Well, after the last flight, all's I can say is that this time I got into the car with a smile on my face
I had planned Liverpool - Seaforth, to Kirkby, to Ormskirk and then back in. We went over my calculations, got rid of one or two minor errors and then went out to fly.
Upon takeoff, I had clear in my mind everything that I found difficult last time, and all of my mistakes. Sorry for the Hollywood sounding movie quote, but "I knew what I had to do"
I had folded my map properly into more of a rectangular shape that covered the area better, then clipped it at the side with bulldog clips, and this has got to be the best thing I have done so far. The chart sat firmly on my knee in perfect position and didn’t move. My advice to anyone else in my position, PLEASE PLEASE fold your map as small as you need, then clip it in place at the sides to stop it form unfolding. It really did help and lightened the workload quite significantly. Ok, so we left via Seaforth and turned onto the calculated heading. At this point I felt a lot more confident because I could relate to the chart better and was using it quite a lot to pick out features (again, just folding it properly and clipping it helped enormously). We headed towards Ormskirk and upon reaching it, we decided on a small exercise. As we were to the right of Burscough Aerodrome, he said to me:
"Estimate a heading we would have to turn to be over the runway"
So I did, and got it reasonably correct. Here comes the interesting part (I will try and explain as best as possible). I then had to turn onto 190 to route to Kirkby, and that would entail a right turn, which is what I did, BUT because the wind was from the left, it meant that I had drifted over a mile, just turning onto Kirkby - which could have been overcome by a turn to the left, i.e. into the wind. This made so much sense and I have remembered this for the future. Ok, tune into ATIS, call approach and away we go - everything smooth so far, and we are both enjoying the flight. The weather was terrible actually, high winds, drizzle, low vis and a cloud base of around 25. Not solo weather, but still, I could pick out features, like I said, refer them to the map and it all made sense. So, on a clear day with nice weather, it should be even better
Ok onto the approach. We were told to join right base, so we set up. Now normally I am used to 70kts approach, but this time I was instructed for 80 - with no flaps. This threw me off course a little (mentally) but I got set up ok. The xwind component was 15kts - which is the limit on the Tommy, and it was such different approach. 300ft, carb off then line up with the rudder, aileron into the wind with left rudder. Now here my problems started - I must have been in driving mode and started using the wheel to line the nose up, instead of the rudder, however, unlike last time, instead of going up down up down up down, I held it there and let her sit down gently, even though it was rather bumpy on the approach (we were getting thrown around quite a bit). Very interesting indeed.
So to conclude, a very enjoyable and successful flight, and next time, it will be a solo on this route. Today was made easier probably by the fact that I didn't have to change frequency all the time to Warton/Woodvale etc. I aint sure, but what's the consolidation - do I turn up and do a few circuits or do I just turn up and fly solo? I think it is the latter, which will introduce a new angle into the way of thinking
Sorry for the length, I just had a lot to say!!
Safe flying,
Lee
You are all right about how things get easier, and once again, thak you for your kind words. I only hope the Northern route goes better than it did last time.