The last couple of weeks have seen wonderful weather, and today I was booked for my first lesson in six months, in fact I had booked both Saturday and Sunday.
It was a lovely day, I as soon as I had got up I had downloaded the weather reports and NOTAMS. CAVOK! Just what the doctor ordered to get me back up to speed. A quick phone call to Mel to confirm everything was to go, and I got ready and jumped in the car and went.
On arrival I met Mel and Richard and she asked how the study was doing. Now that I had passed Human Performance I had started studying for the met. So far I had only had an initial read of the book. While waiting for my instructor Richard, I took the opportunity to look at the cloud chart on the wall and study the pictures of the different types of cloud. While studying the chart I heard a SEA (Single Engined Aircraft) coming in. Looking out the Windows I saw Richard making his final approach. Mel told me to go out and meet him and familiarize myself with the new aircraft. Yes thats right. We had a new plane to play with!
Leaving the club house I walked over to the security office and got my pass to go onto the apron.
The new plane was parked on the apron, G-GALB, a low hours 1980’s PA-28-161 Warrior II. I met Richard on the apron and he was just supervising the refueling. I got in and started to familiarize myself with the controls, similar to all the other Warriors I had flown except that the altimeter was calibrated in inches of mercury and in mill-bars, something else to watch out for.
I did a slow preflight noting that I could not find the fire-extinguisher and also the landing light did not light up. I was not to worried about the latter, it was a beautiful day and anyway a number of warriors only had working landing lights when the engine is running.
My instructor Richard, came back and we strapped ourselves in. Finishing the pre-checks, I started the engine, and called for clearance and as usual was cleared to holding point Bravo. Once there I went through the power checks.
Take Off
They were soon complete and I called for clearance to take off, as normal with Richard as my instructor my call sign was Solo02.
“Humberside Tower, Solo02, Ready for take off”
“Solo02 cleared to line up runway 21”
Reducing power, I took off the hand brake and then swung the plane round and lined up on runway 21. A few moments later I was given my transponder code and cleared to take off with a right hand turn out.
Heading away from Humberside we were handed over to Radar. I retuned the radio and announced my presence.
“Humberside Radar, Good morning. Solo02 passing 1500 to 2500 feet, request flight information service.”
I was given the Barnsley QNH and a FIS was confirmed
The lesson followed the same as my last general handling lesson. first some gentle turns then some trimming practice. I trimmed for a slow 60 knots and then re-trimmed for a far faster 120 knots. Then some steep turns, 45 degrees of bank trying not to lose to much height, increasing the power and pulling back on the yoke. After that it was time for some stall practice. First a climb to get some altitude, then the HASEL checks.
HASEL
To quote the book!
A HASEL check is carried out in an aircraft whenever carrying out a maneuver that could result in the loss of control of the aircraft or when a dangerous maneuver that could affect other aircraft in the vicinity is about to be undergone. These could include stalls, spins, slow flight, spiral dives and any other air exercise that could endanger the life of others or your own.
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H
Height is the first thing to check for, which is whether or not your aircraft is at sufficient altitude to regain control before it is too late. This altitude varies depending on the aircraft and the exercise you are doing, such as a spin requires more height than slow flight as you can lose 1,000 feet in a short time in a spin, but about 500 feet in slow flight.
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A
Airframe is what sort of setting the aircraft will be in for the exercise, will there be any flaps on, landing gear up or down, or any other setting which is not related to the engine as that is E.
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S
Security, is there anything in the cockpit of the aircraft which could cause injury or damage to you or the aircraft if something went wrong. This can be removing sharp objects from pockets and placing them away, storing books in a safe location, making sure the seat belts of unoccupied seats are done up as well as making sure that passengers are all wearing the seat belt.
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E
What setting will the engine be in, will the alternate air supply or carbureter heat be on during the exercise. Will the fuel pump also be on in case the drive shaft to the mechanical fuel pump gets broken, this is just making sure that the engine will still work after the exercise is complete making sure you have power if you need it.
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L
Location and look out, are there any aircraft above you, below you or nearby that could present a problem. Also make sure of your surroundings, that you are not over a largely populated area in case something does go wrong and you lose control.
When I got the ‘L’ of lookout I made two sweeping turns, one to the left and one to the right. With no traffic in sight, I asked Richard to demonstrate a stall. First putting the carb hear on, he gradually removed all power while continuing to pull back on the yoke. With the nose pointing high in the sky, the stall warning went off then the aircraft started to buffet, and finally the wings stalled and the aircraft commenced to fall out of the sky! Richard lowered the nose and increased the power, while turning off the carb heat. The speed increased and the plane started to fly again, leveling off and reducing the power to the cruse we were in a normal level cruse. Now for my turn.
First checks again, then carb hear on. Slowly reducing the power I raised the nose, higher and higher. The left wing started to drop and I tried to correct instinctively by using the ailerons, I was quickly admonished by Richard! Exactly the wrong thing to do and exactly the right thing to do to make it worse and to take the plane into a spin! I centred the yoke and used the rudder instead. The plane wobbled first left and right as I chased the wobble with the rudder, I was making things worse. I took my feet of the rudder peddles and things started to calm down, using the rudder again I got the plane stablised, and carried on pulling back on the yoke. The stall alarm went off and the plane started to fall out of the sky. I lowered the nose and increased the power, then reached over and turned off the carb hear to increase the power some more. As the speed increased the plane started to fly and I leveled off.
That was not very good, I could easily have lost all control. Time for another go. Climb back up, full power, raise the nose till the speed stablised at 80 knots and waited until we had got back the height I had lost. Once there I lowered the nose and let the speed climb, then reduced the power to the cruse. Time for another go. First the HASEL checks again and then time for a stall. This time it was much more controlled and I recovered with very little height lost.
Rejoin
It was now time to head back and practice a few landings. I made a slow turn to the east and spotted the river Humber, with the river on my left I headed east. I spotted the cement works in the distance a useful marker as EGNJ or Humberside Airport was next door. I then got onto the radio and and asked radar for a rejoin.
“Humberside Radar, Solo02 request rejoin via Elsham.”
Radar acknowledged my request and told me to approach right base for runway two one. As I approached Elsham I asked Richard to confirm that it was Elsham I was headed for. Richard concurred and then Radar handed me over to Humberside Tower.
“Humberside Tower, Solo02 near Elsham positioning for runway two one, right base.”
As you can see I had been revising my radio calls as well as human performance and weather. Humberside was busy with traffic and told me to hold at Elsham. I spend the next 10 minutes flying in circles around Elsham while waiting for landing slot. I feared and was right that there would be no time for a touch and go.
Finally Humberside Tower got back to me. “Good morning, Solo02 Cleared to final runway 21 via right base”.
I positioned for right base and started my approach, carb heat on and power reduced for a gradual descent. I was number one to other traffic and was asked to tighten my approach to speed things up.
Turning on to final I added to stages of flaps and came in for the landing. I flared to late and to much. This caused me to balloon and lose to much speed. Instead of increasing power I lowered the nose, Richard grabbed the throttle and put on the power, reposition us for the landing. Gently we touched down. What had gone wrong, that was my worst landing in a year, I seemed to have forgotten how to fly!t”>
I taxied my way back to the apron, and Richard parked us up near the hanger. On the good side my general flying was good! While I had forgotten some basics my flying was not to bad, the landing on the other hand I tried to forget about. Tomorrow I would spend the lesson in the circuit and try to get my landings back up to scratch.