Pre-Solo check ride

May 18, 2009 - I met Don B. at the airport today for my pre-solo check flight with another instructor. Don instructs in the evenings and on weekends. We started as usual with a pre-flight inspection of the Diamond, then we got in and taxiied out to runway 24. There was almost no wind today, no clouds, and great visibility. I took off and headed to the north. After we got to 3000 feet, Don asked me to transition into slow flight. After a little while in slow flight we moved to power on or departure stalls. You reduce throttle, maintain altitude while the plane slows, add in one notch of flaps to the takeoff position, keep holding back pressure to maintain altitude and when you get to around 50 knots go full throttle to simulate a takeoff and continue to pull back on the stick. The nose of the plane is really high and soon the stall warning horn goes off and the plane begins to fall forward. Push the stick forward to get the nose down and establish 78 knots airspeed and begin to climb back to the original altitude. After a couple stalls, Don reduced the throttle to idle and asked me what was the first thing I would do if the engine failed. I said that I would establish a glide speed of 73 knots. The second thing I would do would be pick a proper place to land. There was a large open field off to my left so I turned and glided toward the one end of the field. We continued toward the field until we reached 2000 feet. From here Don told me to level out and maintain this altitude and fly him back to Blue Ash. We were much further east of where I had been practicing, but I saw Kings Island and the WLW tower. I headed south and when we passed the WLW tower I turn southwest to setup for the entry into the pattern. I made all the radio calls and entered the pattern but on my first landing attempt my approach was too high and too fast, I knew I would float halfway down the runway so I decided to go around. Same thing happened on the second pattern, but I did get a side slip in but it was too little, too late. I went around again. Third attempt I was setup much better on final and made a halfway decent landing. I raised the flaps to takeoff, applied full throttle and took off again. Fourth time around I made my best landing to date, it was very smooth. Took off again on another touch and go and went around for the final time. The last landing was also pretty good and I rolled to the end of the runway, turned on the taxiway, and headed back to the tie down spot for the Diamond. I felt pretty good about todays flight and Don must have too because he cleared me for my solo. I'm exited about soloing and I hope to get it in this week. I'm scheduled to go back on Thursday, so lets hope.

Pre-Solo delays

May 14, 2009 - I've had two pre-solo checkout flight canceled so far. First one was for weather and second one was due to a problem with the starter on the plane. I had a flight scheduled with Cameron today that I hoped would be my solo. We decided to fly anyway and move on to the next topic - short field and soft field takeoffs and landings. We started with a 20 minute ground session to discuss the theory behind short/soft field procedures then we headed off to the Diamond. I made a pretty nice short field takeoff, which you basically start off at the very end of the runway, hold the brakes, apply full power, roll out to rotation speed then you climb at the best angle of climb speed which in the DA20-C1 is about 60 knots. After you clear any obstacles and get above the tree line you begin climbing at the best rate of climb speed or around 70 knots in the Diamond. We flew to Butler Regional where I made a short field landing. This procedure has you land close to the end of the runway, raise the flaps and hold back elevator to get more force on the main gear and brake hard to stop as short as possible. I made a pretty good short field landing, taxiied back around and made another short field takeoff, trip around the pattern and another short field landing.

I have another lesson scheduled for Monday with another instructor. Let's hope the all the variables work in my favor.

Back in the Air

I finally got back in the air yesterday after 17 days and I did feel rusty. The flight I had scheduled for last Friday 5/1 was scrubbed due to weather. I was scheduled to fly with Ken E. for a pre-solo checkout with another instructor. I flew yesterday with Cameron just to get back in the air and get some landing practice. I started off taking my pre-solo test and although I didn't study much, I knew most of the answers. I was able to look up the ones that I didn't know and discuss all of the questions with Cameron. The flight was just several times around the pattern. The first pass was just a standard traffic pattern to landing. There was almost no wind for the first time and the ground speed seemed much faster to me when I landed. The second pass was going to be a slip to landing with only 15 degrees of flaps. I climbed above pattern altitude and ended up too high on final and I was a little too fast when I tried the slip so the plane actually balloned up a bit. I also was not giving enough aileron and cross rudder input to be effective. I aborted the landing and went around. Third pass I was better at the slip, but I still had carried too much altitude onto final. The Diamond really wants to fly with only one notch of flaps. On the fourth pass I focused on decending at the beginning of the base turn all the way through to final. I had a good slip going on final and you can really tell when you are dropping altitude. The approach and landing were good. Today with no wind and landing with less flaps was really different, I learned that you really have to control the descent or the Diamond will just keep flying. I think I'd like to have 7 or 8 knots right down the runway each time I land.

Next week I'll be flying with Joe W. for my pre-solo checkout.