After the last flying lesson I have decided that I can do it and will do it, land that is. The other thing that I have decided that I will improve on and crack is staying at a constant height, since moving to the DA40 I have noticed that it is too easy to gain 100 ' without noticing.
So off to Sandtoft we went, I was determined to get it right, almost perfect take off, a little low on the climb out, but after banking to the left it was easy to gain the height as we had the speed. We climbed to 1500 feet and heading NE towards Doncaster and onto Sandtoft.
After an uneventful flight across to Sandtoft I enter the circuit without problems crossing the numbers on the runway without issue. I'll try and put an image together showing the joining details for a circuit as it will help me get it clear in my mind. Nice height and box shape and a gentle descent in, everything felt like it was going well.... until... I bounced off the runway... bollocks I thought here we go again, I climb out and start again. I got a bit of a telling off from Justin, the instructor, he has a curious was of doing it, he doesn't raise his voice or anything, but you know that he isn't happy with you and in this case he was right to be, I know what need to do and I can do it, but for some reason it didn't happen this time..
This time it was a lot better after another couple of goes I was landing without any real problems. During our eventful visit to Sandtoft we had a dual engine plane that joined on the live side of the circuit... in fact if had joined 5-10mins later he would have caused us a few problems and to quote Justin, it would have been bad...
Also we were cut up by a microlight, who then decided to land while we were on our final approach, it looked like he was going to vacate the runway part way down. Justin asked on the radio what his plan was, but there was no reply. The microlight then started to takeoff again. At that point Justin gave the instruction "I Have Control", which means he takes over, we banked sharp left and up. The microlight was in a world of his own, we then did another circuit and he did the same again, but on the downwind leg I flew slightly off centre to lengthen the third/fourth leg to give him enough time to get out of our way.
During the first couple of lessons there is one thing that is drummed into you, the first is if the instruction "go around" is given, you go to full power and pull up, simple without question you do it. The second is "I have control", basically you pass control, its good to rest you hand on the stick because you can feel what the instructor is doing, but you just relax and let them get on with it.
During the circuits Justin stated he did not want to here the Stall Warner come on during takeoff again, the stall warner on a DA40 is a pain in the neck, it comes on very early, the plane stalls at about 60 knots, but the stall warner can come on as early as 75knts, it sounds like someone is blowing one of those annoying party blower things that you get a christmas. Don't get me wrong, on your xmas do, when you are half cut you can get a lot of fun from one, but when you are trying to fly a plane its a pain...
Needless to say, we did not hear it again on take off. PMA - Positive Mental Attitude.
We then exited the circuit and headed towards Sherburn to pick up another pilot that had dropped a plane off, it was my first visit there and it was a nice pleasent flight. Landing was interesting... due to the size of the airfield and also the turns we basically glided in, thought we were going to miss the runway, but we didn't I landed a little hard, gauging the runway height seems to be a bit of a problem, but it is getting easier.
Justin Taxied, what felt like the miles to the terminal (sheds) and we picked the other pilot up, he then taxied back to the runway where I performed the takeoff. It was good, I think I need to start using more of the ground to generate more speed before taking off, gauging runway length would be a start... anyway its amazing what a difference having someone in the plane makes. You wouldn't think that it would, but it does. We climbed to 1,500 and headed back to Sheffield.
We dropped to 1,000 feet for the last 10-15 miles so Justin could show me what it was like for me to fly and also demonstrate how close somethings really are, at the end of the day 1,000 ft is above sealevel some of the ground we were flying over was 500' up, with masts of 250' plus. The lesson basically was, if you fly low keep your eyes open... I can see how people can get themselves into a lot of trouble at these heights as working out where you are on a map is hard as there isn't really a big enough "picture" of the surrounding land to work it out and I can see people concerntrating on reading their map before the smack in a TV mast or power pylon.
We then descended into Sheffield, glid slope was good. Sheffield has glid slope lights which helps, once we were about 10' feet above the runway I pulled on the stick and we landed, nice and gentle, it was perfect. I have not fealt a sense of joy like that for sometime. I finally did it, perfect touchdown and I also had a passenger.
All in all it was a very enjoyable lesson and has increased my determination to pass my PPL.
No comments:
Post a Comment