As good as it gets

The order of events for my dual lessons with Bob now is very much dictated by me. Our briefings start with “so what do you want to practice?”

I know what I need to do and what I need to practice. Despite the emotional side of my brain protesting against the idea, my rational side is insisting that we practice at least one power on stall per lesson. I know that I need to do them lest the fear and anticipating build up to such a point again that I find myself unable to do them.

I set up for one at 1500rpm (possibly a little higher, I may have seen Bob nudge the power up a smidgen). I start to pull back on the column, wincing and tensing as I hear the stall horn start to wail.

“Just think of it in terms of aerodynamics WMAP, you know what the plane’s going to do and how to recover it,” Bob encourages.

Luckily for him, my teeth are clenched so hard that I can’t tell him what he can do with his damn “aerodynamics” and where he can shove his “recovery.” I tell you what, how about I don’t stall the stupid thing in the first place?

I feel the stall break, the wing drops and I semi-shriek “no ailerons!” to remind myself not to do anything silly. I step on the rudder, resisting the urge to stamp on it. I shove the nose down (maybe a little too enthusiastically) and push in the power. Eventually I get us flying again.

Despite my  scream, I have kind of managed to recover the plane BUT

BIG NO-NO here:

 I took my hand off the throttle. While I was persuading myself not to yank the control column around, I steadied myself on the glare shield.

If I could persuade myself to stop doing that, I’d be fine. A pass on the flight test for sure.  

I managed it the second time around. I stalled the plane with minimal whining from me. The wing drop didn’t seem so pronounced this time. Or maybe I was just quicker on the rudder.

Either way, I got us flying again with minimal fuss. The fear slowly dissipating as I do more and more of these.

I’m never going to like doing these. I’ll settle for barely tolerating them. If I can just train myself to keep a firm hold on that throttle , I think this probably as good as it gets.