Crosswind Practice

We're having some strange weather at the moment and I thought this week's lesson would be cancelled - crosswinds hovering around 12 kts - my limit as a student. After a quick chat with Barrie I went ahead with a short lesson just to get crosswind practice. Once again Alpha November was chosen for today's lesson.

Runway 25 was in use which was good - I think there are better landmarks to follow on this side. Barrie did praise my ability to keep the downwind leg on target despite the wind - thank goodness for Hawley Lake, though he was good enough to point out I should be using the runway as reference. The wind was very strong and after take-off I over corrected and ended up further into the wind that I'd intended.

Because the wind was so strong from the south the time to complete various parts of the circuit changed - crosswind took longer and base was much shortened. This meant plenty of time to finish the initial climb, but an early turn onto final to anticipate the wind effect. Barrie pointed out that we should be aiming for an imagined centre line extending from the runway, joining at an appropriate distance from the runway. 

The other thing we can consider is extending the downwind by about five more seconds. This fits in quite nicely with what Alan Bramson says in his book Make Better Landings - recommended by my MD.

Barrie re-inforced checking power at a couple of points in the circuit:-

• levelling off after the initial climb
• on base leg after setting flaps

He re-iterated that I should get used to setting power based on the sound of the engine and then verify with the gauge.  

After we landed Barrie gave me a debrief covering the notes above. He also mentioned that the wind got up to 15 kts. 

Landing Without Flaps

I flew on Friday afternoon with Steve. After last week's dissing of Tango Echo I chose Alpha November for this lesson. A lot more of the equipment is fitted and working in Alpha November - more things to check like an HSI. I'd forgotten the seats don't adjust very well so a cushion was fetched from Tango Echo. A bit of trouble starting her, so plenty of priming. Today we were using Runway 25 and the regular circuit, there was a 9 knot crosswind from the north.

We did a few standard circuits with crossing - lots of rudder and some firm landings but things felt pretty good. I need to hold off a little better and not jerk back the controls for ballooning. I'm feeling more in control and much more like I did in Texas. Steve then suggested some landing without flaps. A quick mid-air brief - the approach would be with a higher nose angle to control the speed, but the speed would be 75 knots. It was really nice to try something different and I felt pretty happy with the new technique.

Next time Steve promised engine failure practice - I haven't touched on this since Texas. Steve mentioned something about a factor of 1.4 - I guess we don't glide as far in England.