Time: 1730Z (1130 MST)
Flying time: 1.7 hrs. (cumulative 9.2)
Landings: 8
Aircraft: Skyhawk N7887N (T-41C)
Got to the aero club at 1100MST, did the paperwork, got the flight plan filed, and Jeff threw me the keys so I could run across the tarmac and start the preflight. I did the preflight, and just about the time I was done Jeff got out to the aircraft so we could fire her up and get on with it. This time no brainfarts, I get the clearances and soon we're in the air.
Today we are going to get serious about landings.
We do a midfield overflight at Double Eagle (AEG), enter the pattern at 6,800', turning right downwind for 22, announcing our intentions over the raddidio. Right onto base, and then right onto final a bit too late and have to correct a fair bit to get us aligned. We get her down with Jeff talking me through it, and then punch the power for immediate takeoff.
In all we did 7 landings at AEG. For four of them Jeff isn't touching the yoke (I didn't know that the first time). One of the times I forget to add the extra 10 degrees of flaps I should have added when we turned base. Once I let up on the backpressure during the flare and got us down a little too hard. But some of the landings are OK. On the seventh we taxi over to the ramp, park and go get a soda pop. Damn it's hot --- density altitude at the field is about 9000'. The plane vapor locks when we try to start it again, but with a little help from the auxilliary fuel pump we get it started and hit the sky.
Back to ABQ. Call up approach, get our instructions to head towards and hold west of downtown.
"Skyhawk 87N, you have a flight of 2 F-16s at your 3 o'clock coming in for a landing on runway 17."
"87N Traffic in sight." Man are those things pretty in formation!
On the ground we are told to taxi around and hold clear of runway 17 at Bravo. Cool. We're waiting for those 4 F-16s to take off. They pass right in front of us, and we're holding to the right of the runway where their rotation point is. Awesome.
Relatively brief lesson today, just had time for the pile of landings. I'm starting to feel a little more comfortable with the aircraft being so close to the ground.
Things to remember: Keep the 1000' markers in one place in the windscreen. Transition gaze to end of field when about 15' AGL. Keep the backpressure on all the way through flare. Remember to put on all the flaps I need to.
On to the next lesson.