around the park and my apartment, we flew south over Lake Washington to land back at Boeing. I flew the plane until we turned final and had Ed “show” me a smooth landing. I was disappointed with myself for not landing it, but I didn't like the idea of landing while being isolated from my instructor so early in my flight training (since he was off of the intercom and on his portable radio), and I think I was still a little bit edgy after the landing on my last flight.
My Apartment Complex and Lake Sammamish
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