Yesterday I got up for the first time in the left seat of a Cessna 172. It was very hot and humid, which really affected our pressure altitude. The cockpit was like on oven, made worse because we spent the entire time in the pattern. There was a lot of haze, with visibility of about 5 miles. Winds were 180 @ 12 knots, so we had a direct cross-wind. This gave me a good chance to practice some real soft-field work on our newly opened turf strip, runway 01-19.

We spent the entire time running through takeoffs and landings, on both our hard and soft runways. I was startled by how much more control forces were needed in the 172, especially on the elevator. I really had to strain to get it to rotate, and the landing flair required similar effort. Having flown a 152 for a year, this was a big surprise to me.

The forward view also took a bit to get used to, as you sit much higher than in the 152. That combined with the much larger view screen, provided much better visibility overall.

After a couple of normal cross-wind takeoffs and landings on 10-28, I started to get the feel for the plane. It felt like I really had to fight it in those long cross-wind descents. Mark, ever the taskmaster, later cut my engine and told me my electric had gone too, so no flaps! Naturally I landed much faster than usual, which seemed to take forever, but it was my best landing yet.

Landing on the grass for the first time was interesting. It went pretty well, and the next was better. Takeoffs felt just like they were supposed to. We finished with a simulated engine out while turning downwind for runway 10. Mark told me to pick a runway. With some skidding and slipping I could have put her down on runway 28, but then he pointed out we were set up for a short base to runway 19. After figuratively slapping my forehead, I put her down nicely on 19.

Today we’re scheduled to go up for some high work, steep turns, stalls, and radio work. Some thunderstorms are on the way, so I’m not sure if we’ll get to do it today.

Also, I’ve got my longest trip yet planned for tomorrow up to Wausau, WI.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 3rd, 2005 at 8:12 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.