So ends another flightless period, and with a bang to boot. (more on that later) Despite my expressed desire last time around to try to get back to flying more often, events continued to conspire against me. It started with the repairs to 546 being more extensive than expected; originally, the left side rudder pedal assembly was scheduled to be replaced, but it turned out that the rudder cable had to be swapped as well. This pretty much requires stripping the airplane behind the seats, so the maintenance downtime increased quite a bit.
Meanwhile, with 391 having been sold a few weeks ago, there was but one remaining DA-20, and as you might imagine, it was in high demand. Between the plane being booked solid and a miniature rainy season striking metro Atlanta, today was the first time I got to fly again. I had previously tried for last Friday morning- a rainy day- and yesterday- which featured low clouds from Sunday’s heavy rains and gusty conditions to boot.
But this morning dawned clear, if a bit cold. I cocooned myself, mounted the bike, and headed out to scenic Lawrenceville to meet Scott. We had already discussed the plan of the day, which was for me to fly solo out of LZU, head to the practice area, and pretty much do as I pleased. Concerns for the day, on the other hand, were that the winds were forecast to pick up starting at about 9 AM or so- so my window of flight wasn’t that big. Scott inquired if I wanted to go around the pattern a few times with him, but I felt confident working in the pattern at LZU, so this ended up being my first “all me” flight.
In many ways, it was a sort of emotional rehash of my first solo. You just get used to doing things with someone else; preflighting the airplane, climbing in… just all the little things seem vastly different when you’re alone. The plane took a few tries to start thanks to the temperature, but soon enough I was idling on the ramp, willing the heat to start working and the oil temp to come up. Then I switched to willing myself to push the talk button and call ground. As I taxied down to the runup area, it seemed as if someone had taken sandpaper to my senses. Evey noise the plane made was amplified in my ears. Every bump felt like an earthquake. On the roll, I was again reminded of the vast difference in performance caused by a missing passenger. Up, up, and away, turn to the north, got the lake in sight, keep an eye out for the tall tower to the east, boy, did 3500′ ever come up fast.
There I was, over the lake. What to do now? Well, I could just poke holes in the sky, but it *has* been a bit since I practiced my maneuvers, and I *am* in the practice area. So I tooled about over water, doing steep turns, discovering that slow flight looks different with less load, throwing in a few power-off stalls for good measure. OK, what now? I did a few more steep turns, focusing on trying to better coordinate rudder with aileron on the roll-in and roll-out. Still need to practice that some more. I still wasn’t quite ready to head back to Gwinnett, and ATIS hadn’t been updated with the latest wind info, so I just flew around the perimeter of the lake a bit, taking in the sights on the ground.
Then it really was time to head back. ATIS had now been updated, and winds were reported out of 250 at 15. Stiff, but straight down the runway; should be OK. I decided to stick with my Plan A and squeeze in a few touch & gos before parking the plane. Got instructions from the tower to enter right base for 25. I made a slight miscalculation here and started my descent too late, and ended up having to work to get down to pattern altitude, but I gt it done. Meanwhile, I could feel that the winds were picking up, moving the plane around a bit. I made a mental note to keep some extra speed on final to compensate. Once I got on final, I realized I was in deeper waters than I had expected; the wind made it challenging to maintain a good glide slope. Still, I managed to stay more or less on slope and in line, but in the flare, things got ugly. Seemed as if I caught a gust just after leveling off, as the plane suddenly decided to climb up about five feet or so. As I corrected for that, the wind dropped again and I ended up taking a really hard bounce. There was no saving this at all, so I came up with the power and got back in the air.
Clearly, this was not a time for solo pattern work. I requested a full-stop the next time around. I was really rattled by the abortive touch & go, and it showed in a really ugly traffic pattern. My confidence in my abilities had taken a big hit, and I was really concerned about getting the airplane safely on the ground. But I was flying solo- nothing to do but quit worrying, concentrate that much harder, and get the plane down. The wind continued to give me trouble- at one point on my base leg, I went from an 80-knot descent to hearing the stall horn blaring in an instant. Stick the power, keep the plane flying, get it on the ground. Final was the same story as the last time: varying winds keeping my descent rate changing. I tried to keep extra speed, but the twitching airspeed needle made it difficult. Then it was time to flare, and as if my magic, the wind seemed to stabilize, and I settled down for a rather gentle landing.
Taxiing back to the ramp was tough. Apparently the adrenaline dump was affecting me; my legs were shaking and didn’t want to stop. With the airplane parked and the engine killed, I breathed a sigh of relief. On the one hand, I’d gotten rattled like never before in the air… but on the other hand, I’d worked through that, flown the plane, and come back safely. All told, it was a bit of a sobering realization- soloing is great, but with the great feeling comes the undeniable fact that there’s no longer a security blanket riding along. The buck really and truly stops with me, no dancing around it any more.
Back in the hangar with Scott, we debriefed my experience and then headed over to look at the many pieces of 546. Since I’m a sucker for seeing how things worked, this was fascinating for me, following the cables from the pedals back towards the tails, seeing the pushrods from the stick, picking out all the familiar parts under the cowling… great educational finish to the day.
I know I already said this one time, but hopefully now I can get back to flying more frequently and get back on track. Next scheduled flight is this Sunday afternoon.
