Anyways, I'm going to finish up flight training for my private pilot's license and burn off any excess flight hours I paid for last semester during these next few weeks and go from there. So today, I finally got started with the flying portion of my second stage check; I finished the ground portion last weekend but the weather here in Provo since starting the new semester has been absolute crap and it's been nothing but a waiting game. Today, the weather hasn't been great but it was marginal to the point that I was able to get into the air and demonstrate some things to my check examiner. I haven't flown in over a month and I really hoped that I didn't lose any proficiency or forgot anything important. Not surprisingly, I found myself reciting Alan Shepard's pilot prayer several times as I got ready for today's flight...
“Dear Lord, please don’t let me f**k up.” -Alan Shepard's pilot prayer
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| Diamond DA-20-C1 Katana (N879CT) "Wolf 08," the aircraft I took up today with the stage check examiner. |
After I got dispatched out. I experienced my first little setback: the plane I was scheduled to fly in was in the hangar! So I had to wait for someone to tow it out onto the ramp... Honestly, the only thing that went right about today's flight was the fuel; I didn't have add or remove any for the sake of weight! Once the plane was parked out on the ramp, I did my preflight checks and my check instructor joined me. After I was done with the preflight, we hopped in the airplane, went through the briefing and start-up checklist, started up the engine, picked up our taxi clearance and taxied out to the run-up area, where we did our run-ups. It was at this point that I was glad I had my pilot checklist with me as I was able to conduct all my checks and scans of the aircraft instruments and controls rather smoothly; it was good enough for me to get a slight confidence boost. After run-ups were complete, we taxied out to the runway and picked up our takeoff clearance from the control tower.
I taxied onto the runway and lined up on the center line. My check instructor had me start with a short-field take-off. I stepped on the brakes and advanced the engine throttles. Once I verified the RPMs, we started rolling. Once we got to takeoff speed for a short-field, I pulled back on the stick and we got airborne; my first flight of 2017 was underway! I made a brief steep climb-out as part of the short-field takeoff before I dropped the nose a little bit to revert to a normal climb. I then turned us to the southwest towards the practice area, being ever so mindful of the weather, which was clearly deteriorating on us. We stayed close to the southern tip of Utah Lake as the weather and cloud cover was clearly worse further south. I performed a quick clearing turn to verify that there wasn't any other traffic in the area.
My check instructor had me start off with stalls. She had me first do a power-off stall with the flaps set to landing configuration. I thought about for second and I was able to recall the process. I first brought back the power and then lowered the flaps as needed, treating this as if I was preparing the airplane for landing in the pattern. Once the flaps were all the way down and power set to near idle, I then pulled back on the stick intentionally in the typical attempt to maintain altitude. Eventually, the stall warning horn went off and the airplane started dropping. I immediately went full-throttle with the engine and recovered the airplane and began climbing back out, retracting the flaps in the process. Satisfied, I was then tasked to perform a power-on stall. It was here that I made a mistake; I brought the power back initially but I then abruptly pulled back on the stick and revved the engine to full-power. I had failed to let the airspeed drop initially before pulling back on the stick. I also put the airplane into a higher than normal nose-up position for the power-on stall. I was corrected on this and I made said corrections. Despite my mistakes, I was still given a pass on the stalls. And despite having not flown in over a month, I felt I was doing decent...
My check instructor then took control of the airplane and she had me put on my foggles. Once I had my foggles on, she had me tune to the Provo Airport VOR on the OBI instrument after verifying that we were in range via it's Morse code transmission on the radio. With foggles on, I kept an eye on the instruments closely making sure I kept the airplane in level flight as I tinkered with the OBI. I had trouble tuning the navigation instrument. My mistake was that I was rushing it; I managed to tune the indicator to the direction of the Provo VOR but I had trouble getting the center needle lined up in order to verify which direction or heading I needed to turn to. Needless to say, I didn't do too well on this portion of the stage check... Plus the weather was getting worse so we headed back to Provo. We quickly went over what I didn't get right with VOR navigation and I received much needed insight regarding corrections I need to make for a recheck on this subject. Other than that, I probably had a brain fart on VOR navigation and my check instructor sympathized with me on it. The important thing is I remember and know it now and I won't forget it next time!
We proceeded back to Provo and made radio contact with the tower. It was a normal traffic pattern and thankfully, I remembered the procedures and checklists to go along with it! Each circuit, I manipulated the flaps and airspeed as appropriate. And as an added bonus challenge, there were elements of a crosswind! We noticed because the ground speed (GS) changed drastically on each leg of the pattern we flew, especially on the crosswind and base turns!
My check instructor had me first request a touch-and-go and called for me to do a soft-field landing followed by a soft-field takeoff. We entered the pattern, I pulled back on the power to the engine, lowered the flaps as necessary and descended during the base of the approach before making the final approach. I came down to the runway and pulled the power just above the ground. Once we touched down, I kept the stick pulled back slightly to keep the nose up as long as possible. Once the nose gear touched down, I retracted the flaps into takeoff configuration, got lined up on the runway center line, pulled back on the stick, and throttled forward to get back up to speed. Once the nose started going up, I manipulated the stick and waited until the main gears left the ground.
Once airborne, I turned the airplane and climbed back up to pattern altitude. This time, my check instructor had me request a stop-and-go clearance from the tower so we could do a short-field landing followed by a short-field takeoff. The tower controller cleared us for a stop-and-go and I proceeded to fly the pattern as normal. Once past the midway point on the downwind leg, I again reduced engine power, lowered the flaps as needed, descended and made my base turn toward the final approach. My check instructor challenged me to touch down on the 1,000 foot markers, which sits 1,000 feet past the end the runway I was landing on (obviously!). The 1,000 markers are typically the traditional touchdown zone for most aircraft landing on long runways like the one at Provo. As I made my approach, I made sure to keep some power to the engine until the last second before I pulled back to idle so I could hit the 1,000 foot markers. It was uneventful as I successfully landed on the spot I was instructed to. Once all the landing gears made contact with the pavement, I stepped on the brakes to finish the short-field landing.
Once we came to a complete stop, it was time to do a short-field takeoff from where we sat. I brought the flaps back up, remained on the brakes, and throttled the engine to full power. Once I verified the engine gauges, I released the brakes and we were rolling once again. Once we reached rotate-speed, I pulled back on the stick and as part of the short-field takeoff, I made a slightly steeper climb-out as if we were dodging an obstacle in our takeoff path. Once at a sufficient height, I brought the climb back down to a normal one and proceeded onto the final circuit around the pattern for the day. My check instructor was satisfied with the landing portion of the stage check so we were done for the day. I flew up to pattern altitude and called the tower to let them know that our next landing was a full-stop. With no other traffic in the pattern, the tower controller cleared us to landing and once again, I did the usual routines prior to a landing with checklist on hand. On this approach, I made a normal landing before taxiing off the runway. Once we were clear of the active runway, we immediately received instruction to taxi back to the UVU ramp. We also received a warning of caution from the tower regarding jet blast from a Gulfstream that was starting up on the FBO ramp. I taxied the airplane back to the UVU ramp, parked and shut the engine down.
Aside from a needed refresher with VOR navigation, we didn't have time to do simulated emergencies so the next time I meet with my check instructor, we'll cover these before she can pass me off on the second stage exam. Regardless of that, I was just glad that I was able to get back up in the air today after over a month of no flying!
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