Lesson 2 aka Pigs in Spaceeee !

Lesson: 2

19/XII/2009

• Lesson time: 0.7h


• Total time: 1.4h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: I. McFall

About a week ago, in mainland Europe temperatures started to drop. Well, here comes the proper winter. Wasn't long before South of England got a bit of snow, and there was snow forecast for Today in NI too. So I was pretty sure yesterday, what will the weather be and I was already expecting that the lesson will be canceled. Needless to say The forecast was wrong. Forecasts for the northern ireland are usually wrong. The general tendency that I see, is that usually whatever they say is going to happen anyway, but a for bit later.

I got some nasty infection last week. Had to stay at home for about 5 days, and just got back to work on Wednesday. But I was in shape for  Today, nothing can stop me ! :)

Last time, I was a bit disappointed by (lack of/the) space available in the Cessna 152, so I changed my booking to 172. As it turned out, two of four 172s are away due to either maintenance or are being fixed after some minor incidents (I got two conflicting pieces information on that one). So, back to Bonker again (G-BNKR) for the lesson. Oh well...

Instructor asked me, what I wanted to do Today. I pretty much wanted to recap last lesson, and leave a bit of time to do something new. Learning from my previous experience, I paid extra attention to where my legs are with relation to rudder pedals. And I can see clearly that I've been sitting far too close to the 'dashboard' last time. Also, the instructor I flew with Today is quite a tall guy, so he would push his chair all the way aft. Great, more space for my arms :D

Going back to the lesson. The club was rolling on 5th gear Today. Probably by combination of aircraft shortage, nice weather, weekend, and proximity of christmas (and gift vouchers due).

We did the external checks pretty quickly I gotta say - I was under impression that things are being rushed. Everything was done throughly - it was just a bit sped up. Well, two planes short is quite a bit. Plus, this is the last weekend before Christmas, so there is plenty of gift voucherers (I am pretty sure, this is an actual word, serious ;P ) ;) .

During the checks, I noticed that even tho the Bonker wasn't flown Today, L magneto didn't caused any problems this time. Must have been fixed. Good :) This time around also, my mic was working. So I could actually talk to instructor. But everything in this world my stay in balance, something else must give way, obviously - and for change I could barely hear my instructor. I bet he thought that bloody Pole just doesn't understand the word he says, I got pretty upset about it - cos the whole point is to listen to what the guy says, and attempt to do it. I told him about it, as soon as we got back. His answer was, that there are indeed some strange issues with sound on that particular aircraft. I guess it is the age thing. In aviation, everything that has direct impact on flight safety is always top-notch even on a 50 year old aircraft (not sure how old the bonker is, maybe not that much - but oldish). But there are some bits, that are not essential, thus they tend to be overlooked, and aren't maintained to as high standards.

The air was very very smooth in comparison with previous lesson. The instructor  demonstrated secondary effects of controls, etc. All the stuff that i read about for past 2 years, and I've seen already during previous lesson. After that recap, which seemed like forever, I got a chance to see if I could do it (again) all myself. Which I did (obviously ;p), and it actually felt pretty good and boosted my confidence.

Now, obviously that alone wouldn't constitute a lesson so I hoped we will try something new. And this time flaps were added to the equation. For the reminder of the lesson, I had a chance to try out trimming, power changes and flaps. And at the same time, keep the plane level, and trimmed in between exercises. That proved to be much easier than last time, I gotta say. But still, my workload was very very high. I got reminded pretty much all the times about keeping the plane level. This time around, I also tried to rely solely on visual reference. I read so many articles recently, about how the instrument flying in VFR can increase potential for accident. I also can see my tendency to not pitch up or down too much. I don't know where that comes from, but I suppose it is better to push the limits slowly, rather than the other way around.

After bit of playing, I was told to keep as at 800 feet, and head towards the EGAD and on top of that try speeding up, and slowing down, flaps, trimming and stay level. I am sure it is doable, but for me it was quite a workout.

On the approach, the instructor walked me through the landing, and how to control speed and pitch (which is done different to what you would do to achieve same effect during normal flight). Basically elevators control speed (which normally is used for pitching), and power controls pitch (which normally controls speed, and sometimes pitching). And use rudder to keep aircraft pointing in right direction, because in slow flight rudder can be actually used for small correction of heading.  The landing wasn't as smooth as previous one, but I guess this time it was the unexpected gust during flare.

This time around I didn't get a chance to taxi the plane, like I said - everything seemed to be rushed a bit, because of the shortages. Oh well, hopefully I'll get a chance next time. I was kind of hoping I'll get a chance, since I failed to do it last time - due to quite bad sitting position. Which oh irony, is something I pay extra detailed attention when driving a car. It obviously is done for different reasons than (visibility, mirror setting, steering with both hands, etc).

As far as I read also, others usually get a chance to do bit of radio work on their 2-3 lessons. I didn't get a chance yet, and I hope I will get soon. Every club does things different, and since you get a fair rotation of instructors in that one - things might take slightly longer.

On that note, this lesson really felt like a practice. To be honest, when I left club and walked to Ards city centre to catch a bus - I tried to recap of what I did Today, etc. This definitely wasn't as exciting lesson as the first one. To be honest, probably due to my high hope I actually felt initially like I just wasted my 45 minutes. It is only as I write this stuff down now, that I can see how my previous experience set the hopes for this one slightly too high, in terms of excitement. Probably what added to that, was my oversensitivity to few things that happen in the Club before lesson.

Overall, this was rather calm lesson. Not only due to the smooth air, but also because my initial overexcitement is over. I can clearly see what is where now, and what is happening on the aircraft. Yes, I get used to things quickly.

I just wish the lesson would last 1h instead of 45min (apart from the fact, that it I logs in as 0.7, that leaves me off 0.05h short for every time I fly 45min) . Maybe I'll get a chance to fly 1h next time, altho Ian, the instructor told me that it probably be too much, and that 45 min is sort of an optimal time for a lesson. At least initially. Personally I could do just turns and level flying exercises for 2h, and still not get tired of it :)

At the club house I asked instructor to show me, where about did we fly Today. Map in some other room, and I said I have my own chart here. Took out the NI sectional chart. At that point I think the guy just was sure, that I am nuts/daft/muppet. In fact I thought the whole room thought so. Nonetheless, he showed me where we were, and it just perfectly matched my assessment .

In case you wonder about the title. It is a bit of a self sarcasm really. I am a bit on the podgy side, and I always loved that line from Muppets. Plus, it sort of became the code for 'I am flying Today/Tomorrow' in conversations with one of my friends.

Next lesson booked for 29th of December. It remains to be seen, if the weather will be on my side this time. I sincerely hope so. I will probably at that stage be bored after Christmas break, and just look forward to that lesson.

• Route: Departed rwy 22, then south from EGAD along west coast of Strangford Lough and back up east coast. Landed rwy 22. (again)


• Weather: sunshine; scattered high clouds, freezing cold, but calm wind.


• Milestones: recapped exercise #4 part 1. Did  #4 part 2, and introduction to exercise #6 .