Bird Smells

After cleaning out the bird nest in the empennage, I was able to fly three times in the pattern. Even though I wore rubber gloves, I could smell bird on me the rest of day.

The flying felt great, so it was a fair price to pay. The wind was 8 to 12 knots and the direction was variable from 300 to 350. Fun stuff. My instructor pulled the mixture abeam the numbers for a simulated engine failure. I had no issue landing in this scenario. It was my best landing out of the three. I had to consult to POH upon completion for verification. I was under the impression that the 65 KIAS was applicable to 'best glide' at 10 degrees of flaps. It is not. 60 KIAS is used for up to 20 degrees of flaps.

When establishing 'best glide', it is best to avoid flaps until the landing point is picked and assured. Up to 15 degrees of flaps is mostly lift. After that, it is pretty much all drag.

I also worked on soft field take-off. It just feels so odd to push the nose down when flying so close to the ground. The idea is to stay in ground-effect waiting until the speed reaches 61 KIAS. It is more pressure on the yoke than I expect. I will get used to it.

My instructor and I postponed the night excursion. Bill needed to get current. We thought about having Bill make three full stop trips around in the pattern and then picking me up. With sunset at 7:30 PM EST, regulation mandates that he not take off until 8:30--one hour after sunset. The means we cannot start flying until 9:00. That is a bit late.