I've been flying for nearly nine years, however this was the first time I've done an actual BFR. Previously, I've met the recency requirements either through earning a new rating or participating in the Wings program. I had assumed it was going to be something with more check ride formality than a low-key brush up.
The ground session felt a lot like hangar flying in that we talked mostly about the various high(er) performance systems in my plane, cross country trips, subtleties of the local airspace, and some "what ifs" on instrument approaches in the area. He was challenging my answers where appropriate, just very casually. I enjoyed talking about practicalities rather than rote recitation of the FARs.
Since my plane's out of service for its engine overhaul/annual, I rented one of the flight school's C172s. While the instructor was signing off a student for their first cross-country, I did the pre-flight and sat in the cockpit for a while familiarizing myself with placement of everything. The first thing that hit me was the "rental smell," which is really hard to describe but is some proprietary combination of sweat, oil, mildew, avgas and seat cushions.
It was kind of cool to come back to the basics: no turbo, no retractable gear, no adjusting the prop, just get out and fly, baby! Then I realized how much I missed my moving map GPS; this underscored how "addicted" I've become to it as a means (crutch?) of positional awareness.
We did some basic maneuvers under the hood. I had done my six approaches & holds in the simulator the week before, so this was pretty straightforward. He threw a "how would you intercept blah radial off foobar VOR from this position" question at me, and I had to think about it for a little while longer than I should have, and I'd sense a new force whenever I'd get fixated on an instrument for too long because I interrupted my scan to think.
After that, we did a chandelle (my favorite) was followed by slow flight and stalls. It was kind of comical trying to get the 172 to break… even with a steep attitude, the reed horn blaring, engine idle, the stick back all the way, and verbal encouragement, it was fighting back for a long time before a wing finally dropped. (My plane mushes down much like a 182, that is, really flat and likely to elicit a "did it stall?")
Next, we practiced emergency landings near Port Orchard, a private airstrip. My spiral down was nice, but I underestimated and forgot the amount of float a c172 has. The piper's very slick, but dropping the gear is a great way to quickly lose altitude. It's funny what you get used to. We did a few more power off precision landings that looked much better. Considering the lack of flying I've done the last year, there were no major areas I needed to bone up on.
We heard back from the mechanic that the propellor overhaul is done and it's a fairly "standard" thing, which is a nice way of saying "you won't need to refinance the house again to pay for a new prop." Our mechanic, Brian, says the engine shipped out late last week, the engine mount today, and all of the various supporting parts (belts, hoses, mounts, lions and tigers and bears - oh my!) are in.
Now that I'm recurrent, I'm anxious to get it back in hopes of taking the family to Eastsound again.
The ground session felt a lot like hangar flying in that we talked mostly about the various high(er) performance systems in my plane, cross country trips, subtleties of the local airspace, and some "what ifs" on instrument approaches in the area. He was challenging my answers where appropriate, just very casually. I enjoyed talking about practicalities rather than rote recitation of the FARs.
Since my plane's out of service for its engine overhaul/annual, I rented one of the flight school's C172s. While the instructor was signing off a student for their first cross-country, I did the pre-flight and sat in the cockpit for a while familiarizing myself with placement of everything. The first thing that hit me was the "rental smell," which is really hard to describe but is some proprietary combination of sweat, oil, mildew, avgas and seat cushions.
It was kind of cool to come back to the basics: no turbo, no retractable gear, no adjusting the prop, just get out and fly, baby! Then I realized how much I missed my moving map GPS; this underscored how "addicted" I've become to it as a means (crutch?) of positional awareness.
We did some basic maneuvers under the hood. I had done my six approaches & holds in the simulator the week before, so this was pretty straightforward. He threw a "how would you intercept blah radial off foobar VOR from this position" question at me, and I had to think about it for a little while longer than I should have, and I'd sense a new force whenever I'd get fixated on an instrument for too long because I interrupted my scan to think.
After that, we did a chandelle (my favorite) was followed by slow flight and stalls. It was kind of comical trying to get the 172 to break… even with a steep attitude, the reed horn blaring, engine idle, the stick back all the way, and verbal encouragement, it was fighting back for a long time before a wing finally dropped. (My plane mushes down much like a 182, that is, really flat and likely to elicit a "did it stall?")
Next, we practiced emergency landings near Port Orchard, a private airstrip. My spiral down was nice, but I underestimated and forgot the amount of float a c172 has. The piper's very slick, but dropping the gear is a great way to quickly lose altitude. It's funny what you get used to. We did a few more power off precision landings that looked much better. Considering the lack of flying I've done the last year, there were no major areas I needed to bone up on.
We heard back from the mechanic that the propellor overhaul is done and it's a fairly "standard" thing, which is a nice way of saying "you won't need to refinance the house again to pay for a new prop." Our mechanic, Brian, says the engine shipped out late last week, the engine mount today, and all of the various supporting parts (belts, hoses, mounts, lions and tigers and bears - oh my!) are in.
Now that I'm recurrent, I'm anxious to get it back in hopes of taking the family to Eastsound again.
.