Yesterday was a great day for flying. Pretty much no wind and sunny clear skies! That reminds me…I really need to get sunglasses!
Anyways, yesterday was spent reviewing upper air work with Brad. Prior to the flight, Brad quizzed me a bit on the plane and some of its components. Specifically he asked me about the different antennas and a bit about the fuel system. I need to review the fuel system a bit.
After that, we got into the plane and I had to give a passenger briefing. I’ve never done a passenger briefing before and I couldn’t find any reference material on the subject so I made it up. I made sure to bring a bag in case the passenger got sick (Thanks for the tip Andy). I talked about the controls and the need to not touch them, I talked about the seats and seatbelts, the doors and windows and I also mentioned something about the ELT. I forgot to mention the fire extinguisher and the first aid kit. I think I’ll have to sit down and come up with a good briefing before flight test time.
For take off we did a soft field takeoff with no obstacle. 10 degrees of flaps, keep the nose wheel just off the ground. Lift off the runway at around 53 Kts and stay in ground effect until we hit 70 Kts. Climb at 70 Kts until around 200 feet off the ground then raise the flaps and continue to climb at 70 Kts.
We headed out to the practice area and proceeded to get back to the basics. I believe we started with slow flight, followed by some steep turns. Then we did some spirals and then stalls. We also did some forward slips and finally an emergency descent where we dropped down 40 degrees of flaps and banked the plane over 30 degrees while descending. That was cool!
For the landing I practiced a soft field landing. 40 degrees of flaps, keep the approach a bit higher than normal. Back off the threshold a bit reduce power to around 1000 RPM and glide in, losing speed until you touch down and then keep the nose wheel off as long as possible. Keep in mind that you shouldn’t raise your flaps until you are off the runway and stopped.
All in all a pretty good booking. My next scheduled flight is this weekend when I’m supposed to go to Cornwall, Brockville and then back. Weather isn’t looking so good. :(