The “easy” stuff

Had a bit of spare time before I needed to get home, so I called Kent, and the plane was available. Set up my new HoodLamb (a device that hooks on to your headset that goes over your face to limit your view to only the instrument panel), and got right into it with a zero-zero (zero ceiling, zero visibility) takeoff. The trick here is to line right up on the runway centerline, set the DG (directional gyro) to match the runway heading, and focus on it during the ground roll. I was a bit squirrely, but not bad for my first time.

Then it was just off for some straight and level flight and VOR tracking. Trick here is to PRECISELY trim the plane, leaving you free for all the other items. After a bit of that, we did some constant airspeed climbs and descents, climbing and descending turns and then some altitude control exercises. Very enlightening. Turns out that the VSI (vertical speed indicator) is actually a very useful instrument.

Then we asked SoCal approach for a practice ILS into Van Nuys to go home. I can hardly say I flew it myself, but I learned plenty. I’m excited about training again!