2/9/2008
I flew to Galveston yesterday by doing a big arc around the class-B in Houston. The first picture is of the Exxon refinery in Pasadena. The third one is of Scholes Field in Galveston. I did one quick touch and go. The last one is of some towers near Sugarland. I was at 1700' when I took the picture. The winds were forecast to be 12 knots but when I arrived at Hooks they were 18 gusting to 25 about 45 deg from runway heading. Being a newbie this was cause for concern but the landing turned out to be uneventful.
To date I have done many rolls and one split-s. I built up to it by stalling several times from a very steep angle. I wanted to experience the plane pitched as straight down as possible and see what the pullout was like. No problems. I also practiced rolls down to 85kts. I noticed the aileron pulsing I had read about. The pulsing was very light and didn't seem to have an effect on aileron effectiveness. I used 90kts as the entry speed for the split-s. I rolled upside down, chopped power and moderately pulled back on the stick. At the bottom the airspeed was 160kts and I had pulled 2.1 Gs as per my G-meter.
The best glide speed seems to be 85KIAS with the engine idle and prop windmilling. I now have 34 hours on the plane. Yet to do are at gross Vx and Vy, an Immelman, a loop and maybe a spin (1 turn or less).