Flight was in the late afternoon at 1600hrs and for the first time I've gotten CAVOK condition for my flight. Perfect day to fly except for the strong crosswind for the runway I was using. Did some revision beforehand as I'm determined to iron out the issues I have from my previous flight.
This time round, my taxi speed was a bit too fast, perhaps I'm now more confident and natural at the rudder controls, thus I subconsciously traveled at a higher speed without realising it. Radio calls were fine, then to the take-off. U-turning at the runway threshold was much better than previous time, made the rolling call and full throttle I went. Rotating at 55kt, I kept the right rudder on and made the ailerons work. Finally I managed to keep the aircraft above the runway after lifting off. Hearing a "good" from the instructor felt so good. It was the most beautiful take-off I've made to date.
Requested that we head for the previous training area to familiarise myself with it once more. Made a few right-hand Rate-1 climbing turns to get my heading right. My turns have also become more natural; being able to rotate the yoke and rudder at the same time while not forgetting the slight back pressure, plus maintaining the angle of bank while looking out. Encouraging stuff.
Climbing and descending were much better this time, I was able to catch and maintain the leveling off height pretty accurately unlike the last time round. And there was also an introduction to stall. Did two types of stalling - recovery with power and recovery without power. I'm not afraid to say this, but I'm quite uptight about this whole stalling thing. Imagine having the plane dive from the sky? Nevertheless, I have to do it. The instructor did a demo once and it wasn't too bad, so I had a go. Recovery with power was not so scary, losing about 100-150ft in altitude, but the back pressure needed to stall the C172S is IMMENSE!!
The scary part comes during recovery without power. I had to push the nose down quite a bit to get airflow back onto the wings. With that, I lost 500ft of altitude, which is considered alot when I'm only 4000ft above ground level before stalling.
Not so bad, I survived stall trainings. One caution I noted was the tendency to use ailerons to counter wing drops. That might cause a downward spiral spin, and I was reminded by my instructor to always counter wing drops with opposite rudder.
With the stalling done, I was tasked with navigating back to base. I got it right this time and the instructor said "good" again. Haha, I guess all that homework done with the help of Google Earth didn't prove pointless. Flew back to base, joining the circuit, did the descent all the way to final approach but controls were taken over to due strong crosswind at less than 100ft above ground. What a shame, I actually though I can do it. Better luck next time.
Overall a satisfying flight after I was able to resolve all the problems I had last week. My radio calls are still not up to standard yet though. That will definitely need more brushing up.
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| Lunch 171213. A good meal before heading for flight. For some reason, flying makes me very hungry |
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| Pretty great condition huh? |
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| Good day with good flight |
Thursday
My oh my, this day was the hottest day to date since I landed in Australia 7 weeks ago. Temperatures were hovering around 36'C during the noon, and I was scheduled for flight at 1600hrs, the hottest hour of the day according to forecast. I've been complaining about how shit cold this idiotic place is. However, the heat isn't a joke either. Searing heat that bites your skin with low humidity and high UV.
My lesson for this flight was slow flight and stalling. After the introduction to stalls in the previous flight, I was more confident and prepared about how the whole stalling thing works, however, this time round there is a wing stall recovery practice. That was the scary one as a wing stall can escalate into a spin if not rectified quickly enough.
Doing pre-flight in those conditions are tough, but I still think it's better than temperatures below 10'C with the winds blowing. I had to constantly hydrate myself to prevent a drop in my physical performance. Previous flight experiences from my mates who flew in such hot conditions didn't help much either. So I guess I'd have to pray the instructor doesn't cancel my sortie after going up realising it's way too bumpy.
And up I went, keeping my heading intact but my attitude was terrible. With the little back pressure I applied, the whole nose of the aircraft got pulled up by the thermals until I looked like I was stalling, just right after take off!! Climbing performance of the aircraft was very poor in the hot conditions, and with the bumpiness near the ground, we had to climb to above 8000ft to have any trace of calm air. It took forever to get to that height, I almost fell asleep,
Stall recovery with and without power was done to standards, and then to the wing stall which the instructor induced and I was tasked to recover the aircraft. That was quite a heartpumping moment as I had to quickly take control once the aircraft stalls and suffers a wing drop at the same time. Thank god I caught it pretty well and it didn't escalate into a spin. Aileron correction is a no-no for recovery from wing drop.
It felt like a short lesson and soon we were heading back to base. Hopefully I will not see much of such hot days in the summer. 20-25'C are pretty comfortable to work in, and at 1433ft field elevation, that's quite possible. Thermals are a pain in the ass, my altitude was quite screwed up in my whole flight, which kinda irk me and my instructor haha. Schedule was out after flight and I had a sims session on the next day.
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| 36'C. It was really hot |
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| Took the chance to go jogging in the hot weather and lift some light weights lol. Gotta train that weak left arm |
Friday
After flying the real thing, the sims seems a little uneventful. The flight is too smooth, there's no motion, and the controls just doesn't feel right. I practised more stalls on the sims, but with the absence of the sinking feeling, it was quite pointless. And with some time remaining, I tried landing and IFR flying. The landing was done with the ILS and it was not quite that easy to keep to the glideslope. To make things confusing, the indicators actually work in reverse.
You see, there's the indicators for left/right and up/down. If the indicator is on the left, you go left, and on up, you go up. It doesn't actually work like other things, for example, the artificial horizon. If the wings are above the horizon, you push the plane down to move the wings down. So it takes some time to get used to it. Then the IFR flying can be quite tiring as you keep adjusting and monitoring the instruments. Interesting stuff I did at the sims.
Another good week I'd say with two flights and one sim session. Next on the syllabus will be circuit flying. That will not be easy as lots of focus and alertness is needed when you're flying in such a confined space with many other planes in your path. Sad to say I've still not landed the C172S. Hopefully I will get to do that this coming week. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas this coming Wednesday!
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| Dinner 181213. Meat feast. |
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| Beautiful sunset with another passing day |
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| Unforeseen circumstances, can't keep the kart for long. Sad. |
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