Lesson 9, Circuits
After what seems a long break from flying I woke up hoping that the weather would be ok. Yesterday was real bad with torrential rain and heavy electrical storms although it was forecast to begin to clear for today. The weather recently has been strange, baking hot then a couple of days later heavy rain, then baking hot again. Anyway, at 6am the skies looked bright with only scattered cloud although a lot of grey on the horizon so I figured I would get down to Blackbushe as it looked ok for flying at least for now.
This morning was slightly different from my previous lessons, this time I was required to carry out the pre-flight checks with Antonio offering explainations for each step against the checklist. It is important that I understand what each step of the check is for and why it needs to be carried out. The past few lessons I have been slowly introduced to some of the checks, but today was all the checks in their entirety, needless-to-say this took a little time although I think after doing this a couple of times the process will speed up. The Katana is actually quicker to preflight than any of the 4 seaters or the Cessna 152 so I am informed.
The lesson today was to continue practicing the circuit, following on from last weeks success, the difference being the weather. There was a reasonably strong crosswind at 10knts gusting to 15knts and the air all the way around the circuit was pretty bumpy. To tell the truth I was kind of glad for the weather, I think learning when it is rough like this is beneficial for the future as I can not always expect smooth air and the wind blowing in the right direction.
My first circuit was pretty poor, I didn't feel 'ahead' of the aircraft and events were moving faster than my brain would respond. The reason the circuit became poor was because on the crosswind leg I allowed the aircraft to climb to almost 1000ft AAL and then had to spend time losing height to stay at the circuit height of 800ft AAL. This was a good lesson to learn, I must try to make sure I stay ahead of the aircraft otherwise playing catch up easily allows mistakes to creep in due to the increased pressure to carry out all the checks, radio etc.
Another very good lesson was learned today, on the third circuit I turned onto crosswind in a 70knt climbing turn at 15 degree of bank after the touch-and-go, a strong gust of wind hit the plane and I was at 45 degrees in an instant! This showed me the importance of keeping the bank angle shallow as had I been turning at say 30 degrees it could very easily of ended up at 60 degrees which at that height and airspeed would be 'a very bad thing'. As it was I was able to correct quickly and continue the climb and roll-out.
The past few days I had practiced the checks for the circuit and this practice paid off, I was able to complete all checks on each circuit without forgetting any. My approaches were on the most part good although I had a couple of occasions when I was either slightly too low or high. I corrected without input from Antonio. Landing was made a little tricky because of the air bumps, but I carried out one landing which was entirely my own, under the conditions this impressed Antonio as the landing was near perfect! (more by luck than design!). My rudder work after touch down and before taking off again was shaky and hesitant and this is something I need to work on.
All in all todays lesson was a success, I learnt some good points and consolidated my understanding of the circuit. I am hoping to fly again tomorrow should the weather hold out.
This morning was slightly different from my previous lessons, this time I was required to carry out the pre-flight checks with Antonio offering explainations for each step against the checklist. It is important that I understand what each step of the check is for and why it needs to be carried out. The past few lessons I have been slowly introduced to some of the checks, but today was all the checks in their entirety, needless-to-say this took a little time although I think after doing this a couple of times the process will speed up. The Katana is actually quicker to preflight than any of the 4 seaters or the Cessna 152 so I am informed.
The lesson today was to continue practicing the circuit, following on from last weeks success, the difference being the weather. There was a reasonably strong crosswind at 10knts gusting to 15knts and the air all the way around the circuit was pretty bumpy. To tell the truth I was kind of glad for the weather, I think learning when it is rough like this is beneficial for the future as I can not always expect smooth air and the wind blowing in the right direction.
My first circuit was pretty poor, I didn't feel 'ahead' of the aircraft and events were moving faster than my brain would respond. The reason the circuit became poor was because on the crosswind leg I allowed the aircraft to climb to almost 1000ft AAL and then had to spend time losing height to stay at the circuit height of 800ft AAL. This was a good lesson to learn, I must try to make sure I stay ahead of the aircraft otherwise playing catch up easily allows mistakes to creep in due to the increased pressure to carry out all the checks, radio etc.
Another very good lesson was learned today, on the third circuit I turned onto crosswind in a 70knt climbing turn at 15 degree of bank after the touch-and-go, a strong gust of wind hit the plane and I was at 45 degrees in an instant! This showed me the importance of keeping the bank angle shallow as had I been turning at say 30 degrees it could very easily of ended up at 60 degrees which at that height and airspeed would be 'a very bad thing'. As it was I was able to correct quickly and continue the climb and roll-out.
The past few days I had practiced the checks for the circuit and this practice paid off, I was able to complete all checks on each circuit without forgetting any. My approaches were on the most part good although I had a couple of occasions when I was either slightly too low or high. I corrected without input from Antonio. Landing was made a little tricky because of the air bumps, but I carried out one landing which was entirely my own, under the conditions this impressed Antonio as the landing was near perfect! (more by luck than design!). My rudder work after touch down and before taking off again was shaky and hesitant and this is something I need to work on.
All in all todays lesson was a success, I learnt some good points and consolidated my understanding of the circuit. I am hoping to fly again tomorrow should the weather hold out.
posted by Chris @ Tuesday, July 05, 2005
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home