A couple of days ago on June 30 we did a bunch of landings at Livermore. All them were decent or better, with one of them very good that Steve didn’t feel compelled to give me any instructions.

We started today with steep turns, power-off stall and then a simulated engine-out landing at Byron. On this approach we had quite a bit of altitude to lose. We tried a slip but that didn’t bring us down much because of headwinds. Then we tried S-turns to lose altitude. After 4 landings, we decided to head to New Jerusalem. It was a warm and cloudy day. The density altitude at Tracy was reported as 1600′. Reflecting on the landings at Byron I suggested that maybe extending downwind would have made it easier to land. Steve was emphatic (7:34 into the video) that that was not only necessary but it will provide more opportunities to botch a landing.

On the first landing at New Jerusalem, I came down hard and bounced up quite a bit. I didn’t react quickly so Steve shoved in the throttle (8:24) and did a go around. Rightfully he gave me an earful. The second landing was ok – flared up a little too much but was able to bring the plane down just fine. After two more good landings, Steve endorsed me to fly solo.

It was unnerving to hear Steve ask me to fly solo but once I got into the cockpit and started the preparations, all such nervousness dissipated. During the flight there was so much to mentally manage that there was no time to feel nervous. I felt ready to handle it with all the training I’d received. The first landing was alright but on the second landing I bounced. And bounced high. Thankfully Steve’s words must have stuck in the back of my mind because I immediately pushed the throttle forward and did a go-around. The nose wanted to point way high up with full flaps deployed for the landing and I remember pushing forward hard on the yoke to fly nearly level and build up airspeed before climbing and slowly retracting the flaps a notch at a time. Perhaps I came in too fast and too flat causing the serious bounce. Since I did a go-around, I decided to do two more landings for a total of 4. They were not great but I managed to make them stick. The rest of the flight back home was uneventful.

This unfortunately ended up being my last flight on N25ES. In the following week another member of my flying club flew the plane and while practicing touch-and-go at Livermore bounced hard on a landing. The plane porpoised but the pilot did not attempt a go-around expecting to salvage the landing. The nose gear touched down first and the prop stuck the tarmac. The pilot was fortunately alright. He was a low-time pilot (having recently earned his private pilot’s license on the Cessna 152 and only a couple of hours of experience on the 172) and didn’t realize the seriousness of what had just happened. He did a few more touch-and-go before calling it quits. Later inspection revealed that the tip of one prop had broken off and the firewall had buckled. The plane ended up as a total loss and an insurance claim. The club has started a search for a replacement 172.

PS: In case you are wondering about the title of this blog, check out (9:37) into the pre-solo video.