Lesson 12 : More Circuits

Well sunday again and yet another lesson in fairly good weather. Runway 09 and virtually zero traffic, we were number 1 to land every time.

Circuits went well on average. I did 6 landings the second one, was awfull we bounced and Stuart had to control it. The last three went quite well though they certainly felt alot better and i felt like i was getting a grip of where to flare and how to hold off correctly. We tried one landing with full flap as i was far too high on approach, that went fine too.

Obviously a track day on at Donnington too, as we were using rway 09, the finals are directly over Donnington Park, so i was peeking down and watching the little cars having fun, whilst keeping one eye of the flying of course.

Starting to panic a little now as Stuart is talking about getting my medical sorted and my air law as Solo is coming up - clean set of pants needed i think :)
Booked my Medical in for Wednesdays fingers crossed for that as ive had evelated blood pressure over the last year, but cut out my salt intake and lost 2 stone in weight so its down a fair bit now.

Ive been doing some Air Law reading but not enough to take the exam, so need to get my head in the books for that. Havent done any revision tonight as we are supposed to be practicing emergency landings tomorrow so had to read up on that, what with family stuff aswell.

White Out - Snow that is

Cancelled lesson today as we have a fair amount of snow, a nice 010 12 knot wind bringing it in from the north.

Did go sledging with my son Harvey yesterday morning though which he loved :)

Lesson 11: Snow Circuits (Ex 12,13)

Circuits again, from east Mids, but runway 09 for the first time for me. xwind about 10 knots and lots of snow clouds all around. We did about 6 t/o and landings some quite tight circuits due to big white snow clouds almost at the end of the runway, we did at one point fly through some snow which was interesting :)

Flying went quite well, i feel a little more at home now, it was certainly easier than Leicester yesterday and i did a fair amount more, most of the radio, and the flying, making the judgements on when to turn in the circuit and the landings were better, i knew when to reduce and increase power, Stuart seemed quite pleased i was doing this on my own, and i did do at least one good approach. My landings are still a little lack lustre, struggling with when to flare, i did have a tendancy to flare to early, but i think im a little late now, and most of the landings today were right of center line - but i put that down to the xwind :)

East Mids



East Mids Approach (short final) runway 27

Lesson 10: Circuits (Land Away Leicester) Ex 12,13,18

A very interesting and intense lesson today. Wind was 350/19 so huge cross wind for circuits at East Mids, so we decided to goto Leicester (EGBG) and practice as they have a runway 33. So booked in over the phone and paid the landing fees - £20 for as many landings as you like. Off we went. Very bumpy close to ground. As we arrived Stuart did all the radio and it wasnt a full ATC - so no clearances were given just advice (I forget the actual service name for this - FIS?)

Satellite shot of Leicester EGBG



Leicester from the air (ish)



At first sight, i was surprised how small the runway was, compared to East mids. Stuart descended on the dead side into the circuit calling in. He did the first touch and go then handed over to me. It was still quite tricky, none of the familiar visual cues and the cross wind was still affecting the flight. We also had a couple of other planes in the circuits too, which kept us both on our toes.

I had a go at a couple of landings stuart helping on both, as i found it quite difficult, he also said the landings were difficult due to the wind/runway etc.

All in all, a good day. It was good to experience another airfield so early on (normally not done till after you have gone solo) It certainly made me appreciate the huge size of East Mids :)

Mist, Fog and Helicopters :)

Lesson Cancelled today due to bad weather, but my new toy did arrive :)
Bladerunner toy helicopter from the Gadget shop




Just had a quick play on the 3rd floor of our building (its empty) and its cool!
Quite difficult to control, i guess a bit like a real chopper, but we are having difficulty getting it to go forward and backwards - dont know if something is wrong.

Well post and update later.

Lesson 9 : Ex 12 and 13 (Circuits)

Bit of a windy day today wind 310/15G25 runway 27 - so thats about as bad as crosswinds get for PPL's.

But a good lesson, Stuart did a full brief before we flew and then did the first circuit, showing me where to turn on the xwind leg, downwide, right base and final, which was quite difficult given the xwind. I then did 2 circuits with Stuart helping out on the flare in the landing as the wind made it so tricky and bumpy.

Also memorised the pre-landing checks

B - Brakes off
U - under carriage down
M - mixture rich
F - Fuel pump on and greatest tank selected

F - Flaps
P - Pitch
I - Instruments (QFE)

C - Carb heat
H - Hatches
H - Harnesses

We only did 40 mins worth as the wind was that bad he didnt want to do any more, so hopefully Thursday will be nice and smooth, as circuits are good fun, plenty to see and do :) although Stuart did all the radio this time around.

Must get my medical booked in too.

Lesson 8: Ex 10b (Stalling)

An interesting lesson this one, go up high, drop the power, pitch the nose up to keep the altitude, watch the speed lower until stall, hear the stall warner buzz, leave it a second, the plane judders for the stall. Then drop the nose and apply full power and climb back out when you have sufficient speed.

Also learnt the Hasell (pronounced Hazel) checks:

H - Height
A - Airframe - speed brakes, flaps
S - Security - no loose items etc
E - Engine Ts & Ps
L - Location
A - clear of air fields
B - not above built up areas
C - Clear of cloud
C - Clear of controlled airspace
D - Clear of danger areas
L - Lookout - 360 turn or 2 x 180's

Was very windy today, strong head wind from the north so it took us about 15 mins to get out above Hucknall and about 5 mins to get back, all very hurried on the way back.

Quite a good lesson, a fair amount of cloud which we were above mostly, Stuart brough us back down through a hole in the cloud, doing a steep descending turn - cool :)

Apparently we dont have to do Ex 11 spin as its not compulsory and the warrior is not allowed to do it, so Stuart suggested if i fancied a spin lesson we would take out a 152 and have a go, although its not for people who get air sick - its a bit like a roller coaster - so book me in now.

Lesson 7 : Ex 9 (Turning)

It was touch and go weather wise, when i got to the club weather was poor, but a reasonable gap in the weather was visisble to the north. I checked the aircraft out and and we kicked around for 15 mins waiting for the weather and then off we went. I did the take off and landind again, and most of the flying. Also a majority of the RT.

So we did turns today, basic rate 1 and 30 degree turns. Climbing turns and descending turns, all quite complicated varying the level out, hitting the heading etc. We also had a look at timed turns -ouch quite complicated but reasonably accurate if your HI fails.

A royal flight was in and outbound, we were kept holding to allow it in, learnt that when royal flights are in the airspace it becomes class A, so PPL minimum - no pre PPL solo flights allowed until it had gone.

Resonable lesson today, covered a fair bit and went out over Southwell. Another lesson on Sunday so fingers crossed.

Weather Stopped Play

Rain, Drizzle, Fog, what more can i say!

Lesson 6: Excercises 7+ 8 (New Instructor)

Well Lesson number 1 with my new instructor Stuart, seems like a really good guy i was a little concerned i would end up with someone i wouldnt get one with, but hes very friendly and helpfull and we got on great (he may say different though :))

Today we covered climbing and descending, powered, glide, cruise, with and without flap all went very well, alot of the cockpit, flight stuff is starting to gel now and become less stressfull and a little more second nature(ish) :)

I also did a bit more radio today, everything except the rejoin stuff.

Completed the landing and takeoff which went well, the take off seemed a little different in style to Jame's but that may just have been my approach???

Good day though - im well happy. Shame i can't go at the weekend as my wife is away and I have to look after our son Harvey, but ive got 2 or 3 lesson a week booked now, so watch this space.

Oh one point i don't feel like im improving on is the navigation, ive still not got clue where i am most of the time, but i guess/hope that will come with time.