Train, Train, Train

I like to fly on holidays.  January 1, 2021 is a new year and a new chance to fly.  My hours were down in 2020 about 20%.  This was mostly due to cancelled trips.  I have been doing a good job training though and I wanted to keep that going.  With great weather I decided to start the New Year off with some more practice.

It pays to keep sharp.  On December 31st I had taken a quick run South with CC to visit another airport.  The winds were gusty and a direct cross wind.  Combine that with trees by the runway edge, low level wind shear and turbulence and you are one busy pilot landing.  This is why we train a lot.  Though challenging, it was well within the plane's capability and other than a really bumpy ride from 300 feet to 20 feet which we anticipated, everything was quite nice and I was even rewarded with a smooth touchdown.

Given that this was a holiday I decided to practice the things I really enjoy.  After clearing the area, I started with some steep turns.  Those went well.  You know because you hit your wake as you complete a 360.  It is pretty cool, because you can't see the turbulence you create but if you do a good circle and stay on altitude, you come back around and get a satisfying bump as you roll wings level.

After steep turns I did Chandelles.  This is a maneuver required on the commercial check ride.  You roll into a 30 degree bank and then smoothly increase pitch while turning 90 degrees.  In my plane this leaves you at 15 degrees nose up.  You then hold that pitch while smoothly rolling out of the bank.  If done correctly you complete 180 degrees of turn just as the plane reaches a speed to activate the stall warning.  Doing them left and right is quite different because the engine torque requires right rudder  so combining this with the different direction banks changes things up a bit.

My final maneuvers were slow flight variations.  I practiced flying just above stall and then worked on turns just above stall at increasing bank angles.  I worked up to 45 degree bank turns with partial flaps with the stall warning chirping as I made 180 degree course changes.  It was a glorious day and it was good to work on my basic airmanship.  When flying with passengers you try to limit the pitch and bank to optimize the experience in a good way.  Training has you practice a much wider range of the flight envelope.  In both cases, a smooth fluid flight is ideal.