Advanced stalls and preparing for the spin

Today's flying was more about preparing me for landing the sucker (when the winds are not so strong) and more advanced stalls.

Again we donned our parachutes as we were preparing for entering spins and stuff. I took off, flew us over to the training area and then watched Ed show me the Slipping and Skidding stalls. They were fun, and only small rudder inputs would get you into trouble eventually and then we almost entered a spin. Good fun and the stomach was behaving itself too.

The we did some advanced stalls (high angle turns putting a high load on the wing resulting in the wing stalling and having to recover the airplane. We then flew to Byron airport to try and do some touch and go's (went OK but not great) and then flew back home. This time though the winds had picked up and were pushing the crosswind limits on the plane.

I did the approach, having to crab considerably and then Ed took her in for a landing. Just on touch down thought eh wind gusted to 28kts and Ed had a time trying to keep her on the ground and land safely. He told me afterwards that had he known earlier the wind was that strong he'd have gone around.

The plan was to do more aerobatics in the afternoon, but I got a call from the school that Matt and my flights have been scrubbed for the day as the wind has picked up a lot. Oh well...guess it's a day out in Napa Valley drinking wine, or out to La Honda to see the Sequoia trees.