metaruss

Flew around the pattern again at PWK this morning.  This will probably be my last flight until I get the written test out of the way.  The airport was busy and it proved to be challenging to deal with all of the odd ATC requests.  At one point we had 4 Cessnas in the pattern with small jets coming and going.

The wind ended up being rather variable and at one point I was landing with a tail wind.  I got maybe two or three “normal” circuits in the pattern.  The rest contained ATC deviations of some sort, including extended bases, short finals, and runway changes.  At one point I was getting a little too close to O’Hare and had to hover in the downwind at 50kts until I finally got the call to turn around for a different runway.  At another point, I had too much power on a short final and had to forward slip like crazy to get down to the runway.  The techniques all worked like they were supposed to though, and I didn’t have any major problems.  Just some squirrelly landings.

Flew over to Lake In The Hills (3CK) for my third solo, as was the original plan for the last flight.  Did a couple of practice laps and then he got out and I did 4 circuits solo before heading back.  At this point I’d be good to solo at that airport, but my school has a policy about flying cross country before taking the FAA written test.  So it’s time to get serious about prepping for the written and getting that out of the way.

Today we were going to fly over to Lake In The Hills (3CK) for a little practice at an uncontrolled airport and to do my second solo there.  My instructor ran into a problem on his way in and couldn’t make it in time, so I actually soloed again at PWK.  It was pretty fun going through the whole process on my own and I got 8 circuits in before calling it quits.  Got a few nice landings in there towards the end, which felt nice.

Finally got to do my first solo today.  Three laps around the pattern at PWK.  It was great.

Had a nice, relaxing lesson today.  The air was dead calm, which was a nice change of pace from the weeks of gusty conditions that I’ve been dealing with.  We flew over to Lake In The Hills (3CK) for some uncontrolled airport and precision landings practice.  The conditions were so nice and smooth, that I could just focus on my approach and flare technique.  I was eventually hitting the numbers and got some greasers in there.  I could tell my instructor was enjoying the smooth flying as well.

Some success can really build confidence and he said he would have soloed me right then and there, but I still didn’t have my student pilots license.  I say “didn’t”, because when I got home this evening, there it was….

Today we practiced an in-flight diversion and lost procedures.  We set off for a nearby airport and then he diverted me to DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport (DKB).  The diversion procedure itself went fine and we arrived at the airport as expected.  For some reason (mainly because I’ve never done it before), what to do at an unfamiliar airport fell out of my brain.  You’re supposed to overfly the airport and check the sock…duh.  He was purposely not helping me, which definitely drove the point home.  Eventually I figured it out and landed on the active runway.  That was learning moment one.

Learning moment two happened immediately afterwards.  I have a habit of rushing myself to get out of other people’s hair.  In this case, another plane was taxiing along the runway as I exited.  They had the right of way, but they radioed and let me go first.  With them behind me, I felt rushed to get off the ground and out of their way.  We took off and headed back east when he “diverted” me to 3CK (our original destination before diverting to DKB).  What he knew and what I didn’t know was that I forgot to realign my heading indicator and so it was about 20 degrees off.  I ended up flying too far south and actually thought everything was OK until I cross-checked my position with a VOR.  Once that was fixed, we got to practice lost procedures and got back to 3CK.

Getting burned like that definitely drives the point home.  I was always a bit lazy about realigning the heading indicator.  Hopefully that habit is broken.

We did our first cross country today to Rockford International (RFD).  Did the usual dead reckoning flight plan and learned a few things about what does and does not make a good checkpoint.  RFD has TRSA, which means talking with an approach controller.  Fumbled that a bit, but did OK.  Winds were gusty and so I struggled with the cross wind a little bit, but it was fine on that huge runway.  It was pretty cool slinking around the airport among those huge jets.  Flew back to PWK using radio navigation, which was pretty straight forward.

Landed on runway 24 at PWK for the first time.  I cut it too close when turning into the downwind and then forgot about the displaced threshold.  Got too slow on the final approach, as my timing was thrown off due to the threshold.  Just a matter of not adapting the procedure to the circumstances.  The landing itself was fine.

Overall, it was a challenging experience and I learned a great deal.  It felt good to fly away from the airport for a change of pace.

Went back up into the pattern for the past few flights after taking about a month off.  Felt pretty rusty and nervous and the gusty winds haven’t helped matters.  I still feel like I am trying to figure out crosswind landings, but have started working on short and soft field takeoffs in the meantime.

Things started coming together a bit more by the 3rd or 4th flight in these conditions, which have persisted these past few weeks.  After today’s flight, my instructor said “your landings are safe, just not good.”  Gotta start somewhere!  Basically, he was saying that I am getting close to my first solo.  However because of the FAA rule change regarding medical certificates, I am still waiting for my student pilot license.

When we finally got a less gusty day, my landings were good enough that we started practicing short and soft field precision landings.  Felt pretty good about this morning’s flight and so we are going to move on to cross country flights while I wait for my license to arrive.

Today I let go of everything G-body.  Frankentona was sold to a friend of a club member, along with my stash of spare 2nd and 3rd gen Daytona parts.  It needed to go to someone with the enthusiasm and the time to put into it, instead of it rotting in the driveway.  I think it’s in good hands.

Been doing pattern work around KPWK for the past three lessons.  Definitely hit a wall with the landings, but I guess that’s pretty normal.  For me, it’s mostly about staying calm during the final approach so that I keep flying the plane during the flare.  The more landings that I got behind me, the calmer I became and the better my touchdowns were.  He threw some cross wind landings in there too, but they were pretty light crosswinds.

That came to an end on today’s flight when we flew in gusty conditions.  Being thrown around by the wind in the pattern definitely got me riled up and brought back some bad habits (like drifting to the right).  Things got better towards the end as I calmed down and was able to think and fly it to the ground.

Next time he wants to add short field and soft field takeoffs.  I guess that means that my takeoffs are decent enough.