I’m still alive (again).

It’s been a busy fall/winter/spring and now flying weather is back and I’m trying to get back up in the air some more. I’ve only been up a handfull of times in the past few months and I’ve had to take refresher flights (for insurance purposes) twice, including today.

I spent about an hour with instructor Neil today in a 172. He has a slightly different style than my previous instructors and I learned a lot of nice tips, especially a relaxing landing technique in the 172. Since had I learned on 152s I was used to dumping full flaps in a light wind and just riding it down with a gentle flair. In the 172, doing this can result in a steep decent angle and a sudden flair which feels unnerving. I mentioned this, and Neil suggested I cut power during the entire decent and just glide down with 10 degrees of flaps. This results in a shallower glide and a gentle flair at the end, with only a bit of power added in if necessary.

I went right back up in a new plane (with Garmin avionics) and got to play with some new NAV/COMs as I took a friend into Madison airspace for some more pictures of his property. I remembered all the ATC stuff I had to do and it was enjoyable. Like riding a bike!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 4th, 2006 at 3:50 pm 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.