Today we worked on turns around a point, S turns across a road, and
simulated engine failure.
Turns around a point seemed hard for me at first. I have a tendency to look
out over the wing tip at the ground reference and forget to look forward
once in a while to check my attitude. As a result, my altitude was not
constant and I let my airspeed drop. After a couple of gentle reminders, I
set up a constant bank turn and glanced out over the wing and darned if the
ground point was right where it should be. Looking back out the front, the
horizon was in its place too. And the altitude was pretty good. Every few
seconds, I would check on the ground point, then check the instrument panel,
and then back out the windscreen. My ground point stayed fairly close to the
place it should be off my wing. Maybe turns around a point won’t be so bad
after all.
Next we did S turns across a road. I already had a heads up, so I came
across the road at 90° (more or less). Instead of looking at the road again,
I set up a standard turn and tried to concentrate on proper bank angle and
maintaining altitude and airspeed. Sure enough, 180° later, there was the
road right where it should be. Quick, get the wings level. Now another turn
in the opposite direction. Watch that headwind; less bank angle should do
the trick. We did a couple more turns and I was starting to enjoy this
maneuver.
I’m just starting to relax when the engine quit (simulated, of course). I
picked a field close by. It had ruts running the same direction I was flying
so I tried to use a standard left hand pattern. Uh oh, that won’t work, I’m
too low. Then I thought I would land across the ruts when my instructor
pointed out a nearby field that looked like a grass field. Perfect, now full
power and back to altitude.
Today was quite a workout.
That’s all for now. Check back for my next lesson in sport pilot training.
-Jon
