Blog – PPL Exercises 03/09/2023
Today was an overcast day with cloud base at 3000ft. The plan was to carry out several manoeuvres to mix up the session.
We took off to the North and headed out to Sir Peter Jackson’s home.
This is an absolutely awesome place which the locals nick-name “The Castle”. After doing some steep turns around said “Castle” we tracked back to the aerodrome to run thru a standard overhead join.
Due to our active runway having a right hand circuit I did a reverse turn on the non-circuit side and dropped down to circuit height.
Once at circuit height I joined the downwind leg of the circuit and the rest was standard base onto final.
I was fairly impressed with my first landing and as we climbed out my FI thru a simulated engine failure on me. However I failed to push the nose down enough and we ran ran out of speed rather quickly. Ok note taken sir.
On our next circuit I again landed quite well and my FI repeated the engine failure simulation. This time I pushed the nose down with assertion and had the Tecnam at 68kts almost instantly. “Well done” said my FI at the end of the exercise.
My next two circuits were all good and on the centreline. I was having an excellent time of it.
Finally my FI said “lets try a flapless one”. OK sir I haven’t done that for ages but as I’m feeling like a superstar, I’ll give it a crack!
I extended the downwind longer than usual and turned final right on track. I was so used to flicking the flap switch that my FI had to cover it with his hand so I didn’t automatically try. Ah muscle memory!
I came in at 65kts which is the speed for flapless landings in this aircraft. Over the threshold and commenced the round out and flare as normal. Due to being at 65kts plus not having the “barn doors” down we floated, and floated, down the runway. However I kept the nose attitude in the right place and the aircraft landed quite nicely.
We then backtracked down the runway and came to a stop at holing point Bravo.
Suddenly my FI said: Do you want to do one by yourself? Oh boy did I!…..
Aircraft: ZK-DOY (Tecnam P2002 Sierra)
Total Time: 1.0
Landings: 4
Go-arounds: 0
Visual Approaches: 4
Until next time….
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Blog – PPL Exercises 03/09/2023