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:
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.
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