Pilot Life: A Not-So-Great Flight

Two days ago, I was feeling like I was at the top of my game, especially after my first solo flight. Today, I was quickly reminded and humbled by the fact that I am still a relative newbie to the whole pilot program and that I still have a long ways to go. I enrolled in the flight program at Utah Valley University thinking I knew a lot about aviation just from reading about it and keeping up with the latest news and current events... But as I've received instruction both from flight lessons and the topics I've been learning about in the classroom, I have since learned that there is still so much about aviation that I don't know.

Today's flight was not my greatest... In fact, everything pretty much went wrong for me on this flight as nothing was really clicking or falling into place. Needless to say, I've got much to learn and review after today's flight. So today, we got back into the very same airplane I soloed in two days prior. After conducting pre-flight and the usual start-up checks, we got taxi clearance from the ground controller and taxied out to the run-up areas. After run-ups, we continued our taxi to the runway, where we got out takeoff clearance and we got in the air.

Diamond DA-20-C1 Katana (N980CT), "Wolf 09," the aircraft we flew today and the very same aircraft I flew my first solo earlier this week.

One new concept my instructor introduced to me today was a soft-field takeoff. Soft-field takeoff and landing operations are typically conducted at airfields with runways that are made up of materials that isn't asphalt or concrete, but more natural materials such as grass (the most common), dirt, sand, gravel, etc. Unlike concrete or asphalt, runway surfaces composed of grass or sand is not smooth so the resistance and drag imposed on airplane is greater. Therefore, it  makes such operations necessary in order to get the airplane airborne as quickly as possible in order to eliminate the drag and prevent possible damage to the aircraft and in particular, its landing gears. Basically, in a soft-field takeoff, you're supposed to get your nose gear off the ground as quickly as possible and then you're basically popping a wheelie! My instructor walked me through today's soft-field takeoff and we got airborne.

Once we were in the air, we made our way to the practice area. Once we arrived in the practice area, my instructor put me through the paces, starting with slow flight. Today's flight was basically a recap of some of the flight maneuvers I learned throughout the first stage of flight training. My configuration to slow flight was pretty sloppy, as if I've completely forgotten it; in reality, I just missed a few steps and some basic information with regards to airspeed and technique. After that, my instructor had me do a couple of stalls, both power-on and power-off. Again, configuring into these basic maneuvers was sloppy on my part, including a few missed steps in how to configure for power-on and power-off stalls respectively. I was really having a bad day as I was completely off my game. Again, it was a humbling experience to realize that I still have much to learn and have lots to remember and recall upon.

After that rough round of stalls, we took the plane down to lower altitudes to practice ground reference maneuvers. Once at the desired altitude, I completely forgot to check for wind direction so I quickly made a check for any references on the ground that could tell me which way the wind was blowing. Once I made that correction, I attempted turns around a point and some S-turns. Again, they were really sloppy as I was constantly struggling to correct for the wind factor. At this point, it was time to head back to Provo; good thing too, because I've had enough after failing miserably at these basics of flight maneuvers. And I wondered if my flight instructor was frustrated, but I didn't ask because I really did not want to know!

We made our approach to Provo and entered the pattern. We were supposed to do a couple of touch-and-go landings on this flight so my instructor could walk me through soft-field landings as well as short-field takeoffs and landings, but we decided to save those for the next flight. So today's landing was a normal one. Once we rolled out and turned off to the nearest taxiway, we taxied back to the UVU flight ramp, parked the plane and shut it down. This was not my greatest flight, but I still learned a lot from it; I can only climb back on the horse from this low-point I'm at from here. I've determined to review the flight manuals as well as the flight profiles for the DA-20 a little more closely and planned for a repeat of today's flight lesson for this coming Tuesday...

I won't make the same mistakes I've made today again on the next flight.