TAP, Stop and Go

There was definitely a lot of that on Saturday. I had a double block of lessons from 1030 - 300. For the first lesson, since the clouds were a little low and the winds were light a variable, we decided to stay at the airport and fly the pattern. In other words, taxi to the run way, take off, fly to 1100 feet, and circle around the airport to come back in for a landing. Of which, we did 8 times so I could really practice. By the 5 time I was flying nearly on my own with very little assistance from my instructor. Although, I seem to have a problem when coming in for the landing hovering less than 50 feet of the runway I always went to the right for some reason. There's some fine tuning that I need to do there. But, other than that, it went really really well. Hence, calling them Stop and Go.

Now the TAPs. AKA Turns around a point. We flew out to the Southwest practice area near Gillette Stadium to a water tower near by(the fixed point). We proceeded to fly around this fixed point, first demonstrated by my instructor, then followed by my own demonstration, keeping the water tower at my wingtip and turning around it while maintaining 1000 feet. Then we completed a few S-turns across the set of power lines. We simulated an engine failure to practice getting ourselves set up for a landing at the best possible location(off airport). We then climbed out of that and I got to wear the "foggles", basically safety glasses that have been coated so that you can only see out of a very small portion of them, which only allows you to see the instruments in the cockpit. Thus giving a very brief, 20 minute introduction into flying via instruments. I really liked this part along with the TAP and S-Turns. It was a lot of fun!

I was then asked to find our way back to Norwood Memorial Airport and had to use my situational awareness and landmarks to find my way back. I asked if we could just call up the tower and ask fir directions.....haha but that was not quite what my instructor, Josh, had in mind. It was amusing though. Once I got myself situated it was quite easy to find my way back to the airport.

Overall, it was a great day to show off my skills, which my instructor was genuinely impressed by. We are really "flying" through these lessons. No pun intended. By the end of the second block, I was glad it was done, because I was mentally drained and probably would not be in a good mindset for another lesson after that. I have 4 days off before I hopefully fly next Thursday pending good weather. Time to review all the material, prep for the next lessons, and get more sim time. Until then......