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Had two separate sessions today and spent both in the circuit doing touch and goes!! Got in 16 landings and take-offs in total. They all seemed to be quite good and certainly beginning to figure out all the little tell tale signs of whether im too high, too fast or too low. Also did two gliding approaches which are very strange purely due to the very steep descent angle heading straight for the floor before rounding out and popping it down on the deck. Weather started off nice and calm, but by the end of the day was getting really bumpy and a little crosswindy all adding to the fun. Looking forward to getting back up for more 2moro now......
By popular request the first photo has arrived. This is EI-BAT (the white one with the red strip down it) Was flying it this morning and it yet still looks intact. Its sat there beside the fuel pump on the south apron in Weston. I'll try get some more of the insides and hopefully some inflight shots
Today was such a busy day in the aircraft and all I was doing was flying in straight lines - But with lots of power, attitude and configuration changes. Each time we changed something I had to keep the aircraft flying level without climbing or descending and the changes where coming thick and fast. It was probably a good thing as it begins to get you used to the workload in the busy times of flight such as the base leg and finals before landing and hopefully it will do me well on those. Eventually got back to the airfield to land in a fairly hefty cross wind which made things interesting but yet I didn't do half badly at. So week off to go to the brissle - lets hope I don't forget it all by the time i'm back!!
Today my usual instructor went home early sick so I ended up flying about with jose, another instructor. So we headed off and did some stalling with and without power, 45deg turns and general flying. Then back to the airfield to try a few circuits - all me all down pretty well just maybe a little long. Its all getting better methinks !!!
Went for a simple fly about today which was really good as it got my confidence up after a couple of rubbish days trying to land, so lots of turns, climbs and descents.... Felt really good about it because my touch seemed to have improved a lot and I was quite relaxed in the aircraft, becoming second nature I suppose. Also since i'd been flying about inside my head I was far far better at checklists and proceedures and radio calls with the tower - only slight problem was getting back to quicker more pronounced movements when they were needed coming back to land again, but practise practise practise
Friday's weather was rubbish so no flying so instead I helped wallpapering my brothers dinging room - I think I've reached wallpapering level 2 now!!!
Today it rained so it was ground school all the way - turning and straight and level flight stuffs - lotsa fun all together :) Tho we did try to conduct one of them in Eddie Rockets (50's style burger bar) - didn't work tho :(
Oh and Murphy's law - Weather picked up after the entire day waiting - just as the instructors next student turned up - Dang it !!
Sunny Thoughts for 2moro
Tried more circuits today but they still weren't really working for me and it really was a case of being so overloaded - it was quite a pisser. Perhaps it was a little earlier to start on circuits and I just need a little more time of bog standard flying around. So after 3 or so quite horrible attempts we decided to call it a day at that and go fly about for a while.
Doing this I felt a lot happier, I was being far nicer and far gentler with the controls also remembering the bits and pieces that have to be done while doing all the other stuff.
So the plan for 2moro is the same to just go for a long flight and do plenty of just plain flying to get used to it all - oh and I think I'm gonna be flying the circuit in my sleep 2nite :-)
So a sunny Saturday evening and what more could you want then to fly once again.... Today instructor mike decided he wanted to take me into the circuit to practise takeoffs and landings.
Now take-off is pretty simple full power, keep the thing on the centre line using the rudder pedals and then slowly pull back about 60 knots to start climbing into the air, climbing at about 80 knots and a climb rate of 600 to 700 feet per min. Next for the circuit we turned left perpendicular to the end of the runway and up to 1000ft for the circuit height. After a specified distance we then turned left again to enter the downwind section running perpendicular to the runway and again once we reach a specified distance past the end of the runway we turn 90 degrees left again onto the base leg. Here we slow the a/c and extend the flaps before turning left again onto finals.
Heres the really tricky part - on finals we aim for the runway and balance the speed, pitch, trim and rate of descent to arrive at the threshold at the rite speed and height, then rotating the nose up to fly level and about a foot above the runway before reducing power raising the nose slightly and dropping onto the tarmac main wheels first.....Sounds easy doesn't it.
First one went quite well apart from dropping on all wheels at the same time....Second was pretty good by my standards but then life went down hill and the next 2 were a bit rubbish. I think it was all down to the number of things having to concentrate on at the same time and also the way in which the pitch and throttle have to be used to change the approach.
So ok it didn't go fantastically but on the other hand, I made two decent landings all by myself after only flying an a/c for just 4 hours. This is apparently really quick by most standards - so I must be doing ok!! The other thing is that now that i've done it come away and thought about it all for a night, that now hopefully next time i'll be able to nail every single one of them :-)
Thursday
More good(ish) weather means more flying :-) so away we went, 1hr 35 today doing all kinds of fun and exciting things. We headed up towards Mullingar and Lough Derravaragh. Tried to make a map for those who havent a clue where it is - ( i doubt we flew quite such a straight path :-P)
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111999216662510551498.000435147778a7add270c&ll=53.506143,-6.935463&spn=0.592962,1.277161&z=10&om=1
More practise - turns, climbs and descents. I'm getting the hang of doing the actual manouvers now but its jus all the checks and things that need to be done before and during the manouvers that are missing a little atm... but im sure it'll all come - little more involved then checkin your re-view mirror before turning the corner.
Also started playing with slow flight and stalls today which was interesting to say the least. Slow flying is weird jus because the controls get a lot more sloppy then they were before and you can pretty much move them all from extent to extent without causing much of a change of a/c heading or attitude..
Stalling was good aswell - something which we all knew to avoid at all costs from the degree but we had to practise to figure out what it felt like and how to get out of it. Theres also a really big danger of heading into a spin if your not careful with it, so using plenty of rudder as opposed to ailerons which would send us spinning pretty quickly.
After playing with this for a while it was back to weston into the circut and landing which was a joint effort between the instructor and myself, he had the rudder and throttle, i did the ailerons and the elevator.... Little heavy on the touch down but not bad for my first landing :P The major thing i copped onto today was using something in the distance to keep heading and altitude easilly without having to overuse the instruments, so picking a yellow field or set of trees to head to and keeping the picture the same as we fly along
Friday's weather was wet!!! so now flying but gave me a decent chance to get some ground school done.. Mostly stuff that i had a good grasp of but cleared up a few points that the degree missed or ignored :-!!!But saturday looks good for flying so lets go so some more
More good weather and more flying today.... Twas a good long one today about an hour and 40 minutes worth of flying!!
Started with me doing the preflight checks - so its my fault if the thing falls outta the sky cus a wings missing..then the instructor gets me talking to the air traffic contoller, asking for permission to start-up and taxi.. this is really scary cus you've gotta be clear quick and precise when you have no idea what you should be saying, and you get the feeling they know straight away your a newbie....
But off up the runway (25 again) with me trying desperately to keep it on the centreline using the rudder pedals one hand on the yoke and the other on the throttle... Off out west gaining height as we went, with me doing most of the hard work and the instructor helping out every now and again pointing out things that weren't the best
There was plenty of cloud about up towards 2000ft so played the dodging the clouds game for a while before the instructor decided he wanted to take me up above the clouds to see what it was like. Apparently i wont be doing any flying in clouds until the instrument rating and so shudn't have been in there but cus he was there we were ok... Flying in cloud was weird cus you really cant see a thing, its jus white all around, so using the artificial horizon to keep the wings level because you really haven't got a clue where you are any other way.
After playing about with a couple of turns and stuff in the clouds we popped out above the clouds at about 5000ft..... The best sight in the world so blue and clear with just whiteness below you!! amazing and all I wanted to do was take pictures but didn't really think I should
Other then that its was climbing and descending with and without power and direction heading holds. Also the use of flaps and sideslips for descending at slower speeds, before heading back to the airport to land.
Still loving it but now apparently I gotta read up on the books and stuff before the next one 2moro afternoon
So the weather was nice today - and I got flying!!!! First real flight in the grand scheme of things so a little un-nerving but absolutely brilliant. Today was all about what the control surfaces do and the effects they have when in the sky.
Started with a pre-flight Check (as all flights do). Then a bit of taxing down to the end of the runway - so I was using the rudder pedals to keep the plane on the yellow line down the middle of the road. Took off from runway 25 heading west-ish, being shown many of the towns and other marker points around the airfield. Climbed up to about 1000ft and then onto 1500 to start playing. After about 45 mins we were back on the ground after flying back to the airfield overhead and landing on runway 25 again...
Basic controls:- the yoke, the pedals, the throttle and the trim wheel - how to use them all - so basically roll left roll right and climbing and diving
I suppose I was quite amazed at how many different things were all going on at once and just how much concentration was needed to keep just one of them in control - maintaining the same altitude while doing other stuff - I guess its all to do with being a newbie and I'll be grand with it after a few flights.
Also how different flying the aircraft is to any of the flight sims I've messed around with before - largely based on the wind - its easily turned off on a sim - its always there in the plane!!
So in all today was cool and really enjoyable!!! and I'm now booked in pretty much everyday for the next 2 weeks - depending on the weather that'll all be flying or ground school - Can't wait !!!
Fraid the weather was rubbish when I went out to Weston on Wednesday.... so didnt get flying. But instead had my first ground lesson....so with instructor Danny we went through an aircraft familiarisation thing, which lets face it I kinda knew most of and pre-flight checklists, which was actually a good laugh. All I could think about was the Top Gear episode when Hammond's going nuts cus May is taking so long to do his checks. So twas all good and booked in again for Monday.....jus hope the weathers nicer to me.....
I decided it was about time i tried to get something moving on the flying side and so went to Weston today to start everything in motion. The result is my first real flight is booked for Wednesday - all i gotta hope is that the weather is nice to me now!!
I've been up in little planes twice before.... First time was in a Cessna for a tester flight with the NFC about 8 yrs ago, the second time was last year in the degree when we went to do a flight test in a Piper P28....lotsa fun!!!!!
So this time should be for real, with long term prospects for many more... so i suppose im hoping to fly as much as i can and just enjoy it..... quite excited really
