Whoops, I’ve stalled! (again, and again, and again…)

Weather couldn’t have been much better today. There was a slight scare because the aircraft I was due to fly was stranded in Coventry, but luckily Lynne went to fetch it, so it was back in time for Felix’s lesson immediately before mine.

Had a quick brief from Chris about stalls two. Essentially stalling with flap, then in a simulated base turn, and then finals.

After the transit check, Chris joined me and we did the pre-startup checks. Managed to get the engine started all by myself, and then made the initial radio calls with some guidance from Chris (I’d loaned Felix my ‘cheat sheet’ and he hadn’t given it back!). We had to hold for a while because of other traffic and concerns over wake turbulence.

Then it was time for my first take off. No major dramas, but hardly perfect I’m sure. Keeping the speed during the climb was a little tricky, and then as we headed out towards Burford I allowed our height to creep up above the limit of 1000 feet while in the zone (to keep us well below circuit height for the heavies). Need to keep an eye on that, and make sure my first priority is getting that level off correct after takeoff.

We headed out past Burford, and had a little trouble getting the correct regional QNH setting from the Zone controller. He appeared to be having some radio difficulties, but these were resolved and we were cleared out into the training area and given our FIS.

Then carried out the first HASELL check, and Chris had me revise a standard stall with power applied. This went Ok, so we moved on to stalls with flap, stall in the simulated turn to base and finally a stall in final approach configuration. These all went well, the only problem I had (a number of times!) was remembering to turn off the carb heat at the correct point. Still, hopefully after a few more practices this’ll come.

We carried out one final stall in final approach configuration, before making the call to Zone to get our arrival clearance via Burford. Then it was a cruise descent down to the required 1000 feet QFE (with a pause at about 1300 feet until we passed over the hill North of Burford) before re-entering the circuit.

Again, I flew most of the approach, including the turn to base and final. Had some problems maintaining the correct speed on the base leg, allowing it to drop down to 65 knots rather than the required 75 knots. Got this under control when Chris pointed it out, and the final approach to the runway went Ok.

Chris again took over at about 200 feet for the landing, then handed control back for the rollout and turn off the runway. Back to the hangar where we refuelled and pushed the aircraft back into the hangar. At this point I realised I had been so keen to get off the ground before the flight that I’d forgotten to take off my hi-vis vest!

Another good lesson, and Chris seemed pleased with my performance. He thinks I have plenty of ‘capacity’, not getting overwhelmed by what we’re doing yet still having enough in reserve to be able to ‘chat’ when we’re not doing anything too difficult. Just need to keep up the progress I guess.

I’ve also had a read through the Air Law text book, as I need to start thinking about getting some of the exams out of the way. Before solo I need to pass Air Law, Comms and Human Factors, as well as sorting out the medical. If things progress at the same rate as they have been I could be in the circuit in a couple of hours, and potentially be ready for solo in 5 or 6, so I need to get cracking!

Flight tomorrow has been cancelled, but got a flight with Asma on Thursday, then a couple Saturday and one Sunday. Hopefully the weather will be nice to me!

Total flight time today: Dual 0:55 – Solo – 0:00
Take-offs: 1 – Landings: 0

Total flight time to date: Dual 6:45 – Solo 0:00
Take-offs to date: 1 – Landings to date: 1