Lesson 10: Too High? Too Low? Circuits...

It was a beautiful morning, clear skies, quite cold [outside of the sun]. Ice and frost was widespread but there was hardly any wind. QFE was 1018 and QNH was 1033. It was a great morning to continue doing some circuits. The good weather brought people out and there was a noticeable change in activity from previous weekends. I got to the aerodrome quite early (about 8:20) so I could complete checks for a 09:00 start.   

The 152s were all turned round to face the sun to help with the de-icing and removal of condensation. Today I was in Papa X-Ray which I had been in only once before. During the course of the lesson there was quite a few touch-and-goes and she performed very well. I also noticed the radio was very clear. Below: a prop parked vertically. This is done on the basis that any water from precipitation is free to pass through the spinner and not collect and possibly freeze within the unit. 

Circuits again today and a little more to learn. Climb out to 300ft flaps tidied and up to 500ft was ok. Climbing turn to the left up to 1000 ft. This was fine, the level turn to downwind leg was ok. That said I remember Mike my instructor pointing out to keep a check on the altitude a couple of times. The bearing on the downwind side I wasnt on the ball and I must learn to pre-empt the bearings as opposed to working this out on-the-fly turning into downwind. [On this note, we used both runway 02 relief and also 34 main]. The turn onto base is key and the slowdown and descent important for setting up your turn onto final. My takeaways then were. 1) Don't forget a light touch ("smidging") of rudder on the rotate , accelerate and climb-out. 2) Get a feel for the rough turn bearings you are going to need before starting the circuits 3) Keep a check on altitude turning level onto downwind 4) Regularly check the position of the runway 5) Keep to neat turns and not a looped  trajectory. I did this noticeably on one approach. 6) Hold off on the landing for longer ("Dont land... Dont land").

10.19-03-11 C152 G-CEPX EGTO EGTO 09:20 10:20 1:00 1-1 EX12/13