May 12th day #5 Blog

 May 12th 2023



    Today was incredible! I gained so much more experience and comfort while flying today. I arrived at the airport around 8:50 am and headed right out to do preflight. I took off completely by myself. It was the most perfect wind for take-offs, landings, and maneuvers so we didn't waste a minute and started power-on stalls. Power-on stalls are mimicking an over-pitched take-off at over 30 degrees pitch which is close to straight up in the air. The stall horn sounds and you have to drop the nose quickly back to wings level. Terrifying to say the least and reminded me of a rollercoaster ride but unlike a rollercoaster we weren't held down to anything. My flight instructor walked me through it once then I took over the controls to give it a try myself. Despite my fears, I did surprisingly well and needed less support than expected. After power-on stalls, we headed back into the Laconia airport traffic pattern and started touch-and-goes for about an hour. Touch-and-go's are basically landing and then immediately taking off again so I got so much practice with landings, takeoffs, and most of all the regulations and rules of the traffic pattern. I had so much fun. We did about two loops and I said to Karen, my flight instructor, "Wow, everything we've learned is clicking with me." I was applying the countless steps, small and large to a landing without many reminders which was so rewarding. We did six landings and takeoffs and I was so thrilled and felt so accomplished. Although landing is still very challenging for me, I feel I have improved so much in such a little amount of time. Today was my favorite day for senior project by far. I learned an incredible amount and look forward to more!

Total hours today: 5 hours

Total hours: 23 Hours

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