Well, I had another flying lesson today. The winds were about 22kts,
which is quite strong for the little Gazelle I'm learning in. We went
out into the training area today, rather than just doing circuits. I
was pleased, as I was getting bored with lying circuits all the time,
and I wanted to actually fly somewhere! I asked a few question before
the flight, in relation to my approaches, and how they were too low all
the time last week.
As this was the first time we were actually flying to a specific area,
rather than just to the east of the airfield, or just doing circuits,
we took a vfr map with us. This is the first time I've actually had to
use one. The plan was to take off, turn left, climb to 3000ft (the
highest I've ever flown), and fly along the coast until we got to a
huge lake, than turn left again, and head for a little town called St
Leonards. There is a privately owned strip in St Leonards, which I
never even knew was there, and I live in the next town! Anyway, we were
to use this airfield for a simulated forced landing. Along the way
however, we did steep turns. Well. My instructor obviously did the
first one, and the g-force and rate of turn made me feel a little
weird. Not really sick, but perhaps a little green. Next it was my
turn. I found that when I was controlling the a/c, I didn't feel wuite
so bad in the manouver. I did 2 steep turns, the first was not bad for
a first try, with the roll out being somewhat off course, but the
second attempt was much improved, with the roll out pretty much dead on
where we wanted to go. Also, as this was the first lesson in which
'navigation' was involved, he made me make turns to specific headings,
all of which I made with no dramas. Once we were finally headed for St
Leonards, the instructor took the map from me and told me to find the
St Leonards airfield. I knew it was about 1 mile to the west of the
township, but obviously had never seen it from either land or air, so
didn't know how large or small it was. I finally spotted it. A single
runway, roughly north/south with a couple of small hangars at the south
end, on the west side. As we drew closer, on a heading of about 040
degrees, my instructor told me to decide when I thought we could cut
the engine power to idle and glide to land on the 17 runway. We were at
3000ft. I chose my time, and pulled the power back. We had a fairly
strong tail wind as we lined up on the downwind leg. This extra speed
caught me out a little, as I turned to base too early, thinking that
once on final we'd lose altitude faster than we actually did. Needless
to say, we were way too high. My instructor asked me how we could get
down without going around, and I suggested a slip. He said yes, or we
could fly an 's' approach. We did an 's' approach and when we lined up
this time we were at a much better altitude and the landing was
imminent. We went around as there was no need to land at this private
strip. The excercise was just for me to get down from 3000 to land in
one shot. As we climbed again to 3000ft, he asked me where our home
airfield was, and I was able to point out the correct direction, and
flew accordingly. On the way back, he asked me to point out a field tat
would be suitable and accessible should the engine cut out at that
moment. I pointed out a couple of options, all of which he agreed were
suitable and accessible. He said there were another couple of good
fields slightly further away that might be good too. I commented that I
thought I'd be stretching it to reach them from where we were, and he
said that was the right answer. He said we'd never make them, and that
my distance judgment at altitude appeared to be very good. (Perhaps
just not when turning base if last week was anything to go by!). There
was one regulation we had to abide by on the return trip however. The
Avalon controlled airspace comes all the way down to the northern end
of our home base runway 17. The controlled airspace is in effect from
1500ft up to 5000ft. This airspace also extends part way over to where
we had just flown, so we had to make our return and arrive at the home
airfield no higher than 1500ft, but as we also had to arrive at 500ft
above circuit height which is 1000ft, I really had to watch my altitude
and nail that 1500. Upon arrival at the circuit, we joined crosswind,
and flew the circuit for a touch and go. This time, my approach was
much much better than the previous week as far as not being too high or
too low, although the landing itself was a little off toward one side
of the runway. The subsequent take off was very smooth and we flew
another circuit, this time for a full stop. This final approach was
pretty much spot on, passing over the trees at precisely the instructed
200ft, for a nice landing at the specified speed.
My instructor said my flying was good, but to take a few tap dancing
lessons, as I'm apparently very heavy on the rudder. I need to lighten
up on it. I need to take my BAK exam in the next few weeks apparently,
so I'm studying my ass of for that, but I think I'll be ok with it by
the time it comes around. I also got signed off as competant and
capable to refuel the a/c now too, so another little baby step closer
to the target. Going again next Thursday when if the weather is good
enough, I'll be knocking of the remaining 1.1 hours solo circuits I
need to do to satisfy the curriculum. Total time now is 12.2 hours, and
loving it.

--
Oz Lander.
I'm not always right,
But I'm never wrong.