Aviation Adventure: Yoke Throttle Heading dance called Slow Flight

Up again today! Two days in a row. Since I had that long delay, a month & 6 days since my last flight, & today's forecast was good, I wanted to be sure to take advantage of the fly time!

Flew with my instructor Jim. He does a great job challenging me to get more from each session. Did a crosswind take off, understanding the traffic pattern flow (crosswind turn to left downwind, leaving the traffic pattern to the training area), basic fours ~ climbs, descend, straight & level, & turns.

Today's lightbulb was slow flight practice.  Even though we did the maneuver a few times over a month ago, today I finally really understood the relationship bw the yoke pitch & airspeed, throttle & altitude. 

Successfully achieving slow flight requires a constant dance of pitch, throttle, glancing at the heading, plus rudder, as needed... Oh & not letting the stall horn rattle you!!

It took concentration, not giving up & it felt good when I got my "lightbulb moment" of understanding of managing slow flight speed through constant adjustment in pitch & throttle. 

Wasn't a lot of traffic up high, which is nice. Had moments of enjoying the view, eyes out vs fixating on the instruments:) By the end of our session, I felt good about my progress in take offs, basic fours, & my growing grasp on slow flight technique.

More learnings, here I come!:)

Snapped a few quick pics while Jim prepared our landing!

On left downwind

Here on final. Jim heard a call of another Ion left downwind for runway 28, too. You can barely see, but I spotted that plane.

Coming in for landing onto Runway 28

Traffic pattern diagram by Jim! Great visual so I know when I'making turns to exit the traffic pattern.