ET's Info-Stew

Mike took me up in his Ercoupe again today, this time to practice landings. He thought I did pretty well with normal flight last time, so he wanted to see how I handled landing. We tried going up yesterday, but the valley was so hazy that conditions were IMC the entire day. It wasn't a wasted day, though. Spending time at the airport, even just sitting there, is enjoyable. I must really have an affinity for this.

Mike had me taxi and take off from 25 right, but the tower had us switch over to left traffic on 25 left. This runway is much shorter :). I think Mike landed the first one, but I took over on climbout afterward. My first time through I needed a decent amount of help from Mike. He indicated when I should turn, how I should decend, and added nudges to the controls during short final and landing. On the first one, I was going too fast on final and ended up landing too far down the runway. Plus Mike had to add some power because I pulled back too early in the flare, so we had to taxi back. But after that I needed less and less help from Mike. I landed six or seven times and on the last two, he gave me only small corrective gestures.

My landings were fairly soft, but were not too smooth. My biggest problem seemed ot be that I wasn't getting situated on final. I would turn too early and would not have decended enough. So I had to coordinate correcting lining up with the runway with correcting the speed and decent rate. And trying to do all these at once caused me to have more stress than I really needed. Still, Mike said they were pretty good for never having done them. Even if he is just being nice, it is good to hear that you have a knack for something. The last couple patterns I felt fairly comfortable. My tower communication was great too!

The first of two main things I would need to improve on are tightening my pattern (especially not turning final too early). The other is learning not to pull up too early during the flare. I need to be sure to bleed off speed and only start pulling back when I'm just above the surface. Other things that need practice are getting a feel for the right approach decent and getting a feel of the right glide path. I probably assume correctly that making smooth landings simply requires practice. I was very impressed when Mike took the last pattern on the transition back to 25 right for a full stop landing. He made a steep approach to the runway and he handled the plane so smoothly compared to me. Experience really does make the difference.

It's not clear when we are going up again, but I have an open invitation to give him a call. I would like to work on navigating to and landing at another airport. I would also like to work more on maneurvers. In particular I would like to learn more about clearing turns (when to do them), precise turns, and stalls. When I get more comfortable, which might not be for a couple more flights, I'd like to work on steep turns.

I'm going to take Mike's advice and pass my written test before starting lessons. This will save me from wasting time and money on ground school. I'll learn much more taking time on my own to learn this stuff than rushing through a ground school course. The way it works is that I learn until I'm ready to take practice exams. The practice exams help me figure out where I'm weak so I learn some more, then take another practice exam. After several iterations of this I will have kept record of my last 3 to 5 practice tests. Then I show up at a test taking place, show an instructor that I have learned on my own, scored well on several practice tests, and get him to sign off to allow me to take the test. Then I pay the fee and take the test. After I pass I have two years to obtain my certificate. I'm setting a goal for myself to pass the test or be ready to pass the test by the time we move.