First Flight Review
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2018 7:24 am
This past Friday, I had my first BFR as a Maule owner. I finally got an opportunity to fly with my favorite tailwheel instructor at Wausau Downtown Airport (KAUW) in Wausau, WI. It's been a long time waiting, but the time finally arrived.
It was a beautiful sunny 30-degree day with barely a breeze and smooth as silk. I was hoping to get some crosswind practice in, but the winds weren't cooperating. The main thing I was hoping to get out of this event, though, was the sights, sounds, feels, and smells of this plane, as well as detailed finesse. It's a lot easier to do that when you have another person in the plane with you.
John Peter Chmiel teaches aviating, not flying. So I knew that as soon as we got up in the air, I'd be learning things, not just doing the BFR for the sake of meeting the requirements. We did a lot of sight picture stuff: learning what Vx looked, sounded, and felt like; same with Vy. I remember when learning to fly the Citabria with him a few years ago that the plane had a unique resonance about it in the tail at Vx. Turns out the Maule has one of those, too.
Stalls were a non-event, as always. When I finally got is actually stalled, it drop a wing off to the right a little bit, but that's to be expected, I imagine, with that much right rudder in. We flew for quite a while at the ragged edge of stall, with the stall horn beeping away for several minutes at a time. ASI hovered at 40-45mph for a good portion of the morning.
Approaches at altitude were what I'd hoped for. Set up for different approach speeds and RPMs, and then checking the wing angle. Using that info, we practiced approaches and landings. Turns out that my plane's sweet spot on landing is around 50-55mph. I've been slowly sneaking up on slower landing speeds because I could feel that 60-65 was just too fast.
Emergency descents were fun and interesting. We easily hit 2000fpm on those. Simulated engine fire: carb heat on, throttle off, push over, full flaps, and 45-degree circling descent at the top of the white arc. Two circles, maybe, from 4500 feet down to about 1200 feet or so. A mad slip to the runway, and landed perfectly.
Other simple technique things, like knowing where to look in a turn. I've always found myself looking beneath the wing toward the runway in a turn to final. Problem is, you can't see the runway, and I've found myself to be uncoordinated in that turn. Looking forward make sure I can watch the nose do the right thing during the turn to final so adverse yaw doesn't take over.
Also, doing ascents and descents with the tach and ASI covered up, then making power and angle adjustments to accommodate, using sights and sounds as the guide. A fella can get in tune with the plane nicely like this, I think.
I enjoyed the day a lot. If you're going to take the day off of work for fun things like this, it's great to really get into the experience!
~Chris
It was a beautiful sunny 30-degree day with barely a breeze and smooth as silk. I was hoping to get some crosswind practice in, but the winds weren't cooperating. The main thing I was hoping to get out of this event, though, was the sights, sounds, feels, and smells of this plane, as well as detailed finesse. It's a lot easier to do that when you have another person in the plane with you.
John Peter Chmiel teaches aviating, not flying. So I knew that as soon as we got up in the air, I'd be learning things, not just doing the BFR for the sake of meeting the requirements. We did a lot of sight picture stuff: learning what Vx looked, sounded, and felt like; same with Vy. I remember when learning to fly the Citabria with him a few years ago that the plane had a unique resonance about it in the tail at Vx. Turns out the Maule has one of those, too.
Stalls were a non-event, as always. When I finally got is actually stalled, it drop a wing off to the right a little bit, but that's to be expected, I imagine, with that much right rudder in. We flew for quite a while at the ragged edge of stall, with the stall horn beeping away for several minutes at a time. ASI hovered at 40-45mph for a good portion of the morning.
Approaches at altitude were what I'd hoped for. Set up for different approach speeds and RPMs, and then checking the wing angle. Using that info, we practiced approaches and landings. Turns out that my plane's sweet spot on landing is around 50-55mph. I've been slowly sneaking up on slower landing speeds because I could feel that 60-65 was just too fast.
Emergency descents were fun and interesting. We easily hit 2000fpm on those. Simulated engine fire: carb heat on, throttle off, push over, full flaps, and 45-degree circling descent at the top of the white arc. Two circles, maybe, from 4500 feet down to about 1200 feet or so. A mad slip to the runway, and landed perfectly.
Other simple technique things, like knowing where to look in a turn. I've always found myself looking beneath the wing toward the runway in a turn to final. Problem is, you can't see the runway, and I've found myself to be uncoordinated in that turn. Looking forward make sure I can watch the nose do the right thing during the turn to final so adverse yaw doesn't take over.
Also, doing ascents and descents with the tach and ASI covered up, then making power and angle adjustments to accommodate, using sights and sounds as the guide. A fella can get in tune with the plane nicely like this, I think.
I enjoyed the day a lot. If you're going to take the day off of work for fun things like this, it's great to really get into the experience!
~Chris
