Flying Time: Today: 1:06 Total: 3:18
Had another lesson today. Gorgeous day - bit hazy, but otherwise very sunny and warm. Let’s hope the next few lessons are like this too!
Got off to a pretty simple start today - straight into briefings on straight and level, and straight and level at specific airspeeds. All seems pretty straightforward and Nick (my instructor) brings his own brand of humour to the briefings… I’ll leave it at that I think!
Out on the apron, we start going through the A Check, which I’m going to have to do from now on. Most of this is checking surfaces, fixings, joints and actuators on the fuselage, wings, empannage and all the control surfaces. It also involves checking fuel for contamination, checking the landing gear, pitot head, static ports, etc etc. I get to do it again on Tuesday with the instructor watching, and after that I’m on my own!
Into the plane, and we start running through the pre-start checklist and after finally shutting the doors, firing her up, which took a couple of attempts today - needed an extra prime or two.
We grab the ATIS and Nick makes the radio calls, but much slower than normal so I can follow along with his mini-script on the plog. After getting a taxi clearance (21, via A1, cross 18), Nick gets us off the grass and onto the taxiway, and I taxi us over Runway 18, and up to the A1 hold, where we’re 3rd in line for takeoff. We get our pre-takeoff checks in nice and early and by that time we’re number 1 and ready to go. Onto the runway, on the centerline, brakes, 1800RPM, brakes off, full power and keep the centerline. I manage the takeoff entirely on my own, with Nick never far from the controls in case of EFATO (Engine Failure After Takeoff) or other eventualities…
So - for a lesson looking in detail at Straight and Level, a good horizon would have been excellent. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that - we got lots of clouds, which was a pain and necessitated a bit more use of the AI. However we did S&L, S&L at a particular altitude, S&L at particular airspeeds. We peeked ahead a little and did some medium rate turns through 360, again encumbered by the lack of decent horizon. All things considered I think I did pretty well. I still don’t have a clue where I am, but I think I can hazard a guess or two now. Part of the trouble is I don’t know the area at all (from the ground that is!). I also got an introduction to FREDA today (regular in-flight checks to make sure everything is hunky-dory), and all was OK apart from the A part. Holding the damn plane against a reference point, checking the compass, realigning the reference point and setting the DI all relatively quickly was quite tricky at first time. Starting to feel the pressure a little now - lots of things to remember!
All too soon we had to come back in and after reporting overhead Woburn for rejoin, I was given a quick run-through of the downwind checks as Nick did them. A quick turn to base, 1st stage of flaps, onto final and full flaps, and I flew us all the way to the ground, waiting for Nick to take over - only he didn’t really so we landed with a bit of a bump!
All in all, a great lesson - next one is booked for Tuesday as I’m off work this week. Looking forward to it already!
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