PPL(H) hours 2.5 - 4.5

Well I finally got to go flying again today. It's been a week since my first
day at it and I've been dying to get up again. The weather was much the
same as last week, slightly blustery around 10 kts with good visibility and
temperature around 23 degrees C.

We started off in the first hour by reaclimatising me to the cockpit and
controls. I'd got a bit sloppy in the week since but I was back in the
groove before long. It's not that I'd forgotten the previous lessons, just
that I'd lost my feel for the proportions of the control movements required.
(Kind of like that first ten minutes driving somebody else's car.) It's
amazing how different the same machine feels on different days. Last week
we'd been at 50% fuel and the air had been cooler. Today we were full, and
the air was warm enough that we needed full power for climb out, pulling
only about 27" of manifold pressure.

We then proceeded to practice Exercise 6, which is the basic straight and
level flight, following VFR landmarks, with some turning, climbing and
descending thrown in. I found I'm much better at hitting the numbers this
week, though I still struggle to maintain airspeed in a turn. I'm letting
the nose come up which is losing me airspeed and making me climb. Other
than that I've pretty much got the hang of maintaining the right attitude to
hit the right speeds while cruising, descending and climbing.

Next I did Exercise 8, basic auto-rotation. These were essentially
unpowered descents from 2000' to about 1000' and I had a hard time keeping
the airspeed at the prescribed point. Something wasn't going right, but it
was the first time I'd tried them and I guess that's to be expected! My
recoveries were awful, and it wouldn't be until later in the afternoon that
I figured out what I was doing wrong.

Stopped for lunch at that point and a natter about the industry, future
prospects, options, etc. Then it was straight back up. I've been doing the
checklist and startup since the second lesson and we were ready to go in no
time. I've added an extra line to my checklist, a hidden mental one that
goes "Ham-fisted switch OFF". I'm ok most of the time, but occasionally
have the inclination to really over-control, especially rolling out of turns
too fast, forcing way too much pedal to compensate for a power change. If I
think about what I'm doing it doesn't happen, but too often I'm enjoying
myself too much to concentrate on concentrating!

After clearing the field and making our way over some of the Midland's most
expensive real-estate we started doing speed changes at constant altitude.
Sounds easy, or so I thought, but I screwed it up by either gaining or
loosing height the first couple of times. Once I slowed down and verbally
talked myself through it I did ok. I think I convince myself that "yeah,
I've done this a thousand times on the sim or with my r/c, I know how it
works" and yeah, I know the theory, but again it's like the subtleties of
driving someone else's car. I have to calibrate myself for each new learned
maneouver.

Did some more basic auto-rotations. Fluffed the first one as my airspeed
decayed too much. (It probably looked like we were out of control and going
to crash from the ground!) Second time I had the airspeed nailed, but the
recovering was a disaster. The nose yawed violently as I brought the power
back in and I beat it into submission with my left foot to compensate, and
ended up in climb as badly controlled as my auto. On the third attempt I
nailed it. I realised I was rolling off too much throttle. Instead of
closing it enough to just split the needles and disengage the drive, I was
closing it too much, hence when it came to the recovery I was having to make
too large a power change, and then having to fight the tail more than I
should. (I know I'm going to have to learn it all, but this is just "basic"
auto-rotation.) The climb out was smooth, I maintained the heading and the
instructor and I were both smiling. "I love it when a plan comes together."

Finally I did a bit of hover practice which went ok, but the cockpit was
really hot, the sun was in our eyes (and the fixed wing that'd crashed a few
hours earlier was within my field of vision spooking me), so we called it a
day. Another successful and fun-filled 2 hours in my log book. Back again
tomorrow, weather permitting.

Si