Sunday, April 2nd. Cancelled;
torrential downpour. Now that's more like the England
we know and love. So far, my Sunday lesssons are 0 for
2. If I were a religious person I might take that as a
sign, but I'm not so I don't.
Saturday, April 15th. Today
would've been dad's 78th birthday. It's a fabulous day;
sunny and warm. There's hardly any traffic on the motorway,
which I suppose is due to the holiday weekend. It only
takes me 20 minutes to get to Barton.
Today we're in a C152, the differences being that the
flaps only go to 30° instead of 40° as they do
in the 150, the flap switch is gated, and there are an
additional 20 horses under the cowling. Pre-flight as
usual, and this time I get to do the start-up and my first
radio call to the tower. Tony writes down what I need
to say, then calls the tower and warns them it's my first
radio call. This should be good. I hope they can understand
a Canadian accent. "Barton information this is Gulf-Bravo-Hotel-Romeo-Bravo
taxiing for departure, information Gulf, QNH 1006 for
a local flight". I manage to get through that okay,
though I have no idea what "information Gulf, QNH
1006" means. "Romeo-Bravo, details correct.
Taxi to station Alpha 3 and hold". Cool. "Romeo-Bravo
taxiing to Alpha 3" I reply and off we go. We wait
briefly for a passing micro-light to get in the queue
in front of us. A derogatory comment about "toy airplanes"
pops into my head, but I decide not to voice it since
the micro-light pilot can undoubtedly outfly me blindfolded
and with both arms broken. After we do our engine run-up
and instrument check, I note that a Pitts Special has
joined the queue behind us, and I wonder if I would have
the stomach for aerobatics. One step at a time. Not surprisingly,
given the weather and the fact that it's a holiday weekend,
it's pretty busy at Barton and we have a bit of a wait
to get in the air. Tony does the takeoff as there's only
a brief window between landing aircraft and we need to
get on the runway and out of the way as soon as possible.
We do a quick recap on the previous lesson, with the added
demonstration of how flaps degrade the rate of climb,
another revelation for me. Flaps allow you to fly slower
and will give you a shorter takeoff run, but they also
cause the airplane to climb slower. Hmmm.... interesting,
but it makes sense when I think about it. Rate of climb
is a measure of time and distance, so if we fly slower
it seems reasonable that it takes longer to get to a given
height, even with the added lift of the flaps.
We then head to the coast and climb to 4000 feet for a bit of work on powered
descents. I can see Blackpool Tower off in the distance and remark how crowded
Blackpool undoubtedly is. At this point it's a bit of guesswork for me as
I need to pick what I think will be a suitable power setting to give us
a descent at a certain speed. Experience will take the guesswork out of
it eventually I imagine but at the moment I have to try one or two different
settings for each speed he gives me. It's a good lesson on how much the
power setting governs our rate of climb or descent rather than using the
elevators as I would have thought. Attitude controls our speed, throttle
our height. Bizarre but, again, it makes sense when I think about it. Apparently
I didn't do a lot of thinking about such things before.
After this we move on to turning; co-ordinating ailerons and rudder more
specifically. Tony demonstrates turning just using the ailerons and proves
that you need both to make a nice smooth turn. Turning hard left and right
alternatively, the nose is all over the place, we're shoved from side to
side in our seats and the little ball in the turn and bank indicator shows
us to be skidding in the turns. It's kind of fun actually but doesn't make
for pretty flying. In fact, it looks not unlike my crosswind takeoff! Now
I have a go at it. Raise one wing to check the blind spot and then over
into a 30° bank to starboard; rudder into the turn and rudder out again.
Hmmm.... not bad. Same again for a turn to port. Easier than I thought it
would be actually. Maybe the co-ordination I gained with all those years
of drumming helps? And then again, maybe it's just not that difficult. Either
way, I like it! We fly back to base and again I fly us in the circuit and
on to final. This time I fly the plane to just before the flare out and
then follow along as Tony brings it in. Again I'm told I'm doing well and
not for the first time I think how much different it would have been learning
to fly from my stepfather. Not a pleasant experience at all I imagine.
Next lesson is turning in climbs and descents and an introduction to stalling.
*Gulp* I can't say I'm looking forward to that part to be honest.
Back to Lesson 3
Lesson 5: Stalls