Lesson 14 - 15th July

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 3 or 4 minutes so you can do quite a few in an hour, and that is just what we did.

It was full on for the hour and I did 3 take offs from stopped and multiple touch and goes.  To be honest, I have no idea how many of the later I did, but I would guess at least 10, maybe 12.  As the hour went on, I was starting to get the hang of it and it was certainly better than last week.  Martin did say it was pretty good considering the 4 month layoff.   I felt more relaxed than I was last week and I was consciously trying to make sure I was more precise with the controls, especially trying not to keep pushing on the stick and letting the aircraft do the flying.

As I went round each part of the circuit, I was talking myself through what I was doing and Martin commented that he found that useful to hear my thought process.  I must admit that it helps me if I do this as well!

The whole day was a positive one and the icing on the cake was that Martin thought that I was getting close to going solo.  He thought another hour of circuits and I could be ready.  I am not that confident myself, but if I could do it in another 2 or 3 hours I think I would be happy.  Even the atmosphere around the club seemed more relaxed than last week.  There were a few more people around with a lot more flying going on.  All 3 C42s were up and also a privately owned Thruster.  

Purchases this post

Lesson £135 - 1 Hour

Totals

Total Costs = £3678.91

Total Hours Icarus C42 = 13 hours 50 minutes

Total Hours PA-28 = 1.05


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