Flying Lesson #139 - Slips and Sweet Landings

The day did not look promising for a post-workday flight.

Rain and low clouds loomed and it seemed like it would be a scratch.

But the rain stopped and the clouds lifted just enough to get above IFR, so might as well take it up again.

The first takeoff was a short field, kindly setup by the tower having us line up and wait so I had plenty of time to line up perfectly at the very end, hold the brakes and when given takeoff clearance advance the power to full then release the brakes at max RPM and haul the plane off the ground. Not bad.

We headed out to the East and soon realized the clouds were not nearly as high as we would have liked. The ATIS claimed it was a scattered layer at 2,500, but in truth it was more like a broken layer and a pretty solid broken layer at that. So, we couldn't work on some of the things Ray wanted me to do, but we worked around it.

Ray wanted me to work on my forward and slide slips so we would set at 2,500 feet and I would do a forward slip or side slip down to 2,000 and then climb back up. We did it for a bit and then headed back to Pontiac as the clouds were getting a bit lower. Then it was pattern work. Slips to land, short field landings, soft field landings, and slips to short and soft field landings were the order of the day with soft and short field takeoffs. The pattern got pretty busy at times which was good for developing situational awareness as in the haze planes had a habit of disappearing when you're turning and you sometimes can only acquire them again as they turn. The tower handled things well and had a funny exchange with an incoming jet - "Cleared to land Runway 27L, I have 4 in the pattern for 27R, do not drift north [into the 27R flight path]." "Ok, we won't drift north and we'll keep our eyes out for the little guys."

Landings were quite good - silky smooth and I only had to do one go-round when I came in too fast on a soft field and decided it wouldn't work, which was good aeronautical decision making. Overall the landings are pretty decent at this point.

Unfortunately, it looks like the examiner typically used by the school will not be available until August, which will present a host of issues and closes out any hope of my getting a license within 2 f'n years of starting this exercise in insanity. I think my personal hard cutoff will be when my written test expires in October. If I'm not certificated by the expiry date, it will be well past time to put a stop to it and let this go.

1.6 and 9 landings.