Shaken, not stirred

Lesson: 5-6
Flight Hours: 2.0 Dual

Whoah! I managed to get hold of a cancelled slot, and proudly arrived 20 minutes early with my shiny new fuel tank and 15 litres of unleaded fuel. Now something was different this morning - wind! Lots and lots of it, in the region of 10 knots. "This should be exciting" I thought to myself, and headed in to greet the guys and start to set up. I was flying with Hans today, so settled into my flight suit, signed the trike out, and pushed the plane out of the hangar, careful as not to ding or break anything. I enjoyed pre-flighting the plane on my own, and had a few tolerance question for Hans when he joined me.

I settled into the front seat today, and felt somewhat exposed. No-one to hide behind or grab onto - this was me in the firing line with the bar in my hand. Headset on, turn key one click - we have comms. Helmet on, and it was my turn to start the motor. Really nothing to it with an electric starter, and soon we were taxiing to run-up area. I started my checks, clips....caps...wait a minute. Where are those darn clips again? With my best Houdini moves I could spot them all as Hans pointed them out to me. Three lower clips, five at the top. Performed my run-up, and it was time to taxi around. Taxied around for a while, trying to handle the wing in the wind, and finally lined up on the active runway for a high-speed roll. I opened up the taps, picked up speed, and to my utter dismay, I had a little runway excursion, and asked Hans to please bring back order in my sudden universe of chaos. Yes. After years of flying with friends in "blik" aeries and more than a thousand PC simulator hours, my brain could not let go of the idea of rudder pedals. The trike started drifting to the right, I put foot on the non-existing right rudder, and off she goes!

Sanity check, some talking to myself and heavy breathing after a heckuva fright, we tried it again, and this time it went much better. Standing still, before opening the throttle, I have a quick pep talk with the grey matter: "Ok guys, no rudder on this baby, wing level, foot off the brake, give juice, lots of it and stay on the centreline!". Then came the time for straight and level flying. I lined up on the active, opened up the throttle and we were screaming down the centreline and Hans took us up quickly with the generous headwind, and it was soon time for me to try and follow the adjacent road at constant altitude.

I have heard that many folks don't like flying in the wind, and I can understand why. I had a very tough time trying to align the stars to maintain straight and level flight. My first mistake was on the throttle. As soon as I would hit a bump and start going up, I would decrease the throttle, and increase going down. Soon I find myself in a pilot-induced oscillation, and had to work hard to keep constant RPM, trying to absorb the knocks with slight forward and backward movements on the bar. Another mistake was that when moving the wing left and right, I would pull it in a bit, off my speed would go and back into the carnival ride with the throttle setting and the wind giving me carrots.

On the third leg of the flight I started getting it right, and managed to stay on the road, crabbing in the right direction with the nose pointing elsewhere, and roughly keeping altitude and throttle setting at bay. Turning back to the airfield the wind was blowing head on but constant, although every once in a while a bump would break my concentration, and I ended up 250ft higher than I needed to be. Today for the first time I understand how overwhelming sensory overload can be, but I am sure it will only get better. Meanwhile, throughout the flight, I was still kicking rudder with the wheels, so at least if I do my fixed-wing licence some day, I will be sharp like a razor!

Hans put us down gently, and I taxied back to the hangar. Went through the shut down, and as I dismounted the trike, I felt extremely stiff. Unfit, straining and working the bar showed me that this is not a living room sport, and I am sure that will also get better with time. Replaced the fuel, did the paper work. Hans wrote up that he was happy overall, and commented that I need to work on my throttle control, and not to pull the bar in. Neutral is the bomb. And off to work I went.

I worked hard today, and feel somewhat drained, but I do feel a sense of accomplishment in the sense that I did manage to fly in strong winds without getting airsick, and the more I do it, hopefully the better it gets. I am looking forward to my next session on Monday morning!