HOME

Yesterday, I had my flying progress check with David Lowther, the chief flight instructor at Pinnacle Aviation Academy. It was my first real evaluation of everything I have learned so far, and although it wasn’t perfect, it went pretty well. We started out with a chat in his office, and talked about my goals for becoming a pilot, how I found Pinnacle, and how happy I was with my experience and instructor. Then David asked me some questions about flight and aerodynamics, and although I knew some of the answers, I also realized it there is so much still to learn.

For the progress check, we did a thorough preflight inspection of Zero Eight Zulu, my Cessna 172R, which was a good opportunity for me to ask questions about how things work and specific things I should be looking for when I do my preflight. The engine start went well, and I correctly called the ground ATC and got authorization to taxi. Dave told me I taxi’d the airplane a little bit fast, so I will make extra effort on future flights to take my time down the taxiway, and not be a speed racer. The runup checklist and preflight briefing went great, as did my takeoff. By now I feel pretty comfortable with the whole process from starting the plane to getting in the air. We did a right downwind departure and flew out to Bonsall, where I demonstrated slow flight. That went fine, but I completely forgot about my flaps when recovering from slow flight, so I spent about 30 seconds trying to figure out why the airplane wasn’t speeding up. After that, we flew down along Interstate 15 where I did a forward slip to lose 2,000 feet. Then I did ground reference and flew about Lake Hodges at 2,500 feet. Finally, we headed back to CRQ and did a left base landing.

David said I passed my check and said if I keep coming 2-3 times a week, I should have my solo done within two months, maybe sooner. There were will be another pre-solo stage check, and I very much want to be prepared for that – it would be awful to fail. So, before I forget, here are some of the things I was rusty on in the oral exam portion of the progress check yesterday.

Torque: (1) A resistance to turning or twisting. (2) Forces that produce a twisting or turning motion. (3) In an airplane, the tendancy of the aircraft to turn (roll) in the opposite direction of rotation of the engine and propeller.

Torque Effect: This involves Newton’s Third Law of Physics – for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Applied to the airplane, this means that as the internal engine parts and the propeller are revolving in one direction, an equal force is trying to rotate the airplane in the opposite direction. It is greatest when at low airspeeds with high power settings and a high angle of attack.

Adverse Yaw: When turning an airplane to the left for example the downward deflected aileron on the right produces more lift on the right wing. Since the downward deflected right aileron produces more lift, it also produces more drag, while the opposite left aileron has less lift and less drag. This added drag attempts to pull or veer the airplane’s nose in the direction of the raised wing (right); that is it tries to turn the airplane in the direction opposite to that desired. This undesired veering is referred to as adverse yaw.

Obviously, there is much more to learn for my private pilot exam and checkride, but those were the big takeaways from yesterday. I also need to go over the many types of drag, but I’ll save that for another blog post.