Here is Jeff's plane - a Cessna 150M 2 seater in great condition
And the airport we use- Pearland Regional (KLVJ), about a 30 minute drive from our house
Cumulative
Lessons: 19
Flight Time: 20.6 hours (1.0 hours solo)
Landings: 98 (8 solo)
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4/6/07
Did an overall practice run today, navigating out to the practice area and back, and reviewing steep turns, slow flight, and power off / power on stalls. This went surprisingly well considering how long it's actually been since I left the pattern and did any of this stuff, but power on stall recovery still needs refinement - got to remember to add some right rudder when nosing down after the stall due to gyroscopic effect.
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4/2/07
Did 'soft field' takeoffs and landings today. Got the knack of flying in ground effect with the stall horn steadily going. Takeoffs I think I have down, but landings I'll still have to work on reducing my sink rate at touchdown.
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3/30/07
Winds were ~15 gusting to 20 today, did a few normal landings and then some short-field, which I feel very comfortable with. Once stopped just past the numbers, we figured ~200 feet - these Cessna 150's are nimble! Jeff also demonstrated a soft-field takeoff - I'll be doing these and soft-field landings next time.
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3/22/07
Did a few more normal patterns then Jeff sent me off again. Did some of my best touchdowns here, but on the fifth landing I got a strong gust that lifted me up and to the left, could probably have corrected for it but decided it would be smarter to go around so I hit the throttle, my first time doing this solo. Got another couple of good gusts while flaring on the last one and weathervaned to the left more than I would have liked. It's more fun when the weather's calm but flying solo is still incredible.
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3/17/07
First solo flight today!!! Started with some normal pattern work and another simulated engine out. Jeff made sure I was ready then stepped out and had me do three standard takeoffs/landings alone. This is the culmination of what I've learned up to this point, and felt great to be handed the controls and given the chance to excercise it without assistance. It felt very normal because I have done it so many times now, but the plane was significantly lighter with only me aboard and performed better.
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3/4/07
Short field takeoffs and landings, simulated engine-out landings, and go-around practice. Did some good flying today and Jeff thinks I'm ready to solo but the crosswinds picked up pretty swiftly so we'll have to wait until a calmer opportunity. I am excited and ready to go but I also think it's not a good idea to rush into it, so I'm ok with waiting.
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3/2/07
Pattern work and first simulated engine out taken all the way to landing, which was fun. Jeff likes to have his students carry it all the way down to landing which not all instructors do but I'm glad for the practice. May come in handy one day.
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2/19/07
Stayed in the pattern today, did 11 landings. Making all of the calls now on Unicom and I'm at the point where I'm doing everything (prep, taxi, takeoff, approach, landing, taxi, shutdown) without requiring guidance, and the rest is refining technique. The main thing I still need to work on is my tendency to pitch down after the flare in order to see the runway. Jeff did an example today and I finally got the point that the pitch-up attitude during touchdown is usually high enough that you can't see down the runway at touchdown, and have to look out the side window for visual reference during the last few feet of descent. Incorporating this will be the goal of my next lesson, and Jeff says I'll probably be ready to solo in the next 2 flight hours or so. It's great to know this is in sight and I'll be completing all of my pre-solo requirements (FAA Class III medical exam part II done this Thursday, and practice for pre-solo written completed) before the next lesson so I'm ready when the weather is.
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2/18/07
Finally got the power off stalls with a turn without issues, then moved back to the airport for more pattern work. On the way Jeff pulled power on me, so I pitched to 60 and after some guidance picked an airstrip that was well within range. Circled around but still ended up coming in a little high and had to slip to bleed some of it off. Applied full power again at ~700 feet to get back up to altitude and continue back to Pearland. Did seven landings and also my first go around after coming in a little high. Jeff took the rudder for the second one when I wasn't slipping enough, but got those a little better on subsequent landings. Flaring at about the right time but still doing it a little too sharply, then trying to correct by pushing the yoke forward, which I need to stop doing - just need to make the flare a little slower and easier and if I baloon, ease off on the backpressure a little rather than trying to nose down.
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2/13/07
More high winds today, 350 at 15 knots gusting to 22, so got some good ground reference and turbulence practice in. Also did two power on stalls which went well and two power off stalls with a slight turn, which seem to be my sticking point - need to hammer these flat before my checkride. Landing was pretty smooth but I need to stop pushing forward on the yoke after touchdown, next few lessons will be in the pattern.
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2/11/07
We had about 8 knots today, just enough to do some ground reference work. Turns around a point went well (although for my checkride I'll have to make sure I enter on the downwind), and S-turns along Highway 45, aside from being just generally pretty cool, went well except that I need to roll more agressively. Crosswind landing wasn't too bad, this was now my 10th and I think I'm getting the hang of it.
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2/10/07
The ceilings were a little low today for review of power on stalls, and the winds weren't strong enough to do meaningful introduction to ground reference maneuvers (whole point is correcting for the wind), so we got an early start on pattern work. Basically took off, got right back in the pattern, landed, and took off again. Continued these touch-and-go's the whole lesson and ended up doing 8 landings! Some were good, some weren't, but this increased my overall comfort level tenfold because now I know that once I get in the air I am capable of bringing it back in again.
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2/5/07
Reviewed power off stalls and started with some pretty interesting recoveries, but smoothed it out for the last two. Power on stalls went well. Did some engine-out glide approaches incorporating forward slip and probably scared a couple farmers due to the rapid descent and awkward attitude, but it is a very useful maneuver. Once I run through this a few times and I’ll be able to focus equally on all of the control movements at once rather than just a subset. Gave it to Jeff for the last few feet of landing today - had an ok glidepath and flare but wasn’t getting the sideslip right to straighten the plane out - makes for unhappy passengers and landing gear on touchdown so this maneuver needs work.
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2/4/07
First landing today!!! Reviewed slow flight, slow flight turns, and did my first power off stalls. Nosed over a little too far on the recovery, learning that (at least for this plane) you only need to release back pressure on the yoke after the stall, because after the wings lose lift (and the horizontal stabilizer doesn't) there is already plenty of momentum pulling the nose down. Stalls with a slight turn were the same but with rudder to counteract the roll during separation. Jeff also demonstrated power on stall. Cleaner takeoff and approach today, and Jeff let me take it all the way in to landing. Ballooned up on the flare because I pulled back a little too much, but then let it settle down again for a smooth touchdown – felt great. Light crosswind was pulling me a little to the right, next step is to incorporate sideslip.
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1/28/07
Reviewed slow flight, performed turns at a 45 degree bank angle, forward slips, and intro to power off stalls. Maneuvers went well today as I relaxed my grip on the controls. The next steps to improve the high-rate turns are 1) make entrance roll rate more assertive, and 2) do a 45 degree bank turns around only 180 degrees instead of 360. Need to remember constant application of right rudder during slow flight, and anticipating corrections rather than reacting. Had the same takeoff issue today and realized I’m being too timid on the rotation at 50 knots, it needs a little more persuasion a little sooner. For approach this time I turned base and final, with Jeff taking over for landing.
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1/25/07
Worked on slow flight. Picked up too much speed before rotating and taking off (78 kts!) and was over-controlling a little today - too much active correcting and not enough letting the plane settle into it’s natural flight configuration. I flew the approach into the pattern and the turn to downwind, got distracted by another plane in the pattern reporting he had us in sight, and let myself descend below where I needed to be for the turn to Base. Handed it over to Jeff for base, final and landing.
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Lesson 1
1/10/07
Instructor J. Kling
I've been asking around about flying lessons for a while now, and Jeff was recommended to me as a CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) from several independent sources, including people from work and even a lady ahead of me in line at a Time Warner store! So I stopped by the hangar at Pearland Regional to check out the plane and talk with him about the training structure. It's a very clean Cessna 150, not too small for me as I had feared, and I am confident we'll work well together, so I think deciding who to fly with turned out to be the easy part. While saving up for this I read most of the materials I had ordered from ASA so I was definitely ready to start. After 45 minutes of preflight we fueled up and made use of the remaining hour of daylight to do some taxiing and flying. I had the chance to take off and climb out, and we covered the four fundamentals - straight-and-level flight, turns to a heading, ascents and descents, then moved on to climbing and descending turns to a heading. Passed under another Cessna in the practice area - no action was required, but it was a reminder to pull my eyes away from the instruments and spend most of my time looking outside. I entered the pattern and Jeff performed the landing from turn to Base onward.
