Lesson 43 - Airspeed, Airspeed, Airspeed

 

The day started out on an optimistic note. My instructor and I chatted about our most recent flight when I had three out of five solid, unassisted landings. Another day like that, and he'd get me set up for pre-solo stage check. That's what I wanted to hear. It's what I've been waiting to hear since I started this journey. And then we took off. And it became abundantly clear that this would not be "another day like that." 

I don't know which planets were out of alignment, but my airspeed control s-u-c-k-e-d. There's no other (polite) way to describe it. And no way to explain it, either. This is something that I've had under control in previous lessons, and for the first half of the lesson today, it seems to have gone completely out the window. I'd be on target, check something, and somehow have gained or lost 20 knots. Maybe I wasn't trimming properly. I felt like I was fighting the controls a bit more than I have been in previous flights. I can't even blame the plane. I was in the same plane I flew last lesson where I was in a good groove. Maybe the heat? Maybe a tailwind? It was a bit bumpy, but not unreasonably so. I honestly don't know or I would have been better at correcting it. Simply put, I was not in my groove today. 

We stayed at Centennial today because they had room in the pattern which allowed us a good number of landings since we didn't have to spend 20 - 30 minutes flying to and from other airports. More landings, more chances to prove "I got this" I thought. And after a while, I was able to find some consistency at the end, right before our "low fuel" warning light came on and we called it a day. (We were just over half when we took off, which was my minimum without asking for a refuel, and the warning light came on at 1/4.) We could have gotten one or two more in, but we were both hot and a bit tired and at the point of diminishing returns anyway. So here in no particular order are my take-aways.

First, and I wrote this before, and every instructor since Orville and Wilbur has said, "airspeed is key." If you aren't consistent on your airspeed, you're not on a stable approach, and your landing will suffer. Airspeed. Is. Everything. Fly the numbers. If the book says 65 knots over the threshold, be at 65 knots over the threshold. Pitch for airspeed, power for altitude. Use trim. Get this right and the rest will fall into place. 

Second, careful, small adjustments to the controls. Do not over-control, but do not under-control, either. I was just a bit fast on one approach, and was a bit timid in how much I pulled the nose back because I didn't want to balloon. I landed flat on all three wheels. A little more pulling back earlier would have bled off the speed and gotten the nose in the right attitude. In hindsight, this could have been due to a poorly-trimmed set-up. If I'm trimmed too far nose down, my speed will be fast and it will take more back-pressure to raise the nose. On another approach, my speed was on target but I was a bit low, so I added power to slow my descent, but I added too much power and we started to climb a bit without gaining airspeed. Add just a little bit of power (100rpm or so) and keep the pitch attitude. 

Third, if things aren't going right, take a break and regroup. My instructor can sense when I'm getting frustrated, and about halfway through flew a landing so I could watch and recalibrate myself. It helped. Maybe it was just a quick mental break, maybe it was just seeing it done well, I can't say for certain. But whatever, when I got back on the controls, I felt my landings were a bit better. Still not great, but more "all me" than the previous ones. 

Forth, F18s land ridiculously fast--ATC told us 270 knots approach speed. But it's friggin' COOL to see them landing and taking off on the parallel runway while you're doing your pattern work. Sadly, no pics, but damn that was awesome to see from the air. 

In looking back on this lesson, I felt like I was fighting the plane more than I have in previous lessons. That tells me I probably wasn't trimmed as I should have been. When I think back to my earlier landings when trim was an afterthought, these landings were very much on par with them in terms of consistency. When I look back on my last lesson where I was definitely much more consistent and comfortable, I wasn't fighting the plane. I wasn't pushing the nose down or pulling the nose up. Maybe upon reflection, that's the biggest takeaway. If you're fighting the plane, you're not flying the plane. So perhaps that become  my focus next time out. Make sure I'm flying the plane. When I do that, things work.