Adui

[:@]
Well the good news is i gotto fly a WHOLE LOT today...

The bad news is I didnt make it to solo, in fact didn't even make a decent landing..[]

More good news, I can now line up on the runway almost every time I try, I just have to learn to flare right. Kept bouncing the thing hard enough to get a prop strike...

Ahh well, I am going out again tomorrow if the weather holds! Same guy that I worked with today will be there plus my regular instructor should be there tomorrow.

Minnreefer

Sounds good, just keep going, one of these days, everything will just click.

Jon

Adui

LOL Yup, at least I hope so!
One thing that actually helped me line up right, (Though I thought the guy was crazy when he told me to do it) He had me turn my back to the approach end of the runway so I was looking over my shoulder to bring the plane around and down.

RCKen

My Feedback: (9)

Audi,
Good job on a good day. Don't worry about the solo. It will happen when you're ready. Just relax and concentrate on your flying. Before you know you'll be out there by yourself flying like a champ. We all have bad days were things are a bit off. Shrug it off and move on to tomorrow.

Ken

hogflyer

Adui,

Another way to help learn to line up with the runway, and the way I teach my students, is to face the runway and line the plane up on your shoulder when you turn final. You want to just see the side of the fuselage closest to the pit line. This will usually get the plane lined up 25 - 50 feet in front of you on your approach.

Hogflyer

OzMo

My Feedback: (3)

Adui
Hang in there you are close! check to see if your idle is set low enough to allow the plane to SINK (not dive). You should be cutting the throttle enough so that it stays level in attitude but sinks toward the ground then slight back stick will give the flair just as it touches down. Remember throttle controls altitude in this process.

flyX

Sometimes I walk towards to model ,espeacilly on one end of my field. there's a fence that gose around the entire field.
Anyway, the depth perception is harder becuase there's not much of a background to compair the model to.
On the other end it's fine becuase of the darker background.
I use to land on the outside of the fence all the time.lol clipped it countless times. Especailly when i go from a .40 to
a .60.lol

Anyway...I walk towards the model as it's decending. i see it better, plus it's easier to flair after the model
passes me and is flying away from me. I don't over shoot at the very least.

i generally stand at the center of the runway ,but during landing attemps..I'll walk towards whatever end
of the runway that the model is coming in.

Adui

Thanks for the advice and kind words. I had a lot of fun today, but in retrospect I am disappointed. My very first landing, (Two weeks ago) basically greased the runway, and today I couldnt come close to duplicating it.
I bounced so many times that I was told to re bend the gear strait because it was riding too low and tilted back. I have fixed the gear, taped the hole I didn't even know I created on the bottom of the fuse, and rebalanced both propellers. (Note to self, next time at LHS buy a few more extra propellers)
Tomorrow will be better! (I hope )

It all good as long as I don't screw up so bad I crash my not so pretty trainer.. (She's a bit dinged, I think I told ya ll that..)

Deathbunny_SG

My Feedback: (6)

Conditions change alot from day to day at least at my field. One day may have a nice steady breeze running right down the runway for you to land into and the next might have lots of in your face gusts or no real wind at all. Because of this some days are much easer to land on the others. Dont get discouraged maybe today was just a tougher day then normal and thus good because im sure you learned some things.

Missileman

Don't worry it will come. I see stories of people soloing on their first day but that is very rare and I don't think they really should have been soloed that soon anyway.
It took me 2-1/2 months and a full gallon of fuel to solo and that was with many hours on the sim.

Flak

My Feedback: (1)

Practice landing on a sim. This will get you over your fear of crashing.

2daysoff

It will come grass hopper...


Are you working on a sim at all... I know that a sim will not give you real world expierence, but it will help you develop muscle memory. Practice your flights. Treat each flight on the sim like a real one. If you crash it, or get into a bad situation, dont be so quick to hit the reset button. Try and diagnose what the problem/s are. Practice flying your patterns and learning landmarks on the sim and in real life that will help you on down wind, base, and final. Try to go over or line up with the same land marks each time with the airplane at the same hight, speed, altitude and attitude.

Where I fly I have land marks on both sides of the approach that I use to help line up on my base leg and final.

Dont rush it, it will come.

Best of luck!!!

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

I had about three months of off-and-on training, but was out there just about every weekend. I hesitated to solo because I wanted to do it right. Then it happened and that was that. And, it was worth it because that was, oh, 5 years ago or so.. and and I've crashed only two planes. Both were because I did something stupid that more training would have corrected. So, stick with it and it will happen.

CGr

goirish

Morning CGR You notice that I am up and running once again. Could not go to the field yesterday winds about 50, today 39* so we have had our fall now back to winter.

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

Hi Irish.

Yeah, the week was great, but I had to work, so no flying. Now that the weekend is here, it's cold and windy. Go figure.

I spent some time and fixed the nose gear on the Skylark 70 and will fix the Protege today. The screws that hold the nosegear to the firewall came loose, pain, because I had to remove the fuel tank, engine, engine mount, to get at the screws to tighten them back up. This time, with some locktite.. ha... my fault for not putting some on in the first place.

The Protege.. well, I was flying that a few weeks ago, had a great flying session. It was windy, with a somewhat nasty cross wind, but manageable. I was helping Overbored (Chris) get his plane ready to fly, I believe it was his clipped-wing Tiger 60. Anyway, a strong gust of wind came up and, even though my plane wsa 'protected', the wind caught it, lifted it up, flipped it over, then slammed it to the ground. Ripped the wing off so I have to fix the wing saddle as well as the part of the wing that bolts down to the fuselage. I will play with that today and get it back ready to fly. I love that plane.

Later..

CGr.

Geardaddys

Adui,

Did you fly too much? Sometimes it seems like when you are learning something new, you need a little time to mentally process and digest what you are doing.. When I was working on soloing 2 years ago I would get in a rut where I had flown a good bit in a day.. Fatigue sets in, frustration builds and nothing good came from either of those things... Relax, don't be in a hurry and have fun just being at the field.. When you are not flying, try sitting down for a few minutes and "chair fly" move hold your transmitter (power off) and move the sticks with an airplane that is up..

GD

flyingJ

When my instructor was teaching me, he had me make repeted passes line up on the center line and fly low and somewhat slow. Then when he felt I had the line up correct, he reached over and chopped my throttle. Now I had to land, it was a good first landing. Then he put my plane back up and had me try it myself. After several good landings he had me practise touch and goes. It took me 3 months to solo due to my 6 days a week job weather conditions on my day off and other family obligations. Be patient and when it all comes together the rewards are worth the wait. Now I can fly when it is convienent for me and not haveing to schedule time with an instructor. Good luck and don't give up!

overbored77

My Feedback: (11)

When CGretired was instructing me on landings, it sounded odd that he told me to take my final approach turn a bit wide
and overshoot the runway lining up with the flightline. Now that I have some expereience flying I do it that way everytime.
It's easier to overshoot and float back over the runway than to try and get a perfect lineup right out of your final turn.
I have helped a few of our newer pilots at the field and it seems to work for them too.

Good luck and keep working with yor instructor, you will figure it out soon enough.

Adui

I don't think I flew too much, but probably right t the edge of it.

I say this simply because while it wasn't a perfect "Get to solo" day, I did learn a lot, and gained some skills. In addition, (and I think most important at this point) I was much more relaxed on the last flight than I was on my first, so I am learning to relax and fly the plane instead of being tense and scared. (Yea I know, I will have to learn that all over again when I'm off the cord LOL)

Yes I have a sim, and use it religiously, although until recently not the way I should have. I still use the Pitts, because with FMS its the closest thing in terms of handling to my airplane that has 4 channels. It rolls slowly, it flies relatively slowly. The only major difference in handling is the Pitts in FMS, (and I assume the real one too), is extremely prone to Tip Stalls. I have taught myself to instinctively use only as much control as is needed for what I am doing, because when I first started with this one I crashed it over and over...
The down side is until recently I was playing at such things as snap rolls and flat spins instead of the basics of flight.. So what I can do a GREAT flat spin! if I cant land the dang thing in one piece whats the point??
(On a side note, in the sim I'm getting pretty good at recovering from a tip stall too LOL!)

I have even leaned to use the rudder on final rather than aileron movements.(Something I tried for real yesterday without thinking, it worked.. My Trainer tended to roll a bit but with the light touch on the rudder it was easily controlled with aileron inputs.)

Um.. so is that last a bad thing??(Aside from the obvious fact that most here don't think a new flier should worry about the rudder at all that is)

Campgems

Audi, it took me over six months and two planes before I soloed. Then I crashed on my first landing. Just to tense. I patched the plane up and three days later I soloed and then was qualified that day. I've crashed a few more since, the latest yesterday. Like one of the guys said, some days, you are just not in your grove and shouldn't fly then.

The looking over your shoulder is a very good tip. That made a huge difference in my landings. You don't really want to be where you are straining to look at the plane, but just a slight amount of looking back really keeps the plane on track. I've also found that I do better if I put the plane down while it is still approaching me. I don't have to make that transistion from approach to going away. I move to the far end of the flight line so I can get it on the ground before it gets to me.

It'll come. Give it time.

Don

Adui

I did it today! See my other post "I DID IT"