2009 has started with some flying for a change...what a novel concept after last year's dearth!
One of my longtime CAP colleagues and friends, and a fellow Fairfieldean (?!), Len, is working towards his CFI (certificated flight instructor) ticket. He needed someone to serve as a guinea pig of a student (who also wouldn't do anything stupid to cause him to rethink the whole CFI thing), and I needed a pilot willing to take on the Pilot In Command role and help me shake some rust off my flying skills while I work on getting my medical back. On paper at least, it looked like a good match!
In reality, it was a terrific match! Len is a solid instructor, letting me work along remembering things, offering tips on things I could do differently and ribbing me into doing things better or more safely. He's patient (sat through 7 landings as I tried to remember how to put a Piper back on the ground in one piece), and fun.
On our first tour, we borrowed a Piper Archer from Len's club at Oxford Airport. While I've done touch and goes at KOXC (generally for night currency), I'd never flown out of the airport. We arrived to the hill top nestling the airport, frozen in a winter wonderland of a recent ice storm. Happily, Len had asked the FBO to take the plane into the hangar overnight--so preflight on a bitterly cold day was accomplished in the relatively balmy hangar (we're no fools!).
We had a great flight out to the practice area, flying over tons of frozen lakes with folks out ice-fishing or zooming around on snowmobiles. After a couple of clearing turns, we practiced some slow flight and stalls, steep turns and other maneuvers. Most were passable.
On our way back to the airport, we diverted to the Shepaug Dam to do a couple of passes over at 2,500 feet. Bald eagles winter there because of the constant open water. I had brought my camera, even though I really didn't anticipate being able to spot anything from that altitude...but you never know. I've seen bald eagles soaring pretty high on thermals, so there was always the chance.
Back at KOXC, we did 6 touch and go landings, with 1 full stop. When I rushed a few of the patterns, throwing off my, landings, Len offered great critiques and suggestions for smoothing out my process in the pattern. It paid off, with the last landing being pretty decent. (One would hope so after 6 others!)
On our next sortie a couple of weeks later, we borrowed the club's Cessna 172. More comfortable in the Cessna, (and having knocked some rust off recently), we went back up to the practice area and did some more maneuvering flight, including stalls and steep turns. We did a total of 4 landings, and I consciously worked on slowing myself down in the patterns to let the plane do what it needed to do.
Ultimately, the airwork and pattern work appears to have paid off. When I flew with Dan and Jill last week to KEPM, I was better at trimming up the airplane, hitting the numbers in the pattern and generally flying more smoothly....
Len's getting close to his practical exam, but I hope to be his guinea pig a few more times before he takes the test.
