PPL Lesson #9: Circuits
Just got back from easily my best and most enjoyable lesson so far. Apologies in advance for the long write up - you might want to grab a cuppa :)
The subject of the day (and many more days to come) was circuits. We’d taken care of the briefing outside of the lesson to maximise flying time, so - after a quick check that I knew not to just whack in the throttle without cleaning up flaps and carb heat on a touch and go - off we went into the circuit.
It was relatively quiet at Blackbushe for most of the lesson today, with typically only one other aircraft in the circuit. On my first circuit I’d dropped ~100ft below circuit height at the end of downwind, which meant I had some work to do on base and final to get back on the glide slope. Being self critical I’d say the landing was a little firm, but my instructor seemed happy enough and it was a massive improvement over the one landing (or not) from last lesson.
The second circuit was much better in terms of height control and the landing was properly buttery smooth, evoking uncharacteristic oohs and ahhs from the right seat. I felt totally in control and comfortable on the approach, and while it was slightly right of centre if I can execute all my future landings like that I’ll be happy.
At some point - I think it was our 4th circuit , but who knows?! - I rounded out too high, and although the round out itself and the hold off were good we were far too high above the runway. I could see it - and more importantly my instructor could see it and wanted me to learn my own lesson - but I didn’t call the go around as I should and we dropped a fair distance onto the runway for a very robust landing. Nothing bent or broken, and we didn’t break stride in terms of the touch and go procedure, but definitely less than ideal:. Thankfully I had time to redeem myself and shook that off quickly with a couple more okay landings: a lesson felt is a lesson learned :)
Clearly at this point my instructor decided that I was having too easy a time of it, and on climb out for circuit #6 said “engine failure”, pulled the throttle and asked me to do something about it. :pale: I’d been doing the take off emergency brief from the second lesson so the actions were burned into my brain, but we’d not brief this as part of the lesson so it came as a massive surprise. I immediately pitched for best glide and selected an apparently suitable enough field, at which point I was given the green light to resume the climb out. I’m honestly not sure I was breathing throughout the whole incident, but it reassuring that the correct actions came to me instinctively.
We did a couple more circuits before he suggested we make our 8th a full stop so we had time to practice an aborted take off, and either by luck or good judgement I repeated my buttery landing from the second circuit. Once again I wasn’t bang on centreline and in general I feel my runway alignment could use some work, but it was another massive confidence boost after last lesson.
Aborted take off practice went well after holding for an age to get a clear enough runway, and we were back to the office for debrief and some rehydration.
Aside from endless repetition of the basic circuit skills to hone consistency, the main takeaways to work on for me for today were to make a proper conscious effort to control altitude on downwind, to find a way to better get on and maintain the centreline on final and to not repeat my high round out from earlier in the lesson.
Another 58m dual time racked up today for a total of 8h07m.
Next lesson we’ll do a bit more general circuit work, with my instructor throwing in some flapless and glide landings for good measure to “keep it interesting for you” 😲