Flew out of KRHV to KCVH, and did extensive takeoff and landing practice, then flew back to KRHV and did a few more landings before shutting down. Total of maybe 5 landings.
We did mostly wheel landings today, fine tuning ground handling and learning about the energy needed to come in -- approach at 70, start rounding out and kiss the runway at maybe 50 or so, then plant the wheels and slow down. My directional control improved. My energy management is not perfect but it's getting better as I get more used to the airplane's glide characteristics.
I had a couple of bounces but I learned to recognize a bounce and go around. In this plane, going around is not difficult since the stall speed is so low; there is no long acceleration phase. Just push the power in, and by the time you glance down at the ASI you're doing 50 which is Vr and you can start climbing and push down to 60.
We did a couple of landings with full flaps to a 3-pointer, and yes indeed, the RANS comes down pretty nicely at full flaps. :)
We tried "impossible turn" exercises while KCVH was empty, going up Rwy 31 in one direction, cutting at 500' AGL or a bit more (which would happen right at the far end of the runway), looping back to touch and go and make it to 500' AGL by the time we got to the opposite end of the runway, and repeating the experience. I got a lot better at keeping the nose down when the power is cut, and maintaining speed and coordination to get back to the runway.
Back at KRHV, I was coming in high and hot. I need to become more aware of excess energy and do something about it earlier. The CFI noted that I was doing that previously in the SportStar too. In all cases these were "short approaches" or, at least, power-off to glide from abeam the threshold. I think I could probably do a long "stabilized" approach easily. But I should probably practice that sometime. It's much too much fun to do the power-off 180s in this plane though. :)
CFI said my next challenge is to do crosswind landings -- we plan to go to E83 next time and use the cross runway if possible.
Overall this was a great flying day, with lots and lots of flying and hard work and visible progress.
We did mostly wheel landings today, fine tuning ground handling and learning about the energy needed to come in -- approach at 70, start rounding out and kiss the runway at maybe 50 or so, then plant the wheels and slow down. My directional control improved. My energy management is not perfect but it's getting better as I get more used to the airplane's glide characteristics.
I had a couple of bounces but I learned to recognize a bounce and go around. In this plane, going around is not difficult since the stall speed is so low; there is no long acceleration phase. Just push the power in, and by the time you glance down at the ASI you're doing 50 which is Vr and you can start climbing and push down to 60.
We did a couple of landings with full flaps to a 3-pointer, and yes indeed, the RANS comes down pretty nicely at full flaps. :)
We tried "impossible turn" exercises while KCVH was empty, going up Rwy 31 in one direction, cutting at 500' AGL or a bit more (which would happen right at the far end of the runway), looping back to touch and go and make it to 500' AGL by the time we got to the opposite end of the runway, and repeating the experience. I got a lot better at keeping the nose down when the power is cut, and maintaining speed and coordination to get back to the runway.
Back at KRHV, I was coming in high and hot. I need to become more aware of excess energy and do something about it earlier. The CFI noted that I was doing that previously in the SportStar too. In all cases these were "short approaches" or, at least, power-off to glide from abeam the threshold. I think I could probably do a long "stabilized" approach easily. But I should probably practice that sometime. It's much too much fun to do the power-off 180s in this plane though. :)
CFI said my next challenge is to do crosswind landings -- we plan to go to E83 next time and use the cross runway if possible.
Overall this was a great flying day, with lots and lots of flying and hard work and visible progress.
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