Well, since the school is starting to gear up for part 135 operations and trying to expand the business a bit, the CP (who happened to be my previous CFI) hired a new CFI. She's from the same school he went through and she's very tiny

It's pretty cool because it's a new flying experience for me (a little bit closer to solo weight and behavior maybe?) to fly with someone as small as she is. I really enjoyed her different perspective on a few of the maneuvers (I'll detail below) and I felt comfortable and confident. Needless to say, it was a good lesson.

Since it was our first time flying together, I went through most of the maneuvers I've learned so far. This was good for me because some of them I hadn't done for a few weeks.

First off, lifting off to a hover was pretty much the same despite her lower weight. Some of the previous students had indicated that the ship handled very differently with her in the left seat but I really didn't notice any major difference. Then we taxied out to the taxiway, did a clearing turn and took off. I was very comfortable and, honestly, felt like it was some of the best and most consistent flying I've done so far. She was very relaxed and was nowhere near the controls so, I think that helped me think more about flying and less about what she was doing or going to do.

My altitude and speed through the x-wind, downwind, and base turns were pretty good (even lined up on final at 60kts and 300'AGL which is rare for me). Then I did my normal approach. It wasn't great, but it wasn't horrible. Definitely still need a little work. We went through normal pattern and approach a few more times with some improvement on my approach.

Next we did a steep approach. I did very well on that maneuver (no surprise since I've always been comfortable since about my second attempt after being shown a steep approach). Afterwards, we did a max power take-off.

She has a little different approach than I had previously learnt. The mag check was standard for pre-max pwr t/o. I then got light on the skids and then pulled max power with a little forward cyclic pressure once I was off the ground. Afterwards she indicated that she liked another approach where (she demonstrated from a low hover) she pulled power very gradually so she didn't "pop" off the ground under full power but lifted vertically with more control before moving forward into the ETL shudder.

It was an interesting different perspective and I'm not sure the advantages of one approach vs. another (may start a thread to see if other more experienced pilots do - or I'll just ask her tomorrow ), but it was fun to try a different approach to a previously learned maneuver.

After that, we did an air taxi to a quick stop (did good on that one too) and then flew another pattern to normal (did pretty good on that one) and ended the lesson.

For next time we're going to work on normal approach a bit more to try to nail that one down, a few more Max pwr t/o, and then add a new maneuver. . . running landing!!! Very psyched

I finally am feeling like I'm really flying and in good control and I know I'm not far from soloing. I still have to do autos and a few other manuevers, but I'm confident that I'll be on my own soon.

So, in summary:

• Really good review lesson
  
• Liked the new CFI
  
• Flying again tomorrow - Yeah!!
  

I'll follow up with another entry later this week.

Safe flying,

Kelly