Finally, something substatial

Kent called this morning and said he had a cancellation in the afternoon – was I interested? With .3 hours in the last 8 days, I had to say YES.

He’d been flying all day (giving rides to kids all day for an EAA group he works with), so a full preflight was not required. I did the basics, and off we went. To the practice area first for some maneuvers, including slow flight, power off stalls and departure (power on) stalls. The departure stalls were interesting, because you just pull the nose up (and I mean WAY up) until the stall horn starts blaring, and then wait for the break. On the first one, I tried to steer a bit too much with the yoke, which has a tendency to stall one wing more than the other. What this results in (I soon found out) is the quick drop of the wing, and (if you’re not careful) a SPIRAL DIVE. No problem – just level the wings, keep the nose lowered, pull your heart out of your throat, stop screaming and recover. Piece of cake.

Back to the pattern for some touch n’ goes. The very first one I did, I did all by myself, and pretty good, too. Kent said that I was flaring a bit early, and landing harder than I needed to. The plane was on the ground, no damage, no injuries – sounds PERFECT to me. Fine – let’s do some more. We did 4 more before we can back in, learning something on all of them.

I’ve some to a point in my training where I think I really need to settle on a CFI – this back and forth between Kent and Marv is getting to be counter-productive. In an effort to make the BEST decision, I’ve scheduled a lesson on Tuesday with yet ANOTHER CFI from a nearby school – Richard Mend. Of the three he is the only professional instructor (the other guys have regular jobs) and comes highly recommended. By Tuesday noon, I’ll have made my decision.

1.3 hours/6.3 total