EK HET AMPER MIELIES GEPLOEG
Arrived bright and early at Petit Hangar number 1 this morning. I was looking forward to todays session after weather ruled out any flying on Wednesday afternoon. The usual morning routine which started with Juan taking me through some theory which was circuits, take offs and landings. Pre flighted FSE and then it was time to fly....
Now lets step back a little....When I started flying around three weeks ago the usual worries made me nervous....can I keep her in the sky? How do I handle the bumps? How do I turn, climb, descend, etc? If I stall will I fall out the sky? What about spiral dives? The fear of taking off and landing was also there but I knew I had a little time before I would attempt this in the training

I had never flown an aerie before so it took some getting used to but I am certainly getting the hang of flying straight and level, turning, climbing, descending. It was relatively easy to recover from a spiral dive and a stall. I can sorta maintain altitude and airspeed....
I have studied accounting/business extensively over the years so I am used to diving into books and learning, trouble is I tend to go in for overkill when reading up on a topic. I bought Jim Davis PPL handbook, downloaded a couple of books from the FAA web site and commenced my process of knowledge building.....

Alternating between the various books I am slowly learning all the theory BUT it sometimes seems so easy when reading when in reality it is not always so. I don't think anyone can explain how busy a cockpit gets during circuits.....radio calls, checks, airspeed, power control, climbing, turning, descending, radio calls, checks, radio calls, checks, radio calls, checks.....
Anyway back to this morning. Climbed into FSE with Juan and performed all the pre-start checks, clear, start. Some more checks, radio call..."Petit Traffic, Foxtrot Sierra Echo commencing taxi to 03 from Hangar 1". What I said in the reality was probably "ermm, ermm, Foxtrot Sierra Echo, ermm, ermm, Hangar one to 03, ermm, ermm"

So an upfront apology to all pilots in and around Petit, if you hear a confused voice is it probably me.
Taxi to the holding point was uneventful and came to a full stop at the holding point. Pre-take off checks, power check, magnetos, carb ice, etc...another jumbled radio call. Look at approach for aircraft, all clear, line up on the centre of runway 03. At this point my heart was pumping as I thought Juan was going to ask me to attempt the take off. I felt a great sense of relief when he said "I have control"....
So we commenced the take off roll, tail up, rotate and climb out. Juan took me through the first circuit, touch and go, climbing out then came the words...."you have control"

Now I am not too worried about the climb out and climbing turn into the crosswind leg BUT now I had to make the radio call, go through the checks, maintain airspeed, make sure we are still climbing, keeping the ball in the middle, etc, etc, etc. My mind was a buzz with Juan filling in the gaps where I had forgotten to do something. The rest of the circuit was a blur of all of the aforementioned....turned onto the base leg and time for the decent...now I get really nervous, is he really going to let me land this thing? My eyes were all over the place, instruments, outside. I must remember control airspeed with the elevator and rate of descent with power....keep at 65 mph...
Right, turn onto finals...radio call, checks....how the hell am I supposed to watch the ASI and VSI as well....I can feel myself tensing up....getting closer the threshold, height ok, a bit more power, controlling descent....threshold, cut power, ease back on the stick (by this time my instruments meant nothing), keep flying her, ease back and touch down. In a blink of an eye apply power, right rudder, right rudder, right rudder....take your bloody feet off the right rudder Simon. I had seemed to forget that to correct this I should apply left rudder....I see long grass approaching...sh!t....Juan stays cool and takes over. I am glad Stefan was not there to see me try and use his beloved aerie as a ploughing machine
Lesson learnt...RELAX but most of all things can go tits up rather quickly....
Did a few more circuits, steadily getting better but was relieved when we called a full stop landing

I now fully understand why I am going to do lots and lots of circuits, sure it is important to know all the basics, but if you can't take off you can't fly and if you can't land then well, we all know what the outcome is.
I learned a hell of a lot today and was quietly satisfied....
1.0 hours logged, 7.5 hours in total. Next session on Tuesday. Over and out
