Lesson 3, 1.3hrs

It has been rainy and dreary all day and I've been afraid we'll miss tonight's lesson to the weather again. Around 5pm the sky is looking brighter and I can even see some blue, but by 6 it is entirely overcast and rainy. Still, I meet Ed at the airport and we decide to wait it out for a bit down at the airline terminal at BFE. Since all the seating in the lobby is taken (there isn't much seating...) we stand in a corner and chat for a while, me asking quesions and Ed answering. One thing we discuss is the potential for us to fly some Technically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) during my training. Ed has a line on a C182 with a Garmin G1000 cockpit, so later in my training we'll get to fly it. That will be exciting. I want to get the basics down first though, so I can focus on the TAA part and not the basics of flying part when I get to pilot the 182.

After a while we head over to Clay Lacey Aviation for a bit and look at the weather data on one of their pilot-center computers. Once I get my medical / student certificate I can get this information at home. So I need to do that - soon.

Finally we decide to do some touch and go's. I can tell the minute we get in the C150 that I'm going to be rusty. It's been a week. This time we're flying a different C150 than my first two lessons so there are a couple things to learn: different radios, different lights and swtiches, etc. All in all this is a nicer plane.

I'm doing all the stuff but not very confidently. I'm tense. This becomes very evident during our first three touch and go's. I'm dancing on the rudder pedals. My legs are tense and I'm not even realizing that I'm doing this, but the plane is bouncing all over the place. Ed keeps telling me to stop with the rudder movement, which to be honest it doesn't feel to me like I'm even making. Finally he figures out that I'm too tense and tells me to relax. Breath. Deep breaths. On the 4th takeoff things start to come together. As I relax everything becomes more serene. I can focus on what's happening and correct any problems, in good time. Ed's pointers make sense now that I'm not battling my tense legs on the rudder pedals.

On the 6th takeoff Ed says he's not going to say anything the whole way around. Wow - suddenly the cockpit is quiet. I try hard to relax and simultaneously remember everything I need to do: climb at 75 knots, heading for the tip of the hill line we're following. dont get blown left into the hill, and don't veer right into 31R airspace. at 500 feet turn left crosswind 90 degrees. roll out of the turn. almost immediately roll into the downwind turn, to follow the greenbelt. continue climbing to 1000 feet. dont drift left, or worse, turn left inadvertently when adjusting power or trim. keep an eye on the runway to the left, and the altimeter. level out at 1000 feet. confirm with the tower that we are cleared for touch and go. at the end of the runway, pull the carb heat and decrease engine power to 1700 rpm. add 10 degrees of flaps. when the runway is 45 degrees behind us, turn base. keep those turns crisp. add flaps and decrease power as necessary. trim! watch for the moment to turn final, then do it. aim for the short runway, not 31R which is the more obvious one. watch the VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) - are we too high or low? red over white is what we want. maintain 75 knots. power controls altitude, pitch controls speed (counterintuitive, right?) pick my point on the runway and bring it on in. engine at idle? we can aways add power. nose up as we come in, hold it and nose up as we touch down. keep the nose pointed down the runway while pushing in the carb heat and adding medium power. flaps up. full power. pull back on the elevator. trim to take off the pressures. repeat.

The first 3 of these were no fun and in poor form. The last 5 were fun and passable. More practice!

Again, I have a less than stellar performance ending my taxi as we pull into park. What's the trick here?

On the ground, Ed refers to a chart as a "map" and I chide him for it. Mr. McArdle, my high school Aerospace teacher would be proud of me for this.

We're planning to fly tomorrow at 4. Weather is supposed to be bad again, so we'll play it by ear. Hopefully at the very least we can do a few more of these touch and go's.