Airbourne again.

[Guest Crash Lander]

Had another flight today. Arrived 15 minutes early at the airfiled this

 

morning, as I was the first flight out, and the day was booked fairly

 

solid, so I wanted to get maximum air time.

 

Grabbed the keys, and opened the hangar, dragged out the Gazelle, and

 

did the pre-flight. She'd had her 100hourly this week, so I was

 

interested to see if I noticed anything different. Short answer to that

 

question was no.

 

The single screw that had been missing off the bottom of the cowling

 

had finally been replaced, and I was told that the left main tyre had a

 

puncture, which was now repaired. The only thing I noticed was that the

 

oil looked much cleaner. (Not that it looked all that dirty before.)

 

The sky was quite overcast, but the cloud was fairly high. There was

 

discussion about whether it would rain or not, (wooden prop issue

 

again!), and the decision was taken that it would be dry for long

 

enough. The forecast did not suggest rain, but the eyes suggested

 

different.

 

The wind was blowing from an unusual Westerly direction, putting it

 

more or less straight down runway 26. I'd not done any solo work from

 

26 to date, and it runs up-hill slightly, so I welcomed the

 

opportunity. Wind was about 8-10 knots. My instructor wanted to do 1

 

circuit with me to make sure the weather looked like behaving itself,

 

and to give me a running brief on the intricacies of landing on runway

 

26. (There is also a bit of a 'hill' in the middle of it!).

 

We did 1 circuit, and came in for a full stop. The air was quite

 

smooth, and I nailed the landing right where instructed, allowing for

 

the uphill aspect without trouble.

 

The instructor got out, and sent me on my way. Fuel was fairly low when

 

we first took off, with about 13 litres in each tank, so just over half

 

full. Enough for an hours flying, but not much more. She gave me the

 

option of doing a few circuits, or going out into the training area,

 

but as I'd not done any work on 26, I decided to do circuits.

 

As I taxiied back to 26, I realised I'd once again forgotten my

 

pre-landing checks, but as my instructor didn't pick me up on it

 

either, I didn't beat myself up over it. I did remember to do them on

 

every subsequent circuit, so I was happy.

 

I did make one other mistake today, and that was that for some supid

 

reason, I forgot completely about my base call, not realising until I

 

was about to turn onto finals. In my panic, I went to make a call

 

saying I was turning onto finals, but called base by mistake! Bit of a

 

brain fart there. Luckily, I was the only a/c in the circuit the whole

 

time.

 

2 mistakes is much better than last weeks effort, so I'm happy with how

 

I performed other than that.

 

I did a total of 7 solo circuits after dropping off the instructor, and

 

the wind seemed to increase with each one. The last 3 or 4 saw the

 

climb out get rather choppy from around 600ft to 1000ft, and the final

 

approach was also a bit hairy on the last 3 or so approaches, with

 

gusts trying to test my skills at keeping the wings level. There was

 

also a bit of downdraft as I came in over the (now dry) swamp area, but

 

my instructor had warned me about that.

 

I managed the wind and my landings well, in my opinion of course, and

 

landed where indicated to on each occaision, and again, as was

 

suggested, I managed to be back in the air again before reaching the

 

crossing runway, which has a bit of a rise to it, which can launch the

 

a/c somewhat if still in contact with the ground when taking off.

 

I mentioned the changing wind to the instructor when I got back, and

 

she checked the gauge. The winds had increased to about 15-20kts.

 

All in all, another good day. Only 1 runway I've never used now, so

 

looking forward to another unusual wind in the near future.

 

Total time now 15.9hrs (4.2 solo)

 

 

 

[Yenn]

Going well and best of all enjoying it. nice area to fly.

 

 

[tonymcg]

G'day Crash, keep them training reports coming, it's good to hear how fellow students are going out there. But you must promise us that you'll let us know how to go with the advanced stalls and spins which can't be too far away now. I just had my introduction to spins yesterday and, well, the first one scared the hell outta me. ;) It sure felt like we were upside-down for a short while, what a ride. And I thought I was partly prepared after watching a very instructive video on spins (see section titled "Improper Control Inputs in the Spin" in http://overtheairwaves.com/vol4-02a.html).

 

Looking forward to more reports,

 

Cheers,

 

Tony

 

 

[Guest Crash Lander]

Advanced stalls is coming up soon. Was meant to do that last week, but the cloud ceiling was too low. No-one said anything to me about spins! :confused:

 

Can the Gazelle even spin at all?

 

Scratch that question. I just watched the video you linked to, and now I know what a spin is. It turns out I had no idea as to what a spin actually was. I though it was the a/c still travelling in a certain direction, but spinning around its vertical axis.

 

I'm betting I'l cover them in the advanced stalls lesson. Remind me not to eat before that one!

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Great stuff Crash Cargo - er... Lander.

 

How many runways do you have? And a westerly is unusual????

 

Your world must spin differently.

 

I love the honest self-appraisal you show in your reports.

 

You are more self-critical on a widely read forum than many pilots are in their own heads. That will keep you alive and learning.

 

Well done.

 

Good luck with the last few steps before certification.

 

Ross

 

 

[Guest Crash Lander]

Hi Slartibartfast!

 

(By the way, the answer is 7!)

 

We have 2 (4) runways. Do you call it 4, or 2? Never sure on that!

 

We have 17/35, and 08/26.

 

I say a Westerly is unusual because I've only ever not had to use 17 or 35 once, and that was very early on, before I'd done more than a couple of landings. We left from 26, and if memory serves correctly, the instructor did the take-off, and the landing.

 

I've ben training since last September, so 1 in that time to me is fairly rare.

 

If you can't criticise, and realise your own mistakes, then you'll never get anywhere. Sure, sometimes you cop criticism, or abuse for it, which I have from time to time, but I still see it crucial to post honest accounts.

 

 

[Guest lovetofly]

This is the type of thing I'm looking forward to once I start. How long has it taken you to get this far?

 

 

[Admin]

Love To Fly - sorry but Crash lander is currently under a 2 week suspension from the forums so he won't be able to answer your query for a while.

 

 

[Guest lovetofly]

oh, ok then. For the post above?

 

When will he be back? I guess it doesn't really matter. How long would it take someone to get to the stage where Crash Lander is? (in flying lessons, not suspension!:confused: )

 

 

[Admin]

LoveToFly - everyone learns at a differant rate and although the book says that a "minimum" of 20 hrs before you can go for your Certificate in most cases it does take longer. However, there are some that do do it in 20hrs and others that can take 30, 40 or even more.

 

After you have gone solo there is normally some further training that is needed such as Precautionary Search and Landing etc but this poll at http://www.recreationalflying.com/forum/showthread.php?t=5775 may indicate what others have said that it has taken them to go solo - personally I took about 20hrs to go solo and then I went for my certificate at about 28hrs for memory.

 

Hope this helps!