Lesson 7: Forward Slips, S-Turns to Landings, Go Around, and Pattern Entry

This afternoon I got to do something different. I got to fly to Ridgely Airport. It is only roughly 15 nautical miles away from Bay Bridge Airport but it was a big deal to navigate to a different airport/find the airport/land at a different location. Prior to take-off I went over my route with my flight instructor. We found landmarks that were familiar to me from previous training that linked the two airports. Immediately following take-off I pointed the nose of the plane to the heading of the airport. I saw a water tower far far off in the distance. That was my target and I locked on for the flight. It happened to be a high of 35 degrees and a low of 17 degrees. I could see my breath the entire flight. On my way to the Ridgely I learned about landmarks that I could use on my return trip or if I happened to get lost. My flight instructor could see the runway once we were in the air. I did not know what to look for. As we continued to get closer he showed me landmarks so I could identify a route to Ridgely airport from the North, South, East, and West. Once we arrived we practiced entering the a foreign traffic pattern. I needed to be able to identify the downwind leg of the runway as well as a landmark for entering the downwind at a 45 degree angle. The first landing I did was called an S-Turn landing. This maneuver allows pilots to slow down if there is a plane on the runway or if they just need to slow down. The shortest distance between a plane and the runway is a straight line. The S-Turn landing is a side to side "zig zag" maneuver. As I got near the runway I centered up and then once I was over top of the runway I flared the nose and touched down. I then went full throttle and took off again. I entered the traffic pattern and went into the downwind leg. This time I turned very early on the base leg which meant I was incredibly high for the final approach leg of the traffic pattern. I was about 1,000ft and I learned a very important and fun maneuver. It is called the forward slip landing. You tip the nose of the plane down, roll the airplane into the headwind/crosswind and apply full opposite rudder. For my landing I rolled the plane to the right and yawed the plane to the left. This maneuver causes a lot of drag on the airplane which allows the plane to descend quickly to the runway but maintain airspeed. The immense amount of drag helps maintain the airspeed. We did a touch and go and practiced another forward slip and then I did a go around and began my return flight to Bay Bridge Airport. It was a lot of fun to learn these new maneuvers for landing as well as complete my first cross country flight to another airport!