Fabulous Flying Weather

Got back in the left seat again today, with Charlotte on my right.  The weather was perfect for flying, if a little hot.  My brain was feeling sluggish at first, not wanting to remember all the pre checks but we kicked it into gear and had a good lesson.

Still hanging out in the circuit, which is obviously something I need to do until my landings are down.  Today felt a lot closer than last week's mash up.  I actually did 4 or 5 passable landings in the 0.7 hrs we flew.  On a couple of them, Charlotte didn't say anything, so I know it was actually me and my decision making getting us down.

Flying's meant to be a fun hobby for me, not something to stress over or feel bad about.  Luckily, my navigation exam has been put off until the New Year and today I knew all I had to do was better than last week so I've come out feeling in a much better head space about flying than I did after my last lesson.

Lesson 17

I wonder how I've gotten to lesson 17 in my flight training.  Although it's been months since I started on the lessons toward my PPL, 17 seems like a big number.  And that 17 doesn't include the return trip I did to Raglan with my husband.

You hear people say, "Oh, to be 17 again."  Well, here I am hanging on to the number 17 in a way and feeling much the same as I did when I was 17...a bit awkward, lacking in control, and having little self confidence. 

So, lesson 17, not a great one really.  A 2 month hiatus has not helped my flying.  I knew it wouldn't.

The good thing about today's lesson was flying with the new junior instructor, Charlotte.  She's very nice and very tolerant.  I look forward to flying with her again....

What a difference a day makes.

Yesterday morning was sunny and relatively calm.  Not an exceptionally warm day,  but warm enough that I went for my flying lesson in a tshirt dress, no jacket.  By last evening, the temperature had dropped and the wind started to pick up.  During the night, I woke up to the sounds of screaming wind and driving rain - had the thought that the planes had all better be tied down well.  This morning, just 24 hours from yesterday's lesson, the wind continues to howl and little bursts of rain come and go - it's amazing how much the weather can change in just one day.

Yesterday's lesson was definite preparation for me going solo.  We revisited engine failure after take off and glide approaches.  We went around and around.  And around.  For 1.2 hours.  The last landing I did was mint, but there were a number of marginal ones before it.  I'm finding it really hard to judge my own progress at this stage...

On The Verge

After a flight today with our female senior instructor, we were discussing my progress.  "You are on the verge, lady" she said to me.  I replied, "So, best get that medical then?"  "Oh, yes," she replied, "we don't want you stuck going round and round much longer."

So, a glimmer of hope for solo before 15 hours.  I have flown 13 hours including today's 1.1.  The weather today was almost perfect...just could have used a bit of head wind to slow our progress on final. 

Once we hopped out of the plane, we had fish and chips lunch with the boys at the field and I crossed the car park for home.  On my facebook, I found some wonderful photos my husband took of my "on the verge" of being 1 year old daughter watching me fly the plane...

Love it!  Hope everyone else is loving something as well :)

A mint day for flying...

Today was one of those days that everyone thinks is mint for flying.  Warm and sunny with great visibility and almost nil wind.  Truth is, it's actually not that mint because when the air is warmer, it's less dense and the aircraft can't make as much power and when there's no headwind, you need more runway to take off and land.

In any event, I went flying today.  And I did it in a dress (I am wearing a dress everyday in October to help raise ovarian cancer awareness in conjunction with Frocktober). 

The lesson was just plain circuits and was much needed after 3 weeks out of the left seat.  Before we got off the ground, I had already made two blunders...starting the aircraft with the mixture lean instead of full rich and doing a dead-cut check instead of a plain magnetos check...nothing terrible but "d'oh" moments to say the least. 

The other thing that challenged me today was flying the opposite circuit to what I'm used to.  I was taking off and landing on 07 today instead of 25...I only muddled the radio calls once.  The good thing about 07 is that you're coming into land over a nice flat stretch and you have a lot more time to line up with the centre of the runway.  My first approach was a go-around, but after that I did several decent landings.  I was conscious of flying the plane to the ground rather than flaring and waiting for it to land itself (it never does so gracefully).  None of the landings today were coincidences, they were all me - my husband, who was watching, asked if I had done the landings because they looked really good.  Excellent.

Well, best get back outside and finish soaking up another beautiful day...

Starting the second page of my log book...

So, today I made the first entry on the second page of my log book.  I have been double spacing, but it still seems like quite a lot of flying...9.8 hours brought forward and 0.8 hours logged today.  I've cracked 10 hours, so I guess that's something.

Today's flying was okay.  Well, actually, the flying was good but the landings are still tripping me up.  It's annoying to have everything down to those last few feet above the ground.

I think that's all I have to say about that today...

Friday's Flight

I had a flying lesson on Friday.  Yes, it's now Monday and I'm just finding the time now to say anything about it.  That's what preparing for children's birthday parties does...I had to spend the rest of Friday and Saturday baking for the 16 kids we had around yesterday...not to mention parents!  Good thing I like cupcakes and cookies about as much as I like flying...

My lesson on Friday, while yet another lesson in the circuit, was different to any lesson I've had so far.  I was flying with a female instructor.  The dynamics of the lesson seemed somewhat different flying with a female instructor.  I'm not sure what it was but it was nice to have a different perspective on flying anyways.
As I said it was another lesson in the circuit...actually, another lesson on emergency procedures in the circuit - glide approach to landing.  As usual, all of the in the air stuff was good and I found myself setting up the glide approach with relative ease.  As usual, putting the plane on the ground was the difficulty.  For once, there wasn't a crosswind, but my landing technique is only good in a crosswind...side slipping and S bends aren't very nice on a calm day. 

While I can consider glide approach to landing learned, I have yet to perfect my landing techniques and can't really go on to the next lesson, flapless landings without getting regular landings down pat.  My goal for the next lesson is to pick a nice calm day and hammer the circuit with a real emphasis on a nice smooth landing without a crosswind!

The Quest for the Perfect Crosswind Landing

Today was a funny day.  The weather was so up and down that we cancelled my lesson at one point and then decided it was back on.  That's not to say that the weather cleared right up and we had perfect conditions...

In fact, today's conditions were rather challenging.  There were good physical demonstrations of the effects of wind shear, head winds, tail winds, and crosswinds. 

The main goal of today's lesson was to get that crosswind landing technique down.  Crosswind landing technique is hard to describe but to do a good one, you want to land on one of the rear wheels, let down until the second rear wheel is on the ground and then gently let down the nose wheel.  You have to physically 'dip' the wing into the wind and then oppose that action using opposite rudder to keep you straight.  I had a good number of tries today and did relatively well.  Did I get the technique down pat?  Well, my instructor did say one of my landings showed "perfect crosswind technique" and was "sweet as" and on the last landing when I had a momentary doubt and asked him to take control, he chided me saying that I had that one and he was perfectly confident that I could have handled it. 

We also simulated a few engine failures after take off and I was able to handle them without any stress...even when the simulation came late on the crosswind leg and I wasn't expecting it.  The instructor was impressed that I didn't get confused by difference as engine failure can happen at any time.

With such positive feedback today, I feel like I'm really on track to going solo in the next couple of hours.  Hard to believe I've done 8.8 hours of flying already! 

One other thing...I found this quote today and I thought it was awesome:  Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings.  ~C.D. Jackson

Exam News and Crosswind Circuits

I finally found out the results from my Aircraft Tech exam this morning.  Happily, I passed.  And I even did better than "just pass", I had a good margin between me and being a failure. 

The uncertainty surrounding the results is one of those things that reminds me I don't know everything and this whole learning to fly thing is actually a challenge.  I don't know everything...far from it.  My excellent memory is used up with all sorts of information not related to flying - my husband and children's birthdays, the recipe for a delicious lamb soup, and my mother's phone number...all very important, but totally unrelated.  Time to start those neurons firing again and making room for more, flying related, memories!

Speaking of flying.  I went for a very short lesson yesterday.  Just 0.4 hours (24 minutes).  We stopped because of the unpredictable gusty crosswind.  I did the first circuit all myself, but let's just say my execution of the crosswind technique the instructor was walking me through left a bit to be desired...or so I thought!  On the next circuit, I got everything all set up and let the instructor demonstrate a crosswind landing that was similar to the one I just did.  We did a full stop and decided to give it a rest as, truth be told, it was out of my league at this point in time (I believed the instructor when he told me he really had to work at the landing).

I may or may not get airborne today.  The plane and instructor are off on a cross country lesson.  They left a bit later than planned and the sky is much greyer than it was when they took off.  Sometimes the only thing to do with flying is wait and see.

Exam 2 & Lesson 09

On Saturday, I sat my Aircraft Technical Knowledge exam and had a flying lesson.  A bit crazy looking back on it as I was absolutely exhausted afterwards.

The exam was difficult.  I won't lie, the internal workings of in line and radial piston engines don't hold much interest for me so studying was probably  a bit sparse considering my learning curve.  I will just wait and see the results when they're posted next week and be happy with a passing mark.


After the exam, despite feeling a bit brain dead, I went up for a lesson in the circuit.  The lesson was Engine Failure After Take Off - you know what to do if for some reason the engine cuts out when you're a mere few hundred feet off the ground.  So, how do you practice that?  Well, you begin your circuit with a nice take off and at some point on the climb out the instructor pulls back the throttle, now you have to recover and get the plane flying toward a suitable landing site without power.  Right.  The first time we did it, I was a bit blonde and recovered by putting the throttle back in (right answer when doing a go around which feels similar in that you have no power on but you want to fly again, but wrong answer if there is no power available like on an EFATO).  It took me a couple tries with the instructor feeding me my "lines" to get it right and not reach for the power.  Next lesson we are going to have to do a few more of these and then add in the bit about glide approach to landing...

Good news is, my landing set up is getting a lot better and I was actually lining up the runway well despite a cross-wind.  The cross-wind was making getting the plane onto the ground a lot different and I'm sure I'll appreciate learning the cross-wind technique once we get to it.

Lesson 8 - Progressing in the Circuit

Yet another lesson in the circuit.  Circuits will be a common theme on this blog for a while so I hope I don't bore you too much.

After last lesson's heady pace, I talked to the instructor I was flying with today and let him know I'd like to do full stops between the first few circuits.  Doing a full stop means that you land the plane fully and have a bit of time on the ground to regroup and discuss the set up and landing before going again.  I'm glad I spoke up today because the breaks in between helped me to relax somewhat over the full on touch and goes that I did last time.

Going well:  take off, climb to 200' and lowering flaps, turn onto crosswind leg at 500', radio call on downwind leg, downwind checks, initial set up.

Needs work:  judging when to turn base, lining up the runway, maintaining 65 knots, flaring, and touching down softly.

You may remember that I was having trouble with taxiing...  Having driven a car for so many years, the nerves associated with taxiing an aircraft took me by surprise but now I realise is that it's so different from driving a car that I shouldn't compare the two.  Anyway, taxiing is becoming more and more controlled; I have adjusted my sitting position so I can adequately control the rudder and brakes and be comfortable.  I think within the next few lessons it will start to become second nature. 

On a different note, I bought some red and white rhinestones to bling my headset!  Exciting :)

Lesson 7 - Stuck into Circuits

So today was my first lesson doing nothing but circuits.

"What is a circuit?" you non-aviation types may be asking yourselves...well, it's basically a big roundabout.  It's the pattern you keep to when you're doing take-offs and landings so that people can predict where you're going to be and what height you'll be flying at based on your radio calls so you don't bump into each other.

Today was better than yesterday in some ways, much the same in others.  I was doing better with my "downwind" checks and set up, but still tending to come in high on "final".  I was still tense about it all, maybe more so than yesterday because I didn't get the release of laughing at myself for being a knob/noob.  It is somewhat hard to judge your own progress and I was flying with a different instructor today so there wasn't any feedback on progress from him, unfortunately.

My lesson lasted 0.8 hours or 48 minutes.  It seems at once to be a very short and long period of time.  I'm not sure I've been quite as challenged and exhausted by 48 minutes of non-physical activity in years.  It's the good kind of challenge and exhaustion - the kind that makes you feel like your brain is working, even if for only 48 minutes a day!

Lesson 6 - Revision, Circuits, and Really Bad Taxiing

There are days when you just have to laugh at yourself.  Today was one of those days.

Perhaps it's the edges of this cold hanging on or the 2 week gap since my last flight, but I was having an "off" flying day.  Feeling a bit fuzzy around the edges and not altogether awesome.  That said, I did do a spectacularly perfect level medium turn...

Circuits are the bane of most student pilot's existence for some time and I can see why.  You're doing the same loop over and over and over again.  Doug, my instructor, said circuits made him lose the will to live (figuratively, obviously). I am not at this point yet - circuits still seem reasonable and I was happy with my progress in the circuit today...

The bane of my existence is taxiing.  And the highlight (or lowlight, depending on how you look at things) of today's lesson  was a taxiing incident.  An incident that was not dramatic or scary, but just embarrassing.  Today I taxied off the side of the runway into the soft, wet grass.  I had to shut down the plane, at approximately the midpoint of the runway, and get out and push it back onto the seal.  Not only did I push, Doug pushed, and two of the engineers from a nearby hangar came out to help us too...I wasn't so stuck that I needed all of us, but I guess it's good to know the help is there if I ever am.  

As we got back into the plane and started everything back up as quickly as possible so as to remove ourselves from smack-dab in the middle of the runway, Doug and I were laughing.  There wasn't really anything else to do - no one was hurt, the plane wasn't broken, and there were no impending landings.  I suppressed a giggle as I made my radio call and proceeded to taxi in a perfectly straight line down to the turning bay...

So today I made a mistake.  I took responsibility for it and tried to learn from it.  And I laughed...