Back in the Saddle

What do horses and planes have in common? More than I would have thought.

I have a horse that I keep at a friends barn, Bugs is a sweet animal, but likes to be lazy. I try to get over there once a week to ride. If I miss a week I can feel it in my legs because I really have to push him to get back to where we were weeks before. My balance isn't as good and I tend to tense up which he feels, and then I have to push him and fight him more. He responds better if I am light on he bit. And I need to anticipate his next move. For example I know that when I ride up the far side of the ring, for some unknown reason, he likes to cut over the to the left and cut through the jumps. I have to start pushing him to the right before he gets to that spot to keep him going in the right direction. The more consistently I ride the more relaxed I am and the better he responds.

On Wednesday (1/13/10) I had my third flying lesson in the Cessna. The first thing I learned that day was if you are taking lessons try to keep them consistent, at least weekly, you forget stuff really fast early on in the training process.

Since my last lesson in the Cessna (12/4) I have flown back and forth with Lorin, our CFI and my husband (Jeff) to Cincinnati, Ohio twice in our Piper Lance. And also to Mt. Airy, NC, and Harstville, SC with my husband. So while I learned a lot about the Lance such as using the GPS and working the radio and how to trim out the plane and lean the engine, it felt like I had never been in the Cessna before.

Before we took of we talked about angle of attack (AOA) and how it relates to airspeed. For more on this topic see the article at Sheflies.com.  We also discussed turns around a point and s-turns. The plan for the day was to go up and do few maneuvers, fly down to Wilson, NC for touch and go's, practice turns around a point and the s-turns, and try to find my house.

The taxiing thing is surprisingly not as easy to master as I would have thought. The trick is small and frequent corrections, stay ahead of the plane. So we took off and climbed to about 3000, there was a little wind which in the Lance you wouldn't hardly notice, but in the 172 it was pushing me around a lot. It was a bit of a challenge to fly straight and level. Lorin obviously picked up on the death grip I had on the yoke and tried to get me to relax and use one hand on the yoke. I also realized the tension in my legs while working the rudder. Next lesson learned - relax, relax, relax.

My husband shared a trick he learned during his training. Take a pen and put it under you middle finger and over your first finger and ring finger, hold the yoke with that hand, the pressure the pen puts on you finger forces you to relax your grip. Do that a few times and the death grip will go away.

We climbed up to about 5000 and took a few minutes just to fly and worked on getting comfortable. Near our airport there is miles of power lines so Lorin had me fly over the path they cut through trees below to practice flying straight and level. That line runs near my house so I was easily able to find it and flew two circles around a point using the house as a reference. That went well and Lorin said if I had done that on my check ride I would have passed.

Next we headed down to Wilson for a touch and go. Quite honestly, the whole landing is a blur. I remember lining up with the runway and seeing the ground getting closer and closer.  Lorin took care of the throttle and before I knew it we were back up and he was saying, "good job, you did it." It was a great feeling, scary and exciting at the same time. By then we needed to get back to our home airport, so we made the short trip back to Louisburg (KLHZ) and had another good landing.

I logged 1.7 hours that day and when I got out of the plane my legs and arms felt like I had just got of my horse. So what do horses and planes have in common? They both need a light touch for one. Anticipate your next move, relax and make small frequent corrections. Fighting them only wears you out and you end up trying to catch up with them by making big corrections and you are all over the place. Also, it is important to practice consistently. It keeps what you learned and the feel of the plane and/or horse fresh in your mind.

I keep trying to review the flight in my head and remember what I learned. Next week I will focus on making small and frequent corrections to stay ahead of the plane and relaxing, and getting back on track with my ground school so I can get ready to take my written exam next month. I also need to go ride Bugs...