Pilot Life: Review Flight

At the recommendation of my stage check examiner, my instructor and I went up on a review flight to go over a few things I still need to get done for my second stage check, which I got started on last time I flew but was unable to complete due to deteriorating weather during that particular flight. So far, this has been a very frustrating semester due to bad weather and scheduling conflicts. I've since dropped my plans to start training for the Instrument rating this semester pushed those plans back until the summer term. But the main problem for me is not being able to meet regularly with instructors/examiners and I feel like I'm being kept in the dark with regards to my progress. I have been assured that my current situation will be resolved, but I am honestly starting to lose faith in UVU's aviation program. It was concerning enough that I started flying three weeks late last semester, but it was bad enough that I had to spend all of December as well as the first week of my winter break waiting around for pretty much nothing. For now, I take it one day at a time but I really hope I can put all these setbacks behind me...

I met with my instructor today and after some conversation with regards to my frustration, we got underway with today's flight lesson. At least going flying would help me forget about my problems for a little bit... After I got dispatched out, I conducted pre-flight and did my usual inspections. After finishing the pre-flight, my instructor joined me at the airplane and he quickly briefed me on the DA-20 we were flying in today because it was slightly different from all the other Katanas I flew so far.

Diamond DA-20-C1 Katana Falcon (N390JA), "Wolf  10," the aircraft my instructor went up in today. I've seen this airframe out on the ramp before but never flew it until today. Out of the entire UVU Katana fleet, this one is different (I consider it the "black sheep" of the UVU fleet!) as it's the only Katana with rear windows and slightly different equipment and handling characteristics. The Katana Falcon was originally designed to be a military flight trainer, with cockpit instrumentation moved in front of the right seat, where the student sits. This puts the stick in the student's right hand and throttle in the left, similar to fighter aircraft. Katana Falcons can be converted to standard configurations like the one I flew in today.

We hopped in the airplane and went through the routine pre-start and engine-start checklists and got the engine started. Once it was verified that there were no anomalies, we tuned the radio and picked up the current ATIS information from the airport. Once that was taken care of, we began taxi and brake checks, which were good. I then contacted ground informing them of our intentions; they cleared us to taxi and we were on our way. I taxied the plane to the run-up area and performed the usual run-ups. It was here that my instructor informed me that that the instrument panel of the DA-20 we were flying today was electrically driven and not with the standard vacuum system I've been used to with all the other Katanas I've flown in.

After run-ups were complete, we continued our taxi to the runway. Once we were holding short of the runway, I switched over to the tower frequency and informed them that we were ready for departure. The tower had us continue to hold short for a few minutes due to landing traffic. Soon after, we were cleared for takeoff and I taxied onto the runway and throttled full-forward and we began rolling. I pulled back on the stick slightly once the airspeed reached rotate speed and I got us airborne. I then set course for a practice area to the southwest. I also got in contact with the approach controller at Salt Lake and made radar contact.

Once we were set, my instructor had me perform some clearing turns to make sure there was no other traffic in the area and we got under way with the flight lesson review. The purpose of today's flight was to go over some of things I didn't get a chance to do last time on my stage check. First I asked that we do some stalls, something that I did alright on during the stage check, but felt I could improve upon. My instructor first had me do a power-on stall; I powered back the throttle, pitched the nose upwards, let the airspeed drop momentarily, and then throttled to full-power. As the stall warning horn sounded, I maintained the nose-up attitude until the stall occurred. I then immediately pushed the nose forward and built up airspeed to recover from the stall. Satisfied, we proceeded to do a power-off stall. As if I were setting up to land, I powered back the throttle once again, and set the flaps accordingly with the airspeed as it dropped. I then pulled back on the stick slightly in order to maintain the current altitude as airspeed continued to drop. The stall warning horn sounded and eventually, the plane started dropping, which was my cue to recover from the stall and go full-power and begin climbing as if I was doing a go-around.

Satisfied with the stalls, my instructor asked me what we should do next. I asked that we do emergency procedures, something that I didn't get a chance to do during the stage check several days ago. I pulled out out my emergency checklist and my instructor decided to simulate an in-flight engine fire followed by a simulated power-off deadstick landing. I went through the checklist for the in-flight engine fire and simulated what I would do with regards to the cockpit controls (being a simulation, I didn't do anything like actually kill the engine or turn the key off!) while flying the airplane. Once my instructor called "fire out," it was time to move onto the next part of this "emergency." Since you NEVER restart an engine after a fire, you only have once feasible option: land as soon as possible. I recalled the ABC's of a deadstick landing emergency situation, which was maintain the best glide speed, look for the best place to land and commit to it, and then go through the checklist which I did. Since we we weren't going to attempt an engine restart due to the preceding "fire," I skipped all of the steps for a midair restart and went straight to the part of the checklist that prepared for the emergency landing. Maintaining the DA-20's best glide speed, I proceeded to position the airplane towards the field I was going to simulate an emergency landing on as I went through the checklist. I simulated applying certain engine controls and applied flaps as appropriate.

Once it was determined that we would make the field I chose, my instructor called "go-around" and I pushed the throttles forward and climbed back up to altitude. We got emergency operations covered, so there was only one more thing I needed to go over in order to finish my second stage check in a few days: VOR navigation, which I didn't do too well on at the end of my previous flight when I started my stage check several days ago. My instructor walked me through the process again. We first verified that we were able to pick up Provo's VOR Morse code identifier via the navigation radio. Once that was done, we tuned the Omni Bearing Selector (OBS) until the vertical course deviation indicator (CDI) needle lined up on a radial signal from the VOR station. Once the CDI needle started deflecting, I made the correction by setting course towards the VOR until the needle centered again. My instructor then had me tune into another VOR station out in Fairfield. This time, I did it all by myself and roatated the OBS until the CDI needle lined up. Using my compass and gyroscopic heading indicator (or directional gyro; DG for short), I pointed the nose towards the Fairfield VOR upon noticing the deflection of the CDI. My instructor was satisfied with with VOR navigation and gave me some more useful pointers before setting course back towards Provo.

Beautiful day to fly, despite my dislike for winter!

We covered everything that I still needed to do in order to finish my stage check (happening on Monday), so we decided to have a little fun by doing some pattern work. While I passed the pattern portion with the short-field and soft-field takeoffs and landings, I'm always up for a challenge to continually improve my pattern and landing techniques so I could maintain proficiency. I contacted the Provo tower and informed them we were inbound for a touch-and-go. We entered the pattern and began cycling through the before-landing checklist. Once our wings were abeam of the threshold, I powered back on the throttle and set the first notch of flaps. As the airspeed continued to drop, I began the base-turn towards final approach and dropped the flaps down to full. We were on final approach and my instructor called out for me to do a short-field landing and touch down 1,000 feet down the runway, which I did. After touchdown, I retracted the flaps for takeoff, maintained a line-up on the runway center line and briefly hit the brakes to continue the short-field landing operation; I didn't stop the plane because we were cleared for a touch-and-go and not a stop-and-go. I pushed the throttles forward once again and got back in the air once airspeed picked back up.

Once airborne, I climbed us back up to pattern altitude and I called the tower to let them know we were full-stop this time. We were cleared to land with no other traffic in the area. My instructor had me do a soft-field landing this time. Again, I went through the same checklist and process to configure the airplane for landing. We made our final approach and I gently kissed the ground with the main landing gears and I kept the nose up by slightly keeping the stick pulled back as long as possible until airspeed dropped enough that the nose gear gently kissed the ground. We taxied off the runway and returned to the UVU flight ramp. There, I shut the airplane down and called it another flight.

Here's hoping I'll get done with my second stage check on Monday and finally move on from this major roadblock/setback/whatever you wanna call it.