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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 :-)
