Lesson 2: Standard Turns and Descents

My second lesson was on Monday, the MLK holiday. It was significantly warmer than the frigid first flight last Saturday, but overcast. But the ceiling was 8000 feet, with almost no wind and no precipitation forecast, so the flight was still a "go."

Eric let me pre-flight the plane this time, under his watchful eye. I didn't rush, and just followed the pre-flight checklist. I paid close attention to all of the Zodiac-specific items Eric had shown me to look at last lesson. There was only about nine gallons of fuel in the plane, so I was able to take my time while we waited for the fuel truck to arrive. I basically went through the pre-flight twice to make sure I didn't miss anything.

We boarded, got the engine started and got a taxi clearance from the tower, then headed to runway 25 (runway numbers are based on their direction to the nearest ten degrees and dropping the final zero, so traveling down runway 25 is roughly 250 degrees, or 20 degrees off due West). Eric let me go through the runup and pre-takeoff checklist, making sure everything was working properly before geing airborne.

After takeoff we turned eastward and climbed to 5500 feet, then started practicing turns. This time Eric specified "standard rate" turns, which are 30 degrees of bank. At that bank angle a little back pressure is needed on the stick to keep from descending in the turn; I mostly held altitude well, but did sink or rise up occasionally as I worked on getting the stick forces just right. We did some 360 degree turns in both directions then went on to descents.

We set up for a simulated descent to landing. At Eric's direction I cut the throttle from 2300rpm to 1700rpm, which caused the nose to drop 5-10 degrees and the plane to enter a gentle 600 feet per second descent. I added some nose up trim to bring the descent to 500fpm, and this bled our speed down to about 65-70 knots. Eric then had me lower the flaps as if preparing for a landing.

That's when I had my first "oh shit" moment in an airplane. When the flaps are added in the Zodiac, the nose pitches down sharply. Since the Zodiac's flaps don't create a large amount of drag as they do in some planes, speed can build up quickly. Since I was not prepared for the attitude change, the nose fell quickly and we sped right up. "My controls," Eric said immediately and took over, leveling us out. We actually hit 90 knots before slowing back to 65 knots to continue the descent. The maximum designed flaps down speed of the Zodiac is 80 knots. Oops.

Eric just made sure I understood what happened, and how to make sure it didn't happen again. We tried it again, and I did much better, though I had to hunt around a little for the right amount of pressure to counter the pitch change when adding the flaps. So okay, I'll have to keep working on that one...

We did a few more turns, then headed back to base. We called in to the airport at ten miles out, and were told to make a straight in approach back to runway 25. Eric let me run the descent until we were on the extended final about three miles out, where he took over and made the landing, then had me taxi back to the school.

It was a good lesson, and I am starting to appreciate how challenging some of these pilot skills are going to be to master. I'm both looking forward to and dreading the lesson where I'll have to try my first landing! That's a way off though, and the next lesson is stalls, which should be both harrowing and fun. That will be next Saturday. I wish I could get back in the air sooner, but the airport is a half hour from me, and I work 8am-5pm, so weekday scheduling is a little tough. I'm looking into a way around that -- if it works out I'll post about it.