It was scorching hot weather, the sky was blue, so I was very surprised when the aero clubs number appeared on my phone. I had no lessons booked for them to cancel today and surely nobody would have cancelled in weather like this, would they?
Someone had, now I just had to decide if I wanted their slot…….after a bit of a reshuffle of the schedule for the day (and some negotiations), sure why not 🙂
Instructor Number Eight.
G-SHWK
Upon arrival I was told I’d be flying with another new (to my log book) instructor, we’d nearly gone flying before but I’d had lessons cancelled. However, if we’re being honest I’m not a huge fan of getting new instructors. There’s a phase of learning each others ways which is just hard work at best and feels like you’ve gone a quarter of a lesson backwards at worst.
Still, when it happens, I remind myself that the examiner will be someone new and I just have to be able to jump in a plane with anyone.
He seemed keen to go, so several signatures to authorise the flight and a set of keys for G-SHWK later I was out checking the plane.
Maybe it’s just me, but I quite like walking round a plane in the sunshine – there are just worst places in the world you can be than at an airport playing with aeroplanes, surrounded by other aeroplanes.
That’s where the enjoyment ended.
The checks were fine, we got our clearances and taxi’d out no problems, but from there it just unraveled.
I put the checklist away after the power checks, thought about it, thought some more. Then the instructor said “Done with all the checks?” Then it dawned on me I’d put the checklist away about 15 items to soon! I knew it felt like I was missing something…..arrrgh. It might sound daft, but the checklist could almost do with a “You’re done, taxi to holding….” line.
Circuit #1 : Low
Whiskey Kilo was having none of it today, I brought the power back to 2000RPM for 90 knots, forget it, it just wanted to sink. I ended up at 2,200 RPM just to get the right speed and it all still felt wrong, the attitude looked wrong, the power settings should be wrong………
So it shouldn’t have been a surprise when the the landing was a bounce, a few milliseconds to grumble and then on with the power and abort the landing for a go around (not on to a great start).
Even the go around went wrong, I retracted the flaps below 200ft.
Circuit #2 : More wrongness
The plane still didn’t sit right, I’ve never had to put this much power on to get it to be in a fighting chance of keeping it all together. I want to say I can look back now and it was obvious, or that the instructor reminded me I was doing something stupid or out of sequence……..but I can’t.
Height was still a bit of a mess on the circuit and for such a blue sky day, we were getting constant gusts of wind raising one wing or the other – not helping the workload.
The approach was better and I got it down this time, on the left wheel first, which made for a messy touchdown. Still at least the landing matched the circuit, just not my best form at all.
Circuit #3
On the climb out I was asked “How are the conditions….?”
With hindsight perhaps I should have called it here, it wasn’t happening today and maybe the smart move would have been to quit and try again tomorrow. However, I’ve been there before, if you walk away early, you’ll walk away unhappy with it – the risk now was: Don’t walk away and you’re burning money. I decided to risk it, that the next few circuits would be better.
I’m pretty sure I was doing a fairly rubbish job and my instructor seemed to agree, this approach even got some added instruction on getting the landing a bit better and to be fair, the landing was better.
There are highs and there are lows, this lesson was becoming one to write off.
Circuit #4 : Flapless
Forget going solo today, even I wouldn’t have sent me solo today. Still when the instructor said “lets try one flapless.” My confidence took a boost, I think because I’ve never had one I can remember that was bad, I nailed it first time and went solo on my first proper go at them. This is probably because the approach speed is a touch faster and the nose ends up naturally being higher……In my head I could land a C172 without flaps any day of the week, why adding flap makes the landings more hit and miss remains a mystery.
I’d got use to Whiskey Kilo giving me a really hard time on the power and the circuits were starting to return to my normal good 1000ft. Honestly, for the plane I fly the most it was kicking me today – though my tendency to converge on downwind I couldn’t really blame on the plane 🙁
Sure enough the approach was nicer, 70 knots all the way down ending in an ok landing.
Circuit #5 : Flapless
Much of the same as circuit #4, as you might have gathered, the less I say about this lesson, perhaps the better. However, once again I found I had no real problems with a flapless landing.
Circuit #6 : Normal……and just give up
Time to land, none of these circuits had been special and the lesson wasn’t all that enjoyable as a result. It was just a lot of work fighting a plane that seemed not to like me any more, fighting gusts of wind all the time and generally landing in sub-standard fashion.
Honestly, if first impressions count, my instructor must have walked away from this thinking “My god, they’ve sent this guy solo how many times????……Are they insane!?!”
Debriefing
I’ve never exited an airplane so slowly in my life, when the instructor got out and left me to tie the plane down, I found myself just sitting there contemplating how bad it had just been and how had I gone so far backwards?
In the debrief, being honest, I think my new instructor was struggling to find a good point:
- Keep better altitude in the circuit
- Make sure you’re speeds are trimmed up
- Remember, 200ft and positive rate of climb before raising flaps on a go-around
- ……the list goes on and on.
I walked away from it all wondering why I’d bothered taking this cancellation. I’d have been better off sitting at home.
However, to enjoy the highs, you have to have the lows. I’ve had some massive highs and this was just a day to chalk up for the lows and try and take it on-board as an experience – I was scheduled to fly the very next day anyway, so this could either be a double whammy, or be quickly proven as a one off.
Time would tell.