I cleared approach and taxi'd out, firewallin the throttle as soon as I was straight .. *once* .. in a 172.
Told the instructor I would like to try it if traffic was light .. it was .. I did.
We almost got into the grass on the left ...full rudder on a 172 is not enough with a climb prop on it.
The good news is .. we got takeoff speed before actually departing the runway ..
..the bad news is .. I hated that feeling of not being able to keep it straight down the centerline.
It was hectical.
Hectical is bad.
-GE aka Frank
i did that once.
funny thing later, after i had my ticket. all of our club 172's there had 40 degree flaps. the cfi i flew with there taught me to always use em all. he had me poppin the last 10 on short final when i knew i had the runway made.
at that time, no one had ever explained to me of the dangers of havin all 40 degrees out.
well, when i first flew one of our CAP 172's, i was in for a bit of a shock. all of our 172's are "P" models, and all have 180hp conversions. the "P" also only has 30 degrees of flaps.
whelp......bob watched me closley as i went through the preflight, then he showed me the cap specific paperwork, then we strapped in, ran the checklists, and fired up. taxied up to the runup area, went through the checklist, set the radios, etc.
taxied out, doublechecked to be sure nothing on base or final, made my call, pulled out, and took off. was beautiful. she flew herself off the runway for me. climbout was spectacular(for a 172), and we stayed in the patter.
i forget the exact speeds, but established myself on downwind, did my midfield check, and started slowing down at the usual point for that airport. downwind to base, perfect(so i thought) base to final perfect(so i thought). short final, i'm close enough i know i have the runway made, i go for that last notch of flaps.......
that isn't there! by this time, i've pulled into the flare over the threshold now, throttle to idle, and proceeded to to one of the most graceful extended floats you've ever seen a 172 do.
ended up going around. bob was paying close attention to what i was doing, and i think getting a "feel" for what i knew, and could do.
he spent quite a bit of time "re-teaching" me to land, which was kinda hard for me, 'cause i had to un-learn bad habits. now, when i'm in club planes, i never need the full 40 degrees, and i still land better, and shorter than i used to do the way i was originally taught.
this is part of why i said to fly with different cfi's. i don't fault my primary cfi, but rather myself for not thinking farther.
bob and i had a good laugh....and we still laugh at that first landing with him flying with em.