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Jerry's 48th LessonObservant readers may wonder why there was no "Jerry's 46th Lesson" or "Jerry's 47th Lesson". Well, the lessons happened, but the posts didn't. I just couldn't think of anything to say. On Tuesday, on the way home from a long day at work, I passed PAO, heard my instructor's voice on the radio. He was doing pattern work with another student. I decided to detour out to the airport and watch. After watching him go round a couple times, I heard him say "Requesting full stop, to solo a student". The C120 came off the runway, taxied up to the park bench, he got out. We both sat there and watched Steve make two nice landings. Would have been three, except that the A/C isn't presently certified for night flights ( strobe light is out for repairs ), and the sun was setting. We both shivered in the evening cold. I congratulated Steve and drove home, filled with a mixture of inspiration and envy :-). Today's lesson was this (Friday) morning. I woke up late, threw myself into cloths, wolfed down some cereal, and made tracks for the airport. Got there in plenty of time. The wind was - how can I put it - light and dancing. The airplane required both oil and gas. I put in the oil, had to wait for him so we could taxi out and get the gas. Just as we left the fuel island, they were changing runways from 12 to 30. That wind just couldn't decide which way to blow. My performance today was decidedly lackluster. The first two times I came in high and fast. On one, I managed to land, on another I decided to go around. He approved of my decision, but not of my technique. I'd said "I'm going around now", then hit the gas. He wanted me to hit the gas the instant I decided to go around, and then tell him about it later. But the bad one, the one that got me the BIG lecture, was the one where I decided to go 'round, pushed the gas in, then told the tower, WITHOUT HAVING PUSHED THE GAS ALL THE WAY. He lectured me about that one half the way around the pattern, then again after the lesson. "Don't worry about the *@#$ RADIO - the RADIO won't kill us! ESTABLISH and STABILIZE your climb FIRST, then worry about the radio! We were cleared for the OPTION anyway!" Then there was the one where I turned base far far away from the runway, and brought the AC down too low - there was no way to make the runway! I brought the power up to 1700, kept her pitched at seventy, and breezed in straight and level, just a few hundred feet away from the ground, until I intercepted the glideslope. He gave me another lecture about that: "What would have happened if we lost an engine out there?" - apparently if I'm that low, and that far out, the thing to do is *climb* back up to the glideslope. Then there was the one where I brought us in too low, and had to give us a burst of power to get us over the berm. The wind was really squirrely - it felt like we were in this giant bubbling cauldron of air. Twice, on downwind abeam the numbers, we got lifted 200 feet. It was especially bad on the final track, which lead over a network of sloughs. Every time we came down, the windsock was different: first it was from the right, then from the left, then a tailwind. The only thing we never got was a headwind :-(. I asked him to show me one. He came in high, and slipped us down. I said Well, maybe it wasn't. Oh, and after slipping us down so low, he had to add a blast of power to get us over the berm :-). On the bright side, I did manage one bona-fide touch and go. Still, it seems like I was doing all this stuff better a couple weeks ago.... - Jerry "65.7 hours" Kaidor |