"Flying is not about whether the pilot is a man or a woman. It is about the results of the actions imposed by the pilot and the responses returned by the aircraft. The aircraft does not know or understand gender. It only knows the difference in a true pilot, and one who was perhaps not meant to fly."
— Captain Jennifer Kaye, Air National Guard, 2000
Friday's weather was different. It wasn't raining but it sure felt and looked like it could. I made it to the airport at six and the sun was starting to peek out a bit. It was exciting to be able to fly a sky that would be smooth as glass . Refining take-offs and landings was the plan for this lesson. An area I needed to work on was keeping my hand on the throttle. Shane says I really should keep my hand on it when flying in the pattern. I've developed a tendency to take my hand off of the throttle once we're in the air. This may not seem like a big deal but if I do the throttle can slip back. If the throttle slips it could mean a potential for a reduction in power. Once my hand is off I rarely remember to put it back on. This has created another bad habit which is grabbing Shane's leg when I land. I think it'd be pretty embarrasing to fly with another instructor and give their leg a squeeze. Plus, the fact that it's a bad habit and poor form means I need to break myself of it sooner than later.
A beautiful evening meant that there would be traffic. I'm finally adjusting to it a little better than I was. The other airplane flying around the pattern was another instructor and his female student. If you remember from one of my previous posts you know that women only make up for six percent of pilots. It was totally cool that the only two planes flying around Pella (a town of about 10,000) and both of the students were females. It was unique just like our little town; Pella prides itself on being unique. Yes, sometimes this little dutch community smack dab in the middle of the US can be pretty cutting edge. I thought I it was lame in high school but now realize what a true gem it is. If you'd like to know more about our quaint community go to
http://www.cityofpella.com/ or
http://www.pellachamber.org/.
The other plane was finished with their pre-flight and checklist work well ahead of us, and they started on their pattern work. Once we were finished with ours we waited for our turn and prepared to take-off. My first take-off I gave it the power in the right amount of time and I was headed straight down the runway. I was pumped! I got a little eager and started to pull back a little early, and we hadn't quite reached the speed needed to take-off. I ended up flaring and our speed got to slow. In order to correct for this we relaxed the back pressure and added power. Grrr, I was mad at myself but didn't have time to dwell on it. On top of all the pattern work I needed to do we had to be in constant communication with the other airplane flying the pattern. Radio communication is important when dealing with traffic, but it's just as important to keep them in your sight. We worked our way through the pattern and prepared for our first landing. I didn't do so well with keeping my hand on the throttle during this first go around, but luckily we were doing multiple landings. As we approached the runway we were a bit high but were able to fix this by adding full flaps. The landing wasn't a greaser but it was safe.
I barely had time to take enjoy my landing because Shane said we'd be doing a touch and go. I felt like we were chasing the other airplane and vice versa, but it was fun. The other airplane was preparing to land so I had to take-off right away again. I turned the carb heat off, put the flaps up, added full power, waited until my speed reached 55 knots, and then started to pull back. The take-off was good and I was making progress. I remember commenting to Shane that it might've been my best take-off ever. I remembered to keep my hand on the throttle for the rest of the lesson except when I had to itch my nose. Hooray for small victories! A landing and some pattern work later and we were ready to land yet again. I was all lined up, descending nicely, and pretty sure I was going to grease this landing. I was just about ready to put the airplane on the ground when Shane saw a deer. The deer was on the edge of the grass just by the runway, so Shane made the call to do a go around. At this point I was a bit shaken and had him take over. We got back in the air and I took over flying again. We did two or three more landings and then called it a night.
I really felt like I progressed during this lesson. I broke my bad habit and was able to keep my hand on the throttle. My take-offs are really progressing, and working the rudder pedal is starting to come together for me. The landings are coming along and I'm getting a "feel" for when I need to put the airplane on the ground. I now have 18.2 hours in my logbook, and as my time builds so does my confidence. It was a good lesson and a good night.
