Supervised Solo

Packed the truck and was out the door bright and early for my lesson. Today was supervised solo time. My Instructor was going to hang out front of the terminal next to the taxiway as I went from start to finish. Typical preflight with the added wait for frost. My CFI did give me a hand turning the aircraft so the sun heated up the wings to melt the frost.

Checklists complete and a run through the start up procedures brings 46C to life. Here I sit looking around as I taxi out to the active knowing it's all me today. How cool is this ? I still call out clear lefts and right even though I am by myself, its habit and I feel comfortable doing so. I finished up my run up and taxi to runway 27, stopping at hold short I run through my last quick checks, fuel both, fuel on, trim set, flaps check, mixture full. OK, I announce I will be departing 27 and remaining in the pattern. A nice take off with a slight heading change for noise abatement and a steady climb to 1200. Announcing my location with each change in the pattern I focus on the procedures. Leveling off at 1500, throttle back to 2000 rpm's, trim, HAVE FUN! Good view today and nice to see the aircrafts shadow track across the ground. As I am midfield in the downwind leg I check fuel settings, mixture and turn on landing/taxi lights. Just abeam the numbers I decrease throttle to 1500 rpm, settle, add 10* flaps, settle and add nose up trim. With the runway at a 45* angle over the left shoulder and about to cross my ground reference point I check the pattern for anyone on long final and proceed to turn left base. Adding another 10* of flaps I settle and trim nose down. ALT and speed looks good, checking off to my right again for anyone sneaking in on final so I don't get clocked I Call, out my turn to final. On short final I add the last notch of flaps and notice my speed is about 70 knts so take out any remaining throttle. Over the numbers, a bit fast, holding it off, sinking, holding it off (not enough, no stall horn) and a quick chirp followed by taking pressure off the nose wheel and getting slowed down. That little bit of speed caused me to flair long.


The following two circuits were spot on for pattern work, but today I seemed a bit fast on landings. As I taxi back my CFI says to pick him up by the taxiway. Bill jumps in and said I looked fast on final and seemed to dive towards the runway slightly. He wants to have a go round and see what's what. On the following final he explains to get to my speed by less throttle and nose up then set it and go for landing. As he explains once I am at speed and trim is set let that work for me. Bill also reminds me to keep holding it off even after touchdown, focus on that picture of my angle of attack when landing. I am instructed to stop on the taxiway so he can get out, followed by give me two more and we'll call it a day.

Next two go rounds were much better. I was on my target speed and as I came over the numbers to round out and then flair I heard the stall horn, held it off for a very gentle touchdown and really short roll out. Ahhhhh, I think I'm getting this!

I am up again on Monday for more work on flying to an airport with a tower. I'm thinking either ILG or RDG we shall see! The cross country work will be fun, I really enjoy the navigation, besides, I'll get to enjoy a bit more of the flight and see the sights!