CFI-A Lesson 5 (again)

I refused to let myself go to this lesson unprepared again. I worked through all the lesson plans that needed to be discussed and/or flown, printed them out, and reviewed the checklists prior to today's flight. I was as prepared for this as for anything else I've ever done in aviation.

My ground brief on Turns Around a Point went very smooth, with me asking questions to my 'student', drawing nice pictures on the white board, and using the model airplane to visualize the changing bank angles and wind drift correction. Then we quickly covered what I'd prepared on Aeronautical Decision Making. After that, we headed for the ramp.

In the plane, I demonstrated a short field take-off - rather poorly - then headed for the practice area to do ground reference maneuvers. On the way, I demonstrated a wind drift turn and determined the wind was from the west.

First up was the Rectangular Course. We found an area with nice smooth fields and long rectangular patterns. I had my 'student' fly parallel to a canal to see the effect of wind drift. Then I showed him how to correct for the drift. At this point, my 'student' flew a lap around the rectangular course.

Next up was the S-Turns Across a Road. My 'student' demonstrated this to me to near perfection. I then helped him pick a point for Turns Around a Point. I showed him the 90 degree points around the turn with specific landmarks and demonstrated the first lap. He then took the control and I coached him around two laps. He had some difficulty with the bank angle and lost track of his altitude a few times and I pointed these out to him. Finally, I demonstrated a Go-Around while approaching a grass strip.

Then it was off to Sebastian to do some pattern work. For some reason, I haven't been able to get the pattern settings to work out smoothly in the Cadet. The first time around, I was too high, so I did a real Go-Around. The second and third time were better, but still high. To save time, I slipped these approaches in and landed.

The next three loops around the pattern, I did Power-Off 180 Degree Landings. The first was bad. I had no idea what the sink rate would be in the Cadet. I was too high again. My instructor gave me some tips on the second attempt and I nailed it. The third time, I did it on my own and nailed it again. At this point, I was starting to feel less like a student pilot and more like a Commercial pilot.

To wrap up, we returned to Vero Beach along the beach. We set up for a Soft Field Landing approach. The approach was to the numbers, gliding along nearly hands off to the runway. As I flared and added a touch of power, the tower told me to take the first taxiway. My instructor anticipated this and jumped on the brakes. So much for my nice, gradual reduction of speed.

We debriefed for a while. I critiqued myself, then he critiqued me. Overall, I think I did very well, except the poor approaches in the pattern.