Solo Practice 14: Run through

Plane: Cessna 150
Route: 40I-MGY-MWO-40I
Weather: Overcast, 61 degrees, wind 220 degrees at 8 knots

I'm going to be brief here because I need to get to bed and rest up before the checkride tomorrow! Well, if it happens - there's a ton of rain expected so I might have to do the flying portion on Sunday. Anyway, I took the afternoon off work again and went up for a quite a while to go over everything one last time. Dave and I sat down to review some oral exam questions and the aircraft logbooks when I got to the airport and then I went out to preflight 60338.

Departing Stewart, I headed out over Caesar Creek Lake and practiced slow flight, power-on and power-off stalls, and steep turns. All went well and I'm confident that I can do all the above well within Practical Test Standards. I also got to see Dave and another student spinning the Cub a couple miles away from me, which was a cool sight from the air.

Maneuvering complete, I went over to Wright Brothers and knocked out takeoffs and landings of all sorts. Short field, soft field, and normal in all configurations. None were greasers and I dropped it in hard a couple times still, so I might have to hope for a sudden strike of luck on the checkride when it comes to wheels meeting pavement. I did manage a great soft field landing (minus the soft touchdown) where I was able to hold the nose off the pavement for a long time. Aside from those last two feet, my approaches are all spot on and stabilized and Dave even told me my flares look great. Funny how much smoother things can look from outside the airplane.

Wanting to really run the gamut, I then headed over to Middletown for more takeoff and landing work. There they have right traffic and, having not flown such a pattern in a while, I thought I should practice that in preparation as well. My landings were generally better here than at Wright Brothers but I still hit the ground too flat a few times. One one downwind leg I pulled the power for a simulated engine-out approach and made it back to the runway with plenty of room to spare. I actually had to dump in all 40 degrees of flaps on short final and still landed a few hundred feet past the threshold.

Heading back to Stewart as the sky was getting darker, I went around the patch a few more times. Here, all the landings were pretty darn good and the last was possibly the best I've had in a 150 in a month or more. Knowing by now that it's always good to end on a high note, I called it a day and tied her up. The moment's finally here and I'm honestly not feeling worried or apprehensive at all. I guess we'll see how true that rings in the morning.

Flight Track: Dead battery - sorry!
Today's Flight: 2.6 hours
Solo/PIC Time: 25.6 hours
Total Time: 70.9 hours