Every flight is a learning experience

RyanB

RyanB

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Ryan
Whether you leave the pattern, or fly a XC every flight has something that can be learned. I went out yesterday and flew out to the practice area. I thought it might be a good idea to practice maneuvers like stalls, slow flight, steep turns etc. just to try and stay refreshed. Steep turns went pretty good, slow flight was good, but the first stall wasn't the best. Every time I do a stall, I like to try and watch the nose and feel whether or not the airplane needs more rudder. Being power off not a whole lot of P factor going on. I thought she was coordinated but it wasn't and dropped the left wing, acting like she wanted to start a spin. Forward controls full right rudder and recover, it wasn't a spin or an incipient spin but it had to be stopped before it developed. I didn't think it would drop a wing as if it wanted to spin with idle power being that P factor is so low vs. a power on stall scenario and not being coordinated, but apparently it will if it's not coordinated. Anyway it was good practice and kept me on my feet to put some of those recovery procedures into use. Next stall I tried to keep it coordinated as much as I could and broke straight ahead as usual. Everything else went pretty good, and I hope to make next flight even better.
 
Exactly right. :yes:

Taking powered flight for granted usually doesn't end well. Staying current with flying requires thought, dedication, and persistence.
 
Easy tip for staying coordinated during stalls is just never move the ailerons. I used to have trouble with this too until my instructor literally said, "Don't you touch those ailerons again." and it fixed my stalls considerably.

Using the rudder can keep the nose straight if you focus on pulling straight back. Perfectly straight.

I'm sure you'll do fine next flight, good job staying current!
 
jordane93 said:
Go get some spin training. It is extremely valuable and lots of fun.
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I did spin training awhile back, and it definitely is valuable and helps with stall recoveries.
 
Always fun to practice steep turns,also spin practice can be fun. You might want to take an unusual attitude course.
 
I did the same last week getting up in the early evening and did some practice maneuvers until it was past civil twilight and then did some night landings for currency and practice. Wow was I rusty! By the end of the night I was feeling better but still not where I wanted to be. You quickly forget how much things look differently when it's dark unless you're well practiced. I plan to roll into a routine of doing practice flights every couple of weeks to keep me sharp. License to (re)learn!
 
frfly172 said:
Always fun to practice steep turns,also spin practice can be fun. You might want to take an unusual attitude course.
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I plan to do unusual attitudes sometime in the future for sure!


guardrail said:
I did the same last week getting up in the early evening and did some practice maneuvers until it was past civil twilight and then did some night landings for currency and practice. Wow was I rusty! By the end of the night I was feeling better but still not where I wanted to be. You quickly forget how much things look differently when it's dark unless you're well practiced. I plan to roll into a routine of doing practice flights every couple of weeks to keep me sharp. License to (re)learn!
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I agree, I feel like its good to practice different things every little bit. Looking back in it, the reason the airplane dropped the wing during stall was because I was uncoordinated, the next time when it was coordinated it broke off straight ahead like normal. So it was good to practice both types of recoveries.
 
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