[ Home ] [ jerry/aviation/student-links.html ] [ jerry/aviation/lessons/index.html ]

What with one thing or another, I hadn't had a dual lesson in, *gee*, almost two months. First of all, I'd been turned loose to do my solo cross-countries. Second, airplane ownership issues had distracted me. Third, things had heated up at work. OK, enough excuses, on with the journal...

Left for my lesson this morning without eating anything - Turkey day and the day that followed it had turned out to be pig-out days, and just didn't have it in me to eat any more this morning. So I left for SQL with nothing in me but a cup of fresh coffee.

First, I had to fly out to the lesson. My instructor was waiting for me at San Jose International. I attacked the now-familiar task of flying down the SF peninsula. Now, there are two ways to do this: you can get a straight-out departure, and fly through the little airports on your way there, talking to them on the way. Or you can swing wide, avoid the class Ds, and get a clearance into the class C and a squawk code direct from Bay Approach. I've done it both ways. I can report that it's better to do it through the little airports. Somehow, everything works smoother. First of all, it's hard to get a word in edgewise with Bay, what with all the heavies they're talking to. But little class-D PAO is always willing to talk. And they have Bay's ear. I guess.

I picked up my instructor at his tiedown at SJC.

Him: "I'm just going to keep quiet, we'll see how you do on all the procedures"

Not so well, apparently. First I forgot to get the ATIS before tuning in Clearance Delivery. Then, as we taxied out to runup, the engine died.

Me: "Well, at least you didn't pull it on climbout like my old instructor did once!"

When we got established on climbout, he pulled out the foggles.

He had me turn to several compass headings, and intercept a couple VOR radials.

Then he had me take the foggles off, and do a bit more athletic stuff :-). First, steep turns: clearing turn left, clearing turn right, then the maneuver. He wanted me to keep my entry airspeed during the turn, which meant adding a bit of power to go along with the increased back pressure. I guessed that a 100-RPM increase would do the trick. It was close enough.

For some reason, the left turns came out better than the right ones. Probably something to do with the geometry of the cowling.

Now we moved on to stalls. I hadn't done any of these since August. But I'd done plenty of full-stall landings. We did three kinds of stalls:

• Departure stalls: This is where you just took off, you've got the nose way up in the air, maybe you're doing a short-field takeoff, and you just pull the nose too high.
• Approach stalls: You're coming in for a landing, paying attention to the field, the traffic, everything but the airspeed. Maybe you're not going to quite make the field - you start to unconsciously "Choke the Yoke", and the airspeed goes down... and down... and the controls start to get that funny limp feeling...
• Turning stalls: The scariest of all. Especially if you've had a bit of spin training. Keep that ball centered!!!!!

Both the "departure" and "approach" stalls are expected to occur at low altitudes. So he taught me a procedure meant to lose as little altitude as possible. For the approach stalls, we applied full power, THEN lowered the nose, THEN retracted flaps one notch at a time.

He demonstrated the turning stalls. About then I started to get airsick - for the first time in MONTHS. Apparently, the combination of the hood work, the steep turns, the stalls, and an empty stomach, were all too much.

I requested a landing, and he landed us at Frazier Lake. We taxied up to the "bathroom building", got out and took a break.

After a few minutes rest, we climbed back into the airplane, and set out for home. On climbout, he asked me if I wanted the plane back. Sure! I climbed out of the valley, got the SJC ATIS, called Bay, and took us back to San Jose.

After a lesson debrief, and an admonition to "get my cross-countries done" I flew back to San Carlos.

- Jerry "112.4 hours, 622 landings" Kaidor

p.s. I've been a bit remiss in my "journals" effort lately. To the point that people have been emailing me to ask if I still exist :-). Well, I'm still here, and still flying. In fact, since my last "journals" post, according to the logbook, I've flown 14 times. Mostly pattern work, but some flights out to the Coast for practice maneuvers, too. Oh, and a really short cross-country.

Back to Jerry's aviation page

Back to Jerry's Homepage