Flying Lesson #122 - Onward To Linden

Last week there was no flying. My planned solo was cancelled due to winds beyond all small plane limits on Thursday and then my Sunday lesson was cancelled due to 300 foot overcast ceilings and thunderstorms. Neither of those conditions are conducive to learning, nor for small plane survival for that matter.

Today rain was forecast but when I got to the airport it was clear enough with winds only about 7 knots out of 170 and overcast at 8,000 feet. Nice and calm for some great flying weather.

I was flying with Tiffany, the CFI that administered my pre-solo oral knowledge test and it was pre-checkride prep time.

So I did a good takeoff after the tower sent me across 27R to takeoff from 27L as a helicopter was flying in the 27R pattern.

Tiffany requested I do a short field takeoff which I did, and I do like those. I then flew to Linden IFRR. IFRR you ask? That's pilot talk for I Follow Rail Roads.

Verily, there is indeed a railroad you can intercept and follow all the way from Pontiac to Linden, dropping down below Flint's Class C shelf as you do so in order to not bust their airspace. So, I landed at Linden and did another short field takeoff from there and dead-reckoned my way to the practice area, which I haven't done before so it was a bit interesting but I got there.

In the practice area I did slow flight, Power off and power on stall and steep turns. Hilariously my steep turn to the right was commercial passing grade but my left steep turn simply sucked. This is annoying as the steep turn to the right is supposed to be harder to do and this used to be my best maneuver, so more practice is needed. I guess I'm just a true right-winger.

We then did the low altitude maneuvers - turns around a point and S-turns. I hadn’t done those S-turns in a while and it showed but she helped me polish those. Then dead reckoning back to KPTK and I actually estimated the exact heading back there before she plugged it into the GPS and did a soft field landing that needed to be softer so more to work on there.

Overall a very productive and fun lesson showing some areas that need some work. Let's hope for some good flying weather for the next few weeks so I can get done here.

1.7 and 2 landings.