Starting Over Again

I was taxiing from our tie down spot to the FBO to brief my student. Two Sandhill cranes crossed the taxiway in front of me. They stand about 4' tall and have long pointed beaks. One was limping and stopped right in front of me. Both looked at Sally as if asking "What are you going to do now?" I edged over to the right as far as I could and slowly moved forward. The crane limped off to the left. Florida wildlife is amazing.

The morning flight would focus on emergencies. The homework assignment had been to study Section 3 in the PiperSport POH. We sat in the snack room to discuss some of the subtle points. He was well prepared. My first 3 items on engine failure is Pitch, Point and Petrol. (After that if you have time, do the checklist.)

Pitch, Point, Petrol

Next we discussed take off emergencies. I divide the takeoff into 4 sections:

1. Failure on the takeoff roll (and if possible immediately after takeoff,) abort.
2. If below 300' PUSH the nose down and land straight ahead.
3. The BRS can be used above 300' and should be considered.
4. Above 700' consider the "Impossible Turn".

KVDF is surrounded by Interstate highways, are they an option?

The flight went well. We both learned a few things.

The afternoon flight would focus on the landing pattern. I always go to an "outlying field" to give the student a chance to depart and enter the traffic pattern. Plus, its more fun to see different places. I made a mistake and did too much talking while parked on the ramp after engine start. The weather is cooler now but the CHT still got high. We had the opportunity to learn about power settings to cool the engine off on the ground.

I demonstrated pattern entry and it didn't go as well as I hoped. Another plane in the pattern flew wide and deep forcing me to alter my "standard". I ended up dragging it in, exactly the wrong lesson. We departed and headed for home. A crosswind entry ended in the student making a good landing. I still need to give a good demo of the Standard entry (45 degree entry) and pattern, but that will have to wait for the next flight. In the meantime, PHAK Chapter 13 is a good homework assignment.

The students have dramatically different backgrounds and experience. But they are both flying a new airplane. The handling characteristics are different from what they have previously flown. The common lesson I present  is the "Distraction Exercise". Stabilize the airplane, including trim on a heading and altitude. Then tune the GPS to go Direct to an airport. Use the menu to get the weather and Unicom frequencies and tune them into the radio. Finally, switch back to map mode and make the appropriate radio call. Add a little turbulence and its not as easy as you might think.

So I learned something. I can still do "two-a-days", and I like it.

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