Pilot Life: Practice on an Overcast Day

Truth be told, I was actually quite surprised that I got to fly today. I woke up to an overcast layer and saw some signs of precipitation on ForeFlight that appeared to be moving in our direction. But there wasn't any rain hitting the ground at the Spanish Fork Airport so we proceeded to continue with what we had scheduled for this morning. I also checked the current weather at Provo as Spanish Fork uses Provo Airport's weather info; the overcast layer was high so visibility wasn't going to be much of an issue.

Took up N802CT up again. At this point, I'm going to try to keep scheduling the very same plane so I can get used to it's performance and be comfortable with it for when I do go on my checkride.

Today, my instructor and I went up to go over a couple of maneuvers we didn't get to do yesterday and review a few other things that needed polishing. I got us airborne with a soft-field takeoff and we flew south; we kept an eye on the weather as well as the outside air temperature and stayed close to the airport just in case... We started with some ground reference maneuvers, which included turns around a point, S-turns, and the rectangular course. It took a little bit but I eventually got a good feel of these maneuvers fairly well; the only things I need to improve on is a better balance between focusing between my instruments, my ground references, and traffic scanning better. Other than that, I felt that I got the maneuver down quite well.

We then ascended to a higher altitude so we could to slow flight and stalls. It's been several flights since I last did these maneuvers and it definitely showed today. After a little tweaking on my part in executing these maneuvers, I eventually got them down for the most part. Again, it was just a matter of polishing up on the little things. Afterwards, while at the higher altitude, we squeezed in some steep turns. The first time was rough and turbulent because we were closer to the mountains so I flew us out into the valley and away from the mountains. I felt that the mountains had a lot to do with me struggling to do steep turns on the first go. And I called it; the second go at steep turns was a lot better and it was noticeable. Even my instructor was happy with it for the most part. Again, a lot small things to polish up and adjust for. And learned something to keep in mind for future flights and for the checkride; if the air is turbulent at where you are to practice maneuvers, go elsewhere!

We headed back to the Spanish Fork-Springville Airport and got in some practice landings, two to be exact. The first touch and go was supposed to be a short-field landing and I was aiming for the numbers to touch down on; I ended up touching down at the 1,000 foot markers... Another area I definitely want to practice is my short and soft-field landings. We got back up in the air and flew a left traffic pattern and set myself up for a soft-field landing. I nailed the takeoff earlier, but the landing I could use a little work on as well as I came in a little too fast on the final approach. I'll get there eventually.

After landing, I cleared the runway and taxied back to the Platinum Aviation hangar. Overall, it was a good flight; I just have all the little things to work on. But I've certainly come a long way since I started logging flight time a year ago.