I had just one more test prep session with Gene and I’d be ready to schedule the checkride. Unfortunately, the weather today was questionable. There was a line of thunderstorms on its way and some isolated ones popping up in the area. We decided to go up, but stay close to the airport.
We started in the pattern with a soft field takeoff and landing. After that, and on climbout, I asked Gene about the safe altitude for turning back in case of an engine failure. I know we talked about it before, but it was a long time ago before I knew a lot of stuff.
Gene decided to find out. At about 800 AGL on crosswind of runway 3, he pulled the power. I immediately put the nose down to maintain best glide speed and we turned left back to runway 21. He announced our simulated emergency as we both watched our descent. We had plenty of altitude to make it back; a great exercise.
The winds were shifting, so we opted to stick with runway 21 and do a few more laps of soft and short field takeoffs and landings. They all went well enough, but the thunderstorms were not going away, so we decided to call it a day and work on the other stuff another time. Oh well…
0.5 hours more makes 72.1 total.