PPL Lesson #5: Medium, climbing and descending turns

…plus a brief cameo by the Red Arrows

I managed to snag a lesson first thing this morning before the temperature started getting all melty (as I write, some parts of the UK in excess of hitting 37°C).

We briefed the lesson based on only covering medium turns, and I enjoyed the freedom of visual reference point turns and the more technical side of turns onto a heading. On the latter, for some reason - maybe this is common? - I had a tendency to overshoot the heading when turning left and undershoot when turning right. Only by 5 degrees or so, but with impressive consistency. Something to work on.

I’m sorry, who will be along in a what now?

Somewhere around this time Farnborough alerted us to keep a lookout for the Red Arrows, who were overflying the Farnborough Airshow. Looking at their planned route, they would have flown down the East and then around the South / West side of our practice area, and I wish I could say I saw them but - resisting the temptation to keep an overly vigilant lookout - we cracked into climbing and descending turns. If they passed us I didn’t see them.¹

The climbing and descending turns themselves were great fun, and much more accurate on headings with the lower target angle of bank.

Circuits and landing

Having duly followed the turning instructions I was given we (not coincidentally, I’m sure) found ourselves back over Greenham Common, so I use the disused runway (and my newfound ability to go around corners) to fly a full mock circuit and practice go around before heading back to Blackbushe for landing.

I’m pleased to say that I handled the full circuit at Blackbushe all the way back to terra firma, this time with a little less prompting from my instructor. I did have a little float before landing this time as I’d left a smidgen of throttle in when I’d meant to go idle as we came over the fence, but I got it down in one piece relatively gently on the centreline and slowed in time to take the penultimate taxiway so I’m not going to beat myself up too much.

Considering I couldn’t land a plane two lessons ago, being at the point where my instructor only took over to demonstrate an exercise is pretty weird.

Debrief

Managed a full 1h02m in the air today - must be getting quicker at the walk-around checks - which takes me to 4h22m dual time logged.

I also handled a few of the radio calls with Farnborough, which I thought was brave of my instructor given the Air Tattoo was in full flow at the time. My only brain fade came after I radioed for take-off clearance and, pen at the ready, expected to be given runway / circuit instructions and “take-off at your discretion”. I got something totally unexpected; my instructor told me it was an ask if we could take-off quickly as there was another aircraft just turning onto base leg, but I heard none of that and instead looked at my instructor with yet another “I got nothin’” look on my face. All was well, though, and I’d already booked myself on an RT workshop this weekend to hopefully help me feel more comfortable talking to strangers over the radio.

As mentioned this was my third lesson in 6 days, which is maybe a bit much but I’m away next week so wanted to make as much progress as I could before I take the inevitable backward slide that’ll come with 10+ days off. I’ve got one more lesson before then on Thursday afternoon to start Slow Flight and Stalling. Hopefully the temperatures then are more conducive to human survival when awaiting take-off clearance.

Things to remember for next time:

• Don’t book a lesson on the hottest day of the year - and potentially every - even if you book it for first thing in the morning. Melty!
• Throttle all the way out over the fence for landing
• [There was probably one more salient point, but it’s hot and I’ve lost the power of critical thought]