For the record, it was Scott who first suggested that magic pills may have been involved in today’s flight. And before I go further: If anyone from the FAA happens to be reading this, the pills in question are strictly figurative. Honestly. Now about this whole flying thing… after a series of iffy landings Sunday, today’s flight was pretty much a total turnaround. Neurons that had been previously groping aimlessly about in my head gathered to form useful bundles of knowledge and coordination.
Actually, to rewind a bit, the flight looked iffy for most of the day. I arrived at work early to offset leaving at 3 for PDK, and as I kept an eye on the METAR throughout the day, things were questionable. Most of the morning saw solid or broken clouds at about 1200 feet- too low to fly under safely. But as 3 approached, I saw the reported clouds breaking up south of the city. I stuck my head outside just before three, saw blue sky and sun off to the west, and decided to go for it. I was rewarded with continued breaks in the clouds on the drive over to PDK.
Up in the Advanced office, Scott presented me with a take-home pre-solo exam. I also have to do a shorter written exam in front of him before I’m good to solo, but that’ll be another day. I tucked the exam in my bag and we trotted out to the plane. Battery was a bit low, but it fired up and away we went.
Today’s practice was to be nothing but pattern work. Instead of heading to our old haunt in Monroe, we took the short hop over to Fulton County. (KFTY) It’s much closer than Monroe, and the only thing to watch out for is the Dobbins ARB airspace bordering FTY to the north. Luckily, there’s a prominent smokestack of some kind that makes for a nice marker- stay south of it, and you’re A-OK.
Up in the air, the apparently clear skies belied the presence of a substantial haze starting around 2000′. We briefly went up to 2500 before descending back down to pattern altitude at FTY. Well, actually, I ended up at about pattern altitude +200; I hadn’t checked the field elevation and made the incorrect assumption it was nearly the same as PDK. Perhaps as a result, as I made my turns to base and final, I found myself pretty high. I was starting to think it was all going to begin again, but an odd thing happened: I got on slope, came over the numbers nicely, if a bit high, and the sun presented me with a nice visual aid- my own shadow to my left. It made for a nice reinforcement of my height above the runway, and I leveled out, bled off some speed, and touched down nicely, maybe a bit hard, but no bounce. Power up and go around for the next time.
The amazing part was that it wasn’t a fluke. Next time around, I got pattern altitude right, and despite a looooong extended downwind from the tower, I came in nicely for another smooth one. Probably my two best landings so far, back to back. “How did that feel?”, Scott asked. Well, pretty nice indeed. #3 wasn’t quite so nice; I took a little bounce on it, but settled down nicely after that. The next two were good ones, too. I wasn’t sure what had happened to me. 24 hours saw me go from a big bounce and go-around to five passable landings in a row.
After #5, we pointed back east towards PDK. I called up the tower and asked for one more touch & go followed by a full stop. I got a 2-mile straight-in for 2L, but after a series of extended downwinds at FTY, I felt good about making it work… and I did. then I wrapped up the day with my best yet- leveled out a few feet up, easing back on the stick, watching the airspeed drop out of the corner of my eye. The stall horn started to buzz, I eased the back pressure a bit, and we were down, no drama at all. Uncanny.
It was hard to stifle a grin afterward. The last few flights had been frustrating; I wouldn’t go so far as saying I didn’t enjoy myself, but it was a near thing. Those days, I’d come back to PDK feeling beat down, worn out… today, I would have happily stayed up for another hour if not for that pesky sunset issue. It all came together and suddenly, it was tons of fun again.
There are other areas where I see myself improving, too. It’s becoming less of a chore to hold left rudder in the climbout to stay coordinated. Seemed like before, I was always glancing down, seeing the ball to the left… ok, more rudder… Today, for the first time, I looked down and saw that I was putting too much left rudder. I’m still far from perfect, but it’s starting to come to me. I also stayed (mostly) on top of comms. In the pattern at FTY, I dealt with long downwinds, waiting for the tower to call my base turns, getting a left 360 to let a jet land in front of me, etc. I even kept the plane pretty much on centerline on the rollout at PDK. Lesson learned; easy on the brakes. They love to send the plane hither and yon if you let them.
So it looks like, conditions permitting, next time out could well be solo time. I’m shooting for Thursday afternoon; I feel like I’m on a high and I don’t want to sit around for six days to go again. (Sunday is the next day where the weather looks tolerable)
