Third Flight - Stalls and Landings

Got to finally go aloft on Thurs., 18 Sep 2008 with Joey Maxwell after a week of low clouds and thick morning fog. Joey is another of the fine CFIs at WNC Aviation and was a joy to work with.

I had run over to AVL the previous day to fly, but the soup just wouldn't burn off. I called Joey, and invited him to lunch to chat about his new business brokering aircraft - which he is in the process of starting with some other gents at WNCA. Great idea and they look like they're doing it "right"! Our lunch chat was great and I can't wait to see them start to grow. More to come!

On Thursday, we were booked to fly at 10, but the fog was hanging in. Joey and I sat and reviewed a bit while waiting for that persistent fog to burn off. We watched as some of the regional jets (RJs) rotated up off the runway and immediately disappeared into the clouds almost before their wheels left the ground. Joey said it'd be that way until the temperature got a few degrees above dewpoint. He suggested we wait until 11 to get started. I ran over to the airport authority but they were out of the office, so I drove into Fletcher and poked my nose into The Frugal Backpacker and Diamond Brands to inquire about kayaks. Met a cool paddler "Chunky" there (he hits a lot of rocks with his head - says he) who is a dedicated canoe paddler. Joey called and said give it another 30 minutes, so I got a great demo/intro to boats and canoes.

Anyhow, got back to the airport about 11:30 and skies were blue with a few puffy white clouds south of the SW practice area. Since we had reviewed, we grabbed the bag and "cans" and headed out for 66R. Joey led me through the pre-flight and pointed out some new knowledge (the rear static port is for the autopilot, not a redundant one, etc.) And we were in the cockpit firing up the 180HP engine in a few moments.

We wheeled out to the run up area and followed the checklist then called for clearance, which was immediately granted. We swung out onto the runway, pushed throttle to the firewall and watched the airspeed indicator begin rolling around the arc. At 55KIAS, rotated up for a smooth takeoff.

As we climbed "out" I was furiously pumping the rudder pedals to keep the plane on course at 340. Joey giggled and said "Tell ya what, let go of the pedals for a second." As I did the plane quit crabbing and settled into a very shallow left hand turn. "Now, gently put your feet back on the pedals and give the right one just a touch of pressure." The plane swung to the right and flew in a straight line. Joey looked at me and gave me his best Santa Claus grin. "No need to work so hard, see?" I'm gonna really enjoy training today!

We turned left for the SW practice area and continued our climb to 5,500. Joey called Hendersonville field (22Whiskey) as a courtesy - to let them know we'd be doing some maneuvers in the area, and had a friendly chat with some of the folks on the ground there. Flying folks are nice and appreciate friendly "heads up" calls.

Joey demonstrated the correct "flight picture" for me and then covered the altimeter and heading indicator. He made me do some left and right turns keeping my head out of the cockpit (looking out the windows vs. fixated on instruments). He said to imagine a coke bottle sitting on the cowling, and that I should keep the top of that bottle on the horizon line to maintain level flight. After about 3 minutes he took off the cover and we had only drifted about 30 feet of altitude. That made me feel good!

Then we worked on stalls. This was not only fun, but joyous! How can stalling a plane and falling out of the sky be joyous??? Well, Joey demonstrated the simple truth that it is a basic set of steps best executed with your head out of the cockpit (again). Configure for slow flight, then Look at a point in front of you - then pull the nose up. As the angle of attack increases, you strive to keep the nose pointed at your point in the distance. The plane continues to rotate upward and starts to shudder. Then all of the sudden, it drops out of the climb and floats downward. Quick application of full power, slight tug back on the yoke, and you're pointing at the point on the horizon you picked! Back off on the power, kick a little right rudder, and reduce flaps. Easy!!!

Power on stalls (like your taking off) are a bit more dramatic, but same basic principle. Configure for climb, power on full, pick your point on the horizon and nose up to climb. Now this takes some doing, but the nose keeps turning upward until you're almost hanging on the prop. Finally; however, the plane will shudder, shimmy, controls go mushy and the plane falls out of the sky. Just tug back on the yoke to break the dive and reset the nose towards your horizon point, and that's all there is to it! I'm loving this instruction at this point.

A few of each, and we were ready to clear the practice space and head for touch-n-gos at AVL.
We were instructed to "head directly for the numbers", touch and go, make left traffic and remain in the pattern with a call to the tower at midfield. Joey kindly read this back to the tower - "Roger AVL approach, cleared direct to runway three four, tough-n-go, then left traffic and call at midfield" and grinned at me saying "that was a mouthful, wasn't it?". These guys intuitively know when things are a bit overwhelming and will step in to make you feel confident and to handle anything that might be a little beyond your training to this point.

Joey had me waggle the tail a few times on base and final to relax my legs again. That helped tremendously with getting a "feel" for the rudder/yaw at slow flight. We lined up for the runway, and as we got over the numbers, Joey had me focus on the end of the runway, saying to point the nose at it and even make it disappear behind the cowling. This would approximate the right "flare angle" and put us down gently. Well, I got a bit eager and over rotated, the plane floated up and stalled about 3 feet too high, and I "clunked" it onto the runway for an unceremonious flop landing. Joey just grinned and said, "No problem, you'll get a feel for it."

We went full throttle, dropped the flaps to 0, and rotated up again. Left turns and same base and final, this time still waggling the tail to get a feel for the controls, but in a bit steeper descent. I made a much more normal landing this time and we slowed to our turnoff ramp Mike. We parked, post-flighted and had a good walk back over to the terminal.

Joey is a seasoned instructor and really advanced my understanding of stalls, coordinated controls and smooth landings in a short time. Fun to get to know him as well.

Next lesson: Turns around a point, S Turns over a road, more stall review and more time on the radios. Also, will need some help with all the instruments (powered, vacuum, precession, indicated vs. true vs. calibrated airspeed and altitude). That all seems a bit confusing.

Work on: Smooth landings, focusing outside the cockpit at that "burned in" proper flight attitude picture. Comfort with radio communications.