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