Numero Quatro

At a time when the wind was blowing and the sky's were brown, I went flying. I also received my student pilot certificate after going though the shortest doctor visit of my life, the flight physical. Apparently I was kicked out of the doctors office for being too health. (Damn, I am starting to sound like Rod Machado and his lame jokes, boy does that guy get annoying).

A square in the sky
The primary objective of yesterday's lesson was to practice the traffic pattern. After an uneventful takeoff and departure(except for the very long hold for landing and departing traffic), we made our way out to the agricultural fields of Nipomo. Along the way we practiced all the basic maneuvers learned through the previous three lessons: Turns, climbs, descents, constant altitude speed changes, and proper trimming techniques. These were all things that would be very useful for the pattern maneuvers.

My instructor picked a straight road through an agricultural field to use as a pretend runway. The wind was right down the road so it worked out great for practice. Starting from traffic pattern altitude, we intercepted the downwind at a 45 degree angle. the GUMPS check was performed. (Gas both, Undercarriage down and welded, Mixture rich, Power as needed, and Safety lights and seatbelts) Using an intersection as the numbers, I announce my position over the radio to a fake tower, and started my decent. Throttle at 1700, trim 80, and flaps 10. Turn to base was performed with the touch down point 45 degree behind. Throttle at 1500, flaps 20 and trim 70. Check for traffic and turn final. Then trim 65 and 30 degrees flaps.

Surprising me, we descended pretty low, probably scaring the only truck on the road as we descended to 500ft, maybe below. At the appropriate time my instructor announced go around and with performed the go around procedure. I did this several time to get familiar with pattern procedures.

So where is the runway?
All the pattern practice didn't apply to my landing this day.We we number 3 to land by the time we were abeam of the number so we extended our downwind few miles. By the time the tower called for us to turn base, I had lost site of the runway. It was just that smokey. I turned back towards the airport on the runway heading and we performed a straight in approach. I can say my landing a little better this time, but I ballooned quite a bit on the flare. Oh well, there is always next time to practice the landing.

Flight time logged: 1.5 hours
Total flight time: 4.6 hours