We didn’t know Steve was going to ask Srinath to do his second solo today. The training started off with Srinath flying through Byron, Tracy and New Jerusalem practicing soft field takeoffs and landings. The solo was then at New Jerusalem where he did 3 takeoffs and landings. I gave Srinath some relief by flying 6MD back to Livermore.
As we headed out of Livermore towards the hills, Steve pulled the power simulating an engine out. Srinath immediately banked left to get away from the rising terrain but he was a little slow to achieve glide path. Once he spotted a private runway which could be used for an emergency landing, he brought back the power and we turned 180 to head towards Tracy again.
Above Tracy, it was time for steep turns one in each direction. Next was slow flight followed by power off stall and approach to landing stall. Soon we were close to New Jerusalem and Steve spotted crop circles over which Srinath executed ground reference maneuvers – turns around a point – again once in each direction. At the end of this maneuver, we were less than 2mi from New J so we headed there for touch and go.
Srinath got practice with a straight-in landing and many soft field takeoffs and landings. It takes practice and experimentation to stay in ground effect upon takeoff to build up airspeed prior to climb out. It also takes practice to keep the nose just high enough at takeoff, without the tail striking the runway. Soft field landing is like a butterfly with sunburned feet trying to touch down.
On the way back to Livermore, Steve reminisced about N25ES and how much he misses it. He recounted how the club acquired the plane and how 857, the previous 172, was sold. Steve landed us at Livermore demonstrating a short field landing technique.
As we flew over the Tracy airport, we noticed that it has now been re-opened after the runways were resurfaced and painted. Srinath started off by performing steep turns near Tracy. Next was slow flight, stall in the clean configuration and an approach to landing stall. Here is a sequence of steps for an approach to landing stall – first establish a steady descent, lower RPM to the airport pattern rate, full flaps and then trigger the stall. For recovery, drop the nose to break the stall, turn off carburetor heat, full power and minimize altitude loss.
Steve pulled off power simulating an engine out situation. Then a few landings at New Jerusalem followed by ground reference maneuver – turns around a crop circle, then turns around a point.
Upon landing at Livermore, we saw a very rare aircraft taxiing past us. It was a Bellanca Aries (N250DJ) – only one of 2 still flying out of the 4 aircraft ever made. This one was owned by Jim Rhoades of Livermore. See more details on this blog.
Crab Tales 