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I had another lesson this afternoon at Pinnacle Aviation Academy. In this lesson, I began work on air traffic control communications and also stalls. The stalls were really scary for me and I was sweating out of fear/nervousness and the combination of fear and also the falling sensation from the stalls almost made me sick. There was no puke bag on the airplane and I didn’t want to vomit 5,000 feet above  some poor little kid walking home from school, so somehow I overcame my nausea and recovered. Although I was very, very glad once the plane was on the ground and safely in its parking spot.

Why We Learn Stalls

As I learned in my lessons and was reminded today, are three reasons student pilots need to learn stalls:

• We need to learn how to recognize an approaching or accidental stall by sight, sound, and feel;
• We need to know the necessary corrective action to recover from a stall; and
• We need to know what to do to avoid getting into a stalled condition accidentally.

You can do power off stalls and power on stalls. Today we worked on power off stalls, which simulate a stall during the final approach to landing. During your stall recovery, your goal should be to use as little altitude as possible. As soon as airspeed allows, you should smoothly pitch back up again. If a wing does drop, release back pressure on the control stick or wheel and use coordinated aileron and rudder to level the wings.

Stall Recovery

To recover from a stall, you need to do three things. First, you need to decrease the pitch altitude and angle of attack (pitch the aircraft to the horizon). Second, you need to apply maximum allowable power (push that throttle all the way in for full power). And third, you need to regain straight and level flight with coordinated use of all flight controls. To do this, you need to level the wings with the rudder only, retract the wing flaps, maintain a positive rate of climb, and level off at entry altitude. 

Air Traffic Control Communications Guide

After I write down ATIS information on my kneeboard (ATIS info is on channel 120.15 at CRQ), I need to request permission to taxi. At CRQ, this goes something like this: “Palomar Ground Cessna November 9897 Foxtrot at Pinnacle Aviation Taxi to Runway 24 with Information (ATIS). Once I get the instruction and read it back, I taxi to the hold short line, do the run up checklist, and then radio the tower and request a departure. If we’re heading out to Valley Center to do maneuvers, I want to do a Right Downwind departure. I tune the radio to Tower 118.6 and request “Palomar Tower Cessna November 9897 Foxtrot Holding Short of Runway 24 Request a Right Downwind Departure”.

What I Need to Work On

I need to work on memorizing my procedures and also just practicing over and over. Everything seems to be easier the second and third time. And more fun, of course!

Today I had another flying lesson – my 7^th since I started at Pinnacle Aviation Academy. So far all of my lessons have been in the Cessna 172R Skyhawk, but today we went out in the 172 SP Skyhawk, which I really liked. It’s just like the “R” but it has 180 hp instead of 160 hp. Maybe it was just my improving flying skills, but I really liked that plane. Normally we head out to Valley Center to practice maneuvers, but today my instructor John and I flew down the coastline past La Jolla and around Point Loma and practice maintaining altitude, climbs and descents, and maintaining directional heading. It was my first time flying on a Saturday afternoon, and I was surprised how busy it was.

Things I worked on today:

• The takeoff checklist: The takeoff always feels hectic and I get a little anxious because are lots of things to remember. Fortunately there are acronyms and checklists to help. “Lights, Camera, Action” is the takeoff checklist as we position on the runway. “Lights” means your lights are on, “Camera” is your transponder, set to ALT (Altitude), and “Action” is your mixture set to full RICH and your throttle all the way in.

• The takeoff callouts: I used to always panic and forget these, but I’m getting better at remembering. Practice makes perfect. As soon as the plane starts moving on the centerline and your power is set to max, you call out “Power Set” and then check your gauges to make sure your oil pressure and oil temperature are both at appropriate levels. If they are, you call out “Instruments Green”. Then check your airspeed indicator (I call it the speedometer, but it’s an airspeed indicator). As you are passing 40 KIAS (“knots indicated airspeed”) you call out “Airspeed Alive”. And then, “Rotate” when you get to 55-60 KIAS.

Once in the air, my instructor and I headed south down along the San Diego County coast line. It’s cool to see such a familiar sight from a different perspective. We flew past Swami’s Beach, the Del Mar horse races where the Bing Crosby season was running, and then past the Torrey Pines Golf Course and Glider Port, and even saw a wedding at Sunset Cliffs. Along the way we practiced maintaining altiude, going from 500 feet to 1,500 feet and back down again. I did much better today than I did in my first couple lessons.

After flying past the Hotel Del Coronado, my flight instructor took over the controls and I managed to get some good pics of the Coronado Bridge, Glorietta Bay, Harbor Island and the San Diego airport. Here is a short video from today’s flight:

After flying over the San Diego airport, we went back up the coastline, again practicing maintaining altitude and directional heading. Then we went up by the Oceanside Pier and practiced slow flight, which I am getting much better at. The lesson ended with a uneventful landing and taxi back to Pinnacle.