Third Lesson: Power on/ off stalls, and IR maneuvers

Today's lesson started with me handling the checklist. I went through the preflight checklist while describing to my instructor what I was doing. Doing the preflight on my own is something I had a little anxiety about, but it went smoothly. I also got a chance to speak on the radio to ask for permission to taxi, again this was pretty easy, but when we were ready to ask for permission to take off I declined the opportunity to handle the radio since there was a bit more information I would be required to say. The radios intimidate me.

Once we were granted permission for takeoff, I was surprised when my instructor let me handle the controls. I gave the plane full power, waited until we reached 50 knots, and pulled back on the controls. Piece of cake.

Once we were in the air, he told me to put the hood on for some IR maneuvers. A hood is just a plastic shield you wear on your head that prevents you from seeing anything in the airplane except the instruments. With the hood on, I was instructed to perform several maneuvers, such as: maintaining straight and level flight, turns, climbs, and descents. All in all I think I did okay, although it is definitively tricky! I found myself over compensating to correct errors, or I would focus too long on one instrument, and go off course on another.

Here is when things started getting sketchy...STALLS! The power off stalls were a breeze! We would pull the throttle all the way out to reduce power, and then pitch the nose up until the wings couldn't produce lift anymore. Once you stall you feel the plane rumble a bit, and to correct it you just need to reduce pitch...no big deal. The real scare was doing power on stalls. Power on stalls involve putting the throttle in to full power, and then pitch the nose up until you stall. It takes a lot of pulling on the yoke to get enough pitch to stall, but when it does the plane violently jerks down and to the side. You see, when you are climbing the plane has a tendency to yaw to the left, you have to correct this by stepping on the right rudder. If you do a full power stall, and the plane is yawing left because you aren't giving it enough rudder, you will experience what I experienced, which was the sensation that the plane was about to go upside down and plummet to the ground! Seriously, power on stalls scare me.

After doing a couple more power on stalls (not my idea!), we did a scenario where I lost engine power. The checklist has a section for such an emergency, so we just followed that. Kind of fun, but not too involved in this lesson. With that complete, we headed back to the airport...another lesson complete.

Today's lesson was the longest I have had to far, we logged 1.4 hours in the airplane for a total of $126, and my instructor charged me an additional half hour of ground time for a total of $85.50...a grand total of $211.50 to get the crap scared out of me. Good times!

Grey Eagle Flight Academy in Carlsbad, CA