Lesson #5: Effects of Power and the Base Config

The first lesson this week was postponed due to fog that just wouldn’t clear, but I went to the airfield somewhat optimistically anyway. It turned out that even when it did clear it just turned the whole sky white so nothing flew that day, or the next. In the meantime we had about an hour of briefing on the next couple of lessons including turning and the base config. Not that I hadn’t been turning up until now anyway, but the formal structure has the proper checks in the middle of the point-the-plane part that I’d already been doing.

Today’s lesson on power settings and some base config was chock-full, to say the least. For one, the wind had switched so for the first time I was going to be taking off on runway 04 (left) rather than 220 (left) – it’s the same runway, just in the opposite direction and using the grass rather than the tarmac. There was also my first (and only) radio call. Taxiing is definitely improving, as is take-off – my second take-off now – and then a climb up.

Base config is a lot to remember, but the main thing I kept forgetting is where to put the power. So for the sake of trying to get it into my head:

• Carb heat on and power to 1700RPM
• Hold altitude at 1200ft
• Check for speed falling into the white arc, then first stage of flap. Maintain altitude and stop the nose picking up.
• Check white arc again and second stage of flap
• Pitch for 65kts and start the descent

After some playing around with power settings and keeping speed constant we had a couple of test go-arounds, with most of the process going okay except for a bit of ham-fistedness meaning I took a bit too much flap off initially. Also, on the level-off I could feel the pull on my arm and instinctively started to trim before I’d brought the power back down – which was obviously pointless as I needed to trim again about 5 seconds later.

I flew a fair chunk of the circuit and then had to line up on the runway, and handled the descent down to the last patch – overshooting the runway numbers by a loooong way. It didn’t look long to start with but we were halfway down by the time we landed (under instructor control, of course). Psychologically it felt a bit odd just head straight into the leading edge of the runway as it felt as if we were low and descending fast, which we obviously weren’t.

After a bit of a taxi back and a reasonable attempt at parking it was time to go through it all in my head and be ready for hopefully another lesson tomorrow morning.