Fixed wing...here I come!

YIPEE and CONGRATS!!!!!! Welcome to the shirtless club. Much nicer when you don't have to beat the air into submission, isn't it?

A big CONGRATS Jake!

Way to Go Jake, that was FAST.

CriCri build thread here:
CriCri MC-15 in NZ

Shannon.

Congrats, Jake!

-Dana

More than anything else the sensation is one of perfect peace mingled with an excitement that strains every nerve to the utmost, if you can conceive of such a combination.

- Wilbur Wright

KNARLEY

And you waited till Thursday to tell us?

OK... enough celebrating... don't you think it's time to get another shirt so you can get rid of that pesky draft?

Bruce

P.S. Your tatoos are showing!

Thanks guys, I appreciate the comments. I wasn't sure how I would feel up there by myself but as it turned out it was just like Dana said - very peaceful but exciting. No white knuckles, just a big grin. It was about 8pm and there were some pretty spectacular thunder storm cells off in the distance giving me a nice evening show. I just wish it could have been longer.

Tomorrow I will be doing a couple of hours with the instructor and about an hour solo afterward. Can't wait.

Had another great flight on Saturday. We were supposed to start the dual lesson at 9AM but my instructor was running late and asked me to go out for an hour and practice my maneuvers out in the local area. I was all for it so I took off and flew about 15 miles west of the airport and did my power on and power off stalls. Not too bad but that first power off stall had a real break instead of the buffet and mush I'd seen before. Ground filled the windscreen in a hurry. Then I did some Steep turns left and right. Getting easier but not perfect. I can't get over how tremendous the control forces feel. I'm used to being able to hold a 60 degree bank angle with my pinky if I wanted to. I really got to watch myself because I seem to tend to release back pressure or allow it to come to a shallower bank angle if I don't concentrate on keeping stiff pressure.

After completing the maneuvers I came back into the pattern and by then my instructor was on the unicom. She asked me to do 3 full stop landings and to come on in to pick her up. My last landing was a bit squirrelly. I seem to REALLY like the left side of the runway for some reason. I have not landing right of centerline once yet. Strange. I ended up with 1.5 solo.

After a short break we headed out to practice some Short and Soft field take-offs and landings. We had not done these yet and I definitely need to work on them some more. After a couple of each we headed out for some more Stall practice. On my power off I forgot to bring it all the way to Idle and then after the stall forgot to push the carb heat in when going to full throttle. Oh well. On the way in Amber demonstrated a Short Field landing to end the lesson. Dang she's good!

I'm going to schedule some more solo this week and then we have our Cross Country flight this Saturday night. My son is coming along and I'm really looking forward to it. he's flown in a couple of bi-planes but never a spam can.

Anyway, enough for now. I'll post again after my next flight.

Jake, Have you tried leading your turns with rudder? It can reduce the amount of force needed for the ailerons. Thee is a coordination practice maneuver (I'm sure your instructor has had you do them) where you roll back and forth from a left bank to a right bank, then back to a left and a right and so on in a non-stop fashion. It gives you a good feel for the rudder/aileron balance. Many instructors call it "dutch rolls", but I think that is a bit of a misnomer since I normally think of a dutch roll as an automatic reaction when a plane has insufficient yaw stability.

Bruce

The thing i noticed the most on my first solo was how the plane climbed alot faster and did not want to come down as easy for the landing. Of course in that small little Tomahawk 200lbs made a big difference.

skeeter

Originally Posted by skeeter_ca

The thing i noticed the most on my first solo was how the plane climbed alot faster and did not want to come down as easy for the landing. Of course in that small little Tomahawk 200lbs made a big difference.

skeeter

The thing I noticed most was the silence... no instructor screaming at me from the front seat (it was a J-3 Cub).

Super congratulations, (I have solo'ed " in three different countries), I shall ask which tradition would you like to follow:

German: flowers for you at the wing when you shut the engine off ( you are the dance queen)
Spanish: "baptism" with engine oil on your head, a "shower" from the firetruck, and then Paella and sangria....
Peruvian: the whole gang kicks you really hard on yer gluteus maximus ( one kick per chum) and then go to drink the whole bar...
American: they have you write something silly on your shirt and then cut it to hang it on the office.....

Im happy you are having real fun.

Congrats, Jake!!!

I'm with BMCJ - my first solo, once I relaxed a bit, was marked by the silence of it all. Followed by the sudden re-realization that the instructor wasn't with me in case I got into trouble. After that, I started talking to the airplane until I landed.

Just got my Solo Cross Country out of the way today. 5.2 hour trip! I needed 5 hours to satisfy the requirement and I almost nailed it. Route was Statesboro, GA (TBR) / Savannah, GA (SAV) / Hilton Head, SC (HXD) / Charleston Executive (JZI) / Georgetown, SC (GGE) / Myrtle Beach, SC (MYR) / Orangeburge, SC (OGB) / Statesboro, GA (TBR). Flew right over the VP's TFR at Kiawah island (pictured below) and gave a special salute of respect. It was SFC to 3000 and I was at 5500.

I'm thinking I should need about 3 more hours of dual to finish my hood time and checkride prep and one or two more solo hours. After that I should be ready to roll the bones and see what happens. Yee haw!

Good job, Jake! Keep up the good work!