Pilot Life: Recurrent Training (Continued)

Recurrent training continues as my instructor and I took to the skies for another local flight today. We were supposed to fly on Friday, but the weather and wind turned to crap on us so we decided to play things safe. But I have to say, that fact that I haven't flown in two months really showed in today's flight! Today really was one of those days where things didn't work out too well for me; it's the price of recurrency I suppose. Still, a bad day of flying is better than a good day with no flying! After getting dispatched out, I went out to the airplane and did the routine pre-flight checks. My instructor joined me at the airplane after I finished. We hopped in and went through the usual start-up procedures and got the engine started. Once everything checked out, we checked brakes and steering and then I contacted the ground controller to pick up our taxi clearance, which we received. I taxied the plane out to the run-up area where we did our routine run-ups and continued taxiing to the main runway. We stopped short of the threshold so I could call the tower to pick up our takeoff clearance. Once cleared for takeoff, I taxied the plane out onto the runway to line up and then advanced the throttle to begin takeoff roll.

N980CT, "Wolf 09," the plane we took up today for recurrent training.

Once up to speed, the plane gently lifted off the ground and we were airborne. Once past the departure end of the runway, I turned us out towards the same practice area we went to on the previous flight. We also established radio and radar contact with the Salt Lake approach controller. Once we arrived at the practice area, I did a clearing turn to ensure airspace around us was clear of traffic before proceeding to do our maneuvers. After verifying that the airspace around us was clear, my instructor had me put my foggles and then go into slow flight. I powered back the throttle, and pitched the nose up slightly to bleed off airspeed before reapplying power and trimming out the controls to sustain the current attitude. I then turned to certain headings my instructor called out. From there he just had me do some basic instrument flying where I only referred to the flight instruments at my disposal. Afterwards, my instructor took the controls and had me remove my foggles as I've just logged a little more simulated instrument flying time.

We then went into the basic maneuvers including stalls and applied everything I could recall upon; my instructor gave me some advice and pointers for things I was showing weakness at. After doing stalls, my instructor pulled the power back on the throttle to simulate an engine failure. Again, the process came to mind, albeit a little slow on my part. I first maintained the DA-20's best glide speed before picking field to make an approach to. I then got out my emergency checklist and started going through it. After going through the motions while keep the best glide speed in the airplane, I made the approach to the chosen field; we would've made it had this been a real emergency landing. My instructor called for a go-around and I gunned the throttle full forward and we began climbing away. The only takeaway from today's emergency procedures practice was knowing the checklist, something else for me to work on...

We decided to call it a day and headed back to Provo. We tuned the radios, checked the current winds and weather, and then contacted the tower. They had us enter the pattern from the south and swing back around to make the approach to landing from the north. It was all routine from here; once the plane was abeam of the touchdown markers of the runway, I reduced speed and lowered the wing flaps as appropriate. We descended from pattern altitude, made our base turn, and established on the final approach path. I brought us in over the runway and chopped the power back to idle just above the runway and touched down. Again, not my best landing, but we haven't had any time since getting back into things to really practice and polish up my landings. My instructor and I both agreed that the next flight we'll do should focus on pattern work only in order to get some landing practice in. We taxied back to UVU's ramp, parked the plane and shut the engine down.

Slowly, but surely, I'll gain back my proficiency.