Blog – Handling Revision 10/09/2022
Due to external factors like illness, work, and weather, this is my first bit of flying for 2 months so I thought I would be really rusty.
Today was a beautiful clear morning with just a whiff of easterly breeze of around 2kts. I took off from RWY34@NZPP climbed to 3000ft, and set course for Otaki training area to do a more handling revision with my FI. Todays mission was to fly as accurately as possible and imagine the examiner is sitting in the right seat.
On arrival at the training area, I did my HASELLL checks (Height, Airframe, Security, Engine, Location, Lookout, Lights) before commencing with basic and approach stalls. I have not practices these since last flight and was a bit rusty but I was pleased to see that I hadn’t lost the technique too much and only lost about 100ft in the power off full stall, which is fairly good going.
Once that was ticked off we did some left and right medium level turns at 30 degrees. Again these were a bit “loose” compared to where I want to be as I have a bad tendency to be either slightly nose up or nose down. It took a few attempts to get it more accurate but got there. I refrained from staring at the instruments and tried to get the sight picture burnt into memory. Once I had that the turns were looking pretty sharp.
Happy with all of that we then descended to 1000ft and head back down the coast to NZPP for some circuit work.
We decided to practise 3 touch and goes before landing to get more climbing/descending turns, straight and level flight, and general co-ordination practice in. Circuits are great “bang for the bucks” in this respect.
First circuit was done without too much fuss with no-one in the circuit. The approach was not the best and landing was ok but still not what I was looking for as I was not too stable on final and was a bit sideways and loose on the stick (not enough pull) on landing.
My second and third landings improved markedly so was happy overall with the results given I have not flown with an instructor for 2 months.
The last approach I had it dialled in. I used pitch and power perfectly. The landing was just off centreline, but I had the nose held nice and did a wheelie all the way down the runway. That was awesome to feel the control I had in the aircraft. Not perfect (nobody ever is) It was still a great landing.
We then turned off on “Charlie”, cleaned up the flaps and extra lights, and taxied back to the aeroclub.
I was really happy with my flying today. Rather rusty at the start but improved dramatically by the end of the flight. Not perfect by any means but again I managed to raise my game, getting consistently better and more accurate, which was the mission objective.
Hopefully I can keep the momentum going. Consistency is the key!
Happy days!
Aircraft: ZK-KAL (Cessna 172SP Skyhawk)
Total Time: 1.1
Landings: 4
Go-arounds: 0
Visual Approaches: 4
Until next time….
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Blog – Handling Revision 10/09/2022