My Flying

Not the band, but the k@k going on in my head. It was a wonderfully sunny day, calm wind and some weak thermal activity. I had four amazing flights where I did everything required of me, but at the end of the day I heard those freaking dreaded words AGAIN, "almost there, just a few things to brush up". My f#uck, if I hear that again I'm going to explode. [/end of tantrum]

I was introduced to incipient spins. The Twin does not spin very easily and requires a hefty hand to encourage it to go incipient. The instructor F(2) demonstrated two left incipient spins, after of course carefully explaining all the theory behind it, then asked me to correct the third, which I did. I took a little too long to pull out of the dive, but I was a little worried that pulling back too much on the stick might yank the wings off.

It's actually pretty easy to get the plane to go incipient once you know how: Fly at about 90 km/h (just above the stall), pull back hard on the stick then add full rudder (left in this case), keep the rudder in until the plane is pointing well down towards the earth below.

To recover: give full opposite rudder until the rotation stops (happens pretty immediately) then pull back on the stick firmly but, gradually at first, to get out of the dive before the speed gets too high. Then use this speed to gain as much height as possible.

Flights one and two were short at 4 minutes each and included some tight turns and incipient spins. The third flight took us 32 minutes to crawl our way up to 2500 feet. I performed another four incipients, both left and right.

The fourth flight was a cable break at just below 200 feet, which unfortunately I was totally expecting. During the launch I felt the instructor take hold of the release knob, about two seconds before he pulled it. I handled it very well, nose down to 90 km/h then full brakes. Only problem was that on the way down I hesitated and tucked away some brake as I felt that we were too slow. He later explained that the speed was still ok as our attitude was fairly sharp downward and thus there was no risk of stalling.

With all four flights I rounded out and touched down very well and without any help. The last, with the cable brake, was a little bumpy (two I think) as we came down with full brakes and I must have flared just a little too late because we bounced.

An absolutely fantastic day of flying in which I learnt a stack. The bummer is that how long will I need to wait again before the weather is right and the instructor has the right attitude to send me solo? Could be a week, could be a year. Four flights, 177ZAR.

What is an incipient spin? Well my crude understanding is that basically it is the start of spin, the yaw and nose down as the wing stalls and drops.

From what we did today in the Twin I would say that this was more the initialisation of a spiral dive than a spin, mainly because the nose was almost pointing vertically down.

Pretty ordinary day, dulled by the fact that, bar for the instructor, none of the duty crew arrived for *cough, excuse me* duty. So it was a hard day's work for the three of us, all students, at the airfield what with operating the winch, retrieving the cable, fixing cable breaks and retrieving and towing two gliders.

I thought my flying went very well, though the instructor was not happy with my non-standard circuits. Pity, as for all three flights I planned the circuit and landed us without any drama or backseat assistance.

I generally like to turn base a little earlier, and thus higher, then loose some height on base, close the brakes, turn finals then loose the rest of the height. This just feels more comfortable for me than a long final. Only trick is that you need to line the runway up quicker, but this is not a problem for me.

Again I was reminded that every instructor wants something different and that this constant rotation of instructors definitely makes it more difficult to learn to fly, as you are constantly fed with different and sometimes conflicting information. Three flights equalling 23 minutes with instructor F(6) from 26L (146,40ZAR).

Just a quick report back.

Had three short flights with instructor F(5). All three landings were very good and the ground rolls interesting, and long, as the wheel brake was not functioning. My last landing on 16R was an absolute greaser. Put her down just in the correct spot and flared perfectly. Even the instructor was impressed. Three flights, 24 minutes at 148,20 ZAR.

I'm starting to learn how to judge when to pull back on the stick during the landing, rather well now. The looking ahead at the horizon method doesn't work for me, I look down, straight at the ground, and when it gets too close I pull back.

Ever have one of those weird days where things don't quite feel right? Nothing is wrong, but you are there, but not there, if you know what I mean. Today was one of them. I was there, the day passed and now I'm home, with some stuff in between.

First launch was from 26L where the winch promptly decided to die just as the ground roll started. Caught me unawares and I needed to duck as the parachute opened and narrowly missed the canopy.

The second launch was excellent practice at a slow launch, and I mean really slow. Best I could do was to keep the plane between 80 and 90 km/h. I dared not signal too slow (level off and rock wings - don't tell the SSSA) as we were going way too slow and were very low. Back on the ground, after a glide down from 700 feet, the instructor F(1) informed me that he wasn't happy as I should have kept the plane at least at 100 km/h in the climb, especially during the initial climb. Fair enough; it didn't seem as if I was climbing to steeply.

Landings one and two went off very well, but my circuit planning was not great. I miss judged things a bit and landed very deep. For my third flight we moved runways to 16L. Shortly after the launch to 900 feet I found some lift over the winch and was eager to explore it. The wind however kept pushing me over the circuit and the ridge. As I was there to practice circuits, I joined and landed.

Today my landings went off very well, but my circuit planning was not as good as it should have been. Again, three steps forward and two (ok, one) back. Three flights, 17 minutes ZAR135,60.