2/22/15
1.5h
Met up with Ron Larson at Stark’s Twin Oaks (7S3) and took Cessna 150 N19333 up. Weather was clear skies. The wind was gusty at the surface, but not bad above 2000 feet. We went over basic maneuvers: straight and level flight, turns, climbs, descents, and combinations of the preceding. Ron was impressed with my procedural approach to flying, and that I talked through what I was doing. Shout out to my helicopter CFI Tyler Fees who beat those habits into me. I got a half hour “under the hood,” a first since we don’t have attitude instruments in the helicopter.
One of the interesting things I noticed is that the magnetic compass lead-lag is much more pronounced in an airplane. I had never noticed more than a few degrees of discrepancy rolling out of a turn in the R22, but in the C150 I counted an almost 100 degree lag that took more than 5 seconds to correct itself. Perhaps a result of the much steeper bank angles the fuselage experiences during a normal turn? I can see why UNOS is important now. The gyro heading indicator was much more on course.
The carburetor heat seemed much easier to manage in a fixed-pitch plane because the reduction in RPM is an obvious reminder that you are at a lower power setting, whereas in the helicopter your engine RPMs remain constant even as the throttle is closed automatically when lowering pitch.
After the basic maneuvers we ended with a bit of slow flight, and demonstrated some stalls. Getting into slow flight is an incremental business. Deploying the flaps really puts the brakes on so you want to do them ten degrees at a time and stabilize the pitch and speed before continuing. The stalls were interesting because it is actually quite difficult to get into a stall in straight and level flight. The stall buffet is pretty obvious, and recovery is an automatic lowering of the nose, and not so automatic addition of power.
Return to the airport was relaxing after all of the maneuver practice. Visibility in the plane is quite a bit less than the heli. I actually lost the airport turning upwind to crosswind and inadvertently flew right over the numbers.
Next lesson is going to be flown in a 172 for comparison. The 152 is quite capable, but it is “cozy” if I am being polite.