Lookout!

I picked an early morning lesson this week - the weather forecast wasn't so good later in the day. In the briefing and cup of tea beforehand we discussed the previous lesson (climbing and descending) along with today's lesson 9a - medium level turns. Stuart touched on Ve and Vne which are rapid descents used in an emergency for cabin and engine fires respectively. Medium level turns covered turning at 30º. The workflow for this was lookout, attitude, instruments. Lookout is a big lookout from tail to tail - all the way round. Attitude includes keeping the nose up since the tendency is to descend and to keep the turn angle consistent. For instuments we cycle through the artificial horizon, altimeter, balence ball, directional indicator and vertical speed indicator.

Stu got me to A-Check my PA28 G-PSRT. For some reason I have a soft spot for Romeo Tango and was happy to. I must get a better handle on this long check though!

The flight itself was fantastic! A very clear day with a few blobs of cloud at around 3000ft. Stuart demonstrated the Vne descent - OMG! Definately the most dramatic ride I've ever had in an aircraft. The idea is to blow out any engine fire and we decended 2000 feet in what felt like 10 seconds with sideslip and nose down. Stu then asked me if I wanted to try the manouver - I think we'll leave that until I have a little more confidence.

Next came mid level turns. I wasn't too bad, a bit slow leaving the turn. The target should be 15º before the target and as usual so much to think about. Several times though I missed the Lookout at the start of the manouver. Most important considering the crash at Coventry this week.

Finally we flew back to Kemble. I flew the approach, final turn and Stu made the landing. It was a shame the lesson seemed so short!

Lots of radio work for me this week, including various acknowledgements repeating the airport information back to the control tower.

Still so much to learn!