Lesson 13 - 9th July

As of the 4th July 2020, the UK Government has eased lockdown restrictions and now dual flying, which includes flying instruction, can now take place.  Naturally, my flying school, G S Aviation, is taking it very seriously and there are various rules and restrictions in place.  These are sensible measures to protect me and all the staff at the school.

All flying is being booked in 2 hour slots and we are not allowed to be there unless we are booked in.  We must arrive no more that 10 minutes before and leave straight away afterwards.  We have to wear a mask and gloves at all times and wear our own headsets.  The aircraft also have to be wiped down after uses, meaning the controls, seatbelts, door handles and so on.  It all makes sense and is a small thing to go through to get back to flying.

I haven't flown since 14th March, so this lesson will be more about familiarisation than anything else.  

The weather on the day was very mixed, but after a couple of calls to the airfield I took the plunge and headed out.  Once there we again looked at the impending rain and low cloud.  We pre-flighted the C42, filled her with fuel and got ready to go.  Just as we did, the rain clouds rolled in and we decided to wait.

A quick retreat to the briefing room to go over circuits and 15 minutes later we were ready to go again.

Review and Circuits

After an unorthodox take off with a right hand circuit from runway 2 5, we headed to some clearer skies.  We did some straight and level flight, including differing speeds, left and right hand turns, climbing and descending turns and incipient stalls.  These were all to help me get a feel for flying again.  I have to admit I was very tense throughout the flight and had a bad tendency to grip the stick too hard to the point I was either pushing it all the time or pulling it all the time, instead of trimming the aircraft and letting it do the flying.  I am hoping that this will get better, as I really didn't enjoy this at all.

Once we were ready, and the rain over the airfield had passed through, we returned and looked at the circuit.  I have described this in detail in a previous post so I won't go in to it here.  Hasten to say, I was not very comfortable with it and made numerous errors.  It really is something that will only come with lots and lots and lots of practice.

Overall, I wasn't too happy with my performance but Dave, my instructor, said I did really well considering I hadn't flown for nearly 4 months.  I have got myself booked in every week now right up to the end of August so I am hoping that more regular flying will help me.

Purchases this post

Lesson £157.50 - 1 Hour 10 minutes

Totals

Total Costs = £3543.91

Total Hours Icarus C42 = 12 hours 50 minutes

Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05



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