Lesson: 18
28/VIII/2010
- Lesson time: 0.5h
- Total time: 14.0h
- Location: EITM ( Trim aerodrome http://www.trimflyingclub.ie/ for more info )
- Aircraft: EI-DCC (C172)
- Instructor: William Treacy
I got a newsleter from Flyer Magazine on the other day, and finally - it says, that there's a flyin nearby (ie, on the patch of land I live on currently). Decided to go, and have a look.
So, got my breakfast, and jumped in the car. 97 miles later, we got to a very nice rural area of the rep of Ireland, co Meath. I saw one aircraft on its finals, but couldn't really find an entrance to the aerodrome. Of course, my trusty iPhone came to the rescue, as always in that sort of situation :)
We parked in, and went to have a look around. In general, it is a farm strip, with a two little buildings one used as instructor's hq, and the other one as general clubhouse. From the start, you could tell, that they are not used to visitors. I didn't felt out of place, or unwelcome, but you could see, that everyone knew each other, and you didn't knew anyone :)
[caption id="attachment_148" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="View at the apron, all the visiting aircraft"]
[/caption][caption id="attachment_147" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="View at the apron, all the visiting aircraft cont"]
[/caption]Nonetheless, I decided to ask someone if it is possible to have a ride with instructor. I was pointed at a very nice chap name William, as it turns out he is the CFI. We got there around 15:30, and he said it might be a while later before I could actually go and have a go. Well. It would be a wasted day otherwise.
We spent a bit of time with Kate, looking around the aircraft on the apron. She was quickly bored with all that, as since we knew no one, and I only had breakfast, we decided to have something to eat at the nearby town of Trim. Plus, the club doesn't take cards ,so cash and fly is the name of the game. I needed some paper.
Trim is a small town, with a very nice castle. And quite few places to eat. We went there to have something to eat, got some cash out (as it turned out, the diner was taking cash only too, what a place..), and went off to see the castle. The entrance was 3 euro, just to see a patch of 3 acres, so imo wasn't worth it. We just went around the castle to see the place. It is a very nice place indeed. Very quiet for Saturday, and all in all very nice.
[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="myself in front of the Trim Castle "]
[/caption]Went back to the aerodrome, I got ahold of William, and told him that I am still very keen on getting up. I guess the guy was either staggered, or couldn't believe that I am still willing to stick around. :) There was some chap having his PPL exams taken, and he was waiting for an instructor. There was an aircraft waiting and prepared for him, so William didn't wanted to use it. Meanwhile, the aircraft I wanted to go in, EI-DDC, has been away with another student. So had to wait for them to comeback.
At around 18:00, I saw the aircraft coming back, for touch and go. And than after a circuit, they landed for full stop.
Few minutes later William said, that it is the time :D I couldn't be happier. Altho, after them few hours of waiting, it probably didn't show. Mind you it was windy, and we were waiting outside all the time.
Went to the aircraft, for a preflight. As with every CFI , William was very through in his preflight checks. And I also learned few new things.
For instance, they use wooden spoons (serious) instead of dip sticks, to check fuel levels. This is because, they don't want them to drop into the tank. Very wise. But seemed to me very odd indeed. We then went on to take some fuel samples, and they were all great.
Went around the aircraft as well, and William pointed me at few things that I've never checked. For instance, he checked stall warner with his lips. Serious, you just have to put your mouth around it, and suck in a bit of air. Never seen anyone doing it to be honest. I shared couple things that I would do. Every single guy would do checks more or less differently (and I am talking about extra things outside of the checklist). So you learn every single time, you talk to some other pilot. I like it about that profession. People are not shy in sharing things. They know, every single thing you share, could save someone else's life one day.
[caption id="attachment_146" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="The aircraft for the lesson"]
[/caption]It was also understandable, that William - never seeing me before in his life - was going through things with me, as if I never flew an aircraft before. Quite strange feeling, as so far I've been flying with people who at least had access to my records. So could see that I've been doing things.
I jumped in, and very first thing I noticed, was that instruments were in different spots from what I normally would see in Ards on 172.
One of the first things on the checklist, even before you start an engine, is to extend flaps. And there's the first foobar that I encountered. Where the hell is the flaps thingie. Needless to say, there was nothing like it on the panel. I was slightly puzzled. It turned out, that on the older 172s you get 3 way switch, and a gauge. So you need to operate the flaps, and check the gauge to see where they are at.
Another new thing I learned, was to check the ailerons, first to the left, and count one-two, moving yoke to sides. And than same thing for right. They obviously need to move in different direction.
Started the engine, and there's another gotcha. Where the heck did all engine monitoring stuff go. It turned out to be on the other side, Again William had to point me to it.
We went off. Never ever before did I had a chance to taxi on a grass. So first word of advice was, sloooow. Much slower than would I would do in Ards. Another thing, he showed me, was to test some of the instruments whilst taxing. Just do few turns on the runway backtrack, to see how things are moving. Nice. I did a bit of mess when turning for the power checks. So my instructor took over again.
I lined up, started to push the power slowly in. As always, was told to do it quicker. Rotated, and it turned out again, that I pulled too much. As it turned out, the ASI is in mph not knots.
William than asked me to level off at 2000 ft, probably due to the dublin airport zone above us. Obviously, I did a mess of that. Pulled the power too early.
Than was a procession of failures. But that's my point in getting a go with someone else, somewhere else. Originally I wanted to do this back at home, but my cash buckets were running out.
He than proceed to ask me to get slightly higher up, make few turns. Than a bit of approach configuration training, trimming, etc. I did a bit of mess of everything, but was much better than last time I was doing all that to be honest.
We went a bit to the north, than turned west. All I could see were collection points on , what I thought was M1, but it was M3. It was time to head back. To be honest, nothing on the ground looked familiar. I of course, never been up in the air in the area before. And there's another thing, if you look down, and search for a farm strips, there's a surprise. There's farms wherever you look, with exception of some small towns.
I was guided as to how to set it for an approach. So far, my past quite few lessons were in 152, so I had to be told what to set to what. And as always, I was too low on the approach. (btw, I tend to do same errors in X-Plane, when I tried my skills on approach there).
William took over the landing, as again, we flew together for the first time, and of course he couldn't trust me that I would do it right.
I did a bit of taxing back to the apron in front of the club, but William parked the aircraft on a nice little concrete patch where it will be parked.
During the debrief, William explained to me why and what we did, which only agreed with my suspicions. That he was trying to see what can I do. He was very aware, that most things I did wrong were due to differences in the aircraft. One biggest criticism he had, was that I wasn't able to keep headings too well. It is something that have happened to me many times in 172s before. The more powerful engine, makes the yaw much more noticeable than in 152. In 152 I pretty much don't have to use much of the rudder to correct it, whilst 172 is very demanding in this regard. Of course, bank being secondary effect of the yaw, uncorrected, caused us to deviate of the course. And obviously, since I did a lot of power changes in the air, required rudder would be different depending on the power set at a particular moment.
I paid my fee, got back to my car. We headed back, but I needed a bit of rest on the way, I was so knackered. We stopped at a random petrol station, to fill it up. Since I had some euros left, I wanted to spend them. Plus I always like to fill it up, when it is under half full (or over half empty). Of course had to encounter some of my compatriots, showing off not so good attitude. No wonder locals than look down on me, because of my origins. Well...
On my way home, literally 2 streets away from the house, I got stopped by nice folks from PSNI. The PC that stopped me, told me that he can smell alcohol from me :D . Funny, cos I wasn't drinking since the beginning of July. I think he smelled my windscreen wash, as it was raining, and I just sprayed my windscreen massively before turning into that particular street. So 5 minutes later I was free to go home, and finally crash on my bed after a very exhausting day indeed. (it is a 2h drive each way, to/from dublin area from where I live).
- Route: Departed to the north, for general handling, than went to the west, and back to the aerodrome.
- Milestones: First flight outside of EGAD, and first one on a grass strip.
- Exercises covered: General Handling
- Weather: scattered low clouds, quite windy, and some rain.
