I logged in to the Flight School's lesson scheduling website Thursday afternoon to schedule my Saturday morning lesson. Unfortunately the 152 that I fly was booked solid from 8:30am to 6:30pm. I could have taken the 6:30 to 8:30 AM slot, but as I was looking to be Bob's only student that day, decided not to be a jerk about it, and signed up for the evening flight.
Saturday eventually rolled around, but it took its time doing so, and when it did show up, it was a scorcher! Light winds out of the south, but hovering around 100 fahrenheit and about sixty percent humidity. A wonderful day to stay in the air conditioned comfort of home. We had planned for a cookout on Sunday, so Saturday afternoon I had to mow the lawns. It was too wet in the morning, and I had let it grow long again, so I had to wait until it was nice and hot to let the grass dry a bit. Who wants to play a game called "Fun with Heat Exhaustion"? Not me again.
It was the thought of cooler air a few thousand feet up that motivated me through my yardwork.
I left the house just after six and headed for the airport, it would normally be about a ten or fifteen minute drive, as it's only thirteen miles, but the interstate is being completely rebuilt, so it usually takes a little longer to get through the construction.
I still made it a few minutes early, so I went inside to get the folder containing the airplanes FAA Required documentation, the Airworthiness Certificate, Registration, Operating Handbook and Weight & Balance sheet. The folder was missing. Turns out the guy who had rented the Cessna had left the folder at the FBO, no problem, just a short walk to get it.
Folder in hand, I returned to the 152 to perform the Pre-flight check, step 1: check the fuel levels. There's usually a fuel gauge tube in the plane, a hollow acrylic tube with fuel level marks that you stick into the fuel tanks. Note the "usually"; it had gone missing. Fortunately by that time Bob had arrived, and he had a spare. Plenty of fuel, plenty of oil, pre-flight complete, everything checked out just fine. I left the windows open and we went inside to discuss the upcoming lesson.
Today would be Emergency Procedures! I had been going over the checklists, and was determined not to repeat the last lessons mistakes on the radio. Emergency Procedures is basically "What to do when something goes wrong" and there's checklists for all of it. Unfortunately, when something does go wrong, you might not have time to find your emergency procedures checklists and go down the page. That's what practice is for!
We worked on Engine Failures, which covers anything from "Whoops, I bumped the ignition key" to "Out of Fuel." They're all more or less the same procedure.
If you are in flight when the engine quits, stage 1: Adjust the aircraft pitch to fly at 60 knots, try to get the engine running again, check the Fuel Selector valve, Mixture control, Carb Heat, engine Primer, and Magneto Ignition switch.
If those are all where they're supposed to be, and the engine still isn't running, move to stage 2: pick a place to land, still pitching for 60, set the transponder to 7700, If you are out of range of any airport radio frequencies, tune to 121.50, there's always someone listening on that frequency, and declare your emergency. Turn the fuel selector valve off, pull the mixture to idle cut-off, turn the ignition off, drop down full flaps, then turn the master electrical switch off. At this point there should be no fuel or electrical spark anywhere near each other. Land, hit the brakes, walk away from the aircraft.
The procedure for an engine failure if you are still on the ground is a little simpler: throttle to idle, hit the brakes, flaps up, mixture to idle cut-off, magneto ignition and electrical master switch both off.
Fortunately, we would only be Simulating engine failures on this flight. We took off and headed southwest, when we got up to 3500 feet and in the practice area, Bob pulled the throttle out and announced "Engine Failure" I ran through the checklist just fine, but forgot to pull up to gain altitude and drop the airspeed to 60 knots. We got set up at 3500 and powered flight to try again. "Engine Failure" ok, pitch for 60 this time, get a bit of altitude, fuel is on, mixture is rich, carb heat is on, magnetos are on, primer pump is in and locked. At this point Bob asks me which field looks nice, and which way was the wind coming from when we took off? The wind was out of the south, so we would be landing pointed south.
I picked a nice looking large field with some tiny black dots in it, but no trees or visible power lines, so down we went. Full flaps, touch everything you should be turning off (but leave them turned on - very important, it's a simulation remember) and we lined up for the landing. Turns out the tiny black dots were cows. Bob announced that we would have made the field with no problem, and that the cows would have moved had we actually tried to land, so I hit the power and performed the go-around procedure. We climbed back up to 2500 feet, turned toward the north and picked out a couple more nice fields to land in before calling it a day.
Bob told me that in an actual emergency, if I didn't like the looks of a field when I got close to it, that I could adjust as I went, but on the checkride, once you pick a field, you are committed to it.
After Saturday's lesson I had filled the first page of my logbook! I currently have 6.2 hours logged, and 16 landings.
Next Lesson: Ground Reference Maneuvers! Turns around a Point, and S-Turns.
Stay Tuned!
-Gareth
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