Stage 3 Review... Onward!

This past weekend was definitely a weekend of flying! After I finished my night flight on Thursday night (well, really Friday morning), Husband completed his long x-country on Friday afternoon, marking the completion of all of his requirements, too!

Saturday was my first dual lesson (not counting the night flight-- which was an unusual flight) in a while. We started the review process for my Stage 3 check. We reviewed engine outs, ground reference, and stalls. I knew I'd have trouble with engine outs... and I was right. Though, I could tell that practicing had helped. I wasn't as bad as I predicted. Mostly, I was too high to make the field that I had picked out-- and the field was a little short.

Ground reference surprised me. Last time we practiced it (right before M went away on vacation), I nailed it. No problem. This time, I got my picture confused and was trying to do my turns about a point (circles) way to close to the point. I didn't believe M's estimate of how far away 1/2 mile was... He could tell I wasn't buying it, so he used the pointer to measure a specific distance. It was a little hard to tell as we kept getting different distances, but I think we were more like 3/4 or 1 mile away. In any case, he finally looked up the PTS for the maneuver, and determined that the distance isn't specified. So, I finally managed to get it the distance he wanted, and he was right, it was a lot easier! After that, I had no problems.

Stalls were fun. M added a new twist-- literally-- this time by having me do stalls with a bank. I found them pretty easy to deal with, though definitely more challenging than a normal stall. On one stall, we turned so sharply when the stall happened that M reached for the controls, but he stopped when he realized that I was already doing the right recovery. That made me feel good!