Commercial Training - Day 8

Summary
Scheduled Time: 10AM - 1PM
Actual Hours Ground: 0.3
Actual Hours Flight: 1.2
Total Hours Flight: 5.0

Today, the weather was just barely good enough to get off the ground. We headed to the west side of Whidbey Island and did turns on pylons for the first time. The theory is that there is a pivotal altitude based on ground speed and if you are tracking the ground speed and the pivotal altitude, a point on the ground will remain fixed off your wingtip. So, you pick too points about 3/4 mile apart and do a figure eight around the points, adjusting altitude to correct for ground speed changes that are generated due to the constant changing of heading and the wind - headwinds decrease the ground speed and tail winds increase the ground speed.

The manuever is more difficult than it appears in writing. One reason is altitude. The pivotal altitude for 100 knots of ground speed is only 885 feet above ground level. This is quite low, and my natural tendency is to increase my distance from the ground, not decrease it. Another issue is the closeness of the two points. As soon as you go around the first, the second is already under you and you must find it and turn on it immediately, else you'll mess up the entire circuit. The third issue is turbulence. It is hard enough to keep the wingtip glued to the ground reference. Throw in some bumps and it gets nearly impossible.

After about a half hour of turns, we headed back to the airport for some more short field landing practice. I kept coming up short and couldn't figure out why, so we landed and discussed it more on the ground. I think my biggest problem is not anticipating the different decent characteristics that occur at different speeds. On normal landings, the airspeed is higher and the plane settles into ground effect and floats a few hundred feet before finally settling on the wheels. On short field approaches, the airspeed is slower. As soon as the power is removed, the plane drops to the ground, so you really need to be at - or slightly beyond - you desired touchdown point before pulling the power.

You may be thinking, "Didn't he have to learn all of this to get his private pilot license?" Yes, of course, but that was A) many years ago, and B) in a very light Cessna 152. The Cardinal is a different airplane that takes time to master. Soon, these standard maneuvers - and hopefully the new ones as well - will become second nature. I'm counting on it.