Lessons 13, 14, 15 and 16

Too much excitement to write about the flying… Lesson 13 was a second dose of stalling, this time in flap and base to final configurations i.e. stalling in situations that are more likely to happen on an approach. The stalls were all cut off as soon as the warner sounded and, to be honest, the process is fairly straightforward. The only thing to watch is making sure I dip the nose before putting the power on rather than doing both simultaneously.

After stalling up at 3,000ft or so we had some spin recovery sessions while we had the height to lose. Again, it seemed fairly straightforward: power to idle, wings level, then pull up. It might be different close to the ground but at a couple of thousand feet there’s plenty of time to sort it all out.

Lesson 14 (if I remember) was some great fun in practice forced landings out over some deserted marshland on the south side of the Thames. Being able to put some dramatic(ish) weaves in to lose height and get approaches sorted out was a lot of fun, although I still found myself going quite long into the field at the point that I’d ideally be aiming for. I feel like the landings would happen, just I’d rather get them at the near side and not have to still be losing height at the point that I’d really like to be touching the ground.

Still, there are plenty more of those to come, which is something to look forward to as they were one of the most enjoyable things yet.

Lessons 15 was back to circuits and getting ready for my first solo. Apparently the landings were good enough now, even with winds outside of those that I’d be allowed to fly solo in, so it’s just a case of waiting for the right weather – which could be any time between now and Spring. The funny thing is that although it’s definitely a big milestone to get out of the way, and I’m keen to do it, I don’t feel like I need to tick the “I flew solo after X hours” box. So we’re just going to carry on with the course and let the weather do what it likes.

Lesson 16 was steep turns, which was short and, again, relatively straightforward. It shows how much more natural being in the cockpit becomes after all these lessons as the steep turn I got to do on my trial lesson (albeit with the instructor at the throttle and balance ball) felt like we were spinning around with no idea which way I was facing. This time, rolling in and holding altitude came fairly naturally, and after a couple of practices even rolling out onto more-or-less the right heading was okay too.

After the turns we came back for another couple of circuits, with first an overhead join and then a flapless approach. The crosswind was gusting a bit, and again more than I’d be doing on a solo, and the approach was going well until I tried to get as much hold-off as I could and felt like I’d pulled back a bit too hard. Apparently it was actually fine, but I was worried that we’d keep going up into the air and losing speed at the same time. As it turns out I must have done all of this at between about 6 to 12 inches off of the runway and, what I thought was a balloon (over-pulling and ballooning up into the air) wasn’t much of one. Still, I wasn’t sure about it so went into a go-around which my instructor says should give me some confidence as I was doing about 50 knots and under 2 feet above the runway at the time. I still think I did the right thing once uncertainty entered my mind, but I also wish I’d known that we were only 2 feet over the runway and not the 6 feet or so I felt we were as we’d have landed just fine.

Still, the next (or one of the later) approaches to land worked well, even with a good dozen or so knots of crosswind. Given how much pain crosswinds had caused me in the past this was the highlight of the lesson and helps my confidence no end. Being able to feel what was happening with the gusts and direction, and the correcting rudder on touchdown, really felt like flying. I can’t say that I won’t have many more over-control moments, but if all of my crosswind landings were like that then I’d be happy.

Now I just need the weather to clear before I forget how to fly, let alone land.