In da hood.

Lesson 6

In two weeks time I forgot very little of my flight training. We worked on instrument training, just enough to help me not immediately explode if I fly into a cloud. It's pretty hard - you basically put a hood on your face that limits your viewing to only the instruments. You have to keep scanning your "six pack" - your main instruments - and you can't stop on just one instrument because then everything falls apart. So we did turns, climbs, descents, and heading /altitude holds just on instruments. It's a real eye opener, because when you are flying visually, your body starts to automatically make minor corrections in reference to the outside world.

Also, I almost landed. Now, today we had the "other" Cessna 152 with a crappy radio that when adjusted so you can hear the other person on the intercom, the radio calls make your ears bleed. And of course, it was busy today so it was hard to communicate in the cockpit. So, Jimmy had me fly back to the airport and set up for base leg (perpendicular to the runway), get the plane ready as far as airspeed and flaps, and turned to final. We were too high (of course) so he had me do a forward slip to drop altitude, and when I straightened out, VOILA! I managed to get the plane on a perfect approach. We were 10 seconds to touchdown, the radio is chattering nonstop, and I thought I heard my instructor say "my controls". It was not the best time to be hesitant, so I say "You have the controls". Turns out he had said "I'll keep my hands on the controls". So, he wanted me to land. DANGIT!! Other than that, the flight went really well.

Next lesson: I'll get my chance to land.