Blog – Compass Turns Revision 21/11/2021
Another lucky day today as I managed to get a good training session in before the forecasted rain arrived.
Departed NZPP from runway 34 and climbed to 3000ft above Otaki training area for a refresher of Compass turns.
These are done at a “Rate 1 turn” which is a gentle balanced turn of around 10-15deg which takes 2min to do a full 360.
The winds aloft were at 15-20kts and my turns were fine. The issue was getting my mental math sorted which has never been my strong suit. My FI threw in some hard ones just for good measure. Oh how I missed my planned diagram for this work!
Once this was completed my FI decided that our engine had failed. Time for a simulated forced landing without power. I placed throttle to idle and trimmed the aircraft for 70kts. After identifying a few options I pick the Otaki strip as our landing area and commenced descending onto our 1500ft mark. Not perfect but not bad either.
Once downwind I then made a circuit approach and then turned to final. Again not bad but I did drift towards the strip during my approach. Its a subconscious thing to fly towards the “safe landing”. This is something that most student pilots do so good to know for next time in that it will give me more space to operate.
Once this was completed we climbed back to 1000ft and headed for the coast to travel south back to Pararparaumu. My landing was fairly good but I tend to relax a bit early once the mains hit “Terra Firma” so I need to remember to keep the back pressure on and then let the nose come down by itself. Minor things but it all adds up to being a better Pilot. All in all not a bad training flight. Happy days!
Aircraft: ZK-KAZ (Cessna 172SP Skyhawk)
Total Time: 1.1
Landings: 1
Go-arounds: 0
Visual Approaches: 1
Until next time….
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Blog – Compass Turns Revision 21/11/2021