Finally restarted my flying lessons.

I had the pre-solo check ride Friday. It was a great learning experience, and I need to learn more before I'm ready to solo. My basic airmanship skills seem to be OK, but I need to work on situational awareness: having the big picture of traffic near me, and airspace awareness. Also, consistently using checklists.

I was supposed to have a lesson tomorrow, but the plane I had reserved is in Montana and won't be back until tomorrow night. I'm leaving on a 10-day vacation, Tuesday. and the runway is closed for repaving for a week so the earliest I can fly would be the 31st. (Edited to change the date.)
 
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Crashnburn said:
I had the pre-solo check ride Friday. It was a great learning experience, and I need to learn more before I'm ready to solo. My basic airmanship skills seem to be OK, but I need to work on situational awareness: having the big picture of traffic near me, and airspace awareness. Also, consistently using checklists.

I was supposed to have a lesson tomorrow, but the plane I had reserved is in Montana and won't be back until tomorrow night. I'm leaving on a 10-day vacation, Tuesday. and the runway is closed for repaving for a week so the earliest I can fly would be the 31st. (Edited to change the date.)
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I had my first lesson in more than a month yesterday. The weather was severe clear and light winds. I had a new (to me) instructor. I did a power off stall, a power on stall, 6 touch and goes and one landing to a full stop, with almost zero input from my instructor.

Funny thing, on my first landing, I had the plane in the flare for what seemed like forever, which is what they've been trying to get me to do forever.

I bounced one landing because I didn't start my roundout soon enough, but much better, AFAIC, than too high.

I'm starting to make noises about doing a leaseback at Vector Air. I have the contact information of the person to talk to about it. If he's not interested, then that'll be it. I have read Cap'n Jack's leaseback advice.

I'm not trying to make money with a leaseback, just take care of some of my rental costs, and most importantly, have a plane that has a schedule I can depend on. At the beginning of the week, I had a lesson scheduled for M - F. This morning, Tuesday's and Wednesday's lessons have been cancelled.
 
So when is the new projected solo date? Sounds like you are ready!
 
Randomskylane said:
So when is the new projected solo date? Sounds like you are ready!
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Thanks, I don't know. I flew again yesterday. If anything, my landings were better than they were when I left off last week.

I dropped every landing in last week. Yesterday, I flared, the stall warning horn started mewing, and the wheels went chirp, chirp, and I was right on the center line.
Wind was 13004 and no turbulence. If you can't land in those conditions, you can't land. The rest of my landings were in that ballpark.

It was dusk when we quit. I'd made 6 landings but noticed and mentioned to my CFI that it took a lot more effort to brake right than left so we called it a day. I felt like I could have done at least 6 more and been fine making night landings.

Also, I'm getting better at situational awareness and checklists.

I'm scheduled for the same plane this afternoon, I hope it's fixed by then.

Patrick, the guy at the desk, Garran, my CFI, and I were joking about what bad luck I have with weather and airplanes.

I think it was Thomas Edison who said "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration". For me, I would add in a healthy amount of perseverance.
 
I might be down to the last few mouthfuls of elephant as far as soloing goes.
TLDR: I flew well enough on my (unexpected) pre-solo check ride today to solo.

I flew yesterday afternoon and evening, and made 8 touch and go landings, and two full stop landings. When we were done, my CFI, Garran, offered some tips on how to set up for going to another airport, weather first, then comms, then the GPS. (That came in handy today.) After we landed, he said he'd try to get me set up for a pre-solo check ride this week. (What I thought previously was a pre solo check ride wasn't. Just as well, I wasn't ready then.)

Yesterday's flight started late in the afternoon, and it got progressively darker as time went on. It was still officially daytime my last landing, but dark enough to be night, and I nailed it.

Today, I was partly through the pre-flight when Garran came out and apologized. He said he had planned on flying with me today, but another CFI's student had cancelled, he asked Levi, the CFI, if he was willing to give me a pre solo check ride, and he said "yes".

So, after a while Levi came out and we introduced ourselves and I let him look through my logbook. I finished my pre-flight and managed to remember everything on the check list. We were supposed to stay in the pattern for the option, and he also wanted to see a forward slip.

I flew the pattern, and on final, he had me do a forward slip. I had full flaps in and had pulled the throttle when he told me to go around, which I did. It was no big deal, as it wasn't my first go around. He said he did that to try to see how I did under stress. That stress was about the size of a pimple on an elephant's butt compared to what I've been through!

Then, we flew to Longmont where I did some touch and goes. After that, we flew to the practice area and did some steep turns, a power on stall, and some slow flight. I wasn't happy with my first attempt at a steep turn as I was out of practice and spent too much time looking at the instruments. The second one he blocked the instruments and it was much better because I watched the horizon on the IP. I tried the one to the left again, and it went much better. He said my first attempt was fine, even though I got really close to 60 degrees bank.

We flew back to KEIK, and I shot two landings in the dark. I hadn't had the experience of landing in the dark w/o working up to it for almost 20 years, and each time I flared a little late, but the 2nd was better than the first. But Levi said he wasn't going to flunk me because night landings weren't part of the syllabus for that flight.

At the end of it, Levi said he couldn't clear me to solo, but that wasn't his decision. He said he wouldn't have any objection to me soloing. The decision is up to Garran.
Levi also said I found some traffic before he did.

I fly with Garran tomorrow, plane and weather permitting.
 
I was expecting to kick off my training wheels yesterday, but Garran said he didn't want to leave me up in the dark, alone, so I didn't solo. However, we flew to Longmont, and I made a lot of touch and go landings, including one short field landing (it was more like a spot landing).

When I flew with Levi, my first two landings the wheels chirped, and then I was back to normal. Yesterday, I don't know how I did it, but my first two landings they were so smooth the wheels didn't even chirp. After that my landings were back to normal.

I've discovered my landings are better if they are at least somewhat stabilized, and I'm not having to salvage them on short final. I didn't have to salvage any of them last night, and they were all pretty good. I'm thinking now that if I'm trying to salvage a landing at the last minute, especially after dark, it's time to go around. That's what everyone has been saying since airplanes were invented!

The runway is closed for painting today, so assuming good weather and the plane is available, I'll fly with Garran tomorrow. He said on one downwind he was going to solo me Friday and wear a shirt I don't like because he is going to cut it off me. The only shirts I don't care about much that I have available are T-shirts, so that's what he'll cut off me.

I feel a lot better about soloing now than I did what was it, two months ago?
 
I didn't fly Friday. The runway was closed so they could finish painting. I have a lesson scheduled at 3:30 Monday, and another one at 1:30 Tuesday.

I now have an endorsement to take the FAA knowledge exam from Garran. I've been scoring in the 90's on practice tests, so I think I should be good to go.
 
Last night's flight was canceled due to a weather trifecta. The wind was coming up, the clouds were moving in, and the ceiling was getting lower. I decided to cancel before my CFI turned into a no-show. Also, on the way home, we started getting freezing drizzle. If nothing else, I'm getting good at ADM and choosing the "no-go" option.

I woke up to a light dusting of snow, but it's sunny and bright. I'm hoping the weather holds until my flight this afternoon.
 
I actually flew this afternoon. The wind started out weird and didn't get much better. Neither of the three windsocks agreed with each other, nor AWOS. We decided on 16 for the first three flights. The second landing I encountered wind shear just as I was about to flare. Surprisingly enough to me, I felt the plane start to bottom out on me and it seemed like it was descending too fast, so I mightily hauled back on the yoke and made a decent landing.

The third landing we had a crosswind at pattern altitude and a 30-knot tail wind on final! I figured I would need more of the runway than usual and didn't try to force the plane down.

After that, I made a couple circuits on 34 until the direct crosswind got to 15G19 knots. That took a major crosswind correction. It felt like I was doing a forward slip just to stay lined up with the runway. I don't have the reactions Ethan does (yet), so he kept the plane over the runway during the flare. On final, I decided that this was getting a little too gnarly for me; before I said anything, Ethan said that this would be the last flight of the day. I agreed with him.

This wasn't a pre-solo check ride, but he said that I'm ready. I fly with Garran on Thursday; plane being available and weather permitting.
 
Sounds like a first solo might be imminent! Just out of curiosity, how many hours are you up to now? @Crashnburn
 
I must be missing something here: 30 knot tailwind on final?

Anyway good luck tomorrow
 
Crashnburn said:
I actually flew this afternoon. The wind started out weird and didn't get much better. Neither of the three windsocks agreed with each other, nor AWOS. We decided on 16 for the first three flights. The second landing I encountered wind shear just as I was about to flare. Surprisingly enough to me, I felt the plane start to bottom out on me and it seemed like it was descending too fast, so I mightily hauled back on the yoke and made a decent landing.

The third landing we had a crosswind at pattern altitude and a 30-knot tail wind on final! I figured I would need more of the runway than usual and didn't try to force the plane down.

After that, I made a couple circuits on 34 until the direct crosswind got to 15G19 knots. That took a major crosswind correction. It felt like I was doing a forward slip just to stay lined up with the runway. I don't have the reactions Ethan does (yet), so he kept the plane over the runway during the flare. On final, I decided that this was getting a little too gnarly for me; before I said anything, Ethan said that this would be the last flight of the day. I agreed with him.

This wasn't a pre-solo check ride, but he said that I'm ready. I fly with Garran on Thursday; plane being available and weather permitting.
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Your perception of wind shear as a pre solo student is amazing!
 
Thanks, all.

Ethan said 30 knots. I wasn't watching ground speed, and after I cut power, I just paid attention to the landing. He saw the ground speed and air speed difference.

I'm right around 200 hours.

I didn't perceive it as wind shear, more like my descent rate was to high so I needed to pull back on the yoke more to arrest the descent. BTDT already.

There's a very light breeze and it should be around 48 degrees F when I fly early this afternoon.
 
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