Landings

So Mike, my flight instructor, apparently up and quit.

No big deal, I have a guy named Bob. Older guy, really knows his shit.

Did a call to get a weather brief, and our destination airport was clearing, but not yet VFR. We chose to go there and see what the conditions were.

We flew from VPZ to OXI . Weather was clear and we did some landings. I learned a LOT more, and did 3. There was, again, ZERO wind, so I did some good landings with no complications.

Then did 3 more at VPZ. Again, much smoother.

I think I’m gonna do better with Bob than I was with Mike.

Only issue is he’s old enough to have trouble getting into the 150’s, so we are gonna go to the 172 (and stay there). But that costs a bit more. Still, I am happier. I think he’s gonna teach me more, and better, than Mike.

Wednesday, if we fly, it should be windier, so we shall see how I do in landings with winds. 

5 thoughts on “Landings

  1. I have withheld commenting about your instruction until now. From afar, it seemed to me that your other instructor was wasting your time with some other, unnecessary teachings at your stage. In order to solo, you are required to learn about preflight procedures, taxiing, normal and crosswind take-offs and landings, straight and level, turns – level, climbing and descending, climbs and descents with and without flaps, stall recognition and recovery, flights at various airspeeds, ground reference maneuvers, airport operations, collision avoidance, slips, go-arounds and emergency procedures.

    The flights by reference to instruments, while necessary for a license, don't have any bearing on taking off and landing an airplane. Same with VOR or GPS navigation. Those lessons should probably come AFTER you've learned to aviate. Hopefully, your grasp of taxiing, take-offs and landings will come sooner now with a different instructor. That's when the fun begins.

    Dale

  2. I taught in the Pacific Northwest near the coast where fog could roll in quickly so I always taught my pre-solo students how to do a 180 on instruments to get out of a bad situation. In Indiana – not really an issue. I think you'll do great with the new guy. My instructor was old, fairly large build and yes, he was also VERY tall so we ended up finishing up in the 172 but I learned far more than with the young buck instructors.

  3. When you get a chance, shoot a couple of low approaches to the grass runway at KOXI. The rental C-172 is probably not allowed to land on a grass strip, but shooting a couple of low passes over the grass strip at KFWS was a very different beast than to the hard surface runways.

  4. Excellent, it's very much like getting practice on varying lengths/widths of runways. Until you go from 4000×75 to 11,000×200 you don't understand how he sight picture is always lying to you if you don't remember what you are landing on. I will note that flaring at the "correct" height for home (KGPM) when over the huge runway at KAFW will teach you just how strong Cessna made that gear.

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