iWantWings
Pre-takeoff checklist
Okay so really nothing exciting in this post, but maybe a student pilot like myself would find it worth reading.
All 5 hours of my solo flights have been in the pattern: I can firmly say that I now know how to turn LEFT - 4 consecutive times and then land. Bravo to me!
This morning I nearly left the nest and flew solo to the "practice area" a whopping 10 nautical miles away (zig-zag not included). Visibility was 6, mist around the airport, but clear a bit farther away.
Prior to takeoff I had made a detailed plan for getting to the practice area, and waht to do once there: places where I would make various calls, change frequencies, as well as order, altitutude and transition between ground reference and performance maneuvers. All good.
Once over the "practice area" (referened as "intensive flight training" on the TAC), I realized how much I missed the CFI's second pair of eyes. A few planes were transitioning through the area (VFR, I assume) without making calls on the training area frequency, and some others were making the call which made it very usesful.
So how did that affect me? I'm now aware that when doing the ground reference maneuvers and performance maneuvers I spent quite a bit of time in the cockpit glancing at the instruments thinking that my CFI will mostly watch for traffic. Well, there was no CFI on this first fligth to the practice area and every maneuver that I did was kind of "half-hearted". I spent most of my time trying to see transient traffic that I thaught might show up out of nowhere.
Slow flight was okay, but in steep turns and S-turns I varied the altitude more than I had been while the CFI was onboard. I guess this was a lesson in "division of attention" and I've got to work on it.
Here's a link to a portion of the flight (the flight is over a man-made reservoir - a not to shabby place to practice ditching. JK) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNUXWRNb7So
P.S. I wish the high wings were transparent, or at least translucent !
All 5 hours of my solo flights have been in the pattern: I can firmly say that I now know how to turn LEFT - 4 consecutive times and then land. Bravo to me!
This morning I nearly left the nest and flew solo to the "practice area" a whopping 10 nautical miles away (zig-zag not included). Visibility was 6, mist around the airport, but clear a bit farther away.
Prior to takeoff I had made a detailed plan for getting to the practice area, and waht to do once there: places where I would make various calls, change frequencies, as well as order, altitutude and transition between ground reference and performance maneuvers. All good.
Once over the "practice area" (referened as "intensive flight training" on the TAC), I realized how much I missed the CFI's second pair of eyes. A few planes were transitioning through the area (VFR, I assume) without making calls on the training area frequency, and some others were making the call which made it very usesful.
So how did that affect me? I'm now aware that when doing the ground reference maneuvers and performance maneuvers I spent quite a bit of time in the cockpit glancing at the instruments thinking that my CFI will mostly watch for traffic. Well, there was no CFI on this first fligth to the practice area and every maneuver that I did was kind of "half-hearted". I spent most of my time trying to see transient traffic that I thaught might show up out of nowhere.
Slow flight was okay, but in steep turns and S-turns I varied the altitude more than I had been while the CFI was onboard. I guess this was a lesson in "division of attention" and I've got to work on it.
Here's a link to a portion of the flight (the flight is over a man-made reservoir - a not to shabby place to practice ditching. JK) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNUXWRNb7So
P.S. I wish the high wings were transparent, or at least translucent !