Tue Apr 20, 2021 4:24 pm
#1841713
Thought I'd start a new thread now that I've graduated from 'New' to 'Novice'
Lesson #2 today, and it was absolutely brilliant. Lots and lots of learning. Brace for a bit of a long blether:
The weather was officially CAVOK but the haze was murky and we had no horizon for the duration of the flight other than an occassional glimpse when headed (and squinting) towards the coast. But after reading the other thread on here last night it was useful to experience a very slight 'goldfish bowl' effect in the distance to see what it actually means.
My first *proper* lesson was climbs and descents, but also had a rude introduction to human factors. The kids were up at 6.30 this morning so I had my brekkie early. I thought it would see me through as my lesson was at 11, but it was busy on the circuit and my FI was late in, so by the time we got out to the field it was after 12 and I was starving. I was sensible enough to grab a kitkat from the school shop and was fine throughout the lesson but had to orbit a few times coming in, my rudder was non-existent, and between the out of balance orbit, the mask, the sun through the window, low blood sugar, adrenaline and some significant chop - let's just say I was green when I left the aircraft. Lesson learned. Eat in advance and use the rudder.
The briefing covered the route which would take us over Durham and the climb/descent drills we'd be doing. Went over PAT and APT and I did a double take when he asked if I wanted to do the take off, with him following on the controls. Absolutely!
My checklist practice around my bed at home paid off and I was confident with the externals, other than not getting the latch quite right on the cowling. But the FI left me to do the starboard checks while he sorted something out and I got brownie points for picking up a slightly low oil level and a cracked fairing.
I followed along on the radio this time and picked up much more of the ATC clearance than last week, so next week he's letting me do the taxi and take off clearances myself... gulp! (Although he is kindly going to write me a little script).
Then I taxyed out to the runway. I'm really comfortable now with the groundwheel control and can follow the taxi lines no problem, but the brakes had me stymied. When it came to stopping for the pre-takeoff checks my feet became 'confused' and my FI had to jump on the brakes. The instinct is to go right-foot down like in a car, so we turned a bit too far rather than stopping!
We got our clearance and I taxyed onto the threshold. It's all a bit of a blur now because I was so pumped, but I'm sure there were some mag checks, and then I was asked to apply full throttle and up we went. She took herself off with only a litte back pressure and I didn't know just how much it would pull to the left, so it took a bit of 'play' to find the correct right-rudder pressure to correct, but I held the centre line and the best rate of climb speed and had to stop myself whooping that I'd just aced my first t/o
FI took us out of the ATZ with the amount of traffic about but then I was in control for most of the lesson. We did a series of climbs, powered descents and glides. It was REALLY tricky without a horizon for reference and I found it difficult to find straight and level. It was also very choppy, and I'm finding the Tomahawk gets chucked around like a leaf - which is also brilliant fun. A couple of times I was in a shallow turn and all of a sudden it would lurch over, and it felt like we were being rolled. There was a definite conscious effort to fight the urge to swing her back with the yoke. Unlike last week though where my hands were like rigour mortice on the yolk, this time I kept my grip light with one hand on the power, and it felt much easier to ride along with the rolls and bumps, rather than trying to steer and overcorrect.
It was the same with the air and vert speeds. My instructor would ask me to level off and trim to 90kts but she was getting blown about, the IAS was jumping between 80 and 95 and back again, the VSI was up and down and I found it really challenging to find trim in all the turbulence. But just as the lesson was ending it kinda clicked and I was finding the coarse adjustments easier and starting to get the hang of fine tuning.
We turned and headed for home after what felt like about 5 mins of flying but was actually almost an hour. I was allowed to fly the headings, and at some point along the way the instructor congratulated me for trimming straight and level, which I hadn't realised I'd done, and I executed a gliding descended to 1500ft before levelling off and holding in a series of orbits waiting for the traffic. Which is where I began to turn green I think. (It's also lovely and cool up at 5000ft compared to 1000 isn't it?)
I think it was here that I learned about task saturation! I was holding the turn, focussing on keeping it at 20 degs, focussing on not losing height, focussing on keeping the airspeed, looking out for other a/c. We had seperation from ATC but both spotted another plane that was circling quite close, and out orbits were in sync so that it was...eek... getting bigger and staying put in the windscreen. We passed it safely but when I looked at the altimeter I'd lost 200ft without realising! My instructor had spotted it obviously, but it was a lesson in plate spinning (or plate dropping!). He was pleased I'd spotted it at all.
I have no idea how I'll ever be able to navigate, or even hold a conversation with ATC while keeping the thing in the air. I know I will, of course, but at the moment everything seems incredibly conscious and taxing on the mental resources.
The last buzz of the day was getting to land (well, kind of ) I controlled the heading and the airspeed with pitch, my instructor controlled the power, and I did the flare at the end. I managed to hold the centreline, became so thrilled that I'd actually hit the runway that un-flared a bit too soon, there was a little bounce, but it was all very gentle and that was it!
The main takeaways from my instructor were that I tended to turn slightly when trimming, which he thinks is just a patting head/rubbing tummy problem, and that I just need to work on finding trim. Next week I get to do the takeoff and climb out, and then more climbs and descents for me, with some straight and level built in.
Some other brand new students at the school today so made a couple of pals too which was really nice.
It was a tremebdously fun day and it's doubly cool that I get on really well with my instructor. But I feel absolutely wiped out now. Roll on lesson 3!!
Chris
Lesson #2 today, and it was absolutely brilliant. Lots and lots of learning. Brace for a bit of a long blether:
The weather was officially CAVOK but the haze was murky and we had no horizon for the duration of the flight other than an occassional glimpse when headed (and squinting) towards the coast. But after reading the other thread on here last night it was useful to experience a very slight 'goldfish bowl' effect in the distance to see what it actually means.
My first *proper* lesson was climbs and descents, but also had a rude introduction to human factors. The kids were up at 6.30 this morning so I had my brekkie early. I thought it would see me through as my lesson was at 11, but it was busy on the circuit and my FI was late in, so by the time we got out to the field it was after 12 and I was starving. I was sensible enough to grab a kitkat from the school shop and was fine throughout the lesson but had to orbit a few times coming in, my rudder was non-existent, and between the out of balance orbit, the mask, the sun through the window, low blood sugar, adrenaline and some significant chop - let's just say I was green when I left the aircraft. Lesson learned. Eat in advance and use the rudder.
The briefing covered the route which would take us over Durham and the climb/descent drills we'd be doing. Went over PAT and APT and I did a double take when he asked if I wanted to do the take off, with him following on the controls. Absolutely!
My checklist practice around my bed at home paid off and I was confident with the externals, other than not getting the latch quite right on the cowling. But the FI left me to do the starboard checks while he sorted something out and I got brownie points for picking up a slightly low oil level and a cracked fairing.
I followed along on the radio this time and picked up much more of the ATC clearance than last week, so next week he's letting me do the taxi and take off clearances myself... gulp! (Although he is kindly going to write me a little script).
Then I taxyed out to the runway. I'm really comfortable now with the groundwheel control and can follow the taxi lines no problem, but the brakes had me stymied. When it came to stopping for the pre-takeoff checks my feet became 'confused' and my FI had to jump on the brakes. The instinct is to go right-foot down like in a car, so we turned a bit too far rather than stopping!
We got our clearance and I taxyed onto the threshold. It's all a bit of a blur now because I was so pumped, but I'm sure there were some mag checks, and then I was asked to apply full throttle and up we went. She took herself off with only a litte back pressure and I didn't know just how much it would pull to the left, so it took a bit of 'play' to find the correct right-rudder pressure to correct, but I held the centre line and the best rate of climb speed and had to stop myself whooping that I'd just aced my first t/o
FI took us out of the ATZ with the amount of traffic about but then I was in control for most of the lesson. We did a series of climbs, powered descents and glides. It was REALLY tricky without a horizon for reference and I found it difficult to find straight and level. It was also very choppy, and I'm finding the Tomahawk gets chucked around like a leaf - which is also brilliant fun. A couple of times I was in a shallow turn and all of a sudden it would lurch over, and it felt like we were being rolled. There was a definite conscious effort to fight the urge to swing her back with the yoke. Unlike last week though where my hands were like rigour mortice on the yolk, this time I kept my grip light with one hand on the power, and it felt much easier to ride along with the rolls and bumps, rather than trying to steer and overcorrect.
It was the same with the air and vert speeds. My instructor would ask me to level off and trim to 90kts but she was getting blown about, the IAS was jumping between 80 and 95 and back again, the VSI was up and down and I found it really challenging to find trim in all the turbulence. But just as the lesson was ending it kinda clicked and I was finding the coarse adjustments easier and starting to get the hang of fine tuning.
We turned and headed for home after what felt like about 5 mins of flying but was actually almost an hour. I was allowed to fly the headings, and at some point along the way the instructor congratulated me for trimming straight and level, which I hadn't realised I'd done, and I executed a gliding descended to 1500ft before levelling off and holding in a series of orbits waiting for the traffic. Which is where I began to turn green I think. (It's also lovely and cool up at 5000ft compared to 1000 isn't it?)
I think it was here that I learned about task saturation! I was holding the turn, focussing on keeping it at 20 degs, focussing on not losing height, focussing on keeping the airspeed, looking out for other a/c. We had seperation from ATC but both spotted another plane that was circling quite close, and out orbits were in sync so that it was...eek... getting bigger and staying put in the windscreen. We passed it safely but when I looked at the altimeter I'd lost 200ft without realising! My instructor had spotted it obviously, but it was a lesson in plate spinning (or plate dropping!). He was pleased I'd spotted it at all.
I have no idea how I'll ever be able to navigate, or even hold a conversation with ATC while keeping the thing in the air. I know I will, of course, but at the moment everything seems incredibly conscious and taxing on the mental resources.
The last buzz of the day was getting to land (well, kind of ) I controlled the heading and the airspeed with pitch, my instructor controlled the power, and I did the flare at the end. I managed to hold the centreline, became so thrilled that I'd actually hit the runway that un-flared a bit too soon, there was a little bounce, but it was all very gentle and that was it!
The main takeaways from my instructor were that I tended to turn slightly when trimming, which he thinks is just a patting head/rubbing tummy problem, and that I just need to work on finding trim. Next week I get to do the takeoff and climb out, and then more climbs and descents for me, with some straight and level built in.
Some other brand new students at the school today so made a couple of pals too which was really nice.
It was a tremebdously fun day and it's doubly cool that I get on really well with my instructor. But I feel absolutely wiped out now. Roll on lesson 3!!
Chris
Last edited by editmonkey on Tue Apr 20, 2021 5:14 pm, edited 2 times in total.