Today was my last day of flying before I go up to be with my family for a week, and it was a good lesson.
I got there at a quarter to 9 and went up to the classroom. It was locked, no instructor there. So I walked out and looked for the plane I train in, it was missing.
I started to second guess myself. "Did I have a 9 AM appointment this morning? Or was it later?" I waited a few more minutes, then called my instructor's cell phone. As it started ringing, I hear an engine rev up and I look over at the parking spot, and five eight sierra (the plane I fly) was just making its final turn into the parking spot right at the stroke of 9. That thing is quiet, I didn't see it taxiing!
So I preflight and we take off. Over Malibu, my instructor reaches over and pulls my throttle back to idle and says "Your engine just quit". I retrimmed for 73 knots and pointed out a field I wanted to land at and turned towards it. Then I began my checklist fly gliding over to the field. After pointing at the things I would try to get the engine running, I made a simulated radio call on 121.5mhz of "Mayday mayday mayday, Cherokee 8258 Sierra over Malibu, engine failure with two souls onboard, making emergency landing at Pepperdine" and performed my shutdown checklist. I told him to secure his seatbelt, looked for indicators of wind, then told him to open his door slightly (so that if the airframe buckles, the door isn't jammed shut). I eyeballed the field and extended my downwind a little bit, then turned towards it when it felt right. I glided straight towards it. When I told my instructor which field I was aiming at, we both realized he assumed I had pointed at another field and was gonna tell me I'd miss it, but when we clarified, he said I was on a good approach. He throttled us up and I turned away and climbed out over the ocean, (simulated) emergency over.
We did it again and I made it through the list faster (he told me I'm a bit chatty with the list, I should just go bam bam bam over each item when on my checkride. Good shot on the second failure, so he had me fly back to Santa Monica.
As we approached Santa Monica, some yahoo in a Bonanza was coming right at us. I moved over a little to give him some room. We made our call to tower and entered the pattern, and meanwhile this other plane turns around behind us (right in a real traffic hotspot and putting his belly to oncoming traffic so he couldn't see anyone) and begins closing in on us slowly as he enters the pattern too. I enter the pattern while watching him get closer and closer. I ask my instructor what call we should make, and he radios "Cherokee 58 sierra making a 360, close traffic." But the airport has radar and radios back "Negative, negative, make wide downwind leg" and he clears the other guy to land with a short approach ahead of us. We shrug and angle away from him and watch him do his approach. I follow another plane in and make a standard landing.
As we taxi back to runway 21, we pass the Bonanza that had cut us off and my instructor says 'there he is, let's flip him off'. We both laugh and do it in our minds, the guy is a real jerky.
We take off again, and then I spend an hour doing touch and goes with different approaches. More short approaches, I do some go arounds, then I do some landings without flaps. That plane really doesn't want to land without flaps, I have to almost bend the throttle back to idle it enough to set down.
It was a good day of flying, and now I'm at work staring at a computer but dreaming I'm flying.
My instructor says I'm ready to solo, and that I don't have any bad habits. This next week, I'll try to get my physical done in Eugene so I can solo when I get back. Yeehaw, and yikes at the same time!
