Hour 4
As this lesson is a continuation of the previous hour (climbs and descents) it will be quite similar from a technical point of view.
Today was quite a windy day and I actually rang the school to see if we were still flying but I think I rang a bit too early. As I am in the early stages of my training I cannot yet tell the strength of the wind purely by feel. I got to the airfield and actually thought it was quite a strong wind and that we wouldn’t be flying. I went out to the hangar and saw my instructor, he said the wind was around 8 kts in which I was amazed at as it seemed quite strong. The windsock was only about 45 degrees from the horizon. Another problem was the haze, as it was quite early in the day, the haze layer was still quite low, so he asked me if I was ok to continue and climb above for now (as if I was gonna refuse the flight yeah?!)
Ok so we went through an external check in more detail, draining some fuel to take a look at it and looking under the cowling etc. the things I learned today about the aircraft (amongst others) was the purpose of the pitot and the pitot heat. He shown me if you place the back of your hand under the pitot you can feel a gentle warm air flow, as this can freeze over in icing conditions and then you would lose the use of the ASI which wouldn’t be good. Then there was the static vent. This (in very basic terms) being a pipe running along the aircraft which measures changes in pressure and allows the use of the altimeter etc. Sorry if this sounds like a lesson to you, but writing it down and explaining helps me to understand more. Hope you don’t mind.
So, as this is a continuation of climbs and descents, it was time to make use of the flaps, a cruise climb/descent and one of my favourite parts, the ‘sideslip’. As I am aware, the sideslip has to be covered as it is still part of the syllabus, but nobody really ever uses it. Please correct me if I am wrong but was it used in earlier days when no flaps were available, to lose height at a greater rate as slow as possible? It was fun to do thought, I never knew the Tommy could have done something like that, I must have more faith!
So far things are going well, things are fitting into place and I understand what is happening. I performed the manoeuvres ok and on the way back, made my first position report/approach intentions to ATC. This was another highlight in the process as I am sure you can understand.
Now, going back to a post I made several months ago, before I had started any training. Some of you may have read it. It was about crosswind landings. I was asking how they are performed and I admitted that it seems a daunting process and that it may be something which (what’s the right word here? I don’t want to use ‘fear’) seems a bit difficult at first. Ok so we were landing on RW09 with a 120 degree crosswind, so we were being pushed to the left. I seem to recall that ATC didn’t inform us of the stronger wind, as it was significantly stronger than what was said in the ATIS report. Anyway, this is my first crosswind landing attempt. I confirmed that I was in control and was being followed through. I am going to be completely honest with you at this point, I kept the airspeed as close to 70kts as I could, I kept a steady attitude (had great verbal help from instructor) and let the plane fly itself, with physics doing the rest. The landing went very well, it really wasn’t as difficult as I had though months ago when writing my crosswind post. My landings have gone very well so far, I know I have only done 4 hours but I do look forward to the circuits, as I particularly enjoy the landing stage. I am also getting more taxi control, which is great as this has also been another area that daunted me at first Made the final call to ATC, this time, only with the instruction ok you know what to say”,
“Golf sierra alpha, passing kilo, goodbye”.
I rang up on Saturday to find out my Air Law exam result. Got 92% which was very good to know.
Thanks for reading.
Lee.