pilot's logbook

5/25 C-152 N69011 LOU LOU Touch & go’s—xw #ldg 9 MB

Mike says it takes a solid 5 hrs practice on landings, and we’re half-way into it, and doing ok.

Takeoffs are right.

Airspeed. Watch always. Sometimes (only on landings) I’ll need to adjust the airspeed and I take it the wrong way. Mike counted 5 times.

Landing: it’s all judgment. Angles. Timing. Finesse.

Martha played the organ for Bach/Gounod Ave Maria at a wedding at St. Catherine tonight. I played flute. She also played the closing song (Joyful, Joyful) with choir. It was just fine. In fact, it was more than fine, as she found out at the reception afterwards. Sometimes, things are just right, and this was one of them--for the bride & groom, the guests, the choir, the priest and everyone. So, this is a big step for Martha.

I keep looking at all the issues that have affected my adult students in the past. Even though we usually have a good time, and even though they always know more and are often more motivated than younger students, the adults have less success. It's partly physical, but not predictably so. Martha and I (and Sharon) exhibit some of the same unwanted behavior in trying to learn, for them the piano, for me, flying. Well, we should have done all this when we were 16, but we didn't, and now it's just a little harder. My point is, we're gonna make it.

I gave Mike a copy of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I'm curious what he thinks about it. He IS serious about his motorcycling and his instructing, so there ought to be a lot there for him. That book changed the world, so I'm sure it can't read to younger people the way it read to us 30 years ago. We'll see.

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Thinking: I know I read and practiced that for shallow turns (30º or less), once the bank is set, you're supposed to be able to neutralize the ailerons and the airplane is supposed to hold that bank until you cancel it out with an opposing bank. That's not what I've been doing. Why not? Because it doesn't really work that way? I'm going to pay more attention to that in the airport traffic pattern. Maybe I can get it consistent. Consistent would be nice.

Also, I'm wondering about using trim for the descent in the landing pattern. It helped me make sense of steep turns. The good thing is it would probably shape up my landings to something more consistent. The bad thing is that it would make for opposite controlling moves, and besides that, why not just fly the plane?

I don't have another flying session 'til Wednesday of next week. I could call Bowman Tower and see whether they take visitors. That would undoubtedly be instructive.

Whenever I'm driving the car, I try to be conscious of that Vy correction problem. Actually, I aim the car for Vx, which happens to be 55, and be aware of what I would have to do to correct the current speed, which involves matching pressure on the accelerator with pressure on the yoke/steeringwheel. Problem is, the speedometer dial runs the other direction, ie going up the LH side of the dial instead of coming down the RH side as the airspeed indicator does. This could cause more trouble than it solves unless I manage to think the direction of the dial "around" instead of "up" or "down."

Alex (my grandson, not the pilot) brought me a little "Flight Training Manual" that he bought at the school book fair. Since it contains exactly the things I'm working on, I agreed to study it this week before I give it back to him.