Oh Shenandoah!

Not the song. The park!

Today I chose Shenandoah Regional Airport as the destination of my second cross country trip. FYI, I will address the altered syllabus in another blog.

It was a great day for mountain flying. The small mountains were covered with a white coat of snow. It was a beautiful clear day with minimal chop. The East Coast hills are not as grandiose as their West Coast cousins. However, they have their own beauty and can be appreciated at lower altitudes with less wind.

Going to Shenandoah from Manassas, my instructor and I maintained 6500 feet on a direct heading from the Casanova VOR. I even did some simulated instrument time. Not enough to take away from appreciating the view.

Resting at Shenandoah

On the return flight to Manassas, I took advantage of my instructor's presence by releasing control of the plane to snap some pictures of the valley and the airport.
The mountains

The airport

Coming out of the valley, I climbed to FL055 to get over the mountains and then came back down to FL045 to make a parallel track along the mountain range so I could get a picture of Old Rag. I then resumed course, on the 259 degree radial, TO Casanova while descending to FL030. We followed much the same track as the outbound flight with a slight detour to Warrenton as Potomac Approach waded through the barrage of traffic calls and verified my SFRA flight plan. Old Rag


As any student adventure, today's journey was loaded with simple lessons. The biggest and most humbling lesson is to continue to prioritize and manage the workload.

Other lessons include:

(1) As part of cockpit management and crew work load, I began to announce flight level changes and communicate my intentions. For example, coming into Manassas, there was a Bonanza over taking us and a chopper at 12 O'clock holding 1200 MSL. I informed by instructor that I was heading for FL020 to let the faster Bonanza fly over us as the chopper maintained altitude and flew to the East.

(2) I still get a bit excited prior to take off once I land for a 'break'. Today, I forgot to put the mixture to full rich when starting at Shenandoah. I nearly forget to switch the transponder to Mode C when leaving Shenandoah. With all the excitement, I forgot to pull the Carburetor Heat upon approach to Manassas. Where are my check lists?

(3) I witnessed my instructor communicate with a plane leaving Shenandoah as we arrived. The conversation included items like location, intentions, visual recognition etc.

(4) My landings were OK. It is easier to land when focused on pattern work. Today, I did not hold the center line with the little bit of crosswind. It comes down to the fact that I begin to doubt and over-think my ability rather than just 'fly the plane'. I should not be analytically be saying to myself 'apply right rudder and bank to the left'.

(5) I failed to refer to my careful flight plan at times, forgetting that I do not need to rethink things. I did my homework, so use it! This includes setting flight levels and following compass headings.

I did not have the same anxiety coming into the SFRA. I was on top of all the conversation. The only thing I missed was the change of personnel at Potomac. My instructor picked up the voice change and new it to be a sign of overload even before the operator announced that he had five calls waiting for clearance and patience was required.

For the next time: check lists, check lists, check lists. I am going to be MUCH MORE VIGILANT about check lists on take off, approach and landing. I will not allow my self to forget anything even in a high workload setting.

SOLO!

It was great!

I had original planned a cross country to Shenandoah Regional. It was good for my second cross country. I had already filed two SFRZ flight plans, egress and ingress the SFRZ. My instructor did not mention soloing. He wanted to work on ground reference maneuvers, something I had not done yet.

We left Manassas and headed south to our practice area. We practiced a simulated go-around and then proceeded to find an object to circle around. I found an old silo. I had some trouble with this maneuver. I had been reading about the Eights on Pylon maneuver (a more advanced maneuver not required for a private pilot) and had it in my head. The techniques are different, so that created some issues. A constant radius is not necessarily maintained around a pylon. It is also more difficult to maintain altitude and airspeed in the pylons maneuver. “Turns around a point” does not require a constant bank angle. It does require a constant radius, altitude and airspeed. It is critical in turns around a point to adjust the bank angle to compensate for wind. In the pylons maneuver, the adjustment is to the radius to maintain a pivotal altitude.

Consider that Pivotal Altitude = (Ground Speed2 /11.3) + Field Elevation. Speed is Va. Ground speed changes require adjustments in pressure: Ahead of the pylon, back pressure to tighten the turn; Behind the pylon, forward pressure to widen the turn (decrease pitch resulting in decrease pivotal altitude). Bank angle can change per pivotal altitude based on how close a plane is to the pylon. The pivotal altitude is maintained, but the altitude for the entire maneuver changes.

The next maneuver I demonstrated was S-turns along a road. I did not make the same mistake, so that went fine. At this point, I wanted to go back and correct my mistake in the ‘Turns around a Point’ maneuver. It is the musician in me that will practice the same pattern forever until near perfect. My instructor had other plans.


He wanted me to take him to Culpepper. In the back of this mind, he was thinking if I could not land the plane without assistance I was not ready for solo. I had no issue. My instructor shook my hand, signed my log book and medical certificate, and off I went, three times in the pattern at Culpepper.



Here are my observations in this grand occasion. First and foremost, I was not nervous. Not a butterfly. My first time around was not very square but the landing was fine. I noticed immediately that plane felt different. It is amazing how one less adult in the cockpit can change the dynamic of a small plane. The plane felt more responsive and more unstable at slower speeds. My second time around, my landing was a little fast but I nailed it. Third time around, same issue and I ballooned. I was going to apply power and adjust. I decided that the balloon was too high and a go-around was in order. The fourth time, again, no problems. Had it been cold, I am sure my instructor would have given some sharper jibes about the go-around (in jest, I assure you). He just chuckled at me and said that he did not see any issue with the landing. He and I both knew that I could have put that plane on the ground. I just wanted to put it down gently and I was not in mood for a mishap on my solo flight. It was my first unassisted go-around in an actual landing…good practice.


At this point, it was time to journey back. I took breather, grabbed a candy bar at Culpepper and returned to the plane for the flight back. I said I was not going to stress about flying through that 8 NM wide 500 foot corridor back into Manassas, but I stressed anyways, slowing my response time. The result is my landing at Manassas was off center due to slow compensation to a cross wind. I got “behind the plane”. My instructor made comment on this to me. I have a love/hate attitude toward such comments. A student pilot sometimes gets behind the plane, and we know it. So is the comment necessary? You bet it is. The day when my instructor does not make comments is the day that I start feeling like I can fly safely. It is a gage and a damn good one. The musician in me responded as expected: I requested a dedicated flight lesson to cross wind landings where the crosswind component is close to but not over 10 knots. Practice, practice, practice.


There are probably and handful of traditions on first solo flights. The celebration was losing the back of my shirt to scissors and marker, and then a celebratory meal of McDonalds (first time in 6 years for me…and the last time, I hope). I was wired the rest of the day from all the excitement!

Get Your Glass Archer awarded

Ahhh mannnn!

That was my plane. Well, a 25 year old woman from my cousins' hometown of Hopewell Junction, NY is not a bad winner. I would say she is more deserving winner than I. And that plane...that wonderful Piper is ment to be flown. It is a fantastic plane. I have a fascination with low wing planes and will get trained on a complex one (variable pitch propellers and raisable gear) as soon as get my private ticket.

Next year, AOPA gives away a Cirrus SR22. I have looked at one up close and can tell you that it looks amazing. However, regardless of all the 'safety' features it offers, a new private pilot has no business flying such a plane. It is a complex aircraft suited for a pilot with many many hours of flying. You can argue with me all you want, but I will not be convinced otherwise. I just hope that the winner is either a person with many years of experience or has enough sense to sell it.

Stayed tuned for a new post really soon. I have much to say and pictures to show. I am just patiently (not really) waiting for the pictures taken from another person's camera to make there way into my email box.

To Gerry Connolly concerning H.B.451

A bill treating a set of aircraft as a luxury subject to luxury taxes. Please do not support this bill. It is completely arbitrary and makes little sense. Consider that a small four-seat Cessna, Sirius or Piper can cost upwards to $350,000. These planes typically cannot hold more than 1200 pounds include passengers, baggage, and fuel. They cannot exceed 18000 feet above mean sea level (most commercial traffic flies above this). Their cruising speed is generally under 200 knots and they do not have bathrooms.

Consider a typical scenario where an executive needs to get from DC to LA (and back) for a meeting without missing half a day of work. There is only one option: use a small business jet. Consider the number of flights companies like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac performed in a short period of time to get in front of bankers to talk face to face during both restatement and this economic mud slide we are in now. These flights were absolutely critical to keeping people informed and moving bankers away from the panic button. Consider that economics has its own controls.

As costs rise, companies are naturally going to choose those options that best meet their needs, including virtual conference rooms, shared business class commuter flights, and trains that provide overnight services and meeting rooms so entire teams can travel without missing much work.

Consider that ALL major plane manufacturers are suffering. They may not be in the headlines like GM, Ford and Chrysler. However, there loses, relative to their size, are nearly as significant. They do not see themselves in the luxury business, nor should they anymore than someone buying a BMW over a Toyota or Honda.

Consider that this bill has two functions, to try curb corporate spending and to try to raise money. The former makes little sense, as the government's function is not govern corporate spending. Thus, this bill can only be attributed to a government's desire to obtain more money. The government must first look at it's own spending.

There seems to be a cultural shift to blame 'luxury items' (e.g. a plane) as a factor in the economic struggles we know face. A plane is a SMALL (tiny, minuscule) part. You look around the VA area and you can see other parts, like new buildings, large campuses, over-paid executives with large homes.

The best way to battle our crisis is through culture. Build a culture of saving. Build a culture of not supporting products or buying stock in companies with over-paid executes. Build a culture where companies are evaluated on sound business practices. Purchasing a plane, or leasing one, makes sense in many cases. Lets inform the people and let them decide. A new 'tax' bill is not the way to do this.

Thanks.

Radio Madness

I completed my first cross country today from Manassas to Charlottesville and back. As can be expected, the challenge is not the navigation or any of the physical flying. Instead, the challenge is with all the radio communications that need to be performed along the way. It is not that any of it is hard. Rather, it just, for not doing it before, it was quite a bit.

Getting out of the ADIZ (sorry SFRZ...but more on that in just a bit), is easy. I have been filing SFRZ flight plans for a while. Once out and released, transponder on 1200 and monitoring 121.5, I need to open my first VFR flight plan. It is not hard, but I need to release the airplane to my instructor to get things together in my head:

"Leesburg Radio, Cessna Triple Two Niner Echo, on One Two Two point Six". I could have just called 122.2, but I knew the correct frequency and I clearly identified what I was up to. FSS may listen on different frequencies. If I called on 122.2, I would probably have identified my location instead (South West of Manassas for Charlottesville).

After that, those FSS people guide me through the process (really helpful!!!).

Now, this did not go without little hitch. I attempted to call Leesburg Radio twice. Why? Well, I had dialed the correct frequency in the radio but neglated to swith from radio 2 to 1. So Potomac Approach got to hear my first request. Dumb student.

Coming into Charlottesville, I dialed up a VOR and set the OBS to 2.5 degrees. When the line centered, I knew I was approximately ten miles out I could call the tower. I had information prior to the call, punching up the ASOS for Charlottesville. Information was Charlie.

"Charlottesville Tower, Cessna Triple Two Niner Echo, 10 miles North East with Charlie, To Land".

If I did not state 'Charlie', the tower would have said something like "29E, proceed to 3 left traffic and ident, you have information Charlie". What I got was "29E, proceed to 3 left traffic and ident". For students, ident is just pushing the 'ident' button on the transponder so your aircraft "stands-out" on their radar.

I usually get confused when the tower starts blasting traffic calls. I believe my instructor likes me to respond immediately. I really cannot stand this. I would rather take 5 seconds to look for traffic and then respond "traffic in sight" or "negative contact" (to differentiate the traffic NOT in sight, as the NOT can be missed).

Landing at Charlottesville, I decided to close the flight plane via phone. I could have just radioed 122.65.

Coming back from Charlottesville was fairly uneventful until I was 4 miles from the SFRZ. I contacted Potomac Approach:

"Potomac Approach, Cessna Triple Two Niner Echo, over Casanova for Manassas". PA could not find my flight plan, forcing me to divert towards Warrenton. Once the flight plan was found, it was the usual rush to punch the transponder code and start looking for traffic. There is always traffic. Again, the same issue I always have. I would say I see that traffic 50% of time within 10 seconds of the call!

Once landed, I was pretty beat and really pleased. I learned alot and did some great flying. What a fantastic day. Visibility was amazing. Coming back from Charlottesville, I maintained altitude at 045. So, is any one suprised that it took me 45 minutes to close the flight plan? Anyone? Just as I was calling FSS, the tower was on the radio with my instructor (he was taking another student), asking if the flight plan needed to be closed. I felt like an idiot...still do.

Radios were not the only element packed with lessons. At Charlottesville, I was directed by a airport personel using the red light and hand signals. I new my signals, so that worked out great.

In flight planning, always get winds aloft and never calulcate in a tail wind, unless to calculations are applied. Never assume a tail wind, especially when budgeting gas.

I came back from Charlottesville, dialed into the Casanova VOR. The purpose of the exercise was not to chase the needle. Rather, to see and adjust the planes flying with respect to wind.

So, back to the SFRZ. Every contact with FSS I was asked the same question, am I familiar with the SFRZ. Now, SFRZ and ADIZ rules are identical as far as I know. They are required to ask since SFRZ went into permanent effect today. It is forbidden to use the word ADIZ any more. It is formally a Special Flight Restriction Zone. Those poor FSS guys. The last thing they want to do is play cop trying to find a pilots who neglected to take a 30 to 40 minute on-line SFRZ training course. That is not me! Anyway, I try to look at the bright side. It get tons of traffic calls coming in and out of that narrow Flucky gate...my favorite thing. I feel real safe knowing all the pilots, to get out of Manassas quickly and easily, follow the same route, following the railroad tracks. I especially like the pilot I followed today who came up from underneath me, rose above and then dropped 800 feet. Nice.

BTW. I did fly last Saturday and I am officially ready to solo. I wanted to share the experience with my two instructors and wear the appropriate shirt, so I opted to wait, practicing 180 degree power-off landings instead. Yeh, I know it is not required, but what better way to work on emergency glides!

GA industy is fighting back.

Seems like the GA industry, with its back being pushed against the wall, is starting to push back hard.

AOPA helps balloon operator hit with $8,000 tax bill

Cessna counters critics with new ad series

Proposed GA security regulation criticized in Congress

TSA actions in Nashville cause concern

On the flip side, the FAA is going forward with the SFRA around DC, despite request of re-evaluation from AOPA, local FBOs and local GA pilots. Still no sufficient proof of threat without the ADIZ of efficacy of the SFRA.

Now I am considering whether I should have permitted the TSA to inspect my birth certificate. It just does not add up. I cannot solo without a medical certificate. I cannot get a pilot's license without FAA certification. Why does TSA need to be involved in this process? I will go through regulations again and I will not be so compliant the next time TSA comes poking around without sufficient justification and cited regulations. If I was a commercial pilot, then maybe. But I am just going for my private ticket. Crazy.

So, I think I convinced my instructor that a cross country to Cambridge, MD from Manassas, VA would be a good experience (not the first cross country). I get to fly across a big body of water. I get to fly below class B air space. I get to navigate across the ADIZ. I get to call FSS and determine the activity of several MOA and Restricted areas south the route. Go ahead and look at the sectional to see what I am talking about. In the end, I want to know how to get to Ocean City, MD from Manassas VA for the day without having to go up and over OR far down and under the ADIZ. I just want to fly EAST. That's the freedom I talking about.

Other news: I have not flown in a long time. Weather, sickness, family vacation and a broken front wheel strut have wrenched my training. I am very discouraged student at the moment.

Too sick to fly

The weather is frustrating enough. Having a fever for four days straight while the outside exhibits great flying weather is driving me insane. I will not have a chance to fly the next two weeks. This is close to a full month of no flying. Crap!

I try to be ambitious when I am at home sick. I try to read a good book, write some letters, whatever. This week, I made an effort to learn about weather, watching some training videos. I am not talking about the exciting stuff like reading METARs, TAFs, PIREPS, AIRMETs, etc. I am talking about the basic weather: fronts, adiabatic processes, lapse rate, fog, isobars, etc. With a fever, I think I got through 1/4 of the instructional video on every attempt before falling asleep. I just cannot get into it. I know that I need to understand weather to be a safe pilot. But, gosh, the subject can be soooo booorrring. It is more fun reading pilots arguments towards LOP/ROP. This is a fun heated debate. I personally have looked all the information, in there is a strong case for LOP in a small carburated engine. However, if you are renting, then just follow the POH recommendation unless the owner says otherwise!

Some good news came today. I have my medical certificate. Yahoo! It only took three months. I am sure CAMI is glad that it is done as well, because I called one a week for the last three months for a status check. The answer was usually the same, "it is being looked at now". Boy, the MD who looked at my medical information most have found it intoxicating to have spent three months looking at it "now".

Other good news, Obama's organization is halting the progress of last minute regulations. Perhaps this ADIZ will eventually go away. While they are at it, perhaps they should look at some restrictions on when TFRs are to be used. There seems to be an over zealous use of TFRs as of late. I am not saying we have reached a critical point yet, but the direction of TFR use is approaching ridiculous (weddings and such). I would even go so far as to say that some basic freedoms are being compromised.

Here are some thoughts running through my head tonight.
* Not keeping the tanks full in the winter can lead to a serious side effect. Consider condensation forming and then the water freezes in the line. It may be undetected if the fuel selector is on BOTH and one wing's line is frozen. Without proper consideration, the pilot could be running into a low fuel situation as one tank empties and an imbalance in the weight of each wing as the full wing tank just sits there, untapped.

* Low temperatures can result in an increase power output of the engine. Extended use of this new found power is not necessarily good for the engine.

* If the belt in the front of the plane breaks, will the engine still run? Heh, this is not a serpentine belt like on my GMC truck. If that breaks, the truck does not run. The belt on a plane breaks and the engine continues to run (magnetos!). So other than a hopefully detectable noise of a belt break, how does the pilot know the belt broke while in flight? The ammeter will show a loss of power. This can also occur if one of the two leads to the alternator break or come loose (like the ground). During flight, the belts primary function is to power the alternator. The pilot shutsdown the alternator switch and fly on batteries. Shutting down unnecessary lights and radios is good thing to do at this time. Also, consider not using flaps until landing is assurred, as flaps need those batteries as well.

* The engine of a single engine plane is not centered perfectly. It, and the prop, are at angle. This is difficult to see unless the cowling is pulled off. The reason is to deal with the P-factor (the downward rotation of the blade is at a higher angle of attack, this providing more thrust than the upward side).

COLD and quiet day before the inauguration

Planes tied down at the airport were moved into hangers to make room for incoming fly-ins. The temperature was well below freezing. The wind picked up to 12 knots with peak gusts at 22 knots. I wanted to fly, but I wanted to stay warm and safe too.

So what does a student do? Well, we spent a little time preparing for my first country. The rest of the time we spent looking at some plane engines (a Piper Malibu and a Piper Warrior ). Why not get a little education on the systems that power the plane?

It was cool to contrast the two engines. In this case, the little Piper Warrior was a small four cylinder aspirated engine. The Malibu has a six cylinder fuel injected engine with a constant speed propeller. So here is a run down of things I learned in no particular order.

Magnetos:
* Both planes have two magnetos, as one would expect, and both have keys (unlike the dual engine cousins). This is important, because the key, in the 'off' position grounds out BOTH P-leads attached to the magnetos. If one of those P-leads breaks (it is thin wire...they break!), then simply turning the key to 'off' does not shutdown the engine. This is one good reason to cut the mixture when shutting down the engine. No gas, no run!
* Aptly name, the magnetos are left and right, on the left and right of the plane from the pilot's perspective and directly tied to the the 'left' and 'right' on the ignition switch. Turn the key to left, that grounds out the RIGHT magneto, and vice versa.
* When starting the engine (yes with the key) ONLY the left magneto is operating (assuming the ground is working). The reason is quite simple. Engine timing of a four cycle engine is such that the spark ignites when the piston is close to but not at the apex of its climb to the cylinder head. This is called ignition timing (remember hearing something to the effect of 20 degrees of top dead center in My Cousin Vinny? Sure you did). When the engine runs really slow (as in starting), ignition can happen to soon. So the left magneto has a impulse coupling (a spring loaded device) to alter the timing during ignition.
* Now here is where it gets interesting (well, if you are into this stuff). If you look at the wires to the spark plugs from the magnetos, you will notice the right wires go to the top (two, three) plugs on the right cylinders and the bottom plugs on the left cylinders. The left is in reverse. This is key (heh...foreshadowing;-). When priming the engine, the primer dumps gas into the cylinder head. The primer tube looks like a small fuel injection line. As you might guess, too much priming results in too much gas hanging out at the bottom part of the cylinder (cylinders are horizontal to the ground). This means the bottom spark plugs may get too much fuel and ground out. So, when starting, often times only the two LEFT cylinders will begin working because the LEFT magnetos provide the spark for the top left spark plugs. Now, Lycoming is not stupid. They often provide primers for only a subset of cylinders (skipping one or two on the right). This insures that some right cylinders are not flooded, pulling the gas from the carburateur. Once the ignition goes to BOTH, the top RIGHT spark plugs start igniting gas and then engine stops sputtering around.
* Fuel injection does not use primers. Fuel is injected into the cylinders. However, they do have an air pressure system that dumps air into the cylinders from the intake manifold. This serves the usual purpose as expected. In addition, these tubes maintain a fairly constant pressure in the cylinder so gas does not back up through the fuel lines.
* Turbochargers found on carburateur engines are driven by exhaust gases to turn a turbine. The turbine's primary function is to help maintain pressure within the carburateur, allowing the plane to fly at higher altitudes. The Warrior did not have one of these. It did however air conditioning. How convenient!

Ahh...so much more to tell. I will provide another post in a day or so. Spoilers: Not all planes have EGT thermometers on all the exhaust pipes. There are some easy ways to tell if there is a leak in the exhaust pipes. It is just plane stupid the use the throttle to dump fuel into the carburateur unless the purpose is to burn out the air intake.

Where is my thick skin when I need it

I am an aggressive person when it comes taking on new challenges. However, my expectations of myself and the people involved in such endeavors is very high. When others do not meet those expectations, I get frustrated. When I do not meet those expectations, I go a bit beyond frustration, which removes some of capacity to take on new information. This behavior must change. It has no place in the cockpit.

My instructor and I had a miscommunication in the cockpit today. It derailed me a little bit because my instructor seemed stuck on one concept. I understood the concept and moved on to another concept. The reason is that my instructor thought I said one word (dive) instead of another word (diamond). For a few seconds there, it was almost a 'who's on first' mishap. I do not need to go into details. The truth is, part of me was annoyed that my instructor did not show awareness of the miscommunication because he lacked confidence in my ability to access and quickly correct. It seemed a bit insulting. Hence, I need thicker skin.

There is no way I am going convince an experienced teacher and professional pilot to perhaps give me the benefit of the doubt in situations such as this. I tried and failed. There are few reaons for this. One, it matters little in the big picture. Either way, I made a mistake followed by a correction. So what if are perception on how quickly the correction occurred varies. Two, instructors cannot play guessing games or make assumptions. Three, experienced pilots are a stubborn lot, as their compromises can cost lives.

I figure I am well on the way of becoming a good pilot. My skin is getting thicker and, due to urgency demanded by my instructor, I am reprioritizing things to meet those demands.

My instructor says it best, the cockpit is a horrible classroom.

Not all people are cut out to be pilots. It is simply one of toughest things to do. I was trying to think of what personality types work well as pilots. I know this one person who is a building architect. He is great thinking on his feet, maintains knowledge of a ton of regulations, is commanding in his decisions, has broad technical knowledge including physics, and he has a firm grasp of procedures and priorities. He would make an outstounding pilot. If I could just harness some of those qualities.

Anyway, todays flight was full of events, as usual. Never a dull moment re-entering the ADIZ. Traffic coming and going, radio alive with chatter. After a hour of flying, my brain is fried. Coming into the ADIZ is an overload. I am thankful my instructor had us land and take a break in Culpepper.

Today, per my request, we worked on slow flight, forward slips, emergency procedures, steep turns, traffic patterns, and ADIZ communications. Everyday is a day of working on situational awareness. I was really happy that I did not lose ANY altitude transitioning to and from slow flight. I stayed within 20 feet of 3000. With steep turns, I stayed within 100. I can do better. ADIZ communications I can handle. It is when the traffic gets a bit busy trying to determine what Potomac Approach is saying that I struggle a bit.

Uhhh tower, Cessna two niner echo on final for three four right!?

Students can never get sick of pattern work. I am I right? At a business class D airport, listening to traffic is an experience in itself. Today was no exception. My instructor wanted to go over soft field landings and take-offs today. The fun began on preparation for my second trip around the pattern. After identifying kinks in my first attempts, I was ready to demonstrate a check-ride passing performance. At this time, the airport was buzzing with activity. I was waiting for Cirrus followed by a Citation short of the 34R. After the Citation cleared the runway, I was given clearance to take-off. No problems. My second soft field take-off went well. Things were quieting down. Somewhere around my turn onto downwind, the quiet was broken. The radio became active with conversation. Mid-field, still active. Abeam the numbers, still active. Turning to base, still active. At this point, the argument between the tower and a taxiing pilot was starting to get concerning. I could not interject and the idea of a go-around was crossing my mind. Turning to final, still active. Runway is clear. No traffic on approach and no other traffic in the pattern for 34R. I am still descending. Finally, a pause. The conversation is over! Quick, "Cessna two niner echo ON FINAL for three four right". Tower: "Cleared to land, three four right". Phewww!

Now, I am not making any judgements on the tower or the pilot involved in the argument. I will leave that to my instructor. It could have easily been just normal activity. Either way, it is a good exercise in patience and clarity for a student pilot. No matter what the situation, the wheels do not touch the runway without clearance.

So what of those soft field take-offs and landings? Forward pressure is required to hold the nose down during a soft field take-off after the mains leave the ground and before airspeed reaches at least 55 KIAS (Vr) or, better yet, 59 KIAS (Vx). This is an odd feeling. It feels like trying to push the nose back into the runway. But, it was easier than I thought and much more fun than a normal take-off. Short field take-offs are a bit different, requiring more back-pressure after reaching Vr.

Soft field landings made me look like I could land a plane smoothly. I am curious why I did not get this technique introduced earlier in the training. In my mind, it is much easier! With a soft field landing, a little power is used to keep pressure off the mains and hold the nose wheel till the plane is adequately slow to not cause damage or get stuck when the nose wheel contacts the ground. This little power maintains some of the four forces generated from the prop (gyroscopic, torque, p-factor and slip stream) meaning that the compensation for 'no power' is not so sudden. It is easier to hold the plane off and land softly with a little power. In addition, the student gets a better feel of the 'nose up' attitude, including the change in visual cues.

My instructor also provided some of these hints:
(1) When slowing the plane on downwind, use back pressure as the throttle is pulled back and then forward pressure AS the flaps come down. These combined and well timed movements will insure a level flight.
(2) Keep the plane slow on landing (65 knots) and, once over the numbers, start dropping the speed. To much speed raises the possibility of ballooning during the flare.

Next time: Short field landings and take-offs, review of emergency take-off procedures and, appropriately, forward slips.