“Be crazy. Be stupid. Be silly. Be weird. Be whatever your heart desires. Because life is too short to be anything but happy.” – Unknown
When I called AWOS (Automated Weather Observing System) for Virginia Tech airport this morning, the winds were 18 knots. Yes, Roger called me down on the error of my ways, so I’m trying to be more responsible. AND, I need to publicly admit that Roger ground checks the plane, takes care of the oil and fuel, AND has the cockpit nice and toasty when I get in. What a totally awesome instructor is that on a freezing morning like today!
First I practiced going around the flagpole, then doing s-turns over the interstate. As we ascended to 4500 feet (Roger was calling in a PIREP so other pilots who would be flying in the area would know about the turbulence). AND while he was doing that, he was also taking some of the pictures below. He is every bit the multi-tasking, ambidextrous, super patient, highly skilled superman that I make him out to be – oh, forgot “nice”. After all, that cockpit was nice and toasty.
When we got to 4500 feet, I practiced some inducement and recovery procedures for stalls. Remember stalls? The critical angle of attack is exceeded (pulling back on the yoke, plane of the nose is upward) and the airflow separates from the top of the wing. (The angle of attack is the angle where the chord of the wing meets the relative wind.) There are a couple of key things to remember: stay coordinated, LOWER nose, power-up when the eminent stall (quick descent) occurs. You should know, and I always have to remember: stalls can occur at any airspeed, any attitude (not talking about mine here – remember mine got adjusted), with any power setting. After doing several of those, he took me one more step deeper and scarier: skids.
A skid is far more dangerous than a slip. Skids usually happen unintentionally and low to the ground. Say, for instance, you’re overshooting the runway. You DO NOT, DO NOT, add left rudder to tighten the turn. The skid causes you to have the tendency to overbank, which you might want to subconsciously counter by adding opposite aileron. If you do that, the plane tends to roll rapidly – turning too fast for the bank angle. (So, as a student pilot, you might want to get plane renter’s insurance ahead of time so the homeowner’s house that you collide in will hit a road bump when they try going after YOU. (Remember: safety first and wallet second. Or if it buys you safety, go for that.)
With a slip, for instance, you are pushing down on the right rudder while turning right. We did that. It just wouldn’t stall. The plane kept hemming and hawing.
After doing those, you would think we would want to come in, get some hot chocolate, or something. But, no, we played bad student (Roger) and good instructor (well, that was supposed to have been me). When coming in for a landing, he took me over the grass instead of the runway. I had to take over the plane and get it back on the runway. Not so bad! Sure wish that when he came in too slow that I could have leveled the nose and given it airspeed correctly. (To my brother, Mac, it was a total replay on you trying to teach me to drive your car, popping the clutch and – oh, yeah – the brakes that I missed.) PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE (since I don’t think acting classes would have helped me one bit).
It was an enormously fun-filled, action-packed adventurous class again today!
“Life is meant for spectacular adventures. Let your feet wander, your eyes marvel and your soul ignite.” Unknown
