Back into it soon...

Well it has been some time since I've been in the air, and thanks to the motivation of a fellow blogger I've decided I need to get back into it before I waste any more money having to revise things I have forgotten.

My plan of attack is to schedule a revison lesson(s) soon, to get me back into it, and then get stuck into those circuits again.

As per usual I'll update my progress as I go along.

Bye for now.

Finally an update!!

Well after feeling slightly guilty over the last month for not posting anything, thought I'd better give an update.

Been doing plenty of flying lately, awesome weather. Still stuck in the cicuit, and doing the emergency procedures which consists of EFATO's, glide approaches, flapless landings and abandoned take offs.

Only done a couple of the latter, seem relatively straight forward so I guess we dont do too much on them. Obviously we would be doing more if the instructors were concerned so thats good to know.

EFATO's are interesting, took a while for me to start getting use to them but I seem to be getting better at them now (excluding my last lesson..)Glide approaches are probably the most interesting, its awesome when you touch down on the runway knowing that you've just completed a safe landing without engine power. Flapless landings seem to be OK, but I have a bit of trouble with my approach height during this exercise, although this should improve over time.

My general flying is OK, but there is a couple of things which I still have trouble with which is mainly maintaining balance and height during the circuit. Time still seems to be getting away on a bit.

My latest lesson was a bit miserable to say the least, just wasn't my day. Hopefully next time will be better.

Oops, my bad...

Had a feeling that I should ring the club before going out to my lesson today, to find out I had written down the wrong time... BUGGER!! It was actually booked for later in the day, but will be at work by then.

With almost 2 weeks out of the saddle, I'll be losing my touch...

Flight to Tauranga

Last Saturday I was lucky enough to be offered a flight by another blogger (and club member), destination Tauranga. This would be be my first flight to another airport in a light plane, as a passenger, and in the Arrow.

We met in the clubhouse around 10am and a bit after that we took off. We climbed up off 36, and headed for Tauranga. En route Chris and Euan pointed out Matamata airfield, I was told they had a longer grass strip than Hamilton which was interesting. It was a smooth flight until we reached the Kaimai ranges where we had a small period of turbulence which bumped us round a bit, but that was all good.

Descending into Tauranga was awesome, you fly straight over the port, which was great compared to the Hamilton approach over farmland. Had a nice approach down onto the tarmac before taxiing over to the airport museum for shutdown. We then had a quick look through the museum before heading back to the aircraft.

Departing from Tauranga it was easy to pick out a few noticable landmarks, such as Baypark Stadium, and I think the Bayfair Shopping Centre?? Relatively straight forward flight home, located Matamata again, and then joined the circuit for 36 for a nice touchdown.

I snapped a number of pics but nothing flash so I cant really be bothered resizing them...

Thanks to Chris for taking me, was an awesome experience. Cant wait to be able to do it myself...

Bugger...

Drove out to the aero club yesterday to find out the Alpha I was spose to be flying in had a maintenance issue. The instructor told me it had a burning smell, and for obvious reasons grounded it for it to be checked out by an engineer. They said if I wait round for an hour or so they might have it up and running again, but unfortunately that didn't eventuate.

So that was a bugger but nothing can be done about it, it will however be interesting to see what the problem was during my next lesson on Thursday, or possibly when I'm out at the club tommorrow.

Lesson Nineteen: Circuits

Hmm. That was interesting to say the least. What a scorcher of a day. I definitely agree with the comment made by another club blogger on the Alphas canopy. Because it has a canopy rather than a roof it is pretty much like a glasshouse in there, and this theory was put to practice. A few bit of sweat was dripping off my face after that, noticed the clipboard had sweat marks on it from my hands, that shows how hot we were.

This lesson we were told to taxi to 'Golf' holding point, so after asking my instructor where the heck that was off we went. RWY 07 is grass and relatively short, a little over 700m. We were told to make the first circuit a right hand one, which is a bit of a pain because you then have the instructor blocking your view to the right, but thats just another thing you have to get around. I seem to have a bit of trouble keeping sight of these runways as they are a bit hard to see sometimes. We ran out of time because I didn't quite antipate the short amound of time we would have to do the checks and call downwind.

Nevertheless we were soon on shortfinals with a slight crosswind to make it interesting. We were coming in a bit crooked for our liking so I applied full power and went round.

The second time I had a better approach but I need to speed up those downwind checks. We came in too high and we drifted down the runway. We touch and goed and went up for the final circuit.

This, like usual, is always the best circuit because it normally takes a while to get 'your eye in'. Approach was a bit better, this time I think I braked more smoothly which was good, then taxied back to the club for shutdown. In a few lessons it sounds like I will move onto the emergency procegures, but we'll see how we go. No point on moving on until you've got the hang of the circuit, I guess.

Next lesson Thursday.

Lesson Eighteen: Circuits

Well I feel that was much better than last time. I had a different instructor today, and was showen a way of doing your checks which is just to work from top to bottom. This seems to make more sense but I think keeping the checks by the book will make it easier for me to remember (therefore I can study at home).

This lesson we did 2 go arounds, which was better than last time anyway. The reason for these was because I was too high on finals and I didn't lose enough height quickly. I am still finding it a bit hard to judge the approach because in my opnion the runway looks different from the approach picture in the training manual.

My third circuit was a bit confusing as we had to turn very quickly onto base leg after takeoff as there was an ATR about to depart on the parallel runway. I had a much better landing even though it was a little hard and a bit off the centerline.

Fourth circuit was better again, I mainained circuit height better and my approach was a heck of a lot better. We landed on the tarmac with a bit of a thud and taxied back to the club. Had to fuel up, too.

After shutdown we had a quick de-briefing in the aircraft, the instructor said I am good at following instuctions (yay) and just need to 'think ahead' a little more as it starts to get a bit busy. Also need to start losing height a bit quicker on finals as I tend to end up too high, but I guess it just takes pracice. Instructor also asked if I have done the emergency briefing (EFATO's, forced landings, etc) so I must be making progress if she were to say that.

Next lesson booked for Saturday, although weather isn't looking to good. Fingers crossed.