Lesson: 4
17/I/2010
- Lesson time: 1.0h
- Total time: 3.1h
- Location: EGAD
- Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)
On Saturday after the last test drive (gonna get my car soon, no more problems with getting to EGAD!, yuppie) I decided to drive through UFC on my way home and see if I could book few lessons. How big was my amazement when it turned out that there's a free slot on the very next day!. Wow. So I booked it for 17th, and some other day upcoming week, that I don't remember ...
Woke up Today, weather was great. Jumped in the car (got a rental for few days, to get a car, you need a car in this country..), choose UFC on gps, and off I went.
Turned up just 10 past 9, place was already starting to get slightly busy. Met my new instructor, I always get worried what the new guy is going to be like. Could see that he was either on fresh morning mood, or very reserved. My worries were to be soon extinguished. The guy turned out to be probably just as worried about new guys as I was :)
I learned quickly that Paul's approach is to keep a student on the leash, and if he does something stupid pull it to remind him, and if that doesn't help - intervene. Good, I like it, sounds like I'll get to do few things myself finally :) Peeked in the student's sheet, and saw that Roger gave me very good notes indeed. I've seen words like 'excellent', etc. Very nice, I thought.
Paul told me that we are going to try climbs and descends with and without flaps Today. Introduced me to PAT and APT (the latter 'fella' I knew already ;) ). Pat stands for Power, Attitude, Trim, and Apt for Attitude, Power, Trim. First one is for climbs, second one for descends. Things like lookout, and instruments are something we can omit. Also on this aircraft _before_ retracting power carburettor heat has to be _always_ applied (even when temp outside is +20).
The briefing was short, but the subject is also not very broad and I got briefed on all other concepts used in this lesson previously so there was no need to waste time.
Once done, I started to feel what Paul meant when he said that he likes to let student do as much as possible. I was asked to go on, and do external checks myself . So I left my book in the car, took my new Pooley's vest (first item of clothing that I ever purchased, that is both - for aviators, and made in England).
Opened my checklist for C152, on 'external' checks. Now, I assumed that since I got no key the aircraft will be closed, so I won't be able to check flaps. It is impossible to move them by hand. The external check basically means that you have to walk around the aircraft, and check anything that requires check, or is important to the safety.
It starts when you approach the aircraft. You need to get some good look at it, and see if there's anything that stands out. Notice any covers, locks, and anything else that could make it the worse day of your life. Move the aerilon up, and hold it. Check the strut for any movements, and remember to keep the aerilon up, otherwise it will act like a very nice and sharp guillotine. If you get a chance to put the flaps down, do it in stages and see if both move to the same angle. Move it all the way down and see outside if it moves or if it stays where it suppose to be. Any free movement spells trouble. The basic role of the flaps is to add more lift, that's sometimes required during take off and landing. In slightly more detail, the flap is extending wing's chord which affects the lift. It is very important in slow flight as it decreases stall speed, thus allows you to fly slow and safe. But it also increases the drag which counteracts thrust. Thus this puts more stress on the wing and you don't want the flaps to 'flap' freely at those slow speeds.
I checked the fuel, and the oil level also. Once done, I could see Paul heading my way. When he saw me in my new 'aviators' vest, I could see little 'I feel sorry for this guy' smile on his face :) Well, I am far from wearing anything with wings or epaulettes but the vest was a good purchase and is indeed quite warm.
To my amazement Paul just opened the door, and did indeed put the flaps down. He also did a quick check as probably he couldn't believed that I could have remember about fuel and oil. Or just maybe he wanted to survive Today's flight too :)
We jumped in happily, when it turned out that I forgot to grab headset from the club :/ Paul went on quicker than I could think, and brought one for me. We were all set. This would be the first time headset fully worked on C152 for me, yeah!
Now, in the world of aviation there's a checklist for everything. And previously all instructors would have brought their own checklist with them, so I could just happily put mine under my right leg. To my amazement, Paul kept his promise and asked me to open it on all the checks that were to follow. So every single time I had tendency to just close it, I had to bring it out again, and open on the right page. From the very start, Paul told me what and how to do, and helped me only with parking break, as it is quite tricky on the C152.
I always kept print out of the airport's chart - just in case it happens to be useful. Today Paul wanted me not only to follow all items on anything you need to do before take off. He also wanted me to handle the radio. And the chart page was very useful for that. He just wrote down few things that I was suppose to read out initially. It might seem funny, but when he first asked me to repeat the very first call you need to make I just couldn't remember it. Too stressed out, thinking that I could forget something I asked him to repeat couple of times, and finally he gave up and scribbled down: "Newtownards radio Scrabo 6 0 request airfield information and radio check". The first time I pressed the button I just managed to produce some odd sounds. So I backed off quickly, asked Paul to repeat to me again. Said it back to him, and when he confirmed that I am indeed okay, I pressed the button again, and did my very first radio call. How proud I was, when the guy on the other end actually understood my call, and replied with QNH, and all that stuff. I got reply , to set QNH to 1011 (rwy elevation is 9, so no need for QFE). I read that back, and soon we got correction. Literally within 30s it has changed to 1012. So I acknowledged that too. I got 'nice job' from Paul, which only increased my grin.
We did all the power checks, again with help of a check list. Rumour has it, that there's even a checklist for scratching your b***s and a**e. Dunno, never seen it :) And Paul asked me, if I did ever took off myself. I could feel that my pressure just got quite high, and my heart beat went up to 1000 bpm - cos I knew what will follow.
After my very lousy attempt at taxying the aircraft, I made the call again "Scrabo 6 0 taing to the rwy 22 hold". After a bit my pulse dropped to the 'normal living human being' level, Paul explained that we will now make another call, line up, and take off. He told me to relax, and just follow his instructions.
"scrabo 6 0 ready for departure". "Add the full power, release breaks, keep us on the line, and rotate at 60 knts" said Paul, so off I went. I swear, time started to run at half the peace for me from that point on. 60 knts is a bit of speed and I was just afraid that I'll get us off the rwy and we end up on grass. C152 does not have sport 16" wheels on good suspension. So that sort of incident always ends up not quite nice. Anyways, I had a little tendency to go to the right but somehow I managed to not hit lights or get on the grass before we were rolling at 60 knts. I pulled yoke gently, and little more and off I went to the sky. I was so concentrated on it, that I couldn't see if and how Paul was helping out, but I swear it felt like I did all the work, including rudder pedals !
So off we went climbing to 500 ft, than I was instructed to do the turn in climb which I somehow managed (even tho it wasn't part of the lesson). The day was indeed beautiful, and I really felt lucky that I am training there. Paul also asked me if I like the view, and would remind me to enjoy the views during the lesson. Off we went to the south of the lake (people here use word lough). I got a chance to do quite a lot myself, and Paul was very nice to gently remind me on anything that I forgot, or did wrong. I got even few 'very good job's . Indeed, I felt really proud of myself. Seriously, it is very rewarding when somebody finally notices that what you did was great. Perhaps it is because I wasn't often complimented as a child and teenager. Who knows.
After about 20 minutes, I did few climbs and descends, with and without flaps. Paul told me that he will take the control, and started to tell me about the very nice harbour on my left (Donaghadee) and asked me if I ever was on the Copeland island. I never went there, and silly asked Paul "do you need a boat to get there?". Well, obviously unless your car is an amphibia :D
He than told me to my surprise, that since I did so well he will let me do emergency descend to landing in case of power failure. I was to pick a field, but Paul spotted some grass runway and told me to head that way. Around 300 ft above ground he told me he is in control (this is the official cockpit language used on dual crew flights: "I got control", "you got control"). And he carried a very scary "go around". The runway was on slight slope up hill, and that probably made me feel like we are just going to hit it :) He than told me to take the controls back, and get us up to 1000 ft. I did so, managed to level us off, etc. He than all of the sudden started to show me how it feels to be in a very steep climb and descent. To that I replied, that it almost felt like my first lesson :)
It was the time to head back, so I got the controls and as to head to the airfield . Paul managed calls to the Belfast approach, and switched back to EGAC. At this stage he asked me to carry out the calls, but I just couldn't for some reason. Maybe it was too much for me to fly and talk, I don't know. So he managed the call, and again - he asked me if I ever landed the plane, and obviously the answer was no. We all know what happened next, and I knew I am in the trouble. I got to bring this bird down, and he is just going to sit there, tell me what to do, and in case I screw up recover from it. Again, I swear, he sat there very relaxed and haven't really touched yoke too much.
As we approached, he announced that we are on long final to the rwy 22 to which Ian (the guy from my 2nd lesson) replied that he is on base. That meant that we would have to either stop the approach or slow down, and let the man continue. Paul chose the later and made the call to Ian to tell him that. Obviously it was my chance to again manage aircraft's slowdown on flaps. I was told what to check for before landing, Paul told me that even tho C152 has fixed undercarriage it is important to remember that point on the list, as in the future I could fly one with the undercarriage retracted and, well.. shit could happen. Again, I swear I never flew the aircraft so close to the ground and made a conscious descent that if not interrupted would end up in high speed impact... But somehow I managed to overcome that, and following Paul's commands (and again, I was so concentrated that I couldn't see what he was doing, but I swear that he didn't helped me much) I commenced my very first ever landing. It was so smooth, that the stall warning buzz never sounded, either I passed out for a second, or something. Dunno. After landing, Paul told me to be gentle on breaks as we slowed down. I honestly thought we are still on the flare. But the front wheel was already rolling !. I did a shitty attempt at taxing, and we had to vacate rwy for somebody else, so Paul took control.
We went around the 'triangle', and when backtracking to apron Paul told me to try going in sine pattern on rwy. I started to like it so much, that I probably failed to understand Paul's instruction to do it once, so he took the control over to get us on centre line. Once again, I gained control over rudder breaks, and started to roll us back off rwy 22 to the apron. Yes there is after landing, and shutdown checklist too. :)
We did a quick debrief in the plane. I got a lot of compliments from the man. I really feel like I earned it, and he wasn't just trying to be nice. He also told me, that I'll be flying circuits and probably solo in no time. That remains to be seen, as I still have to go for the medical checkup, and pass the Air Law to do it (brr, quite broad subject).
Paul went over to the club house, and I got my logbook, pen and wallet from car. Got back to the club, and whilst waiting for Paul, started to fill out my logbook. Somebody asked me how was it, and how many hours I clocked, etc. Obviously the guy was nervous before the first lesson, which he will have with Paul. So I told him they all are very nice and friendly, and compliment you a lot. I guess he slightly misunderstood my attempt at being funny. So I just told him that Kiwi's (Paul is from NZ) are always very friendly, and when they need to tell you something - they will just spit it out flat, and right after that be friendly again. He obviously misunderstood my message, because it sounded like they all just try to be nice to customers (since we are customers there, no doubt about it). But don't get it wrong, if you screw up - the instructor will make you feel like you did. Otherwise you won't learn.
In general very good lesson. I am still cheesing up when thinking about it.
I am sorry but I failed at making this entry any short. And I still feel like I skipped few details here and there. But any ppl(a) student's blogs that I ever read, that were worth the read and enjoyable would be lengthy. The brief "I did ex 6,7,8" would be just not worth the read, let alone worth my time writing down.
- Route: Departed rwy 22, then south from EGAD along west coast to the north of Strangford Lough and back up east coast. Landed rwy 22.
- Exercises covered: radio calls (4.x), climb and descend (6b), and much more.
- Weather: Hazy sunshine; broken cloud at high levels near south end of lough. Very light winds.
- Milestones: Fist take off, landing, with only instructor's backup, and commands. Also, taxing and 90% of radio calls ! First lesson I drove to and from myself (I know it sounds cheesy, but I still feel great when I can drive my arse up [almost] anywhere I want).
- Purchases: My first very own headset, and a nice bag for it.
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