Page 3 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 21 to 30 of 50

Thread: Buying your own plane for training

  1. #21

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Arkansas
    Posts
    47
    Let us know how the Zodiac does with power on stalls. I've been doing them with my student in the SkyCatcher, but the other day, we had one where the left wing really dropped and the plane twisted up a good 20 degrees or so before I could get my foot stomped down on the rudder...

  2. #22

    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    28
    Quote Originally Posted by 67jwbruce View Post
    Let us know how the Zodiac does with power on stalls. I've been doing them with my student in the SkyCatcher, but the other day, we had one where the left wing really dropped and the plane twisted up a good 20 degrees or so before I could get my foot stomped down on the rudder...
    Even with power on stalls, you really have to work at it to get it to stall and then the nose drops wings level.

  3. #23

    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    28
    Quote Originally Posted by lazair2 View Post
    Great job! I give Sport Pilot training across the sound from you in CT in a J3. You were smart to get your own plane. I have to turn down a lot of people because of their weight. Due to my own weight and the useful load of the airplane I'm restricted to students who weigh less than 220 lbs. That's only about half the people who call me for instruction so I turn too many away.........
    Yes, I believe I checked you out. I would have had to lose 40# which, hopefully I will do anyway but it wasn't going to happen in a realistic time frame. I'm about half way there.

  4. #24

    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    28
    Lesson#3: Emergency procedures. What to do when your engine quits, if you need to make an emergency descent and what to do if there is a fire, etc. My instructor uses A-B-C-D-E; Airspeed, pitch for best glide. Best place to land, preferable no people, firm surface, no obstructions. Checklist, use the engine restart checklist (memorize it). Declare an emergency, call mayday (who, what, where) on 121.5, squawk 7700. Execute the landing, setup for a good approach, turn everything off, unlatch the canopy and land the plane. As always, the instructor demonstrated first. I'm pretty sure there are a few people who were at Smithpoint Park who were wondering just what we were doing. He picked a parking lot as his landing site and down to about 500 feet looked like he was actually going to do it. So I practiced this several times and we also did emergency descents including using a forward slip. I'm beginning to realize that I can put the plane in a steep bank and do other maneuvers and the wings won't fall off and we won't plummet to the Earth. Which is a good thing because the next lesson is ground reference maneuvers and performance maneuvers so we're going to be doing steep turns. I'm also getting better at holding altitude and airspeed. Most importantly, I'm having fun!

  5. #25

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Arkansas
    Posts
    47
    Great, sounds like fun!

  6. #26

    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    28
    I wanted to start this post off by saying this was the first week I got 2 lessons in, but I think technically Sunday is the start of the week. Today was a make up lesson since my instructor decided to go away this weekend so I missed my scheduled Thursday lesson. Since I've now scheduled 3 lessons a week to avoid the 1 lesson weeks, if the weather co-operates, I'll have 4 lessons this week. Anyway, today we practiced turns about a point and steep turns. We also reviewed the engine out procedures. Not an ideal day for an LSA, 10kt winds with 17kt gusts. Let's just say, I'll need more practice. And it looks like I'll be getting it since the winds are going to stick around for the week. Total time: 5.5 hours

  7. #27

    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    28
    So I now know what it feels like to be shot down. Yes, that's right we were practicing takeoffs and landings. My takeoffs are better as I'm able to maintain the runway heading. My patterns also seem pretty consistent as I was turning downwind in about the same place each time. It helps that there was a convenient line of power lines to use as a reference. Struggling a bit with maintaining my speed/altitude on the base. I figure another couple hundred and I'll have it down.

  8. #28

    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Arkansas
    Posts
    47
    Quote Originally Posted by chuckiec View Post
    I figure another couple hundred and I'll have it down.
    You hit the nail on the head. Practice, Practice, Practice. Then one day you'll be introducing a friend to the art of flying, you'll say 'here do this' and when he can't do it because he's all over the place and you say 'no, lets do it kinda like this..' ; you may just smile a little and realize that somewhere, somehow in all that practice some skill crept in there.

  9. #29

    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    28
    More take-offs and landings today. I'm slowly getting better. Taking everyone's suggestions and putting them to use. My instructor pointed out that it's hard to keep my plane in the white arc so I need to be mindful of that. So I have one eye on the airspeed and the other trying to gauge the pitch of the nose. Pretty soon I'm going to look like Marty Feldman. My approaches are pretty good just need to work on my alignment and flare. The instructor demonstrated and then had me do what he calls "ground proximity maneuvers". Ok, so making "S" turns over the runway at about 5 feet (maybe it was less) is a bit unsettling. Looks like more of the same tomorrow. Hey, practice makes perfect. Total time: 7.4 hrs

  10. #30

    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Posts
    28
    Touch-n-Gos R US. More landing practice today, 1.9 hours worth and 3 different airports; KHWV(my home base), KFOK and KHTO. KFOK is a class D and apparently has a 3 touch-n-go limit. Not an ideal day as it was a bit bumpy and the ceiling was about 2000' or less in spots. Today was also the first day that the Rotax took some coaxing to get started. Hope this is not what I have to look forward to with the cooler weather. I'm getting better, had some landings without any instructor intervention. And since we were airport hopping got to practice holding altitude at higher power settings. So looks like if I continue to progress, soloing should be in a week or so. Total time: 9.3 hours

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •