The first words ever posted on this blog were: “It’s going to be about flying and nothing but flying…” The opening lines of the ‘about page’ at the time, setting the scene for: “Why document it all anyway?” ……and also a subtle hint that, as you might have noticed, I don’t name instructors. That was always intentional for two reasons: I was conscious from the get go that it’s not fun to find your name randomly on web pages and secondly a lot of what gets written up is subjective afterthought with lots of scope for error. Why bring it up now?
This lesson ended with that slightly awkward moment, I’ve seen other blogs go through:
So are you still writing that blog then?
Busted…….it was inevitable, I’ve mentioned the aircraft names in every post (they can’t sue me for libel) and recently I was conscious of using the airports name and photographs more and more, it was getting easier and easier to stumble upon and be able to connect the dots.
Still, if you come away with any impression other than the club and instructors there are all fantastic – you’re on the wrong blog. Fingers crossed my bad lessons grumble more at myself then anyone else, to enjoy the highs you must experience the lows….
Back in good old Whiskey Kilo : Low Fuel
G-SHWK
With a general lack of AVGAS at the airport, this lesson would be done in G-SHWK, it’s only been a few weeks apart, but I miss flying it 🙂
After a short discussion on the lesson and a general summary of lesson background theory and objectives:
- Steep Turns (45 Degrees)
- Collision Avoidance
- Stalling/Recovery during a Steep Turn
- Demo of a Practice Forced Landing
Actually ‘collision avoidance’ was more of a rationale for the need to do a steep turn. Finding a reason to do one (other than because they’re fun) was something I actually faffed around trying to find…..avoiding hitting something, so obvious! :-\
On with the plane checkout.
Upon turning the master switch on, the fuel gauges read “5 gallons Left, ~10 gallons Right.” That’s as low as I’ve ever seen (except for when they didn’t respond at all) and at that moment I was pondering going back and checking we were still taking this plane…….bit of quick math (~15 gallons in the tank, ~10 gallons/hour fuel consumption: 1 hour lesson + 30 minutes reserve). Doable, I’d crack on and see if it was all in vain later.
The dip stick confirmed the fuel gauges could be believed.
Cleared for Immediate Take Off
Another one of those bizarre moments upon lining up for departure (why I find it bizarre I’ve no idea, but it is…). Having called ‘ready for departure’, air traffic replied asking if we could accept an immediate clearance – we could, upon rolling on to the runway the plane on final approach made its radio call and I realised I knew the pilot……..now if I didn’t get out of the way sharpish and forced a go around, I wasn’t going to hear the end of it. Full power!!!
A tip from my instructor that if ATC ask if we can accept an immediate clearance, we can just start rolling and accept as we go, rather than confirm we could, then get offered, then accept and get going. Arguably the latter is more procedurally correct (otherwise you’re moving, potentially on to the ‘Landing Area’, without actually having a clearance to do so). The counter argument would be one of inference…..Debate amongst yourselves, I do as I’m told 🙂
Once in the climb, looking down and left I realised I could see the runway, we were getting pushed right by the wind. An average attempt to compensate followed.
Commencing a 20 degree climbing turn to the right, it was just a matter of time before Air Traffic would ask us to switch frequencies.
More R/T errors and Brain Stalling
A lot of time has been spent pondering the mental stall from last lesson, so I was hoping to avoid it. It’s sort of strange that in the last 10 months, it’s only in the last 2-3 lessons that I’ve had to switch frequencies.
The call to actually switch frequencies went ok, it went wrong when I called Approach and they called back the QNH (pressure setting for measuring altitude above sea level), that for no obvious reason threw me completely…….maybe they said QNH 1011 and I didn’t hear the QNH, maybe they didn’t say QNH, all I know is I just heard “1011” – for which I found myself thinking “what? what’s that?”
I’ve got to get over this locking up issue, it’s at risk of becoming a bigger headache then my previous obsessive desire to fly on instruments.
Steep Turns
After a couple of steep turn demos, executed with zero change in altitude (a tough act to follow!), it was time for me to have a go.
First a 180, 45 degree banking turn to the right.
It went pretty well, from my memory of the dials it was completed with +90ft (apparently the limit is +/-150ft, so not bad for my first go).
Followed by the same thing to the left (to prove it wasn’t a fluke), it wasn’t quite as good but still within limits.
Collision Avoidance Turns
Essentially the same maneuver, but without any of the smoothness in entering the turn/applying power etc. Just roll straight into it as if your life depended on it…….compared to the steep turns I’ve done in the Extra this was still a very civilised affair, but a bit more aggressive in motion then the first two.
Stalling in a Steep Turn
Before any stall there is a HASELL check (Height, Airframe, Engine, Location, Lookout). Normally the lookout is a 360 degree turn at 30 degrees of bank, as we were up here to do steep turns, why not do a steep turn orbit. The longer you’re in the turn the harder it is to keep everything in check, it wasn’t my best orbit, but it wasn’t too bad.
When asked what the first thing to do to recover was? I answered “roll the wings level” …..Wrong. In hindsight I have flash backs to being told this is what people tend to do automatically when in a wing drop stall, the correct action is to actually push the control column forward and get airspeed first. Ahhh the stuff not yet engraved in my brain…..
After a quick demo and noting that it’s actually quite hard to stall in such a tight turn, it was time for me to have a go.
You learn faster from your mistakes so at least running through the “what are you going to do” meant it went smoothly on the practical (lets all now forget the answers given in the theory shall we).
Demo of a Practice Forced Landing
Nothing quite makes you want to come back for more, like seeing what you’ll be doing/attempting next.
Time to see a practice forced landing, albeit one executed more calmly and with seemingly much more time then it would feel if I was attempting it. Picking a brown field and gliding down, warming the engine every 1000ft, to around 700ft before finally calling it off. It always amazes me how calm and almost relaxing it is to be in a plane with essentially no power gliding to the ground……strange (perhaps I have blind faith in the engine restarting).
My glide approaches in the past had a tendency to undershoot, so we’ll have to see how it goes.
Returning home
The fuel warning annunciator was flashing low fuel, the gauges were saying roughly zero in a turn 🙁 and about 5 gallons in straight and level……..time to run for home.
A bit of a practice run with my instructor for the radio calls, this might actually go half decent for once.
…..and the hand over back to the tower went fine, all well until they asked how we wanted to rejoin. Good question. I’ve only ever done overhead joins, they had to be awkward and give me options 🙂
Descending back into the circuit via a crosswind rejoin, dropping a touch low and then going a touch high (+/-100ft of circuit height), it was an average circuit.
Crosswind Landing
The turn on to final was late, resulting in an overshoot leaving us right of the approach. This needed to be corrected for while flying into a crosswind. Historically my crosswind landings have been bordering rubbish, only recently have they started to touchdown without an almighty thud.
I can actually remember flying the approach pondering what I was doing……..yes we were staying straight, but it was a half crabbed, half rolled approach to keep it that way and noting previous lessons afterthoughts of “It goes wrong because I’m not reacting fast enough“, this approach had a ton of input.
Just above the runway I mentally reminded myself to stop looking at the asphalt and look along the runway, applying a bit more back pressure we touched down almost as smooth as I’ve ever landed. The technique for getting down might have been debatable, but the landing was one of my better ones……and if you want to walk away from a lesson happy, it’s all about that touch down.
Debriefing
Seemingly some good points, turns were in limits etc. then a note on the approach technique and that it basically wasn’t right, the result was one wing kept lifting and this probably played into why there was a ton of input to keep it looking reasonable. But I got it kicked straight just before we landed and the landing itself was alright 🙂
We can refine the technique getting down, compared to my early crosswind attempts, I’ll take that landing any day of the week 🙂