Lesson 29 - Going around twice, doesn't make you twice as good

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.

Lesson 28 - wheel up

Lesson: 28

06/III/2011

• Lesson time: dual - 0.7h,solo - nope.


• Total time: 23.6h (0.7h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David P

 

Got in the club to the club early morning. DavidP was on the phone so with the Cesar's thumb up/down gesture I requested the go/no go info. Thumbs up.

Got the key, went for a preflight.

[gallery columns="1"]

David got soon after I sat down inside comfortably. Wind was favouring rwy 16 which I have never flew a circuit on so a bit new experience. There's a police station antennae mast to fly over when you approach the 16 for landing and I knew that (from other blog and also from looking at the vfr plate for EGAD ).

I managed to turn with the wind to do my power checks, clearly a stilly mistake. But David very calmly hinted me about it.

Off I went to backtrack 16, and got ready to roll. The day was murky, clouds were at around 1500 ft so David asked me to turn the landing or taxing light on so we're bit more visible.

Put the power in, and off we went. I managed to under turn first crosswind turn aiming for visual point that I would aim for if I flew rwy 22. I usually use DI and try to think about the wind at the same time, but after my last lesson I was so tensed up that I simply didn't. Nothing that I couldn't fix later on.

Few usual mistakes, like forgetting the downwind call. I was told to slap myself for making the downwind call too early on the next circuit. Clearly something that has to do with multiple instructors. David told me to make the call when I'm abeam the runway threshold. And so I will stick to that method.

I got so very fixated on trying to avoid the mast when turning from base to finals, that I started to fly very wide trying to keep the mast to the port side and only correcting the approach once I was clear of it. Obviously not a good idea. David nicely demonstrated how it can be done, basically trying to turn just before the mast and use it as sort of a pivot point. It worked very well (as you can see from the gps track at the end).

On one of the circuits I was so busy talking about something boring, that I forgot to put the 3rd stage of flaps on finals - monkey. Obviously had to self-slap myself for that.

Oh, one neat trick David taught me and he probably would not mind me sharing here. When turning base, I would pull the carb heat on, reduced the power, and as soon as ASI is over the white arc I would start setting the flaps. Well, there's just one problem with it. You get this bumpy sort of reaction from the aircraft when you do that. So the trick David showed me, was to slow the aircraft down quite a bit before applying flaps. Everything's much more relaxed and no bumps.

For the last one circuit David asked me if we could land it on the grass. On the left hand side of runway 16 there's a patch of grass that can be used for grass landing practice (dunno about t/o) . David thought I tried grass before at the Trim aerodrome (see that 'episode' for more info).

Strange experience landing on the grass. For one, that bit of grass is half the length of the runway 16 and right behind it is another hard surfaced runway. So if you don't stop on time, your wheels are going to stay on the grass :)

But all in all landing on the grass was quite nice. Certainly more gentle and cushioned. Weird thing tho was that I had to keep the yoke pretty much pulled towards me all the time. Felt like one wheel motorcycle stunt.

Obviously following my last lesson stunt, asking for a solo would be really rude, so in all honesty I didn't count on it at all. David's only remark was that I somehow don't feel as confident as I used to. Probably true, last lesson did show me that over confidence is not a really good idea.

As they say "Two steps forward, one step back".

If I had to summarise the whole lesson, it was a very relaxing experience. Pretty much a bliss. David does tolerate my jabbering much better then most instructors and hence why I probably prefer him over so many others. He is also very patient and doesn't rush things too much.

And at the end I was promised a solo next time. Well, I bloody hope I will get some solo time otherwise in that pace it will take another 10 hours to get required 3 hours solo circuit consolidation :)

 



 

• Route: T/O RWY16 circuits, last landing on the 16 grass.


• Milestones: Grass landing, regained a bit more confidence.


• Exercises covered: circuits.


• Weather: bit windy, lowish cloud base.

 

Lesson 27 - "Flying is a very humbling experience"

Lesson: 27

13/II/2011

• Lesson time: dual - 1.5h,solo - big fat not.
• Total time: 22.8h (0.7h solo)
• Location: EGAD
• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)
• Instructor: Gary and David H

What a day.

I should probably rename this blog by now to 'Gregg is trying to kill himself and make it look like an accident'. But seriously, it seems that the whole training does have a certain flow pattern to it, like this: "struggle, happy, crap, almost killed myself, I'm the master of the skies, you're an utter shit". And repeat that over and over again.

Jokes aside, my only hope for Today was to actually get some time up in the air. Previous few lessons were canceled due to the weather so I was counting on this one.

I was booked for 11, but they phoned me to change it to 9:30 for some reason. Fair enough I thought, not much of a difference. Except that I had to get up very earlier.

Got to the club few minutes past nine and already one bad news. Some guy is going to fly the C152 for 30 minutes, and got there before me. We all knew how that's going to end...

Whilst waiting it turned out there's another slot free at 13:30, so I booked myself in on that one too.  50 minutes later I was in the air....

Lets say, that I had a certain hope that I will do some solo circuits Today. I did three circuits with Gary, I don't think he liked what he saw. So needless to say, no solo for me. And because I was booked at 13:30 he decided that 3 is enough, and I will get some chance later anyway. "David will sign you off for some solo later on, oh, and relax, don't be so tensed up". The last comment was very important. Fair enough, it sounded like I will do some solo circuits Today indeed. Good stuff. Meanwhile because of the guy who got in front of me Gary was having a bit of a backlog, so he decided that since I have another booking and 30 minutes is enough to get me warmed up.

Left my stuff in the car and decided to have a lunch at the airport's cafe. Rumour has it that the food is excellent there, so it was time for me to verify it first hand. Settled for the Irish Stew, I started to read previous month's (February) Flyer magazine. Needless to say, the food was superb, and at the end I paid for the stew + small bottle of coke £4.75. Bargain if you ask me. Apparently tho the owner is struggling a bit and is lacking customers. It would be a terrible shame if he was to leave for some place else. Gotta make sure that I buy some stuff there once in a while.

Half past one and David H gave me the key. I did a preflight, and waited for him whilst he was having some lunch. Clearly my aim was at this stage to impress him, so he will let me do some solo flying. Simple, aye ?

Well, he just said - treat me like a dumb ballast. You're in control, lets do some flying. Fair enough - I thought. First circuit wasn't too bad. Landing was terrible, but I landed on the first 3rd of the runway so by the student standards it wasn't so terrible (apparently). Second one, he asked me if I can make it a glide approach/landing. So half way through the down-wind I asked if I should pull the power now, and turn now. "you're in control, make the decision yourself". I put down the first stage of flaps whilst turning and almost immediately started to drop like a stone because of that. "Use flaps only when you are sure you will make it, aim for the end of the runway and use flaps to land short of that aiming point". So, second circuit was shambles. Had to go-around.

Third one was suppose to be a retry, but there was someone already on the base leg, so I had to make it a normal one. And here's where all the hell started to break loose. For some unexplainable reason I failed to retract flaps. So power-in and the aircraft bounced. I started to sweat like a pig, David was trying to talk some sense into me but I was clearly very shocked by the experience.

Fourth circuit, I did the same thing. But the landing was good. I touched down slightly before the threshold and asked on the climb-out "I suppose there's no extra points for touching down few feet before the numbers". In return I was told a story of a guy who ended up dead because he landed short on a field and wheels ended up in a ditch that separated fields. 10ft more - he said, and the guy would have made it.

Fifth circuit - I did same thing with flaps (face-palm) . On the take-off I planned to ask David for quick clarification as to what should I do in what order, because it was clear to me that I got something mixed up here. But as I was thinking that, he said "Three strikes, you're out. We're going to fly over the peninsula and I'll show you what would have happened if you have failed to spot it and pitched the nose up". We got up to 3400ft, and David commenced the demonstration. Did a funny impression of me (not funny once you see it someone else doing it). Approach speed set, 30 deg flaps. Full power and pitched up. I saw that coming, so I quickly read the 'spin recovery instructions" over the yoke and made sure my 'gay shades' are going to stay on.

Now, apparently spin recovery is not in the syllabus of PPL so I never had the pleasure. But what happened caused me to grin even more then my second solo. Green field under us, with some tree and a house was just getting bigger and bigger and started to circle around. I thought to myself "there's no way on earth that I would recover from that", when Belfast Approach asked us to change our squawking code :D And then massive G and we were straight and level again. "We lost 700 ft, look. If you did it over the runway, you wouldn't have had 700ft. 50ft if you were lucky maybe. Some years ago someone did that and they ended up wrecking perfectly fine aircraft. They were lucky enough to walk away from this but most aren't so lucky".

Needless to say my sad old man's cocky nature got slammed quite harshly right in my face. And thank (insert your favour story's character here) for that. Just when I thought I am doing well and I thought I only need to do some circuit consolidation. After Today's lesson I highly doubt I will ever repeat the same mistake, even if confused and under stress. I was trying to to impress the instructor enough to be sent solo, and I should have had made it perfect flying experience. Mind you I did already fly solo few circuits in my life. Some even with touch and go's and never ever did the same thing. That should tell you's something.

Our return journey was rather uneventful. Except for some guy in a microlight who was in front of us "Such and such, overhead mount steward at 1800 ft, switching over to the newtownards radio at 128.30". I looked down over at the mount Steward, there was nothing there. And few seconds later I saw an aircraft slightly higher then we were to our right. We were at 2000 ft... I asked David if I should turn right and overtake him, because we were pretty much on constant bearing and we know how that ends. In the end I ended up doing rather large circle to the south west to over take him (we were faster in the C152 anyway then the microlight) and did overhead join (second in my life), rather poorly (I should have done a large D, and the curvy part was a very flat one in my case). But I got us down in one piece. By the time I got back to the club with my wallet rest of the crew already knew what I have done so I guess I will not fly solo for another lesson or two. Well, If that means I am going to be a safer pilot - money well spent.

And here's the GPS track from that lesson (for some reason the bloody Garmin e-trex device decided not to save the altitude information):

• Route: T/O RWY22 circuits, spiral dive around the Peninsula
• Milestones: I'm a big fat pillock is what I am, and I got it proven.
• Exercises covered: circuits, how to detect idiots.
• Weather: not much wind, low clouds in the morning

Lesson 26 - First one after the winter

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.

Lesson 25 - first xc nav

Lesson: 25

14/XII/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 1.1h


• Total time: 20.2h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David H

I only had 0.5 day left of annual leave and it was pretty obvious that I am going to use it to fly. Following lesson 23 and the advice from Gavin that I should get ready on Navs, I took it seriously. Bought myself a new chart, a kneepad, and any the other little gadgets you need for this part of training.

I read a lot about nav before I started my PPLs but it gets more obvious after you actually flew few times. Week and a bit ago DavidP went through all the details with me. Since than I started to read the nav book, not all of it. Just some chapters to fill out the blanks.  I also re-watched some of the King's videos I have on the subject.

I had 2 slots booked but it was pretty obvious the second one will not happen as it gets dark pretty early.

Arrived at the club, David was a bit busy (he's the CFI). I just told him that I want to get up for a nav, and I will start planning it. Asked about for the wind information (which DavidP provided) and also asked someone to spare me few p-log sheets. (have to remember to prepare some for the next one).

With all that in hand I started to get cracking. It was the very first time I would do it for real. I did some random calculations before using wiz-wheel but nothing I would have to follow and fly for real before. I think it must have take me a while (don't remember the actual time). After some time David came about with my student record in his hand and told me that they really don't do nav exercises until you have about 4h solo in the circuit. I just told him that I was pretty much flying the bloody circuit for sometime now. (my own fault that I didn't went up solo earlier) And that I wanted to break away from the 'pattern'. Fair enough, he said, and started to check how was I doing.

Of all calculations, I think I had one or two things wrong. Plus - he said, distances such as 2.5 Nm from the airport you usually don't calculate, just fly visually.

I got wind calculation wrong in one place, but all the others were okay. Pretty odd since I used same wind for the whole track.

Anyway, I got everything prepared and off I went to do the pre-flights. It all went fine except for the rudder. Somehow I couldn't move it to the right. Got a bit worried and went back to the club-house. David said that it is normal and it is due to the nose wheel not being straight. Made sense, the wheel was not straightened indeed. Good, because for a second I thought I am not going to fly Today - and that the aircraft is buggered.

We both got ourselves comfortable and here's the first 'ohoh'. I have my kneepad on and I can't really move the steering column. Bit of knee movement about and all is possible. Comment from David 'if you need to move it, it is really amazing how quickly that kneepad gets out of the way'.

Did all the preparations, stared the engine, etc. Taxying was uneventful. I was watching very hard not to exceed any comfortable speeds when taxying, as CFI is very particular about that.

Sun was pretty low and intensive and there was also a bit of condensation on the windscreen that was preventing us from seeing if anything was landing or not. But somehow we managed to check it out (that's what the side windows are for sometimes).

Lined-up. I always like to ask the passenger-instructor if they are ready. David just said 'wind up the rubber band' (what a nice expression btw). And off we went.

I tried to crab a bit on the climb away, because the wind was more from the left than straight in. Somehow I managed to crab the other direction  but quickly corrected my mistake.

We departed straight from the downwind towards Comber. Once above Comber David switched to Belfast Approach and dealt with all the RT.

I made a turn to the left onto my new heading and off I went. Noted down the time, etc. Started to read the chart. We were suppose to follow a road and my oh my there was a road to my left ( sometimes disappearing under the aircraft ).

Right on time, and I could see disused airfield far ahead (now made into a race-track) - that was our first turning point.

That was easy - I said very well knowing that it could only go worse from this point on :)

Did my FREDA check and again, turned to the left onto a new heading - this time towards Hillsborough. I forgot that I could do more than 15 deg of bank so it took a while initially before I got us into 30 deg of bank.

There was some guy trying to leave belfast freq but the belfast approach controller couldn't hear him. David relayed the message when asked about it by the controller. Pretty nice. Just thought to myself - what if it was me solo and he asked me that. I would probably have to exchange quite few sentences before I would give him same sort of information. Nothing beats the experience.

About half way through the track I took out the chart to make sure we are on the right track. And - here's a surprise, we weren't. I did a bit of dead reckoning, and turned to the left back towards the town that was suppose to be below us.It was time to do the next FREDA check and it all became clear. DI was 5-10 deg off. Note to self, check the DI after each turn even if 10 minutes didn't elapse since the previous one.

We started to enjoy the views. There was just a ton of lake, and some places were pretty gray-ish - not only covered in snow/frost, but the sun was going down. It was that time of the day.

David was showing me different landmarks which I would not be able to distinguish myself otherwise. Too much information, so to say. We could see the Stormount and couple of other places. Things were making sense on the chart too. Altho roads were not as clearly visible as I thought they would be.

We soon started to see Lisburn and the shopping centre between Lisburn and Belfast it was clear that we got close to the end of that leg. And the time was also on the spot. On that leg I would loose 200 ft tops and weir a bit of the heading couple times. But it wasn't so bad. I tried to remember all the advice I was given about not fixating on tasks for too long or letting the aircraft settle before trimming.

Pretty soon we crossed the A1 and could see the Hillsborough to our left, with all its features. It was time to do another turn - this time towards Comber.

David asked for the clearance (we had to penetrate the belfast city zone I think) and I started to turn to the left. Once on the course I re trimmed and checked the DI . Pretty soon afterwards I started to check for landmarks to make sure that we didn't end up somewhere else. And everything was in the right spot. Oddly enough :P . Here's also a note to self, don't pick landmarks that are under the track directly. Pick something 1-2 miles to either side (left is obviously the best choice). Otherwise you can't see them, and I didn't fancy burning holes in the sky just to see things.

After a bit, I did another FREDA check and it was time again to check the landmarks. By now I could see the Strangford lough and the Scrabo tower. So fixing the position was pretty easy. Once overhead Comber we switched back to EGAD freq. I made an ass of myself on the radio (again) when I tried to announce our intentions.

Here was another thing I never did before - overhead join. Pretty easy in theory and it wasn't so difficult in practice either. We descended on the dead side of 04 (right hand) and I turned right cross wind, downwind. I must have let wind blow me off on the downwind, because we ended up at the other end of the universe. But I managed to turn base and do all the usual checks. This time sun wasn't blinding me so it was all good. About 400 ft away from the threshold aircraft slowed down and I had to add a bit of power. And also point the nose down a bit. I was close enough to know that one action would need to follow the other anyone.

The landing was not too bad. Pretty smooth actually but I flared a bit high. So the undercarriage got a bit of beating as a result. I was pretty happy, but David wasn't as much. I think he didn't like the high flare. Also he didn't like the fact that I still had a bit of power over the threshold. Well, I wanted to pickup a bit of speed, so we don't end up doing 45 knots over the threshold.

Taxied back to the apron. And David had few comments (which I pretty much listed above) and also said that he thinks it was pretty good flying overall.

Altho I probably won't be doing anything like that until May - June time next year. I hope next there will be a succession of solo circuits. In order to get 4h solo I need to be doing them by myself from start to finish. So far I've been let loose only for a last one of 5-6 per lesson.

Overall, quite happy. Grinning more than after first or second solo actually. Obviously I learned a lot from it. It was much more relaxed than the circuit flying and the view was spectacular :D Reminds me why I started to get myself into that business.

Here's the GPS track of my flight:

• Route: T/O RWY04, Comber, Bishop's court, Hillsborough, Comber, EGAD joined overhead for RWY 04


• Milestones: First nav, and first time with my kneepad in C152


• Exercises covered: nav


• Weather: Clear day, bit cold.

Lesson 24 - Steep turns and general handling

Lesson: 24

11/XII/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 0.7h


• Total time: 19.1h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

I had lesson booked last Sunday, but due to ice on RWYs I didn't fly. Than after the ice have melted, the bonker was not available. David P was so great to take a bit of time and explain to me all basics of navigation. Bit disappointed that I didn't had a chance to fly, I asked nice ladies at the reception desk to call me if there was any available slots on weekends. At least 45 minutes in advance, so that I could get ready and arrive bit beforehand.

Well, needless to say I didn't expect anything like that this weekend. So I decided to just go for a bit of a bimble in my car Today. We went to Bangor. I love to watch the sea, just sit and listen to its sounds and smell it. Than I remembered that one of students at the club promised to leave a book for me so we went for a walk to the scrabo tower (which has a nice view of the area including the club runways) and the plan was to go down to the club afterwards to pickup the book.

Got to the club, opened the door and lady at the reception was very surprised to see me. As it turned out she was trying to call me about 10 minutes before to let me know that there's a free slot :D Well, iphone's ring volume is quite rubbish so I never heard it. Didn't had the gear with me (note to self, cary it around on weekends, just in case!) and had my gf with me as well. And she wasn't quite pleased but wasn't resisting it either. I finally had a chance to eat something at the local Sky Cafe. And than went off to catch up with my instructor. I flew with him last time so no bother (as they say here).
Did the preflight of the unusually parked Kilo-Romeo. It was hidden behind the last hangar in the line of hangars that are facing the apron area. And it looks like someone had actually washed it. It was white again :D
When asked what do I want to do Today, I said that I wouldn't mind to do something else than circuits. After all, it has been a while since I did anything else than flying the rectangle shapes in the sky - so to say :). There were two choices , either PFLs, or steep turns. I chose the latter. Its been a while, and its fun.
So I did all the usual stuff, pretty much uneventful. I was a bit rusty, so it wasn't perfect, but I wasn't dangerous either.

We departed from the cross-wind to the south-(south)-east for some turns. Gavin gave me a chance to man the radio, but I have never spoken to anyone on the radio outside of EGAD's ATZ. Just when I was ready to talk to the Belfast Approach the frequency got very busy. So I had to wait. And it took quite a while. Usually we request the basic service as soon as we pass abeam the Mount Steward but this time we did it few miles down. I don't know what's the standard procedure in this case, ie, should you burn holes in the sky or just proceed and wait for the controller to call you names on the radio ? In any case, he didn't mind. After all, we were below 2k ft which is suppose to be fine.
As soon as I got a chance to say anything, I had to get it wrong. 'Belfast Approach, Scrabo 66' 'Scrabo 66 Belfast Approach, pass your message'. 'Belfast Approach, Scrabo 66 is C152 overhead mount steward, two POB, requesting basic service'. I don't remember what the reply was, or what did I forget (I think 'not above 2k ft' and what are we going to do and where'), but that was a face-palm moment for me. First chance to talk to a real controller and I blew it. Oh well, there will be more chances to make a foul out of myself in the future, I'm sure.
I've been trying to maintain a general heading and height, but I never managed to do both at the same time. I blame the wind, but we all know it was my fault :D
Once we got to the location the haze started to build. Vis was still good, but not perfect. I had to do quite few turns to make sure that there was no one in the vicinity. Once that was done, I got a short briefing on what are we going to do, and off I went.
I had to blew the first chance obviously. I thought that 45 deg turn will be marked on the attitude indicator, but it isn't. 60 deg is, and I was aiming for it rather than for the 45 deg which is in between 30 and 60. Monkey. Only after my second attempt did Gavin told me what I was doing it wrong. Afterwards it wasn't so bad. I only lost about ~100ft. Still not good but it was suppose to be a refresher for me. I can honestly say that flying only circuits for a long time can be quite a skill degrading thing. Or, I am again seeing things in a new light. I don't know.

Apart from just burning holes in the sky, I had a chance to reposition the aircraft between each turn on the right height, etc. It wasn't so bad.

After couple of turns I was told to head back. My slot was suppose to be about an hour. It seemed short, but considering the fact that we went quite a distance from the airfield (bottom of the peninsula, near Portaferry). I managed this time to make the call to the Belfast Approach controller without incident. I also had a chance to do some heading/speed/height adjustments just to see how I get on, and it wasn't so bad. As soon as frequency change was approved tho, I managed to make an ass out of myself on the radio again. Saying basically that I am joining on base, whilst I was still about 5 miles away from the airfield. Gavin saved the day again.

Getting closer, I did a proper lookout, and was told to do the prelanding checks. I was tempted to take out the checklist, but what Gavin mean was to do the old good BUMPFICH checks. Lets just say, it wasn't as smooth as it should be.

As soon as I turned finals, sun was blinding me. Add a haze to the equation and you can imagine what I mean.

Needless to say, I managed to cock-up that landing too. Bit too high, not too fast but I balooned once. I was tempted to go around but speed was correct, there was plenty of runway in front of us and speed was quickly bleeding off.

All in all, I was rubbish. I'm a bit of perfectionist, and very hard on myself when something goes wrong and is clearly my fault. Quite few lessons learned, and I will hope to remember all that in the future.

I got two slots booked for this Tuesday (of course, weather permitting). I want to do a short nav, the route I have to prepare will be comber-bishopscourt-hillsborough. I surely will have to wait with all the wind calculations, etc, till the day. But will attempt to calculate it Tomorrow using some current weather report . Other thing is I'll need to request Belfast City zone transit which is going to be fun. I've heard that controllers are never happy to give it when they hear that your RT is rubbish. I will also fly with the CFI who has some specific qualities which I have too (like analysing everything in detail and being anal about details). It shall be fun.

• Route: T/O RWY22, South east for few turns, and back, re-joined on base, LND RWY22


• Milestones: got out of the aerodrome traffic zone for the first time in a while. Spoke to Belfast approach by myself for the first time.


• Exercises covered: ex 6-7, 12


• Weather: some clouds, bit hazy, QNH 1026, moderate winds

Lesson 23 - more circuits, and circuits

Lesson: 23

7/XI/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 0.7h, Solo - 0.2h


• Total time: 18.4h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

Got in earlier Today. Watched some young girl doing solo circuits bashing all morning in the Bonker. Her father is around always, watching every landing. He doesn't care about the approach, he always looks out on landing.

She only finished at 10:15, the time when I was suppose to go up. Gavin wasn't back yet, and when they landed (again, waiting in the queue at the triangle, because of all the traffic), they had a rather extensive debrief with his student.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands, and asked for the key. Took my time with preflights, because somehow I knew that I have time. The only thing that was bothering me, was a bit of oil inside one of the wheels. Apart from that , everything was super cool. I had time to make myself comfortable in the aircraft, strap myself in , etc. Meanwhile Daniel was struggling to 172 started next to the 152, I think it took like 4 times. I raised my flaps, to see it better, and thought even about possible action should there be a fire or something (you never know). But it was okay. However it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the worse.

Anyway. Gavin joined me, we talked about the plan for Today. Circuits circuits, and more circuits. On top of that, glide approach (should engine fail, but I could reach the runway), surprise efato (when instructor pulls the power on you, whist you are on the take off climb), and some solo work if time and the instructor permits. Never flew with Gavin before, so obviously he had no idea what a piece of work I am ;)

Anyway. Off we went, Gavin's call sign is 'scrabo 66'. For some reason, on the take off roll, I said 'scrabo 66 6 rolling active'. Don't ask.

Gavin told me to level off, before turning in the circuit, which should give me much better lookout. Another good piece of advice. This is the bright side to having multiple instructors.

Due to some traffic, and the fact that I started to level off before each turn, my circuits were looking a bit funny. Instead of flying parallel to the runway, I started to turn in a bit. So my base legs were rather short, and I had to S turn pretty much half of my finals. But I managed good (I think).

On my second circuit, Gavin pulled power and asked me what am I going to do now. Pushed the nose forward for 70 knots, and started to look for a field. I noticed a lot of wires in the air around pretty much all streets in the area. Very scary. I would turn 45 deg to either side, to avoid the wires, but was too low already. So I pushed the power back, and off we went. I think Gavin was ok with my implementation of the efato procedure.

On 4th circuits, I was asked to do glide approach. The basic idea is, that you have an engine failure on downwind, and you want to land on the real piece of runway. So about abeam numbers on the downwind, Gavin pulled the power again, and walked me through it. Basically, same deal as with efato, but you want to land on the rwy. Flaps 10 or 20, if required, speed at 70, trim, and start level one turn towards runway. I did that rather well, but there was the fire truck on the runway, so it was a go around. (again, cos 3rd one ended up in go around too. Daniel and student were still on the runway when I was about to land).

No GPS record from Today, cos the iphone app decided to stop recording it when I put it in my pocked :/ Oh well.

Don't remember how many circuits exactly I did. One before the last, Gavin asked me if I'm okay doing one on my own. Of course I was !.

I dropped him off at the apron, and turned around, checked for traffic twice actually (but turned in the other direction than the circuits ...). This time I was told to use 'student kilo romeo' as my call sign. There was one guy on base, so I just jumped in, announced my intentions and went up. I remember adjusting my seatbelt to be very tight, just in case. It is something that I always tell my passengers when I have one in the car. Problem with harness not done tightly is that it will actually break your bones and do more damage than good should anything go wrong. I have to say, I am pretty anal about it. But anyway.

So off I went, on cross wind some guy announced that he is going to do an overhead join, and once I turned base, I could actually see him flying over. I'm sure he wasn't doing the overhead join at 2k ft, it was more likely 1500 or so. But still safe enough.

Despite my attempts to make the circuit wide, especially on downwind, I ended up not so much parallel to the rwy, and again doing an S turn on my finals.

Apart from that, my landings were rather good I gotta say. We had to go around twice, which was a shame. But that was due to external factors.

On the last dual landing, we ended up bit high. So I was asked if I can do a slip. I know about crossing controls, etc, but never actually tried it on finals before. So I had a chance. I gotta say, it feels much better when you are the guy that actually controls the manoeuvre.

Solo circuit landing was pretty good too. I turned left to the triangle (see the EGAD layout to get the idea), and saw the aircadets guy just backtracking the active. Now I would have to wait for another guy to land (was on downwind), and aircadet moto-glider to take off before I would get to the apron. So I asked him, if he wouldn't mind letting me past. The reply was 'if you can catch up on the rwy, sure'. So I pushed the power, turned towards the apron, and passed him to his left, over a bit dodgy tarmac on the sides of the run-up bit of the runway. But managed to get by on my own. Couldn't be prouder of my achievement :)

I know it sounds corky, but these little things can be quite fulfilling.

I am still not confident enough about the size of the aircraft, to turn it around on the apron, so I kind of abandoned it between two other aircraft, but not close to the edge, but rather some distance before it:



Oooops, sorry. Wrong flick.

Here, this one should be the right one:



I was told to shut it down myself, and note the meters. And so I did.

Got a bit of a debrief, where Gavin explained why I shouldn't really do more than two notches turn on climb out. It all made sense. And after reading also Stick and Rudder, I got the idea even better.

Gavin complemented my flying, and said that I should really start thinking about doing Navs. I dunno what to say about that really (maybe you have suggestions ? ). I do the circuits for some time now, but I would also love to do some solo ones. On the other hand, seeing a bit of a different type of flying, might be quite nice. I always like new things, and get bored doing same thing after a while, so maybe he is right.

Dunno. That actually makes me wonder on the book I should start reading next. Met or Nav. The latter has to be bought, cos I don't have it.

Afterwards I ended up buying the club's t-shirt for my youngest brother. It's his birthday in bit over a week. I am going home for a week, mainly because of that event. For some reason, that has more value to me , than spending christmas at home. But than, I am not really normal anyway. Am I.

All in all, I gotta say, that I probably had even bigger smile on my face after Today's solo.

I was told, how people have this great feeling for weeks after the first solo. I don't know, I was proud of myself, eager to do more, but the feeling was more like 'finally !', rather than 'I am so great, look at me!'. But than, maybe I am just old. I remember tho, my first drive after getting my driver's license. But that's obviously not on the subject here. Suffice to say, I couldn't get enough. And I still do love to drive. I know that same thing will be true about flying.

And on that bombshell....

• Route: circuits, RWY22


• Milestones: glide approach, another solo, first side-slip on my own.


• Exercises covered: ex 12, 13 and 14


• Weather: some clouds, QNH 1013, virtually no wind or cloud on the sky.