Flight Time: 1.4 hours
Total Time: 2.9 hours
I arrived at Boeing Field early again today, and waited for Ed near the plane. I didn’t know the pre-flight checklist well enough to do it without Ed, so I just waited. Once he arrived, we got through it faster than yesterday, but it still took quite a while. He assured me that once I get to know it, the process takes no more than five or ten minutes. I hope that’s true, because it’s taking a good fifteen or twenty minutes right now.
We took off to the north on the short runway again and headed back towards Lake Sammamish. Once over the lake, we started with slow flight. With slow flight, you pull back the throttle to slow down and extend the flaps. When full flaps are extended, you use the throttle to maintain altitude, while using the elevator to maintain a speed between 45 and 50 knots. That speed is well below the stall speed of the Cessna 172, but the flaps decrease the angle of attack, allowing you to keep flying at a slower speed than is normally possible.
From slow flight, Ed had me try power off stalls, which simulates a stall (loss of lift/flight) during landing. The power off stall is similar to slow flight, but you pull the engine back to idle, while pulling up on the controls to maintain altitude until the wings can’t support the plane. At this point, the stall warning horn begins blaring, the plane starts to shudder and the nose drops. To get out of the stall you just release back pressure, push in the throttle to full power and the raise the nose to level while maintaining speed.
Power off stalls were followed by power on stalls, which simulates a stall during takeoff. To begin a power off stall, I decreased speed until I was going about 65 knots, then pushed in full throttle and brought the nose of the plane up to a steeper than normal attitude, allowing the plane to continue to slow down until, once again, the stall warning horn went off, the plane shuddered and the nose dropped. To recover from a power on stall, though, all you do is drop the nose since you are already at full throttle.
The first few stalls were a little intimidating, particularly the power on stalls. Power on stalls were more difficult than power off because it took more work to keep the nose up rather than level, and it took more time for the stall to start, which means I had more time to think about what would happen when the stall started, and more work to keep the plane level leading up to the stall.
This flight was a little bit longer than the last because we were covering so much more, and when we were finished we did a few touch and gos at Boeing Field. I was nervous on both landings, and on my first I remember flying over a parked cargo jet and being struck by how odd it was to be looking down on an airport from that perspective. With the steep angle we were descending at with full flaps in, it felt like we were going to touch down on top of the planes. Ed assured me that we were fine, and we continued along, touching down just past the numbers. Once we were taxiing back to the parking area, Ed told me that two of the last three landings were done without any help from him – two unassisted landings on my second time up with him. He’s been happy with my progress so far, and while I’ve got a lot to learn, I’m feeling confident that I really can do this.
Total Time: 2.9 hours
I arrived at Boeing Field early again today, and waited for Ed near the plane. I didn’t know the pre-flight checklist well enough to do it without Ed, so I just waited. Once he arrived, we got through it faster than yesterday, but it still took quite a while. He assured me that once I get to know it, the process takes no more than five or ten minutes. I hope that’s true, because it’s taking a good fifteen or twenty minutes right now.
We took off to the north on the short runway again and headed back towards Lake Sammamish. Once over the lake, we started with slow flight. With slow flight, you pull back the throttle to slow down and extend the flaps. When full flaps are extended, you use the throttle to maintain altitude, while using the elevator to maintain a speed between 45 and 50 knots. That speed is well below the stall speed of the Cessna 172, but the flaps decrease the angle of attack, allowing you to keep flying at a slower speed than is normally possible.
From slow flight, Ed had me try power off stalls, which simulates a stall (loss of lift/flight) during landing. The power off stall is similar to slow flight, but you pull the engine back to idle, while pulling up on the controls to maintain altitude until the wings can’t support the plane. At this point, the stall warning horn begins blaring, the plane starts to shudder and the nose drops. To get out of the stall you just release back pressure, push in the throttle to full power and the raise the nose to level while maintaining speed.
Power off stalls were followed by power on stalls, which simulates a stall during takeoff. To begin a power off stall, I decreased speed until I was going about 65 knots, then pushed in full throttle and brought the nose of the plane up to a steeper than normal attitude, allowing the plane to continue to slow down until, once again, the stall warning horn went off, the plane shuddered and the nose dropped. To recover from a power on stall, though, all you do is drop the nose since you are already at full throttle.
The first few stalls were a little intimidating, particularly the power on stalls. Power on stalls were more difficult than power off because it took more work to keep the nose up rather than level, and it took more time for the stall to start, which means I had more time to think about what would happen when the stall started, and more work to keep the plane level leading up to the stall.
This flight was a little bit longer than the last because we were covering so much more, and when we were finished we did a few touch and gos at Boeing Field. I was nervous on both landings, and on my first I remember flying over a parked cargo jet and being struck by how odd it was to be looking down on an airport from that perspective. With the steep angle we were descending at with full flaps in, it felt like we were going to touch down on top of the planes. Ed assured me that we were fine, and we continued along, touching down just past the numbers. Once we were taxiing back to the parking area, Ed told me that two of the last three landings were done without any help from him – two unassisted landings on my second time up with him. He’s been happy with my progress so far, and while I’ve got a lot to learn, I’m feeling confident that I really can do this.
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