My Flying

Arrived at 9:30am and everything was very quiet. Took a nice 42 minute P2 seat flight in one of the another member's Dimona motor glider. Did alright on the takeoff, practiced some thermalling and a few steepish turns. Nice and cheap and only really needed to pay for petrol.

The instructor F(3) arrived at 1:00pm and we wheeled out the Twin Astir and walked it out to 26L after first having sorted out the winch. After the DI and pre-flight checks I tried my first real take-off, dropped a wing, went skew and generally stuffed up. After an extended 8 minute flight the circuit was skipped and we swooped in. The whole approach was new to me, skipped the circuit, came it at 90° to the threshold then a hard right and planted it. All very unsuccessful on my part, mainly along the lines of pulling back too hard on the stick in the flare and getting the plane to balloon up.

The wind started to pick up while the cable break from the previous launch was sorted out and was blowing SW at about 30 km/h gusting rather strongly at times. During the last two flights the wind would sometimes rather violently yaw the aircraft, but nothing I couldn't handle.

The second take off went much better, 5 minutes later we were back. Really mucked up the landing. Apparently I was too slow with the brakes out. Third take off wasn't bad and the landing 6 minutes later was barely o'k, but the best of the three. We did a normal left hand circuit this time. All-in-all good quality time, especially considering that I was the only student there. Three winch launches and 19 minutes totalled 139,20ZAR.

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.

Nice rainy day = no flying.

Nice clear morning with a gentle North Westerly blow. Arrive at the airfield at 9:30 and wait for the instructor to arrive. One of the Falke's wing wheels is flat and much time is spent getting it fixed.

Do a full pre-flight DI (daily inspection) with instructor F(1) and learn a few interesting things, such as what a magneto is and what it does.

Once it's my turn, after a walk around, we go though all the checks in the cockpit. Radios off, magnetos off, master switch to on, choke in (warm start), brakes on, magnetos to on, "clear prop", turn the ignition key and hit the starter switch. Fires first time. I taxi to the start of runway 26R where we do the routine CB SIT C BUF and then instructor gets us airborne.

At about 500 feet I take control and the instructor throttles the engine back to 2400 rpm. At 2000 feet we set the altimeters to QNH and reduce the revs to 2200 rpm, which is optimal cruising speed. I practice some medium turns and try out some thermaling. We watch as another glider is towed up to about 3500 feet where he releases and gives us a nice aerobatic display with a few loops and rolls.

After that the instructor demonstrates a tight turn to me. Took me a bit by surprise as it was at least 70° to the horizon and I could feel some nasty g's. I try a few, progressively getting tighter and tighter and remember to pull back on the stick and to keep the nose up.

He then demonstrates a power on and a power off stall and recovery, which I then also attempt. Went rather well. The plane reacts so calmly. Lift the nose about 20°, the speed bleeds off, at about 70 km/h it starts to gently vibrate, then the nose drops. Push the stick forward, get some speed and it's all over.

After about 25 minutes my motion sickness sets in and I head for home. The instructor talks me through the circuit, but he does most the work. I try the flaring part and it went off o'k, I just couldn't judge my height very well and it felt a lot higher than what it was.

All in all a very worthwhile ½ hour at about 155ZAR.