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I had another flying lesson yesterday, and I almost got sick again! I have not thrown up in the cockpit, but I’ve come very close. Too close. The extremely close call, a few weeks ago, happened when we were practicing power off stalls. Those freaked me out big time and the sickness I felt was definitely fear-related. But now, those stalls are no big deal. It’s funny how something can be so scary at first, and as you practice it more and more, it becomes easy.

Yesterday, we worked on turns around a point, just one of the many training maneuvers I need to do to get my pilot’s license. This maneuver is exactly what it sounds like. You’re flying over something, probably some sort of landmark. Yesterday, the landmark was a water tower in Valley Center. As part of the exercise, I had to fly the Cessna in three complete circles of uniform distance using a maximum bank of approximately 45 degrees while maintaining constant altitude. The motion sickness I felt yesterday definitely had to do with looking at the point on the ground and constantly shifting my attention between the traffic in front of me, the point on the ground, and my instruments (the airspeed indicator, altimeter, and heading indicator). It is multi-tasking at it’s best. Good thing I wasn’t texting while doing all that.

According to my Airplane Flying Handbook, there are several reasons we learn how to fly urns around a point. They are to further perfect our turning technique, to perfect the ability to subconsciously control the airplane while dividing attention between the flight path and ground references, to develop a keen perception of altitude, and to perfect the ability to correct for wind drift while in turns.

For turns around appoint, you have to take into account the wind. You enter the turn on the downwind During the downwind half of the circle the nose of the plane is turned toward the inside of the circle, and during the upwind half, the nose is turned toward the outside. I think the biggest challenge for me will be gaining or losing altitude, and learning to divide my attention equally between the flight path and ground references and instruments.

I’m flying again on Saturday, and I’m going to nail it! After that, I have to do steep turns, and then it will be time for my big stage check, all leading up to my solo. I can’t wait!