David's Flight Adventures

I was on a half day from work today and the weather around Cheltenham was not looking that favourable.  It wasn’t rain, but wind.  Microlights are not very heavy so have a lower operating threshold to larger GA aircraft.  In the C42 manual, it has a maximum wind speed of 22 kts. and a maximum crosswind of 15 kts.  However, Dave says it will still fly in much stronger winds but it would not be wise to do so. When I got to the airfield at about 1:30pm, the wind had died down a lot.  Dave was up in the air with another student so I had time to have a coffee and also read and sign the 2020 club rules and regulations.  There is nothing in there that should be a surprise to anyone and it is all common sense. Once I had had my coffee and Dave had had his lunch, we got started.    Lesson 10B – Stalls (Continued) This lesson was a review and continuation of the previous lesson where we had started to look at stalls.  Martin had demons...

Today the lesson was going to be a bit of a refresher of lesson 10a, Slow Flying and Incipient Stalls, and also some consolidation of climbing and descending turns.  I hadn't flown for nearly 4 weeks due to my last lesson being cancelled and I needed to settle back in to it. The wind was also a little stronger today than the last time I flew, so I didn't do the take off or landing, which was a good thing as it was a bit turbulent during both!  I did the climb away from about 200 ft and also flew the circuit before landing, with guidance.  This is all good preparation for section 12 and 13, Take Off, Circuits and Landing.  However, I have section 11, Spin Awareness, to do first! I was asked to get G-CKVG out of the hanger and do the pre flight check, including gurgling the engine.  Martin then taxied it over to the club house for me to fuel it up.  Once done, we ran through the start up checks, taxied to the cross runway to do our run ups, then back taxi...

Unfortunately my last lesson, scheduled for the 25th October, was cancelled due to the weather.  It was horrible and pretty much rained most of the day.  I had booked the day off work and ended up taking myself out to lunch to the AV8 restaurant at Cotswold Airport (Kemble), just to try and get some element of aviation in.  However, there was no flying going on, but at least I got out. Cancellation for the weather may be a recurring theme during the winter months, but we will have to see.  Perhaps it will be a good time to do some study and get some of the theory exams out of the way.  They have to be done anyway, but I have to be careful not to do them too early or I may have to re-sit them.  I think you have up to 24 months from the date you pass the last exam to apply for your licence.  I have 5 exams to do, and the General Skills Test, so I could do 4 of them over winter and then leave the last one to allow for the qualifying period to be elongat...