Warning: Do Not Read This Post If You Are Short Of Time!
Things moved slightly faster than originally planned, so this morning I found myself at Husbands Bosworth to start my flying. As I left Coventry the weather looked great. The ATIS at CVT was giving light winds, high cloud, and 20km visibility. As I drove East though the clouds descended, along with my spirit, and by the time I arrived there was mist and light rain. Not a great start.
I had a few minutes to wait, so settled myself into the cafe, my back to the window overlooking the airfield, trying desperately to ignore the fact that I could only just make out the other side. I listened to the glider pilots debating whether to pack up. Glider pilots, I'm told, are infinitely optimistic about the weather, so I was feeling even more downhearted by now.
Finally my instructor arrived (let's call him John), bringing tea and a big grin. What a good start! I'm used to instructors arriving and immediately demanding
me to bring tea. We settled down for him to brief me on the circuit, and to wait for the cloud to hopefully lift. The standard circuit at HB is 500', but John was happy to stay with 300', as long as I was.
At 12pm he decided the cloud had started to lift, and we ought to get the aircraft out to check her over. As we walked to the hangar we passed a couple of huddles of glider pilots, looking depressed and slightly damp. We pushed the Chipmunk out of the hangar for the pre-flight. This is when the fun started. I remember trying to learn Aircraft Technical for the PPL - looking at the pictures in Trevor Thom, and being very frustrated that I couldn't check on the C152 that everything was there, and what it all actually looked like. Very
very much different on the Chippie where you open the cowling and it's all laid out in front of you, with lots of space around each component. John showed me the inside of the mags, where all the cables ran through from the cockpit, where the air, fuel, and oil flowed, etc etc etc. The rest of the walkround was equally informative. I was astonished to find the inspection covers on the underside of each wing were fastened with zips in the fabric! It makes sense once you think about it, but how very strange!
Walkround complete I climbed into the front seat to test it all out for size. I know you're not meant to have a great view in a taildragger, but I couldn't see
anything, and I couldn't push the rudders through to the stop. While I went back for my booster cushion John moved the rudders forward - much better! Then we went through the cockpit again, finding where everything was, how it worked, and whether or not I could reach it. The master switch, for example, I had no hope of reaching with the harness on, so opted to move it with my foot. We'd primed the engine previously, another eye-opener to actually see the fuel being pulled through, so were able to complete the checks, strap ourselves in, and start up... at 1pm.
Taxying was... interesting. "Push the right rudder to the stop" said John. I did. Nothing happened. Hmmm. Now put on a bit of brake. I did. We turned! We made our way at snail's pace onto the grass, up the slope, between the gliders, and onto the field. No-one else was out because the cloud was still very low, so I had the entire field to practise taxying in... and I needed it! I weaved side-to-side as I'd been briefed, looking the length of the field as I did so, checking for other traffic. It took me a while to get used to anticipating the end of the weave and putting in opposite rudder. The grass was also fairly long, and wet, which made it a struggle.
We put the brakes on while John briefed me on the take off again. Final checks, and a call to any traffic in the vicinity (the police helicopter operates from just over the road) and then we were off! Open the throttle slightly, see you're rolling so you know the brakes are off, put on more throttle, put in a bit of left rudder to keep her straight, more throttle, more rudder
too much rudder ... and then I over-compensated, and I experienced my first ground loop! An interesting experience, graceful in a way, and strangely I felt completely calm. Until we came to a stop, when I hit the side of my headset against the canopy, and was able to see the tracks I'd carved into the field. Ooops.
"Never mind" said John, let's try it again. So back we taxyed, and I felt a lot more confident this time. Again we lined up and made a radio call. But now I was being extremely cautious about opening the throttle. I
was managing to keep it more or less straight though, or at least
not weaving around. We took off about 20 degrees to the right of where we'd started, but at least we hadn't ground looped again!
That's when things started to get busy. It was like being back at my very first lesson again, but this time I was expected to have at least half an idea what was going on! Nose down, pick up speed, more rudder, nose up, level off, throttle back, less rudder, turn... it was all the busier for being a low-level circuit. We were only able to climb to 450' before we were in the cloud. Then the turn through cross wind and onto downwind, and oh... how responsive! None of this lag I'm used to. You push the stick and she moves! On downwind the usual checks to do, plus a bit of a struggle with the carb heat. It's situated by your right elbow, and is a sliding bolt. I held the stick with my right hand while I tried to reach over. I decided that was too awkward, swapped hands, and tried again. More awkward still! I just couldn't get my arm back far enough to silde it into place. Back to right hand on the stick, and finally it was in. Then bleed off some speed, and again more trouble putting in flap. I wasn't strong enough to move the lever! Another turn through base leg onto final, second stage of flaps, airspeed back to 65 kt, adjust the power to get us descending, down down down... then flare, holding the attitude, trying to fly all the way to the end of the field, then shouts of "Stick back!!!" from the back .... lots of BIG bounces, then we were rolling and I was able to apply gentle break to bring us to a stand still.
WOW.
"Err... you can breathe now!" called John from the back! I hadn't realised it, but I'd not taken a breath since the flare. Too much else to worry about. Then a quick debrief on the landing. The rudder input to keep you straight I found a bit like hovering. I could feel John's feet moving the rudders left, neutral, left, right, neutral, but couldn't see what he was responding to. The lack of horizon meant finding something to aim towards was difficult, so I decided to use the fence to our left as a guide.
We were happy to carry on in the low cloud, so taxyed back to the top of the field, for another circuit. This time things started to come together. I stopped confusing the altimeter and the rpm counter, but the airspeed indicator still eluded me on occasion. We came in for another landing, and this time things seemed to go a little better. When we stopped John said "Great landing!" I said "Yes, but you still had to do a lot", to which he replied "I didn't touch a thing". Yes! My second landing, and it had already started coming together. "Do you want to go for another circuit?" he asked. Silly question, so off we went again. This time I managed to take off only 10' to the right of my initial track, found all the instruments, did the downwind check unaided, and came in for another good landing! Time for a quick lunch break though. We parked the Chippie outside the hangar, to calls of "Are you teaching her ballet or flying John?" They'd all seen my ground loop. It didn't last long though, because then it started to rain, and it's surprising how quickly they shot off inside!
We stopped for an hour, waiting for the rain to pass and debriefing on the flight. John went through everything again, but this time with the experience of just having done it, it all made much more sense. Emerging after lunch we found the gliders had been packed away, but there was a big blue patch in the sky! We quickly taxied off for another couple of circuits, everything still coming together nicely. Then on the third take off we were able to climb through to fly on top of the cloud.
WOW.
I’ve never flown on top of a layer of cloud like this, and it was breath-taking. Lines of cloud stretched as far as the eye could see, and in between were scattered patches of green. John reminded me to breathe again, then we lined ourselves up on one of the ridges of cloud to practise co-ordinated turns. Then we climbed up further to try a stall. No buzzers or lights of course, but the buffet was obvious, and she recovered immediately. Absolutely beautiful! An old cliché, but it has to be repeated. This was no aircraft to sit in and fly… this one you strap on! We descended again through a gap in the cloud, for another good approach and landing. “Okay”, said John, “that’s enough for you, but I never get to fly, so I’ll do one quick circuit”. On downwind he declared he was bored, so handed the controls back to me. When we finally shut down I just sat there for a few minutes with an immense grin on my face.
This is flying, and I can’t wait to do it again!