Flying Time: Today: 1:06 Total: 1:06
Well, I went, I flew, I came back - and it was very good indeed!
I went for a trial flying lesson with Bonus Aviation, based out of Cranfield and found them to be very friendly and welcoming. I phoned up about 8:15 and spoke to Jo, their admin/general manager who said that she thought the weather would be OK, but that none of the instructors were in yet. So, I jumped in the car and headed for Cranfield (about 35 minutes for me).
Got there for about 9 and paid up for my “land away” flight, which turned into a touch and go at Turweston. Had a quick briefing, which I was able to sail through as I knew vaugely the purpose and function of all the control surfaces. My instructor, Nick, and I then went out and we pre-flighted G-BGGL, a PA38, before getting in and Nick doing the internal checks.
One thing I hadn’t considered was how hearing aids would work with headsets. The quick answer was that they didn’t - the enclosed headsets caused a lot of feedback and I had to fly with them out. If anyone has any suggestions for this by the way, I’m “all ears” :)
After yelling “clear prop”, we started her up (which took a couple of attempts - very cold) and after checking T&Ps, etc, we picked up Cranfield’s ATIS and set the altimeter subscale (QFE, QNH?), before getting our taxy clearance (to runway 22).
Nick taxied us out of parking onto the taxiway before saying “your plane” and leaving me to steer down the taxiway. I was surprised at how easy I found this, resisting the urge to steer with the yoke by keeping one hand on the throttle and the other under my leg. Nick’s comment was that it was “the best first-time taxying he’d seen”, which I was fairly chuffed at :)
Stopped on the taxiway, pointed into the wind and did the mag and carb heat checks, with yet more checks of T&Ps, and then onwards to the holding point. We held short for a landing Cessna, before getting clearance for takeoff. Onto the runway, brakes on, RPM to 2000, brakes off, full throttle and Nick flew us up into a fairly cold Bedfordshire morning.
Once up in the air, Nick let me generally fly the thing (with the exception of the rudder and throttle, which he handled), and we headed around the sprawl of Milton Keynes, climbing up to about 4000ft. Was a little bit turbulent, but not majorly so, and I kept my eyes outside looking at where we were meant to be going and looking around generally. Turweston was of course a comparatively small runway when compared next to Cranfield’s 1800m, and after a touch and go we headed back to Cranfield, overflying Silverstone and watching some bikes (I think) going around the circuit.
After that, time for a bit of fun with just generally seeing what the aircraft can do, trying some 45degree turns. Nick at this point demonstrated a couple of 60degree turns - slightly stomach churning but not too bad! Then a couple of climbs/dives, allowing a pen placed on top of the panel to float in the cockpit - very amusing! He also demonstrated how easy it was to turn either fairly gently or comparatively quickly, depending on needs.
Finally we headed torwards Woburn and I took us down to 1000ft(ish) before joining the circuit, with a quick right orbit to allow a Cessna on T&Gs in before us. I flew us onto base and final, before Nick took over to actually land the thing. A quick taxy back to parking and we shut down, completed the shutdown checklist and pushed back into the parking space before shutting up and heading back to the school building. A quick cup of tea and I was presented with a first flight certificate and a mini-log book showing 1.1 hours of PuT time!
All-in-all, a great morning and I’m almost certain I’m going to go ahead and try for the full PPL. So long as I can get the headset issue sorted I’m sure I’ll be OK! Oh, and the money…
My only regret - I was too busy enjoying myself I forgot to take photos, apart from afterwards!
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