Flight Schools

Flight Hrs: 1.7 / Total Hrs: 13.4
Aircraft: C-172 / Airport: KDEW

At one point, I was absolutely DREADING stalls. Today I actually looked forward to it all. I am starting to enjoy them. It’s strange, they’ve almost become comforting to me. I used to think a stall made me very vulnerable. Now, it seems to reassure me of the planes ability to fly. Of course, I’m several thousand feet off the ground.

We started this lesson with slow flight. This is a very strange feeling. I have to admit I’m still not 100% of certain of this process. I know I have to slow down and bleed off my speed and extend my flaps. Once I have them fully extended I have to start to push in the throttle until I’m maintaining level flight. It’s tough being on the cusp of stalling and not feeling vulnerable. As soon as that stall buzzer goes off, I want to push the nose down and put and end to the buzzing.

Once we were done with slow flight, we went right into a stall. This was a power off stall and I still haven’t got the sequence memorized. I know I need to remove the flaps, but I wanted to get rid of too much to soon. It’s important to just get rid of 10 degrees of flaps at first.

I wasn’t really comfortable with my stall, so I asked if we can do some more. We did and I still never want to do this when I’m solo in the plane. If that ever happens…

Speaking of going solo, I know that one of these days my CFI is going to say “ok, let me out after the next landing.” I’m excited for that time, but I’m a little intimidated by it all. To think that I’m going to be all along piloting a real plane, not some flight simulator. It’s amazing

Well, no solo today. I still have a lot to work on with my touch & goes. I just can’t get that round-out down correct. Someone gave me some great advice and it’s really helped. They said, when you’ve made the numbers and you’re about to round out, look at the END of the runway, not the part of it right in front of you. That really helps me not react to every little movement. I see the bigger picture.

Well, I’m at 13.4 hours and still no solo. Maybe I’m not doing too bad. I keep thinking I have a ton of things to remember. It’s so hard to remember every step. My CFI reassures me that I’m doing well and I’m on track. I think he’s just being nice to me cause that’s the kind of guy he is.

Tagged as: landing, manuevers, slow flight, stalls