Wasnt it such a crappy weather system this morning? Nothing but pelting rain and low stratus cloud all over the place. Well, I was pretty sure my flight would be cancelled, but as it was later in the afternoon, thought I would hang out and see. As it turns out, I got a phonecall asking if I could go any earlier - so off I was.
Turned up to nice blue sky and high cloud base, but again, quite gusty wind. Today was more stalling. We done stalls in the turn, stalls with flaps and stalls at full power. The stall with the turn was an interesting one, because depending on the way your are turning there is a different method of recover. For example, when stalling to the left, the aircraft wants to yaw to the left when you apply full power (slipstream effect), so you need a good amount of right rudder, or you will end up in a spirl descent, the airspeed will shoot up and you lose height very quick. Wait for the airspeed to reach 60, level wings then begin the climb. Pretty much the same for the right turn stall, but dont need as much, if any, left rudder, as the aircraft naturally yaws to the left.
One thing I will bear in mind, is that it is essential to keep the controls as level as possible and not be tempted to roll out of the turn on stall. This can cause a sudden wing drop and even worsen the roll already induced. The way to do it is by relieving back pressure, unstalliung the wings, applying full power also, THEN roll the wings level, then begin the climb.
Stalling with full flaps was a scary reminder/example of how an aircraft can stall without you knowing it as well as without flaps. When full flap is extended, the nose needs to be kept a lot lower, as the aircraft reaches the stall. It is quite scary as to how low the nose has to be, and still make a stall. I suppose this may catch you out when in final approach, a stall here would be pretty dangerous.
It was amazing the amount of crab we had to use to compensate for the drift due to the strong wind, when heading for a particular area, we found ourselves pointing at least 30 degrees to the right, in order to achieve the correct ground track. Upon turning downwind, the aircraft accelarated pretty quick, and this was easily noticed as we were close to the ground - quite a fantastic experience.
It wa snow time for a flapless approach. Instead of the 70kt nose low attitude, it was an 80kt shallow approach. This is quite significantly different to that of a full flap approach as the nose is a lot higher, and you are a lot closer to the ground for most of the approach. I canimagine it would take some practice to be able to perform different landing configurations on different days (hence circuit training!!). The landing seemed a lot more smoother - this may have been because of the more reactive controls due to the higher airspeed, and even the propwash producing the kinetic energy towards the wings, giving greater lift and handling.
All in all another superb lesson - I am learning so much the I never thought I could - and it is all slowly sinking into place. All the previous lessons are now being put into one; "the circuit".
Next lesson I will be doing quite a few circuits, so I will let you know how I get on with them.
Safe flights,
Lee
