David's Flight Adventures

I was back with Dave Slater today and we carried on with circuits, touch and go's and landings.  The wind was between 5 and 10 kts and pretty much down runway 25 again, so the same as last week.  However, today was very thermic which made things quite bumpy and the aircraft was being moved about quite a bit. Overall, it wasn't too bad, considering the conditions but there were a number of takeaways. Circuit pattern was good but I have to watch my speed and altitude.  I ranged from 300 feet to 800 feet on the down wind leg and the circuit height is 500 feet so I have to be careful to maintain that. Checks and radio calls were good.  I tried to follow what I had written down for both of these. Turning on to final was OK but I was not always lined up on the centre line. I was in reasonable control of the speed coming in and was applying power when needed.  It got better as the hour went by. Round out and landing was not good.  I have a tendency to pull the sti...

It was another overcast day today, but it was quite calm so was perfect for circuits.  Today I was with Martin as my instructor and we were flying Charlie Oscar.  This is the oldest of the C42s in the GS Aviation fleet and will soon be up for renewal, possibly sometime later this year or early 2021.  This is what they do once the aircraft has reached a certain number if hours.  Accordingly, it is showing its age with a handheld radio and the headsets are multi-pin plug in types.  This was a bit annoying as I took delivery of my new Bose A20 headset today so was unable to use them.  It meant I was stuck with a club passive headset, which was horrible!  Oh well, next time, hopefully. The whole idea today was to carry on from last week and to just do circuits, and keep doing them.  As I think I have mentioned before,  circuits are quite full on when you are training and learning.  A whole circuit from take off to landing probably only last ...

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...