Up...Up..And Away!!!

Today's Flight was great!
 I was really worried about the weather, because we had a very low ceiling and some fog. However, by the time we finished the preflight, and the ground lesson it had burnt off into a beautiful day!

This is the 1946 J-3 Piper Cub that Bob and Emily had out today. Such a beautiful majestic airplane!

 About 1 o'clock, airplanes seem'ed to sprout from the woodwork as the clouds parted, and the sun showed its face for the first time all morning. There were lots of R.V's ( Kit built sport planes), Cessna's, and Emily and Bob Stark even got out the 1946 J-3 Cub! I tell you, on days like that, I could just sit and watch airplanes come and go all day and be so satisfied. On the other hand, there is nothing that can come close to comparing to the powerful feeling of stepping into the cockpit, closing the door, firing it up, and giving it full throttle as you fly down the runway just waiting for Vr, or rotate speed.( the Speed you take off at) You find that rotate speed, and everything that you had worried about the whole day, everything that was upsetting you just sinks with gravity, and it is just you, and the airplane. When there are so many things weighing you down mentally,and physically, it is an incredible feeling to lift off, and fly and be free, away from all of that. Such an amazing feeling, i cant even begin to describe. It is also great to being flying with a good instructor. Being friends and having similar interests really helps that we can just relax and fly the airplane.

    Due to cost, and some maintenance issues, the Piper Cherokee is being taken off line for the winter! Some what disappointing because i really enjoy that airplane! But that's okay because we transfered into a Cessna 172 today. N734KU, or November 734 Kilo Uniform. Very nice plane actually. It is a little bit newer I believe and it fly's very well. I enjoyed the flight very much. The c-172 feels like it is a little bit more stable than the Cherokee but that could have been just because it was a very calm day out in the valley.
 
Today the maneuvers that we focused on were a little bit difficult for me.First off, because we were transitioning into a different airplane, second because i haven't flown in two weeks, and third because they are completely new maneuvers to me, so i was not sure how to complete them correctly. The two GRM's( Ground Reference Maneuvers) that we did practice were "Turns around a Point", and "S-turns". The  "turns around a point" were fun. What we do is pick a tree in the middle of a field, and turn our airplane around that point, staying an equal distance from the tree at all times, and fly a complete 360. Referencing the ground to make sure that we are indeed where we need to be. We do this maneuver at 1000 feet, so there is not much room for error either. You have to keep your airspeed up, stay at altitude, and stay around the tree. Multitasking!

  The other Maneuver is  "S-Turns". For this Maneuver  you pick a long strait line on the ground  that you can reference, and fly strait towards it. When your wings line up with that line on the ground, you start a bank, still maintaining your airspeed and altitude. When you have turned 180 degrees, and roll out, your wings should be again lining up with that line on the ground. As soon as they do line up, you start your bank for the next turn, being careful all the time to remain aware of your altitude, airspeed and where you are in reference to the point or line that you have chosen. We fly low(1000 ft agl min) over the town of banks, where there is lots of farm land that we can use as reference points. Great training terrain.

 After we got some good practice of ground  maneuvers, we climbed to 4500 ft and headed out towards Yamhill on the other side of the hill to practice some slow flight. During slow flight, you slow the airplane down to just inside your Vfe (Maximum flaps extend speed) and start extending your flaps. As you slow down, you extend more flaps until they are fully deployed.By the time your flaps are fully deployed, you can adjust your trim settings, and your throttle settings to maintain your altitude, and keep the airplane just above stall speed. This is the configuration that you will land the airplane in.That is why we practice while we are at altitude, so i can get a good feel of how the airplane reacts prior to actually trying to land on my own. After a few minutes, James asked me if i would like to have a stall demonstrated. As nervous as i was to be in a controlled "Drop", i said yes.
           For a stall, all you do is when you are in slow flight(flaps down, throttled back, carb heat on and pitched  up) pull the throttle all the way out to idle, and hold the pitch of the airplane, so that you loose the airspeed that the power was helping you maintain. As you slow down, keep the nose of the airplane pitched up to burn off the excess airspeed. When that airspeed is gone, the airplane will stall, and momentarily loose lift. As a result of loosing the lift, the nose of the airplane will pitch down slightly. To recover from a stall, all you need to do is "punch it" as they say. Let the nose of the airplane pitch down slightly, give it full power, reduce flaps to 20 degree's, turn off carb heat, and give the control yoke the back pressure to pull the nose back up after you have gained some airspeed back.
 After feeling it when James did it, i decided that i would give it a  go and see if i could do it. I was very nervous the first time i tried it, because again, your falling, but after a few times of doing it, i wasn't scared at all. It was actually kind of fun.
 After an hour a a half of flying we decided to head in and call it a day. Getting late in the afternoon, and it was  time to land under the supervision of the sun, which was still out! We came over the top of chahalem  mountain and dropped into the pattern. I have yet to land, but James wants me to "ride the controls" so i can feel the inputs that he is making.

 Over all a wonderful lesson. Great fun as always. I think a stressful day flying beats the crap out of a good day at work anyways. ;)
 Being able to forget everything and just float and fly is something mankind has dreamt of for hundreds of years. I am glad that i am able to fulfill that dream, because believe me it is worth it.
cheers.