So.... lesson 9. Ah, not as good as lesson 8.
I pulled into the car park just in time to hear a jet. Huh!? Bit unexpected at our small-ish airfield. Looked up in time to see a Jet Provost zooming in. They taxied to the far apron for parking so I never saw who was flying.
Lessons were running a bit behind time but it was lovely and sunny so I sat outside with a bunch of local avgeeks and some Aerobility clients. This, of course, meant I would have an audience later...
Sure enough 'my ' a/c was taxied to the grass in front of the little crowd and I was left to do the pre-flights. This time I felt I was back in the game and happily worked through the walk round, jumped up to the wing tanks, set the seat further forward (!) and had everything ready for the engine start-up checks by the time my instructor ambled over.
I hope the crowd thought it all looked very professional
Checklists followed, radio call, lookout, enter runway, line up with nosewheel straight (
), full power, release brakes and start to roll. Watch t's n p's to ensure all OK, check speed (67 knots), pull back on yoke while applying right rudder. Easy, as you all know.
Only I was a bit feeble on the yoke, and there was virtually no headwind so it needed a bit more encouragement, then came the flying instructor's most used phrase down my right ear.... "More right rudder!". Take off was a bit ragged but the climb-out was OK. I am no longer scared of the take off run.
We did some practice from the prev lesson which went OK
I was fine at putting on full power and keeping the nose down, and conversely letting the speed bleed off before letting the nose drop for descent. So that was a relief and an improvement
My instructor had me doing quite a few turns and all except the first one were fine (first one I climbed about 200' due to an over exaggerated look out - as I moved in my seat I moved my hands on the control). All the rest were OK and drew no adverse comments
.
Then new stuff was added, which went OK at first but there came a point where I simply couldn't remember what to do for the next manoeuvre!
We did best angle and cruise climbs, same for descents, then fast and slow cruises for straight and level. I'd had no pre- briefing so the numbers were given ad hoc and eventually I was overloaded. I simply couldn't bring forth the correct actions when instructed to do a cruise descent down to 1500'. I was going for carb heat, as I would for a lower power descent. The words task and saturated did mill round in my head.
There were a few pockets of turbulence too. The first few were a bit like going over a boat's wake but then we were really rocked all over the place and chucked up in the air momentarily. I had control but I tried not to over react, I know the aircraft is designed to return to the correct attitude if you don't interfer. My instructor didn't bat an eyelid so I assume this was nothing unusual but it was a first for me.
Shortly afterwards another pilot in the vicinity reported turbulence to let everyone know. Later my instructor said he thought it had been a pressure wave moving through. There were a few more bumps but not to the same degree.
Towards the end of the lesson.....
I have only just learnt the rejoin checklist so to ask me to fly a cruise descent, level off at 2,000' for the rejoin, keep a good lookout, start the checklist, fly straight AND level, watch the power, align DI (obviously while straight and level), set QFE (after calculating how many 30' hPa's to knock off) and expect me to still be s&l at any point therein was, frankly, taking the P***.
To me that is like an Olympic standard patting head and rubbing tummy contest!!
I actually stopped the checklist part way through to review my s&l and do a proper lookout, then resumed when I had regained the datum attitude. It was all completed correctly, just with a small pause in the middle.
Then my head exploded.
So a bit of a Curate's egg - Good in parts... not good elsewhere.
The hard taskmaster said I'll look back and wonder why it was so hard but that all I really need to do is 'fly the numbers' and all will be fine. Simples
I can't wait for Monday. My instructor is probably not feeling quite as enthusiastic as I am.
Ooh, a historic moment came afterwards - I completed the first page of my logbook.
All in all a great time but it was hard. I seem to follow a pattern of one OK lesson followed by one less-OK lesson. Hope tomorrow's lesson is better