Lesson 26: Practice Forced Landings Cont.

Phew! What an absolute scorcher! A sweltering hot day today. I had a lesson in Papa X-Ray for 11AM but my instructor was just seeing his previous student into his first solo so we eventually took off around 11:35.

With the vents open cruising along at 2,300 ft it was lovely and cool. The vis was not too good today but good enough to head off for some more PFL (Practice Forced Landing) work over Grain and then Sheppey again. This time we did some engine fire touch drills as well, going into a descent of about 100 Kts IAS and simulating the situation prior to picking that field and hoping we could make it in time.

One thing today which was quite a shock was the impact the humidy had on the take off distance to G-CEPX.  It took us ABSOLUTELY AGES to rotate and was a not a good feeling. This is due in for some work soon and I hope they find someway to bring the power back!

On the subject of fire drills here below is a really interesting article on wikipedia concerning BOAC Flight 712 which resulted in British Airways Overseas Cooperation changing their checklists for Engine Fires.

The article mentions "The actions taken by those involved in the accident resulted in the award of a George Cross, a British Empire Medal and an MBE. " You can read it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BOAC_Flight_712...

I think it's facinating.

Coming back into Rochester I did a glide descent but on crossing the threshold at 1000ft kept a bit tight in turning onto downwind which subsequently took a bit a mastery from my instructor to pull off the perfect landing (using full flap and weaving to wash off the airspeed on base). Hmmm I hope I have the confidence to do that one day soon.

Really looking forward to Sunday and pray the weather will be OK (also Papa X-Ray behaves) as I will start my proper Nav work with a course set from Rochester, Canterbury, Ashford, Bewl and back to Roachester!

It will be great to get a way into new areas and with this I better start getting up-to-speed with my Radio work. I was not very good today to be honest, pausing when repeating back the rejoin instructions to Rochester Information ... silly boy.

Great to be flying though... absolutely loved it.

26.03-08-11 C152 G-CEPX EGTO EGTO 11:35 12:35 1:00 1-1 EX16
23:05 INSTRUCTOR
02:25 SELF