More Practise

Sunday morning dawned somewhat gray... but fairly calm and the cloudbase looked OK, so I headed out to the field. I was a little concerned as I hit a light shower on the drive out, but it was nothing heavy and it seemed to pass...

Getting to the field, Trevor informed me that I should go and have a look at the Training Area, do some basic revision (stalls + turns etc) and then if it was looking good after that, we could go and do some more forced landing practise.

So I headed up, just as one of the other students was coming back in from his first solo... I imagine I had the same silly look on my face when I did mine too!

I asked his instructor what the cloudbase was looking like while they were doing circuits and was told 'at least 3000 feet'... and that it was 'a little bumpy in the circuit'...

So I fired up JBL and headed off... I'm not sure what work (if any) has been done on JBL, but it did not seem to have the plug fouling/rough running issues... as I throttled up for the Run-up and the Max Performance Take Off it was smooth as silk.

On climb out, I found the bumps as they had indicated at around 700' but passing through around 1500' it was smooth sailing...

Cloudbase was at least 4000' as I was in very clear air at 3500'... so I did a few basic stalls, some medium turns and then started the compass turns... Now I'm not sure if my maths was off or what, but it seemed like every one that I did, I ended up 10 degrees off! I think I may have been rolling out too early... so I will have to try those again on my next solo run...

I headed back to the field, and Trevor suggested we go and do some FLWOP practise as the cloudbase was good and the winds light... I jumped at the chance for more flying... he was still a little hesitant to use JBL given its rough running history so we took ETZ.

We went and did 2 FLWOPs and I nailed both of them... I have figured out what my issues were (spacing) and am now purposely choosing my 1000' and 1500' reference points that are a good distance away from the chosen field so that I do not get too close...

Next week a progress check flight with Chief Instructor Rob and a lesson on the glide approach.

This flight: 1.0 Solo + 1.0 Dual
Total Hours: 67.6 (55.3 Dual, 12.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Early bird...

Tried for an introduction to the glide approach today... not good... the circuit was not really busy, but when people are flying circuits about the same size used by 747's it makes it really hard to get your spacing correct...

We chucked it in after 3 attempts (including a Go-Around) and decided to try again next week...

I have purposely booked first thing to try to beat the crowds and get a nice empty circuit. If not, we make look at heading to Matamata and trying there.

The only positive outcome today, was that I figured out why I had issues with ETZ the other week... someone had raised the seat up! duh!

And in other news, the AB's (reduced to 14 men) were beaten by a blind referee, 2 equally blind linesman and the French this morning... Full credit to the french, we did not play smart rugby and the french took their opportunities (read: dodgy officiating) with both hand :P...

On the bright side, I might actually get some decent sleep, as I no longer have a reason to sit up till the wee hours watching the world cup! ;)

This flight: 0.5 Dual
Total Hours: 65.6 (54.3 Dual, 11.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Too close + Too High

Forced Landing practise... and lots of. And, I think I have finally figured out my problem...

I have been picking reference points (1500' AGL area and 1000' point) that are quite close to the landing zone. This is not necessarily a 'Bad Thing'(tm), but what is bad, is that I have then been flying overhead these points, rather than maintaining correct spacing. This results in me being too close and therefore too high...

But my last one (of 4 today) was really good, and I feel that I will just learn to pick points further out and watch the spacing.

On a side note, a Spitfire was doing some test flying today... simply awesome... and without doubt the most beautiful looking (and sounding) aircraft every...

Also on show was a P-51 Mustang, not the Kiwi Thunder scale replica, but the real mccoy...

This flight: 1.3 Dual (0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 65.1 (53.8 Dual, 11.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)