sean's place

One Two Two Point Eight

I now have 6.4 hours in my log book.

Craig and I went up for a double lesson yesterday, where we practiced a few more power-off stalls and a few power-on stalls. We took a break for lunch, and went back up to practice emergency procedures.

I have to say, power-off stalls are serious bad-mojo my stomach and my sanity. My inclination is to want to undo what caused the stall, and that often leads right into a full-power 20 degree descent. The result is a ride not unlike that of a roller coaster. I’m getting better, but I need to work on not over-correcting the problem. For some reason, power-on stalls are not a problem.

The emergency procedures practice scared me a bit. We came within spitting distance of landing on a random field out in the middle of nowhere. We’ll be doing more of that next lesson, including a high-speed descent and approach. The thought of having the controls for that is… unsettling.

Though, despite my own self-criticism and lack of confidence, I think I’m doing rather well overall. I can feel my skills at performing coordinated turns and straight-and-level flying increasing. I’m looking forward to the cross-country part of training to further develop those skills.

The really cool thing about this last lesson is that I got to announce on the radio. If you were tuned into 122.8 (KGXY’s CTAF) yesterday afternoon, you would have heard my sultry voice saying cool things like:

Greeley Traffic, Skyhawk One Seven Two Zero Zulu, crossing runway niner on delta for runway three four, Greeley.

and

Greeley Traffic, Skyhawk One Seven Two Zero Zulu, departing runway three four to the north, Greeley.

Apparently my listening to ATC has paid off. Craig said I did very well on the radio. Tune in next week for more.