CFI-A Lesson 6 (Part 2)

Today I completed lesson 6, which I started on Friday. I arrived at the flight line 45 minutes early and casually gathered the latest weather and calculated the performance numbers and weight and balance. At 25 minutes until flight time, I went to dispatch to pick up the can for the plane. The dispatched asked if I could do a Gemini (another student riding along in the back seat). I said, "Sure, no problem." The dispatcher handed me the can and introduced me to my passenger, Harry.

I asked Harry to follow me to a briefing room so I could calculate the weights and balances again, factoring in his weight. A couple minutes later, I determined that we'd need to siphon off about 4 gallons of fuel to stay below the weight limit. My instructor showed up and we were off the the ramp.

On the ramp, Harry helped out with the pre-flight tasks and we talked about his flight history and his background. He wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do after completing training at FSI, other than going back home to England and looking for a job. The fuel truck finally arrived and pumped 5 gallons back into the truck. We were all set to fly.

We quickly go airborne and headed to the southwest to complete the lesson. The remaining items were the four new stalls, the Steep Spiral, and Eights on Pylons. The Secondary Stall was exactly what I expected. I look forward to showing my future students this stall because it demonstrates how things go from bad to worse if you don't correct the initial stall properly. The Trim Stall was also very interesting to demonstrate because the plane slowly pitches up to near stall attitude, but doesn't have quite enough power to continue climbing, so it just mushes over.

The next two were more troubling for me, since I didn't know what to expect. The Cross Control Stall surprised me with its quickness. Within a second of crossing the controls, the stall horn blares and the plane shudders. I was also surprised by how quickly the condition is resolved by simply removing either rudder or aileron control pressure. The Accelerated Stall was next. I entered a steep turn to the left and began pulling on the yoke. The stall horn blared a good 20 knots above the normal stall speed of the plane. Again, recovery involved simply removing some of the back pressure on the yoke.

The Steep Spiral is a descending turn around a point with three full turns. I started mine at 4,500 feet with left turns. Being in the right seat, it is impossible to see your point until you actually enter the turn, so you have to ask the student to let you know when you are abeam the point. The turn is made to the left because we want to show the student what we're looking for and the student can see best while in a left turn. My first turn was too steep on the upwind side, so I was pushed closer to the point. After seeing this after one complete turn, I correct my bank angles and the following turns looked great. I leveled off from the third turn at 2,000 feet.

The final manuever is the commercial Eights on Pylons. I wasn't sure how well I'd do these from the right seat. I found a decent pair of pylons and descended to 800 feet at 95 knots. I circled around the upwind side and entered the pylons on the downwind 45, as required. Surprisingly, both turns went very well. My altitude and airspeed stayed with PTS standards and all the timing worked out well. There were some bumps to deal with, which is sometimes a good thing because they can mask some of your smaller errors.

Then it was back to the airport. My instructor became my student and I had to guide him through the normal landing. I asked him to tell me exactly what he planned to do, then I sat back and watched like a hawk as he set us up in the pattern. He started off good, but got too slow a few times, so I prodded him to watch his speed. He rounded off the turn from base to final, so I suggested he work on squaring off the corner next time. The he discounted the crosswind effect and began drifting right of centerline. I told him to crab into the wind. He did and returned to centerline, but then released the crab angle and again drifted right. I told him to maintain the crab all the way to within 100 feet of the ground. He was too high and fast, so I told him to reduce power slightly. Once the runway was made, he was still a little high, so I told him to reduce power to idle. He did, but simultaneously leveled off, which dropped our airspeed. At this point, he started pitching for the flare. I pushed the controls forward and we landed safely, but I should have had him add some power, too. The lesson here is that once a student hears power to idle, they will not add power unless the instructor tells them to. Good to know.