Full Throttle

I had a fabulous weekend. Flying and more flying.

Saturday, I got to sleep in to start the morning. I was kind of bummed because it was really rainy out, and I thought my flying lesson was going to get canceled. However, shortly after noon the clouds started to break. It was looking good, so I headed out to the airport. Things cleared up just enough for my second stalls lesson. I did power-off stalls (pull the throttle out to idle and then pitch up until the nose drops), turning stalls (same as power-off, but banking while doing it), and power-on stalls (slow way down and then push the throttle all the way in and pitch up). According to everything I’ve heard, most people are more uncomfortable with power-on stalls, because you have to pitch the nose way, way up to get the stall and you’re lying on your back with nothing but sky in the windscreen. I didn’t have any trouble with those, though. I’m not so good at the turning stalls, because once I bank I forget to keep pulling back. :P

Anyway, it was especially cool because there were broken clouds at about 2000 ft, so we’d go hunting for a large hole in the clouds to do a stall in. Then we’d do one or two in there and go find another one before ascending again.

Then Sunday, I got to go again. This time the weather was crystal clear, if a bit windy. More stalls, steep turns, instrument work, and a slip. And a very messy landing. My favorite from this lesson - steep turns! 1.5 Gs for 360 degrees! Very, very fun.