Unusual Attitude training flight

Still working toward that ever elusive PPL. Full blog at
http://n1451f.blogspot.com .

Enjoy!

jf

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My Unusual Attitude

Well, I thought I'd get ahead of the game a little by emailing Kary the day
before our lesson and find out what, exactly, we'd be doing during the
flight. His reply was quick and to the point:

hood work ----unusual attitude recovery --- and locating yourself --- flying
with an instrument or two not working
Kary

(It never occurred to me until now, how much double entendre there is in the
flying vernacular.....but I digress)


With this bit of information, I figured we'd have a pretty fun flight....and
we did.

After preflight and startup, we managed to make it out to our practice area.
Even though the winds were calm, we noticed a pretty strong wind pushing us
to the SouthWest once we got to about 500ft agl. We climbed up to 2500(ish)
feet and he had me do a 180 degree standard rate turn....wow...1 minute on
the dot...thats cool.

Then we started doing some basic instrument work. Kary showed me how to do a
good instrument scan and not fixate on one instrument. Then we started doing
some basic maneuvering from just the instruments. He had me hold heading,
slow the plane to 80mph and hold it there. Then make some turns while
holding the 80 and altitude. Real quick I figured out that this was both fun
and horrifying all at the same time. I feel like I did a pretty good job
holding both altitude and speed, but the heading tends to get away from me
(even when I'm looking out the window).

Then we did some descents and climbs while holding heading and speed. This
is when I really started to feel like I was "getting" it. When I first
started flying, I was terrified to move the throttle for some reason. Now, I
found myself using the entire cockpit of controls to make the plane do what
I wanted. I still wish they'd nail the rudder to the Horizontal Stabilizer,
but other than that, it was very comforting to know that I was doing what
needed to be done without really thinking about it.

Next, Kary covers the DG (Directional Gyro....the thing that tells you which
way you are going and is a bit more "Stable" than a whiskey compass). By
doing this, I had to use the compass to navigate with. To be honest, I was
amazed at how slow the thing responds. There are known issues where the
compass will initially go the wrong way or will not do what it's supposed
to, but it still just seemed awkward. Kary asked me to make a 360 degree
turn and end up back at my starting heading. Well as slow as a compass is to
keep up, I can't just "fly the compass". So, I remembered the whole 180
deg/min thing and made a standard rate turn for 2 minutes and viola! we got
360 degrees out of it.....thats just cool.

Well, then comes the part that I think Kary had been waiting on all day.
We're flying along straight and level at a heading dead on 90 deg (east). He
says "turn to 60 degrees". So, I glance at the compass and 60 is to the
right (dang thing is backwards from the DG). My initial thought was....If
I'm flying east, then 60 should be to my left. But, half the time, I get my
math mixed up and thought, nope...it's to the right. So, about the time I
start turning right, Kary does what all good teachers of history do...you
know...Socrates, Plato, Mr Rogers.....they all would have done the same
thing......belly laugh at the moron in the left seat!

I pick up my mistake as soon as the compass starts moving. I told him I was
doing a "clearing turn", but I don't think he bought it.

Then Kary had me do some unusual attitude recoveries. This is where I close
my eyes and he puts the plane in some....well....unusual attitude and
expects me to fix it. The first couple were fairly easy. I closed my eyes
for a few seconds and we were banked pretty good and diving or climbing. But
the last one we did was a learning experience. I closed my eyes and he
pushed and pulled, yanked and banked. From the "feel" of the plane, I just
knew we were in a left bank and nose down. When he said "it's your plane", I
opened my eyes and we were in a right turn and climbing..... Note to self:
don't trust your inner ear.

By this time, we start heading back toward LUG. We work with the VOR a bit
more to pickup the heading we need to get back to the airport. As we get to
the airport, we cross at 3000ft and the Kary calls on CTAF to announce that
we have a simulated engine out....joy.

I actually like doing these, but I have a terrible problem judging how fast
our plane falls. At 3000ft over the airport, there is no "making the field".
Now it's just a matter of putting it down on the 5000ft of asphalt. So, I
turn what was really an upwind, then start a crosswind over the numbers. As
I'm entering downwind, I'm still at 2500ft and Kary keeps saying "don't
crowd it", meaning, don't get in so tight that I'll actually overfly the
field. So, I inch out a bit more. Then as I'm turning base I drop about 10
deg of flaps and realize that I'm WAY high. As I turn a mile and a half
final, we're still 800ft agl. This plane just doesn't sink. (STOL kit on it
really makes a difference).

So, Kary helps me slip it all the way down to the runway. We touchdown right
at the halfway point of the runway and exit. Pretty cool flight.

Next, comes solo ATC stuff...yea me.

On Sep 21, 7:25 pm, "Jeff" jfranks1971 minus wrote:
Still working toward that ever elusive PPL. Full blog athttp://n1451f.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!

jf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Unusual Attitude

Well, I thought I'd get ahead of the game a little by emailing Kary the day
before our lesson and find out what, exactly, we'd be doing during the
flight. His reply was quick and to the point:

Has you instructor provided you with an overview lesson plan for your
training or had you purchase a syllabus ? I would be concerned if a
student called me and didn't know what we were going to be working on
the next flight. You should know all your flights up to your checkride
(although your CFI will likely make modifications along the way to
suit your needs).
One of the major problems I've seen with some CFIs is that they don't
provide their students with a syllabus. In those situations students
often feel as though they don't know how they are progressing towards
the checkride and the CFI often isn't focused enough on the goals.
Anyway, not a reflection on your CFI personally because I don't know
what he's actually put together for you.

-Robert, CFII

"Robert M. Gary" ...
One of the major problems I've seen with some CFIs is that they
don't provide their students with a syllabus.

Wow Bob, I think you're being very kind. I'll top your "some CFIs" comment
with "I have seen zero freelance CFIs provide a written syllabus to any of
their students, Primary or Inst". I'll qualify my experience as being
limited to about 24 freelance CFIs since the early 1990's, both first hand
and second hand, mainly in the NY and FL area (I've mentored a bunch of
pilots over the years). This contrasts with the 141 CFIs and the part 61
CFIs from the more organized FBOs, who usually force you to buy a locally
created syllabus as part of the training package. Now I'll further say that
some of those freelance CFIs are rated excellent by their students and seem
to produce fine results (first time passed check rides in reasonable time),
but the consistent feedback from students to me is "it would have been
better with a written syllabus".

Mike Isaksen wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" ...
One of the major problems I've seen with some CFIs is that they
don't provide their students with a syllabus.

Wow Bob, I think you're being very kind. I'll top your "some CFIs" comment
with "I have seen zero freelance CFIs provide a written syllabus to any of
their students, Primary or Inst". I'll qualify my experience as being
limited to about 24 freelance CFIs since the early 1990's, both first hand
and second hand, mainly in the NY and FL area (I've mentored a bunch of
pilots over the years). This contrasts with the 141 CFIs and the part 61
CFIs from the more organized FBOs, who usually force you to buy a locally
created syllabus as part of the training package. Now I'll further say that
some of those freelance CFIs are rated excellent by their students and seem
to produce fine results (first time passed check rides in reasonable time),
but the consistent feedback from students to me is "it would have been
better with a written syllabus".



ANY good CFI should be involved in a running syllabus with each student,
and that syllabus should be a bit different for every student involved
due to the specific needs of each student.
If the instructor is using a written syllabus that is inflexible and not
geared to each individual student's learning curve, the instructor is
being too inflexible.
The bottom line is that each student should have in their possession
after every dual flight, a list of study material that compliments BOTH
what was covered in the last lesson, AND what is to be covered in the
NEXT lesson.
DH

--
Dudley Henriques

On Sep 23, 6:43 pm, Dudley Henriques wrote:
Mike Isaksen wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" ...
One of the major problems I've seen with some CFIs is that they
don't provide their students with a syllabus.

Wow Bob, I think you're being very kind. I'll top your "some CFIs" comment
with "I have seen zero freelance CFIs provide a written syllabus to any of
their students, Primary or Inst". I'll qualify my experience as being
limited to about 24 freelance CFIs since the early 1990's, both first hand
and second hand, mainly in the NY and FL area (I've mentored a bunch of
pilots over the years). This contrasts with the 141 CFIs and the part 61
CFIs from the more organized FBOs, who usually force you to buy a locally
created syllabus as part of the training package. Now I'll further say that
some of those freelance CFIs are rated excellent by their students and seem
to produce fine results (first time passed check rides in reasonable time),
but the consistent feedback from students to me is "it would have been
better with a written syllabus".

ANY good CFI should be involved in a running syllabus with each student,
and that syllabus should be a bit different for every student involved
due to the specific needs of each student.
If the instructor is using a written syllabus that is inflexible and not
geared to each individual student's learning curve, the instructor is
being too inflexible.

It should be flexible but there is no reason (in my experience) to not
have an up-to-date next lesson at the end of the current lesson.
Students should not show up and wonder what they are going to work on
that day. That's not to say it can't change. If winds are 15 knots
straight across the runway I'm going to spend the entire time in the
pattern but in general there should be no confusion.

-Robert

Robert M. Gary wrote:
On Sep 23, 6:43 pm, Dudley Henriques wrote:
Mike Isaksen wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" ...
One of the major problems I've seen with some CFIs is that they
don't provide their students with a syllabus.
Wow Bob, I think you're being very kind. I'll top your "some CFIs" comment
with "I have seen zero freelance CFIs provide a written syllabus to any of
their students, Primary or Inst". I'll qualify my experience as being
limited to about 24 freelance CFIs since the early 1990's, both first hand
and second hand, mainly in the NY and FL area (I've mentored a bunch of
pilots over the years). This contrasts with the 141 CFIs and the part 61
CFIs from the more organized FBOs, who usually force you to buy a locally
created syllabus as part of the training package. Now I'll further say that
some of those freelance CFIs are rated excellent by their students and seem
to produce fine results (first time passed check rides in reasonable time),
but the consistent feedback from students to me is "it would have been
better with a written syllabus".
ANY good CFI should be involved in a running syllabus with each student,
and that syllabus should be a bit different for every student involved
due to the specific needs of each student.
If the instructor is using a written syllabus that is inflexible and not
geared to each individual student's learning curve, the instructor is
being too inflexible.

It should be flexible but there is no reason (in my experience) to not
have an up-to-date next lesson at the end of the current lesson.
Students should not show up and wonder what they are going to work on
that day. That's not to say it can't change. If winds are 15 knots
straight across the runway I'm going to spend the entire time in the
pattern but in general there should be no confusion.

-Robert


I'm puzzled. You cut the last paragraph of my post which says EXACTLY
what you are posting here as a needed addition to what I have said :-)
For clarity purposes, here is what you cut from my quote;
Dudley Henriques wrote;

"-- The bottom line is that each student should have in their possession
after every dual flight, a list of study material that compliments BOTH
what was covered in the last lesson, AND what is to be covered in the
NEXT lesson."

I believe this covers what you are "adding", or am I misreading
something here?
Dudley Henriques

Robert M. Gary wrote:
On Sep 21, 7:25 pm, "Jeff" jfranks1971 minus wrote:

Still working toward that ever elusive PPL. Full blog athttp://n1451f.blogspot.com.

Enjoy!

jf

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

My Unusual Attitude

Well, I thought I'd get ahead of the game a little by emailing Kary the day
before our lesson and find out what, exactly, we'd be doing during the
flight. His reply was quick and to the point:


Has you instructor provided you with an overview lesson plan for your
training or had you purchase a syllabus ? I would be concerned if a
student called me and didn't know what we were going to be working on
the next flight. You should know all your flights up to your checkride
(although your CFI will likely make modifications along the way to
suit your needs).
One of the major problems I've seen with some CFIs is that they don't
provide their students with a syllabus. In those situations students
often feel as though they don't know how they are progressing towards
the checkride and the CFI often isn't focused enough on the goals.
Anyway, not a reflection on your CFI personally because I don't know
what he's actually put together for you.

-Robert, CFII


I agree with Robert. When I was working on my instrument rating, I told
the instructor that I wanted to be briefed on what we were going to do,
how I did, and what we were going to accomplish the next lesson. I
wanted to do this each time we met. This was before the first lesson.
Next time I met him he asked " what did I want to work on/" I told him
that he was the instructor and he should know. We did get a syllabus and
we started working from that.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI