Lesson 32 - Once More into the Pattern

Getting up in the pattern is getting to be somewhat routine, and that's a positive thing. That's not to say my landings are remotely smooth, but what it does mean is that I can better analyze what is different about each approach and landing, then work to figure out what may have contributed to the success or lack thereof on each one.

It's been said time and time again--the key to a good landing is a stable approach. Today's lesson was exhibit A on that front. What threw me for loops this time out more than anything else was actually starting the descent. Once I was configured for landing and on the base and final legs, I felt I was at least maybe somewhat ahead of the plane and it was responding to my control inputs as I wanted it to. Getting to that point was unusually rough. Part of that had to do with a somewhat busy pattern, so there were time when ATC called my base as opposed to flying a "standard pattern." A "standard pattern" begins with dropping power when you're abeam your touchdown point on the runway on the downwind leg. "Slow down before you go down." So you reduce power, bleed off some airspeed, extend 10 degrees of flaps, then pitch down for around a 500fpm descent while keeping your airspeed in the neighborhood of 85 knots. As you turn your base turn, you reduce your speed to around 75 knots, extend flaps to 20 degrees, then turn final. On final, you want your speed to be around 65 knots, so you extend to 30 degrees of flaps, pitch for 65 knots, then use the power to stay on glide slope until you're over the runway. Once over the runway, pull power to idle, settle down over the runway, flare when you're just a few feet off the ground, then let the plane set itself smoothly down. Writing it makes it sound easy. Doing it is another story. 

Truth be told, when I flew a "standard pattern," things went okay. My approach was stable, and while I still absolutely stink at judging how high I am above the ground to begin my flare, leading to some rather interesting touchdowns, my approaches were at least descent. In looking back at things, what threw me this time out was the "non-standard" approach. Because the pattern was busy, ATC had me extend downwind on a number of landings. "Extend downwind, I'll call base." That means you fly the downwind leg until ATC tells you to make your base turn, and only they know when that's going to be. Therein lies the issue that plagued me most today. ATC says "Six Mike Echo, turn base" I'm still in a cruise configuration at this point; around 95 knots at 2300rpm. ATC is expecting me to make that turn, though. So do I slow down and extend flaps before making that turn? Do I try to slow down in the turn? Do I extend flaps in the turn? (No on that one!) These are questions that are running through my mine when ATC tells me to make that turn. Am I far enough out to where when I make the base and final turns I'd be on a 3 mile extended final? In that case, do I need to slow down or can I fly it at cruise speeds? My head was a jumble of inexperience and second guessing myself getting into my approach set-up, and it showed. That time spent second guessing myself put me behind the curve and I spent too much time playing catch-up before I felt I was back where I wanted to be on short final. My instructor could sense I was a bit unsettled and unsure, so he took over radio coms for much of the lesson. This left me to concentrate on getting set up for approaches, which did help. 

I write this knowing it sounds like the lesson and my landings were absolute flops. In reality, things are definitely trending in the right direction. My control is getting more and more confident, and the after-the-fact awareness and analysis of things helps give me more confidence next time in my decision making. I need to have the confidence that I am in control of the airplane, and while I'm expected to respond to ATC's directions, it's my responsibility to make sure I do so safely and thoughtfully. Hindsight is 20/20, but the good thing about hindsight in the pattern is that the last landing's hindsight becomes the next landing's foresight. You've seen it before, you know what to expect, you know what to do. The more you fly, the less you'll be second-guessing yourself because you know what works. 

I'm going back up in three days (as of this writing and weather-permitting), so I'll be doing lots of chair flying in my mind of what to do and when to do it for any of the approaches I was handed this past lesson. We'll get there.

Lesson 31 - Remember to Verbalize Everything

 

I talk to myself. A lot. Most often just a series of conversations in my head about steps I'm taking in whatever it is I'm doing. If I'm driving to work, it'll be mental thoughts like "get in the right lane," or "don't forget your exit." Sometimes they're philosophical discussions with myself (which invariably lead to me forgetting my exit). But I'm almost always conversing with myself about something. Which leads to one of the key takeaways from today's lesson--talk. 

Our goal today--same as it has been for some time--get me more comfortable landing the plane. And today's landings weren't all that terrible. They weren't butter by any definition, but at no point did my instructor scream in horror, though there was a slight gasp of correction when I momentarily forgot to retract the flaps before going to full throttle on one touch-and-go. I felt more consistently in control of the process than I have before, even if my controls weren't perfect. It wasn't a matter of "this time I got lucky." I felt good in that I was making conscious decisions in controlling the plane and it was responding to what I was doing. I just need to make that "doing enough to land properly." I'm still skittish about pulling power all the way out to descend, so have a tendency to be a bit high on final, even if I'm a touch low on the base leg. It's coming along, and it just takes more and more practice to give me the comfort of knowing the plane will not fall out of the sky if I yank the power to idle at 300' above the ground. 

That's not what I want to concentrate on with this post. I want to talk about what I didn't do, and that was talk. My last lesson, my instructor chided me for not running checklists. They're an important aspect of keeping track of your flight tasks. We have them for every phase of flight, even if we can't always pull out the checklist to run them. Some things we do by memory, we call them "flows," rather than checklists. They're in the checklists but when you're landing, you can't be distracted by a piece of paper telling you your airspeeds and elevations or where your flaps need to be. You kinda need to know them as part of the process. On climb-out, it's similar. You're busy applying back-pressure to the yoke to get the plane off the ground. You're not going to pull out the checklist and read "rotation speed 55 knots." 

I'm pretty good about running the checklists or flows while I'm flying. What I do not do well is verbalize that I'm running them; especially the flows during take-off and landing. ATC clears me to take off. My mind says "apply full throttle." It says "check the gauges to make sure they're alive." It says "rotation speed 55 knots." On climb-out, my mind says "airspeed 78 knots, flaps up." That's my mind saying it. Not my mouth. Why is this important? Two reasons. First, verbally saying things out loud reinforces that you're actually doing them. In journalism, we have a saying "say dog, see dog." It means write to the video you're seeing on the screen. In flying, it's "say dog, do dog." If you say it out loud, there's no excuse not to physically do it. Second, as students, we have an instructor sitting in the right seat. They may be watching us, but they're not mind readers. Our verbalizing what we're doing is how they know we're in control of what's going on in the plane. If we don't tell them what they're doing, they're left to wonder if we know what we're doing. 

Many times, I've made conscious decisions in flight that I fail to communicate to my instructor. If I'm flying back from the practice area to the field, I'll fly a slow descent from practice elevation to pattern elevation. What my instructor sees is a gradual loss of elevation with no explanation as to why. Or sometimes I'll climb a bit higher than pattern elevation if I have to extend downwind because the terrain rises south of our field. My instructor sees me flying 300' above pattern elevation. My climb out flow is by-the-book straight out of the checklist. I just don't verbalize it out loud as I'm doing it. That needs to change. When you're cruising, you have the opportunity to check the checklist. Check it and verbalize it as you go. Every time you're in the air, treat the person sitting next to you as a co-pilot to whom you want to make sure is 100% on board with everything you're doing. Keep nothing secret. That's how your instructor or DPE will know you know what you're doing. Yeah, they'll see what you're doing, but they may not know why you're doing it. If they have to wonder why you're doing something, they don't know you know what you're doing. 

A few other takeaways from today's lesson... Be ready for anything when dealing with ATC. You can expect to do certain things, but you need to be ready to not do what's expected just as a precaution. For example, ATC had me fly a few 360s south of the field while they sorted out other traffic before they let me enter the pattern. They had given me instructions to enter the pattern, but last minute asked me to hold. No problem, but had I been too focused on following their instructions on entering the pattern, I may have missed the instructions to hold. Second, watch for geese. I had a small flock of them off my left wing. Cool to see, but would have been messy to hit. Third, listen to what ATC is telling other pilots, especially weather updates. Getting the latest ATIS or AWOS is one thing, but that's updated only every hour. ATC will give pilots up-to-the-minute wind information, especially when it's variable. Forth, don't forget that information when you're landing. If ATC says winds are 280 at 6 knots and they vector you in to 35R, don't forget that means there's a 6 knot crosswind you're going to have to deal with on your landing. Lastly, don't forget to take a minute or two of every flight to just take in the view and enjoy being up in the air.