Extra260 Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 After several weeks of truly cr@p weather, I actually managed a flight out to the training area today The last few weeks have been very frustrating, not a whole lot of rain, just lots of days with low cloud and fog. The fog has been so bad even IFR flights were not allowed. I had several trips to the airport lately hoping the fog would clear, and all I managed was a "checkout" on the coffee machine \ The tower offered us runway 35, even though the wind was 290deg at 10kts (easier for sequencing) so I got to do a rare (at YSCB anyway) crosswind take of. It's amazing how much aileron you can hold into the wind all the way till you are airborne, feels very unnatural. Right turn at 500ft AGL, cleared to the Kings training area via Bungendore. I fluffed my departure call.. been a while and managed to get my tongue in a knot Today's lesson was Practice Forced Landings. I struggled a bit, field selection is really difficult when it all looks like tiger country. Several times I thought I had a nice flat spot, setup the approach only to find there's a fence or ditch running across it, or it's not actually flat bit up/down hill. I think after reading the ATC flight training manual on PFL's last night, I was too focused on flying the pattern with high key, low key etc, when in reality it just wasn't always appropriate, and a better option was straight ahead (with s turns to lose height). The only plus I found today was the controlled burn near Bungendore which made figuring out the wind direction a breeze (sorry, pun intended). My inbound approach call was good. The wind was around 15kts+ at 290 when we were heading back, barely managing 90kts cruise. We had a laugh when approach control cleared us for visual approach to rwy 30, and then asked us to "maintain best speed" I read back the approach clearance and told them we were already making best speed! TAV is lacking any sun visors, which made the approach rather difficult due to sun position. I just pointed the aircraft at black mountain and then the south end of the lake until I could see the runway, ended up just where I wanted to be, lined up nicely about 3 miles out. Terry asked for and got approval to exit via taxiway Kilo, so he asked me to land on the intersection with 35 (to avoid a long taxi), the sun made the approach and flare difficult as I couldn't see the ASI and height judgment was difficult. The flare was slightly longer than usual, but the landing was one of my better ones in the end. No idea what the landing speed was but it felt slightly fast. Overall I wasn't too happy with my performance, way too indecisive on choosing a field, too slow with drills and check lists, need to remember to verbalise the passenger briefing rather than gloss over it (required during the test). I booked again for next week, more pfl's or crosswind circuits depending on the weather. Vincent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Good to see you got out Vincent. I had a lesson booked for Tuesday arvo but came down with a cold - something that hasn't happened to me in about a decade! I rescheduled for tomorrow arvo but my throat is still a bit gummed up so I tried rebooking. The best I could manage is Sunday next week! The late afternoon approaches on to 30 are a bit bright aren't they! I had the same problem of having no idea what my airspeed was and having to find the ground by feel. It's a bit scary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extra260 Posted June 26, 2009 Author Share Posted June 26, 2009 Good to see you got out Vincent. I had a lesson booked for Tuesday arvo but came down with a cold - something that hasn't happened to me in about a decade! I rescheduled for tomorrow arvo but my throat is still a bit gummed up so I tried rebooking. The best I could manage is Sunday next week! The late afternoon approaches on to 30 are a bit bright aren't they! I had the same problem of having no idea what my airspeed was and having to find the ground by feel. It's a bit scary. Yeah, they have more instructors than aircraft, some school or tafe has booked 4 aircraft at 12pm for 2hrs every day for the next 2 weeks. I've managed to book for 10am Tues, couldn't get any other time as they were booked out. I was hoping to book 2 or three lessons a week for a few weeks to get me back up to speed and catch up on lost time. Vincent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted June 26, 2009 Share Posted June 26, 2009 Ah ... that's why Kay said Terry was available next Wednesday but there wasn't a plane! I thought about the 10am Tuesday spot but having just had three days off sick I really should catch up on some work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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