Hope 2013 is going well for everyone out there. So I’ve been
up to some more flying and also took the first of seven ground exams. Alongside
all the practical training there is a lot of theory to cover in ground school.
January. Oh dear. Snow, then rain, then wind, then windy
rain. Can anyone remember how poor the weather was throughout January? Very
little was going on in the air. So I focused on getting more study done. It’s
been a while since my Uni days and I realised I’ve not actually studied
anything in a long while. It really took the old brain some cranking to get
into gear and I found it hard to retain simple facts. Anyway, after much learning
I had a bash at the first PPL theory exam – Air law. It is a bit like the
highway code of the skies. Lots of rules and regulations to pigeon learn. I passed
the exam and feel quite relieved. The subject matter is very dry and honestly I’m
glad to see the back of it. The remaining six exams are more enjoyable (I hope)
to study for. Now I’m reading for the next one and am mugging up on wing
designs and aerodynamics features of airframe construction.
In February the weather cleared up a bit and I got many
hours ‘in the circuit’. I must have scored well over 70 take offs and landings
now. Sometimes they go smoothly, others are a bit heavy. Keeping the nose up is
important. The nose wheel is weak and the back wheels must take the majority of
the impact. One day I turned up for a ‘lesson’ and my instructor, Rich, just
sent me up on my own for an hour. The plane was still intact by the end so top
marks!
Last week I had an interesting lesson where Rich insisted on
putting the aircraft into a spiralling dive and then hand over the controls.
The aim is to recover from the corkscrew safely. It’s really cool how quickly
the plane gets fast in a dive. We also practiced an engine failure and then did
some more stall recoveries. Quite a varied lesson.
So what’s next?
The next chapter in this story covers cross country
navigation. The whole point of flying is to travel from A to B safely without
getting lost. I think there’s going to be a whole lot more theory coming up for
this section. I’ve bought myself a shiny VFR map so that’s the first step
covered.
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| CRP-5 Flight Computer |
Also, I’ve acquired some other nick- nacks and aviation
goodies including this rather nifty flight computer or ‘whizzy wheel’ as it is
officially named. Hands up who’s seen a computer that doesn’t use electricity,
or have a screen. Or keyboard. No, me neither. I think they’ve stretched use of
the term computer. It’s anyone’s guess
how it to use it.
