Lesson 22, PFL's and Navigation
Writing this fairly late so a short report this time...
Todays lesson was focussed on consolidating all previous lessons up till this point and also an introduction to navigation. We began with a ground lesson on VORs, NDB and DME along with explaining some of the controls on the GPS, this was real good as I have been practicing this a fair bit using Flightsim.
I had more or less the whole afternoon booked with Antonio's time and G-BWLS so there was less time pressure than usual, this helped me to focus more on the lesson. We began with a short field take-off and then some radio practice obtaining flight information service and talking with ATC, I am getting slightly better at communicating on the radio, just need more practice and also to relax a little more. On the way to the practice area Antonio tested me on general maneovers such as balanced turns to a given heading (had to be precise), steep turns and stalls in all different configurations. Once at the practice area we did some practice forced landings and some general emergency procedures along with carrying out all the regular checks during normal flight. Also practiced a forward slip, s-turns and discovering wind direction from the air.
There was alot of traffic flying around randomly today, mostly gliders. I learnt that most gliders pretty much go where they want to regardless of other aircraft, on several occasions I was forced to avoid them as they turned directly into my path. I do however understand that they have right of way so no problem.
The first part of the lesson went well, it was good to revisit things I hadn't practiced in awhile such as stalls. Antonio was pleased so we moved on the navigation stuff, I found this more difficult than I had thought from the briefing, for some things always seem easier when discussed on the ground. We practiced turns with just the compass and also timed turns and messed around with nearby VORs. Amazing thing VORs, it is fairly easy to work out your exact position by discovering which radial you are on for two seperate VORs. The GPS was also good, messed around with entering waypoints and using the compass and timed turns to follow the course the GPS suggested (Antonio twisted the DI around).
Finally we returned to Blackbushe following a radial and using the DME to establish our distance. Entering overhead Blackbushe we did a High Key maneover in a glide all the way through Low Key and then to land, the maneover was fine.. the landing very bad, I made a huge mistake of trying to adjust my airspeed by dipping the nose too low to the ground and then having to rapidly flare.. result.. hard landing followed by a bounce. Once again I am taught not to get over-confident and not to try crazy things that I have been TOLD never to do, I.E dip the nose right before the flare. We do a few more flapless landings and a go-around due to another aircraft on the runway, thankfully these are much better.
Today, total of 1.8 hours. Excellent lesson all in all, only the mistake on landing was a bit of a bummer. More navigation tomorrow.
Todays lesson was focussed on consolidating all previous lessons up till this point and also an introduction to navigation. We began with a ground lesson on VORs, NDB and DME along with explaining some of the controls on the GPS, this was real good as I have been practicing this a fair bit using Flightsim.
I had more or less the whole afternoon booked with Antonio's time and G-BWLS so there was less time pressure than usual, this helped me to focus more on the lesson. We began with a short field take-off and then some radio practice obtaining flight information service and talking with ATC, I am getting slightly better at communicating on the radio, just need more practice and also to relax a little more. On the way to the practice area Antonio tested me on general maneovers such as balanced turns to a given heading (had to be precise), steep turns and stalls in all different configurations. Once at the practice area we did some practice forced landings and some general emergency procedures along with carrying out all the regular checks during normal flight. Also practiced a forward slip, s-turns and discovering wind direction from the air.
There was alot of traffic flying around randomly today, mostly gliders. I learnt that most gliders pretty much go where they want to regardless of other aircraft, on several occasions I was forced to avoid them as they turned directly into my path. I do however understand that they have right of way so no problem.
The first part of the lesson went well, it was good to revisit things I hadn't practiced in awhile such as stalls. Antonio was pleased so we moved on the navigation stuff, I found this more difficult than I had thought from the briefing, for some things always seem easier when discussed on the ground. We practiced turns with just the compass and also timed turns and messed around with nearby VORs. Amazing thing VORs, it is fairly easy to work out your exact position by discovering which radial you are on for two seperate VORs. The GPS was also good, messed around with entering waypoints and using the compass and timed turns to follow the course the GPS suggested (Antonio twisted the DI around).
Finally we returned to Blackbushe following a radial and using the DME to establish our distance. Entering overhead Blackbushe we did a High Key maneover in a glide all the way through Low Key and then to land, the maneover was fine.. the landing very bad, I made a huge mistake of trying to adjust my airspeed by dipping the nose too low to the ground and then having to rapidly flare.. result.. hard landing followed by a bounce. Once again I am taught not to get over-confident and not to try crazy things that I have been TOLD never to do, I.E dip the nose right before the flare. We do a few more flapless landings and a go-around due to another aircraft on the runway, thankfully these are much better.
Today, total of 1.8 hours. Excellent lesson all in all, only the mistake on landing was a bit of a bummer. More navigation tomorrow.
posted by Chris @ Sunday, August 07, 2005
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