Lesson 5 – More Pattern Work

Due to my instructors schedule being pretty full, I have been unable to fly for two weeks. So I was pretty excited to get going today. The lesson began like most of the others where I arrived 20 minutes or so before my instructor and got the keys to the plane. I then did the pre-flight of the aircraft and got my stuff ready and my instructor came sauntering out to the plane. I was given a choice of what I felt like doing that day. More pattern work or starting to work on emergency procedures, etc. I asked my instructor if we could go somewhere other than Palo Alto. He said that we could go over to the Hayward airport and do pattern work over there which sounded good to me.

I pulled out the sectional map and he showed me the route we would be flying and gave me a general overview of the departure procedure we would be performing which was a right 45 degree departure to Hayward. This would take us over the sunken ship in the bay and then we would parallel the San Mateo bridge into Hayward.

I started the plane and we taxied out and did the engine run-up and pre-takeoff checks. I then called tower to announce that we were ready for departure and they cleared me for an immediate departure. I read back the clearance and started to move and my instructor said, “My airplane.” He then called tower back and said that I was a student pilot and we would like to hold short until the traffic had landed. I guess he didn’t want to rush me. Once the traffic landed we were cleared to depart.

The departure went as planned. We leveled off at 1,200 feet to stay below the Class B airspace. We flew out to the sunken ship and my instructor asked if we were over it. I said that I would assume so since I couldn’t see it anymore so it must be directly below the plane. He asked how we could check and I said that we could rock the wings, which I started to do but I guess I was too slow again as he grabbed the stick and yanked it to the left and then to the right.

We approached the Hayward airport and were cleared to land on runaway 28 left. Now, the first thing that strikes you as you approach the airport, especially if you are used to flying from Palo Alto airport, is how big the runway is. It is about twice as wide and three times as long as Palo Alto. This is good for learning as it gives you a wider safety margin.

We proceeded to do about 11 take offs and landings that day. I would say I had more good landings then bad landings this day, especially when I realized that if I sat up tall when it came time to flare, then I could really see the runway better and was able to ascertain my height off the ground with more accuracy. Once I discovered this, I felt much better about my next several landings.

There really isn’t much to discuss in those 11 takeoffs and landings as nothing new occurred and I really don’t remember every single one. There were two main events though that happened this day that are worth discussing. One was good and one was bad.

First, the good thing was that I got a chance to learn how to do a slip. Now, the purpose of a slip is to lose altitude without gaining airspeed. This is accomplished because you present the side of the fuselage to the relative wind. Basically, you skew the airplane sideways so that you are flying it toward the runway at an extreme angle. Sitting in the cockpit, this looks very strange. To accomplish this, we put in right rudder and then added left aileron. So the rudder moved the nose to the right and the aileron banked us to the left at the same time. Even though the plane is skewed, it continues to fly straight toward the runway. I got a chance to perform this maneuver once all the way down to the runway where I then straightened the plane out and landed on the ground.

The second event had to do with working on the landing flare. Prior to me having discovered that it would help a lot to raise myself up in the seat to see the runway better on the flare, my instructor had me focus on my pitch attitude on one of my landings. As we approached, he was coaching me to raise the nose. “Higher, higher, higher,” he would say. Eventually I had gone a little too much so he told me “too high.” Well, instinctively, I lowered the nose a bit when he said too high. He then applied full power and we started to go around. He said to never lower the nose on the landing. You are supposed to add power if your pitch attitude is too high. He said to me “If you lower the nose, this is what happens.” He then dove the airplane down from about 100 feet over the runway until we were close to the ground and then pulled up. This scared me as it was unexpected and we were close to the ground so I felt unsafe. I thought it was uncalled for also as we had not discussed any of this and it was only my fifth lesson so how was I supposed to know not to lower the nose but to add power instead?

Anyway, the rest of the day went well, including my landing at Palo Alto. Next time we plan on discussing and flying emergency procedures. After that we have to practice crosswind landings and coninue to do lots of pattern work leading up to my first solo flight. Until next time, take care...