Journal #3

6/5/2002

Hobbs time 1.6hr
Flight from Oak to San Pablo Bay
Cessna N1658F - 180hp lycoming, and stored in hangar (drooped wingtips)

Another awesome flight. Jeff took me thru a number of maneuvers today.
For the takeoff - taxied from "port-o-port" to runway 33 [not for solo?]. This plane took a lot of down elevator to stay on the ground, and basically took off itself around 55-60knots. Climbed *very* fast - around 1000fpm, and overtook the piper now long below us - tower sounded humerous as they said we were overtaking them very high - not a factor.

Once at San Pablo bay, ran thru many maneuvers.
"AAA" - Altitude, Clear Airspace, Airspeed.
For the slow flight, airspeed was around 50 knots (Vr).
For the tight turns - this time above 45deg I think, maneuvering speed (Va) at 95 knots.
We tried slow flight, power off stalls, power on stalls (whoo!), tight turns, and for slow flight did a climb, and some turns. Last time did slow flight and turns, so now for stalls.

Stalls. Hmmm - mostly more "mellow" than I thought they would be. Each one, Jeff demo'd and then I tried to execute something like it. Main things to remember - about slow flight, and all transitions of power, is to adjust carb heat. If below 2.1K rpm, have carb heat on. For flight around 3k feet, and doing slow flight maneuvers, mixture was full rich (I think).

Ok - power of stall - just like a textbook. The interesting thing is that the nose doesn't drop much. The aircraft simply drops a little (in pitch and altitude), and if you add power (off with the carb heat) the airplane will be climbing in no time.

Power on stalls - with the 180hp Lycoming engine, and the drooped wingtips, was tricky, but we got it. Keep using the rudder to adjust for P-factor. The trick is to be very near Vso (stall speed) before adding max power. Once adding power, just keep pulling up until speed falls below Vso (in this case the meter was down to 20knots), and blam! you really feel it. In both of Jeff's demo'd power on stalls, the plane yawed to the right for a quick drop, but always recovered before you could really get scared - probably within 100feet (I guess). And again - don't have to pitch down at all - just level to the horizon.

All the maneuvers went well, then I listened to ATIS and wrote down the info on my new kneeboard (no prob). Called Bay approach, Called Oakland Tower. Jeff had to repeat for Bay Approach (They were having problems), but Oakland Tower I handled. The landing was a little high, then about right, and talked thru the landing, I flared a little too much and too early, but not as bad as the "not pretty" landing on day-1. Jeff took the last 1/2 second and it wasn't bad at all.

Comments: while maneuvering, don't forget to use AAA - and always do a flow check from L-R + gauges etc. And as for one "a" - altitude - maintaining this within 100feet was easy for the turns and slow flight, but tough for the stalls. My steep 360deg turn would have passed a checkride! whoo!