Flying Lesson #102

Yesterday was a beautiful day by any standard. Warm, light wind of up to 10 knots almost right down the pipe and practically an unlimited ceiling and visibility.

A Good day to fly.

So to the airport I went and did a pre-flight of Archer II N1689H. Then we did the start up and DCT does it a little differently - first they're big on doing it as a flow and using a checklist to verify after. I'm used to working down the checklist step by step and verify as you do - that will be a habit that will take awhile to break. Also some of their steps in the checklist feel backwards to someone used to flying a Cessna - for example, the circuit breakers are practically the last thing you check on an Archer and the first thing on a 172. There are also a few things they do in the takeoff flow that I'm used to doing in the run-up. I'll get it eventually.

Ray decided it was time for no instruments so no instruments were to be had except for the altimeter.

Takeoff was done based on pitch and feel and was fine, as was climb out and heading off to the northeast, using the compass only as the heading indicator was covered.

Once clear of the Delta and into the practice area I did slow flight, then some power off and power on stalls and then steep turns.

Ray did let me have the Artificial Horizon back for the steep turns, which was nice, but no turn coordinator which led to some fun.

Thence on to turns around a point and again the low wing doth make its presence felt, but I did well enough. Then back in for one landing and 1.5 was gone like that.

We were going to do pattern work this morning but the field and surrounding environs is seriously LIFR - Low Instrument conditions due to fog so thick you can't see the runways from the hangars, nor the tops of the hangars. So we did a little ground including my walking him through a pre-flight inspection and then sitting in the Archer and working on the flow technique for engine start, run-up and takeoff. We also talked about their pattern method for the Archer and again its a little different with more stuff happening midfield rather than at the touchdown point on the downwind.

Next flight he's having me do the pre-flight by myself, which is progress, and with any luck skies will be clear enough with good conditions to do some pattern work.

In short, lots of steps backwards and relearning the basics before moving forward again.