Pilot's logbook

6/24 C-152 N69011 Lou JVY Lou Touch & Go's landings:10 1.7 hr MB

Church @ OLC, Baptisms @ St. Albert, then off to Bowman Field.

Today was fun. 3:00 PM. Cloudy, rainy, no-fly weather. So the place was full of instructors (Brandon, Jason, Mike and Tony) all sitting in the "boardroom" playing Flight Simulator. (Whatever version it was, it had the real terrain graphics. Awesome.) So I come in and Mike's flying, complaining about how you can't fly with that joystick. I have to say, if that's "not flying," I'm the monkey's uncle, but anyway, everybody was having fun.

While we were watching the rain, Brandon saw my Macbook and asked me whether I used X-Plane, so I pulled it up and we looked at it a little, but you really can't run it without the joystick. After that I showed them the slideshow of Alex R. and the cargo plane that he flies up in Alaska. I think the guys were pretty interested. I noticed Mike wrote the name of the company (Everts Air Cargo) on his hand. It might have been how many flying hours the dog has that caught his attention.

Ever optimistic, Mike called weather--800-WX BRIEF--but it was not VFR, so, we went over the pre-solo written test, and I've got that endorsed in my logbook. Mike corrected a couple of words, and the part that I thought (this morning) must be wrong--the problem where they ask you to figure takeoff distance for Bowman Field with a 50-foot obstacle and temperature and your training airplane--well, it turned out to be right. So. The 1340' takeoff ground roll (50'obstacle) on the Cessna POH becomes 1524' at 90º and Bowman Field. And the 1200'Landing Ground Roll (50' obstacle) becomes 1257'. The takeoff roll shows more difference because taking off involves engine performance (which is altered by altitude and temp) and the landing not so much because the engine is not involved in landing. It makes sense once somebody points it out.

We drew maps, traffic patterns, & approaches to Clark County. It wasn't complicated today. It just seemed like it last time we were up in the air.

Mike says I need confidence. I sortof agree, but the confidence comes from actually being on track with enough of the things I'm supposed to know and do, right?

Mike quizzed me on charts, we worked thru some of those performance problems in the Gleim book, and we kidded with Brandon about whether you could make the weather better just by looking at it on the computer every 5 minutes. Then I pointed out that there was a blue spot in the sky out the window behind Mike, and we got hopeful. Turns out it was good enough to go up.

We went to Clark County for touch & go's, then came back and made a few circuits at Bowman. It felt pretty good.

Things I didn't pick up on today:
"Taxiway Hotel closed between (whatever)" I'd have gone on and taxied the usual way, instead of asking ATC shouldn't we go around the southern perimeter.

I didn't understand ATC when they told us to extend our downwind, and then when they changed it to some version of "no, instead hurry up and just get down there," I didn't catch that either. Mike took us down. Sometimes I think he could make the plane go backwards if he wanted to. It's like, "OK, you want it where? (zing, zing, zing) There it is." Cool.

I mis-figured our time from the Hobbs.

But I wasn't missing as much this time. Landings were WAY better. (Still not nose-high enough, and I'm still misjudging approaches, but the wobbling on final was mercifully much reduced, and if I'm not getting them the way we want them, at least it's partially because I'm trying something and finding out how (or whether) it works.

Three or four times I had the same experience--that I thought we were about 2 feet off the ground when we actually touched down. Hey, at least it's consistent.

Back on the ground, Mike (who was tired) said it's a heck of a thing when your instructor has to work to keep from falling asleep during your lesson. I took that as a compliment.

Remember: Don't call the pattern legs at Bowman, unless ATC doesn't clear you for the landing, in which case you should call the final to jog his memory.

DO: read FAA handbook landing stuff.
Re-do performance problems.
Fly X-Plane back and forth from Bowman to Clark County.
Slips.