6-27-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    First time with Long, who I hope to stay with. He is a young man who teaches very systematically and thoroughly. He gave me a beginner lesson on pre flight, taxiing, and straight & level flight. Went through the taxi and takeoff quickly since I'm already comfortable with that. He also quizzed me on a few things, like adverse yaw, which I was still fuzzy on. He talked me through the landing and I did most of it. The runway at the Monticello airport is very thin compared the the other airports I've been to. Long tells me that if I learn to land here I should have no problem just about anywhere else.

    It was a good lesson, and I like Long. Although I liked that Dave let me do a few things ahead of schedule, I appreciate Long's more systematic approach. Will be flying with him again on Friday.

7-2-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    I've now taken four lessons with Long, and I think I'm going to stay with him. I like how he teaches systematically, and that he is available all the time. I'm getting a feel for the Warrior, and I like it. I'm getting comfortable in normal operations, and am gaining confidence. These last few lessons have been mostly review, but I need the practice.

    Some procedures are very different in the Warrior compared to the Cessna. Stalls especially are different. The Warrior is more powerful, and requires hard right rudder when you give it full power during a recovery. Long is also a bit more specific about the steps into and out of the stall. In the Cessna is was just power back and pull the nose up until it breaks. In the Warrior we put in flaps incrementally with each drop of 10 mph indicated airspeed. Then pull up, and keep pulling up because the plane does not stall easily (which is a great characteristic – the Warrior is very forgiving). When it breaks give it full power and hard right rudder and take out one flap. When you get a positive rate of climb begin taking out the other two levels of flaps while maintaining straight and level and heading.

    Next lesson will be on 360° turns. Soon we'll be into landings and emergency procedures. At this rate, I should solo in the next few weeks.

7-4-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    Turns around a point are very challenging. Long explained that the reason for practicing this maneuver is to develop precision flying, and to learn to concentrate on several things at once. During 360° turns he told me to, of course, keep the plane going in a circular path, while also maintaining altitude & speed, and watching for traffic. Just keeping the circle going was about all I could concentrate on. The trick is to bank the wings correctly to account for the wind. Too much or too little correction will make the circle lopsided. Very challenging. Long tells me that actual pattern work - that is, flying the plane in a big square or rectangle, is a lot easier.

    I was also pleased that I was not lost when it was time to head back to the airport. It's very easy to get disoriented up there, especially after doing all kinds of circular turns. But I'm learning various landmarks.

    This was a very labor intensive lesson, but I enjoyed it. That's good, because I can see I'll be practicing to get it right.

7-5-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    It was a bit gusty up there today, which made rectangular pattern flying even more challenging. We saw a Cessna take a go-around just before we took off. The wind really moved it around as he came down. We caught a big gust ourselves just after getting airborne and I had to bank hard to correct our track. Long made the observation that such an occurrence would have scared the hell out of me during my first lesson. But now, it's just wind!

    We flew a rectangular pattern around Sullivan County Airport, which was closed for repairs today. So we had the pattern all to ourselves. I found the rectangular pattern easier than circular turns around a point, but still very challenging. Long also had me announce each of our turns so I could get used to the workload involved in airport operations. We did left and right patterns, and then practiced some more circular turns around a point. I got us back to the airport, and flew the pattern. Long landed us today because of the winds.

7-6-00
Piper Warrior
Instructor: Long Tan

    Nice day for flying today, which was fortunate because we started work on landings. The object of today's lesson, "low approaches", was to NOT land. I was to do a normal landing procedure, but then fly straight & level over the runway center line. Long informed me that I would owe him a soda for every time the wheels touched the ground. So I'll need to pick up a six pack of Coke on my way to the airport tomorrow, but I did get the hang of it.

    I found two things very difficult - keeping the airspeed constant during my base leg and final leg turns, and of course keeping the wheels off the ground. The trick is to come in low under little or no power, and then ease in some power when you are just above the runway. You can't pull the nose up too high or too fast or you'll flare out and land, or possibly stall if you're too high. Lots of coordination of the rudder and aileron to maintain a straight track over the center line. On the third time around I kept the plane floating pretty well before powering up for the go-around.

    On one of the approaches Long coached me to actually land, without quite telling me so. The result was a soft landing that I didn't really expect. The object lesson of this was that by keeping the plane off the ground and under control, you will land gently if you bring the power back gently.

    Another thing Long did today was attempt to distract me at various points by engaging me in conversation. So I had to split my attention between flying the plane, scanning for traffic, making radio announcements, and talking to him about the book he was reading! It was good practice, and I felt in good control most of the time. Just as we were turning to base on an approach I spotted another plane coming in for a straight-in landing. We hadn't heard it announce itself, although we might have missed it while Long was "distracting" me. Anyway, we aborted that approach, turned away, and came around again to reestablish our landing procedure.

    Another labor intensive day, but a fun one. The only unfortunate thing was having to go back to Monticello. The runway looks like a toothpick after Sullivan County's 6000 foot long, 40 foot wide monster of a runway.