David's Flight Adventures

No Martin today so my instructor was Dave Slater.  I had not flown with him since my Air Experience flight back in April, so the first thing he wanted to do was to go over where I was and what we needed to cover today.  From Martin's notes he could see where I was and that we had started to look at exercise 9b and we needed to progress with that and then on to exercise 10a, slow flight. First off a class room session to go over the 2 topics, which is covered more below.  Then he had me pre-flight the aircraft and add some more fuel.  I have done these things before, but the more you do them, the more comfortable you get with them. Take Off As the weather was favourable, Dave said it was ideal for me to try my first take off, under his control, obviously.  After all the start up and taxi checks, we back tracked on runway 2 5.  I could have gone a little bit further down to give myself the maximum runway length, but it was OK.  Once line up on runw...

Exercise 9A - Climbing and Descending Turns The aim is to enter and maintain a climb or descent whilst turning, or to enter and maintain a turn from a straight climb or decent. Climbing Turns Climb rate is reduced in a turn compared to a straight climb .  In a climb at best rate of climb speed we are at maximum efficiency.  Turning reduces this efficiency by tilting the lift force in order to produce the turning force.  Therefore we must allow for this and make sure that we do not lose airspeed in the turn. In a climbing turn there will be an over banking tendency .  This means that the aircraft wants to steepen its bank angle.  This must be resisted with a steady aileron pressure constantly applied to " hold off " the bank. If this is not controlled, it can lead to a Helix effect so the bank can become like a corkscrew effect spiralling downwards. The process to enter the climbing turn: 1. Lookout 2. Power to full 3. Climb attitude 4. 60 knots...