Flight Lesson # 12 - The slips...
Now that I have pilot finance, I am able to fly more frequently. I've been flying every Saturday and Sunday morning. I might even bring my little girl up with me. I love that she wants to learn to fly also. I've been having her play with Flight Simulator and she loves it. Last week's flying was interesting...
Saturday, I learned a new maneuver called "Slip". A slip is created by applying rudder in the opposite direction to the turn. We practiced the forward slip which is used to quickly lose altitude without increasing airspeed. It was an odd feeling, and the loss of altitude was fassssssst...
We practiced more slow flight and stalls. I'm beginning to feel comfortable. Even the taxiing has become almost natural. I used to have a difficult time making turns. I still have difficulty in braking; its hard to depress both left and right brake at the same time. I end up veering either to the left or right as I brake.
Landings - the problem is in final approach. I come nose down at 55-60 knots, power to idle. I feel the ground effect and I level off. At some point, I am supposed to pitch back to bring the nose wheel up. My problem is determining when to do that. I talked to a pilot in my guitar class, and he told me to trim for nose up while flying nose down... and ride the ground effect as long as possible. I should be able to just glide down. He told me to never be disappointed in a landing that I have walked away from. Good point.
Sunday -- major slips! Let me preface by saying I have horrible allergies and I don't eat breakfast. So Sunday morning, I took some "dissolvable" allergy tablets. Don't you wish all medicine was like that? I was on the road 2 hours later. It was a nice day in Paso. When I got into SLO, the winds started to pick up a bit. It soon became a cross wind. The wind also worsened my allergies. Stupid me, I popped another allergy medication (haven't eaten a bite yet) hoping it would help.
I took off for the first time in a cross wind. It was a little upsetting. Here I was finally nailing the take-offs.. and I had to contend with a cross wind. So taking off, I had to position the ailerons towards the crosswind. Not too bad... I just had to steer it back to correct the plane when climbing. Immediately in the climb, I felt something odd. The wind, the bobbling of the plane, my allergies, my sinus - nauseated me. Fifteen minutes into the flight and I became antsy and awnry. My legs became stiff and I couldn't get comfortable. I just wanted to land and sleep. I couldn't concentrate on what was going on in the Tower nor my instructor. Just a lot of loud static. We practiced one touch and go. My landing was really bad.. I did the old hop-skip landing. I had pulled back too early and we bounced. My CFI corrected the landing and called it a day. I drove home and slept all afternoon and into the evening.
Big lesson I learned Sunday. According to FAR, no person should operate an aircraft "while using any drug that affects the person's faculties in any way contrary to safety". I didn't think "drug" applied to "allergy medications", but those two tablets, that I stupidly took on an empty tummy, really affected my judgement and my health.
Total Hours: 13.7
Saturday, I learned a new maneuver called "Slip". A slip is created by applying rudder in the opposite direction to the turn. We practiced the forward slip which is used to quickly lose altitude without increasing airspeed. It was an odd feeling, and the loss of altitude was fassssssst...
We practiced more slow flight and stalls. I'm beginning to feel comfortable. Even the taxiing has become almost natural. I used to have a difficult time making turns. I still have difficulty in braking; its hard to depress both left and right brake at the same time. I end up veering either to the left or right as I brake.
Landings - the problem is in final approach. I come nose down at 55-60 knots, power to idle. I feel the ground effect and I level off. At some point, I am supposed to pitch back to bring the nose wheel up. My problem is determining when to do that. I talked to a pilot in my guitar class, and he told me to trim for nose up while flying nose down... and ride the ground effect as long as possible. I should be able to just glide down. He told me to never be disappointed in a landing that I have walked away from. Good point.
Sunday -- major slips! Let me preface by saying I have horrible allergies and I don't eat breakfast. So Sunday morning, I took some "dissolvable" allergy tablets. Don't you wish all medicine was like that? I was on the road 2 hours later. It was a nice day in Paso. When I got into SLO, the winds started to pick up a bit. It soon became a cross wind. The wind also worsened my allergies. Stupid me, I popped another allergy medication (haven't eaten a bite yet) hoping it would help.
I took off for the first time in a cross wind. It was a little upsetting. Here I was finally nailing the take-offs.. and I had to contend with a cross wind. So taking off, I had to position the ailerons towards the crosswind. Not too bad... I just had to steer it back to correct the plane when climbing. Immediately in the climb, I felt something odd. The wind, the bobbling of the plane, my allergies, my sinus - nauseated me. Fifteen minutes into the flight and I became antsy and awnry. My legs became stiff and I couldn't get comfortable. I just wanted to land and sleep. I couldn't concentrate on what was going on in the Tower nor my instructor. Just a lot of loud static. We practiced one touch and go. My landing was really bad.. I did the old hop-skip landing. I had pulled back too early and we bounced. My CFI corrected the landing and called it a day. I drove home and slept all afternoon and into the evening.
Big lesson I learned Sunday. According to FAR, no person should operate an aircraft "while using any drug that affects the person's faculties in any way contrary to safety". I didn't think "drug" applied to "allergy medications", but those two tablets, that I stupidly took on an empty tummy, really affected my judgement and my health.
Total Hours: 13.7
posted at
11:14 AM
3 Comments:
Aah, Aymiee,I finally got back to your site. Had to refresh. Open Mic ad looks good. So I'm assuming you have all your equipment. That landing sounds pretty scary. Glad you didn't smack down. You need to rethink the no breakfast thing. Juice or fruit would be a huge improvement.
at 4:11 AM
Um, yeah. Allergy medications and flying do not mix... at all. They have a drug in there to make you drowsy, so cars are out too.
at 2:51 PM
I think it would be awesome to share this experience with your daughter.
at 12:38 PM
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