Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

Moderator: AndyR

  • 1
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 25
By Fellsteruk
#1853068
Congrats @editmonkey great review of what I’m sure was an amazing experience and it’s great your having fun at the same time. :thumleft:
editmonkey liked this
User avatar
By FlightDek
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1853115
editmonkey wrote:First as P1S and ex14 logged.


Congratulations :cheers: On my First solo the rate of climb also caught me out.

Check elsewhere on the forum, as it's been discussed before, but this flight should be logged as straight P1. P1S is only for a successful flight test. So you actually have your first logged time as PIC :thumleft:
editmonkey liked this
User avatar
By editmonkey
#1853367
Thanks @andynxn! (Although read enough on here now to realise a quick solo does not necessarily a good pilot make :)) I do now have a strange engine oil mark down my arm from the pre-checks that won't budge, and I'm wondering if I've actually been marked by the Cessna sky gods... (KIDDING!!)

I've come down from cloud 9 now and reality is biting. I reckon that's the easy bit over - can get up, around and down safely - have a feeling that everything from here on will be about technical consistency and the tolerance for mistakes will get tighter.

Also, I'm training at a very small airfield with almost no circuit traffic, and no ATZ to deal with. Reading about some of the solos at busier airports I think I've probably got a shock coming at some point. I'm wondering if my FI would let me do some circuits at a bigger airport to get some proper radio calls and busier circuits in.
User avatar
By editmonkey
#1855692
More circuits today - woop! Another milestone - completed the first page of me logbook. :) Really great lesson, exhausting but good fun, in a rollercoaster kinda way.

It was a beautiful day, CAVOK, views out over the sea, just gorgeous. I asked for a different circuit today to shake it up so that I don't become complacent and overfamiliar with any one single approach. So we took off from 01, which became a source of great humour and humiliation throughout. Every single leg I called it as '1-0' rather than '0-1' (with an immediate correction). I have no idea why. For some reason I got 1-0 in my head and couldn't get it out, even though there is no runway 10. We both found it funny towards the end and eventually 0-1 stuck. The r-h circuit was tricky, first circuit was all over the place, couldn't spot the runway and while visually searching for it, got behind the aeroplane with that familiar feeling of sudden overload. BUT - recovered and landed.

The turbulence was mad. As it got warmer I was getting bounced around like a leaf which never ceases to make my palms sweat and my heart beat faster. It was exhausting, no matter how I trimmed I felt out of trim, was fighting it all the way around. A lesson I learned was that if I get sweaty palms, it means I need to let go of the yolk, take a breath, and trim. Also on the r-h circuit the ground rises towards the end of base and then drops off back to the airfield, which gives the feeling of being far too low. That took some getting used to.

6 and 6, mixed bag but nothing unsafe, I was knackered and ready to call it a day (think I actually asked for a breather). Certainly I didn't think I'd be going solo with the chop, crosswind and inability to locate a runway - but FI was happy with my approaches and mistake corrections, so we put down and then off I went for 2 solo circuits. Bricking it again (does that feeling ever go away?), but the only way through the fear, I'm learning, is up. :)

Man, that feeling when you raise the nosewheel and suddenly realise that there is now no other option but to fly and land - it's a mix of utter exhilaration and nerves. It really is a good lesson for life in general.

And they were mostly great, a little nervy with increasing turbulence and crosswind. Approach and landing #1 - I was absolutely delighted with it. My turn to final was a little early but no great shakes. Crosswind caught me and I kicked the rudder in juuuuust right and hit my target, bang on. Straight and gentle, then up and off.

#2 was less good. Left 5 degs of flap in and didn't notice until the pre-landing checks. (Thank you checklist!). I left my final turn a little later for a better approach but it went a bit pear shaped. I was already coming in too high, so had powered back to lose some height so was at very low revs, and as I turned onto final a massive gust caught me and blew me right off track. The right wing rolled considerably, nose popped up, nerves jangled, when I straightened/levelled out I was maybe 20 degrees off the centreline so my final approach was somewhat oblique.

Not sure quite what happened. But again, corrected it back to centre, got down, ballooned it slightly but recovered before my decision point and, crucially, didn't murder the landing gear. :thumleft:

The big lessons for me today were climb performance, wind shear and crosswinds. Climb performance was just awful. At 70mph we were climbing something like 200fpm (might have been a little more). Full tanks, humidity at 88%. Never felt it as sluggish as that before. Threw my turns off and was often still climbing through downwind turn. I was retracting the flaps and watching the airspeed creep up to Vy. I need to go back to my met and flight principles book!

Descents were also weird today. Plane didn't want to go down. Even when power was backed quite a way off, the airspeed would drop away but to maintain approach speed I had to really point it downwards. This *may* have been the rising ground giving me an illusion of a slow descent.

Wind shear was a bugger. There's a treeline at the end of the runway and the wind was swirling near them. Just as I was crossing the plane would balloon upwards, then drop into a crosswind. It was exciting though, and it made things somewhat more challenging. Especially on my own.

First proper crosswind landing. The most severe as the wind picked up on the second solo circuit. I still don't feel like I'm thoroughly on top of what else is going on at the airfield, I'm concentrating so hard on the manoeuvres I am slightly worried about missing incoming radio calls from other aircraft.

Anyway, another 30 mins solo time - feel like I'm getting the hang. Properly loving it again.
Last edited by editmonkey on Tue Jun 29, 2021 4:58 pm, edited 3 times in total.
TopCat, T6Harvard, JAFO and 1 others liked this
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1855707
editmonkey wrote:A lesson I learned was that if I get sweaty palms, it means I need to let go of the yolk

Eggsactly right. Otherwise your brain will be beaten, fried, scrambled and boiled.
editmonkey liked this
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1855751
editmonkey wrote:Climb performance was just awful. At 70mph we were climbing something like 200fpm (might have been a little more). Full tanks, humidity at 88%.

What is it usually? 600fpm or thereabouts?
User avatar
By editmonkey
#1855756
Yeah, roundabouts. Improved somewhat once I was sans instructor obvs but even getting to cruise speed felt really sluggish today. The a/c seemed behind me on every turn (made a nice change :lol: )

I checked my logbook after posting and I was in the other C150 the other week, maybe it has better performance. Going to compare the handbooks this eve.

Edit: Book rate of climb is 670fps. Can only imagine today was either humidity or the bag of choc orange buttons I ate last night :pig:
T6Harvard liked this
User avatar
By bladerunner911
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1855941
Hey @editmonkey and @T6Harvard , hope you're both well!
I'm still enjoying reading your progress updates, but I've been too busy to post the last few weeks!
I've had 5 lessons now and another hopefully on Sat, I've weaned my self off the sickness pills so I'm very happy the air sickness is gone for now! Really enjoying the lessons now.
I was wondering how you are both getting on with the exams, I'm starting to study Air Law for real now and was wondering if you had any tips so far, I'm using easy PPL and the Pooleys books to study and do progress tests, but the subject is so dry, and some of the rules differences between SERA and the UK are bizarre - why can't t hey just make it one set of rules for the UK!!
I need to have passed before about lesson 12 I think and don't wnat to run out of time, but also don't want to start the exam clock too early in case the flying gets paused due to covid again!
T6Harvard liked this
User avatar
By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1855954
@bladerunner911 , my school don't require any exam passes before solo but I've been dipping into Pooleys and AFE for Air Law, Human Factors, Principles of Flight, Ops Procedures, and I took forumite Irv Lee's Comms course last year via Zoom (highly recommended). I too am worried about the timings, 'cos the flying is taking me more time than I anticipated :mrgreen:

I'll be chatting to my Instructor next week about when would be sensible to take the first couple of exams.
bladerunner911 liked this
  • 1
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 25