My Student Pilot's Log: Presolo

Flights 8-9

Mon, Dec 4.

No flying today, but there were a couple of things of note. I got my student pilot/medical certificate, which involved a trip to the doctor to make sure I don't have any problems which would prevent me from flying.

Tonight I started ground school. School is not required; some people study on their own. That's what I originally planned to do, but I decided to take the classes for the following reasons.

• It's a way to meet other students.
• It's cheap (under $100 for about 30 hours in the classroom).
• It's a chance to hear the material from another instructor's perspective.
• We'll probably learn things that aren't covered in the books. (Such as the differences between the planes I use and those some of the other students fly.)
• Having weekly classes forces us to keep up with the reading.

Flight 8: Thurs, Dec 7. (1.3/9.1)

Today I made my first takeoff from runway 18 instead of 36, since the wind was mainly from the south instead of the north as it had always been before. I practiced a couple of the ground reference manuevers, then we went over to Plant City (PCM) for more landing practice.

It was good to see another airport for a change, since the last few sessions were around home. I was consistently high (the plane, I mean) on the approaches, which I consider progress over last week's grab bag. I'll take consistent errors over random ones any day.

Driving home, I realized why I had been too high. Our home airport is practically at sea level, so it's easy to get used to thinking of "above ground level" being about the same as "above sea level". (Not a good idea if you're in the mountains.) Plant City is at 100 feet, but I didn't completely compensate for that.

I'm used to making the first turn at 500 feet after takeoff, and did so today. I should have turned at 600 (500 above the ground). Since I turned too soon, the rest of the pattern was thrown off. Where I should have been leveling off, I was still climbing, until I got past the point where I would normally start descending.

Realizing the airport was by then behind me, I made the last two turns a bit later than usual but still too high. The result was a steep approach that makes for a more difficult landing. (Someday I hope to start having these insights while I'm still in the air.) Good thing my next lesson is in two days, because if I could have turned the car around and gone back for another hour, I would have.

Flight 9: Sat, Dec 9: Stupid Landing Tricks. (1.3/10.4)

Today was all landing practice, which I'll keep doing until I get it. We did our touch & goes over at Peter O. Knight (TPF). The runway we used made for an interesting pattern, part of it over Hillsborough Bay and the approach over an oil refinery. My first chance to descend toward large tanks of petroleum had arrived. There's no reason to worry about hitting one, since if you're low enough to do so at that point, you're already in trouble.

I was asked to fly a few feet above the runway without touching it, and made a near-perfect unassisted (but unintended) landing. The back wheels hit the pavement together; I didn't bounce or drop it like a rock the last few feet like I often do. The only thing wrong was that I wasn't supposed to land! (Maybe that was just a CFI trick to get me to land properly.)

The next time around was supposed to be a regular touch & go, but I went up and down on the runway like a rabbit without ever touching it. Not good, but better than hitting the pavement several times. I did the last landing back at home by myself, so that was two for eight.

Glossary