Scott James Remnant

Since my last post on the subject back in December, I’ve had quite a few people ask me how the flying lessons were going. Truth is that there hasn’t really been that much to report until now.

Once you’ve covered the basic stuff, you start on what are known as circuits (which my last two posts covered the start of). Basically taking off, flying around the airfield and landing again over and over again. In just over three months I’ve flown about 10 hours of circuits, totalling about 60 take-offs and landings.

Obviously this isn’t really that interesting to report on; some days went well and the landings were pretty good, and on others the landings felt like we’d been shot down. But slowly and surely I got better: learned how to handle the approach so I wasn’t doing everything at once; how to keep the speed just right in the take-off and landing (there’s something deeply psychologically wrong about recovering from landing too short by pointing the nose even further towards the ground) and at exactly which point to flare and hold-off above the runway.

The milestone at the end of this is the First Solo. The moment when the instructor climbs out of the plane and leaves you to fly once around the circuit on your own. Unfortunately my usual instructor is still restricted, which means he can’t yet send students solo, so in order to do so I had to have a check-ride with the Chief Flying Instructor (CFI).

That was a few weeks ago, and it didn’t go so well. Mostly a combination of nervousness on my part, a pretty pesky crosswind that couldn’t make up its mind exactly which way to go, and a couple of procedure mistakes I’ve clearly been doing from the start — flaps away before powering up during a touch & go.

Flew again with John afterwards and we went over the points that the CFI raised, and flew a few circuits on a calm day. Had corrected the touch & go procedure I followed, and I generally just concentrated on going around and actually had one of my best flights yet. In fact, the final landing was probably my best ever. Needless to say, John didn’t see the point of further messing about, so booked me back in to fly with the CFI again.

Turned out that on the day of the booking, he was off; but happily another one of the club’s instructors had become recently unrestricted, and he took me up instead. Keywords of the day: Concentrate and Relax. After I flew a circuit, he took control for the take off so he could talk me through a few points about the previous landing, then gave control back when downwind; another reasonable landing and take-off, and time for an engine failure practice. Power went off, picked a likely looking field, and once it was clear speed was right, he asked me to climb away again and rejoin the circuit followed by another pretty good landing. As we touched down, he took control and announced “I’m bored, and am going to get out.”

So that was it, after exactly 21 hours of lessons as a “Pilot Under Training” I was to get to fly as “Pilot In Command”.

We pulled up outside the tower so he could jump out, a few words of advice and I was on my own; I even managed to make the right call to the tower.

“Wellesbourne Information. Student Golf Whiskey Alpha Victor India. Radio Check and Taxi Instructions for First Solo Circuit. One Person On Board.“

I think I did just about every cliché that student pilots do on their first solo flight. I talked to myself through the checks and procedures the entire way aroun, at one point I patted the seat next to me to remind myself I really was flying on my own, and I remember being delighted to discover that the little Robin really can do 90kts.

The circuit I flew wasn’t too shabby either (shown in Google Earth above/right), it was actually much easier to keep straight and level without the instructor and before I knew it, it was time to turn to base and make the landing. Not quite as clean as the rest of the circuit, with a bit of last minute loss of speed and drift, but nowhere near bad enough to need to go around and it touched down quite gently in the end. As I rolled down the runway, received a congratulatory call from the tower:

“Golf Victor India. Well done!”

All that was left to do was to park up, receive the certificate and pose for the obligatory photo.

Of course, this doesn’t mean I’m quite out of the circuit yet! The next few lessons will be what is known as solo consolidation; more circuits with the instructor, but with increasingly more without as I build up my confidence flying on my own. Then it’s starting on the adventure that is Navigation, with the first landing at an airfield other than my home one and building up to the next big milestone: the Qualifying Cross Country flight.

Really looking forwards to the navigation now, after having been flying around the same scenery for a long time, it’ll be nice for a change. Plus it’ll make the GPS tracks rather more interesting to look at afterwards!

My weather karma seems to have gone the wrong way. During the summer, when it was pouring with rain and nobody was flying due to the weather, I didn’t have a single cancellation. Now the winter’s arrived, which I was told often produces some wonderfully clear (albeit cold) days, I’ve had such a long string of cancellations that it’s now been six weeks since I last went flying!

That means that in twelve weeks I had just one booking that went ahead for a double lesson when I started in the circuit. It was inevitable that I was going to be somewhat rusty this time out in the air, and somewhat “behind the aircraft”.

Had another curve-ball as well, there was a pretty strong wind today blowing across the main runway so we’d be using the much shorter cross-wind Runway 23. So today I would be flying a different circuit than last time, in a different direction onto a shorter runway.

I think it’s fair to say that almost all of my landings weren’t exactly greasers, except for the one that for some reason I got almost exactly right. A couple of silly mistakes along the way didn’t help either, but in general I got most things right and just had some issues with the approach — difficult on this runway anyway, and the flare. Practice will sort both of those out.

In the time since the last flight, I’d bought a simple GPS unit (Locosys GT-11) so I could record the track of where I’ve flown. Here’s the track of today’s flying:

P/UT Hours Today 0:45, Total 11:35

Thanks to a combination of bad weather and the trip away for FOSSCamp, UDS and AllHand, it’s been six weeks since I last got a chance to fly! Last time we’d covered a second session of stalling and recovery, and the next exercises to cover were the all-important circuits: taking off, flying around the field and landing again.

Even despite the weather cancellations before the trip, I knew it’d be at least four weeks gap, so I’d taken the day off and booked two separate lessons either side of lunch. The idea being that we’d use the first lesson for revision, going over all the other exercises to make sure that I could still remember how to fly — and then use the second lesson to start in the circuit, since I’d be learning something new … landing!

Most people seem to assume that summer is the best time to learn to fly as the weather is better, but today was one of those days that proved the opposite. Although the temperature was around freezing point, the skies were clear and the wind calm.

First hour went nice and smoothly; we covered taking off, climbing, descending, turning (including while climbing and descending) and some practice of stalling and recovery. It was reassuring to know that I hadn’t forgotten anything in the long gap between lessons, and still had the feel of the plane.

The weather had put on a special treat for us; for much of the day, fog was clinging to the ground and hills, with many fields still frosted over. From the air it looked extremely pretty, if a little eerie.

After lunch at the airfield’s cafe it was time for the second lesson, circuits! We’d already covered the ground briefing for this in one of the cancelled lesson slots before, so we were ready to go straight up. Another student had flown the plane over lunch, so only a relatively short transit check was needed; checking the fuel levels and other important bits.

John was to fly the circuit first, and talk his way through it as I followed through. A circuit, for those not flying, is: take off; climb and make the first 90° turn onto the crosswind leg; level out at 1,000ft and make the second turn onto the downwind leg (parallel to the runway); call the tower and perform checks for landing; make the third turn onto the base leg and begin the descent before making the final turn onto final and landing.

We were on runway 36, so the traditional left-handed circuit was the order of the day. Wellesbourne switches between left and right depending on the runway direction so as not to overfly Wellesbourne village itself. It’s not a truly rectangular circuit either since there’s three noise-sensitive villages we have to avoid on our way around.

Over lunch, a Kittyhawk had landed at the airfield and was ready to leave slightly before we were; treating us to one of the pleasures of flying from a purely GA airfield. The FISO informed the departing Kittyhawk that the circuit was clear and asked whether he would like to perform a low-level fly past (normally pilots have to beg the FISO or ATCO to show off, and get told no). So as we lined up on the runway, we were treated to a short air display from the warbird, flying past the tower, climbing into a loop and performing a bombing run on the airfield on the way back before heading home.

Entertainment over, work time. John flew the first circuit, then handed me control after landing for a touch-and-go (taking off again without stopping) and it was my turn. I flew six circuits in total, one straight after the other. At first we were the only ones in the circuit, but by the end we were in a queue of three planes all heading down at once. In fact, on one of the goes round, John decided to use it as an opportunity to perform a go-around (aborting the landing).

I think I got something wrong on each of the circuits. My first landing was somewhat rough, having flared too early and been rather too high most of the way down. The next I turned onto final too late and spent most of the time trying to line up with the runway again; in fact, I did this a few times — and turned too early at least once too. By the last landing, I’d got the turn just right, and kept the descent perfect as well; lined up with the runway and at the right height and speed all the way down. Just a slight shame I ruined it with a slightly untidy flare and by bouncing the plane on the touchdown.

On the whole, I was really happy and so was my instructor. I’d been in control the entire time, and had been correctly using the power and attitude to control the approach. None of the landings may have been perfect, but I have plenty more hours of circuits to go yet — dozens of hours in fact — to get that bit right.

P/UT Hours Today 1:50, Total 10:50

My instructor was away last week, so it’s been two weeks since my last lesson. Sod’s law would suggest that the weather would be terrible, but someone must like me because instead it was one of the nicest days in quite a while!

The only real thing of concern was a bit of an inversion, giving a fairly thick ground haze. The student up before me hadn’t flown in the end because he needed a strong horizon for the exercises he’d been doing (just as I did not so long ago) and had instead practiced taxying around the airfield.

John thought it’d be more than fine for me though, especially since I’d managed worse conditions including the gusting last time! The complete lack of any cloud base meant that the gsson today would be more stalling, getting the opportunity in as there’s a couple of hours of these today.

No drama with the checks or take-off today, I’ve got pretty used to handling these by myself now. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that I nailed the take-off and had spare brain power to remember to deal with the flaps and fuel pump at the right times and watch the engine gauges and make occasional clearing weaves during the climb.

Headed down the Fosse Way to Shipston again, I’ve a hunch that there’s a club rule that newbies got to the west and students in the later exercises go to the south, since we now seem to spend most of our time down here. Easily climbed all the way to 3,500ft with a bit of practice of climbing turns.

Once there, HASELL and a couple of revisions of a clean stall; no drama here, if anything it was easier than last time since we weren’t trying to keep in a cloud hole. In Victor Alpha today which handles a little differently than Victor November, seems to like to dance to the side during a stall; so a bit of extra need to keep it in balance.

John next demonstrated an approach stall with full flaps, and I repeated it with little difficulty, though again forgot to remove the carb heat. Made a mental note that the throttle and carb heat always go together, and didn’t forget it again.

A base leg stall in a turn was up next, a couple to the left since I didn’t get the first one quite right, and then one to the right to mix things up a bit. Much better that time.

Practised a couple of mid-air go-arounds, since the procedure is much the same as cleaning up flap from a base leg stall; and then it was time to head home. A little bit of excitement as a John spotted a PA-28 and pulled us up and out of the way quickly, not that close but they clearly didn’t see us.

Handled the overhead join, descent and turn onto final, following John through for the last part of the landing, then back to the school.

Next lesson: circuits!

P/UT Hours Today 0:45, Total 9:00

Two lessons booked today, one before lunch and one after lunch. The long term forecast hadn’t looked good, and I thought it’d be a good idea to try and cover the weather. Turns out that my hunch was right, the weather really wasn’t looking that good this morning, but looked like it might clear up towards the afternoon.

The original plan had to be to cover slow flight and stalling today, but the weather wasn’t going to be good enough for that; certainly not good enough for stalling.

John decided that the best thing would be to go up and do some revision of turning, especially while climbing and descending; and an introduction to slow flight. Then after lunch, if it had cleared up, finish up slow flight and move on to stalling.

We had plenty of time, because the previous student had cancelled; and as it turned out, the one between my lessons and the one after cancelled as well!

Victor November as usual, but today spotted a problem doing the checks; a screw had come loose on the left wheel spat and had to be tightened before we took off.

Handled the take-off again today, a fairly easy one along Runway 36 remembering to turn to 030° afterwards to avoid overflying Charlecotte who don’t like it when we do.

First bit of revision into climbing turns accomplished then, and again as we turned onto downwind before leaving the circuit. Held the course south, and did some descending and climbing turns over Shipston-upon-Stour before heading west.

Cloud wasn’t going anywhere, and the horizon was really indistinct which made holding a reasonable attitude quite difficult, let alone turning on it; but managed to muddle through.

Next up was an introduction to slow flight. This is basically slowing the speed right down while holding the altitude, keeping the nose very high. Brought the power back in a couple of stages, and after each one it was increasingly harder to hold the aircraft’s attitude and required huge movements of the controls.

Stall warner sounded as we got particularly slow and it was time to recover, so lowered the nose and increased to full power, climbing out of it.

Practiced those a couple of times to get the feel of it right. Then time for a bit more practice at some turns, had the aircraft in a descent when John asked me to turn, which I did; but I’d forgotten to get it in trim first, as a result made quite a mess of turning out and levelling off. Bugger.

In fact, I felt that the weather was throwing me off completely so we headed back to the school for lunch, with the hope that it’d at least clear up for the afternoon session.

No such luck though, after a decent lunch and some time in the briefing room covering the procedure for stall recovery just in case, the cloud wasn’t going anywhere. It had lifted a bit, and there was a spot of blue sky around Wellesbourne, but no more than that.

Visited the control tower to see what it was like, and they weren’t too keen on it either. Someone was up doing their skills test, but they’d headed off to the east for some decent weather.

Definitely wasn’t going to be doing any stalling today, and John asked me what I wanted to do.

Since it had improved slightly, and I wasn’t happy about mucking up some of the basics in the last lesson, I asked whether we could go up again for some revision of climbing, descending and turning.

He agreed that was a good idea, so that’s what we did. Another take-off, climb up through the circuit and out. He then set me a few exercises such as turning to a particular place, getting us there, changing altitude and turning onto a new heading, flying there; changing altitude again and turning towards home before a standard over-head join into Wellesbourne.

The improved visibility and much more relaxed nature of the flight, not having to learn anything more, really put me back at ease and I found that I was able to do the exercises much more confidently than I had before.

In the end, quite a productive lesson despite the weather. Several things to read up on for next week, since depending on the weather it’ll be more slow flight, some stalling or maybe even a first circuit or two.

P/UT Hours Today 1:30, Total 6:50

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

I really wasn’t sure whether the weather was flyable looking out of the window this morning; the forecast hadn’t been that promising, but today’s METAR was a little better — at least it gave me some room under the cloud.

Phoned the flying school and was told that the cloud base was pretty high, but that wind was rather gusty down the slot. Flyable nonetheless.

Got there, and John had decided it was too gusty to start on circuits; he wanted it rather calmer for my first landing attempts. Instead he’d been down to the South-West with the previous student, and there was a good couple of holes in the cloud, so ideal for stalling!

Gulp.

In reality, the idea of stalling shouldn’t have made me that nervous as we’d been close to the stall with slow flight the last couple of lessons and had already practiced recovery. Nonetheless the thought of deliberately stalling the plane and losing the precious lift wasn’t exactly making my day. Two hours of it to do for the course though, so brave face!

Checked over the plane, largely okay except for a screw loose on the wing that John had already spotted during the previous flight, quickly fixed and taxied off down to the hold. Runway 18 today, haven’t used this one in a few weeks, so a different place to test the brakes and rudder, but remembered.

Have noticed that I’m largely being left to do the checks and pre-flight myself now, and that they’re becoming close to second nature. Still noting that I tend to pre-empt the FISO in shortening the callsign, and deliberately left a space on my kneeboard for writing it down once told it. Didn’t help much, since I ended up forgetting to shorten it and confusing myself, something to work on I think.

In fact, this time John didn’t just let me do the checks and pre-flight, he left me to it all the way through the take-off as well! I’d gotten a little used to his voice talking me through it the last few times, so I compensated by talking myself through it instead.

It seemed rather busy to me, the fact that once off the ground we basically ended up going sideways with the wind didn’t help; and I was using up all my brain-power to keep the plane climbing and in balance. John was entirely happy, and thought I coped brilliantly with the challenge, so that’s ok then.

Bumpy climb all the way to Shipston, where there was a nice hole in the cloud as promised. More than enough room to climb to over 3,200ft for the exercises.

Some revision of FREDA checks and HASELL checks, then handed control to John so that he could demonstrate a clean stall and recovery with power. Not as dramatic as I feared, it seemed to take ages to actually stall, and then the nose simply pitched slowly to the ground as we lost height. Hold it down, full power, and pick your stomach up later as the plane regains height.

My turn now.

Regain the height, HASELL check then reduce power to idle. Hold back on the column to keep height, pull back on the column, heave back on the column. Speed washes off quickly, then at some point the stall warner sounds. Still pull that column back, with all the strength you have, as the plane tries to pull it away from you and eventually it goes limp and the plane pirouettes down. Column forward, full power, wait for a good speed, and collect the stomach. “Good,” said John, “minimum height loss, well done!”

Maybe that wasn’t so bad after all. Regained the height, and a full turn to keep out of the cloud and had another go. Minimum height loss again. One more then; this time pulled out a fraction too early so the stall warner sounded, I reacted instantly releasing the column pressure and John was pleased that I’d simultaneously demonstrated to myself how to repeat the stall during the recovery, and how to avoid/recover from it.

Cloud was coming in a bit, and we were having to turn in it to get away and there just wasn’t enough of a hole left to carry on. Descended down underneath the cloud base again, which turned out to be 2,200ft; and set a course for Stratford.

Flew the pattern for the overhead join, but the FISO decided to throw me a curve-ball; on announcing that we were descending deadside I got told “use callsign Robin Victor November”. Turns out that there was a helicopter flying around clashing with our usual callsign.

Crosswind made it a little tricky to get the plane to descend and turn at the same time, so John took control to get us in the right direction before giving it back to me for the rest of the descent and join.

Passed over the threshold and heard radio traffic from someone announcing downwind, and looked out for them since we would shortly be turning onto downwind ourselves. Spotted them in front of us, but about 1,000ft higher! Quick sanity check ensued, look out of the windows to see whether we were too low, and check the QNE and altimeter. All ok, he must have been too high. This must have been the case, since by the time we turned onto base, he was rather lower.

Handled the turn onto base and start of the descent myself, up to the turn onto final; but the crosswind was too much to get the attitude right so John took over for the landing itself. “A bit unfair for your first landing to be in this,” he said while wrestling with the plane himself!

Control back to me on the tarmac, checks and taxied to the fuel bay to fill the plane back up for the next student. No wait this time, so easily done and back to the school.

Next week will depend on weather; if it’s relatively calm, we’ll be starting on circuits (and landings!) otherwise if there’s a good cloud base or hole, it’ll be more work on stalling, especially different types of stall.

P/UT Hours Today 0:40, Total 8:15

Another offer of an extended lesson this morning, due to an earlier cancellation, but unfortunately I had too much work to do so had to decline. Happily traffic was almost non-existent on the drive down, so was half an hour early anyway.

Today’s lesson was the last of the “basics” - turning. Obviously I’ve already done quite a bit of that so far, but this would be the lesson that ticked off the formal exercise in my log book.

Checked the plane while John wrote the briefing up on the board as usual, today we’d be in Victor November again; which is fast becoming my “regular” plane.

No problems with the checks today, they’re starting to become fairly natural and am finding that the procedure is sinking into memory and I’m using the list to check myself as I go rather than following it.

Taxied to the hold for Runway 36, handling the Radio Traffic myself and had a nice shocking surprise when John announced that I’d be doing the take-off today!

Since 36 has left-hand circuits, and there was little wind, our into-wind checks where done facing up the runway. So after finishing them, we turned round to the left so we could scan the circuit before resuming the centre-line to the holding point.

Held while another plane turned onto final, to give me plenty of time to do the take-off and once that was down, the sky was clear so lined up.

I’ve followed John through on take-offs for the last few weeks, so knew what to do; full power, hold the centre line, and then pull back gently on the stick when we reach 65 knots and adopt the climb attitude.

And that was that, up in the air and a turn to 030° to avoid a noise-sensitive village, holding the climb attitude, turned onto the crosswind leg, levelled out and onto the downwind leg before departing the circuit and heading towards Shipton-upon-Stour.

And onto the lesson, turning onto a reference point and then turning onto a selected heading. First John demonstrated a turn to each direction so I could see the nose attitude required, and then I repeated the exercises.

No problems here; already done enough to know the general form and had pretty quickly mastered it with reference points and headings.

At one point, while we were turning, John spotted an RAF Hawk flying below us and had me roll out of the turn so I could see it. Later I found out that there’s a big exercise in Gloucestershire which that must have been heading to.

Turning exercises were followed by some revision of climbing and descending, especially with flaps. No problem with setting the switch the wrong way this time, and was able to observe the effect much easier.

Nearly time to head home, so John decided to try a test for me and asked me where I thought Stratford-upon-Avon was. I checked the compass to see which direction we were heading (East), and out of the window to figure out roughly where we were (south-east of Long Marston); so Stratford had to be ahead and to our left. Sure enough, I could make out a town of the right shape over there, and the white buildings near Wellesbourne airfield, so confidently pointed.

“OK then,” John said. “Take us there.”

Turned to the heading, and as we approached John made the call to request joining instructions from the airfield. I’d been right, yay!

I lined us up to pass over the end of the runway at 2000ft QFE, while John left me to it; in fact, I ended up doing the majority of the join and descent myself with John taking control once we were on final.

Another very good lesson! I’m really starting to feel like I’m in control of the plane.

Two lessons booked next week, so we’ll be covering Slow Flight and Stalling with some revision on turning whilst climbing and descending. Looking at the exercises, it may be only a few weeks before I’m into circuits!

P/UT Hours Today 0:55, Total 5:20

A cancellation opened up a slot with my instructor first thing this morning, which I jumped at to make up for the lost lesson this week. Normally I try not to book the first lesson of the day; you have the disadvantage of not being able to phone in advance to check the weather, and also the general fact that the weather might not be as good first thing as later.

This held true today! I set off early to try and counter the expected bank-holiday traffic, and made it to the airfield with plenty of time before the start of the lesson. John was pinning up the NOTAMs and forecast for the day “Ah, you know what you can do!” he said on seeing me. I knew what was coming, “Check the plane?”

A new plane today, G-WAVI; took my time over the checks, since these really were the first of the day and I wanted to be sure. These are becoming more natural now, and I remembered to remove the (very obvious) guards over the pitot tubes and static sources as well as took some time checking for water in the fuel. John came out to hand me a chamois leather, cloth and bottle of Windowlene to clean the windows and I also took the opportunity to rub the bugs off the leading edge of the wing.

A quick briefing for the lesson plan, which we’d already done the introduction for last week; climbing and descending. Main thing to remember is that pitch controls airspeed, and power controls rate of ascent or descent - and not the other way round as common sense might suggest.

Handled the initial radio traffic myself today and taxied out to the holding point; first time on runway three-six, normally we come back down the other way, and this meant some noise-abatement procedures to be obeyed. Followed through on the take-off again, and round the circuit until we departed heading south.

Unfortunately while I’d been doing the checks, and while being briefed, the clear blue skies vanished and a low bank of murky cloud had blown over. The base of this was just above 2,000ft so there was still some room to do the lesson, but the horizon wasn’t clear or distinct anymore.

Several exercises for the lesson today, entering a climb, maintaining it, adding and removing flap, then leveling off. And the same in reverse for descending. For some reason today, I kept flipping the flap switch the wrong way; when asked to add the second stage of flap while climbing, I removed the first stage instead. Decided to do the sequence again, and got it right the second time.

Then again when descending, added the first stage just fine; but when asked to add the second stage, I took the first stage off again! And to compound the error, I was so busy adjusting the plane for the expected effect of adding the flap, I forgot to check out of the window (and the indicator instrument) to see what I’d done to the flaps; so was pointing at the ground and descending fairly fast before I realised my error. Quickly corrected; and another mental note for not just flipping switches and actually double-check what I’d changed.

Little mistakes aside, I found much of the lesson much easier this time. The handling of the plane is becoming more natural by feel, and am able to hold the attitude and airspeed I want. The occasionally obscured horizon added an extra interesting element, but it’s something I’ll encounter after training so I was glad to have experience of it.

We had a little time and we were a little far out, so a little introduction to turning followed on the way back. First though, an evil navigation question “So, which way is Stratford then?” a quick glance out of the window at our location, and at the compass, I pointed and was only a handful of degrees off. Not bad! I turned towards it and kept control as we performed an overhead join, and then entered the circuit.

First sign of traffic for the day as there were a number of planes in the circuit. Some spare brain power has clearly been made available, since I was able to listen to the radio and identify where aircraft would be based on the R/T traffic whilst still maintaining control and performing lookouts.

John took control into the landing and gave it back for the taxi off the runway, and for the after landing checks. Followed through the list, and forgot to stop at the end and started the closing down checks! Must be because I’m used to doing the pre-take off checks immediately following the into-wind engine checks.

“If I were evil,” John said, “I’d let you finish those and then say ‘Get yourself out of that one!’” Much laughter over the idea of walking back to the school leaving the plane parked on the hold, as I taxied back to the school. Picked a parking spot and brought the plane to a halt, and then did the close-down checks and switched the engine off.

A good lesson today! Next week will be turning, which I’ve already done quite a bit of anyway; and maybe an introduction to slow flight.

Spent the rest of the morning at the airfield; first grabbing a second breakfast at the Cafe and then hanging out at the club and chatting to a few other members, before heading over to the market that takes over Runway 05/23 every Saturday to see what it was like.

P/UT Hours Today 0:50, Total 4:25

First up, an apology; the lesson was a few days ago on Friday and I’m a little tardy in getting it typed up, so I apologise if I’ve forgotten anything.

I’d booked two lessons this week, since I wasn’t sure I’d be able to take one next week and wanted to cover the possibility of bad weather and going without a lesson for a couple of weeks. As it turned out, this was a good plan since Tuesday’s was cancelled.

Happily the weather looked for Friday’s lesson, and I woke up expecting to be flying; I thought that I’d done pretty well so far with only one cancellation due to bad weather and was worried that this run of good luck had to come to an end.

Looking out of the window in the morning left me a little nervous, a dark cloud had settled over Birmingham despite the weather claiming to be quite clear skies for most of the day. And then the phone rang, and was my instructor calling; I feared the worst.

Happily it was good news! The student booked in before me had cancelled and John wanted to know whether I wanted a double lesson. I jumped at the chance; I’ve wanted a little more time in the air and here was the perfect opportunity to get it.

Arrived at the start of the slot, John had already written up the briefing on the board but first sent me out to do the walkaround. Today was in Victor November again, my favourite of the two Robins I’ve flown so far. Took my time doing the walkaround, and found it much easier to remember what needed checking this time. In fact, the only thing I forgot was to check the Stall Vane whilst checking the lights so I had to check that separately before switching the battery off for the external checks.

The briefing went by pretty quickly, having learned the books I was able to answer the questions and follow the plan for the day’s lessons, so John was happy to get in the air and see how things went. Today’s lesson was to be flying Straight And Level, with different power settings and then with flaps extended.

Walked out to the plane and got on with the checks while John got himself strapped in. Full fuel tanks today, so no need to wait for the refuelling. Engine didn’t want to start the first couple of times, since this was her first flight of the day, but was running soon enough. It was then time for the Radio call, which I was to make this time.

“Wellesbourne Information, Golf Whiskey Alpha Victor November, Request radio check and taxi instructions for local. Two people on board.”

The reply came back and I jotted the details down on my kneeboard. The take-off instruction was a little unusual, we were to hold for Runway 05 with Runway 23 in use; John explained that we would be asked to backtrack up the runway and turn around for take-off.

Taxied to the holding point and performed the steering, brake, rudder and into-wind engine checks along the way. We were held at the holding point other aircraft took off and landed, and then instructed, as John said would happen, to backtrack up the runway. He warned that it was very likely that while doing this we’d be asked to get off the runway and hold on the crossing one while another plane landed, and sure enough this happened. He took the controls briefly to taxi us to safety.

Followed through on the takeoff again, a little more hurried this time due to the shorter runway but largely the same as last time; and we headed off to the South again.

Lots to learn today, especially in setting the aircraft’s power, speed and attitude by feel rather than by studying the dials while manipulating the controls. More revision on trim settings and the limitation and operation of flaps.

Several exercises on the main topic of the day, selecting and holding a straight and level flight; various power settings were used, and also the use of flaps. I found the job much easier today, trimming is becoming more natural and I’m having a much easier time judging the necessary attitude for the plane.

Yet more introductions; weaving to clear the space under our wings, FREDA checks and the use of carb heat.

And since we had plenty of time, and I seemed to be getting the hang of straight and level flight, we did some introductory work on the next two exercises; climbing and descending, holding an airspeed while performing both.

Towards the end of our lesson, I spotted a PA-28 off to our right holding position with us; but it shortly disappeared completely. We assumed that they’d seen us as well, and changed direction.

We headed back to the airfield and performed an overhead join, entering the circuit as usual; when I spotted the PA-28 again. Again it was on our right, and seemingly in the circuit except much tighter and faster. In fact, its circuit was so tight that it was in finals before we were, and in the end we performed a go-around to avoid landing on top of it.

A thoroughly enjoyable lesson, not too long or too short and a good amount of material accomplished.

P/UT Hours Today 1:15, Total 3:35