At the risk of labouring the point, 1 hour of circuits is absolutely nothing, so don’t worry if you’re feeling a little bit wobbly. (Does everyone else remember the joys of turning downwind and trying desperately to remember all that BUMFFISCH stuff, getting the downwind call in,
and trying to keep the thing somewhere between 1,000’ & 1,500’?) It’s all a bit overwhelming at first, but as the hours build it will come together.
I found FS2000 extremely useful for practicing circuits (don’t laugh) - you’ll get used to rolling out on the correct headings & can practice pre-landing checks in real-time, as well as getting the correct runway picture on approach – and it’s an awful lot cheaper than the real thing.
Difficult to give you much advice on landings, apart from the usual stuff about looking towards the far end of the runway as you start the flare, and getting your approach speed right. It’s all down to practice (and currency – 3 weeks without flying, and my first couple of landings are real bone-crunchers). The best moral support I ever had was from a BA146 FO, who started out on the F27. He reckoned that, in a year’s worth of landings, he had 2 or possibly 3 that he was really happy with. I stopped worrying about it after that.
