Tuesday 9 March 2010

Two Lessons in a row

Weather today cloudy, cold and it seemed like a bit less wind than yesterday.  So off to Cubair at Redhill for another lesson.  Back in the Circuit today on Runway 08L – same as yesterday.

After usual checks, taxi to hold and then onto Runway.  I did all the RT calls to Redhill ATC this time.  On to takeoff and when climbing out began to notice the wind.  Although less strong than yesterday it was gusting around, causing me to bounce around a bit and this continued on the downwind leg.  Turning on to final approach, the aircraft lost several hundred feet in height very rapidly as I crossed a wooded patch – all down to the wind.  This was worse than yesterday.  As a result I over corrected a bit and ended up a bit to high over the runway.  I did not feel I had enough space to do a “touch and go” so did a “go around” instead.

Back in the circuit same bumpy air and on finals I was expecting the sink area so applied a bit of power to overcome it.  This time better judged and managed a “touch and go”.  The rest of the circuits were much the same – bounce around and compensate for the sink area on finals.

The gusting wind didn’t help but I felt I flew the circuit just about OK for the conditions.  Also used the RT a lot more, calling downwind and finals to Redhill Tower ATC.  A few things need to be finessed a bit and hopefully next time will be a bit less bumpy making the circuit and approach a bit easier.  Next lesson booked for 15th March – weather permitting.

Vital Statistics: Flight time 50 mins, 5 “touch and go’s”, 1 “go around” and 1 landing.  All on a Diamond Katana DA-20 aircraft, registration G-BXPC. 

For those interested in Aircraft, Wikipedia link here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_DA20

Manufacturers website here : http://www.diamondaircraft.com/aircraft/da20/

Comments

No comments:

Post a Comment