| Flight 4: Turning |
| Sunday, April 2nd. Cancelled; torrential
downpour. Now that's more like the England we know and love. So far my Sunday
lesssons are 0 for 2. If I were a religious person I might take that as
a sign, but I'm not so I don't. |
| Saturday, April 15th. Fabulous day; sunny
and warm. Hardly any traffic on the motorway which I suppose is due to the
holiday weekend. It only takes me 20 minutes to get to Barton. |
| Today we're in a 152, the differences being that the flaps only go to
30° instead of 40° in the 150, the flap switch is gated and there
are an additional 20 horses under the cowling. Pre-flight as usual and this
time I get to do the start-up and my first radio call to the tower. Tony
writes down what I need to say, then calls the tower and warns them it's
my first radio call. This should be good. I hope they can understand a Canadian
accent. "Barton information this is Gulf-Bravo-Hotel-Romeo-Bravo taxiing
for departure, information Gulf, QNH 1006 for a local flight". I manage
to get through that okay though I have no idea what "information Gulf,
QNH 1006" means. "Romeo-Bravo, details correct. Taxi to station
Alpha 3 and hold". Cool. "Romeo-Bravo taxiing to Alpha 3"
I reply and off we go. We wait briefly for a passing micro-light to get
in the queue in front of us. A derogatory comment about "toy airplanes"
pops into my head but I decide not to voice it since the micro-light pilot
can undoubtedly outfly me blindfolded and with both arms broken. After we
do our engine run-up and instrument check I note that a Pitts Special has
joined the queue behind us and I wonder if I would have the stomach for
aerobatics. One step at a time. Not surprisingly given the weather and the
fact that it's a holiday weekend it's pretty busy at Barton and we have
a bit of a wait to get in the air. Tony does the takeoff as there's only
a brief window between landing aircraft and we need to get on the runway
and out of the way as soon as possible. |
We do a quick recap on the previous lesson with the added demonstration
of how flaps degrade the climb, another revelation for me. Flaps allow you
to fly slower and will give you a shorter takeoff run, but they also cause
the airplane to climb slower. Hmmm.... interesting, but it makes sense when
I think about it. Rate of climb is a measure of time and distance, so if
we fly slower it seems reasonable that it takes longer to get to a given
height, even with the added lift of the flaps.
We then head to the coast and climb to 4000 feet for a bit of work on powered
descents. I can see Blackpool Tower off in the distance and remark how crowded
Blackpool undoubtedly is. At this point it's a bit of guesswork for me as
I need to pick what I think will be a suitable power setting to give us
a descent at a certain speed. Experience will take the guesswork out of
it eventually I imagine but at the moment I have to try one or two different
settings for each speed he gives me. It's a good lesson on how much the
power setting governs our rate of climb or descent rather than using the
elevators as I would have thought. Attitude controls our speed, throttle
our height. Bizarre but, again, it makes sense when I think about it. Apparently
I didn't do a lot of thinking about such things before. |
| After this we move on to turning; co-ordinating ailerons and rudder more
specifically. Tony demonstrates turning just using the ailerons and proves
that you need both to make a nice smooth turn. Turning hard left and right
alternatively, the nose is all over the place, we're shoved from side to
side in our seats and the little ball in the turn and bank indicator shows
us to be skidding in the turns. It's kind of fun actually but doesn't make
for pretty flying. In fact, it looks not unlike my crosswind takeoff! Now
I have a go at it. Raise one wing to check the blind spot and then over
into a 30° bank to starboard; rudder into the turn and rudder out again.
Hmmm.... not bad. Same again for a turn to port. Easier than I thought it
would be actually. Maybe the co-ordination I gained with all those years
of drumming helps? And then again, maybe it's just not that difficult. Either
way, I like it! We fly back to base and again I fly us in the circuit and
on to final. This time I fly the plane to just before the flare out and
then follow along as Tony brings it in. Again I'm told I'm doing well and
not for the first time I think how much different it would have been learning
to fly from my stepfather. Not a pleasant experience at all I imagine. |
| Next lesson is turning in climbs and descents and an introduction to stalling.
*Gulp* Can't say I'm looking forward to that part to be honest. |
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