Simulated emergency landings

Radomes

I was surprised how much the little bit of snow on the ground changed the way things looked from the air.  The golf ball radomes south of Culpeper airport are usually an impossible-to-miss landmark for pilotage. I couldn't spot these giant white antenna balls until about four miles out.  They were hiding above a blanket of white snow.

Someone had taken the airplane up before me, so I was greeted with a warm airplane waiting for me on the ramp.

Today's flight became a review of emergency landings.  I kept trying to fly too close to the landing spot and was invariably too high on final approach.  I had no problem with these in the past, but I'll sort it out tomorrow.

We also did a few ground reference maneuvers, but they weren't too interesting in calm winds.  I kept calling out where the steepest and shallowest bank angles would be for wind compensation, but this ended up being more distracting than anything else.

When we got back, the chief flight instructor was plowing snow off of the tie-down area.  He asked me when I was going to schedule the final stage check.  I'm not quite ready, yet.

Flight time this lesson: 1.4 hrs dual
Total time to date: 49.4 hrs total, 37.9 hrs dual, 11.5 hrs PIC