I snuck in a flight lesson today at lunchtime. Time constraints often force me to speed out to the airport at somewhat higher than posted velocities. The trip sometimes acts like a "motion sensor." As I exploit my car's taught suspension on the twisty roads, my stomach and inner ear give me a sense of how they're doing. Thankfully they felt ready for action this afternoon.
Shane mixed things up a bit today. We practiced constant speed climbs, descents and steep angle turns. I find tilting the wings to 45 degrees to be a delicate operation. For me, the physical orientation still takes some getting used to. The more the wings deviate from straight and level flight, the less lift they generate. I sometimes wish I didn't know that. So after mid way (ie., 45 degrees) you start to notice the effect as you lose altitude. Wing roll tends to have a momentum to it so it's very easy to overshoot and get yourself almost perpendicular to the ground. Not nearly as fun as it sounds. Over compensating for that tendency (at least for me) can prevent you from successfully executing the maneuver. Gentle moves are key. The lateral acceleration generated by too rapid a change in control input can result in some noticeable g forces. Trust me, being at the controls of your very own roller coaster is a double edged sword. After a few attempts I finally managed a few decent 360 degree steep angle turns. They're lots of fun when you finally get them right.
Then we practiced landing. For reasons I still don't quite understand, I simply didn't have the magic today. Shane contends I'm still not totally clear on radio jargon and my brain is spending time thinking about that rather than actually flying the plane. Getting an aircraft down in a controlled and precise manner involves coordinating several tasks in rapid succession. Altitude needs to be exact as do speed and rate of decent. Flaps need to be engaged at the right time. Position in the pattern must be observed. While all this is happening, there's ultimately that (little) strip of asphalt you need to hit properly at the correct velocity.
We had to abort my first attempt as I came in on final approach way too high. I even botched the recovery by accidentally taking out all my flaps (extensions to the wing that provide extra lift) at once. On my second pass I came in too high again and had to make a rapid descent resulting in some unwanted up and down oscillation before actually touching down. My last attempt was even worse as I came very close to smacking the plane down pretty hard onto the runway which would have seriously bent the landing gear and put a significant dent in my wallet for repairs.
Oh well. I at least feel I learned from these mistakes. I'm going to make some cheat sheets for all my maneuvers, rather than try to execute them from memory and whatever bits of common sense I feel apply. It was a beautiful day to fly and I view part of the struggle today as due to my being more seriously tested on some of the real aspects of flying.
One of my New Year's resolutions is to sharpen my rhetorical skills on the virtues of aerospace and its benefit to humanity. As I walked out to inspect my plane before flying, I passed a concrete (or perhaps I should say mostly aluminum) example.
I think we sometimes take for granted the fact that things like helicopters (and planes) come to people's rescue, often in life threatening emergencies. Take a close look. Even on the surface, this is not a simple piece of machinery. How in the world did we ever figure out how to make one? What a wonderful application of technology, saving human life. The chopper above is dedicated to the task ... so are its pilot and crew.
Then of course there are the somewhat less noble, but to me no less glamorous applications. This jet was parked right outside the flight school and I couldn't help drool over being so close to it. I mean, the thing can probably fly at more than 500 mph. DaVinci and the ancients would look upon it as nothing short of magical. The engineering legacies that jet airplanes sit atop are extreme and profound. Being near machines like this makes them real in ways only being up close and next to them can, much like being in the same room with a person does, speaking face to face. When we normally take a commercial jet we don't get to walk around it and admire the sleek lines. Sometimes we don't see them from the outside at all. So, for your viewing pleasure, here's some "up skirting" of an Express Jet Embraer 145.
"Hey Baby ..."
"Come here often?"
"You're a tall one."
"Nice butt."
Clearly, my rhetoric still needs some work.
Shane mixed things up a bit today. We practiced constant speed climbs, descents and steep angle turns. I find tilting the wings to 45 degrees to be a delicate operation. For me, the physical orientation still takes some getting used to. The more the wings deviate from straight and level flight, the less lift they generate. I sometimes wish I didn't know that. So after mid way (ie., 45 degrees) you start to notice the effect as you lose altitude. Wing roll tends to have a momentum to it so it's very easy to overshoot and get yourself almost perpendicular to the ground. Not nearly as fun as it sounds. Over compensating for that tendency (at least for me) can prevent you from successfully executing the maneuver. Gentle moves are key. The lateral acceleration generated by too rapid a change in control input can result in some noticeable g forces. Trust me, being at the controls of your very own roller coaster is a double edged sword. After a few attempts I finally managed a few decent 360 degree steep angle turns. They're lots of fun when you finally get them right.
Then we practiced landing. For reasons I still don't quite understand, I simply didn't have the magic today. Shane contends I'm still not totally clear on radio jargon and my brain is spending time thinking about that rather than actually flying the plane. Getting an aircraft down in a controlled and precise manner involves coordinating several tasks in rapid succession. Altitude needs to be exact as do speed and rate of decent. Flaps need to be engaged at the right time. Position in the pattern must be observed. While all this is happening, there's ultimately that (little) strip of asphalt you need to hit properly at the correct velocity.
We had to abort my first attempt as I came in on final approach way too high. I even botched the recovery by accidentally taking out all my flaps (extensions to the wing that provide extra lift) at once. On my second pass I came in too high again and had to make a rapid descent resulting in some unwanted up and down oscillation before actually touching down. My last attempt was even worse as I came very close to smacking the plane down pretty hard onto the runway which would have seriously bent the landing gear and put a significant dent in my wallet for repairs.
Oh well. I at least feel I learned from these mistakes. I'm going to make some cheat sheets for all my maneuvers, rather than try to execute them from memory and whatever bits of common sense I feel apply. It was a beautiful day to fly and I view part of the struggle today as due to my being more seriously tested on some of the real aspects of flying.
One of my New Year's resolutions is to sharpen my rhetorical skills on the virtues of aerospace and its benefit to humanity. As I walked out to inspect my plane before flying, I passed a concrete (or perhaps I should say mostly aluminum) example.
I think we sometimes take for granted the fact that things like helicopters (and planes) come to people's rescue, often in life threatening emergencies. Take a close look. Even on the surface, this is not a simple piece of machinery. How in the world did we ever figure out how to make one? What a wonderful application of technology, saving human life. The chopper above is dedicated to the task ... so are its pilot and crew.
Then of course there are the somewhat less noble, but to me no less glamorous applications. This jet was parked right outside the flight school and I couldn't help drool over being so close to it. I mean, the thing can probably fly at more than 500 mph. DaVinci and the ancients would look upon it as nothing short of magical. The engineering legacies that jet airplanes sit atop are extreme and profound. Being near machines like this makes them real in ways only being up close and next to them can, much like being in the same room with a person does, speaking face to face. When we normally take a commercial jet we don't get to walk around it and admire the sleek lines. Sometimes we don't see them from the outside at all. So, for your viewing pleasure, here's some "up skirting" of an Express Jet Embraer 145.
"Hey Baby ..."
"Come here often?"
"You're a tall one."
"Nice butt."Clearly, my rhetoric still needs some work.
No comments:
Post a Comment