Back in the air: first flight of 2016

Late last summer I finally decided to get serious about my private pilot training and joined the Stoddard County Flyers flying club. I started working with instructor Dave Tharp to get reacquainted with the art of flying. He is a good instructor and I enjoyed being back in the cockpit. My first solo flight in twenty years took place on October 19, 2015.

Sadly, after my solo I was only able to fit in two more flights for the rest of the year. Nasty weather, multiple out-of-town trips, and the general busyness that is church life during the Christmas season all conspired to keep me on the ground for far too long. After two months on the ground I was more than ready to get restarted with my training.

The plan: get back flying with a mini-cross country

Dave and I scheduled a lesson for Monday, February 1. The goals for this lesson were simple. Primarily it was to simply check and see how much my skills had eroded during the break. The second goal was to get introduced to two of my neighboring airports, Poplar Bluff (KPOF) and Sikeston (KSIK). I have visited both airports by car, but had never flown in to either one. We are working up toward completing my cross country requirements.  This flight would allow me to practice changing frequencies in route and listening to AWOS weather reports.

It was also time to renew my 90 day solo sign off. If my skills had not degraded too much, then I would get authorized for some more on-my-own practice time. If not, it would be a good opportunity to see what needed to be reviewed.

The final goal of the day was trying out a new yoke mount for my iPhone 6 Plus. Previously I have used suction cup mounts on the instrument panel. The results were disappointing. The mount did not stick well and often vibrated loose in flight. Although Foreflight is an amazingly powerful planning and navigational tool, it is not at all helpful if the phone does not remain secure and easily visible. Up to this point my phone has spent most of the time riding around in the side pocket of the cockpit. The yoke mount was designed to change that.

The flight: three landings and a bit of rust

Before Dave and I met, I called in for a weather brief. The briefer assured me that it was a beautiful VFR day. Winds were low in Dexter (KDXE), but were a bit stronger at both of our planned destinations. There was also a slight crosswind to contend with, but nothing too overwhelming. The wind would build slowly throughout the morning. Fortunately, all potential nasty weather was forecast for later in the day and would not affect our flight.

After the pre-flight inspection Dave and I strapped ourselves in. Right away I could tell that it had been far too long since I had been in the plane. My checklist skills were rusty and it took me far longer to handle the run-up than it should have. Dave had to coach me on a couple of items, but after a few minutes things were once again starting to feel a little more familiar.

Takeoff from Dexter went smoothly. We turned to the west and headed toward Poplar Bluff. Navigation was going to be easy. Dexter, Poplar Bluff, and Sikeston are all connected by a four lane highway, U.S. 60. All I had to do was follow that road back and forth 20-25 NM in each direction. However, just for practice I treated this as a full-fledged cross-country. The paper version of the St. Louis sectional chart was on my knee board. We dialed in Poplar Bluff on the plane’s GPS and I followed our course via Foreflight.

Preparations for the landing at Poplar Bluff provided my only really uncomfortable moment of the flight. As we neared the traffic pattern we ran into a tiny (and I do mean tiny) bit of turbulence. Because it had been so long for me I felt startled and momentarily out of control. The truth is that I never was, especially because Dave would have taken over immediately, but my heart was pounding and did not calm down until well after we landed.

What should have been a touch and go turned out to be a full stop landing. My jangled nerves finally settled down and the takeoff from Poplar Bluff went ahead without further problem. We originally planned to make a touch and go at Dexter en route to Sikeston, but changed plans because of time constraints.

The trip to Sikeston was slower than expected due to the increasing headwind. Landing was done into a 40 degree 12 knot crosswind. They were definitely not the smoothest landings I have ever made, but the day’s weather conditions turned out to be a great confidence builder. There is a lot to be said about expanding one’s comfort zone with an instructor in the plane. By the time we returned to Dexter my nerves had returned to normal.

The final leg was very quick. The headwind had become a tailwind. Strong crosswinds forced a correction back to the center line after turning final at Dexter. The crab angle and a slightly higher approach speed made the last landing the best of the day. We parked the plane on the ramp for another student’s use and headed back into the FBO to debrief.

The debrief: sign off and a prescription for more practice

Because Dave is such a kind and gracious instructor he refrained from saying the thing that I actually deserved to hear. He would have been perfectly justified in telling me that I am a knucklehead for not flying in so long. Fortunately he chose to take the high road.

He coached me on pattern entries and crosswind landing techniques. He also signed me off for another ninety days of solo practice. We also planned our next dual lesson. It is going to be a night cross country scheduled two weeks from now. In between I am supposed to get some solo time working on ground reference maneuvers.

Logbook info:

• 1.5 hours daytime dual received
• Route: KDXE-KPOF-KSIK-KDXE
• 3 landings
• Cessna 172

Bonus: the yoke mount actually works

Unlike the suction cup mount, the new yoke mount worked perfectly. The phone stayed in place. Foreflight allowed me to have the airport facilities directory and traffic diagrams immediately available. It also served as a handy backup GPS. The biggest lesson that I learned was to turn off the screen auto-rotation feature so as to prevent the sectional chart from moving whenever the yoke did. Finally, the built-in track log feature allowed me to record the flight and share it on this blog.