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

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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907192
Mz Hedy wrote:Touch down as slowly as you can and keep the nose up in the ground roll - I've never had a nose-wheel aircraft fall back onto its tail after landing

Cue anecdotes. :D

Well I'll start...

This was an occasion where I discovered that if you're going to give instructions, you need to be really, really specific, and make no damn fool assumptions about how those instructions are going to be interpreted....

I'd gone flying with my OH, and her brother, who had given up flying in recent years but years ago had been an experienced glider and tug pilot, done lots of glider aerobatics, and lots of Cub flying apart from the glider tugging.

He was in the front, Mrs TC was in the back (if @GrahamB's on frequency I expect he knows what's coming already....).

I let him fly it quite a lot, and he was really, really good. So I let him land - ready at a moment's notice to take over if needed. He flew a perfect approach, held off, touched down (with stall warner!!) gently...

And then, I stupidly said "Ok, bring the stick right back to keep the nose off".

With Mrs TC in the back, the aft CG meant that the slightly over-enthusiastic pull he applied was enough to dig the tie-down ring on the tail into the grass with quite a bump. In Grummans, this is quite hard to do if two up, but quite easy 3 or more up if you're a bit ham-fisted, and he had no reason to know.

Fortunately there was no damage - the grass was quite soft - but he was mortified, despite it being obviously and entirely my fault for not giving clearer instruction.
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By dalepearson
#1907223
Milty wrote:Great lesson today after the enforced 2 week delay due to Glos closure last week (you'll get used to my 'up one minute, down the next' mood...).

Weather was great for my first solo land away. Gloucester to Halfpenny Green and back again.

30h45m now with todays 1h10m solo added.


Congrats mate, cant wait for weather etc to co-operate.
See you tomorrow.
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907873
Just a quick post to keep my ‘journal’ up to date.

I canned yesterday afternoons lesson. Woke up feeling grotty with cold symptoms and blocked up nose. Possibly hay fever starting up for the year. Wasn’t too bad by lunchtime but not really feeling on top form. Reluctantly, I binned the lesson off. It was annoying as my new headset arrived this week and I was keen to try it out. I’ve also been chair flying my radio calls through the Brize zone this week on my commute and was quite comfortable approaching the lesson.

But thanks to the learnings from this forum, I made the sensible decision so thanks to all whom have ever commented and posted on a similar topic. Fingers crossed for next week.
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By Paul_Sengupta
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907882
Milty wrote:
> I canned yesterday afternoons lesson. Woke up feeling grotty with cold
> symptoms and blocked up nose. Possibly hay fever starting up for the year.

Possibly covid. These are the symptoms of the new variant in people who have been vaccinated.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907894
Yes hay fever brewing nicely here medication regime underway
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908233
[usermention=1373]@Paul_Sengupta[/usermention] can you let me have the numbers for this weeks lottery please. Just tested +VE :(. That’s put pay to this Fridays lesson too. Tedious.
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908428
[usermention=1373]@Paul_Sengupta[/usermention] that was a rhetorical question. I'm going to have to do those numbers now. If they come in and I'd not done them, I'd never live it down :lol:
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908529
Consistently getting 85% on the EasyPPL Meteorology test exams now. It's finally sinking in. Would have had a stab at the exam tomorrow after my lesson had I not been struck down by the Rona. Oh well, another week of practice exams and I should be OK to sit it next week.
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908533
Oh, that's good! Well done.

I've done no theory for a fortnight due to aerial commitments so I need to crack on. I'm concentrating on Nav but I did get a cheap (free?) Kindle book* on Met and I'm reading that atm. Not making notes, just reading as background.

* I also read the Nav one by the same author. I liked his style.

Oh, just checked, it was free on kindle unlimited.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dr-Stephen-Wal ... scns_share
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1909575
I have just had an absolutely stonkingly good, fun and rewarding lesson.

Having missed 2 weeks from Wx and the Rona, I was a bit concerned whether I would have gone back a bit more than hope. In fact, my last solo landaway seems to have done me the world of good. I realised as I approached the airfield that I didn't really have the usual apprehension. I (nearly) always enjoy it, but there's nearly always some nerves on the side. This morning, it felt different. It felt natural to be going to the airport to fly.

This lesson was one that has been promised for a while from my instructor. A bit of a Nav/Radio hell trip. Gloucester - Didcot - Thame - Witney - Gloucester. It takes me through Brize zone, RAF Benson twice (sort of) and back through Brize zone. My radio was going to get a workout.

Planning all went well - a few questions and clarifications, checked us out, pre-flight done and away we went.

A switch has flicked in my head I think. FIrst radio call to Brize was OK - not perfect but it's not a travesty. I'm learning and it doesn't need to be perfect. It was good enough to be understood and I was aware of the bit that I missed and needed to correct. This was the case for the rest of the calls and actually got a bit worse as the workload grew but none were horrendous and I'm comfortable with that. I'm not saying I'm accepting poor quality radio, but I'm accepting it is what it is for now and I don't need to beat myself up over it. It's actually quite liberating.

The first Brize transit was a bit exciting. We actually got passed across to Brize tower. There was a Dornier coming in to land and I think they wanted us both controlled by the same controller. I wasn't expecting to be transferred to Brize tower but I understood the call, I understood what was needed, made the change, announced with full callsign and got on with it all. Once the Dornier was on the ground, handed back to Brize zone.

The nav was sort of going OK but it was difficult. The report cloud of 4,200 was a lot lower and at times, we were ducking under 1800 or lower. Made it tricky to see some of the reference points but the bearings were working well and it was mainly a case of keeping faith that it was all going OK.

Benson call was a bit odd. Had to prompt for a clearance which came back a little later than comfortable but all OK in the end. Added bonus that he'd passed me back to Brize.

The rest was all good. Practice PAN to London centre for a positional reference which was again comforting to know that if you're lost, there is someone who can help. Cloud was getting lower and we had to thread our way back to Gloucester a bit. We discussed that had it just been me, it would have been a flight not to have done.

Different join on right base back at Glos as we couldn't get up to 2000 for a SOHJ which was all new too but handled well. Landing was decent enough. Discussed the 70kt approach and lack of stall warner with the instructor. He gave a credible explanation and I put my faith in him.

Short debrief and all was happy. Did Met exam and passed with 93%.

First try of the Bose A20's. Unbelievable. So much more relaxed when I got back. There was no feeling of relief to take the headset off.

32 hours flown. A good, challenging lesson but pleased to have done well. Roll on next week.
Last edited by Milty on Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
tr7v8, T6Harvard, johnm and 3 others liked this
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