Extra260 Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Back in the saddle again today. A nice clearish sky, a typical frosty cold winters morning, freshening winds, 8kts at 130deg. The aircraft today was WWS, the slowest of the 3 C150's, but at least it has sun visors When finally got through the traffic jam caused by the long running roadworks around the airport (which seems to be getting worse), Terry had already been out and turned all the C150's into the sun to melt the ice off the windscreens! We topped up the tanks and then did our runups while waiting for our airways clearance. Terry then demonstrated that the cabin heat was inoperable... pulled it out far enough to see the cable attached. Not a good day to be without heat After a short delay, we received our clearance and headed off to Rwy 12. We were cleared via Mills Cross.. off to the Kings training area. There was some broken cloud at 5000, still vmc but enough to make life a little difficult when doing steep turns, much easier to do when there's a horizon to look at! We did a few 360 turns at 60deg bank angle.. I was pleased with how they went since it's been a while since I did any. I was glad I didn't have big breakfast! Then we did some figure 8's, much harder to get right but I did ok. Then Terry demonstrated recovery from a spiral dive, something that can easily occur in a steep turn. Basically common sense, power to idle, wings level, ease out of the dive without stressing the airframe, making sure not to exceed Vne (doesn't take much of a dive to get close to it!). Then it was my turn, recovered ok but I wasn't as gentle on the recovery as I should have been, but didn't break anything or hit the ground so a good result \ It's easy to see how someone could spiral into the ground in imc, it doesn't take long to lose 3000ft. On the way back we had time for one Practice Forced Landing, over some rather tigerish looking country.. did the checks ok, made the pretend maday call and passenger briefing, went to reach for flap on the base leg and Terry did his usual "oh your flaps just failed, electrical problem", bugger, no way I would make the field, even doing some serious side slipping we were too high and too fast. I chose a field off to the left, crosswind but long enough and we would have made it ok. I didn't go too low as I didn't want to upset the cattle in the paddock and annoy the farmer . It was a good example of how things can go wrong in a forced landing... make a plan and try to execute it, but don't be afraid to change if it isn't panning out as you had planned. Then Terry said head back via Bungendore.. I was doing a climbing 360 turn, and for a minute or two I had no idea where we were (all part of Terry's plan to get me lost!).. until I saw the wind farm on the south end of Lake George (thanks greenies!), pointed the nose towards a small hill, and sure enough there was Bungendore just beyond the hill. Called approach for our inbound airways clearance, and they reply "descend to 3500 and contact the tower for clearance as the radar is about to be shutdown!"... hmmm called the tower with the same inbound call.. cleared direct to canberra not above 3500 for a visual approach, R455 (army shooting range restricted below 2700) was active. Then we hear the tower trying to raise the company 210, no response and no paint from their transponder.. they were calling on the NDB and ground freq's... Terry tried calling the instructor (Robbie) flying the 210 but his mobile was out of service! Eventually Robbie reponded, saying he had a radio problem. We were cleared to land on Rwy 17, something I have never done before (I flew the approach to 17 in my second lesson but didn't do the landing), it's a nice loooooong runway! The tower asked us to exit via taxiway mike, which is past the intersection with 12, so I landed close to the intersection, and then tower told us to hold short of the intersection so the 210 could land on 12. When I left they had the 210's cowl open looking at the electrics. All in all, an enjoyable lesson (my feet took a while to defrost), still need to work on pfl's, Terry say's it's the hardest part of the GFPT flight test and we'll be getting plenty more practice on them before the test. Next flight, tomorrow morning - must remember to wear warmer socks Vincent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Anderson Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 Fantastic stuff Vincent, I'll never forget the first 360 turn at a 60* bank angle I experienced, the food/drink you've just digested decides to come back up and you feel like you weigh twice as much! Don't know how I'm going to go with forced landings when I get to them, all there is is houses around Moorabbin Good luck with your lesson tomorrow, make sure you get one of the 152's that has a heater! Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted July 7, 2009 Share Posted July 7, 2009 WWS's lack of a heater is pretty much why I came down on Saturday. I felt like doing a couple more circuits but couldn't feel my feet on the ruder pedals anymore. In strong crosswinds that wasn't nice! Sounds like an interesting flight. I'm damed tempted to try and get one more lesson in before I'm away all next week. I mean, I just had a 3 week break from flying through a cold and the weather so it's not like I'm breaking my "once each 2 weeks" rule ... is it ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Bosch Posted July 8, 2009 Share Posted July 8, 2009 Bugger .... called on the off chance something was available and now I'm booked in for 3pm tomorrow. This stuff is addictive. The budget isn't going to like me very much this month Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Extra260 Posted July 8, 2009 Author Share Posted July 8, 2009 Bugger .... called on the off chance something was available and now I'm booked in for 3pm tomorrow. This stuff is addictive. The budget isn't going to like me very much this month LOL! Good job you didn't book for today, weather's closing in.. we were only just visual at 4000 on our way back in this morning... full report to come Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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