Congrats Dieselfan
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afskies scribe
- The sky is all mine
- Posts: 477
- Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:50 pm
- Location: Jhb
Hope your first solo landing was a greaser 
Thanks all for the congrats and putting up with my crap for last couple of months!
After postponing my license for 7 months, I recently aquired ZU-BFX
. And having saved sufficiently for my lic resumed on Monday. My next lesson 7 months ago was meant to be solo - or so I was told...
Slight off topic but related...
Monday morning my instructor and I were at Microland @ 03h30. Within minutes we shot off to Panorama close to Alberton to fetch my new baby. He had a lesson to give at 6am and we had to hurry. My boet was driving as I can't use the clutch esp on the 4x4 - my toe being broken. On the way I realised I don't have the alarm code, so off goes an SMS to the previous owner at 04h00
to which I get a reply 
. Preflight, refuel and startup in the early light. We had a pretty strong headwind, but with bar 3/4 and throttle 3/4 we had a pretty good airspeed of around 85-90mph, with occasional gusts taking us +10mph, the max I saw was 95mph. Good thing the trike has fairing as I had a slop and fibreglass cast as footwear.
Within minutes Carnival City was in sight, must say Brakpan is a very neat looking suburb. We flew quite low level as the wind was hectic and to our right smoke from the factories was almost 10-15 degrees.
Soon we flew over Petit and landed at her new home Microland. The approach was alot faster than I'm used to (bearing in mind the last time I piloted was April), coming in at 75 due to the nasty crosswind, the Aquilla I trained on was around 55
Parked my trike in the hanger and said soon baby soon.
About an hour later I had my refresher lesson with a nice excursion to Bronkies dam. Man it was awesome, no practicing circuits etc, just low flying hopping over fences, trees and following the river that feeds the dam, now in flood.
My very next lesson Thursday we had a crosswind of around 10knots and the wind sock was straight, taking off just before 8 it was quite exciting, but I want my lic and must train in the not so nice wx.
So instructor reckons ag perhaps next week we'll send you solo, ha liar. Friday morning we do 3 circuits and again I have an annoying crosswind changing about halfway down the runway due to rotor turb from the hangars. Anyways I seem to be stuffing up my landings as I keep landing with the one wheel, which causes the plane jerk straight. After the 3rd one, my instructor reckons ok lets head back to the hangars, a real kak feeling comes over me what did I stuff up now???
Anyways as we get closer to the hangars he says "Right, don't take off till I come back with the radio!", I very quickly went through a set of prayers, something like "God please don't let me crash" x 10.
Well needless to say the trike climbs like a flippin bat out of hell and about 50m past the runway I'm sitting 3-400 ft! Not to mention the thermal I caught which pushed the VSI to past 1300 and not even full thottle! Nice time to go solo . Quick radio call "I've got a problem", instructor with a hint of nervousness "What, what". "There's no-one in my backseat!". 
I got knocked around a bit by thermals and gusts and started thinking man 2 up is much easier and stable.
Anyways the landing was IMHO kak, the flare was SO sensitive, heck I could've landed with bar neutral the trike is so light. Yes I know the plane is lighter, but really didn't expect it to be THAT much of a difference.
So there was my SOLO, AWESOME, exciting and too short, I wanted to stay up forever! My landings thereafter with pax were crap, but hey atleast I survived my solo and if I didn't atleast I came prepared with my cast already on my foot.
After switching off the wind sock was not even moving - go figure! While driving off I started thinking about the pax weight diff, the trike is around 160kg. 2 pax @ 80ishkg is 50% (The sore foot has meant I go to the kitchen less). So if my car is around 2 tonns and 2 pax were 2 tonns, then with pax it would be like towing 2 caravans! When you compare the weight of a pax as a % you then begin to realise what a MicroLight is and how every kg counts!
Sorry for babbling, but right now I can't wait to get into ZU-BFX and burn some rubber.
and as Demon *would* say nothing beats flying a trike 
If I take off in BFX at night, secretly, no one sees me and I survive, can I log the hours?
Perhaps I should go cut the grass at the Harties airstrip
After postponing my license for 7 months, I recently aquired ZU-BFX
. And having saved sufficiently for my lic resumed on Monday. My next lesson 7 months ago was meant to be solo - or so I was told...Slight off topic but related...
Monday morning my instructor and I were at Microland @ 03h30. Within minutes we shot off to Panorama close to Alberton to fetch my new baby. He had a lesson to give at 6am and we had to hurry. My boet was driving as I can't use the clutch esp on the 4x4 - my toe being broken. On the way I realised I don't have the alarm code, so off goes an SMS to the previous owner at 04h00
to which I get a reply . Preflight, refuel and startup in the early light. We had a pretty strong headwind, but with bar 3/4 and throttle 3/4 we had a pretty good airspeed of around 85-90mph, with occasional gusts taking us +10mph, the max I saw was 95mph. Good thing the trike has fairing as I had a slop and fibreglass cast as footwear.Within minutes Carnival City was in sight, must say Brakpan is a very neat looking suburb. We flew quite low level as the wind was hectic and to our right smoke from the factories was almost 10-15 degrees.
Soon we flew over Petit and landed at her new home Microland. The approach was alot faster than I'm used to (bearing in mind the last time I piloted was April), coming in at 75 due to the nasty crosswind, the Aquilla I trained on was around 55
Parked my trike in the hanger and said soon baby soon.About an hour later I had my refresher lesson with a nice excursion to Bronkies dam. Man it was awesome, no practicing circuits etc, just low flying hopping over fences, trees and following the river that feeds the dam, now in flood.
My very next lesson Thursday we had a crosswind of around 10knots and the wind sock was straight, taking off just before 8 it was quite exciting, but I want my lic and must train in the not so nice wx.
So instructor reckons ag perhaps next week we'll send you solo, ha liar. Friday morning we do 3 circuits and again I have an annoying crosswind changing about halfway down the runway due to rotor turb from the hangars. Anyways I seem to be stuffing up my landings as I keep landing with the one wheel, which causes the plane jerk straight. After the 3rd one, my instructor reckons ok lets head back to the hangars, a real kak feeling comes over me what did I stuff up now???
Anyways as we get closer to the hangars he says "Right, don't take off till I come back with the radio!", I very quickly went through a set of prayers, something like "God please don't let me crash" x 10.
Well needless to say the trike climbs like a flippin bat out of hell and about 50m past the runway I'm sitting 3-400 ft! Not to mention the thermal I caught which pushed the VSI to past 1300 and not even full thottle! Nice time to go solo
. Quick radio call "I've got a problem", instructor with a hint of nervousness "What, what". "There's no-one in my backseat!". I got knocked around a bit by thermals and gusts and started thinking man 2 up is much easier and stable.Anyways the landing was IMHO kak, the flare was SO sensitive, heck I could've landed with bar neutral the trike is so light. Yes I know the plane is lighter, but really didn't expect it to be THAT much of a difference.
So there was my SOLO, AWESOME, exciting and too short, I wanted to stay up forever! My landings thereafter with pax were crap, but hey atleast I survived my solo and if I didn't atleast I came prepared with my cast already on my foot.
After switching off the wind sock was not even moving - go figure! While driving off I started thinking about the pax weight diff, the trike is around 160kg. 2 pax @ 80ishkg is 50% (The sore foot has meant I go to the kitchen less). So if my car is around 2 tonns and 2 pax were 2 tonns, then with pax it would be like towing 2 caravans! When you compare the weight of a pax as a % you then begin to realise what a MicroLight is and how every kg counts!
Sorry for babbling, but right now I can't wait to get into ZU-BFX and burn some rubber.
and as Demon *would* say nothing beats flying a trike If I take off in BFX at night, secretly, no one sees me and I survive, can I log the hours?
Perhaps I should go cut the grass at the Harties airstrip-
afskies scribe
- The sky is all mine
- Posts: 477
- Joined: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:50 pm
- Location: Jhb
You just gotta love this 
:D Nope, but one step closer. Besides I'm sure having loads of fuel, a thin PIC and a fibreglass shoe instead of plaster helpeddemon wrote:So you also have a GT450
. We were flying very close to the VNE and according to the manual I need to repitch as it was beginning to over rev - my instructor did say it was the fastest trike he ever flew in, now go show him the kwk .I will also hopefully soon check the accuracy thereof, but some pilots overseas have confirmed my figures. I know some locals have complained that since they overhauled their wing their airspeed slowed
makes me nervous.
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John Young
- The Boss
- Posts: 1973
- Joined: Tue May 24, 2005 8:38 am
- Location: Jacksonville, Florida, USA
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