That’s a good point actually about the insurance – it may be a requirement of different clubs policies?
Final Dual Flight Before Test
Well, I am nearly there. Today was to be a revision flight, of mostly PFL’s and upper air work. I decided that I wanted to do all my navigation by dead reckoning alone, and did not do any navigation planning before the flight. Today we were on runway 09, which meant a departure to the north at Kirkby or to the south at Oulton Park. It has been a very long time since I departed to the north out at Kirkby, in fact it was my very first dual navigation exercise (remember that one, the complete disaster)?
The wind was all over the place today, very gusty and just off the runway centreline, which meant that when we headed north to Kirkby, a lot of correction was required to stay on track. It’s amazing how you can begin to judge these things for yourself now, and it kind of starts to sink in and become a lot more natural. We headed towards Wigan at first, over Billinge Hill, where we would do our first PFL. It’s a lot more difficult when gliding into a strong wind, because you don’t cover a lot of ground, and what looks like an achievable field, actually becomes impossible as you continue your descent. The advice given to me was that if you are at 5000 feet (which we were at later) then you have a lot more time do plan your descent, and can maybe even spiral down on top of whatever you are on. However, when you are at 2000 feet, you obviously have a lot less time on your hands, and you may find that within a few seconds, you are on your crosswind leg at 1000 feet, therefore, always have a look over your left shoulder to see what’s there.
We then headed north west towards Burscough, where there is a patch of airspace that allows you to go up to around 5000 feet. It was a totally glorious day with perfect visibility and lots of sunshine, and the odd dot of fluffy cloud – we climbed high and got on top of a few clouds and it was beautiful. Obviously we never went into one and were always in sight of the surface, but it was nice to experience it whilst I had my instructor with me. Onto some stalls – in the past I have recovered too early and haven’t let the stall fully develop – this time I would! After a little more back pressure on the controls, the wings started buffeting (who can tell me what this is and why it happens – without looking at your books)? Only then was the back pressure relieved, full power applied and into the climb immediately – it is important to remember that the idea of practising the stall, is to lose as little height as possible, and the examiner will not want you to delay in getting straight back into the climb. We done a few more, with some wing drops and I was happy with everything, so we then done a couple of spiral descents (these are amazing when done right).
In the cruise, gently start a turn without adding any back pressure, keep the ailerons rolling and watch as the nose dives down and the speed runs away very quickly – the first thing is to cut the power, roll the wings level, then and only then, do you apply gentle back pressure straight into the climb. Let the speed bleed off, then when you reach climb speed, apply power as necessary. You can hear the air hit the aircraft as you speed up, it is amazing. A couple of PFL’s later we were on our way back to what would be a flapless (due to strength of wind) and bumpy landing. We had to do quite a lot of orbiting over Garston docks to let some of the 737’s in, and it’s amazing as to how difficult it is to keep a circular shape over the ground when there is a 30 knot wind! Eventually we got lined up and I decided to add a few knots onto the approach speed due to the wind, again, there was no flap. Oh I forgot, before the flight I was in the club listening to the radio and wind shear was being reported at 600 feet on final, so that was in the back of my mind. At about 300 feet – SINK. We went down like a lead balloon to which I immediately applied power, which I think I left in for too long as when we approached the flare, it didn’t want to go down, I reduced the power again (all whilst trying to keep centreline due to slight crosswind and gusts) and then we started sinking again! It was really difficult I have to admit, but eventually (were talking a matter of a few seconds, which seems like an eternity) it went down reasonably ok with no thud! When you see tarmac approaching rapidly, even though the nose is up, it is quite scary, and you start thinking “don’t stall on finals into the ground” etc. overall I was quite happy with the landing.
I was made up with the flight, and not only had I had a good revision but I actually had a good time too, same with any flight really!
I have 15 mins solo to do, and lets just say that I have to do it as quickly as possible as the test is coming up…………
Thanks again,
Lee
