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flying again
Jan. 14th, 2023 11:12 amJanuary's weather has been MUCH better than December!
I have a new instructor and we've gone on two flights now. The first one I was so nervous I was shocked if ANYTHING went okay... but some things went okay. I can remember how to do steep turns and stalls and slow flying and almost landed by myself, with a little help from the instructor on some post-touchdown handling. Rough but I got it down.
The second flight, I really DID land by myself. I had a few rough landings but it's all coming back to me.
I need to demonstrate the ability to properly manage what airspeed and altitude in an approach even with engine out. my instructor would tell me to pull power to idle and land from where we were at, and I say great but then didn't get to the right speed for best glide distance quite fast enough, added flaps too soon, got too low, had to add power to make the runway. this is not deal. plus we still have some other takeoffs to demonstrate like short field, soft field. so training continues.
I'm technically working on a biennial flight review - the check out that every pilot needs from an instructor, every two years, in order to legally fly. our pilot's licenses never expire, but since I haven't flown since 2015 I am WAY outside that biennial, and since I need practice it's going to take me a few flights to demonstrate the things I need to demonstrate.
technically a biennial isn't a thing you "pass" or "fail". but I heard a rule of thumb that for every year you've been away from the airplane, you need 1-2 hours of practicing to get it all back. I can see that. 7 years. I've now logged 2.7 hours. I can see that it won't take me 10 more flights, but I'm in no hurry either.
I also finished instrument ground school and am on to practice tests. I'll have to do another post on what all that entails... it's been fascinating, learning to read approach procedures and enroute charts like big airplanes use.
I'm happy that a lot of people left their christmas lights up for me to fly over this month. I fly at the last bit of daylight, land shortly after sunset, and it's been beautiful.
I have a new instructor and we've gone on two flights now. The first one I was so nervous I was shocked if ANYTHING went okay... but some things went okay. I can remember how to do steep turns and stalls and slow flying and almost landed by myself, with a little help from the instructor on some post-touchdown handling. Rough but I got it down.
The second flight, I really DID land by myself. I had a few rough landings but it's all coming back to me.
I need to demonstrate the ability to properly manage what airspeed and altitude in an approach even with engine out. my instructor would tell me to pull power to idle and land from where we were at, and I say great but then didn't get to the right speed for best glide distance quite fast enough, added flaps too soon, got too low, had to add power to make the runway. this is not deal. plus we still have some other takeoffs to demonstrate like short field, soft field. so training continues.
I'm technically working on a biennial flight review - the check out that every pilot needs from an instructor, every two years, in order to legally fly. our pilot's licenses never expire, but since I haven't flown since 2015 I am WAY outside that biennial, and since I need practice it's going to take me a few flights to demonstrate the things I need to demonstrate.
technically a biennial isn't a thing you "pass" or "fail". but I heard a rule of thumb that for every year you've been away from the airplane, you need 1-2 hours of practicing to get it all back. I can see that. 7 years. I've now logged 2.7 hours. I can see that it won't take me 10 more flights, but I'm in no hurry either.
I also finished instrument ground school and am on to practice tests. I'll have to do another post on what all that entails... it's been fascinating, learning to read approach procedures and enroute charts like big airplanes use.
I'm happy that a lot of people left their christmas lights up for me to fly over this month. I fly at the last bit of daylight, land shortly after sunset, and it's been beautiful.