Back in the saddle...

S

Scottman

Pre-Flight
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Aug 28, 2019
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Scottman
After nearly 28 years, I've decided to get back into the cockpit. Had my first BFR “lesson” yesterday and it felt pretty good. Flying around Los Angeles is a lot different these days and I felt a bit behind the curve in knowing my boundaries around the B and D airspace and flying in a cockpit with gear that didn’t exist 28 years ago.

I felt in command of the plane which was the best part. My slow flight was good, poweroff stalls were ok (though with my 1st recovery I attempted to correct p-factor with ailerons. :eek:). My landing was a C- as my mains were on centerline but my nose... not so much.

All in all a lot better than I thought I’d do, but a long way to go still before I’m a good pilot again.
 
Congrats. I came back about 7 years ago after at 20 year hiatus, so sounds like we stopped about the same time. I was in SoCal too. My last flight was to Thermal so I could log a below sea level landing.

My re-currency experience was similar. Flying the plane was the easy part. GPS, engine monitors, and the new airspace names were all new to me.
 
Sounds fun!!

I’m curious to know how your mains were on centerline, but your nose was not.
 
Van Johnston said:
My re-currency experience was similar. Flying the plane was the easy part. GPS, engine monitors, and the new airspace names were all new to me.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I didn’t have auto pilot checks on my old checklists. And a simple altimeter change now takes 3 instruments and about 6 steps.
 
Scottman said:
After nearly 28 years, I've decided to get back into the cockpit. Had my first BFR “lesson” yesterday and it felt pretty good. Flying around Los Angeles is a lot different these days and I felt a bit behind the curve in knowing my boundaries around the B and D airspace and flying in a cockpit with gear that didn’t exist 28 years ago.

I felt in command of the plane which was the best part. My slow flight was good, poweroff stalls were ok (though with my 1st recovery I attempted to correct p-factor with ailerons. :eek:). My landing was a C- as my mains were on centerline but my nose... not so much.

All in all a lot better than I thought I’d do, but a long way to go still before I’m a good pilot again.
Click to expand...

That's about how long I went before getting back in. I'll see your correcting for P-factor with aileron and raise you I was steering the plane when taxiing with the steering wheel(yoke.) Don't know what gear in the cockpit you had that didn't exist 28 years ago, but you're gonna love a some moving map gadget that shows B, C and D airspace even if it's just on a phone or Ipad. Welcome back.
 
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