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

Moderator: AndyR

By Spence94
#1894008
Lesson #5 Yesterday

luckily there seemed to be a short break in the clouds above manchester for a couple of hours
Felt a bit rusty after not flying all of December due to crappy manchester weather
ascending and descending today
instructor had me do the full taxi from parking to power check and then line up, and do the take off which was a bit of a thrill doing it all myself for the first time
Taxi-ing still needs some work, started out great but sometimes it feels as though the aircraft isn't responding to what I'm doing :lol: :lol:
anyway up in the air and out towards Bolton surrounded by clouds at about 2000 feet I think
had to do a couple of steep turns to not go IFR at some points
I did my revising and already expected the PAT and APT terminology
felt quite comfortable with it and soon enough he was telling me to just ascend and descend to certain altitudes without him needing to tell me anything, as well as doing the FREDA checks regularly!
as well as letting me do some of the descending in the circuit as well as flying some S&L from the dead side
nearly had a close call with another plane over the middlebrook stadium which involved my instructor taking controls and doing a steep turn out of the way :lol: :lol:
Other than that, need to focus on getting my taxi work better (and not moving the bloody yoke like it's a steering wheel) but was buzzing to get started on flying in 2022
alternatively I've now taken up the habbit of watching people fix planes on youtube much to my other halfs annoyance :mrgreen:
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By Rob P
#1894042
Spence94 wrote:... need to focus on getting my taxi work better (and not moving the bloody yoke like it's a steering wheel)


All instructors differ. Mine helped me greatly with taxiing by taking over control of the yoke to adjust as the wind required, and having me put my hands on the coaming while I steered with the pedals.

It didn't take long to get the hang of it.

Rob P
By ericgreveson
#1894044
I had the same issue (yoke-as-steering-wheel) early on, my instructor's suggestion was to hold the yoke centrally from behind (below/around the central column with left hand, if that makes sense) which makes it possible to pull back and turn it as needed, but without it feeling anything like a steering wheel! Worked for me at least. (If you need to push it forwards then it's more difficult, but that situation doesn't usually come up when taxiing in most wind conditions...)
Rob P, T6Harvard, Spence94 liked this
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By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1894149
@Spence94 bet it was great to be back in the air. The only advice I can offer is to cut yourself a bit of slack on the taxi issue. It will come with time and practice. We’re all very keen on here to be perfect from the get go and seem to forget sometimes that we’re learning. Taxi technique is a skill but when you think about it, you get a few minutes per lesson to try it out. I strongly suspect that in a few weeks, you’ll complete a lesson and realise that you did it well without thinking about it. Relish that moment, and the many others you will experience as things fall into place in their own time.
By Spence94
#1897018
Lesson #6 on Sunday
Managed to luckily avoid those crazy winds from saturday although there was still a bit of a crosswind on landing

Did the whole taxi, run up checks and take off myself for the first time. I messed up keeping the wheel straight when lining up for the run up checks but other than that it felt a lot easier this time (shoutout to @ericgreveson for the behind the yoke trick). as well as once we landed and I taxi'd back to parking (Even having to avoid some of the lovely Mud ruts forming around Barton's Taxi ways)

Up we went and I kept control doing the climbs I learnt in my previous lesson until we left the circuit. Worked on the climbing and descending from the last lesson again keeping a 70 knot climb and 65 knot gliding descent, remembered all my PAT & APT and felt quite comfortable doing it all (only thing I occasionally forgot was that damn carb heat). Then went on to Cruise climb and descent and adjusting the rate of climb/descent imitating potential ATC commands. All in all I felt very confident after the lesson, Instructor still did the manoeuvring in the circuit and the landing of course so hopefully that will be me soon!
Instructor seemed very impressed with the lesson anyway and said he had nothing to report! roll on the next one
Rob P, T6Harvard, Milty and 2 others liked this