Lesson 2, 1.3hrs

As I'm driving to the airport for my 2nd lesson I'm thinking about all the stuff I want to remember and focus on, like taxiing down the center line, looking up and out more than at the instruments, maintaining 75 knots while climbing and landing. I'm thinking so hard I miss the exit for the freeway and have to drive up Columbian way and turn around. Hopefully this isn't indicative of how I'll perform in the lesson.

I operate the airport gate even though I don't yet have an airport badge. I drive through and it doesn't want to close behind me, but finally does after a few minutes. At the plane Ed tells me I likely didn't pull forward far enough.

Ed's been here only a couple of minutes, but he checked the fuel, which was low, and so called for the truck to come fuel us up. I guess the last person didn't call, or they are slow today.

I preflight the plane while Ed watches. I miss checking the landing gear and breaks, and the prop for chinks. I'll get these next time. We're still waiting for fuel so Ed quiz's me about a few things on the plane, and how the plane behaves when stalling.

The elevator has a piece that extends forward at the end called the "elevator horn". It is weighted and shaped aerodynamically to enhance control feel and counter aerodynamic pressures during flight.

A stall while turning: the wing on the outside of the turn will stall later than the wing on the inside of the turn because the cord of the inside wing at the ailerons more closely resembles the angle of attack.

The wings each have a bit of an upward twist at the trailing edge towards the tip. Ed called this "washout", and it exists so that the tips of the wing will stall later than the rest of the wing, if at all. This means that even in a stall the ailerons will still have some ability to affect roll.

The fuel truck is still nowhere to be seen and after a couple of phone calls we end up taxiing to Clay Lacy to get fuel faster. This time my taxiing is near perfect! Correct speed, and I stick the center line the whole way there. I get the radio calls right too.

After we get our fuel we call for clearance to depart via the "Mercer departure". This will have us taking off to the North and flying around Beacon hill, out past the tip of Mercer island. This is my first takeoff on 31R, the "short runway". It goes pretty well, but I want to focus next time on being more controlled about staying on the center line as we accelerate down the runway.

I have virtually no trouble maintaining 75 knots this time for our climb. And I'm looking outside more.

We head out to the practice area around Lake Sammamish. We practice slow flight with turns, power off stalls, power on stall, and stalls while turning. Like last time, I notice that it's not always clear when the 150 stalls. For whatever reason it's just not always obvious, or even easy to get the thing to stall. In one case we were turning a 10 degree bank with the power pulled back and the nose up - but it wouldn't stall.

Ed has me head towards Renton airport so we can practice some touch and gos. There is some traffic already in the pattern, and some departing that we have to look out for. It concerns me that it takes me a while to spot traffic, but I do spot it. We enter the pattern and do our first touch and go. The "go" part is fun as we climb out towards the southern tip of Mercer Island. Again I'm able to maintain the 75 knot climb. For the next touch and go, Ed has me simulate engine loss, and I turn base and final with the engine at idle. For the third we practice a slip, which feels pretty unnatural. I think I do the slip pretty well, but Ed decides to skip the touchdown part since we've eaten too much runway.

On this third touch and go we've stated we will be departing the pattern. As we climb out, Renton Tower informs us to contact Boeing Tower for our arrival there - it's just over the hill. Very quickly we're cleared to land, and I'm turning base and final. This landing is probably my worst one of the day.

Again, while pulling into the parking area I lose too much momentum and stop short.

One way to turn the plane on the ground after shutdown is to push the tail down and turn it. This is easier than using the tow bar in some cases.

Ed's going to reserve the plane for us on Wednesday.