Flight Lesson № 31

Same route as the previous lesson: we headed west past Stanford and did airwork near the Stanford Dish. Another simulated engine failure, which I felt better about. I picked up the acronym (A)irspeed – pitch/trim for best glide, (B)est landing spot – find one, go there, (C)hecklist – read it. Somewhere after (B), I run through my mental checklist of fuel, mixture, mags. A mayday call should be in there somewhere too, but the ABC acronym is handy if that's all I have mental bandwidth for.

Another handy mnemonic, one for squawk codes: 75 taken alive (hijacking), 76 radio glitch (radio malfunction), 77 going to heaven (emergency). Kind of morbid but it gets the job done. I've also heard that if switching your transponder to 7600 because your radio failed, you should avoid passing through 7500 because that will make your radar return all sorts of interesting colors on everyone's radar screens, but that sounds like something I'd forget and accidentally do.

Stalls and slow flight are feeling really good. Steep turns could use work, but I think I'm within limits right now.

Landings I need work. I need to stop being passive about the approach and commit to fighting the wind all the way to the ground as soon as I start my descent.

• Flight Hours: Δ1.3   Σ31.7
• METAR KPAO 072247Z 31016KT 10SM SKC 21/09 A3004