Why are you reading this?

Today we only logged half an hour.  The plan was to stay in the pattern and do a few touch & gos, with me doing all of the radio work.  The first takeoff was OK; I got clearance and taxi instructions, contacted tower, we lined up and off we went — slight crosswind from the right on runway 14L.  We made one circuit and did a t&g on 14L, my first one — no sweat.

So we went around, got lined up, we were over the numbers when John said we were going to go around (just so I’d know how).  Full throttle, carb heat off, positive climb, flaps up.  No sweat, climb back up and make the left turn for crosswind and downwind.  We were on the downwind leg when Tower said to keep it close in, there was a Citation on 4 mile final and we were #1.  Or were we #2?  We called back and asked…  “33F, you were #1 but that’s not going to work.  Turn left and cross mid-field, enter right downwind for 14L.”  OK, fine…  no problem. It felt a little odd overflying the airport at midfield, and a right-hand pattern was new for me.  Gotta work to get a view of the runway on that base turn!  Now I know how Cessna pilots feel.  It was also a little weird flying past 14R to get to 14L.

By this time the wind had shifted and picked up significantly. We’d make one last landing, full stop, and call it a day. Now the wind was 20K or more from 180, and we’re still using 14L. I had the right wing low, plenty of left rudder… John doesn’t like to just crab in for a crosswind landing; he wants to see a slip. His way of thinking is, you can crab in when there’s too much crosswind for the airplane to safely land. If you’re carrying a whole lot of rudder and aileron and are still getting blown off the centerline, well, maybe you shouldn’t land. I can see his point. Anyway, I was doing pretty well… using the PAPI lights, keeping the nose down, staying lined up as much as I could. Crossed the numbers still carrying a lot of power, or so I thought. I started to flare a little high (as I often do, I’m working on that) and made the mistake of pulling power back a couple hundred RPM. We ballooned, I didn’t get on the throttle fast enough, John took it and got us on the ground with only a minor thump. I was actually just starting to shove the throttle in and was going to go around when he said, “My airplane”.

I know what I did wrong, and I know the only way to avoid it is practice.  I need a lot more practice landing.  Still, the plane — and I — will fly again.

Today I flew with a new CFI, since John is still out of town for a couple days yet.  Jerome and I had to wait a while for the plane to return, during which time Jerome explained the ground reference maneuvers we’d be doing.  Jerome handled radios today, which was a bit of a relief.  I hadn’t been up in over 2 weeks, and I was definitely feeling it.

After a smooth takeoff on 32R we turned east toward the practice area past Traynor, IA.  Jerome demonstrated each of the maneuvers, then I tried my hand at them.  Pretty sloppy on the first couple attempts!  I was losing altitude (at times 300′ or more) and getting blown off center badly.  Once I got the airplane properly trimmed and set up, though, and figured out what I was doing wrong, I got a lot better.  The last pylon figure 8 was not too terrible — I was only off by about a hundred yards or so at the end, and we did have some winds to deal with.  By the time we were ready to head back I was feelign much more confident — and was also maintaining altitude within 50′ all the way around.

The plane has a non moving map GPS, so Jerome showed me how to use it to get the heading and distance back home.  We were cleared direct and did a straight in approach, something new for me.  I have to say that, aside from drifting off to the right of the center line, it was my best landing yet — I greased it in nice and smooth with the stall horn sounding the alarm the last foot or so, and got slowed down quickly enough to make the first taxiway.  All in all a very productive flight.

Today’s flight was again in the slightly newer Cherokee Flight Liner. This time John sent me out to do the preflight, which was uneventful other than a couple of minor issues. The nose gear strut was low again, and we have a stall warning light but no horn. I tried out my new kneeboard and a nice little communication sheet (from Sporty’s) that helps me remember all of the clearance, ground, towe, and departure/approach stuff. I did all of the radio work during taxi & takeoff, and did it reasonably well. We took off from a different direction this time — 32R instead of 14L. Climb and departure were smooth and uneventful.

We did slow flight; I made a smooth 360 turn at MCAS with the stall warning light nagging at me the whole way around. Altitude hold wasn’t perfect, but I did’t lose more than about 150 feet. From there we did power on and power off stalls, then headed to BTA (using the sectional to determine pattern altitude and CTAF) for some T&G. Or we would have, except that it was getting late and someone had the plane scheduled, so after one landing we high-tailed it back to OMA. ATC had us do some maneuvering to stay out of the way of departing and arriving traffic, and I got a little turned around and had to think hard about which way we were heading and which way the runway ran. We covered that with the sectional after we lended. John handled the radios on the way in while I flew, and while I wouldn’t call the landing a “greaser” it was a lot better than the rather abrupt flop I had subjected the poor plane to at BTA a few minutes earlier.

All in all I felt a lot more at ease during most phases of the flight than ever. My takeoffs are a lot better, with almost no wandering off the centerline. I’ll need some more practice with stalls just to make the recovery smooth and automatic. Landings are getting better, I just need to work on timing the flare better. The first landing today was a little abrupt, I flared too early and dropped in from a foot or so up. Hey, maybe I can get the main gear struts to match the nose. But I was happy that coming into OMA I was able to make corections to get and keep us on the glide path, while staying aligned with the runway centerline.

We flew again today. When we got to the plane we had scheduled, N5533F I got the checklist and started the preflight. #1… Master switch ON. Oops. The last person to fly it had left the master on, and the plane was stone dead. Not wanting to hand prop it (no way I’m doing it) we grabbed another Cherokee 140, N698FL that the chief pilot was about to fly to North Omaha (3NO) for some maintenance on the front gear. All good on preflight and runup, I made tha radio calls to Clearance, Ground & Tower (poorly). I made a good takeoff and we turned North.

John told me he would make the landing at 3NO, because the runway is short, narrow and has trees pretty close in. After getting air added to the front strut I taxied back down and did a short field takeoff. The hop to Blair (BTA) only took a few minutes. We crossed midfield and I made my FIRST EVER landing — woohoo! It was actually pretty good, and I remembered to raise the flaps before using the brakes (no toe brakes in this bird). We did three more normal takeoffs and landings. There was a light crosswind, so I was slipping in with right aileron and left rudder.

By the time we did our last takeoff the sun was going down, we couldn’t get the panel lights on and John’s headset was not working, so we headed back to OMA. I made a halfway decent landing on 14L and we taxied back. So, I went from zero to four unassisted landings, did some radio work, a short field takeoff, pattern flying and gained a ton of confidence.

At one point on my last flight I was wondering if I had made a mistake, and if I’d be able to do this thing I’ve dreamed of since I can remember. After today there is no doubt in my mind. I can, I will, and it’s just going to get better. Now I need to practice comms and memorize checklists. John wants me to do the flows from memory and just use the checklist to verify.

Well, after a few days of weather-induced delays, I finally got in a training flight yesterday.  Hey, it’s only been 9-1/2 years since my last flight! No matter that no CFI who has ever flown with me is still a CFI… and who cares if half the planes I have flown are no longer flying?

So I preflighted N5533F, tucked my new CFI (John) into the right seat and off we went. I was able to taxi much better than I remembered doing before. This was my first time flying from a tower controlled airport — Eppley (KOMA) instead of Millard (KMLE) where I’ve flown before, so I got to put my ground school self-study knowledge to work. We got taxi clearance and I was able to follow the signs and tell John (before he asked) where we’d be stopping, and why. Cleared for 14L, and up we went… after a little veering and white knuckles. Let’s say it was not my smoothest takeoff, and that stall warning light will definitely get your attention, but we got off the ground and out of the area.

The weather was not the best. 6 mile vis, overcast at 3500 AGL so we stayed under 3000 (2000 or so AGL). Flew up to a practice area and did some basic maneuvers, and after getting over the initial jitters I was pretty comfortable. I had forgotten how much flying a Cherokee feels like piloting a soda can in the ocean. I did OK, though, especially holding altitude in turns and such. The ceiling was dropping and visibility was getting noticeably shorter, so we headed back. John took the yoke on the base leg because by now the crosswind was a bit more than he thought I was ready for.

I have two previous training flights in the log book — one from 1999, and one in 2002. Hopefully now that some of the pre-emptive priorities are not as big a factor, I’ll be able to get scheduled regularly and finish up soon. John’s feedback during the post-flight debrief was that he thought I’d be ready to solo in a pretty short time. On the next flight we’ll likely go up to Blair (KBTA) and do some touch-and-gos.

While I was not able to meet my goal of doing an unassisted landing on today’s flight, at least I was prepared for the sight picture on approach and knew what to expect — John just felt that it wasn’t a good day for me to make my first landing. The other two times I lost confidence on final and asked the CFI to do it. I hadn’t done an approach in a small plane before; airliners come in with a significantly nose-high attitude, and it kind of freaked me out to point the nose at the runway and fly it into the ground. This time I was ready for it, and even was able to watch the PAPI lights and know we were a little low and needed power. But… I’m confident I’ll be able to bring it in all the way on the next flight.

Had a training flight scheduled for this morning, but of course weather moved in overnight and it’s not going to happen.  With ceilings at 1200-1500 AGL, it’s not exactly a good day for primary training.  Instrument training, maybe…  or maybe not, depending on icing conditions.  So…  time to re-schedule, I guess.  Wish I’d have set it up for yesterday!

Today I went down the Eppley (KOMA) to meet with the chief pilot of Flight Nebraska Group.  I had never been on the GA side of Ellpey before.  I found out that Elliot Aviation sold out to Signature a few months ago, so now we’ll have an overpriced FBO if we need it.  :)  The Tac Air FBO (where FNG is also located) is really nice, especially compared to a couple of much smaller places I have visited.  That’s really not so much a factor, since it’s not like I’ll be bumming around there a lot.  But, if you have to be somewhere, you may as well be somewhere nice.

The overcast was too low for flying, but we had a good long chat covering a lot of ground.  We discussed FNG and their operations and aircraft, my goals for training, safety, war stories, general hangar talk.  Looks like a good bunch of people, so I have a lesson scheduled for next Tuesday morning – weather permitting.

It’s time.