Melbourne Tour ‘09

Today, I met up with some friends from interstate (also pilots) and we all went for a fly around Melbourne. Jodie has an RA-Aus licence, Jeremy (not the usual Jeremy mentioned on this blog, this one is from Perth ) is a flying instructor and Tim has soloed in motor gliders. So, basically, we were four pilots going on a flying adventure!

Our plan was to fly from Lilydale to RAAF Williams base Point Cook to visit the RAAF Museum, then back to Lilydale.

We all met up at Lilydale where we had hired a Cessna 172 – India Sierra Delta (VH-ISD).

After Jeremy went for a few circuits with one of the Lilydale instructors  and everyone managed to find headsets, we went out to the plane.

Excitingly, I was given control to fly the first leg to Point Cook (YMPC). As Jeremy is a flying instructor it was fine for me to do the flight and log the hours in my logbook (ended up logging 0.5). The Cessna is quite different to the Jab (obviously) – there is a yoke rather than the central stick, the throttle is on the right, there is a mixture control and (happily) the seats move. After we all got sorted, I taxiied us to 18R. It was very odd trying to get used to the brakes being on the floor rather than the central handbrake, quite a few times while taxiing I accidentally applied the brakes when trying to make rudder inputs. It was also strange having my left hand on the yoke and right hand on the throttle.

I did the takeoff and found it very hard to hold the nose down after takeoff to reach 80kts. It seemed to take a lot of force to keep the nose down but it was a little easier once I worked out where the trim wheel was. We started tracking to the south west, towards the city. Jeremy dealt with all of the navigating and the radio calls, leaving me to just do the actual flying.

When we reached the city, we politely asked ATC if we could do an orbit of the city and received clearance. It was amazing to see the city from the air, we were only at 1500ft so it was just fantastic. I still can’t believe I’ve flown over the city!

After the city orbit, we followed the coast around to Point Cook. The RAAF base where the museum is located has 3 runways, two bitumen and one grass. We were landing on a bitumen runway (my first landing on bitumen). We overflew the airport and joined the circuit for runway 17. I was in control for the approach and landing with a slight bit of help from Jeremy – just some suggestions of when to add power and a bit of help with the flare. I think I didn’t do too badly with the landing considering a Cessna is quite different to a Jab. It also didn’t help that I was flying with my left hand with my right on the throttle (the opposite to usual) which made things feel very different. Overall I’m pretty pleased with my flying and landing though, considering all the differences

We parked at the base (had to put the nosewheel in the little white box painted on the ground, but I think I managed it pretty well) and went into the Museum.

I’d definitely recommend the Museum to anyone nearby or flying in, lot’s of lovely old planes and entry is completely free. Some of the planes -

de Havilland Tiger Moth

Aermacchi MB 326H

CAC Winjeel

de Havilland Vampire T Mk 35

de Havilland Vampire T Mk 35 caution stickers

Dassault Mirage III

Lockheed C-130A Hercules A97-214

When we were wandering back to the Cessna, we saw a Douglas DC-3 doing circuits and I managed to get a few photos.

On approach

Touch & Go

Our original plan was to fly back to Lilydale from Point Cook but we were all hungry and thought that there was a restaurant at Tooradin Airfield so we decided to head over there. This time it was Jodie’s turn to fly.

Taxiing to runway 17 at Point Cook

We flew around the bay, past the heads and over to Tooradin. On our way we passed over Jodie’s parents house and did a few steep turns over the house. It was a gorgeous day for flying, the bay looked awesome.

We landed at Tooradin, only to discover that the restauraunt is shut for renovations (sigh). We did manage to get some chips to hold us over until we got back to Lilydale though!

The next leg, for Tooradin back to Lilydale, was Tim’s turn to fly. During the flight Jeremy took over for a moment and did a quick climb then quick dive which created momentary weightlessness which was pretty awesome.

On base for runway 18, Lilydale

We flew back to Lilydale, I reminded Tim and Jeremy about the displaced threshold on 18 and we landed.

5231 was sitting outside, so I took the opportunity to (finally) get a photo with one of the Jabs I fly!

Me with 5231

Overall, it was a great day, flying around Melbourne and I’ve now got my first flight logged in a Cessna!

Santa NOTAM

Airservices Australia apparantly have an awesome sense of humour

Merry Christmas all!

Circuits – final mission for 2009

Today’s mission was the final one for 2009 and was simply further consolidation of circuits.

There was a south-westerly wind today which meant that I had to think about the wind and how to correct for it during the circuit and also deal with it on landing. In this sort of weather you’d probably normally do flapless approaches but for training purposes we did a mixture of flapless and flapped.

I preflighted 4929 (we didn’t have 4964 today, much to the relief of both of us), taxiied us to 18R and did the take off. I have so much more appreciation for the plane after flying 4964, 4929 seemed to just leap off the ground on take off.

My first circuit for today was a flapless approach. I had to remember to correct for the slight crosswind during the circuit, particularly pointing the nose to the right on upwind (to correct for drift). The main problem with this circuit was that I completely forgot about the displaced threshold (When I was close to flare Jeremy was like “Don’t forget the displaced threshold” and I was just like “Aw shit!”) so we touched down a bit before it (oops).

The next few circuits were also flapless, and a fair bit more successful now I’d been reminded about the displaced threshold. One of my landings was assisted (the only assisted landing for the mission) because when I had levelled off and was flying level Jeremy suggested that I add a bit of right rudder (which was needed) but it distracted me a bit from everything else and I would’ve flared too late without Jeremy’s help. He admitted a bit of fault for that one during the debrief though

The next few circuits were flapped approaches.

On one of these circuits, Jeremy pulled an EFATO. I lowered the nose and picked a field just to the right of the nose. In the event of an engine failure, if you have enough altitude you can attempt to troubleshoot the problem and restart the engine. Most engine failures are caused by carburettor icing or fuel exhaustion. It is also possible that you may have inadvertently knocked the fuel pump or one of the magnetos to the off position. So, if you have enough time, you should try to troubleshoot the problem by turning on carby heat, checking the magnetos and fuel pump are on and checking that the fuel tap is on. If none of these work, you’re going down!

The second last circuit for today was a glide approach. Jeremy pulled the power and was like “You’ve lost your engine”. I was like “Oh, you’re so kind!” and he was like “I am, aren’t I? ” I turned the plane to the right to head towards the runway and managed to keep the nose up until the airspeed dropped to the best glide speed of 65kts. We did an S-turn (turning to the left, away from the runway, then turning back to the right, which meant we ended up nicely lined up with the runway) and a sideslip (so. much. fun.) before dropping full flap and I brought it to a nice smooth touchdown (if I do say so myself!). I asked Jeremy before the mission how you decide whether to S-turn or sideslip (I know you use flaps as the last option) and he said it was mostly personal preference rather than being any suggested situations when to use particular ones. In this situation, the S-turn lined us up neatly with the runway, which is good to remember for the future. Sideslips are a good way of dropping a fair bit of height fairly quickly as well, and are just plain fun to do.

The next circuit was the final one for the mission. We were going to do another glide approach but 5231 joined the circuit in front of us and this meant that we couldn’t do the glide approach as 5231 was in the way of our early base turn. The final landing was a flapped full stop on 18L. I put it down completely unassisted and Jeremy said it was “Perfect” so I’m pretty stoked

Jeremy said that my flying today was the best yet (yay!). I feel like solo is really approaching now, hopefully in early January it might happen. My next mission is on January 6th, I think I’m going to get withdrawal symptoms before then!

Circuits again

Today’s plan was to do more circuits and try and further consolidate what we’ve done so far.

There was a fairly strong northerly wind today which meant that we had to be slightly faster on approach and it was slightly bouncy at times. Normally a flapless approach would be used in these conditions and we did several of these but also did some flapped approaches.

When I arrived I was given the pre-solo air law test to do. This was 10 multiple choice questions and really wasn’t that difficult. A few of the questions were basically common sense and a few you needed to have at least some idea of the law. It took me about 5 minutes or so to complete and I got 10/10 so that’s all good

I preflighted 4964, we refuelled and taxiied over to 36. Unfortunately, 4964 hasn’t improved at all since the last time I flew it and was an absolute pain to fly. I’ve started thinking of it as the ‘Jabiru from hell’! It didn’t want to climb at all and the stall warning sounded a few times during the mission, which was frustrating.

The first circuit was alright but the approach (flapless) was pretty unstable so we decided to go around. When going around it is a good idea, once the climb is established, to move slightly to the right of the runway so that I can see the runway out of my window on the left in case there are any other planes there etc.

The next two or three circuits were also flapless and definitely more successful than the first. On one of them I made a bit of a hash of the approach by, for some reason, suddenly becoming uncertain whether the green strip of ground or the brown strip next to it was the runway! I’ve no idea why I suddenly couldn’t work it out…but it turned out to be the brown patch.

Unfortunately, this mission my recent success at remembering to turn the carby heat off on approach largely disappeared. However, I did discover that on flapless landings when lowering the flaps for take-off I can do that with my fingers and use my thumb to turn the carby heat off. Interesting thing to remember I guess!

The next few circuits were flapped. All of my landings today were unassisted or mostly unassisted. One thing I was having a few issues with was keeping the wings level when on approach/flare, a couple of times I wasn’t making enough corrective control inputs so needed a bit of help. Apparantly this is partly due to the design of the Jabiru, the controls are far less responsive at low airspeeds – at one point I had the ailerons about 3/4 deflected and it was doing hardly anything. I need to get better at making quicker and more effective control inputs to control the plane’s direction on approach.

On one of these circuits, Jeremy pulled an EFATO on me. I had some problems trying to decide where to go because the fields in front and to the left had haybales in them and I wasn’t sure if we’d be able to get over the field in front to land in the one beyond it. Slightly to the left there was a field without haybales in it but the fields surrounding it had haybales, so hopefully we would’ve been able to get into that field and not end up in the next door field. Either way, I decided that we would head towards that field and we powered up and continued the circuit. It definitely wasn’t my calmest response to an EFATO but I guess that’s the reason why we practice them!

Due to the strong notherly winds, we didn’t bother doing any glide approaches this mission because the strong headwind meant that there was no chance we’d make the field if we did try.

The final landing was a flapped full stop on 36L. I think we must have come in slightly fast because we touched down slightly then floated for a fair bit before touching down again. I am getting better at controlling bounces though, which is good.

Apparantly one thing I’ve started doing recently is raising the noise to flare, realising I’ve done it slightly early so lowering it slightly then raising it again at the correct time. I need to stop raising it too early and just doing it the once at the correct time. It is good that I’m realising my mistake and trying to correct it though.

My flying is definitely improving, I’m staying more in control of the plane and managing to often (usually?) put it down unassisted. I actually feel like solo might be getting closer now! I highly doubt it will happen on Saturday (last mission for 2009) but I think it might happen early January hopefully

More circuits

The plan for today was to do more circuits to consolidate what I’ve learnt so far.

After preflighting 4929 we jumped in and I taxiied us to 18R, nearly completely forgetting to stop to do the pre-takeoff checks (oops! not sure what I was thinking). The front wheel was squeaking a bit and apparantly the wheel bearing for that wheel is the wheel bearing off a wheelbarrow! Gotta love how technological these planes are.

I was a bit worried about using runway 18 again because of the displaced threshold, but it was less of a problem today, I’m not certain why. I think it’s probably a good thing I had to use 18 again so soon though, stopped me from potentially developing some sort of mental block about landing with the displaced threshold…

There was a westerly wind today which meant that it was a total crosswind. This meant that on upwind I had to point the nose to the right to correct for the drift to the left caused by the wind. It also meant that there was a tailwind on base which shortened the base leg – to deal with this, Jeremy told me to reduce the power slightly before the base turn so we descended quicker and would end up at the correct height for final despite the shortened base leg.

I also managed to mostly remember to turn the carby heat off on final for the first time today, usually I forget every single time but today I remembered at least 3/6 times I reckon. I figured that I clearly wasn’t remembering it as a single item to do so I decided to make my own mini pre-landng checklist – CUR.

• C – carby heat off
• U – undercarriage down
• R – runway clear

The undercarriage one isn’t really necessary at the moment but I figured it couldn’t hurt to get into the habit of thinking of it for the future, plus it was handy to have a vowel so I could make a word for my checklist. It was interesting to see how much easier it was to remember to turn the carby heat off when I had more than one thing to remember to do. I still forgot a couple of times but it was a definite improvement over last mission.

The first two circuits were flapped landings, both unassisted (yay!). I’m not sure what I was doing differently to last mission with regard to the landings but somehow things were working today. After the second circuit Jeremy was like “You’re flying well today” and I was like “I’ve no idea why!”

The third circuit was meant to be flapless but I only remembered that after I’d done a flapped T&G (oops).

The next two circuits were flapless landings. One of them we came in too slowly and landed with a fair thump. I also bounced one but remembered to keep the backpressure on and managed to control the bounce.

The next circuit was the final circuit. After doing the ‘go’ Jeremy pulled an EFATO on me. I lowered the nose and managed to pick a gap in the trees edging the fields to head for. Apparantly that was a satisfactory choice so we powered up and kept on with the circuit. I was like “There’s too many trees here!” (because, despite the fact that Lilydale is surrounded by fields, which is handy, all the fields are edged by trees which is rather inconvenient). Jeremy pointed out that at least we weren’t flying out of somewhere like Moorabbin which is completely surrounded by houses/factories. I was like “You just need a flat-roofed factory!” (I was joking, well mostly) and Jeremy was like “Actually…” Apparantly he used to fly out of Moorabbin and he had an engine failure in a Tiger Moth and nearly had to land on top of a factory – luckily he got the engine restarted about 100ft above the roof! I was like “Wow….” I have no desire to fly out of Moorabbin now!

The final landing for the mission was a glide approach (perhaps Jeremy decided I was flying too well and needed a challenge? ). I turned to the right and headed for the end of the runway. I think I need to ask Jeremy about glide approaches again because I’m not really sure how you decide whether to use flaps, s-turns or sideslip to descend. I knew we were too high but wasn’t really sure how to go about correcting it. Jeremy suggested lowering flap and I was like “I was about to say, I hope you know I’m going to f*ck this up!” We made the runway but I bounced it a bit on landing. I managed to control the bounce by myself though, which is good. It shows I’m improving I guess!

I taxiied us off the runway (missing two taxiways on the way…I swear they need to mark them better) and almost forgot to do the after landing checks. For some reason I was rather forgetful about the various ground checks today!

During the debrief Jeremy said that I flew well today, particularly considering the fact that there was a complete crosswind and I haven’t had any training in crosswind landing techniques yet. I have no idea why my landings seemed to work better today, especially since I’m still not completely sure how high we are above the runway each time! Overall I’m really happy with this mission though

I’m down to take the pre-solo air law test next mission, which is rather exciting (in a way, anyway). Apparantly it’s a multiple choice test – I’m like “They’re not trying to make it hard for you, are they?!” Now I just need to remember to study for it!

Circuits

Today’s mission was, again, circuits, basically consolidating everything we’ve done so far.

I preflighted 5231 (luckily not 4964, yay!) and, after we jumped in, taxiied us to 18. Then I did the takeoff, realising just how crap 4964 has been last lesson…

It’d been a while since I’d done any circuits on 18, so it took a little while to get used to doing right hand circuits again. Plus I was having a few issues with making the radio calls – the amount of times I very nearly said that we were on “wunway wun eight“! I think Jeremy was wondering what was wrong with me!

The first few circuits were flapless. The first circuit we ended up far too fast on final, closer to 90kts+ rather than 80kts. This meant that the approach was pretty unstable and the landing wasn’t too crash hot (at all). It did, however, give me the chance to try doing a sideslip which, at the same time, was good fun but felt completely nutty to do (can’t wait to try more of them!). Considering how fast we were on the approach, it may have been more sensible to just admit I’d f*cked up and gone around. Jeremy said that when making the base turn, I’m not reducing the power enough before making my radio call. I need to remember my priorities – aviate, navigate, communicate. So, during the base turn, I need to roll the plane, then reduce the power, then once I’ve got that set up I can make my call. I tried this the next circuit and it was interesting to see how much it helped the airspeed to wash off – we seemed to get down to the required 80kts in no time.

One of the main problems I was having today was the fact that 18R has a displaced threshold – you can’t land before the white markers next to the windsock but there is extra runway before that which you can use for takeoff. This really messed me up a bit because on approach I kept looking at the end of the runway and forgetting that I should be looking about halfway up the runway where the windsock is. On the second circuit I actually didn’t realise about the displaced threshold and touched down before the markers – Jeremy pointed it out and I was just like “oops”

After a couple more flapless landings, we moved onto flapped landings – again, with varying degrees of success. On of the circuits we ended up towards the left side of the runway on approach and Jeremy was like “let’s head to the right a bit shall we?” and I was like “awwwww, you mean I can’t fly down the side of the runway?”

Jeremy also pulled an EFATO on me on one of these circuits. I lowered the nose and picked a field slightly to our right. There were trees bordering most of the fields near us which made it a bit harder to pick. Jeremy must have been satisfied with my choice though, and we powered up and continued the circuit.

For the final circuit, we were going to try a strip run – flying just above the runway at about 5ft and not landing. I managed to start flying level but I think I was slightly too high. Then Jeremy said to slowly pull the power and just let it touch down when it wanted to. In theory, this was a good idea but (once again!) I misjudged our height and thought we were higher than we were so we touched down before I was expecting it.

During the debrief, Jeremy said that I’ve got all the pieces of the landing, I just need to put them together. He can clearly tell I’m getting frustrated with myself, he said that nobody is born knowing how to fly, we learn by f*cking up and by doing so I can learn what it looks like when I’m wrong and how to correct it (which is true, I know). I said that I think my main problem is not being able to judge how high/low we are above the runway – I keep misjudging it and either thinking we’re higher than we are and getting a surprise when we touchdown and I’m not expecting it, or thinking we’re lower than we are and attempting to touchdown and not succeeding. Jeremy thought about it and suggested I need to use my peripheral vision more – like when driving, you use your peripheral vision to judge where you are in the lane etc. I know I’m generally slow when it comes to learning things which require judgment – when I was learning to drive, it took me a fair while to learn how to park etc It’s just getting frustating because I know what I need to do, I just can’t do it and put it together. Jeremy was like “we’re going to get there, don’t worry”

I’m hoping the next mission (on Wednesday) will be using 36 so I don’t have to deal with the headache of the displaced threshold while I’m trying to get the hang of landing the thing!

Things I need to work on next mission:

• Working out our height above the runway
• Using peripheral vision better during landing
• Turning carby heat off on final (always forget, poor Jeremy has to remind me every time, I’m sure he’s sick of it by now)
• Keeping the plane on its heading and on the centreline and correcting it quicker when it tries to drift off towards the side (since I’m not allowed to fly along the side of the runway!)
• Letting the plane touchdown by itself as airspeed washes off

Circuits & Glide Approaches

Today’s mission was (yet more) circuits and also introducing glide approaches.

I preflighted 4964, we jumped in, I taxiied us to 36 and did the takeoff. During the takeoff I noticed that it seemed to take longer than usual for us to lift off and the stall warning horn actually sounded for a moment. I was a bit confused but wondered if it was due to hot weather or something similar.

However,  I soon found out that it wasn’t because of hot weather, it was because 4964 is an absolute pain to fly. It didn’t want to climb without a LOT of encouragement and was just generally annoying. When Jeremy took over to demonstrate glide approaches he was like “wow, it’s an absolute dog to fly isn’t it” and I was like “oh yes!”.

The first few circuits for today were a mixture of flapless and flapped approaches. I think my approaches today were better, I was concentrating on being on the centreline (altho this fell apart slightly when I got to the actual runway) and I think I was just generally more in control of the approach. The landings, however, weren’t quite so hot. I’m still having issues working out how high we are…I keep thinking we’re higher/lower above the runway than we are so can’t control the touchdown properly.

After a few circuits, Jeremy pulled an EFATO on me. I was rather distracted because I was trying to get the plane to actually climb, so I didn’t react as well as I should. I started to push the nose down then, for some reason, pulled it up slightly before realising what I was doing and pushing it down again. It definitely wasn’t my best response to an EFATO.

Jeremy then took over to demonstrate a glide approach. This is when the engine is cut on downwind (well, pulled back to idle at least) and you have to try and make the field without any power. When the power is pulled (‘oh sh*t, the engine’s gone’) you immediately turn the plane towards the airfield and aim the nose at the end of the runway. It’s important to keep the nose raised during the turn so that the speed will wash off and the plane will slow to glide speed (which in the Jab is 65kts). When doing a glide approach you actually want to be quite high on the approach so you can better control the descent. The descent can be steepened using sideslip, S-turns or flaps. Generally, flaps are used as a last resort as once you lower the flap, if you end up too low, you can’t raise them again (as that will cause sink) – so it’s better to use sideslip or S-turns before using flaps.

The next time around it was my turn to try a glide approach. Happily, we made the field and I landed it on the runway, so the glide approach was a success I did have to use one stage of flap, but didn’t need to sideslip or S-turn.

During the next circuit I wasn’t certain whether we were doing another glide approach or a normal approach so, just after we passed we’d cut the power before, I asked Jeremy. He was like “Sure, why not” and pulled the power and I was like “I shouldn’t've asked!” Jeremy then gave me a very important piece of advice: “Never tempt your instructor” (definitely going to remember this in future!). This time I didn’t manage to make the field, partly because we’d started the approach from further away than last time and so had further to go. Also, I didn’t hold the nose up enough during the turn which meant that the speed didn’t wash off as much and we weren’t at glide speed (65kts). Since we weren’t going to make the airfield, Jeremy asked me which field around us I would choose to land in (one of the benefits of flying out of Lilydale, lot’s of farms). I was having a few problems trying to decide because lots of the fields were bordered by trees which made it a little more difficult. It did show me, however, just how important it is to pick a field to land in just in case we won’t make the airfield itself. After picking my field, we powered up and went around.

The next few circuits were back to doing flapped/flapless approaches. As there was a bit of a headwind, we came in with more power and cut it just before the threshold of the runway. It seems that I actually land a bit better when I do that, probably because more speed has washed off before I try to touchdown. The final landing was a full stop on 36R which actually seemed to be one of my better landings of the mission.

Apparantly when coming to a stop after taxiing, I have a tendency to put the brake on before the plane has come to a complete stop. I need to work on ensuring that the plane has stopped completely before I put the brakes on (which does seem logical really!)

During the debrief, Jeremy said that as of today we’ve covered all of the pre-solo maneuvers but apparantly I’m still of a bit of a way off solo I know my landings still need some work (I keep telling myself that, after all this effort, I will be extra proud of the fact that I can do it…). Also, I need to work on developing more ‘command skills’ – making more decisions independently rather than making the decision then checking with Jeremy. I know I was doing this a bit during approach, I’d think that we were too high but rather than just correcting it I’d ask Jeremy. He said that I need to start just making corrections for what I think is wrong and he’ll tell me if I’m wrong. I have a feeling things could get rather interesting!

I also need to hold off more when landing. I think when I start the ‘flying above the runway’ part of the landing, I think that I immediately need to move onto the touchdown part. Apparantly I should be trying to convince myself that, now I’m there, I don’t really want to land at all. I think I need to try to stop worrying about when the touchdown part is going to happen and just let it happen by itself as the airspeed washes off.

Things I need to work on next mission:

• Correcting what I think is wrong about the approach without asking for confirmation
• PIC skills
• Landing – still having problems with judgment of height when flying above the runway
• Letting the plane touchdown when it wants to once the airspeed has washed off

I have a feeling that I’m not going to go solo by the end of 2009 (I have 5 hours left booked in 2009), unless things improve a lot. But, then again, I guess a lot can happen in 5 hours. I was given the study guide for the pre-solo air law test today, so I must be close enough to make that worthwhile (or I’m hoping so at least). I guess I just have to see how things go and hope that none of my missions are cancelled because of weather…

Steep Turns

Despite the forecast of thunderstorms/rain, today was slightly cloudly and fairly windy but still flyable.

Swamp cartoons were used with permission. See more at www.swamp.com.au

It was fairly windy and turbulent today so we ditched the circuit and headed out to the training area to do some steep turns.

I preflighted 5231, we jumped in and I started it up. Making a slightly different taxi call to usual, I taxiied us to 36.

Lilydale Traffic
Jabiru 5231
Taxiing for training area, runway 36
Lilydale

I did the takeoff and we climbed to about 3000ft. Here, Jeremy took over to demonstrate a steep turn.

Steep level turns are turns of 30 degrees angle of bank or over. For comparison, a medium level turn is about 30 degrees angle of bank. The turns we did today were at 45 degrees angle of bank, but it is possible to also do turns at 60 degrees.

The first turn Jeremy demonstrated was a turn to the left. This is generally easier for the student because they are on the low side of the aircraft and can more easily see in the direction of the turn. Entering a steep turn is the same as entering a medium level turn -

• Bank
• Balance
• Backpressure

The plane is banked to 45 degrees, adding backpressure to ensure that the nose doesn’t drop. When going over 30 degrees angle of bank it is advisable to increase the power slightly.

The attitude for a left steep turn for me is the horizon about 1/3 of the way up the side of the nose.

Jeremy also demonstrated what would happen to the turn if the wrong amount of backpressure was applied. If the nose was too high, then the plane would climb – this is easily fixed by reducing the amount of backpressure. If the nose is held too low, then the plane starts to descend and will eventually end up in a spiral dive – this isn’t quite so simple to fix, if you simply apply more backpressure, then it will just tighten the turn. Instead you have to lessen the bank angle somewhat and apply a bit of power (I think). Then roll back into the turn, keeping the correct amount of backpressure this time.

After a couple of demonstrations, I took over to try a few turns. The main problem I had was calculating the angle of bank, apparantly I did a few very nice 30 degree turns (which wasn’t really what we were intending to do!). Jeremy said that some students are worried that if they bank too far they’ll ‘fall out of the plane’. This wasn’t my problem though, my problem was that I’m terrible at working out our bank angle! I think I need to start bringing a protractor to stick on the dash so I can calculate angles!

Apparantly it’s possible to use the artificial horizon to calculate the bank angle (one of the lines on it represents 45 degrees). However the screen is fairly small, and the line even smaller, so it’s a bit hard to work out. It’s better to calculate the angle of bank with reference to the horizon and use the AH to check if necessary.

Jeremy took over at this point to demonstrate some steep turns to the right. To get us away from the mountains (so we don’t piss off the neighbours), he did a 60 degree steep turn which causes 2g of g-force. I found this rather uncomfortable but it was a bit better when I clenched the muscles in my legs. I know I wasn’t doing this the recommended way to deal with g-force (for one thing, you’re meant to do it before entering into the maneuver), but it took my mind off the feeling of the g-force somewhat at least. I really want to try aerobatics one day so I’m desperately hoping that I can learn to deal with the g-forces.

Then I did some steep turns to the right. These were a bit more difficult as I was on the high side of the plane, so it was harder to look out in the direction of the turn. The attitude for a steep turn to the right for me is the horizon cutting through the corner of the windscreen. A few times here I had the nose a bit high and was still having problems trying to get the correct amoung of bank angle.

I think there must be a fair number of students who dislike or have problems with steep turns. A few times today Jeremy asked me if I was feeling unwell at all (I hadn’t even though of it until he mentioned it!) and I was just like “nah, this is FUN” so I’m wondering if lots of students do end up feeling sick from doing steep turns…

After a few more turns in both directions, it was time to head back. We did a slow descent down to circuit height and joined on crosswind. The approach (a flapless approach) was pretty interesting with the turbulence caused by the wind and I think I still need to make corrective inputs quicker than I am. Due to the headwind the approach speed was a bit faster than usual (about 80kts). I think (I’m not certain though) that I mostly managed to get it on the ground by myself (I don’t think it was unassisted at least but it definitely wasn’t completely assisted or anything either).

Next mission we’re going back into the circuit and going to have a crack at glide approaches. It was good to get out of the circuit today, hopefully it’ll help me next mission, have a nice fresh mindset for circuits

Trying steep turns today has definitely increased my desire to try aerobatics. The one thing I’m worried about is my ability to handle the g-forces but I guess they’d teach you ways of dealing with it. Maybe I’ll treat myself to an aeros fight in January sometime, who knows!

Circuits

Today’s mission was circuits, with a mixture of flapped and flapless approaches.

I preflighted 5231 (fighting off the flies as I did so – I swear every fly at YLIL saw me there and zoomed over to annoy me) and taxiied us to 36.

I did the takeoff and when we reached about 500ft Jeremy pulled the power for an EFATO. Taken totally by surprise (I knew we might be doing EFATOs but not on the first take off) I was like ‘gargh, you prat!’ but (happily) immediately lowered the nose. There was a line of trees just in front of us but there was a slight gap just to the left of the nose, so I turned us left and said I was heading towards the gap in the trees. That worked, so we powered up and continued around the circuit. Jeremy apologised for pulling the EFATO on the first circuit (I need to stop swearing at the poor guy during EFATOs but I don’t realise I’m doing it, it’s just a response to suddenly not having any thrust!) but apparantly most EFATOs happen after the initial takeoff. I immediately lowered the nose when it happened, so I’m doing the right thing

During this circuit I messed up the turn onto downwind and ended up on the left/east side of Victoria Rd instead of the west/right side. Apparantly we fly on the west side to avoid overflying the model aeroplane club that is near there. I didn’t know this but apparantly despite being only meant to go up to 300ft, the model aeroplanes can go up to circuit height and the idiots sometimes actually try to loop the model around the plane. (and, if they hit a Jab, has the potential to bring it down, eep).

The first landing was a flapless landing (although I realised after the takeoff that the flaps were down and I’d actually left them down for the entire first circuit, oops). Anyway, we were coming in a bit high so Jeremy did a sideslip (absolutely cannot wait until I have to do one myself, they’re FUN!). With a sideslip the controls are crossed which creates drag. You make the rudder input first (lead with your foot) and make aileron inputs to correct for the roll caused by the rudder.

The next few landings were also flapless (and actually flapless this time too!). This lesson Jeremy wanted me to commentate during the approach and tell him what I was thinking, which is good in theory, but the problem is that half the time I’m not sure what I’m thinking and I’m generally doing it by feel, so it’s hard to articulate what I’m thinking. I think I failed majorly at that challenge somehow!

We then moved onto flapped landings. 4929 was also flying by this point and for some reason he was extending his circuits so we had to turn upwind later and also delay the base turn. This meant that when reducing the power, instead of doing it during the base turn, you wait and do it after the turn since the final leg will also be extended.

I think I did at least one unassisted landing today but most of them seemed to be partly assisted. I think one problem is that I’m not holding enough backpressure because I forget that the controls are less responsive at low airspeeds so bigger control inputs are needed. A couple of times today I flared too high as we ran out of airspeed when meant that we landed with a fair thump. Also, one time today I actually landed on the left main wheel and the nosewheel (instead of the mainwheels) which is a bad move as if you land on the nosewheel in a Jab, you can flip the plane (I didn’t actually realise I’d done it though until Jeremy pointed it out). Attempting to talk through the approach did seem to help me break the landing into stages better and get the flying above the runway part.

Apparantly my approaches/landings are 95% there, we just need to get the last 5% which is apparantly ‘finesse’ (and probably also managing to bloody do it all by myself!). Next mission we’re going to look at glide approaches which should be interesting. We’re also going to work on my situational awareness (which I put as ‘knowing what’s around you to crash into’).

Unfortunately Jeremy didn’t have any times free on Sundays during the rest of the year, so I’m down to 7 hours to try and go solo before the end of the year. I guess it depends upon how well I get glide approaches and also if there’s anything else other than glide approaches I need to learn before solo. Also, getting the plane on the ground by myself consistently would help!

Lesson Cancelled

For the first time in a while, today’s mission was cancelled due to weather.

I can’t say I’m too pleased, partly just because I want to fly, and partly because I’m vaguely hoping to solo before the end of the year and this brings my currently booked hours before then down to 8, which makes soloing that much more unlikely.

Swamp cartoons were used with permission. See more at www.swamp.com.au

I’m thinking of seeing if Jeremy has any times free on Sundays between now and the end of the year so I can increase my booked hours and hopefully solo before the end of 2009…