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| Diamond DA-20-C1 Katana (N221NH), "Wolf 04," the aircraft I went up in today's flight. |
Today's flight consisted of reviewing a few things from a previous lesson, along with a few new ones. After pre-flighting the airplane and getting started up, I once again picked up our flight's taxi clearance from the Provo ground controller on the radio and I even got to do the read-backs this time! We taxied to the run-up area and did the routine run-ups, as is standard practice. Once that was done, we taxied up to the runway and I got the takeoff clearance from the control tower. Departure was a little different today, however... I didn't notice until we got on the runway, but a Gulfstream G-IV operated by FlexJet (a leading provider of fractional, jet card and charter services owned/managed by aviation entrepreneur, principal and chairman of Directional Aviation Capital, Kenneth C. "Kenn" Ricci) was taxiing right behind us and was ready for departure as well. Once we were off the ground and at sufficient altitude, the air traffic controller instructed us to make a left turn (not the usual right when heading to the practice areas!) in order to make way for the departing Gulfstream. Once we were downwind of our departure direction and east of the airport, the Gulfstream began its takeoff roll and we watched them depart; pretty cool sight to see from the air!
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| We had to give way to a Gulfstream IV similar to this one. Photographed earlier this semester. |
Once the departing Flexjet flight was clear, we flew mid-field over Provo Airport and we were cleared to proceed to the practice area. Once at our designated practice area of the day, we proceeded with some flight maneuvers. We started with reviewing slow flight, then some power-on and power-off stalls.
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| Another beautiful day, just south of Utah Lake! |
After the review, my instructor flew us down to a lower altitude and we got into ground reference maneuvers, which are are training exercises flown to help pilots develop a division of attention between the flight path and ground references while controlling the aircraft. The specific maneuvers we did today were turns around a point followed by some S-turns. My instructor started by demonstrating and then had me do turns around a point, which is flying a constant radius turn around a pre-selected point on the ground while banking the aircraft while maintaining a constant altitude.
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| A view to the south. Our callsign for today's flight was "Wolf 04." Even with a cellphone camera, you can tell we're much lower to the ground here! |
Following turns around a point, we got into S-turns, which help pilots correct for wind drift in turns. Requiring left and right turns, S-turns relies on a straight line of reference, such as a road, railroad tracks, or fence. The objective of the S-Turn is to fly a pattern of two half circles of equal size on opposite sides of the reference line. Normally in ground reference maneuvers, pilots have to make adjustments in their bank angles depending on general wind direction in the area but today was an exception to that because there wasn't much wind to contend with. Truth is, I've actually done these two ground reference maneuvers before in my uncle's Cessna 172 so I was somewhat familiar with it.
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| View over the left wing, looking towards the Spanish Fork/Springville area. |
Once we were done with that, we headed back to Provo. Air traffic was slightly busy as we made our arrival so we were constantly on the look out for other aircraft, something to tolerate as anyone progresses in their respective aviation careers. Last time I tried to land the aircraft, it ended up being a bouncy landing! This time however, that didn't happen, but my landing technique still needs a little work; something to work on for the next couple flights hopefully! After landing, it was a quick taxi back to the ramp and we called it another flight. As usual, it's a lot to take in but I'm enjoying every minute of it!
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