Lesson 40 (yes, 40..)

Lesson 40


29/XII/2012

• Lessons time: dual - 0.6h, solo - none


• Total time: 37.6h (1.1h solo)


• Route: EGAD , RWY 22


• Aircraft: G-UFCL (Tecnam 2002JF)

It looked this morning as if I won't be able to fly Today. But often times weather in Belfast and Newtownards are two different beasts. It was raining in the morning, but managed to clear out when I went out the house.

It seemed clear enough when I got to the club. But turned out to be rather windy.

We went off to do circuits Today (again, ..). I knew wind was strong, but it was also pretty gusty. I was told to keep the speed on climb out a bit higher, just to keep it safe. Still, climb out was a workout (usually isn't).

First circuit happened rather fast. Before I knew it I was way over the point I should have turned base. Tailwind. Some of these things are so obvious, but when you think about everything you do in the aircraft - it's sometimes hard to be thinking about these simple things, such as - your downwind ground speed is going to be higher when there's strong wind. Or that you actually have to allow for wind on the crosswind leg. So the first circuit reminded me of that very much so. Learning something, yay.

Landing was okish, if you don't count the wind. It went through my mind on finals, that for a simple circuits I was quite busy keeping it relatively in the right attitude.

Next circuit I allowed for cross-wind, on the crosswind leg (duh), which also made the downwind more manageable. Altho by the time I went to do my downwind call,  I was already quite far away.
On finals to the second one, instructor asked me if I would like to make the next one full stop - no point in fighting through the wind here. It's like he just read my mind :-) .

Last circuit was flap-less. so 70 knots instead of 65.
Finals felt bit different of course, quite different attitude. That also meant that I flared too early and I did a bit of a bounce on landing there.

All in all, enjoyable 0.6h. Quite a workout tho :-) My only thought was, Imagine landing like that after 2h of cross country flight. All of the sudden everything starts to happen really fast and so on.

A chat at the end in the club, reminded me that I really need to get some progress here. I've been doing circuits for ... goodness knows how long. I do really enjoy this, don't get me wrong - but some progress is required.

• Milestones: flap-less landing in Tecnam


• Exercises covered: 12/13


• Weather: Quite windy, gusty

Lesson 39 - Yes, oh the circuits

Lesson 39

28/XII/2012

• Lessons time: dual - 0.8h, solo - none


• Total time: 37.0h (1.1h solo)


• Route: EGAD , RWY 15


• Aircraft: G-UFCL (Tecnam 2002JF)

Another 9:00 lesson. I missed one Yesterday. Because I'm a monkey, and forgot to put that one in calendar (but I got all others in !).

But Today, Today was good. I got up (barely), city was clear. I had problems going to sleep last night (too much work, neurones firing up) .
Anyway, got the the club. Early this time (8:50, success). Instructor was sitting at the reception looking at the weather and such. It didn't sound good. But after a bit of thinking, he decided to go up and try it. If it was to get worse, it will be later in the day.
So guys got the aircraft out. I could see the procedure of 'burping' the oil for the first time on that aircraft (it's done by guys preparing the aircraft, not studs doing the preflight). Takes few more propeller turns then it says on the checklist.

Done the preflight, Instructor came in. I felt a bit uncertain about my actions, following the pressure during fly-out.

Because the wind was coming from over the loch, we used runway 15. Short runway, with finals coming over the city (and psni station!) . The mast over the PSNI station sort of gives you an idea of height. If' you're on the right path, mast will be well over - but it's still a good idea to keep it to your left - to see it.
Anyway. Circuits were ok. I had a bit of wind towards end - so crosswind got a bit extended.
Big thing was focus on loosing speed first, then altitude (put the nose up, pull the power a bit, and maintain 1k ft whilst speed bleeds off). I probably said it already before, but this thing is like a sports car. Takes practice to control it.
First landing was a full stop. I landed bit long. As I was taxing back to the hold, Instructor took the time to explain to me yet again that I need to control speed with attitude, and height with power on downwind/base/finals. It'll click one day. I'm sure :-)
Another climb out, again forgot to loose lights at 300ft. Again got pushed a bit further (wind was picking up, and slowing changing direction) on crosswind. I think I said to Instructor that I'll pull the power to reduce speed. Ooops. He patiently told me once again that its attitude power not the other way. Man has patience. Buckets of it.
Another nice touch/go landing, another time I forgot lights. Monkey.
Cloudbase was bit lower, and I extended downwind a bit more (of course not on purpose). It started to become very shaky.

Touch and go, Instructor helped with raising flaps before I put the power up. This is where you have to look at the runway, to keep aircraft on the centreline (or there abouts), raise flaps - which requires a peek at the gauge that's on the other side of the aircraft. Flaps up with right hand, that also handles the power. Again, what a daft idea. By now I'm used to the trim. It isn't so bad actually. But the flaps...  Please. Like someone said last time: "*shrug* it's italian".

Of we went. I managed the power much better this time.
On finals Instructor said to me - make that a go around. I think he was satisfied with my performance, and wanted to see how I'll do g/o. And if you read this blog for a while, you'd know I have plenty of practice in solo g/os.

Off we went, forgot lights at 300ft again. It was really shaky on downwind and base this time. On base the aircraft was actually up and down like a ball in lottery shuffling machine. Somehow I managed to get the speed right. Instructor even covered speedo to show me that I can do it without looking. And I did it. First time I managed the right attitude for the Tecnam, not Cessna.
Turned finals, the gust was so bad, that at some stage starboard wing dropped and for few seconds we were in 30deg bank to the right. Instructor had to unfold his hands in hurry to cover it - but I think I managed to get us straight again (so to speak). Perfect approach (or so I was told). Apparently I demonstrated short field landing technique there. I got the aircraft straight from crab so quickly on flare there and touched down nicely.

And that was it. Circuits. How much I love you. Bit shaken by the winds, but otherwise nice fun. £120 shorter, but as always - most fun for that money you can have - in my opinion.

Fun!

I started doing air law tests, etc because I need it to go solo. And I would love to do my solo consolidation on the Tecnam sooner then later. That would be a true progress.

GPS track:

• Milestones: Gusty, bit of a cross wind landing in Tecnams


• Exercises covered: 12/13


• Weather: Very warm (for the time of year, around 10 deg), windy, 10-12 knt

First Fly out

Club Fly Out


16/XII/2012

• Lessons time: dual - 2.2h, solo - none


• Total time: 36.2h (1.1h solo)


• Route: EGAD->EGPK->EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCM (Tecnam 2002JF)

My first fly out. The original plan was to fly to Aran Islands (of west south coast of Ireland, Father Ted was filmed there). But weather over Shannon was shite, so.. The backup plan, was to go to Edinburgh (Fife) to visit aviation museum over there. 

I got to the club pretty early. Even the fella who takes airplanes out and prepares them for the day wasn't there yet (~7am). Guys started to arrive, once someone with the key to the club arrived - people started to pour in. The atmosphere was a bit chaotic, at least amongst students.

Fast forward, I finally got to the aircraft, quick check and start up. 

Once up, we bid farewell to Newtownards radio and switched over to Belfast. This is where my poor RT started to 'shine'. Never mind that radio was very busy, with the whole initial rush I started to loose track of what was said, etc. All together there were 3 aircraft flying, with one or two of them ahead of us - we could pretty much listen and hear what they said, what they got back, and expect to get the same thing. That was very helpful.

I had a chance to VOR tracking in live situation, I think this was a first time I actually got a chance to see how its done. 

I was very surprised how close Scotland really seems to be from up there. Once we were about half way between Ireland and Britain - we had to switch over to Scottish. I had to call them few times, I don't think they got me first time around.

Oh well, of course I managed to cock up simple instructions and read it back properly. Also, the fact that it was a new place, I wasn't quite familiar with names, instructor was holding the map, so I couldn't just dive in and read it off it. (Buts... I know). It was fairly easy to make out where we were, towns, etc. There are some distinctive features around Loch Ryan.

Following the coast, we got the usual - asking us to report when over X. Etc. Not eventful. The instructor took that time to show me things on the map, and how I could pick the more distinctive features. Basic navigation stuff. Of course, last time I done navigation was about 2 years ago - so, every little helps :-)

Once over Heads of Ayr, we were asked to contact Prestwick approach. Which we dully did.
This is where my radio dance started again. I completely cocked up read back, so helpful instructor jumped in and handled the radio.

For some bizarre reason, I didn't register the fact that controller asked us to do a loop (orbit), to allow a separation between ourselves and C172 on finals in front of us. So again, instructor read that back, and said the ominous "I have control" and swung us to the left, gave it back to me, to continue the loop.

Then the base, and finals to runway 13 at Prestwick. I've heard all the stories about how large these things are, but seeing it with my own eyes is a different thing... My idea was to let it float and slowly descent. Unknown to me, I didn't pull the power all the way (oops). So now what happened is a classic landing fsck up. You 'almost' flare (trying to float over the runway). I'm too high, of course - since the runway is so wide - I misjudged it. Stall warner sounds, I grab the power to pull it all the way to idle, and we sink in. Since we were high, we bounce off... And then again.. And third time lucky we landed. That's my first land away at major airport. Now, we touched down about 100m down from the numbers. And controller tells me to taxi to exit Quebec, then through taxiway Sierra to apron Zulu (or something to that effect). Now (have a look at the plate) that's the very last turn on the right from RWY13. That's 2986m runway :-) So imagine taxing all the way (about 2km...). Takes a while. Of course I managed to cock up that read back too. But somehow controller was nice enough to say 'read back correct'. I should really really back everything, not just numbers and names. So not just 'Exit quebec, Taxi sierra to Zulu', but 'exit quebec, taxi way sierra to apron zulu', etc.

Anyway, we did shut down, etc. Went for quick tea, and I had to pack my arse into G-UFCI. Back of it to be precise. Now, it's no secret that I need to loose some weight. Back of C172 isn't exactly suitable for guys like me. Felt more like front of C152, or even worse. But I managed. I think this was thanks to the fact that the fella sitting next to me was much thiner then me :-)

In the back of CI, flying to Cumbernauld. Ryanair jet behind us waiting to enter the runway. 

This leg to Cumbernauld was rather uneventful. Apart from the fact that we didn't get answer from Microlight site we overflew. But then, we were well over their ATZ. Guys behind us, on the other hand, got told off by that station's operator for not calling in.. I think he wasn't just hearing the transmissions. Dunno, I didn't even see it from where I was. (I think it was Strathaven, not sure). I decided to concentrate on listening to RT, and enjoying the views. Landing at Cumbernauld was very good, quite busy little airport.
I unfolded myself, and packed out of the aircraft, and we went off to the main building.
Original plan to fly further east to Fife got binned, due to the weather forecast there - so we went off and ordered our lunch.

After lunch it was time to plan the return. Initially the plan was to flight direct to EGAD. That meant that this will be quite long leg. Original plan (that one that included flying to the south west of Ireland) and seating arrangement assumed that there will be 4 legs. I was suppose to be flying first and last one in Tecnam. Of course I wanted to fly as much as I could - I can't just sit there and wait for everyone else to allow me to fly :-) So with direct flight back, I would loose that chance. About 10 minutes later, with some people already planning their long navigation - someone mentioned fuel and head wind. So plan to fly direct was scrapped, and we decided to fly to Prestwick again, and then to EGAD. Good for me I thought :-) That meant more people got to fly bit more.
So off we went.
Some photos I took on our way back to aircraft:

So off we went to Prestwick. Again, very uneventful leg. The controller at Glasgow was very nice this time, she even asked us if we want to go through the zone. Despite the fact that we already had everything planned to go around! How cool is that. To be fair, they seemed to be very quiet at the time. She only had to ask one aircraft (Easyjet) to remain over 5k ft until such time she tells it otherwise. But that guy was miles away anyway. So we had a chance to fly over some nice wind farms. That also meant that we need to pick up height (in case donkey quits).

Landing at Prestwick was uneventful (unlike mine earlier on). This time the guy who flew C172 (Can't remember his name!, sorry!) - had similar idea to mine, but at least execution was better. He flew over the runway for a bit before flaring.

We taxied over to the same Apron again (apron Zulu), and idea was to just switch over and fly back.
But I noticed during the preflight that we had puncture and right hand side tyre was without air :/

Turned out - there was some very helpful mechanic at Prestwick who said he'll look into it, he had the tyre and the tube. Happy days.
Took him about an hour to change it in the mean time we went through map and went through the navigation planning. I got to say, I pretty much forgot everything since my last navex. One of the reasons I decided to go for the fly-out was ability to see others in action and perhaps learn something.

We got everything nicely planned, I even refreshed my knowledge about using 'flight computers' to calculate wind, etc. It was good that I remembered to take it with me. About the time

I was tasked with booking out procedure. Which was dead easy, turned out - not only everything is written down above phone but also helpful lady at the Tower said she has all the details from previous book out (before we lost the tyre) and she's just going to change times. Happy days.

So off I went to do a preflight, and pack all my stuff in. We also took with us the tyre and tube that was punctured, apparently these shouldn't burst so easily - so it can be sent back to manufacturer, etc. Not my business anyway, it's a club's aircraft.

Fired her up, and off I went to do the first call. Of course, I got so much information back, that I fscked up on read back. Basically I got everything including which taxi way to take and after departure, which way to turn and towards which point. With quite few 'ehm's and 'ah's I got the blessing ("G-CM read-back correct") . Taxied all the way to the point Mike (I think it was), did the power checks, and off we went. On climb out I managed to turn to the left instead of right after take off. Quickly corrected, oops.

This time there was far more cloud around and you could see that we had a bit of head wind. Certainly the ground speed felt like we were going slower (final time also confirmed that).
I never had to go around clouds before, so this was fun. Otherwise, it was pretty uneventful leg.

We switched over to Scottish FIR, guy there was happy enough to tell us what the weather is like in Belfast. Then few minutes later, to our surprise - he told us, he has info from Newtownards, including that RWY is 22, and lights are going to be on (we knew that by the time we get there, it is going to be night VFR, and 22 is the only runway with lights). Again few bimbles around clouds, then we started to see Donaghadee and light houses there. The one at Donaghadee is rubbish as a navigation way point - you simply cannot see it, it seems to be very faint (I'm sure it's fine when you're in a boat!) and blends in with city lights at night. There was another one to the left, much brighter. I was told about nice feature of charts, lighthouse information ! Each light house will have its own frequency of blips. Say 4 white blips every 30s. That way, just by looking at it - you can tell which one is which. Seems obvious, but I didn't know about it.

Once closer to Donaghadee I started to visibly sink in. It also was rather dark. I'm sure not as dark as it was on the ground, but still - we were in night vfr. One of the problems with night flying, I was told  -is that you cannot judge height and speed as well as during day. The texture of the ground features isn't visible at all, etc. I could see that I lost a bit of height myself. Instructor's comment was "keep her lit" :-D So I did add a bit of power to get us back to 1000 ft. (at this stage, we had to fly lower, due to clouds, plus we were already close to the airport).

Once over Donaghadee, I started configuring aircraft for landing. Again, thinking that I'm further away then I really was. Instructor did the landing (night vfr).
Landing at night is really something new, so I'm looking forward to doing that later on. (you need to have 10 hours solo including nav solo done beforehand tho).

Taxi back, shutdown and back in the club.

Overall, I did enjoy it very much. Loads of new things, new experiences, etc.

Fact is, I learned a lot during that 2.2 hours. More then I would doing circuits, or even flying one of the regular nav-exs around NI. But it seems that fly-outs is something for someone with more experience and who is much closer to the skill test then myself.

So all in all, win :-)

The additional excitement of broken tyre, observing how to deal with strange situations (finding someone to change tyre), booking out (:P), all that was also great. Not to mention, first land away somewhere else - even if it wasn't the best landing ever.

• Milestones: First land away at large airport, bit of night vfr, loads of RT that I never done before, flight over water and loads more that I simply forgot. 


• Exercises covered: Nav


• Weather: Some clouds, Getting bit worse later on, partial night vfr on the last leg

Lesson: 38

12/XII/2012

• Lessons time: dual - 1.1h, solo - none


• Total time: 34.0h (1.1h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCL (Tecnam 2002JF)

I got to the club earlier. Yeah. Karma is a bitch. Turned out, there was some mixup in staffing. And pretty much there was no instructor for about an hour. It's alright, I was late twice - I deserve a bit of spanking ;)
I managed to do a bit of work in the meantime, got some tea from the restaurant (£1.40..). Not bad. Michael showed up first, taking some lady for a spin in C172, and I got permission to preflight Tecnam.
That done, I just sat there again for a bit. Instructor showed up not too much after that, and we were ready to go.

It was a lovely morning, so we got cracking on with circuits. I never flew circuits in Tecnam, so it was all new to me.

From the first circuit, it felt like wind is picking up (cross wind), and also - my dear <whatever> - this thing is fast !. No wonder you have to use a lot of right rudder to counteract prop-wash. This thing probably has 2x more power then needed for such a light aircraft. Never before did I have to keep right rudder pressed a bit in left hand climbing turn !

Needless to say, downwind happened very fast. But gladly, I've done fast checklists before. Idea is to just go through every knob and lever, gauge, etc from left to right - and check them. David P showed me that first (Hi!), and it seems to be much better then fixing yourself on only certain instruments.

Before I could say 1,2,3, we were on turning point (or perhaps beyond even), and I had to turn base. Again, very fast aircraft. You need to react quickly. So I did cock up speed on base, but managed to salvage it on finals. Finals for 22 are over the city - so there's plenty of time. There's a wee hill on left hand side with cemetery (apparently a good point to shoot for, if donkey quits) - it gives a false impression that you're too low. It caused me to go around few times before. So it was good to hear from Instructor that I'm not alone thinking that.

After the first circuit - we've heard on the radio that wind has changed and that Michael wants to send student in C172 solo if weather permits, so we should shift to runway 15. So we extended downwind, called it crosswind, and got cracking on.

First approach to 15, I managed to cock up totally. Height ok, but speed was over 70, no drag flaps extended, so instructor asked me to go around.

After that, next circuit - again, very fast aircraft, shorter runway, I ended up nearly over belfast zone on downwind before I could say 1,2,3. Lesson learned, gave me loads of time tho to prepare for finals and then landing.

I think I managed to screw up once more, but gradually I got ahold of the aircraft's speed and handling.

It is a very very fast aircraft. Seriously. Don't be fooled folks. It looks tiny, and takes only two person on board - but otherwise. Great wee aircraft.

Few more circuitous, uneventful really. Few birds around, so I was looking around to avoid them. I had two slots booked initially, one for 9 and then break for someone else, and me again. But I could already see clouds coming from north-east direction (over the loch) and wind was picking up (basic reason why runway changed to 15). So we decided to do few more circuits, in case weather deteriorates.
Instructor did one circuit, showing me how he would handle it, slowing down etc. He is basically pulling power, extending t/o flaps, etc on downwind/base turn, so already lands on base with slower speed and so on. Makes a lot of sense.
Then it was my turn, I did two more circuits, and we landed safely.
Have to say, in the 152 I always felt like rwy 15 was too short. In this thing, it feels like there's just so much space. And the power of that engine... wow.

One thing I noticed, I flew pretty much whole way (apart form that one circuit, and go around) by myself. Even the small screw ups, Instructor was happy to leave me to fix them. And was also quite happy to hear that I knew about the issues. Which was encouraging.

I asked him the 1M$ question, would he send me solo - if I had my exams in order. And the answer was not yet. I need to apparently practice go arounds in this thing first. Fine with me. If you read my blog for a while, you know I'm a go-around champ ;) Simply can't get enough of them.

As always, the required GPS track:

• Route: EGAD-> 22/15-> EGAD


• Milestones: circuits! (never thought I'd be so excited about them)


• Exercises covered: 12/13


• Weather: Quite nice initially, then wind. 

Lesson 37 - Stalls and such

Lesson: 37

11/XII/2012

• Lessons time: dual - 1.2h, solo - none


• Total time: 32.9h (1.1h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCL (Tecnam 2002JF)


• Instructor: Gavin M.

I got to the club earlier - thinking that I'll maybe get two slots instead of just one. Well, that at least gave me loads of time to do preflight this time. That finished, I ended up sitting in the aircraft for about 30 minutes, sort of reading checklist entries back end. 

Once Gavin arrived, we got cracking on. For some reason, I was rather slow on that day - so things were slow as well. We went off towards peninsula. Gavin insisted that I'll do the RT myself, but of course I managed to cock it up, and he had to talk to Belfast. 

We went up to 3000ft (you need extra altitude to do stalls and spins and such) and started off with HASELL checks. I did cock up a bit, not reading about it in the book prior to lesson. It was very visible.

Gavin was showing me each manoeuvre first, starting with proper stall in normal configuration. I tried it couple times, but each time I cocked something up - I had a feeling that there's something wrong. This had a strange effect on me, I started to doubt myself a lot. Gavin was very patient with me tho. 

Then we moved on to do 'dirty' stalls (on final approach) with flaps, etc. Base turn stalls, etc. Just the usual. I've already done stalls before, so I won't cover it all here again. 

There were some clouds around, but far away, and we did stay well clear of them. But it is nice to watch skies from above. I'm still amazed :-) The clouds also forced me to turn around few times, where otherwise I would be able to continue on. 

I had a feeling that Gavin wasn't 100% happy with my performance. Like I mentioned before, a lot of it is due to the fact that I didn't refresh my knowledge and run a mental exercise. This is something I recommend to any friends I'm teaching driving, or doing refreshing drives with. To sit at home, and imagine you are doing manoeuvres. It allows you to run through everything in slow motion. I think I picked it up first, when reading Leia's blog. Then reading on advanced driving. It makes a lot of sense. It is also a good idea to do it with RT. Get instructor or someone who know's their RT well in the club to do it with you. It's fun. And it helps to practice it, when not flying, in relaxed atmosphere. 

It was time to go back, this time my RT wasn't that bad (still not perfect tho). 

I joined on base for 04, and landed it quite nicely. For some reason it seemed like the aircraft is taxing sideways. Dunno why. But we were ok :-)

As with every CFI, I was told to slow down with taxing, but otherwise, it was smooth. 

Mandatory GPS track:

• Route: EGAD-> over peninsula-> EGAD


• Milestones: stalls covered in the new aircraft


• Exercises covered: 10b


• Weather: Quite nice, still, bit of cloud here and there. 

Lesson: 36

10/XII/2013

• Lessons time: dual - 0.8h, solo - none


• Total time: 31.8h (1.1h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCL (Tecnam 2002JF)

First of all, I was late Today. Again. Rodger was nice enough about that - but I knew I cocked up. 

It really is a bad idea to be late folks. You end up pushing the slots for people later on and generally you end up being labeled as a big stupid cock. Please don't do that (that's to you future Greg). To the guy who was next after me, sorry buddy. 

After having to apologise for being late, I went on to do my first preflight on my own. I took my time, but ended up skipping the engine stuff (oil, etc) - it's a new aircraft to me, and I need not to be late to do it with instructor properly before attempting to do it on my own. Somehow, despite being technically savvy (I did pull apart and put together a car engine before) - I'm afraid to touch the little donkey. Otherwise it went rather smoothly. 

Harness is a bit of a bummer in these aircraft, probably took me about 5 minutes to put it on. I'm serious. It's a four point harness, which makes it very secure, but not a breeze to put on. 

Rodger is very very patient and pretty much forced me to do stuff on my own (very good !). It's a rare gift/virtue of any instructor. So 10x slower then otherwise someone will do - but that's the only way to learn. 

It's amazing that I'd sometimes forget where I was (finger would slip on the check list, etc) in between things, there must be a better way to do checklists ! (like, one item per page, and different booklets per checklist ?). 

There was virtually no wind, which is so rare in NI, it should really be a day marked in calendar. But when something blew, it was in direction that suggested runway 04 (which is something like 035 deg in reality). Quick backtrack on the active to the run up area, all the checks done, and up we went. 

We departed circuit from base/downwind to do few turns and such. The plan was to do stall exercises so - so we had to get away from the circuit. 

Rodger asked me to practice few turns, with/without level changes, etc. All to do with the fact, that I am still trying to set the aircraft in the attitude I remember from C152. This one is much different. Half the weight of C172 (dunno how that corresponds to 152), low wing, etc. Normal flapless operation gives you very nose down attitude. In 152 I'd need to set flaps to 20 deg to get something similar. Feels odd, but gives you much better visibility - which is great. 

Turns out, that you can trim it for the cruise speed (105 kt) and that just makes altitude changes and turns a breeze. You level off from a manoeuvre and the aircraft is already trimmed, slick. With the stick reacting to inputs pretty much instantly and requiring little input movements - you don't have to trim when in ascend/descent ! I love it. 

Also, I'm starting to get the idea with rudder. This aircraft absolutely needs loads of rudder. C152 seems to be really bad that way. On the takeoff roll - you really need right rudder pretty much to the floor ! 

All in all, I think I did quite well. I was looking in too much, not being familiar with the aircraft. But otherwise, pretty good. Rodger's advice was to try set things up without checking the instruments and then only verify, adjust if necessary - etc. That way I was sure my head was looking out most of the time. 

We haven't done any stalls. For lesson like this, I really wished I booked 2 slots instead of one.

45 minutes have flown by very quickly (no pun intended), and it was time for before landing checks. By now I know where stuff is, mostly, so it wasn't that bad. 

I think I cocked up the descent, trying to keep the speed and so on and we ended up rather high - Rodger took over for a minute and sorted me out, leaving the actual landing to me. That aircraft pretty much lands on its own, apparently something all low wings have in common. Dunno, this is the only low wing aircraft I flew in. I'd love to hear your experiences !

On a calm day like Today, it was absolute breeze to fly. 

Oh, and I met someone who reads my posts in the club, so hello to you, if you're reading it :-)

Another lesson booked Tomorrow. So far booking/flying rate is 50%, so if that continues (albeit the sample size is small so far - 3 ) it means every second booking gets me up. Will see. Oh, and I booked 10:30 slot, altho my plan is to show up there before 9 - in case no one else took that slot.
But if someone booked it, and he's late.. I'll get back a bit of karma.

Here's the GPS track:

And few screenshots from club's webcam (I'm the bloke in the nice yellowish hat). 

The hat is courtesy my friend at http://jaynehat.co.uk . Please get one, they are hand crafted, look really cool and are wicked warm! :

• Route: EGAD->over peninsula->EGAD


• Milestones: Getting used to the new aircraft


• Exercises covered: 1-9 revision


• Weather: Brilliant, clear skies, perfect for flying !

Lesson 35 (I guess, but its been a while)

Lesson: 35

04/XII/2012

• Lessons time: dual - 0.9h, solo - none


• Total time: 31.0h (1.1h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-UFCM (Tecnam 2002JF)

I know I said it a lot before. But this time, it really has been a while.
I got back to the club last week, to see what's changed, have lunch and book few lessons.

So Today was the first booking , as always -  I was bit worried about the weather, but as usual this time of year - its nippy but sky is usually clear.

I thought a bit, about what to expect. To be fair, I was rather open about this - and felt that I'll probably be overwhelmed by the experience. I was also hoping for the anticipation and excitement of the first few flights.

So the morning came,  I wok up to the sound of alarm clock tune (which btw, is my own composition ). It was bit late, but I managed to get everything done rather quickly, left the house and drove to the club. I forgot how bad the traffic is during a week at this time of day (8:45 ish). Previous lessons were always during weekends, mostly sundays (because I had very stiff old fashioned employer previously). Driving through Belfast and area on Sunday morning is a breeze. Now that I'm self employed, I can allow myself much more flexibility. I knew I'm going to be late, so I rang up the club - to give them heads up. Problem with the 9:00 slot, is that its very short (1h 15 min). (note to self, and anyone training at UFC:) I really need to show up at 8:30 for the next lesson.

I got there 15 mins late, knocked on CFI doors (Gavin is now CFI !) and we went straight to action. I like it, no fussing about.
Preflight and this is the first time I got to sit in the aircraft. All in all, this lesson can be summarised with one sentence: lots of new things. Preflight was my way of getting familiar with the new flying toy :-)

Walk around done, I squeezed myself inside. There's lot more shoulder room in this aircraft, altho not as much as there is in C172. I decided to go for the Tecnam, as its £30 less an hour then C172 and as fast. I'm certain I'll do check ride on C172 once I get the licence anyway.

First impressions, stick feels strange but oddly enough more intuitive then yoke. Low wing makes a lot of sense, visibility is just so much better then in C152. On that note, remember to have your sunglasses handy folks. Never mind the winter time and that the sun is low, better visibility means you can be blinded by the sun more easily.

The aircraft seems to be much lighter (I'm sure it is) then C152, also there is no mixture leaver. But there is carburettor heat. Go figure, so its not an injection engine, yet the mixture is controlled electronically. Seems odd. Also, whoever decided to make the throttle very responsive in 15% and then not much responsive over the rest of the leaver range - had to be Italian (or not care). Very annoying !

But we managed to get up, I even managed to do some RT. Altho, I decided not to try out patience of the Belfast Approach bloke. So Gavin did the initial call.

We then headed out over the peninsula , usual place for any exercises done at UFC.
It felt odd first, as always I was very careful with controls - but in the end it was quite easy. This aircraft needs aaaa llooot of rudder! And I mean, tons. But that's good. I'm guessing its shorter, and wings aren't as massive as the ones in C152. The Cessna didn't need virtually any rudder at all !. I seldom had to use it. So that's a plus, I'll get a chance learn how to use rudder finally and properly.

I did few heading and altitude changes, few speed changes, 15 and 30 deg turns. Of course, I managed to forget few things, like that its not power attitude trim when descending. But I'll get there.

Since this is a new aircraft to me and slot was short, .. and I was slightly late, preflight took longer, and there was less time to do the actual flight. On our way back, I got some more time to reflect on the whole aircraft and look around bit more. Over the pluses I mentioned already, I got to say that I don't like the electric trim and flaps. I did prefer trim wheel and flaps controller with multiple positions. Set and forget. Having to verify on a different instrument where your flaps are seems bit mad to me, as a design idea. For difference of £250 in materials, why ? why ?

As soon as we joined on base, things started to happen too fast for my liking. Also, it was very bumpy over the city So Gaving took over for the finals and landing. I'm sure I'll get my hear around this eventually. But as this is the first time in the aircraft it felt odd. I knew what to do, just couldn't do it smoothly enough to feel comfortable doing it and land the thing. You really need to be focused and familiar with the aircraft to land it. Like they say, "Flying is the second most exciting thing in the world, Landing is the first one".
I remember my first solo landings in C152, it was bit busy, but at the same time, there was enough time to go over instruments few times and then still plenty mental capability spared for other things. Also, Gavin prefers that the last (drag) stage of flaps be extended only when you're on short final, is in case the donkey quits. This makes a lot of sense, but squeezes the landing time a bit. So you need to be focused and know where stuff is.

The flare it self was up to me, and I have to say - I didn't have to do much. Apparently low wing aircraft are far easier to flare in. Certainly it felt like it just had landed it self.

Taxing back was a breeze and it felt like I could do bit more speed on taxi way (compared to C152).

Because the aircraft is lighter and different construction then C152, apparently its prone to wing down attitude, which - if you are not on top of the game, can lead to stall and eventually spin. It's not certified for even simple acrobatic manoeuvres, never mind spins (which were possible in C152) - so my next lesson or two are going to be about stalls, handling and such. Also I hope some circuits will be in order.

All in all, Gavin said I did nice, and he certainly feels like I could do my first solo on this aircraft in no time. Time will tell. I need to do my air law again beforehand, because it expired.

Next lesson booked for Friday. This time with Rodger, one of my favourite instructors of all time :-)
Altho I haven't flown with Gavin as much, he seems to be very good and relaxed too.

No GPS trace folks, as I had no time to turn my iPhone's gps tracker on. I'm sure you's will manage ;)

I wish tomorrow was Friday already (not because of work of course).

• Route: T/O RWY 22 left hand, straight and level, turns, radio work, bimble around peninsula 


• Milestones: It's been a while (really!), new aircraft


• Exercises covered: straight and level, turns, ascends and descents, etc


• Weather: Nice day, bit bumpy over the town on landing. Otherwise rather smooth air.