Flight Two

Today's experience was a bit interesting. We had planned to do some more steep turns, as well as turns around a point, square pattern, and stalls. We started with about an hour of ground school talking through what we woud be doing such as the aerodynamics at work, angle of attack (AOA), critical angle of attack (CAOA)and how to do the maneuvers. The issue with todays flight was the weather. At the time we met there were storms 30-50 miles to our east and southeast. At take off they had moved a little closer but were not a threat. I handled the entire flight this time, takeoff went pretty well with the only issue being keeping it on the centerline. After taking off we headed to the north. At this point we were able to climb to 4,500 and started doing some steep turns. I kept struggling a little but each one was improved. We then moved on to stalls. We these with a power on stall, this is at it sounds you leave the power on and just keep pulling back until the plane stalls. They are not too hard to recover from since you already have the power on and simply have to push over and then pull back. Cessna 172's are known as being one of the most stable aircraft out there which make them such a popular trainer. As soon as it stills the nose is already naturally "nosing over" and it does not take much to recover from. The power off stall is designed to simulate a stall while landing or taking off. In order to recover from this one you have to put full power back on, turn off the carb heat and slowly retract the flaps. At this point the ceiling was slowly dropping and the rain was getting closer. We actually had a brief shower on us while we were doing the power off stall. We decided to head back to the airport and call it quits for the day. It was kind of interesting flying on the edge of the Flint Hills (this is the really boring with almost nothing between Emporia and ElDorado along I-35)seeing numerous roads just end and then there be just prairie is kind of interesting. I again handled the approach and even the landing this time. I was a little slow and that didn't help matters when I cut the power and dropped like a rock. We only bounced once but hey it was my first landing. We have somewhat set our schedule for Monday, and Wednesday nights along with sometime on Saturday. Check back after those times for more updates! Happy fathers day to my father and grandfathers along with my father in-law and grand father in-laws (if that is the right term)