Lesson 7, Stalls

I have been looking forward over the weekend to getting back in the air and strangely falling out of it again. This morning we covered stalls.

The weather was another beautiful day, clear blue skies with only some scattered cirus cloud. The lesson was scheduled at 8am therefore the sun had not yet had a chance to heat up the cockpit to an uncomfortable level (one definate drawback to the Katana).

We had a fairly short briefing, discussing stalls in different configurations and the differences in recovery, particular focus was on using the rudder to control the aircraft when stalled. I was happy with all the principals and looking forward to turning the theory into some practice, so we pre-flighted and I taxied to take-off. My take off this morning was much improved, I was slightly to the left of the centre line but at least I was heading straight this time!

After reaching 3,000ft in the practice error we tried a few straight and level stalls.. carb heat on, power to idle, maintain 3,000ft by applying back pressure to keep the nose up, airspeed is failing, nose is rising to maintain altitude, beeeeep the stall warning goes, hold it, hold it, the plane begins losing height and buffet causes some vibration, recover. Carb heat off, full power, neutral stick. After a few goes at this I have the technique down. We then try full power stalls which also goes well.

Next Antonio demonstrates stalling in a 30 degree bank with full flap. This is fun! I attempt this a number of times but I am having difficulty getting my feet to control the rudder. The idea is to maintain 30 degrees of bank, when the aircraft has stalled the ailerons are ineffective therefore we MUST use rudder to maintain the aircraft. I try this a couple of times but each time it is not so good, Antonio therefore suggests he take over the ailerons and I just use the rudder to get a better feel for it, at this point we are flying straight and level he calls a turn at 30 degrees. I practice just controlling and holding the aircraft in the turns just using the rudder. This was an excellent training technique, and helped enormously. My next attempts with the turning stalls were improved. I feel I need a little more practice but Antonio thought I did quite well and am almost perfect on the recoverys.

After what seems like 10 minutes in the air we return (my hour had elapsed). There is a funny situation occuring because this morning there is alot of ATC traffic going on and everytime Antonio goes to talk another pilot speaks first. Eventually we are forced to maintain our position just outside the circuit area until we get permission to change frequency to Blackbushe tower. We get pattern entry instructions, and I fly the approach to within a few feet of the runway before Antonio takes over to put her down.

This mornings lesson was alot of fun, really enjoyed throwing the aircraft around the sky and found stalls entertaining. The weather conditions also helped as the air was smooth, the sun shining and excellent visibility.

Next lesson is scheduled for Friday morning, although I really hope to get another lesson widweek. 4 days between lessons feels like a lifetime! We will be reviewing turning stalls with flap and hopefully if I can get that perfect then we will begin circuit practice.

An excellent blog

I spent some time this afternoon read Mark's flying blog, he is way ahead of me in terms of lessons which makes it all the more intresting to read. His excellent blog can be found here: Pilots Licence 101..

One thing it brought home to me, there are alot of very good pens recording their unique but similiar experiences of learning to fly, mainly pens far abler than my own, and I really appreciate the effort they have gone to because it makes me feel very much part of a community.

Lesson 6, Sloooow Flight

The weather these last few days has been incredible, we have been having a heatwave with clear skies so I had my fingers crossed that it would hold till this morning. My past two lessons at the beginning of this week were excellent in these weather conditions so hoped to get another good day. Well I woke up this morning early again and took a look outside, it was still very warm even at 6am with high humidity but the clouds had started to move in, and these clouds had attitude! a bad attitude I should mention, you know when the skies go ominously dark in one direction and suggest that impending doom is coming (or is that just me that tends to think that?).

Anyway I decide to stick the roof down on the car and head to Blackbushe, glancing up at various intervals to see what’s happening over head. When I arrive it is apparent the weather is not playing fair, the winds are gusting strongly in a variable direction straight across the runway. The report is that there are thunderstorms some distance to the West and these are slowly creeping closer, but we have a three hour window so we go.

The lesson for today is more slow flight, focussing on understanding and experiencing how the plane feels flying slowly whilst maintaining altitude. We will try a few different configurations, without flaps, with one stage of flap and with full flaps at different air speeds.

The plane is pre-flighted with me taking more of an active part in this process, although it is far from committed to memory, I plan to read the manual for the Katana to start learning the checklists whilst in between lessons. We fill up with avgas and I taxi out to the runway after the run-up of the engine and prop. Antonio helps line up the Katana ready for take off, I hold the differential brakes and throttle to 2000rpm then release the brakes and start picking up speed.. increasing the throttle to full with a little right rudder to compensate for the prop revolution. Then suddenly I am being pushed to the left by a strong gust of wind, I overcorrect a touch and manage to get a weaving thing going on, I like to think of it as my pre-flight shimmy. Fortunately my mincing down the runway is brought under control by remembering to be light on the rudder and allowing the plane to find her "niche". Once under control we get into the air smoothly and all is right again...

..that is until the turbulence hits.

Actually it's not too bad, but quite bumpy and I find I have to concentrate a bit harder to just keep the wings level and the heading. We ascend to 2000 ASL and start practicing slow flight, first without flaps, holding 2000 ASL at 50knts air speed, this is more difficult than I anticipated! The task is made harder by the sudden drops in height from the turbulence but eventually I start getting into the right configuration. I am treated quite often during this process by the sound of the stall warning horn telling me I am about to die, which I ignore, safe in the knowledge that I will be reborn as a frog in my next life (which as I understand is a far more interesting existence than commonly believed). We go on to try different configurations and once again after some initial difficulties became a little easier. The important thing to learn in this lesson was feeling the aircraft, the controls become very sloppy at these low speeds and the ailerons cease to be so effective, in fact using them to turn tends to create more drag. I learn to just turn at slow speeds with the rudder.

I also get the opportunity to revise again some more steep angles of bank which is always fun, made more so with the air bumpiness. We then head back to Blackbushe, time passes too quick in the air I have decided. Under Antonio's direction I take her round the circuit and line her up with the runway, this will be a flapless landing due to strong crosswind which is just gusting all over the place. Antonio takes the controls a few feet before the runway and brings her down, he flares and she starts to drop.. crabbing down the runway.. but then a gust causes her to lift again and float for awhile before he smacks her down with humorous but unrepeatable comment. This was the first time I have experience anything other than a perfect landing, but it was obvious that the unpredictable wind was the cause rather than any CFI error.

Today’s lesson went fairly well despite the conditions and the mincing session upon take-off, but it has taught me I still have much to learn, Antonio expresses he is pleased with the lesson and informs me that next lesson (Monday) will be stalls. I am looking forward to it as usual.

One other point to mention before I end this innocuous post. So far I have flown two different Katanas, G-BWLS and G-BWEH. I have got it in my head that I prefer G-BWLS for some unknown reason (Antonio insists they fly the same). Therefore she is now my "lucky" plane, and I am aiming to try for most lessons with her, I perhaps should give her a name "BoWeLS" seems the most obvious name and probably describes my flying capabilities quite well, but I have decided to stick with just "Lima Sierra".

Lesson 5, Spiral Ascent/Descent

I woke up this morning to a clear cloudless sky (CAVOK) and excitedly got myself down to Blackbushe for the morning lesson. After the briefing we headed out and preflighted the Katana. The sun was already warm but due to early hour the aircraft had not yet turned into a pressure cooker thankfully, so we taxied out and I took off, in fact carried out the take off without stall warning sounds blaring and my instructor assuming crash position, so that is progress! Taking off is starting to feel easy!

I executed a climbing turn to the west and headed for the training area, on the way we reviewed all the manoevers learnt up to this point, and again this went good, we where however a little distracted by the weather. My instructor commented that this is the best weather he has seen since coming to England, (being as he is Spanish), and it truly was fantastic. Visibility was unlimited, we could see the southern coast of England and the Isle of Wight from only around 3,000ft so around 50 miles visibility, off to the east we could see the tall landmarks of London. There was also virtually no wind, 2knts variable direction so very smooth for flying, just a few thermals to interrupt the smoothness.

We began to practice various maneouvers, including turns at 45 and 60 degrees of bank which were much fun, the pull of the g-forces was totally tolerable. I found it fairly hard to maintain my altitude whilst turning at 60 degrees but after a time managed to keep the nose up. At 60 degrees the world looms very large in the horizon and although initially a little strange quickly became entertaining. We also carried out some spiral climbs and descents at a constant speed at various degrees of bank, which once I learnt the position of the horizon became a fairly easy to maintain the airspeed.

The next thing to attempt was navigating with the compass, this was harder than expected! I understood the concepts from the briefing, however in practice I just couldn't think quickly enough and often turned the wrong direction to reach a heading. This I will need to practice more.

Finally we returned to land, I flew the circuit and lined up fairly well and Antonio took over to actually land.

This mornings lesson was alot of fun and I did not want it to come to an end, I am very much looking forward to my next lesson on Friday.

Lesson 4, More Slow Flight

Luckily for me there was a cancellation on Antonio's schedule today so he gave me a call and offered me a lunchtime slot, I naturally accepted and headed down to Blackbushe. Today the weather was fantastic, around 30c with clear blue skies and almost unlimited visibility, the wind was fairly calm although a slight crosswind was in effect accross the runway. I found out that sitting in the katana cockpit with the sun beating down feels like slowly being cooked, due to the wide canopy, so we taxied as quickly as possible to get to the runway and I attempted the take-off. Once in the air, the cockpit became alot cooler and it was once again a good place to be.

The take-off was an improvement from my last attempt but still was far from perfect, I need much more take-off practice! Once airborne I climbed through the beautiful skies and soon began the point of todays lesson, more slow flight with flaps and a stall. Today I felt much more confident than my previous lesson and everything seemed to fall into place, I was able to remember the correct sequence of events, such as carb heat to on, reduce power, raise the nose to slow the plane to 70knts, apply 1 stage of flap, maintain 70knts descent, apply 2nd stage of flap, maintain 60knts descent. I made a couple of small errors, mainly with trying to maintain the airspeed and managing to lose the heading by not paying enough attention. We practiced a few go-arounds and some standard ascending, descending which all went very well, on the return to Blackbushe I asked if Antonio would demonstrate a stall, so he did. The stall was, like everyone else mentions, nothing to worry about.

Today I felt as though I had made progress, and Antonio was very pleased with todays lesson. Next lesson is tomorrow morning, we are due to practice steep turns and more slow flight maintaining altitude.

Bad weather

I looked out the window this morning and the skies where slightly patchy with cloud but predominantly blue, so I figured this mornings flight should be go. An hour later I am waiting for my instructor to arrive and watching as the clouds rolled in. The ceiling soon dropped to 1000ft and the windspeed increased. Antonio arrived on time for the lesson, and after checking weather reports decided we won't be flying this morning. He apologised however it was not his fault, got to love English summer weather! The weather is set to get worse today but should return to blue skies tomorrow, I am hoping to get another chance to fly in the next few days if a slot opens up otherwise my next lesson is on Tuesday.

Lesson Number 3, Slow Flight

The weather today was quite calm winds (10knts) with scattered cloud between 3,000 and 5,000 feet, again I arrived way too early and my dad came along to watch out of interest.

Todays lesson was practicing slow flight and climbing and descending with flaps. The briefing went well and I understood the concepts of what we going to be doing once in the air. This time it was entirely up to me to carry out the take off, this made me a little apprehensive because I am not yet confident with the rudder. The resultant take-off was pretty bad, I ended up overcorrecting on the rudder continually so we weaved down the runway from side to side, I put it down to the fact that my dad was watching. I also was not keeping an eye on the airspeed because I was correcting so much. I notice that we are now at 65knts (10knts over our rotate speed) so pull back a little further than I intended to be treated to the stall warning sound. I correct and we return to a Vy climb speed of 70knts. Phew! Ok lessons learnt here:

1. Use gentle rudder pressure and give the aircraft time to adjust to the rudder, rather than expecting instant results.


2. Watch airspeed.


3. Gentle stick movements, especially at low speed/altitude.

I noticed that the wind was a little stronger than I was used to and climbing through 1000 to 2000 the air was pretty rough, with gusts buffeting the plane. I had to keep a fair amount of right rudder to stay on course to the practice area.

We used the greenham common airstrip as a visual reference and practiced the lesson. The first circuit I did well, although when it came time to do a go-around it was a little shaky. By the way we were practicing at 3000 feet and pretending that 2000 was ground level, giving plenty of room for error (luckily!). Today I had alot more difficulty in coordinating my brain with my muscles and on each trip round I kept fighting the airspeed and the sequence (carb heat, power, attitude, trim), occasionally leaving carb heat on when trying to go around (aborted landing). Antonio kept telling me to apply the sequence but when it came to do it I was messing up.

After several goes around we returned back to blackbushe and Antonio carried out the landing after I lined up. This was a little different to the previous landings I have experienced, there was by this time a fairly strong and steady crosswind of around 15knts. Antonio expertly brought the katana down, flying into the wind. I taxied and this time found it a little easier, at least I seem to be getting better at that.

Todays lesson was for me a little dissappointing, although Antonio advised me that for my third lesson I was doing exceptionally well (I wonder if he means it!). I just was a little frustrated as I knew what I was doing wrong but couldn't seem to actually do it right the next attempt. Oh well all part of the learning process! I am hoping I can improve on Thursday for my next lesson and am looking forward to trying all this again.

Lesson Number 2, Climbing and Descent

Little slow in filling out this report so two posts today covering my last two lessons.

Lesson two went ahead as scheduled, albeit my arrival an hour before my instructor, which gave me time to think about the subject of my lesson, climbing and descending. Eventually we got going, After a briefing on the flying mechanics of ascent and descent we visited the katana and Antonio ran through the pre-flight sequence and determined we needed some more avgas so we topped up and then taxied to the runway. I am still finding it very hard to taxi, more practice is needed!

I carry out the rotation at 50knts with Antonio managing the rudder and she climbs into the air with a little back pressure on the stick. We fly out to the training area (above the old Greenham common airbase (now dis-used) and practice climbing and descending to specified altitudes at the correct airspeed (Vy) for the katana of 70knts. I find this not too challenging and am quickly able to remember to apply carb heat when starting the descent and reducing carb heat to cold when recovering, although too often when descending in particular I get too fixated on the intruments and not the visual horizon, this is a bad habit to get into so I will make more concious effort to judge the airspeed from the visual horizon.

We return to Blackbushe (EGLK) and are instructed to join the circuit on downwind and informed we have a cessna in front of us, I can see the Cessna 152 to the right flying some distance ahead so Antonio asks me to turn right to the correct heading to join the downwind leg. As I am about to turn I notice straight ahead something not much bigger than a razorblade coming rapidly towards us at the same altitude just to the right of our position, so I don't turn and point the traffic out to Antonio. The other aircraft (a Mooney) turns inside us and jumps in front of the downwind leg, apparently the flyer is a private owner who always tends to do what the hell he pleases. We join downwind behind the Mooney and I find this is good practice at straight and level flight, maintaining our 800ft altitude. I set us up for the final approach with Antonios instructions and then he takes over and guides us to a very soft straight landing.

All in all, fun, I didn't feel particularly stretched today but I am sure it won't always be as easy!

Weather and cost

Damn, the weather is nice outside.. sunny with scattered cloud.. I want to be flying! I am hoping that I get a call from my CFI to say a slot has opened up in his schedule for this weekend. One concern I have about my chosen flying school is that they appear to have more students than the instructors can handle, which may not give me the 3 or 4 lessons a week I want. I guess if I am going to change flying schools I had better do it soon!

Another moan point, why is it so expensive to learn in the UK compared with the USA? It costs almost three times the amount! I can expect to spend around £8,500.00 pounds or approximately $15,000.00 dollars learning. If I had the time, I would consider taking an extended holiday to the USA to learn, but the time is something I can afford less than the actual money :-(.

Anyway, if anyone is reading, have a good weekend!

No go

I have just returned from Blackbushe, sadly this mornings lesson was cancelled because the instructor was unable to make the lesson on time (due to traffic), also the weather is not very good with a low ceiling of 1200 feet. Oh well.. these things happen! I have asked to be informed if another slot opens up in the next few days. There is a small possibility I may be able to fly this afternoon.. will have to wait and see, otherwise the next lesson is on Tuesday 7th June.

Some reading

Whenever I get some spare time I find myself either looking at aviation websites or readings other Student Pilots accounts of their progress. Therefore I thought I would mention a few of these here and to say I am very appreciative of their efforts articulating their experiences.

• MyFlightJournal
• Undefined Value: Kris Johnson's Blog
• Get Your Wings
• My Flight Logs
• Aviatrix Logbook

Happy reading!