The early bird catches the worm

Lesson: 7, 8, 10, 11 & 17
Flight Hours: 3.0 Dual

A new week, and many new challenges. I booked the 06:00 slot today, and on waking up this morning, to my dismay, my stomach was acting up. Headed on out to the field, arrived at 06:00 exactly, and had to rush along to get suited up, and to pre-flight the plane. Today the wind was much more forgiving, but I had to climb over it first to get to the good air. Now looking at my previous lesson I at first was not very excited about the turns, but everyday I learn something new.

Went out with Henk, taxied to the holding, did my run-up checks, and taxied to the active. Today I executed the take-off with Henk's assistance, and there is nothing greater than rushing down that runway (seems like I have sorted out my rudder pedal issues), bar forward and she unsticks. Bar slightly in to build up speed, and neutral for the climb out with a right turn.

We headed out to the general flying area, and Henk started briefing me on what he expected from me today. At 6500ft, the air was relatively calm, and I had much better control of the trike than I had one session ago! Climbing turns, descending turns, level turns and steep turns. All went well, and I am making a conscious effort of not pulling the bar back in when going straight. My throttle work is improving, and I hope to get there soon.

After he was happy with my turns, he showed me how to recover from a powered & unpowered stalls, and I had two tries recovering from an unpowered stall. The first one was a bit daunting as I could for a brief moment feel my stomach not being sucked down by gravity, and it turned out ok. As today went really well, I don't remember specific events, but we did listen over the radio and watch a lady doing touch & goes, probably shortly after going solo as her instructor coached her in from the ground.

I can't wait for all these exercises to become second nature, and for the day I will have to land this machine by myself. As soon as we touched down via a simulated deadstick approach, I handled the trike on the ground, and taxied back to the hangars. As I got out of the plane, I did not experience the stiffness from last time, but my stomach was not very happy! Fortunately he held fine during the flight which is all that really matters.

Congrats to the lady that went solo recently, and thanks for all the kind comments from folks read my blog. Good luck with the week; it will be holidays soon!