Slipped back in

We went a little earlier than planned and had a good flight. We had three objectives:

1. VOR check
2. Power-on stall
3. Forward slips

We did all three. For the VOR check, we intercepted the Harcum 178 radial for Victor 189-260 airway and picked a point on the sectional around Wakefield (AKQ) with some good landmarks to verify where we were. The VOR was indicating about 1 degree off to the right. We have been unable to find any record of previous VOR checks for 388 in the bookoos of docs in the plane's binder, so we started a new system for tracking it in the Hobbs notebook.

On our way down toward Wakefield, Husband slowed our airspeed and then powered up for a power-on stall. His climb was much steeper than mine was when I attempted it solo last week, so that's probably the main reason why we actually stalled today and I got tired of hanging on the prop last week. The stall warning came on at something like 70 mph and it was a noticeable stall, though the nose didn't dump over.

We picked a nice straight clearing where power lines were running through some trees to use as the reference for forward slips. Husband did one; he was in the left seat and put the left wing down (thus I couldn't see much), but since I'm more knowledgable now than I was a month ago when Chuck introduced them it made sense and felt normal. He talked through everything as he did it. I'm sure if I was doing it today with Chuck it would have been the same thing.

Then I did one with right wing down (so I could see "the runway" (powerlines clearing) I was trying to track). It was exactly what I now expected it to be, and the trick to it was constant minor corrections. I did a little playing with more or less bank and more or less rudder to see that the plane and course reacted as I expected. Then I did one with left wing low and it was harder to see my target (from the right seat) but it was still ok.

We were doing it from 2500-3000', and the descent rate was hard to gauge for me. When Husband did it, he had a ~1200'/min rate. My descent rate was whatever would keep me at ~80 mph (slightly high airspeed for a final approach). I didn't have much opportunity to really focus on how much control input corresponded to different descent rates, but more of one means more of the other and on final the sight picture is a heck of a lot easier to use to judge altitude changes.

After circling Wakefield and doing the VOR check, we headed back north toward JGG and he let me do another forward slip on each side. They weren't scary or unsettling at all. They take constant corrections, but it's easy to feel and easy to react. Except that holding the rudder in like that exhausts my leg... Doing it several times in a row for what seemed like a long time exhausted it, anyway.

The emphases for forward slips:

1. DO NOT STALL. (The consequences of this stall are what make me nervous.)
2. Make minor and gradual changes. For instance, if using a forward slip to get down to land, exit the slip in a slow and coordinated fashion -- let out rudder and level the wings in sync.
3. The airspeed indicator isn't necessarily correct when slipping since the "ram" air isn't coming straight on when you're flying a little sideways.

I do still have most of the ingrained wariness of cross controls that I had this morning, but during those slips, while maintaining good airspeed, it never once felt out of control or sluggish.

71 degrees (in November!) under just a few scattered clouds, playing hooky from work with the Husband to fly. Sweet.