Lesson: 12, 13 & 19
Flight Hours: 6.0 Dual
Finally on leave! The weather looking great this morning with a steady 8-10 knots on the deck. Heading into the flying school I met an Air Force pilot working on the Hawk programme - yup, even jet jocks fly trikes! Signed out the plane, did my pre-flight routine, and we headed out. We flew over to the neighbouring Bapsfontein airfield for circuits work and low-level flying.
It was fun flying approaches on a different field, and although my eyes were still widely stretched low over the ground, I managed ok and performed a few good low level runs. On my final low-level run over the Bapsfontein runway, Henk advised me go even lower on this run, and follow his instructions quickly when over the runway. I flew a good approach, and managed to fly a nice low run, when Henk advised me to take all the power off and hold the sink off with the bar. More bar, hold off, more, more, and we settled nicely on the ground. My first landing!! Full throttle and left out back to Microland.
By this time the wind was getting a bit nasty at stages, but the trike still remained very much comfortable. Lesson of the day: Relax! It is much easier to control the aircraft and to keep the bar neutral when relaxing the shoulders. Joining overhead, I descended to 5600ft into the downwind leg, and flew the circuit and overhead on this altitude. Hmm, more or less of course. My pattern work is good, I just have to work a bit on staying at the right altitude. On the next circuit, Henk demonstrated the approach and landing, and upon climbing out after the touch and go, I was my turn. Flew a relatively good pattern, and settled on the approach. Microland's runway is a but more narrow and shorter than the one at Bapsfontein, but using what I learned at that field I lined up for finals and settled into the approach. At 40 degrees numbers below the nose, power off, and bar in to keep the speed at 50MPh+.
Small quick adjustments to stay lined up on the runway, and at about 6ft I rounded off to break the descent. Bar slightly forward to hold off, hold off, and presto! Touchdown. On the power, bar forward on rotate, catch the pitch up with a bit of back pressure on the bar, until a neutral bar climbout. Now this felt good! Another two circuits and final full stop landing. Taxiing back to the hangars it felt really wonderful. Now the pieces of the puzzle came together at last, and the part that I envisaged to be the most difficult is really not.
I need to go for my flight medical soon and sort out my Student licence with CAA so I can be ready for my solo, hopefully sometime soon. Did I mention that I am on holiday at the moment?
Everybody have a good one!
Wednesday, 06 December 2006
The funky chicken.
4 December 2006
Flight Hours: 5.0 Dual
It was Monday morning, and I had a few days to relax in anticipation of my impending leave from work, and my next flying session. This morning the weather looked great, although some heavy storms passed through last night, knocking out the electricity. Arriving at he airfield at 7:15, at was already getting hot and very light wind. Today we headed out the the Bronkhorstspruit dam, and had to do a bit of map work along the way. Upon taking off, I could feel that it is taking us a while longer to rotate, and the climbout was nothing to get excited about either. Lesson of the day: Short runway, little to no head wind and high temperature: bad.
Climbing to cruising altitude we turned towards Bapsfontein, and settled on course for the dam. The air was surprisingly smooth, and we managed have have a very comfortable cruise, allowing me to easily identify landmarks and checking with the map. At the halfway mark we hit a thermal bump, and smooth air again. This allowed me to enjoy the scenery, and it was fun relaxing for a change and soaking up the beautiful surrounding landscape!
Arriving at the dam, the air decided it had enough and flicked on the "bumpy" switch. The flight back was a bit uncomfortable, and I had to fight the wing all the way back to Microland. I had the opportunity to do the radio work on the returning leg, change the frequency while holding on the bar with my left hand, and all in all just doing the funky chicken. Flying overhead a brown ploughed land, the thermal effect was very pronounced, and bumped a lot more than it would flying just through rough air. Joined overhead Microland, and Henk suggested I spend another 5 minutes in the general flying area. I descended to 6000ft looking smoother air which never came, and we opted to return to base.
Henk took me through the circuit procedure, and demonstrated a low approach and full stop landing. On this landing I kept my hands on the bar, and got a good feeling on how the round-out and holding-off is supposed to work.
A very enjoyable flight for the most part, and I am looking forward to circuit work and low-level flying. If all goes well, I will finish up the year's work end Tuesday!
Flight Hours: 5.0 Dual
It was Monday morning, and I had a few days to relax in anticipation of my impending leave from work, and my next flying session. This morning the weather looked great, although some heavy storms passed through last night, knocking out the electricity. Arriving at he airfield at 7:15, at was already getting hot and very light wind. Today we headed out the the Bronkhorstspruit dam, and had to do a bit of map work along the way. Upon taking off, I could feel that it is taking us a while longer to rotate, and the climbout was nothing to get excited about either. Lesson of the day: Short runway, little to no head wind and high temperature: bad.
Climbing to cruising altitude we turned towards Bapsfontein, and settled on course for the dam. The air was surprisingly smooth, and we managed have have a very comfortable cruise, allowing me to easily identify landmarks and checking with the map. At the halfway mark we hit a thermal bump, and smooth air again. This allowed me to enjoy the scenery, and it was fun relaxing for a change and soaking up the beautiful surrounding landscape!
Arriving at the dam, the air decided it had enough and flicked on the "bumpy" switch. The flight back was a bit uncomfortable, and I had to fight the wing all the way back to Microland. I had the opportunity to do the radio work on the returning leg, change the frequency while holding on the bar with my left hand, and all in all just doing the funky chicken. Flying overhead a brown ploughed land, the thermal effect was very pronounced, and bumped a lot more than it would flying just through rough air. Joined overhead Microland, and Henk suggested I spend another 5 minutes in the general flying area. I descended to 6000ft looking smoother air which never came, and we opted to return to base.
Henk took me through the circuit procedure, and demonstrated a low approach and full stop landing. On this landing I kept my hands on the bar, and got a good feeling on how the round-out and holding-off is supposed to work.
A very enjoyable flight for the most part, and I am looking forward to circuit work and low-level flying. If all goes well, I will finish up the year's work end Tuesday!
Henk's trike, my training ride
Maybe this is a good time to post some pictures, as not all the readers are familiar with trikes, so here are a few. This is Henk's Solo-Wings Aquilla 582. He is selling it, and is picking up his new Aquilla soon. I like the red colours on his trike, and it is a delightful aircraft to fly.
Aquilla from the front:
A close up from the front:
Another close up from the rear:
Henk riding out:
Aquilla from the front:
A close up from the front:
Another close up from the rear:
Henk riding out:
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