FlyingBoot wrote:Did you do any low level passes before starting landing and circuits?
No - we just went straight into it, although with some demos from the instructors in previous lessons (and me landing it with their assistance a few times previously too). This did involve some pretty long hold-offs which I guess is a similar thing (flying just above the runway for a few seconds, although I guess not as long!). Might be one to consider if flare height continues to be difficult to judge though! (Also sounds a lot of fun
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FlyingBoot wrote:were you flying G-CLNC at 15:00 this afternoon?
Yep, indeed I was! Good guess - and thanks for the FR24 link, very handy. I guess that should show how consistent (or not) my circuits are - and I can check if track, turn points, altitude etc are all in line with what I was trying to do! In fact, you can probably see that this afternoon we had quite a few variations in the circuit, another 7 times round although with different exercises almost every time, which kept things interesting. Today included:
- crosswind for all landings (started off around 7-8kt and dropped a bit towards the end, so not too bad, but pretty much 90 degrees to the runway!) so plenty of practise at crabbing, then wing down into wind and rudder to keep straight when landing
- a couple of fully flapped (30 degree) touch & go's which indeed had a much steeper approach, although I didn't mind the feeling of flying straight towards the runway as it was more of a reminder to not round out too early!
- two practice glide approaches from downwind at 1500 feet
- one practice EFATO while climbing on crosswind that I certainly wasn't expecting to be trying today! (best glide pitch, pick a field quickly, point towards it and see if we would have made it)
- a couple of flapless landings
All in all, lots more stuff to learn - I think it went pretty well again overall, although still lots of mistakes - I'm still flaring too high, need to improve judgement of crab angle with crosswind approaches, forgot to put carb heat to cold on final once (although at least remembered to check it before taking off again) and a couple of times climbing or descending 100 feet away from the correct circuit height on downwind / base. Since the PTT was still broken on my side, my instructor was handling all radio calls again, leading to this chestnut: he forgot to put in the "final" call (and I forgot to ask / check) and get clearance to land until we were almost over the runway threshold! Quick call went in just before I was starting the flare, and so I got ready to go around, but the ATC response came back (in a very relaxed and leisurely way) that we were cleared to land - so it was a normal touch and go after all.
Another great lesson - now the long week of waiting until the next one... which if all goes to plan, will be at Duxford (where the club has started operating at recently)! Looking forward to that especially since there's free entry to the museum afterwards
And @T6Harvard / @lobstaboy and others - thanks for all the stall chat! All makes sense and is in line with what I've read so far - although I haven't got on to the more technical theory subjects yet, looking forward to getting stuck in as I have a background (and interest!) in engineering, so will be able to go Full Nerd (tm).