02.Jun.2017
Flight 13
1.7 flight hours
1.9 instructor hours

What we did today:

• Steep turns
• Slow flight
• Ascending turns
• Descending turns
• Pattern work, 8 landings today between Winder and Gainesville

What worked today:

• Everything but the pattern work was pretty good. 
• I think for most landings I managed to keep the nose up and pointed down the runway. The landings were still pretty sloppy but Rick wasn't yanking the nose up to prevent landing nose wheel first.

What dinna woik:

• One step forward, two steps back. My goal is to do 3 flights per week. I've been out of the plane for 2 weeks because of weather and scheduling problems. It was almost like starting over again; wrong altitudes, wrong RPM, flaps at the wrong time, wrong speed, wrong glide slope. Today was tiring and frustrating. Not sure if it was just being off for 2 weeks or if this was one of my low brain power days (side note, the longer the day goes, the more it feels like the latter than the former).
• None of this is muscle memory yet and two weeks off moved everything out of RAM into archival storage.
• For some reason today, I was keeping the right wing low causing me to crab into the landings and go off course on take-off. When Rick called me on it, I managed to keep the wings more level the rest of the day.
• I was also landing consistently left of center. I'm thinking it's because I have a tendency to over-correct with the rudder and throw the plane to the right on take-off. Either that or my perception of the runway is just wrong.
• Radio calls...might as well have just said 'blah blah blah'. Forgot to name the airport, cross-wind mixed up with base, just stupid stuff.

What I need to work on:

• I need a way to practice when I'm out of the cockpit for any extended period of time. This needs to include pattern altitudes, throttle settings, flaps, and radio calls.

Prep for next session:

• Do practice flights (see Planning).

Planning:

• Regarding practicing. A simulator would be and ideal way to do things like pattern work and maneuvers. The price of good hardware (throttle, rudder pedals) and software has come down to the point where it's totally possible. The problem I see is that nobody has a C162 aircraft with full avionics so I'd be mocking the process in a C172 with different instruments, different speeds, and different handling characteristics.
• OTOH, it might be close enough to work and, if the scenery is correct, may help me with getting into patterns at different airports. 
• I think what I'm going to try is to do the 'visualize' thing. Sit in a chair, hands in the air, and pretend fly the pattern and call out settings, altitudes, speeds, and radio calls. Not terribly realistic or elegant but worth a try.