May 31, 2006

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Flight Training Journal

Lesson # 3

May 31, 2006

Log Entry

5-31-06 - Cessna 172SP - N521MC - From AEG to AEG - 1 day landing - 0.9 hrs - Turns-around-a-point, S-turns-across-a-road - Wendell Gunthorpe, CFI

Third lesson, third model of aircraft flown. Today I was in a Cessna 172, and the additional power was quite noticeable. I pre-flighted the aircraft, (including 13 fuel test points!) and taxied out to runway 4. We had a wind blowing from 070 at about 12 knots. As I took off, there was a fair amount of rough air, and we hit a number of thermals on the way to the practice area. We started by doing a "wind circle", which is a maneuver you can do to determine the direction of the wind in the area you are flying. You pick a landmark on the ground, and fly directly over it. When you are overhead the object (in this case a water tank) you make a 15 degree turn around it, holding the bank, airspeed, and altitude as close to the same as possible. When you have completed a full circle, you will have drifted away from the object. The direction of your drift is the direction of the wind. In theory. Unfortunately, it was so gusty and bumpy that I was having a tough time holding anything steady, and we wound up over the tank. Maybe next time. So we moved into doing "Turns-around-a-point," using the same water tank. By the 4th circuit, I was doing fairly well. We then headed to the end of a long road, and started doing "S-turns-across-a-road." This maneuver is just what it sounds like, doing a big "S" back and forth across the road. But it was getting really windy by this time, and Wendell decided that we'd better head back, as I wasn't accomplishing much except fighting the wind. This was fine with me, as I was starting to get queasy feeling after fighting the bumpy air. So I flew back to the airport, got us in the pattern, and Wendell landed us, as the AWOS (Automatic Weather Observation System) was reporting "micro-bursts" near the airport. But we had no problems, and I taxied us back to the ramp (much better taxi than last time!) I fly again on Saturday, June 3, when I'll be flying the Diamond DA-20, which should be my regular training aircraft from now on.

Check back soon for the continuing adventures of Dave's flight training.