Pilot Life: Review Flight (Part 2)

Still preparing for my first stage check (and eventually the first solo flight), it was time for another review flight which covered several more flight maneuvers taught to me previously. As always, I took care of the pre-flight on the airplane before my instructor and I hopped in and got started up. We got our usual taxi clearance, went out to the run-up area, did the run-ups and then taxied out to the runway. Once we got our takeoff clearance, we got airborne and headed out to the practice area to the south.

Diamond DA-20-C1 (N208NH), "Wolf 02," the aircraft I went up in for this flight.

After arrival into the practice area, my instructor once again had me "blinded" by handing me a pair of foggles and I was simulating instrument conditions. With foggles on, my instructor had me do steep turns, climbing and descending turns to whatever heading he wanted me to point the airplane at. After the simulated instrument requirements for this flight lesson was satisfied, my instructor took control of the DA-20 and had me remove the foggles and the rest of today's flight was more visual.

The next part of today's flight agenda was some ground reference maneuvers, which meant descending to a lower altitude. Once the desired altitude was reached, I did some turns around a point followed by some S-turns. They were decent, but my correction for the wind could use some work. A mindset I've sworn to go by while learning to fly is never become complacent or satisfied with my progress in any area of aviation, rather strive to make continuous improvement and keep the skills I will eventually master polished and well-practiced to the point that things become second-nature. I will admit that I'm not there yet, but I'm getting there. Once we were done with the ground reference maneuvers, my instructor took the controls again and we headed back to Provo.

View of the Provo Airport while entering the pattern with my instructor flying the airplane.

A view to the north as we made our way downwind in the pattern.

Once we entered Provo airspace, we had time for a touch-and-go so we opted for that. My instructor stayed in control of the aircraft because we got instructed from the tower controller to do a "left 360" which is aviation short-hand for making a full 360 degree turn to the left. The reason for this is because a Gulfstream IV was on final approach and it had landing priority.

Over Utah Lake with a view to the south during the left 360.

Oftentimes, we have to extend the downwind of our landing approach for landing traffic in order to give them their space; and this is usually the case when the airport traffic pattern has several aircraft in the queue. However, for our convenience and because there was no other traffic in the pattern, doing a left 360 kept us from extending the downwind of the approach procedure. My instructor demonstrated to me how the left 360 is done; it's just a shallow turn that when kept consistent, the aircraft would be re-established on the downwind when the full 360 degree turn is completed.

This is becoming an all-too familiar sight for every approach I do.

View of Provo while over Utah Lake in the left 360 turn. Y Mountain is visible in the center.

By the time we got re-established on the downwind the Gulfstream IV was just touching down and we continued our approach into Provo. The tower cleared us for touch-and-go and cautioned us regarding wake turbulence from the Gulfstream. The presence of wake turbulence only meant one thing: come in high on final approach above the wake turbulence and execute the forward slip! After bleeding off the excess altitude while maintaining airspeed with the forward slip, we made our touch-and-go landing and got back up in the air again.

Getting re-established on the downwind.

Once back up at pattern altitude, my instructor had me request over the radio "the option," which the tower controller gave us clearance for. As the term may imply, this is a procedure that permits an instructor, flight examiner or pilot the option to make a touch-and-go, low approach, missed approach, stop-and-go, or full stop landing. Basically, you can do any of those when "cleared for the option." The advantageous aspect with regards to this procedure is that as a training aid:

1. It enables an instructor or examiner to obtain the reaction of a trainee or examinee under changing conditions.
2. The pilot would not have to discontinue an approach in the middle of the procedure due to student error or pilot proficiency requirements.  
3. It allows more flexibility and economy in training programs. 

The catch is that this procedure can only be requested at airports with an operational control tower and is subject to approval and clearance from the tower controller, pending on the density of the local air traffic. In today's case, there wasn't any other aircraft sharing the pattern with us so the option was available. I was expecting another touch-and-go but we ended up making a full-stop landing instead, so we taxied back to the ramp and called it another flight.

The next flight I take will be my Stage I check, which also means a solo flight for me is somewhere around the corner.