Scott James Remnant

Wasn’t sure what I was going to be learning today! I’ve reached an interesting point in the course where there’s any number of lessons I could do, depending on the weather.

Ideally this lesson would be some revision of slow flight, and an introduction to stalling; but stalling is going to require a decent enough cloud base (over 3,000ft!) to be able to do it.

Otherwise if neither of those are possible, it’d be starting on circuits and learning how to land. I feel a bit like Indiana Jones at the moment; when people find out that I’m studying for a PPL, they usually say something like “I didn’t know you could fly?” to which I have to reply “Fly, yes. Land, no.”

Weather didn’t look too bad looking out of the window, but got increasingly worse as I drove to the airfield. Didn’t look like stalling was going to be happening today, the cloud was coming in far too low. John agreed and decided that we’d do the briefing on it, but would probably just do some revision on slow flight and complete that exercise.

A new plane today, G-WAVA. A notorious poor starter, but Stephanie claims has now been fixed! Not sure about that, it definitely didn’t want to start this morning! Probably wasn’t entirely happy about having needed duck tape stuck across the oil filler cap. While doing the checks, I’d been unable to get the cap to stick back down again.

An odd cross-wind today so we were on the much shorter Runway 23, since this was a bit of an unexpected challenge, John handled the takeoff while I followed him through. Once in the climb, I had control again and we did some practice of turning climbs as we headed out of the circuit and down to the South.

Overhead Shipston (they must really hate the sound of small aircraft there, we always seem to be flying in circles around them!) John asked me to bring the power back and hold the attitude to keep the height; more power back, more holding of the attitude and again until we’re only just a few knots away from the stall; once more and the warner sounded, so nose down and full power to recover, climbing away.

A few practices of this, before going again with flaps and then practicing turning while in slow flight. Turning has the extra challenge of having to nudge the power in to avoid a stall, since the turn increases the stalling speed whilst simultaneously decreasing the speed!

Didn’t quite nudge hard enough on a turn to the right, I’m sometimes a little too gentle with the controls when I need to be rather more forceful with the power at times.

I’ve also caught myself adjusting power and watching the RPM meter, rather than listening for the change in tone. Made a mental note to stop that, and found it much easier for the rest of the flight. Had been doing it turns too, and watching the attitude indicator; oops! Bad habits creeping back while I’m busy learning new things.

A few more practices before heading back home, as the rain came in; which we caught over Stratford as turning to begin the overhead join. This was a bit more interesting, since we were in a different pattern and turning at different times to what I was used to (having normally joined for Runway 36).

P/UT Hours Today 0:45, Total 7:35