pilot's logbook

I spent this morning with Carmel and her friend, Steve, who is a tree farmer in Henry County. Carmel wants to know more about managing the timber at the farm. Sounds good to me.

Flying lesson # 4.
Taxiing, climbs, descents, XW, T/O, landing, steep turns, wind correction, pilotage.

First we talked about landing. Mike gave me the V airspeed info for our C152. I went out to do the exterior check. There actually was something in the gas--it looked like worms in the tester. Mike says oil. I also had a hard time seeing the gas level in the wing tanks, and that's because there wasn't much in there.

"Bowman Ground, Cessna 69011 at Air Central One information Victor to depart runway 32. " Something like that. What?

Takeoff with a cross-wind: hold ailerons all the way into the wind on the runway. Let them level gradually on (before?) rotation. More attempts at straight-and-level, climbing and descending, medium turns and steep turns, setting the trim correctly. It was a beautiful day. Mike had me glide, and we made an attempt at a run-through for an emergency landing in a field. I practiced following a road, having to crab the plane into the wind to do it. Coming back, he had me figure out how to get home, and it's really hard to see the airports. But there are two breaks in the trees, and one was Bowman and one was Standiford.

As we were coming in, there was another plane near us, and I understood the radio telling us that, but I never saw him. Mike did, eventually, and he was right under us. Gotta work on that!

Good session. I was bushed at the end of it. Mike did say one thing that made sense. What if he were trying to learn the flute, and had spent 5 hours at it? How far along would he be? That's telling.

I want to remember to print off the info for that pilot kit and take it to Mike.
Also it occurs to me that all the time we were practicing using headings, I guess with the wind, we weren't actually moving in the direction of the compass. I'll ask Mike about that. Also, I want to spend a little more time just watching Mike fly. He's good.I know how my brain works. I'll soak it up more smoothly if I do that.

During the night the Standiford Field traffic woke me up. They must have been flying base right over our house, one jet every two minutes, for at least a half-hour. Then it stopped.