Wednesday 24 June 2015

Sunday 21 June 2015 - Dave Bond Goes Flying

Sunday morning I took a friend from work flying. Just an hours 'put-put' along the coast and back. Bit of a cross wind take off and landing to deal with but it was ok. I was on Runway 20 with a wind 270 and 18 Kts. My aeros lesson was cancelled the day before due to the weather so it was good to get out flying again.



Brakes off 09:25(Z) Brakes On 10:30 (Z) Total: 1:05
Total Time 135:40

Wednesday 10 June 2015

Sunday June 7, 2015 - Summers Here!

Sunday I decided to take an early morning flight to the coast and back. The weather was lovely and for the first time this year it really felt like summer. Unfortunately I had to wait to fuel up the aircraft so didn't get away quite as early as I would have liked, but it was still nice and quiet in the sky above. 

I had a surprising sight as I was over Sandwich in Kent. Some sort of powered paraglider passed above and in front of me ! He must have been around 2,600ft and was heading towards the disused airfield at Manston at quite a speed! I had never seen this before. I was temped to ask Southend if he appeared on their Radar!

Later in the day I headed down to Tankerton Beach near Whitstable as a family and spent a few hours lazing around on the beach. It was only when I was there soaking up the blissful tranquility when I realised this was pretty much below my earlier flight path!

Video enclosed anyway. Next session will hopefully be back to the aerobatics, weather permitting of course.




Brakes off 08:05 Brakes On 09:10 Total: 1:05
Total Time 134:35

Saturday June 6, 2015 - Basic Aerobatic Rating

Session 3 was on Saturday and it was great fun. Following a briefing we headed out to do some inside loops ('loop the loops') and aileron rolls in the schools C152 aerobat G-FLIP. Session lasted about 55 minutes and the weather was good. Warm up was via a few wing overs manoeuvres.

Interestingly, my instructor demonstrated how it was possible for me to do an inside loop with an entry speed of only 85 Kts, which is below a typical cruise speed! The point was to not encourage it of course (it's not pretty) but give some assurance in that slight deviations from the recommended 120 Kts shouldn't cause too many issues.

As expected, the rolls differed in success so more work required there. We stuck to left hand rolls and I believe the next session will introduce right hand ones as well. 

Can't wait!

Brakes off 08:00 Brakes On 08:55 Total: 0:55
Total Time 133:30