Lesson: 26
9/I/2011
- Lesson time: dual - 0.7h, solo - 0.4h
- Total time: 21.3h (0.7h solo)
- Location: EGAD
- Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)
- Instructor: David P
Following Yesterday's fiasco I was just hoping the ice will melt by the time I get the the club. I also hopped it won't rain/snow/whatever.
And oddly enough when I phoned the club the answer was that is fine.
Went for a walk before the lesson and the day was nice. The sun was bit low and that's always worrying. It was tiresome just driving there, and flying in the sun on finals is not a lot of fun. Trust me. Same with climbing away on take off. You can't see anything. Even sunglasses don't help much.
I sat down in the club watching some helis outside. Waiting for David to comeback from his previous lesson. He got back pretty soon.
Anyways, the subject for Today was the circuits. I wouldn't expect anything else to be honest.
Grabbed the key and me shades from the car and off I went to do the preflight. On my way there I was captured on club's webcam (bottom right, the huge bloke):
Everything was grand, half in each tank, oil at 6. All good to go. The yellow heli started its engine whilst I was taxing by. Bit worried, but David said that it didn't had its governor engaged yet so we are safe. Grand. Power-checks, checked the approach, and off we went for a straight take off.
By the time we started to fly the sun was more or less covered behind clouds. Not many but very good protection against getting blinded.
The first circuit was rather uneventful. I forgot my finals call (as I will couple more times), landing was a sack of rubbish (as most will on the day). I blamed it on the fact that I wasn't flying for a bit but truth is I know I could have done better.
Just as I applied the power to take off the aircraft started to weir off to the right hand side. And trust me, David is not to be blamed for the lack of balance.
As soon as he spotted it he said "I got controls" as he stopped the aircraft quickly. The right break for some reason was jammed, or something. Dunno. I swear I didn't pull the parking break leaver during the BUMPFICH checks too much instead of the primer. And even if that was to blame, it happened later on the day on my first touch and go but nowhere as much.
After few retries everything was back to normal so 180 deg turn around 22 threshold and I got the controls back. As we were climbing away, David cut the power and said "what are you going to do now". Dunno how it happened but all of the sudden I got a big hill in front of the aircraft and the future wasn't looking good, if that was a real engine failure we would be doomed. David said to me that for some reason I started to turn to the right. Which I swear I could not remember at that time. But the GPS track does confirm that. Anyhow, note to self don't fly straight into a hill if your engine fails. Not a good idea.
Off I went to do the remaining bit of the circuit. Again failed to do the finals call. Touch and go, no problems with breaks this time. But I did notice, that wind was changing a bit. Blowing me off to the right on final. We talked about the previous 'dont go right' moment, and whilst over water on cross wind leg, David pulled the power again. Great. Now the choice was pretty obvious, turn towards the land, pick a field, extend flaps in stages, and land. And I think I did this one bit more effectively than the previous one. He caught me by surprise, as usually instructors don't do that once we are over water. Land is very close, but still. Following a funny shaped crosswind leg I started to turn towards downwind meanwhile looking closely around for any aircraft that could be above us. In particular for microlight things. They fly lower circuits and usually their radios are just there for a good weight balance.
Next landing was probably the best one of the day. Still not something I wish people would judge me for but good nonetheless.
On climb-out, as you might have guessed, another power cut. Another field to pick, etc.
Next Landing and David asked me to taxi back to the apron to let him go. I haven't seen that but he probably kissed the ground once I turned around ;)
On my own, yuppie.
Waited for a land-rover to get off the runway, 'shhteeudent kilo romeo, ermmm entering active for immediate take off' and off I went. (yes I need to learn how to pronounce 'student' properly).
The sky has cleared at this stage, so on my climb-out I could not see my attitude, nor my speedo. Just looked to the side to see the attitude. Once I could see again, speedo was on 65 knots. Not too bad. Cleared right, and turn to the left. The circuit was rather uneventful. I think I pretty fast there, still about 150 ft below the circuit height so decided to trade some speed for height. By the time I did my checks (this time tapping on breaks twice to make sure they are off), it was time to turn base. And than finals. The landing was rather terrible, I ended up far beyond numbers. As soon as I touched (in a bit of a cross wind, so my left wheel touched first) it started to weir to the right. Not too much, so I pushed the power in and it automagically started to go straight again. Good, otherwise I would have to stop and call it a day. The plan was to do at least 3 circuits so off I went. By the time I took off there was not much runway left. Note to self, try touching down on the numbers next time please.
My next circuit was quite ok. Again, blinded by the sun. The wind picked up again as I started to descend. I can clearly see on the GPS track, that I was flying at nearly 45 deg to the downwind on the base leg. Landing was nothing to be proud off, but I have to yet do some proper training with the cross wind landings in mind. Best of course with some ballast on the right hand seat in case I do something wrong ;) I know the theory, but I have to apply it in practice.
Got blown off on the base leg, ... again. I tried correcting, but probably not enough.
The last landing was probably worse of them all, third circuit - so the last one. I left through triangle, did all the right call (me thinks) 'shhtudeent kilo romeo runway vacated'. "which one, monkey!"
There was some guy in tail-dragger landing behind me. And instead of going all the way around he started to turn in front of me as I was waiting for the runway to clear. I thought he is just trying to ram me, so I moved a bit to the left. Feeling bit guilty as I had to go past the point that in theory makes me enter the active runway but still faaaaaaar away from the edge of it.
He just turned around behind me, facing back the approach. Stopped. Good. Obviously at this stage I was turned towards the base/finals to see any incoming traffic. And there was a microlight on finals. So I waited. Just before the guy was over the threshold, the taildragger guy decided to put the power on a bit, and move forward. Dunno if he was trying to make me move, or something. Obviously he couldn't see the approach, as he was facing it back. I decided to keep my hand on the power leaver in case he makes a move or something. And obviously I didn't forget about my carb-heat whilst waiting. It wouldn't be nice if the carb clogged whilst I was trying to backtrack on the active runway :)
Just before the turn to the apron, David asked me to note down the meter. To which I just replied 'wilco', rather proud of myself that I know such sophisticated lingo ;)
There was a bit of space between two 172s and a RAF moto-glider, so I neatly turned around there watching the spacing. Previous two times after solo I did pretty much abandon the aircraft somewhere on the apron, so parking it this time was a milestone in it self. Probably the only thing I did fully right on the day.
Obviously it turned out that I did note the wrong thing, so had to go back and get the right numbers. On my way back some student next to fly the Kilo Romeo started to ask me about the aircraft key, and fuel on board. I didn't remember what was it to be honest, even tho I looked at the fuel gauge on my last down-wind check.
This time I didn't note the number down, but just tried to remember it in my head. Obviously as soon as the guy started to ask me about fuel and the key I was afraid I might just need to make another trip down to the aircraft. But luckily I did remember it :)
During the flight I noticed that I do sometimes need more rudder when turning finals. I asked David if it is due to the wind perhaps. The simple explanation is that it is just a visual illusion. And adding too much rudder close to the ground, slow speed, etc, is not a good idea. So it was good that I did have a glance at the slip-ball to make sure I am not overdoing it.
All in all, my longest solo so far. Next lesson booked for next week. Hopefully ice/snow won't be a threat by that time.
Also, I think I should get some award for the longest entry that just describes flying 7 circuits ... Seriously. I wish I was writing code that fast.
- Route: T/O RWY22 circuits
- Milestones: none, if so, regression
- Exercises covered: circuits
- Weather: Mostly clear, gusty, quite sunny. Sometimes dazzling on t/o.
