Vectors To Final

Today we performed a progress check flight for 1.3 hours, where I perform just about every maneuver that we have gone over to-date. I did a bit better holding altitude today, but I busted through my assigned altitude one time when my scan was too slack. My steep turns are slowly improving as well, I had at least 180 degrees of excellent steep turn at one point. :) It had been almost 2 weeks since my last flight, so I wasn't too disappointed with my performance (Charles had to cancel a flight just before I went to NY). Next lesson we plan to get into the really cool stuff: nav instruments, starting with using the VOR in an IFR environment.

Today Charles and I went up for 1.1 hours of instruction in 99A. We worked on a number of maneuvers, focusing on dealing with unusual attitudes. We did a 360 steep turn to the right and to the left. I improved on those from my last flight, but still had some altitude oscillations I need to work out. We then went on to some slow flight: 50kt flight in a clean config and 45kt flight in a landing config. The slow flight really had me scanning fast, and double checking that airspeed a good bit. We performed power-on and power-off stalls and did some unusual attitude work (with full and partial panel). For the unusual attitudes we did them with Charles flying the plane and with me flying the plane with my eyes closed. In the last one I did with my eyes closed I had us in a 50 degree bank when I was supposed to be performing a standard rate turn. Charles had me recover at about that time.

We went out in some so-so weather today to get another 0.8 hours of IFR training done. We did some work on copying clearances as well as performing steep turns under the hood. I didn't do great on either subject, just OK. My steep turns had problems with altitude not being held properly and my clearance delivery practice could use some more radio work (we just did "virtual" radio work today). There were some significant clouds coming in from the south while we were up today, so we cut the lesson a bit short in order to get on the ground before they rolled in.

Today Charles and I did 1.1 hours of IFR training in 99A. We mainly practiced using the magnetic compass in order to show me about the various errors it has during maneuvers. We performed some timed turns using the mag compass in order to increase roll-out accuracy. The winds around 2500ft were significant, but steady. My landing was fairly acceptable, in general they are getting more predictable, but I have not had to land in a bad crosswind recently.