PPL Lesson 3

1.5 hours in the air today, this time focused on steep turns and slow flight.

Departed Palo Alto and headed out to the ocean in a steady climbing cruise.  Leveled off around 3,200' and spent an hour or so doing maneuvers.  45deg turns first, then moved on to slow flight and turns at minimum controllable airspeed.  The steep turns were fun.  Slowed the plane to 90 (attitude, throttle, trim) and entered the turns.  A little disorienting for me without the wind in my face feedback I am so used to.  At times it felt like the plane was just spinning on a wingtip.  I think this will get to a more normal feeling with time.

The slow flight I found a bit more intimidating.  Have to hold the nose high and drop power to slow down, then bring the power back up to maintain level flight.  We slowed to 60mph or so, both with and without flaps, then executed some shallow but rapid turns.  Lot's of right rudder needed to keep the plane straight in this high power, high drag configuration.  So much right rudder that left turns were accomplished by simply applying less right rudder.  The stall alarms going off freaked me out a bit, and I kept thinking "what if we slow down too much?"  But my instructor wasn't worried, so I tried not to worry and just focus on the tasks he gave me.  Carb heat, power, mixture, flaps.

Next lesson Monday.