08.May.2017
Flight 7
1.6 flight hours
2.0 instructor hours

What we did today:

• Power off stall recovery
• Engine failure
• Touch and go...lots of touch and go

What worked today:

•  I did a pretty good stall recovery. 
• The engine failure went well right up the point where we'd have had to actually land.
• Today was really about working the landing pattern
• I am getting better at getting into the pattern from some random direction and maintaining the correct altitude for each part of the pattern.

What dinna woik:

•  Evaluating emergency landing locations. When we tried the fake engine failure I was really stumped on picking a good (best of the worst) landing location. The one I picked would have put us into the trees and probably pretty banged up.
• Speed...I was letting my speed on final get waay to low. Low and slow = bad...real bad. Rick is still overriding my control so we never got into any major issues.
• Approach glide slope. I was either high or low. Either one is kind of a pain to correct.
• Take-off after landing. I was jamming the throttle in fast which causes the plan to turn right pretty fast which results in the need for rudder correction which tosses the plane back to the left. Not quite a ride at Cedar Point but still pretty...exciting...I'll go with exciting.

What I need to work on:

• Pattern speeds. I need to keep the speed up above 60 on final.
• Glide slope. I was focused on the near end of the runway rather than a point a couple thousand feet down the runway. This close focus means I'm not lined up correctly (pointed right most of the time) or at the correct glide slope.
• Take off during a touch and go. Rather than jam the throttle in all at once I need to run it up over 4 seconds or so. I also need to work on subtle rudder control. Small motions not big ones.
• Continue working on figuring out getting into the pattern from some random direction. ForeFlight actually has proposed pattern entries built into the app. I could use it once I flip to the iPad but I want to be able to derive the approach method without anything other than airport diagrams and wind speed/direction. Part of my problem is that I'm still having trouble converting my current heading into the 'where I need to be' place to land. My 2D geographic sense is still pretty weak and I'm not sure how to practice without being in the plane.

Prep for next session:

• Review/proof read the iPad checklists. I'm going to try going all digital on the next flight (Wed).
• Work on how to integrate the iPad into a flight. This I can do on the ground by just pretending to fly.
• Review emergency procedures.