I got back to flying last night after two weeks away. I was worried that I had forgotten all of the procedures and the feel of the plane but all the memories were still there. I think I did my best takeoff yet, a nice, straight roll down the runway; and it was my first short-field takeoff, where a bit of flaps are used and we go for best angle of climb (altitude gain with respect to horizontal distance) instead of best climb (altitude gain with respect to time).
And it was a good thing I didn't forget much because we were going to work on something big! We were going to start training for landings!
The first thing to do in training for landings is to find a nice, big runway so that when I screw up, there's still plenty of runway left to fix it and no one dies. We headed southwest to Trenton-Mercer Airport (KTTN) for this purpose, which has two asphalt runways: 06/24 at 6006 × 150 ft (over a mile of runway!) and 16/34 at 4800 × 150 ft. Compared to my home airport's 3735 × 50 ft, this was quite nice.
Landings are usually practiced by doing touch-and-go's, where once a plane touches down, it immediately comes back on the power and takes off again without losing much speed on the ground. This allows for getting in a lot of landings in one session.
Last night's aircraft.
So first time practicing landings, first time to another airport, and also first time at a controlled airport where there is a tower that tells planes what to do. I asked my instructor to handle the comms this first time since I figured I'd have my hands full with the landings, but it was good to at least listen to how the conversations go and imagine how that will factor into my workload.
A small plane lands by descending towards the end of the runway and then flaring to ideally bring its vertical speed to zero just as it touches the ground. From the cockpit, the approach descent looks very much like flying directly into the ground, but my instructor assures me this is how it's done. There are definitely some primal instincts (David, ground, plane, bad) that need to be overruled during approach. The landing flare amounts to slowly pitching the nose up near the ground to bleed off speed, arrest the descent, and ultimately stop the wings from lifting. Sounds easy. Actually, not really; it's much easier to watch than it is to describe, but hopefully I made some sense.
My first landing (ever!) was pretty smooth. Not quite a continuous motion in the flare, but a reasonably gentle touchdown. Though at that point I had forgotten we were doing touch-and-go's and instead of celebrating, my instructor was frantically calling out how to get back in the air. Flaps, throttle, carb heat, etc. (quickly now).
We got back in the pattern and did three more landings before heading back to N51. Some were better than others, but none were horrific. Again, I stress that no one died. Sometimes I flared too much too soon and the plane dropped when I was done with my flare and the ground had not met the wheels yet. Once I didn't flare enough and we met the ground before I was ready. But overall, I know I can improve and I know how to improve (simply a lot of practice).
I always feel less nervous about flying after a lesson than before it because it's never as difficult as I imagine it might be, but I felt this relief especially after last night's lesson because in a way, all the cards are on the table now. Flying is some combination of climbing, turning, and descending, with a takeoff and a landing at each end. Roughly speaking, if I can do these things, then I can fly. There isn't anything major left to be introduced to, it's just a matter of honing what I've already done.
- Flight Hours: 7.7
- METAR KTTN 012353Z 17006KT 9SM CLR 27/19 A3002
- METAR N51 020030Z 16003KT 10SM CLR 26/19 A3005
A blimp at the airport today. At night it's lit from the inside like a giant lantern, but surprisingly, I didn't notice it until after we landed and were taxiing. My CFI said they're smaller than you think when you're flying. Also, I think it's so cool that the things they attach to on the ground are called moorings. And that rocket ships also have moorings. Boats can't fly through outer-space but we can damn-well pretend.
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