Fifth Lesson: Departure and approach stalls, engine out procedure

Today's lesson started like all the others: I pre-flighted the airplane, taxied to the holding area, did the engine run-up check, and took off! Everything up to this point seems to be getting a little easier, and a little less intimidating. 

Once in the air, we were forced to fly under the clouds. Up until today I have been flying in clear skies, so this was a new experience for me. When Kam spotted an opening in the clouds, he instructed me to climb through it and get us above them. From here we found an area clear of clouds, and used it as our practice area. It felt like we were in some sort of cloud arena. It was pretty cool!

When we found our practice area we did a few departure stalls, which simulate taking off from the airport and stalling the airplane. We have been doing a lot of stalls lately, and I am finding myself a lot less nervous of them, in fact I felt like I was in pretty good control when it came to recovering from the stall. Kam even said I did a really good job, and seemed genuinely happy, which is something I have yet to experience up until this point. After the departure stalls we did approach stalls, which simulate stalling the airplane as you are coming in for a landing. Again, I felt like I recovered very well from the stall, and Kam once again seemed happy with me. 

After a few departure stalls, and a few approach stalls, we did the engine out procedure. First thing I had to do was put the airplane at the preferred gliding speed, and then trim to maintain that speed. Once the plane was trimmed, I didn't have to worry about the plane gliding at the correct speed, it was doing it on its own. Now I could find a good emergency landing site, and take out my checklist. This is a fun scenario, but I hope to never have to do it for real. 

And with that, our time was up. We headed back to the airport. Usually our approach to the runway is straight ahead, but today we were perpendicular to the runway, and had to make a right turn while descending. I lined up the airplane with the runway, and continued to descend. Once we got real low, Kam jumped on the controls with me, and landed the plane. 

Today's lesson went by real quick, and I was surprised that we put 1.3 hours on the Hobbs, it definitely didn't feel that long. The cost of today's lesson was $117 for the airplane, and $67.50 for instruction...a grand total of $184.50. Before I left, Kam actually gave me a little homework assignment, and told me we would have some ground instruction before the next lesson. Until now, I have been reading on my own, following a syllabus I had found online. It will be interesting to see how his ground lesson goes.