Lesson: 29
19/III/2011
- Lesson time: dual - 0.6h,solo - 0.4.
- Total time: 24.6h (1.1h solo)
- Location: EGAD
- Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)
I hate 9 o'clock flying. I always sleep in. Today's not exception. Got in the car 8:50, phoned the club. Some unexpected voice picked up. I said I'm running late.
About 20 minutes later, and few racers trying to catch me on the dual carriage way (speed limit is 70 mph, so stop blocking me silly people) I got to the club. And I was for the shock.
It's Rodger. Long time no flying togetha !. I said to him 'you do realise its saturday'. He _never_ works weekends, much to my unhappiness because he is one of the best guys there.
Preflight, usual stuff. Engine was a bit cold (it was below zero at night). Everything fine, off we go.
Rodger said - the deal is simple, you fly few circuits with me just being a 90+ kg ballast and then you do few solo ones.
Also, the deal was that the first one is uneventful. And so it was. Actually its two weeks since the last one and I hardly noticed.
On the second one (as expected), to add a bit of a cheer Rodger pull the power and crossed his hands :) Nice. Fortunately I got it nicely trimmed, aimed for the right field.
On the third one Rodger told me to do flap-less, which I did. Unfortunately some virtual cock decided to drive onto our runway and I had to do a go-around. Handled nicely, Rodger was happy.
Fourth one was a glide one, so I got the power pulled on downwind 'oops, what do we do'. It went well. I was a tad short of the numbers, lesson learned.
As we were doing these circuits, I noticed that the wind was starting to get stronger. On the go around there, we were tossed all over the place over the runway.
One more circuit, and Rodger let me out on my own.
Everything was fine until I got to the finals bit. Again, the wind started to toss me about. And I ended up - in my mind too high to continue. So I applied the power nicely. C152 is not very powerful, but I got nearly 1000ft climb rate there, with full flaps, and speed was around 70 knots. I turned the trim towards neutral because the amount of force I had to apply was just enormous.
And off I went. Over the downwind I wasn't quite happy, but took few deep breaths with yoga-like movements of my head and hands to calm myself down. It was quite windy.
Second approach was much better, but somehow I managed to bounce quite high. High enough to decide that it is time to go-around. Again. Now , only this time I knew that as I pushed the power I had to push the yoke quite hard to keep it level. Which I did, and Rodger later confirmed that my second go-around looked very good.
You can imagine my frustration on downwind on this one, but I said to myself - ok, that's it, time to land. I am getting over my comfort zone here, and not enjoying it properly.
I was ready to go around if something happens again, don't get me wrong. But this time I came down just nice.
Before you say that Rodger should not have sent me solo in first place, to be honest conditions were very good when we did the last circuit. I learned quite few lessons Today.
Let me share (and write it down for my own record). First, when you go around. The aircraft is trimmed to descend. You will have to apply quite a bit of force to keep it level. But it is important to do so.
(of course need to take the flaps off in stages goes without saying). Secondly, It is important to aim for the numbers, and refocus to the end of the runway as you round out. I don't think I did it right Today.
Rodger took quite a bit of time to talk me through that stuff Today. And also said he was happy to see that I took the decision to go around. There's nothing worse then pilot trying to salvage a landing.
And I'm glad I did it too. I would have learned nothing good if I did try to salvage landings and everything was okay.
The first approach apparently, from Rodger's perspective was looking good. But it was probably the wind that made me decide to go around. The bounce on the second one was high enough so I had the time to take that decision. I've seen some youtube videos with people bouncing on landing and ending up with bent prop. Don't like to repeat someone else's mistakes myself.
All in all. First time I went around myself, solo. And I'm proud of it :P
First go-around
Second:
Flap-less mini circuit ;) :
- Route: T/O RWY22 circuits, flapless, EFATO, go arounds.
- Milestones: solo go arounds.
- Exercises covered: circuits.
- Weather: quite a gust, but apart from that beautiful day.
Nothing wrong with the odd go around. I had to do one myself on Saturday. My record for a single landing is 3 (1 down to me being too high, another down to the aircraft ahead not clearing the runway, third due to another aircraft taking the runway while I was on final).
ReplyDeleteIt shows good decision making and airmanship to realise you've got something wrong and elect to have another try.
Andy
Thanks. I wasn't sure I made the good decision on the first one. According to the instructor I was at good altitude. But as you can see on the gps tracks, I was high, and then managed to loose some height quick before the runway. I decided it wasn't probably a good idea to follow up on that sort of path, and call it quits. Second time - bounced - terrible thing to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words :) I will certainly not try to match your record, but if need be I will go around even 10 times.
And as everyone has said in the club, now that I did it solo - it shows that I am not afraid to do it.
A good maxim is "If there's a doubt, there is no doubt". In other words, if you're not entirely sure you can make it, it's probably best not to try.
ReplyDeleteIt's all good experience.
Andy