No solo today, but definitely a learning experience. After a morning full of rain and humidity, the skies opened up around 11 am, just in time for my 12:15 flight. Today’s goals were to perfect short/soft field take offs; as well as short/soft field landings. I had practiced all four of them once last semester with my last instructor, but forgot most of what you need to know in order to do the maneuver properly. Before the flight, I read up on the standard operating procedures, SOP’s, and got familiar with them
Obviously, first Drew had me practice short field takeoffs. You can’t practice landings without taking off, so I decided to do the short field first. From what I had remembered from last semester, and read in the SOP’s, they’re fun. The point of practicing a short field takeoff is because not every airport is going to have nice long, wide runways like Republic Airport has. The best way to get the most out of the plane on a short field is to line up all the way at the end of the runway.
The first step is to put flaps to 25 degrees during the pre-takeoff run-up. This allows the plane to generate lift at a slower speed. I got as close as I could to the runway threshold and lined up with the centerline. In order to get the most speed in the quickest time, you need to open the throttle while holding the brake pedals. I then fully opened the throttle so that the engine reached its’ red line rpm’s, 2700. The point of this is so that once I let go the brakes, the plane is accelerating at a greater rate than from a slow roll. As I let go the brakes, the plane jolted forward and I was at 45 knots within half a second. I checked to make sure all instruments were in the green and released the brake pedals. I called out as the airspeed came alive and waited for rotation speed. Because the runway was “short” rotation speed was 5 knots slower than normal. So once the plane reached 50 knots, not 55, I pulled back on the controls. Once wheels off ground, I lowered the nose so that the airspeed increased to 60 knots. This would have insured that I cleared any obstacle at the end of the runway, had there been one. Once over the “obstacle,” 150 AGL, I lower the nose to accelerate to 63 knots, which is Vx (Vx is the speed at which the plane will climb for the shortest horizontal distance). Upon reaching 63 knots, one notch of flaps came out and I accelerated to 79 knots, Vy (Vy is the best speed to climb so that the climb is shortest it can be in duration). Once at 79 knots, I took out the last notch of flaps and flew a normal traffic pattern.
The first landing, my instructor had me practice a normal crosswind landing (the winds were 25013G21. So they were coming out of 70degrees of runway center line at 13 knots. They were also gusting at times to 21 knots). I landed with the upwind wheel touching down first and revved up the rpm’s to start the takeoff roll again. The second landing Drew wanted me to do a short field landing. Before I start saying how they went, I’ll admit that 4 out of the 5 were real bad. I smashed the wheels down on a few of them and couldn’t hit the center line for my life. Having said that, the first one wasn’t so bad. In order to approach a short field, with an obstacle at the beginning end of the runway, you need to come in slow, 60 knots. A normal final approach speed is 65 knots. In order to come in so slow, all flaps need to be in and the nose needs to be slightly pitched up. The power is then adjusted to control the speed. The main problem I had was that the wind was knocking me around a lot. There were some attempts where I was lined up on center line, but then got blown off downwind. On another one, I had to go-around because the approach and lineup was so bad. Towards the end of the lesson, I got the hang of it. But still not to the standards that an FAA examiner would test me on.
Today, we were supposed to do four maneuvers, short field takeoffs and landings, as well as soft field takeoffs and landings. Unfortunately, because of the wind and my inexperience, we only had time for the short field maneuvers
What I Learned Today:
Landings are all about power control. Whether you’re practicing a normal approach and landing, crosswind landing, short or soft field landing, good power control is what makes the landings successful. Today, I didn’t have as good power control as I had last semester. It takes time to judge whether more or less power is needed during an approach. On some of my landing attempts, I could tell I needed more power because it looked like the ground was coming up to meet me. With more practice, I’ll get better at the landings. I think it was partially because I hadn’t gone out and done only touch and goes since last October and also partly because of the wind. I know that I have good power control; I just need to find it again.
Obviously, first Drew had me practice short field takeoffs. You can’t practice landings without taking off, so I decided to do the short field first. From what I had remembered from last semester, and read in the SOP’s, they’re fun. The point of practicing a short field takeoff is because not every airport is going to have nice long, wide runways like Republic Airport has. The best way to get the most out of the plane on a short field is to line up all the way at the end of the runway.
The first step is to put flaps to 25 degrees during the pre-takeoff run-up. This allows the plane to generate lift at a slower speed. I got as close as I could to the runway threshold and lined up with the centerline. In order to get the most speed in the quickest time, you need to open the throttle while holding the brake pedals. I then fully opened the throttle so that the engine reached its’ red line rpm’s, 2700. The point of this is so that once I let go the brakes, the plane is accelerating at a greater rate than from a slow roll. As I let go the brakes, the plane jolted forward and I was at 45 knots within half a second. I checked to make sure all instruments were in the green and released the brake pedals. I called out as the airspeed came alive and waited for rotation speed. Because the runway was “short” rotation speed was 5 knots slower than normal. So once the plane reached 50 knots, not 55, I pulled back on the controls. Once wheels off ground, I lowered the nose so that the airspeed increased to 60 knots. This would have insured that I cleared any obstacle at the end of the runway, had there been one. Once over the “obstacle,” 150 AGL, I lower the nose to accelerate to 63 knots, which is Vx (Vx is the speed at which the plane will climb for the shortest horizontal distance). Upon reaching 63 knots, one notch of flaps came out and I accelerated to 79 knots, Vy (Vy is the best speed to climb so that the climb is shortest it can be in duration). Once at 79 knots, I took out the last notch of flaps and flew a normal traffic pattern.
The first landing, my instructor had me practice a normal crosswind landing (the winds were 25013G21. So they were coming out of 70degrees of runway center line at 13 knots. They were also gusting at times to 21 knots). I landed with the upwind wheel touching down first and revved up the rpm’s to start the takeoff roll again. The second landing Drew wanted me to do a short field landing. Before I start saying how they went, I’ll admit that 4 out of the 5 were real bad. I smashed the wheels down on a few of them and couldn’t hit the center line for my life. Having said that, the first one wasn’t so bad. In order to approach a short field, with an obstacle at the beginning end of the runway, you need to come in slow, 60 knots. A normal final approach speed is 65 knots. In order to come in so slow, all flaps need to be in and the nose needs to be slightly pitched up. The power is then adjusted to control the speed. The main problem I had was that the wind was knocking me around a lot. There were some attempts where I was lined up on center line, but then got blown off downwind. On another one, I had to go-around because the approach and lineup was so bad. Towards the end of the lesson, I got the hang of it. But still not to the standards that an FAA examiner would test me on.
Today, we were supposed to do four maneuvers, short field takeoffs and landings, as well as soft field takeoffs and landings. Unfortunately, because of the wind and my inexperience, we only had time for the short field maneuvers
What I Learned Today:
Landings are all about power control. Whether you’re practicing a normal approach and landing, crosswind landing, short or soft field landing, good power control is what makes the landings successful. Today, I didn’t have as good power control as I had last semester. It takes time to judge whether more or less power is needed during an approach. On some of my landing attempts, I could tell I needed more power because it looked like the ground was coming up to meet me. With more practice, I’ll get better at the landings. I think it was partially because I hadn’t gone out and done only touch and goes since last October and also partly because of the wind. I know that I have good power control; I just need to find it again.
