clumpinglitter (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} clumpinglitter) wrote,@ 2006-11-16 22:18:00 |
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bad people = no solo
The wx didn't cooperate this afternoon (again) for Student's long solo xc. That crappy layer made a ceiling at about 1,200 feet all day, and it didn't burn off by noon like the false weather oracles claimed. Bah! Someday, I'm going to storm their headquarters with flaming torches and stop the tyranny of lies once and for all. I will get a few other flying people to help me out. Anyway, Student will attempt the trip again on Saturday, and if that doesn't work, she'll try it on Sunday. Her flight planning is a little unconventional -- her course makes a dogleg that avoids going through an area with few good visual checkpoints. Some might think that's cheating, but I think it's smart to give yourself every advantage that you can.
Fortunately, the weather is fine in the traffic pattern at the ANE airport. So, it looks good for Student being able to solo today. He gets there nice and early, but unfortunately, the previous renters are late. They had spent about 45 minutes fucking around before flying, although to be fair, some of it wasn't their fault -- a door hinge on the airplane had something wrong with it. Even so, they make the decision to go and cram the flight in anyway. When they do, I see the future unfolding -- they will not be back in time. But I can't tell someone not to fly, so it's a rather helpless situation. And yes, they end up waltzing back in about an hour late. It is of course by this time way, way too dark to attempt a fun solo flight today.
So, the alternate plan is to try some soft and short field ops. Which are fun as hell in their own right. When Student goes out to preflight, I take the late guy aside to let him know that he's an hour late and that it interfered with the next flight. He reacts defensively, as you might expect. His big defense? "I wasn't told when to be back." Well, who made the reservation for you, dumbass? Your mommy? Anyway.
The mood in the airplane is all jovial as usual, regardless of our forced change of plans. I demonstrate a soft field takeoff, but around the pattern, I decide it's too dark now to practice this. Student tries a short field landing, and we taxi back. We'll just do short field takeoffs for the rest of the night. The first one is a bit weird, but the second two are nice enough that I have absolutely no comment or feedback. I kind of hate that, but what can you do. We're doing the short field landings with an obstacle, and Student lands long on all of them. But the procedure and airspeeds are about perfect, so in the daylight when he can actually see the aiming point for this type of landing, they will be spot on. He also practices a soft field landing. I'm glad we're able to have a productive lesson even after the schedule snafu.
I say that we won't be doing many more normal landings dual anymore, because Student can practice those all he wants when solo. So I'll only want to see short and soft from now on. It's kind of sad, but progress can't be stopped.
The wx didn't cooperate this afternoon (again) for Student's long solo xc. That crappy layer made a ceiling at about 1,200 feet all day, and it didn't burn off by noon like the false weather oracles claimed. Bah! Someday, I'm going to storm their headquarters with flaming torches and stop the tyranny of lies once and for all. I will get a few other flying people to help me out. Anyway, Student will attempt the trip again on Saturday, and if that doesn't work, she'll try it on Sunday. Her flight planning is a little unconventional -- her course makes a dogleg that avoids going through an area with few good visual checkpoints. Some might think that's cheating, but I think it's smart to give yourself every advantage that you can.
Fortunately, the weather is fine in the traffic pattern at the ANE airport. So, it looks good for Student being able to solo today. He gets there nice and early, but unfortunately, the previous renters are late. They had spent about 45 minutes fucking around before flying, although to be fair, some of it wasn't their fault -- a door hinge on the airplane had something wrong with it. Even so, they make the decision to go and cram the flight in anyway. When they do, I see the future unfolding -- they will not be back in time. But I can't tell someone not to fly, so it's a rather helpless situation. And yes, they end up waltzing back in about an hour late. It is of course by this time way, way too dark to attempt a fun solo flight today.
So, the alternate plan is to try some soft and short field ops. Which are fun as hell in their own right. When Student goes out to preflight, I take the late guy aside to let him know that he's an hour late and that it interfered with the next flight. He reacts defensively, as you might expect. His big defense? "I wasn't told when to be back." Well, who made the reservation for you, dumbass? Your mommy? Anyway.
The mood in the airplane is all jovial as usual, regardless of our forced change of plans. I demonstrate a soft field takeoff, but around the pattern, I decide it's too dark now to practice this. Student tries a short field landing, and we taxi back. We'll just do short field takeoffs for the rest of the night. The first one is a bit weird, but the second two are nice enough that I have absolutely no comment or feedback. I kind of hate that, but what can you do. We're doing the short field landings with an obstacle, and Student lands long on all of them. But the procedure and airspeeds are about perfect, so in the daylight when he can actually see the aiming point for this type of landing, they will be spot on. He also practices a soft field landing. I'm glad we're able to have a productive lesson even after the schedule snafu.
I say that we won't be doing many more normal landings dual anymore, because Student can practice those all he wants when solo. So I'll only want to see short and soft from now on. It's kind of sad, but progress can't be stopped.
