Looking To The Sky

Bad Knee, New Instructor

Yesterday I had planned to fly with James, but since that crazy guy went and banged up his knee before our flight, another instructor, Emily, the daughter of the owners of Stark’s Twin Oak Airpark, stepped in and gave me a lesson.

Emily, like James, is a great pilot.  This being said, the way she instructed was quite different.  Not that either is better or worse than the other, just different.  Perhaps it was because I was kinda nervous flying with a different instructor or perhaps that Emily pointed out a few mistakes I was making every time I was flying.  All I can say is that the biggest difference was the way she came in for landings.  The landings she had me do tended to be much slower than with James; again, not a bad thing, just different.  She also focused more on the trim than I noticed with James.  She pointed out that the trim is there to help and that the plane should fly on its own by using the trim and getting the throttle set.

Another point she made, as with James, was my use of the rudders.  I tend to dance on the rudder pedals when it should be small corrections and not so much on the left rudder.  Over the flight I was able to get much better with my use of the rudders and my trim.

During the flight we did some steep turns, slow flight, power-off stalls, some rolls for rudder practice, and landings.

Overall I had an okay flight.  I wasn’t too happy with my performance with landings, but most of the rest went fairly well.  I’ll be sure to keep in mind the points that she made and that James has engraved into my head.

I fly again this upcoming Monday and it will be with Emily again as James will be swimming with sharks and spending time in California for the next 10 days.

Logs

Total Flight Time: 14.3 Hours
Total Ground Time: 4.0 Hours
Total IFR Time: 0.4 Hours

Categories: Private Pilot Completion

Tags: Cessna 172, Emily, flying, K7S3, N734KU, Stalls, Turns

Much Better Landings, Landings, and More Landings