Lesson #6: Turns of the Normal, Climbing and Descending Kinds
The second lesson it two days started with a bad omen: the clubhouse had no crumpets. I was knackered after my 11 mile cycle in, not being used to riding that distance (and hills!) two days in a row. I settled for a mug of tea and the plan of reading some of the briefing notes and trying to memorise the radio calls, but in reality since the runway for the day was 04 (left) I had a good view of the multiple landings, touch-and-gos and go-arounds that were happening in good conditions.
The lesson started a bit late but I had time to go through the entire checklist, which is only the second time I’ve done so. A lot of taxiing to the end of the runway, and I ventured into a slightly higher speed than usual, not that my directional control was quite up to it. Then we were lined up and I was set for another take-off which went smoothly, and then a climb and a turn into the wind.
We’d have the briefing on turns and a demo followed, with the more drawn-out process for a proper turn being drilled into me:
- Lookout
- Bank
- Lookout
- Check back pressure to maintain altitude
- Lookout
- Check balance and correct with rudder
- Lookout
- Check bank
- Repeat until:
- Lookout ahead
- Roll out of the turn, and keep an eye on altitude
There seems to be a lot going on in a turn… These were all things that I’d been doing in past turns, but not necessarily in that order. Since the order must have been made for a reason, that’s what I’ll have to learn.
Climbing and descending turns seemed simple enough, although climbing or descending to an altitude and onto a heading was border-line information overload. I tended to be within 10 degrees of the heading, and generally got the altitude okay, but can definitely do a lot better.
There were also a couple of practice go-arounds, particularly after a practice “set us up for final and aim to land in that field” exercise when we were getting down to about 700 feet. The handling of the nose was definitely ropey, but at least the general aim of “stop going down and start going up” happened quickly. More practice needed there though.
Finally the re-join of the circuit and starting to pick up landmarks. Having flow the circuit for 04 left twice in two days I now know that one better than the “standard” runway 22 circuit. The “keep the right wing just inside the M11” direction, and then “turn when you’re over the golf course” direction helps, and maybe I’m not overloaded by the flying quite so much now. Setting up for base is definitely not a quick task for me, but it works and the altitude holds okay, and then I was in charge of both power and attitude for the descent for the first time.
It actually went better than not having power control the day before, since I knew if I was dropping power that I would have to drop the nose to maintain airspeed rather than reacting to the instructor’s power adjustments. We were high to start with so some full flaps and lower power sent us downward, although I was still slightly high right at the end. It’s going to take a couple more attempts before the sight of the runway numbers filling the cockpit window doesn’t seem quite so unnerving. There was a reasonable crosswind, though, so the speed and direction were as well as I think I could hope at this stage. I followed along for the landing which was the first time feeling just how much elevator to use on the flare.
It was an excellent lesson, though, and although we were only up for an hour it felt like I’d been flying for half a day with the amount that was going on. The glass-half-empty side of me knows that sometime I’ll have a bad lesson, but I’m glad I’m postponing it so far!
Now, about that air law again…