Thread: Wild Weather

Today has been a crazy day for practicing stalls!

I had one hour yesterday to get back up to speed, all went well but need to improve my lookout more.

Had two hours today, first one around lunchtime. Got on top at around 5,500ft / 6000ft ASL with pretty much 7/8 Cloud Cover. Always nice to see all that marshmellow below you. Requested Traffic Service which made it very interesting with a lot of aircraft coming our way from under the layers - good way to practice the lookout! Practiced the full stall. Got back to EGBO for lunch, to find winds at 17 gusting 21. Made for an interesting landing but ok!

Second lesson focussed on incipient stalls, and relating those to scenarios found in the circuit. I found it hard work in the time we had to practice but hopefully tomorrow I will get them polished a bit! Instructor said I was doing ok anyway! Had to cut the lesson early as it was obvious a freak shower was closing in. As we came down to final, the rain droplets formed on the windscreen in such a way that it may well have been IFR. I had to call out the airspeed for my instructor as he brought us down, as the SR20 PFD and steam guages are positioned in a way that is not suitable for P2 / Co-Pilot operations. Bit of a heavy landing but it was perfectly acceptable!

R/T coming on nicely!

See what tomorrow brings!

The great British weather! Sounds like you're getting there though Chris

Hi Paul! Indeed, feeling like i'm progressing now!

Had a fantastic lesson yesterday, finished stalling, did a bit of slow flight (removed all instruments and flew by engine sound and attitude) and moved into a bit on circuits.

Going again next Saturday for 2 lessons to get me firmly on to circuits.

There was a bit of an emotional moment for me towards the end of the day, although my Instructor didn't see it.

We shut down the aircraft and we sat in the cockpit for a while for a pre-debrief chat. He turned and said, "I dont know what you have done, but your flying today was great." "You may have noticed that I hardly ever said anything except which manouvre we were going to practice next". I think hearing that from my Instructor, meant reaching a personal goal of confidence that I was searching for.

He was even happy to see that I had remembered the over-head join from over a year ago (where we did it once), in all its detail, although I did require a bit of help to fly it precisely in the one attempt I had to complete it.

He said my stalls were nice, even though the entry was a little different to that taught, it was safe and controlled nicely. The Cirrus really handles nicely in both the standard and incipient stalls. Lots of power means a confident throttle push towards the firewall in power recovery.

All in all a great few days, and looking forward to circuits!

hi chris sounds like your having fun up in the skies , if you dont mind me asking how far are you in to you course. are you doing a ppl or a nppl? im looking at starting my course after christmas now as i had a few problems with the car and had to dig into the flying funds. what can i expect from the first 5 hours or so of flight training ?all the best in the forcoming days training

Hi there! Indeed its been a fun week!

I am 12 hours into the course, but had a lot of catching up to do. I was up to 7 hours on the Piper Warrior back in August last year. Then my club went bust in the credit crunch and didn't fly again till Feb this year. Then another huge gap to gather funds for the last few days!

So my main problem has been a smooth progression through my training to get me finished on the basics of actually how to fly.

I will list what each of the first 5 hours gave me: -

Hour 1 - Trial Flight - Basics of the Controls and what they do to the view out the window.

Hour 2 - Controls, understanding Slip Stream, Flying the Aircraft at High and Low Airspeeds. Some experience on Flaps!

Hour 3 - Straight and Level Flight, Balanced Flight, FREDA Checks, Lookout-Attitude-Instruments practice.

Hour 4 - Maintaining Straight and Level at 1) Different Airspeeds 2) with different Flap settings.

Hour 5 - Climbing & Descending Part 1, understanding V-speeds and learning the V-speeds for the aircraft I am flying. My first un-aided take off and landing.

Remember though, progression through the course is based on how well you pick up each lesson. The Instructor will aim to teach you something new in each lesson, and you will get to use everything you've learnt on the previous lessons.

My biggest tips from my training so far...

1) Sit back and relax in the cockpit - learning to fly is hard work but its also supposed to be fun. I have been found crouched over the controls in the past, and my instructor referred my body language to that of a Granny driving a Micra. Take hold of the controls but don't give them the grip of death.

2) Learn and understand your V-speeds for the aircraft from the moment you are given them.

3) Make possitive changes to pitch, roll and yaw. If you are going to turn, turn correctly, not just drifting aimlessly all over the sky.

4) If you are given an altitude to hold, hold it. If you are slightly high or low, do something about it.

Everything else your instructor will teach you, he is there to handle the aircraft and he knows you will make mistakes. But he will be looking for you to spot and fix the mistakes on your own. The Instructor will only take control if the aircraft is going outside of the limits of safety, so feel in control of the machine and think ahead. Don't let the aircraft fly YOU around!

hows the flying going mate what have you been learning in the last lessons? when you talk about v speeds for the aircraft are you talking about take off speed stalling speed etc are all light aircraft different ?

In the latest lessons, stalling and slow flight which leads nicely into circuits!

This weekend I hope to polish slow flight and get an hour on circuits!

Originally Posted by jigglyjohnson

hows the flying going mate what have you been learning in the last lessons? when you talk about v speeds for the aircraft are you talking about take off speed stalling speed etc are all light aircraft different ?

All light aircraft have different 'V' speeds due to the difference in design and aerodynamics of the aircraft, some of these 'V' speeds are also variable on weights of the aircraft and other factors that occur on the day.

On the whole a V speed is a reference speed for a certain phase of flight, or a limiting speed taken from the aircraft manual. Here are a few examples:

Vx = Best angle of climb speed
Vy = Best rate of climb speed
Vfe = Flaps extended
Vne = Never exceeded limiting speed

and so on... so in summary V speeds vary from aircraft to aircraft and if you follow them correctly you will always get the best performance from your aircraft and you will never exceed any structural limitations.

Morbz

Thanks for that Morbz!

Sorry I didn't answer your question fully, jiggly! I was replying using my iPhone and only saw part of your message!

Cheers.

Another two fantastic lessons today - completely on circuits!

A total of 8 Touch and Go's and 2 Landings! It was very busy in the circuit today with the weather being so great. Had to work hard as the Cirrus is a very fast machine and the regular Cessnas and MicroLights / Flexwings were inside of us on Crosswind quite often!

All good fun and some more R/T added to build confidence!

Another thumbs up from the instructor must mean its coming along nicely!