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

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By lobstaboy
#1873045
GrahamB wrote:
lobstaboy wrote:I'm surprised nobody has mentioned ground effect yet...

I was going to, but then I thought 'D'you know what ....... I CBA'.


Can't say I blame you, but I did wonder if I could tempt @Harry.Brown to explain why ground effect might be relevant to the discussion he's been having ;)

Also I wonder if he could comment on the fact that all my instructing was done in aeroplanes without a stall warner. And the Auster that he references twice doesn't have one either. In fact quite a few aeroplanes don't have one. The text books he quotes make no reference to using one in the landing phase.

Oh, and I really dislike the Campbell book...

I'm joining @TopCat in purdah for now.
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By VRB_20kt
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873055
GrahamB wrote:
lobstaboy wrote:I'm surprised nobody has mentioned ground effect yet...

I was going to, but then I thought 'D'you know what ....... I CBA'.

- which is a shame. The student forum IMHO really should be a place of light, enlightenment and encouragement to all.
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873058
lobstaboy wrote:Can't say I blame you, but I did wonder if I could tempt @Harry.Brown to explain why ground effect might be relevant to the discussion he's been having ;)

You'd get at least 1000 words, I reckon, which would either amount to:

"Ground effect is a thing, but it's irrelevant to students learning to land in conventional training aeroplanes"

... or be wrong.

Which, to lighten the mood, reminds me of this Dilbert cartoon:

Image
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By GrahamB
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1873093
VRB_20kt wrote:
GrahamB wrote:
lobstaboy wrote:I'm surprised nobody has mentioned ground effect yet...

I was going to, but then I thought 'D'you know what ....... I CBA'.

- which is a shame. The student forum IMHO really should be a place of light, enlightenment and encouragement to all.

Exactly, and a bunch of old farts splitting hairs does little to contribute to that, so I decided not to add to it.

You can describe how to ride a bike, with all the physics of castering action, precession etc until the cows come home, but it doesn't really help someone 'get it'.

The best placed person to help someone 'get it' when it comes to landing is a good instructor in the right hand seat.
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By jcal
#1879206
Well, I have been awful at keeping up with my flyers log! It's been a mix of weather, instructor availability and my own holiday that has made for pretty irregular flying, but I have managed to get 3 more lessons down since last.

Lesson 15, 16 & 17

15

I'd call these "the pre-solo circuit sessions". It had been a couple of weeks between lesson 14 and 15 and I felt really really rusty, leading to my worst lesson yet. Now in hindsight I actually appreciate the perspective, but at the time it was pretty demoralizing.

It was a fairly gusty day and there was a lot of traffic in the circuit, adding to that a lack of self confidence and it was a mess :lol:.

We were supposed to start practising glide and powerless approaches, but that would wait as just keeping straight and level on the the downwind was proving a challenge. Speed on the approach was all over the place, my eyes stared at the instruments instead of the outside, and well, you know how that goes.

I left dejected and dismayed thinking that the main reason of the poor lesson was the long gap between the last, only getting more worried about the fact that my next lesson wouldn't be for another 3 weeks due to holidays.

16

Fast forward to lesson 16. I had been studying air law and ops proc, and kept flying in "my head" so to speak, to keep it fresh during my break. Coming in to the lesson I was a lot more relaxed, I knew I only had to do better than last time to feel like I've progressed, and honestly I think it made all the difference.

Cue one of the best lessons yet. Everything clicked. It felt easy, I felt in control.

We did one regular circuit and my instructor immediately noted that we can forget about last lesson as clearly it was just one of those days.

We practised 2 of each, flapless and glide approaches, which are actually a lot of fun! :mrgreen: I know they're used in less than ideal circumstances, but practising them in a controlled way was great fun.

I struggled a bit with speed control on the glide approach, but get there in the end. The final circuit my FI pulls a semi-unexpected EFATO to practice the procedure for that as well (we had briefed it ahead of the lesson).

17

Only a couple of days later, I was still riding the high from the previous lesson. I had been given a pre-solo school checklist to go through as we're getting close to that point, memorising emergency procedures, etc. But in this lesson we're just recapping the same as last, except with a fair amount of crosswind.

Again, it went really well. Having felt like the "basics" of the circuit are now getting stuck, I had a lot more mental capacity to deal with crosswind and anticipate it on each leg.

I was basically on my own most of the lesson (with my FI next to me, not solo), and by the end of the lesson he told me that session was solo worthy.

I'm flying again on Tuesday and depending on the weather that will probably be my first solo. Can't wait! :mrgreen:
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1879219
Oh that's excellent news!

I like your mindset after the bad lesson that the next was bound to be an improvement :mrgreen:
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By jcal
#1879839
T6Harvard wrote:I like your mindset after the bad lesson that the next was bound to be an improvement :mrgreen:


Haha, yeah, I don't know if it was very conscious, but I thought, what the hell, can't be worse than last time! :lol:

Having less pressure on yourself definitely seems to help though!

RobW wrote:Excellent! Hope the weather holds for you, keep us posted!


Will do! Weather for tomorrow is actually looking pristine, if it hold up. Fingers crossed!
By jcal
#1880392
Lesson 18

First Solo :thumleft:

What an amazing feeling! I was getting a bit nervous before the flight (I was 90% sure it would be the day) but as we did a few circuits and practiced another glide approach I started to feel a little more at ease. Weather was perfect and it all seemed to flow well. Then, all of a sudden as we land on our third circuit my instructor takes the controls and asks me, ready to go alone? :mrgreen:

Taxying back to the runway alone felt weird, like I was stealing the aircraft :lol:, but once at the holding point waiting for a landing Cessna (another student solo!) it felt right.

I line up and off I go. All the nerves honestly disappeared once in the air, I felt like on autopilot. The aircraft jumps up like a rocket without my FI next to me (not a comment on his weight, I promise!), but otherwise everything felt the same. Except, I was alone :) .

The rest of the circuit went like clockwork.

One of the most amazing feelings was how peaceful it feels when you're alone up there. I'm sure it's something you get used to, but it was such a difference from always having a watching eye by the instructor. Time almost moved slower.

It was just a single circuit, went by in a jiffy, but I'm still beaming from the experience. Can't wait to get up there again!



PS. I "cheated" and did it without having done my Air Law exam, my FI waived that school requirement for now, but now Air Law and Ops Proc is scheduled for this Sunday. So no more naughty flying!
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By bladerunner911
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1880410
Congratulations, a major milestone, and one you will never forget - or so I'm told :D
I've only done two circuit sessions so far, so I can only imagine how it must feel!
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By Rob P
#1880461
jcal wrote:One of the most amazing feelings was how peaceful it feels when you're alone up there.

Spot on! This is the reason I always try and remind early hours PPL holders that the aircraft does not fly on radio waves and, where appropriate, just switch off* the radio and enjoy the sensations of pure solo flight.

Well done. Where's the post-solo picture of you grinning like an idiot?

Rob P

*Note, switch off, not turn down the volume. Everybody who merely does that eventually winds up making increasingly desperate calls to the next ATSU, wondering why they aren't being answered, whilst everyone else on the frequency listens to both sides of the 'conversation' with the ATSU answering, but the pilot obviously not hearing and we know he has the volume turned down. Oh, how we laugh.
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By RobW
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1880465
Congratulations!

I can confirm that the smile lasts for quite some time!

I hope you didnt make as much of a pigs ear of the logbook entry as I did, Its a great feeling to write Self and PIC, provided you remember to do it!

Well done mate!
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