Lesson 25 - Rinse and Repeat
March 21, 2023
Today, I flew 12 traffic patterns. Consecutively. That was a lot of flying and it gave me very valuable insights into my flying habits. There were a few things that we identified as problem area, and I need to work on. Some of them, I was able to fix during the lesson, while some are going to be work in progress. All the small things manifested into a larger problem, that was, on all of my landings, I was carrying 10-15 extra knots and that was creating problems in landing for me.
1. Overshooting my Traffic Pattern Altitude by 100 feet
The reason it was happening was because I was not pulling the throttle out until I reached the downwind leg. That was error on my part. When I was chair flying, I memorized my steps like that.
Correct measure was to take out some throttle as I reach 2100 feet and let the plane reach 2200 feet, rather than wait till downwind. As an engineer, my mind always serializes tasks. This error was victim of that habit - somehow I could not process that I can pull out the throttle when in either crosswind or turning on downwind, but as I reach 2100 feet. Drew and I talked about it and on the next traffic pattern, as we crossed 2100 feet, Drew helped pull the throttle out and chuckled - “we are still alive”. I chuckled back-”Yes, we are….”.
That flipped a switch in my brain and after that I didn't have “that” particular issue with throttle in next patterns.
2. Wrong flaps count
Flaps are the drag-inducing devices that help get the airspeed in check - in this instance - for landing. Ideally, I should apply flaps in 10 degree increments, 3 times during the traffic pattern.
First 10 degrees as I cross the abeam point.
Second 10 degrees as I get on the base leg.
Third, as I get on the Final.
Flaps let you descend without increasing the airspeed in excess - which is the whole point when you are landing the plane. I have my own counting system that I thought was applying 10 degrees, but in reality it was applying much less than 10 degrees flaps. So on the Final leg, when I was assuming that I had 30 flaps in, I actually had only 20. The effect of that was quite evident - I was carrying way more speed on my landing.
Since then, I have now corrected my counting in my chairflying. I am now curious to see how it reflects in the next lesson.
3. Diving on the Base leg
This is not a new issue. But since today I was very comfortable in upwind, crosswind, and downwind - dive on base turn felt a LOT MORE PROMINENT. Till that moment, everything was going “as-per-the-plan”, and the next moment, I was in a mad scramble. My airspeed was going out of flaps range, so I was fixing that with pitching the nose slightly up, and in doing so introducing more variables.
ARGHHHHHH…..
Drew and I talked about it afterwards. I know that I CAN DO IT…. I HAVE DONE IT before. I just need to practice it more, ingrain the site picture deep in my head and build the muscle memory.
4. One last shenanigan before landing.
All of the above factors contributed to added 10 knots of airspeed during the landing. Because of that added speed, whenever I rounded out the plane before touchdown, it ballooned up and that means that I needed to fly some more. Fly more, equates to introducing more variables that I know I don’t have 100% authority over, not yet.
I talked about anticipation in one of the previous lessons, but today’s lesson was instrumental in showing me two things about anticipation.
First, that anticipation should not be just about the next action but next many - cause and effects. It all started in the base turn and monkeying around the airspeed management costed me dearly in my landing. Anticipating all of that, is crucial, but I was being hesitant to act upon it. which was the key. As I ballooned up 20 feet from the runway, the wind started to push me, causing the alignment with runway to distort. To compensate for that I needed to apply proper rudder input from early on, which I anticipated (I think) but did not act upon sooner. I waited till the plane started to crab above the runway to give rudder input - but by then, it was late. With low airflow over the control surfaces, it takes a lot of power and energy to make the plane turn. Just like trying to turn the car with a flat tire. In that moment, wind was winning over me. That was the killer - on every single landing. On couple of occasions, without Drew's wizardry I would have been in some deep trouble, but that is what my lesson to learn - Not to get in hairy situations in the first place.
Second, besides these tangible skill fixes, there was one more critical factor - active listening. I know that I am not excellent at actively listening to the radio comms. During one of the patterns, I was turning on base and someone said on radio - “3 miles final for runway 26, Rostraver traffic”. But, I was so tuned in (see what I did there…. ) with flying the plane, I did not acknowledge that message at all. If I was by myself, that would have been a deciding factor for a life-or-death situation, for not one but two lives - me and the other guy.
I needed to acknowledge his message, convey to him my position and intentions, of which I did NOTHING.
I know that radio comms is one of my challenges, but I am not sure how I can effectively improve my active listening skills. For all the pilots out there, I would like to know your thoughts and suggestions on improving the radio comms skills. I know that it will be extremely helpful during my cross-country flights, when I will need to follow the flight-following to go from point A to point B.
So that is it for today. 11 landings in a single lesson - it was a HUUUGGGGEEE confidence boost for me. Taking all the learnings from today, I expect some really good things in my next lesson.