Pilot Life: A Flight for Redemption

After this past Saturday's difficult flight, today was a shot at redemption and to make corrections for my mistakes. I got back on the horse and tried last Saturday's flight lesson again, and this time, I was hell-bent on getting most of the previous maneuvers I didn't do too well on right. Needless to say, today's flight was much more successful compared to the last!

Today's flight was on the aircraft that I first started logging flight hours, good old 957, "Wolf 05." I felt that being back on the first DA-20 I've ever flown in would bring me some good luck!

As per usual, I got the pre-flight taken care of and my instructor joined me soon after. We went through the usual start-up procedures and we suffered our first setback: fire. While turning over the key for the normal engine start-up, my instructor suddenly told me to stop because he saw fire spitting out the exhaust pipe underneath the nose; I wouldn't have been able to see that as the plane's engine exhaust pipe points out towards the right side where my instructor was sitting. Unless you're in an aircraft capable of going into afterburner, the combination of a fire and an airplane is generally not a good thing! My instructor took over the start-up procedure as he attempted to start the engine to no avail. He suspected that the engine was already flooded from a previous flight when we hopped in and whoever took the plane up before us didn't do the proper shut-down procedure. The flames that were shooting out the exhaust pipe was excess fuel igniting during the start-up procedure.

We hopped out of the airplane and my instructor went off to consult with one of the flight school's mechanics about what we just experienced. In the end, the mechanic recommended that we wait about a half-hour and try again, which we did. The one setback about waiting is my schedule; the concern now was I had to go out fly and then get back in time for my ground class later in the day. After the half-hour wait, we hopped back into the airplane and tried again as recommended by the mechanic, with my instructor doing start-ups, which was successful this time. At that point, overall procedures were handed back to me and we eventually got clearance to taxi, with my instructor requesting the shorter crosswind runway to save us some taxi time. Good thing too because this runway meant a straight shot out to the practice area for today's flight. We taxied, did our run-ups, got our takeoff clearance, and we got airborne.

My instructor making a rapid descent so we could do ground reference maneuvers.

Felt some positive G-forces during this descent! It beats any roller-coaster any day!

After getting airborne, we made a beeline for the practice area so I could redeem myself. It was at this point when I suffered another minor setback; the microphone to my headsets stopped working and I immediately let my flight instructor know about it. Redemption isn't coming easy today! Thankfully, the earpiece speakers were still working so I could still hear my instructor talking to me, so it was totally fine to continue on with the flight lesson. I just couldn't talk to him via the headsets but we made it work as my instructor could still somewhat hear me if I raised my voice enough and gave simple hand signals. My instructor also took over radio communications with the ground.

Once in the practice area, my instructor put me through the paces by starting me off with slow flight. And yes, I've been reviewing the flight profiles and manual since this past Saturday! And compared to this past Saturday, I did much better and the execution of configuring for slow flight was much smoother. After recovering from slow flight, my instructor then had me do some power-on and power-off stalls. Again, I recalled upon what I've reviewed to improve myself and it paid off with smooth execution of each stall! So far, so good.

My instructor then took the controls of the DA-20 and made a series of rapid descents so he could have me do some ground reference maneuvers. Once at a low enough altitude, he handed control of the airplane back to me and I got set up for some ground reference maneuvers. I started with some turns around a point, which went okay but my correction for wind factor could still use a little work. Plus were in a new practice area that I haven't been to before and the landscape was pretty barren, so there really wasn't much on the ground to refer to for the maneuvers. My instructor had me use a dark, natural patch of dirt on the ground, which was doable but easy to lose track of since it blends in with everything else on the ground. After doing a full 360, we sought out a straight stretch of road so I could do some S-turns. As barren as this practice area was, straight roads were easier to come by! I set myself up and executed the S-turns to the best of my abilities. Again, they went better than last time but when it comes to correcting for the wind factor, there's always room for improvement.

Heading back to Provo from the southwest.

I was surprised to see that there's hardly anything on this side of the lake.

After we were satisfied, it was time to head back to Provo. Because of the delay that kept us from departing on time earlier, we were running low on time and my instructor still needed to walk me through short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings. My instructor took the controls on the leg back to Provo so he could set me up in the pattern; he expertly flew the airplane at one of the fastest (but still safe!) speeds I've seen, especially coming from the Diamond DA-20 Katana! Once we were in the pattern my instructor set me up in the pattern and requested a stop-and-go so we could execute a short-field landing, which as the name suggests, is a landing conducted in the shortest amount of distance possible. Short-field landings are conducted when landing on a short runway or when a pilot needs to clear a tall obstacle (like trees or tall towers) that may be sitting right at the approach end. By requesting a stop-and-go, we were able to obtain clearance to come to a full-stop on the runway and take back off again.

Over Utah Lake with Provo out in the distance.

My instructor walked me through my very first short-field landing; we conducted this landing with a simulated 50 foot tall obstacle on the approach path. Getting set up for landing was like any other landing, except after touchdown, you immediately apply the brakes and slow the plane down as quickly and safely as possible, which I was able to do. Guided by my instructor, we brought the plane to a complete stop on the runway. Once at a complete stop, it was time to get back up into the air with a short-field takeoff, which is conducted for the same reason why a short-field landing would be conducted; again we took off with a simulated 50 foot tall obstacle in our takeoff path. Once airborne after a short-field takeoff, part of the process is to climb out at much steeper angle and at a slightly slower airspeed until a pilot is able to clear the obstacle. Once we were clear of our simulated "obstacle," we lowered the nose and resumed climb-out at a normal angle and airspeed.

We got short-field takeoffs and landings in today and I was introduced to soft-field takeoffs on my previous flight. Now it was time to complete the "repertoire" and do a full-stop landing in the form of a soft-field landing! As previously mentioned, soft-field operations in tricycle landing gear (airplane with a front nose wheel) configuration requires to get that front wheel off the ground so it doesn't dig into the ground and act as a pivot that could potentially flip the airplane (I shouldn't have to tell you that I DON'T want THAT to happen!!!). For short-field landings, you touch down with the main gears first and then pretty much maintain a wheelie with the airplane and keep the front nose wheel off the ground as long as feasible until the aircraft slows down enough for it to touch down safely that there's less of chance of flipping the airplane.

(Useless trivia: Airplanes in tail-dragger landing gear configuration are more better suited for off-airport, soft-field operations.)

(Somewhat more useful trivia: Soft-field landings are the recommended method in emergencies where there's a problem or malfunction with the nose gear; the JetBlue Flight 29 incident that occurred in the Bahamas on March 25, 2016 earlier this year comes to mind. By keeping the plane off the malfunctioning nose gear and effectively performing a soft-field landing, the pilots of the stricken Embraer E-190 was able slow down enough to drastically reduce the severity of the damage to the aircraft in this particular incident. The pilots of this particular flight did exactly what they were trained to do. And to this day, I see what they did it as a textbook example of professional airmanship in a textbook emergency landing.)

Again, my instructor walked me through my first soft-field landing. Approach to landing was standard like any other landing. But upon touch down of the main gears, I kept the nose wheel off the ground by keeping the stick pulled back until the DA-20 slowed down enough to the point the nose gear made contact with the ground. After that successful soft-field landing, we called it another flight and taxied the DA-20 back to the UVU ramp. And I'm happy to say today's flight was much more successful compared this past Saturday's; I believe I redeemed myself! Next flight will be another solo flight!