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...

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...

Kneeboard No 4 The saga continues and I suppose it serves me right for not investigating more.  When I ordered the last version of the Design4Pilots Kneeboard I ordered the A5 size and what I really needed was the A6 size which is, finally, the right size and the right one for me.  I really should put the others up on eBay and recover some money, but I am not sure I can be bothered and I may see if I can donate them to a flying charity of some sort. One other thing I did discover is that Skydemon has a notepad function built in, so it may be possible to fly with just the iPad and not use a second kneeboard for notes at all.  I am not sure how practical that is, but we will see. QuizAero QuizAero is an online study course for the NPPL and PPL.  I have purchased the NPPL course.  It covers all the 5 exams: Air Law, Meteorology, Human Performance, Aircraft Technical and Navigation.  It also includes Radiotelephony (RT) as well.  It is valid for 6...

Headset One of the biggest single purchases you will make, other than an actual aircraft or share, will be a good quality aviation headset of your own.  It is all very well using the school/club headsets, but they are not the best of quality, they are not usually ANR (Automatic Noise Reduction), and you don't know who has been wearing them and spitting in to the microphone! Anyway, after a lot of research, and after having tried the Bose A20's, I have taken the plunge and purchased a set of the SEHT SH10-X's.  In a previous post I mentioned about going to the LAA Rally where I was able to talk to a distributor for Bose and try on a pair of A20's.  They were OK but, for me, they weren't that comfortable.  I think it was the folding headband.   I was also able to talk to the boss of SEHT and try some of their various designs including the flagship model, the SH10-X.  These were lighter and more comfortable than the Bose A20's and fitted me a lot b...