Never going to happen.

Bob is very persuasive. That much goes without saying. I mean the guy persuaded me that I might be able to get a pilot’s license when I was still shaking at the thought of getting in a plane, didn’t he?

We are out at the practice area, It’s been a bumpy ride (literally) out here, enough so that Bob is wary of sticking me under the hood.  Enough so that I’m really not relishing the thought of doing stalls. It isn’t a pleasant feeling when you are on the brink of a stall and a gust grabs your wing.

Changing our plans on the fly, we skipped ahead to the forced approaches. I had mixed success. I’m still crap at choosing a suitable field but and seem to enjoy making life tricky for myself, but I’m starting to get my head around the 360 degree technique. It seems to work a lot better for all kinds of reasons.

After our third attempt, I overshot on request and started coaxing SAR back up to 3500ft as requested by Bob. She didn’t want to climb, at all. It was almost painful to feel her lumber through the air. Summer performance is a bitch for sure. Once we’d made it up there I pointed us back home.

“How about we try just one of those power on stalls?” Asks Bob, “we’re at the right height.”

“How about we don’t.” I reply. I’ve been duped and I know it.

“Oh go on,” he implored “there not so bad, you know that really. How did you find them last time?”

“There were OK I guess, which is why we don’t need to do them again.” I say, with the emphasis on the latter part of the sentence.

“The more you do them, the more comfortable you are going to get with them.” He tries another tack.

“I don’t want to get comfortable doing them, they are a baaaaad thing.” I’m not going to be persuaded that easily.

“Oh come on WMAP, you know, soon you are going to enjoy doing them, you’re even going to miss them. You’re going to say to me ‘you know Bob I really miss those power on stalls, I wish I’d done more of them with you when I had the opportunity’!”

I steal a look at him, he’s laughing; goading me into doing them.

And he’s won. I launch into my HASEL checks in an attempt to drown out his monologue on the virtues of stalls. Even as I’m insisting that I don’t want to do them, I’m pulling back on the yoke.

As usual the thought is worse than the actual stall.

Bob lets me off the hook with one but I’m back under the hood for the next bit of the flight.

You may have won this round Bob, but for the record I am NEVER, EVER going to “enjoy” doing those damn things. I am sure as hell NEVER going to miss them. The only motivation I have at the moment is that if I do ONE right the first time, I’ll NEVER have to do another one again!