6/6/09 - lesson # 2

Today was a great day! It was off to a rough start, though...

The sky was completely overcast when I left the house for the airport. After about 20 minutes of driving, I realized I forgot my CamelBak (need water!) and checks. Without water, I will die of thirst. Without the checks, I can't fly! I turned around and went back to the house - and hit every red light. Oh well. I eventually got to the field with everything I needed.

George, my instructor, was there waiting for me. He told me to go put my name on the tow list, and then go back to the hanger so we could do a preflight check on the plane.

Same plane as last time, and this will be the one I'll likely use for all of my training: a Schweizer 2-33A, N1186S. It was very cool doing the preflight check. We went through the Schweizer checklist, and George added a few things in here and there. We totally picked that plane apart and checked everything imaginable. I just loved being around the plane, looking at how it works (how the wings are held to the fuselage, etc). It took a while, but in the end we were satisfied that we had a plane in excellent condition for the flight.

The clouds were breaking up a bit, and what was left was a nice coverage of healthy cumulus. Should get some lift today!

We pulled the plane out and George pulled it to the staging area with his car while I walked...well...RAN...the wing. George was driving a bit fast.

Once there we went over the plan for the flight. I would take over the tow from 1,000' up and do the release this time. After that we'd find a thermal and gain a bit of altitude, perform some slips (I'll explain later), and practice thermals with proper turning and technique. After that, George was going to have my fly the approach, and he said that I would more than likely not land the plane just yet (only my second lesson!), but we'll see how I'm doing on it. Everything covered, we get pushed onto the runway and lined up while the tow plane gets into position. The rope is connected and we're ready to go. Rudders are moved left-right-left-right, and the signal is given to take off.

We take off smoothly and begin our climb to 3000'. At 1,000' AGL (above ground level - don't forget it!), I took control and once again followed the plane with ease. I hit one pocket of turbulence that kind of threw me around, but I quickly recovered and that was that. Once we got to 3000', I set up for a soft release. Well, I tried to. Wasn't as smooth as I would have liked, but I released uneventfully and George took over to find a thermal. He got one and thermaled a bit, then I took over and had my turn for a while. We had a hard time getting centered in it, but it didn't matter much. We did gain some altitude back, but we couldn't get too much higher as we are legally not allowed to get within 500' of the cloud base, and we were probably right at it. It was cool flying that close to the clouds. It's one of those things I can't describe, but it definitely adds to the feeling of flight - especially with such a great view out of the canopy (much better than a small window on an airliner!).

After thermaling a bit, George performed a slip. A slip is useful for killing some altitude without gaining speed. It is done by turning in one direction (typically the wing on the side of the plane where the wind is coming from is lowered) and the rudder is moved onto the opposite side. So...wind is coming from the right side of the plane. Turn right and use left rudder. The end result is you fly more-or-less straight, but the plane flies at an angle off of the direction of flight. This creates drag and voila! You lose altitude while not gaining airspeed (usually!). I did right and left slips. It gets noisy during those because the wind is hitting a much larger surface area. Overall, they were easy and effective.

After the slips, we tried to find a thermal, but we were getting close to our landing pattern entry altitude. Not having much luck with a thermal, I have total control of the aircraft from here until landing - or so I thought.

There is a huge white-roofed building that conveniently marks the location where the crosswind leg begins. We would be landing on runway 12 this time. I crossed over the runway at midfield, constantly watching my altitude, airspeed, location, and traffic. It is getting busy in the cockpit! So much to do! George counted 20 seconds, then we turned right onto our downwind leg. This put us a nice comfortable distance away from the runway to set up for a nice base leg. We were a bit high, so I let out about half of the dive brakes. The dive brakes create a lot of drag, so to maintain your airspeed, you have to lower your nose (which means you lose more altitude). We start getting lower and lower, down to where we should be. It is now time to turn onto base, only a few hundred feet above the ground. I perform a nice, sharp, controlled turn onto the base leg and let out full dive brakes for a little bit to lose a bit more altitude. Once we get lower, I start fiddling with the brakes a bit to control the altitude and move the nose up and down to maintain the approach airspeed (55 kts).

Almost time for George to take over! I turn onto final and close the dive brakes - we are looking great! The wind is coming from our right at about 5 kts, so I line up the nose a bit to the right of the runway while watching my aiming point on the runway. George remains silent as we're down to 100 ft.

Looks like I'm taking this one all the way in. On my second lesson. Third flight ever in a glider. George must be impressed!

We cross the threshold of the runway getting lower and lower, and I begin my flare. I hold it up over the runway for a bit to close the distance between us and the staging area. Close enough - I set it down (not too hard, either!) and keep the center-line under our wheel. George thinks I didn't get more than 3 feet away from the line the entire time! I kept the nose off as long as I could, and then we got so slow that the elevator couldn't keep the nose up anymore and the skid made contact with the runway. We slowed down quickly and I kept the wings level until we were just about at a complete stop. I let out the brakes completely which activated the wheel brake as well. We stopped and...that was it!

It was easy! I don't know what it is. I feel so incredibly comfortable in the plane. It's second nature to me...I just knew what to do. I could have landed a bit further down the runway (still had to walk a bit back to the staging area while pulling the plane), but it was fine other than that! I wasn't nervous, I wasn't scared...I was loving every second of it.

We talked about a few things after the flight, and put the plane back in the hanger. I left having landed a plane for the first time in my life.

I LANDED A PLANE! Woohoo!

Next weekend I'll be out of town, so no lesson. I'll be studying my glider books, though!