Lesson 14: A break from circuits - Ex 15 Advanced Turns

A nice break today with a no circuits instruction from the airport. This meant heading out over the Medway Estuary over to Swale and then up to 3,300ft for some steep turns. This involved 30, 45 and 60 degree banks left and right. Also I was made to do some descending steep turns, keeping the nose down for 70 knots. The behaviour of the aeroplane is as you would expect, going round the level turn you have to keep pulling back to keep the top left edge of the cowling (from my left hand seat view) skimming the horizon. Failure to do that means she wants to sink. You have to keep this back with some effort to be honest. If you can feel it starting to "wind up" you can turn back out the turn or pull back further. On the steeper turn passing 30 degrees I had to increase the throttle from the cruise setting to max. It is a straight forward but very useful lesson as it builds confidence in the general handling of the aircraft. Well that's how I saw it.

What else can I say, there was a noticeable right hand crosswind on taking off on runway 02. Mike made me take off with the ailerons turned into the wind full lock. This technique involves slowly reducing the turn as the airspeed increases until you are in the normal laterally level sense at the point of rotation. It seemed to be ok. landing I thought was ok but coming in on the approach over the trees and motorway onto runway 02 I lost the line with the buffeting. Oh well, practice practice practice.. One thing that was clear about today was the gorgeous weather, a bit gusty but visibility was excellent and it was so nice to see the sun out dominating proceedings.

My instructor is off now for a bit so I've got a little flying break until the Easter week. I'm scheduled to be off work then so I thought I would book some weekday flights. This could be useful because runway 02 does not allow circuits in the summer [at the weekend] so it's probably the right thing to do, especially if getting back in the circuit is going to be on the agenda.

I will post something about the simulator I setup this weekend. With the break in flying I intend to have a really good go at this. It looks fab.

Oh... I have an exam next Saturday. Aircraft General and then after that I intend to start preparing for the Navigation test.

Learning to fly really does feel special and today was just another great day in that voyage.

Logbook Entry:
14.10-04-11 C152 G-CEPX EGTO EGTO 14:55 15:55 1:00 1-1 EX 15