Lesson 1 - 20th July 2019
The day was not looking good. The forecast earlier in the week had been that it was going to rain most of the day. As Saturday dawned, it still looked overcast and, more importantly, the winds were quite strong. I don't know the wind strength as I have not got any knowledge in this area yet. As requested, I rang the airfield at 10am to be told it was not good then but they were expecting it to pick up. I rang back at 1.00pm to be told it was now flyable, so I headed off.
Once at the airfield, I met my instructor for the lesson, Martin. I won't always have the same instructor as it depends who is on duty and there are 4 possible instructors at Clench Common. My feeling is that Graham, the owner and CFI, won't teach me at all and will be the one who will do the GST (General Skills Test). This way, they keep all the teaching and examining 'in house'. This is just supposition on my part, not anything that I have been told.
After a brief chat and introduction about my flying history, it was agreed that we would go straight to exercise 4 in the Microlight Briefing Notes book that we would be following. I didn't have a copy of my own so I made sure to purchase one. This book is divided into 17 Exercises, some of which are sub divided in to parts such as 9a and b, 10a and b, 16a and b and 17a, b and c. Exercises 12 and 13 have 13 separate sections to them, but they are not sub divided as a, b, c etc which seems odd, but never mind.
The trial flight was Exercise 3 - Air Experience. This time we should have gone back and started with Exercise 1 and 2 but Martin wanted to get going, in case the weather changed as it was right on the limit for flying the C42, so we moved on.
Exercise 4 - Effects of Controls - Ground School
First thing was a classroom briefing to cover the effects of controls. I am not going to write it all out here as this blog is not intended as a teaching tool, just a record of events. If you want to find out more, there are lots of online resources available, books and, of course, your local flying school. I am using 2 study books, "The Microlight Pilot's Handbook - 8th Edition" by Brian Cosgrave and "Microlight Fixed Wing Briefing Notes" from Flylight Airsports Ltd, based out of Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton.
From here we proceeded to the aircraft and settled in. We followed through the start up process. Everything is listed on a Checklist that is kept beside the P1 seat. This gives you a step by step process to follow and also saves you having to learn it by heart. All aircraft, and I mean all, from microlights up to passenger jets use these checklists, so they are not just something to help students, they are an 'aid memoire' to ensure all steps are correctly followed!
NB - as a reminder to me all the switches are Up for on and Down for Off!
Exercise 5 - Taxiing
This was the first challenge. To steer the aircraft you use your feet on the rudder pedals, whilst keeping the stick in the full back position. The natural response is to move the stick when you move your feet, but this has no effect. It was not as easy as I thought it would be, but I am sure it will become second nature the more I do it. You have to taxi at the start and end of every flight, so there will be plenty of practice!
We proceeded to cross runway 33 to a safe area to complete the run up checks. Once complete, we did a back taxi to the end of runway 33 and were finally away.
Exercise 4 - Effects of Controls - In The Air
As previously mentioned, the wind was quite strong and close to the flying limit for the C42. This is from the C42 handbook
As we left the ground, we could feel the turbulence throwing the C42 around. This was wind coming off the trees and small hills nearby. Once we got up a little higher this reduced, but there were sill pockets of 'sink' and 'updrafts' that hit us.
Martin preceded to do through the effects of the controls, as we had discussed in the ground school session, demonstrating the effect and then letting me have a try. My feeling was that it was a bit too windy to really feel the effects but, again, I will have plenty of airtime to get use to them. This flight was all about demonstrating what each of the controls does and their primary and secondary effects. Do I remember all this from the flight, no not really. I will need to read the briefing notes to refresh my memory, which is what they are there for!
During the flight, Martin kept pointing out landmarks for me to try and get my bearings, but it took me a long time to see things. He pointed out RAF Keevil, which is massive tarmac runway, and it took me 30 seconds or more to see it! The world looks very different from the air and it will take some getting used to!
It was finally time to head back and join the circuit. It was still very gusty towards the ground but Martin got us down without a hitch.
Final job was to complete my log book and get it signed and to pay some money.
Charges
The way you are charged is based on the engine run time and this is recorded on a Hobbs meter. You are paying by the minute from the time you start the engine to the time you turn it off. Air time is irrelevant, as you could just be practicing taxi procedure, but you are still using fuel and engine time. I was charged for 65 minutes of engine time although the flight time was only about 45 minutes, so 20 minutes was spent on the ground doing checks. Martin made the point that if I had been learning out of Staverton, I could also waste more time in a queue waiting for a take-off slot, so that is more time on the ground and less in the air. I must admit that this hadn't really occurred to me and is another plus point for learning at Clench Common.
Kneeboards
Just a quick note on kneeboards. I wanted something that was small enough to use in the C42, that I could take notes on but could also hold my iPad for Skydemon. I purchased a Design4Pilots A5 sized, iPad 4 version. The only issue I could see was that it opened to the right to reveal the iPad underneath and that would interfere with the control stick, that is centre mounted in the C42.
Before trying the Design4Pilots kneeboard, I also purchased a CB3-D kneeboard from Pooleys Aviation. This one is a little bigger than the first, but opens up to the left, so away from the control stick. It also contains several plastic pockets which may be useful. I will try this board next time I fly so I can decide which one works the best. It means I have 2 to choose from!
Purchases this post
Design4Pilots Kneeboard - £44.95
Pooleys CB3-D Kneeboard - £41.22
GS Aviation Student Membership - £40
Microlight Briefing Notes - £20
Flight - £140.88
Totals
Total Costs = £917.39
Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05
Total Hours Icarus C42 = 2.05 hours
Once at the airfield, I met my instructor for the lesson, Martin. I won't always have the same instructor as it depends who is on duty and there are 4 possible instructors at Clench Common. My feeling is that Graham, the owner and CFI, won't teach me at all and will be the one who will do the GST (General Skills Test). This way, they keep all the teaching and examining 'in house'. This is just supposition on my part, not anything that I have been told.
After a brief chat and introduction about my flying history, it was agreed that we would go straight to exercise 4 in the Microlight Briefing Notes book that we would be following. I didn't have a copy of my own so I made sure to purchase one. This book is divided into 17 Exercises, some of which are sub divided in to parts such as 9a and b, 10a and b, 16a and b and 17a, b and c. Exercises 12 and 13 have 13 separate sections to them, but they are not sub divided as a, b, c etc which seems odd, but never mind.
The trial flight was Exercise 3 - Air Experience. This time we should have gone back and started with Exercise 1 and 2 but Martin wanted to get going, in case the weather changed as it was right on the limit for flying the C42, so we moved on.
Exercise 4 - Effects of Controls - Ground School
First thing was a classroom briefing to cover the effects of controls. I am not going to write it all out here as this blog is not intended as a teaching tool, just a record of events. If you want to find out more, there are lots of online resources available, books and, of course, your local flying school. I am using 2 study books, "The Microlight Pilot's Handbook - 8th Edition" by Brian Cosgrave and "Microlight Fixed Wing Briefing Notes" from Flylight Airsports Ltd, based out of Sywell Aerodrome, Northampton.
From here we proceeded to the aircraft and settled in. We followed through the start up process. Everything is listed on a Checklist that is kept beside the P1 seat. This gives you a step by step process to follow and also saves you having to learn it by heart. All aircraft, and I mean all, from microlights up to passenger jets use these checklists, so they are not just something to help students, they are an 'aid memoire' to ensure all steps are correctly followed!
NB - as a reminder to me all the switches are Up for on and Down for Off!
Exercise 5 - Taxiing
This was the first challenge. To steer the aircraft you use your feet on the rudder pedals, whilst keeping the stick in the full back position. The natural response is to move the stick when you move your feet, but this has no effect. It was not as easy as I thought it would be, but I am sure it will become second nature the more I do it. You have to taxi at the start and end of every flight, so there will be plenty of practice!
We proceeded to cross runway 33 to a safe area to complete the run up checks. Once complete, we did a back taxi to the end of runway 33 and were finally away.
Exercise 4 - Effects of Controls - In The Air
As previously mentioned, the wind was quite strong and close to the flying limit for the C42. This is from the C42 handbook
- must not be flown in conditions of moderate turbulence or above, or in winds exceeding 22 kts, at surface level, less if gusty.
Martin preceded to do through the effects of the controls, as we had discussed in the ground school session, demonstrating the effect and then letting me have a try. My feeling was that it was a bit too windy to really feel the effects but, again, I will have plenty of airtime to get use to them. This flight was all about demonstrating what each of the controls does and their primary and secondary effects. Do I remember all this from the flight, no not really. I will need to read the briefing notes to refresh my memory, which is what they are there for!
During the flight, Martin kept pointing out landmarks for me to try and get my bearings, but it took me a long time to see things. He pointed out RAF Keevil, which is massive tarmac runway, and it took me 30 seconds or more to see it! The world looks very different from the air and it will take some getting used to!
It was finally time to head back and join the circuit. It was still very gusty towards the ground but Martin got us down without a hitch.
Final job was to complete my log book and get it signed and to pay some money.
Charges
The way you are charged is based on the engine run time and this is recorded on a Hobbs meter. You are paying by the minute from the time you start the engine to the time you turn it off. Air time is irrelevant, as you could just be practicing taxi procedure, but you are still using fuel and engine time. I was charged for 65 minutes of engine time although the flight time was only about 45 minutes, so 20 minutes was spent on the ground doing checks. Martin made the point that if I had been learning out of Staverton, I could also waste more time in a queue waiting for a take-off slot, so that is more time on the ground and less in the air. I must admit that this hadn't really occurred to me and is another plus point for learning at Clench Common.
Kneeboards
Just a quick note on kneeboards. I wanted something that was small enough to use in the C42, that I could take notes on but could also hold my iPad for Skydemon. I purchased a Design4Pilots A5 sized, iPad 4 version. The only issue I could see was that it opened to the right to reveal the iPad underneath and that would interfere with the control stick, that is centre mounted in the C42.
Before trying the Design4Pilots kneeboard, I also purchased a CB3-D kneeboard from Pooleys Aviation. This one is a little bigger than the first, but opens up to the left, so away from the control stick. It also contains several plastic pockets which may be useful. I will try this board next time I fly so I can decide which one works the best. It means I have 2 to choose from!
Purchases this post
Design4Pilots Kneeboard - £44.95
Pooleys CB3-D Kneeboard - £41.22
GS Aviation Student Membership - £40
Microlight Briefing Notes - £20
Flight - £140.88
Totals
Total Costs = £917.39
Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05
Total Hours Icarus C42 = 2.05 hours
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