Saturday, October 22, 2016

A little stick time in the RV7

It was good to see the guys out at Cooking Lake airport. It's been such a busy summer and I had not been able to poke my head around too much at the airport. Lots of things going on out there. Projects and planes at every stage of build. I was invited out for a ride in Eugene's RV7A and I gladly jumped at the opportunity. The weather lately has not been great but today, it was beautiful. Cool and Clear.

After jumping in the plane we made our way to the end of the runway. Eugene kindly offered to let me try taxing and I must admit, it has been a while. Not so smooth, Ahh. Rookie things like keeping it smooth and straight, or not straightening out after turning around for the run-up. We took a short flight out to Killam-Sedgewick for a refuel. The air was as smooth as glass and again Eugene offered up the controls. I felt like I did a better job keeping it smooth compared with last time I flew. But I need to work on my scan more. I find I can focus on one thing and lose focus on another. Just need practice.
I had the controls up to getting into final approach which was new for me. Again. Need to practice. Little things like; applying carb heat before reducing power, Or keeping the nose straight while reducing power and deploying flaps.


Again on the return flight, I had controls for straight and level and felt quite comfortable with it. As we approached, I had controls through crosswind, downwind and base leg. Kept going around into final approach with full flap. Again...Struggled a bit keeping it smooth and straight as my focus was on flaps, speed, power. And just when I had my attention on those things my speed was dropping. Eugene was there to remind...but I think that this was my biggest personal no-no. I had let my speed drop a bit too much onto the final approach. I am annoyed with myself for not being ahead of it as I think that is a pretty critical item. Well...Just have to work on it. (And work on adjusting trim after flap deployment....lol another rookie move).

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