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

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#1907277
Milty wrote:Sounds like a great lesson but I’ve gone pale reading it.

I gather you've already done your first solo nav and first solo landaway, so I'm sure you would be fine! Having done the nav theory is great, but to be honest I haven't had to try using the various "back on track" rules of thumb and so on, as long as I can read the chart OK and draw a straight line it's mostly fine. Looking on flightradar24 I also see that my "track holding" is not particularly clever compared to some other people, i.e. it's definitely not a perfectly straight line, but at least if you know where you are and you know where you're going, it should be OK.

Zone crossings through 3 zones sounds like a lot of radio work! For me, it's the comms more than the nav that I find difficult. I know "in theory" sitting here in front of my computer what I would need to say, and what to expect to hear as a reply, and how to read back those responses. However, when it's happening at 2000' and I have to record squawks, QNH's, routings, altitudes, where to report, traffic etc it all seems to go out of the window! If it's up to 3 pieces of information (e.g. squawk, QNH, report X) then I can usually manage it, but any more than that and my brain's FIFO queue starts jettisoning information... as another example of this, I see that I wrote they told us we had a "radar service" in my previous post, which is clearly nonsense, they would have said "radar control". And this is from someone who has passed the comms exam...

Milty wrote:I’ve not done much crosswind stuff recently

I haven't done that much either, and I think it was probably more luck than judgement that the landing was smooth - the crosswind itself wasn't too bad, it was the gusts that suddenly added sideways velocity that were the problem! I'm certainly glad that I did this one dual on a nice wide runway that I knew well. Would be happy to get more crosswind experience in as I feel like I'm not necessarily learning so much when landing on a known runway in calm conditions... which seems to be likely to be the case today!
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1907278
@ericgreveson , that is such a good, and useful, write up. Thank you. Again!

Lots of learning points and an interesting trip out. What's not to like!?

I, too, need xw landing practice. My first few were hideous! Trying to input crossed controls made me realise that I had in fact got the hang of the normal situ because it was so counter-intuitive :lol:
ericgreveson liked this
#1907380
Just finished totting up another full page in my logbook and I've just gone over 30 hours total after today's lesson!

Today was another first for me: my first (dual) landaway! When I got to the airport I was given the choice of two destinations: Elstree or Old Buckenham. Since we had been past Luton yesterday I decided to go for Old Buckenham for a bit of variety. My instructor went off to check out another student for solo circuits and left me with instructions to photocopy the plate for Old Buck, print off the circuit procedure chart from their website, get PPR via the online form and plan the route from Cambridge avoiding the Lakenheath / Mildenhall ATZ's and check NOTAMs for the day. I decided to just do the planning on the map again (doing a plog for such a simple route seemed like overkill and would have been yet another piece of paper flapping around) so looked up the wind forecast, drew a couple of lines on the map (going down to the Six Mile Bottom railway bridge from Cambridge, then direct from there) and did the usual measuring / whizz wheel. Also picked out the key frequencies (Lakenheath and Old Buck) and wrote them on the map as well for easy reference. With that and the photocopying done, the NOTAMs and PPR just took a couple of minutes, and I had a read of the airfield info, circuit procedures and noise abatement areas (taking note of the big OVERHEAD JOINS ARE PROHIBITED warning). As I was doing this, I got a message from my instructor (who was still out with the solo student) asking me if I was happy to go out and refuel the aeroplane - which of course I was, so I got a cheeky 30 second solo taxi to the fuel bowser in, along with a first solo refueling experience (avgas went mostly in the aeroplane and only partially all over my hands).

Instructor then came over to help me put away the fuel hose and check my plan and PPR email, which was all fine. We set off on runway 23 with a gentle crosswind and headed up to 2700', turning towards Old Buck overhead the first waypoint as planned. Coming up to Newmarket, we switched to Lakenheath Approach and I got the usual incredibly efficient service - simply starting with my callsign, getting given a squawk, QNH and basic service (I managed to read back the wrong QNH having got confused over 1014 vs 1024 despite setting the correct one on the altimeter, immediately being corrected by the controller) and then getting a MATZ penetration approved without even having to ask. Very happy to be able to understand the squawk code clearly this time, and the QNH, and all other info (despite my befuddled readback). After going past Mildenhall and Lakenheath, within approximately of 3 seconds of leaving the CMATZ, we were again called with something along the lines of "leaving the zone, frequency change approved" without having to ask! All very straightforward.

I called Old Buckenham Radio when overhead Snetterton and turned left to aim to join the circuit downwind for runway 25, avoiding Attleborough as per the circuit procedure, and to expect a rather wide "bomber circuit" according to my instructor due to the noise abatement etc. It was easy enough to see the key features on the map to make sure we extended far enough downwind, then turned base (looking for the big stacks of straw bales on final). Turning final, it was clear that Old Buck was a much narrower and shorter runway than those I've previously landed on, and there was a reasonable crosswind from the left, but I aimed for the numbers with 30° flap and despite a bit of left and right drift near the runway, managed to land reasonably straight and central with a smooth enough touchdown (no stall warner though). It looked like a very short runway indeed once on the ground, but that was just an optical illusion as it goes downhill after the exit to the clubhouse - we landed short enough to be able to vacate at that exit (just over halfway down the runway) and park right outside the clubhouse. Landaway achieved! Paid the landing fees and filled in the departure form (on the computer in the unattended shed thing, which turned out to be the wrong thing to do because you can actually pay in the main building when they're open like today, but never mind!). Spoke to a few onlookers who were sitting in the sun outside the clubhouse but it was a very short stop as we had to head straight back to Cambridge - not even time for a cup of tea. Started up, did the power checks and held at Charlie for an incoming aeroplane doing a touch and go, then headed off with right turn out to make sure we followed the circuit procedures.

The return trip was fairly uneventful, with the spectacularly efficient service from Lakenheath once again (I think this time they gave us the "you're out of our hair" leaving-the-zone call within 1 second of us crossing the zone boundary) and a left base join for Cambridge. I did have to dodge a high-flying buzzard or similar at one point (a nice visual reminder that you're travelling at 100kts). However, as we were turning base, another instructor on the ground heard us over the radio (and recognised my instructor's voice, as he had made the base call for us) and asked if we could call London Info to close a flight plan for him as he had landed and lost them while waiting for a response! We were the only ones in the circuit, and my instructor was happy to handle the radios to do so while I was doing the flying and landing - this was all fine, he called final for me, switched frequency and asked to close the flight plan, but once again London Info were too busy and he hadn't had a response by the time I was descending on final and we were too low for the radio signal. So, I used it as an opportunity to get some go-around practise, and did another circuit to land, giving time for the flight plan to be closed. I believe we are now owed a beer ;-)

All in all, another good day out. Would be nice to have some more time at the destination during landaways - I see there is a small museum and cafe at Old Buck so it would be nice to go back to visit those some time. My instructor has also started making "QXC" noises which is slightly concerning as I haven't done as much as a solo nav yet... also I have two weeks before my next booked lesson, so there is plenty of time to go before I have to start worrying about that!
T6Harvard, Milty, bladerunner911 and 1 others liked this
#1908515
Another surprise lesson today! I had a message earlier in the week that there was a free slot, but unfortunately I couldn't make it. However another message arrived early today and this time I could make it... fortunately, since this will replace my booked lesson for this Sunday as my instructor will be away!

Today's lesson was more dual nav - a second landaway, this time to Turweston. Spent the first half hour or so preparing, starting with plotting the route: Cambridge - Grafham Water - Turweston to avoid the gliders further south, and then the reciprocal route home. 20kt wind from the northeast, so predicted groundspeed was about 110kt outbound and a sluggish 70kt return! Then reading up about Turweston on their website, printing off the circuit procedures / noise abatement / airfield info for the kneeboard, phoning for PPR, and checking NOTAMs. Went out to check the aeroplane, refuelled and topped up the oil, and we were ready to leave!

As it's a weekday, we had ATC and ATIS to get the usual departure info, and things were quite quiet so headed straight out for runway 05 after engine checks, no waiting around. As we entered the runway my instructor pointed out my first mistake for the day (don't worry, plenty more to come): I had somehow skipped the checklist item for switching the transponder from standby to Mode S. Oops.

We took off, went round the north of Cambridge and headed towards Grafham Water. This is a route I've done a few times now, so I was OK with the navigation and FREDA checks etc despite it being a bit hazy. The air was super-smooth at this point and flying hands-off, in trim, was very pleasant! We switched to Cranfield on the radio after turning at Grafham Water, overhead Bedford Autodrome, and I think I got it mostly right (helped by my cheat-sheet on the kneeboard for the "pass your message" items). At this point it changed from super-smooth to turbulent and thermally, and stayed that way for the rest of the day! Much more positive altitude control required for the rest of the flight. My instructor recommended we switch to Turweston on the radio after crossing the M1, and to have a re-read of the circuit plates etc before we got there, which was a good suggestion (to remind myself of the circuit pattern, areas to avoid, and especially the 15 degree / 10 degree off-runway-heading approach and departure for 09). I made the call and got the airfield information, which was all fine (I even remembered to say "hectopascals" after a QFE of 999 was given, probably my high point of the trip in terms of competence), and we started descending to circuit height overhead Silverstone. I picked out the A43, Turweston and Brackley successfully to join downwind in the right place, plenty of distance ahead of a PA28 doing touch and go's (which was still climbing out as we joined downwind). I did my pre-landing checks, but then spent too much time looking out trying to pick out the right place to turn base and the early turn to the 15-degree-off-runway approach, so ended up losing about 150 feet of height, being late to throttle back and put carb heat on, and eventually having to just go straight to 30 degrees of flap to get set up correctly (normally I would do 20 degrees on base, then 30 on final). In the end, the approach was fine and at the right speed, so I had plenty of time to flare too high (as usual) but with a smooth enough landing on the stall warner. Vacated right and went back up the grass, and then we were told where to park.

This turned out to be next to a magnificent Cessna 170 which had a nice cream and red paint job and looked pretty smart despite its age! The apron was quite busy, with several aeroplanes starting up, shutting down, being repositioned etc, including some interesting types other than the usual Cessna / Piper / Cirrus. My good impression of Turweston was confirmed when we went to the tower to pay the landing fee, meeting the very friendly chap operating the A/G radio, and admiring the Airfix model collection. We had time to enjoy the cafe this time as well, with a coffee and sausage bap going down very nicely. This felt like my first "proper" landaway since we didn't have time to stay at Old Buckenham last time, and I would definitely recommend Turweston as a place to visit - the great views of the runway from the cafe (giving you the option to "score" the landings of arriving aircraft ;-) ) was the cherry on top.

Bap consumed, it was time to head home. Did the usual checks (this time remembering to switch the transponder on) and we were soon ready to depart behind another aircraft. This was the time for me to make my next mistake: being a bit too aggressive with the rotation on takeoff - I rotated at the correct airspeed, but pitched up a bit too much especially given how gusty it was, so had to reduce pitch a bit to climb at the correct speed. At least I remembered to turn left on to the appropriate departure track. So, another thing that I can hopefully file away and remember to do better in future!

The nav back to Cambridge was fairly straightforward, although pretty slow (70kt groundspeed) and thermally, with a lot of up and down needing constant correction. I also managed to call Cranfield before actually engaging brain, so when asked to "pass my message" I started telling them I was on a flight from Cambridge before noticing and having to correct myself (remembered the magic word "correction" after a bit of "uuuhhh..."). As we approached Cambridge, we were given the grass runway for a change, so I had another new experience - landing on 05 Grass (I have landed in the other direction before). The approach was a bit better this time, maintaining the correct height and sorting out the pre landing checks and flaps in plenty of time, with a smooth landing - getting it straight with rudder for the slight crosswind, and flaring at a better height this time.

Another 1:45 of flying time in the logbook, and a second landaway achieved! Many things to improve, far from a perfect execution of what I feel I should know by now, but a good experience all in all.
bladerunner911, Milty liked this
#1908521
Sounds like a good lesson today and you seem to be coming on really well. I had my lesson today cancelled. It was meant to be the NPPL(m) equivalent of QXC but the CFI thought the winds were too high for solo nav. Just have to wait for next week and see if there is better weather. You seem to be up in all sorts of weather but maybe it is just that you are dual rather than solo.

Keep up the flying and most importantly enjoy it.
ericgreveson liked this
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908524
ericgreveson wrote:
> I even remembered to say
> "hectopascals" after a QFE of 999 was given

Nice. You're one up on me there. I've never uttered the word "hectopascals" over the radio. There's me, reinventing CAP413 again. :wink:

Joking apart, sounds like it's continuing to go well - keep the posts coming. I do read this stuff...

> but with a smooth enough landing on the stall warner.

See? :thumleft:

I'm amazed that you guys remember so much about your lessons. I used to get into the car to go home, with a blinding headache nearly every lesson, and by the time I arrived I was virtually comatose.
#1908525
[usermention=25776]@FlyingBoot[/usermention] shame that your lesson was cancelled! Seems a bit surprising (I have definitely been up in worse weather) but I guess it might depend on runway directions as well - I was on 05 and 09 today so the wind wasn't too far off the runway in either case, no more than 30 degrees so a bit of crosswind but nothing too exciting. Good luck with getting the weather for the QXC soon - sounds like it should be a lot of fun! Definitely enjoying the "flying somewhere else" bit now that I've got that far...

[usermention=862]@TopCat[/usermention] I think I have successfully memorised the least important parts of CAP413 - I can remember to say "hectopascals" after a <1000 QFE or QNH, but ask me where I'm going or how to get a MATZ penetration and my mind will go blank... On the plus side, I do enjoy reading all the threads where people argue about appropriate RTF (and indeed argue about the term "RTF" itself :-) ) since it's useful for learning what is actually useful and why things are the way they are. I'm also glad to have flown from ATC, AFIS, A/G and unattended aerodromes already, as it is a bit easier to make sense of things like when to use "ready for departure" and appropriate responses to "...at your discretion" calls etc. But I need to start brushing up on this stuff properly and prepare for the FRTOL exam at some point...

Regarding the stall warner: you will note that I claimed credit for the stall warner on the first landing, yet mentioned nothing about it on the second, only gloating about the smoothness and flare instead... ahem.

I think I can only remember so much if I write it up within a few hours of the lesson - otherwise it goes into a general fuzz of happy aviation memories...
T6Harvard liked this
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1908528
ericgreveson wrote:

>
> Regarding the stall warner: you will note that I claimed credit for the
> stall warner on the first landing, yet mentioned nothing about it on the
> second, only gloating about the smoothness and flare instead... ahem.
>
Between you, me and the gatepost, I have been known to cut people a little slack occasionally. But don't tell anyone, I have a reputation to maintain.
ericgreveson, T6Harvard liked this
#1908925
It's been a great weekend for flying for me - no fewer than THREE lessons (two on Saturday including a bonus one due to afternoon cancellation, and one today).

1) Saturday morning - low level / bad weather navigation lesson together with more diversions. It wasn't actually too bad weather in reality, cloudbase was reasonably high although it was quite hazy below, and also quite windy and turbulent. Did a quick plan for Cambridge - Chedburgh disused airfield (basically head west for 15 minutes) after "cheating" by using the diversion plotter and windstar to interpolate some drift and groundspeeds rather than doing it the longer way with the whizz wheel. The idea was to head there close to minimum safety altitude, to make it a bit harder to recognise ground features and reduce visibility of distant landmarks. After engine checks, I managed to mangle the radio call by not engaging brain before pressing the button, trying to be too clever and trying to get it done before we got to the hold. We took off on 05 (the best runway at Cambridge, away from the city and towards plenty of nice fields). I made sure not to pitch up too much this time! We headed in the planned direction at a reasonably low level (900', then 1300') keeping eyes peeled for the usual landmarks enroute. This was easy enough until getting close to Chedburgh - deliberately being selected by my instructor as being hard to recognise as an old airfield (now mostly just normal crop fields) and with no other nearby landmarks on the map other than Bury St Edmunds a few miles away. We were abeam Bury St Eds pretty much bang on the planned time, but I couldn't see anything that looked like an old airfield! After flying past the area for 30 seconds, I decided we must have gone past so turned around 180 degrees and had a look out again. My instructor hinted that there was a mast (not on the map) near the adjacent spot height. I soon spotted this and the shape of what would have been the old perimeter road, along with a flat bit big enough to have been a runway or two in the past. Mission accomplished - I was given a diversion to Wyton, so out came the diversion plotter and I attempted to draw a straight line while trying to stop the aeroplane being buffeted to 30 degree bank angles by the wind. Once drawn, it was easy to measure the angle and distance, adjust with the appropriate values on the diversion plotter, and write the heading and time on the map. Heading to Wyton was nice and easy, with plenty of landmarks on the way despite the low altitude and haze. When we got there I was asked to "take us back to Cambridge using all tools at your disposal" which I took as a heavy hint to use the "Direct To" feature on the GPS, pressed the appropriate buttons and turned towards our destination (although Wyton is a well known local landmark so it's not like we really needed the GPS to find the way home from there). Headed back for a crosswind join, I managed to forget to say "Runway 05" during my crosswind call and also apparently made it a few seconds before we crossed the runway numbers, so a couple more radio improvements to make next time! Straightforward circuit and landing, only a little bit of crosswind to deal with, a good flare height for once and a smooth landing on the stall warner. Smug mode. (well until next time anyway...)

Next lesson write-up coming soon...
Micromouse, T6Harvard, Milty liked this
#1908930
2) Saturday afternoon - a message from my instructor that his next student had cancelled so I could go back for more! This time it was going to be radio navigation aids - in the G5-equipped C152 this basically consisted of VOR or ILS (no DME and no ADF available), so VOR it was. We had a quick briefing about tune / identify / test and how to do a position fix from two VORs, and what it looks like on the G5 display (all very straightforward, there's a To arrow and a From arrow and the course bar comes in as you approach the radial). Fortunately my kneeboard already has a Morse code table on the inside, which makes the Identify bit easier. Having made a couple of half-baked radio calls in the morning lesson, I resolved to do these better as well, and actually engaged brain before pressing button when taxiing and entering the runway this time round. Takeoff was straightforward (slightly stronger wind, but mostly down the runway, and again taking care not to over-rotate) and we climbed out and made a left turn to head northwest. I was asked to select the Barkway VOR and intercept a particular radial (From), so a bit of knob-twiddling commenced which then led to some beeping noises in the headset. I managed to decode B-K-Y after a couple of rounds of the sequence (took a bit of time for my brain to get up to speed with the dashes and dots) and it was suggested that a 30 degree intercept course was reasonable, so I pointed on a suitable heading and waited for the course bar to eventually come in. Intercepting the radial was fairly straightforward (turning right so the bar was in the middle) and then flying the track to keep it there (easy to cheat when laying off drift with the G5 as a little purple diamond shows you what your track is).

I was then asked to keep flying the radial while tuning the Daventry VOR to get a position fix. To start with, I drew our current track (the BKY radial) on the chart, using a handy "VOR plotter" ruler that my instructor kindly provided (I think it was a Pooleys RNP-2 or something similar), and set a heading bug to stick to the correct radial. Then I tuned the Daventry VOR frequency and again listened for the Morse code - took a bit of time but then I recognised the start of the sequence and D-T-Y, so all was well. It was a bit of extra work to keep flying the correct track and altitude while doing all the tuning and identifying, especially in the turbulent air, but I managed to keep within a few degrees! Once identified, it was a case of twiddling the course until the bar was centred, and that gave the radial from DTY, 070 in this case. Plotted another suitable line on the chart (using the embedded compass rose on the chart this time) and looked out of the window to check that the features were where they should be - indeed Grafham Water was a mile or so to the left, and there was a wind farm just behind us and to the right, so all was well. That was pretty much it for the radio navigation aids - we also went through the ILS procedure, and requesting a QDM over the radio, but my instructor decided we could actually fly the ILS some other time, so we headed straight back to Cambridge for a crosswind join. Conscious of my earlier radio mistakes, I remembered to mention the runway in the crosswind call, and to make it after we had crossed the runway. Just used 2 stages of flap because of the windy conditions, the approach was fine but this time I flared a little bit too high (despite glancing out of the side window to try to estimate our height better), noticed halfway through and slowed down the flare, then a bit more backpressure as we started to sink again, we floated a little bit more, and then needed a fair bit more backpressure to get a nice smooth landing on the stall warner. So a bit of a "up and down" flare and not quite as good as it could have been, but the end result was OK.

Another good lesson, nice to finally use some of the radio navigation tools in the aeroplane - and great to have one more lesson to look forward to still...
Rob P, T6Harvard, Milty liked this
#1908935
ericgreveson wrote: which I took as a heavy hint to use
> the "Direct To" feature on the GPS, pressed the appropriate
> buttons and turned towards our destination

Just a word of warning here. The 'Direct to' function on GPS has been a major factor in many controlled airspace infringements. Use with utmost caution.

Rob P
ericgreveson liked this
#1908937
3) Finally, to today's lesson! This time we were at Duxford, always a great place to fly from, and as usual we were treated to a Spitfire (two-seat T Mk IX) taxiing right in front of us. Today's lesson would be Ex19 - introduction to instrument flight. I was looking forward to this, as I've been told it would be quite challenging and certainly would be another new experience for me. Since there were some nice fluffy cumulus clouds around above 4000', my instructor also wanted to get me used to the feeling of flying through some of them - more turbulence etc, although there was plenty of that in the air below the clouds today! We did the usual taxi, engine checks, then made the "ready for departure" call. Duxford Information asked whether we wanted the hard runway, my instructor replied to say we were happy with either, so they cleared us to enter the grass runway (06 L). Instructor suggested a switch to soft field takeoff (10 degrees flap) and off we went, I used a bit more elevator to keep the nosewheel up and get airborne sooner, then flying just above the runway until the usual rotation speed. We headed out to the east and I was asked to put on the "hood" (plastic visor thing to make sure I couldn't see out of the windows) as we climbed to 3000'. To start with, it was straight and level flight on our current heading - since the aeroplane was already at the right power level and fairly in trim, this was fairly straightforward, keeping a scan of the attitude indicator, direction indicator, altitude, airspeed etc. going. I found that my many many past hours of playing computer games had finally become useful :-) and while there was quite a lot of turbulence and thermals, keeping all of the numbers in the right place was OK. It soon became clear when we were entering an updraft or downdraft because I could point the nose down (or up), to keep the altitude correct, and the airspeed would change significantly indicating we were actually in a descent or climb relative to the air mass! This was a bit more challenging since the pressure instruments (especially altitude / VSI) lag by a few seconds, but I got the hang of "catching" it soon enough. It did take me a couple of minutes to spot that I hadn't checked the balance ball, though, and then realised that I actually should have been applying a fairly hefty amount of rudder in the crosswind! Having the G5 for the PFD made the scan a lot easier as well, since the heading / heading bug / altitude / altitude bug / airspeed are all shown superimposed on the artificial horizon, but I tried to make sure to use the other instruments (separate direction indicator, airspeed indicator and altimeter / VSI) as well, to get used to a scan for traditional instruments.

We then did various other manoeuvres with the hood on - climbs, descents, rate-1 turns through 360 and 180 degrees, turns to specific headings, descending turns etc. These all went fairly well, apart from on the descents: I remembered to put carb heat on at the top of the descent before reducing power, but then forgot to put it back to cold when levelling off! The first time, I also forgot to increase throttle before levelling off (instead of Power, Attitude, Trim I did Attitude, Power, Trim) - amazing how even the basics go out of the window when concentrating on a new technique! I got this right the second time we descended, but again forgot to put the carb heat back to cold. Will get there in the end...

I was given some more headings to fly, and then asked to tune the Cambridge ILS while still under the hood and flying on instruments! This was a nice bit of practise for yesterday's lesson - quite a lot to concentrate on when flying on instruments in turbulent air and trying to do a Morse code ident when I didn't know what the code should be in advance, so I was having to properly decode the dashes and dots! I decided it was probably "ICMG" or something along those lines, after listening to the sequence 3 times in a row, which sounded like a plausible code for the Cambridge ILS. It was then a case of setting the course to 230 (for runway 23) and intercepting the course from 2000', and then waiting for the glideslope to come in, while keeping the scan of the other instruments going. This all went fine, I ended up being a little high on the glideslope and took a fair amount of power off but was surprised that I needed to keep reducing it further to get right on the glideslope. I have only just realised now that it is probably because we had a 25kt tailwind! As we came through about 1200' my instructor told me I could raise the hood - and as if by magic, Cambridge runway 23 was dead ahead of us! Very satisfying. We broke off to the left and I went back under the hood. I then received various vectors from my instructor as we headed back to Duxford, then I flew the Duxford circuit under the hood (being told headings and altitudes to fly while my instructor made the joining calls, downwind, final etc) and was instructed to use zero flap and then to bring the power back to maintain about 75kt and a descent rate of about 500'/min. Finally I was instructed to look up and raise the hood again, and sure enough we were on final for Duxford about 400' agl. Was told to do a flapless landing, which all went nice and smoothly (although ended up a fair bit to the right of the centreline, I blame the fairly stiff crosswind, ahem) and back to park up and go home.

Overall another fantastic weekend of flying! It definitely feels like rapid progress when doing lots of varied lessons together. I think I need to pull my finger out and start prepping for the FRTOL practical exam properly (maybe booking it in would be a good kick up the backside) as I think this is my weakest area and the bit where I feel I still have lots to learn...
T6Harvard liked this
#1908941
Rob P wrote:
> Just a word of warning here. The 'Direct to' function on GPS has been a major factor
> in many controlled airspace infringements. Use with utmost caution.

Thanks - yes, indeed we also went through the dangers of "magenta line following" and especially airspace busts during the lesson, and the need to use the chart properly to check such things - I should have mentioned that in the write-up, because, as you say, it is a very important warning! In this particular case it was an area which I know well (and also happen to know that there aren't any busy gliding sites etc enroute) - but I would indeed be very cautious of putting any course into the GPS (Direct-To or otherwise) without checking charts, NOTAMs etc in advance.

I find one of the most useful things with the GPS is the distance indication, making it very easy to know when I am 5 miles from Cambridge (or wherever) - I know I'll have to be able to do the equivalent for the exam with the wet-knotted-string, sextant and astrolabe method, which is fine, but it does make things easier!
Rob P, T6Harvard liked this
#1908944
Wow, that certainly sounded like an eventful weekend. Lots of different things to learn and practice. I must say that I am getting envious. My lessons only ever get cancelled. I am not sure I have been asked if I am available for a cancelled slot, at least not at short notice.

Keep up the write-ups
ericgreveson, T6Harvard liked this
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