My Flying

Starts off as cool day with a clear sky and a light north-westerly blowing. Arrived early and took a flight with instructor F(5) in the Falke. Tried the take off using 34L but didn't do too well, tail was all over the place. I took over from about 200 feet and it was a very bumpy ride until just over a thousand feet. Cruised around not doing much for about 40 minutes, mostly with the motor at idle after reaching 2500 feet.

First touch and go started was way too high, as I suspected, but the instructor seriously side slipped us in with full airbrakes. Second went much better as we joined the circuit at 700 feet and not the previous 1100 feet. Rather an expensive trip at about 173,50ZAR. Not much was learned I'm afraid.

One of the problems (could be an advantage as well) when learning at a club is that you fly with a different instructor each time and thus you need also to learn their different ways of doing things. Some are very strict on pre-flight checks and others just go over it quickly. Leaned today that some instructors want the turns on base and finals to be done with airbrakes deployed, while others insist not. Adds a little to the confusion.

Decided to hang around for a flight in the Twin Astir. The previous flight was a good 25 minutes so I was hoping mine would be as well. Again I tried the take off (winch on 26L), though the instructor did a lot of work. I took over in the climb at about 400 feet and released at 1150 feet. He then took over and found a weak thermal that took ages to get us to 1300 feet climbing at about 0.5m/s.

I flew around a little, we joined the circuit at about 700 feet and I landed. He handled the airbrakes and helped me with the hold off. Landing went rather well. I tried to keep the speed up at least at 120km/h, but it dropped low twice when I was concentrating too much on the approach. He corrected the first drop and I spotted the second in time. I need to watch out for this! Cost about 58,40ZAR.