Flight Lesson № 12

Now that the sun sets earlier, evening lessons after work are less attractive since I would be in the dark the entire time. It's beautiful and peaceful in the dark, and other traffic is actually easier to see (assuming they remembered to turn on their strobes), but it's more difficult to judge the runway centerline and the instrument lighting in these old 152s is almost nonexistent. I tried a 0900 lesson yesterday, getting back home to work remotely before 1100, and that worked out alright.

Weekday mornings are great because no one else is really flying and I had the airport to myself. The cooler air also makes for happier engines and wings.

In the feeling stuck aftermath of my previous lesson, I made a point to review the techniques I needed to focus on and mentally run through the takeoff and landing sequences. When I first started flying, I had a tendency to over-control the airplane and I had to consciously tell myself to back off and let the plane fly itself, which it does quite well if you let it; but pattern work isn't the same as flying at altitude. The name of the game when you're low and slow is precision flying, by which I mean airspeed, engine speed, and airplane position all have exact places they should be during all phases of takeoff and landing, and any deviation needs to be corrected immediately. Over-control in the pattern isn't the best phrase, but a vigilant nursing of everything the plane is doing is required.

This attitude paid off. I felt more like I could keep at least a step ahead of what I was doing. Remembering to use the trim wheel really does help relieve workload. I remembered to make radio position reports at all the reporting points, I remembered to set the flaps on each leg, and I did better at a stable final approach.

On the first landing we did, my instructor called for a go-around (for practice, my approach was actually spot on). A go-around is an aborted landing, where the engine is brought to full power, flaps are progressively brought back up, and the plane climbs away from the runway, presumably to try the landing again. These are good to practice in case your approach ends up being really bad by the time you get down, or another airplane doesn't see you and taxis onto the runway, or there's wildlife on the runway, etc. The go-around went well except I forgot to turn off carb heat during climb-out.

We also did a no-flap landing, where because flaps aren't used, we come in faster and flatter on final. It also means we flare longer and land longer down the runway because we need to bleed off the excess speed. It's interesting how a little extra speed (70 kts vs. 65 kts) has such a noticeable effect. No-flap landings are useful if your electrical system fails and you can't extend flaps.

I feel like I've gone over a hump in the training, but more likely it's just proof I need to put more effort into reviewing technique in between lessons.

• Flight Hours: 11.4
• METAR N51 271400Z 04005KT 10SM CLR 07/02 A3058

What planes look like when they're sleeping.