I asked Phil if he was ready before saying "lets go," I applied full power with the throttle keeping the aircraft straight with the rudder pedals. "Airspeed gaining, T's and P's all green," as I cleared 30 knots, "65 knots, rotate" the call was from Phil and so we were airbourne again, for the first time since August 2008. I established an 80 knots climb and we made a right turn north towards Morpeth to leave the zone. I made the call saying that we were leaving the zone, however I was still not confident enough to read back the reply. This was quite a big knock on my confidence, but my flying was still decent.
There was quite alot of cloud up north, so once we left the zone, we both agreed it would be better to climb above the cloud, I established another 80 knot climb and headed for the light blue in between all these clouds, once I was through the cloud it was amazing. Something I had only ever experienced once before, flying around 100/200 feet over cloud. Its here where you truely appreciate the speed you are flying at and where the sky is beautiful. Once at 3500ft, we began the exercises.
We started off with a few 180 degree turns to the left and to the right. I managed these fine so we moved on to a steep turn and also a clean wing stall. Pushed the nose down a bit too much but handled the recovery fine. We then flew a few climbs and glide descents, my first major forgotten thing occured here, Carb heat. Phil was constantly reminding me about carb heat before reducing the power, it gave my confidence a big knock because its something so simple to remember once you get the hang of it. Phil was then happy to fly below the cloud to try some forced landings without power. The cloud had turned a lot darker whilst we were in the air. I configured the aircraft for a glide descent and began to descent towards the cloud. We could still roughly see the cloud but not much. The air started to become very turbulent and windy, the aircraft became harder to control but not by much, a few small
adjustments using the ailerons maintained straight flight. We finally flew below the cloud and started planning for a forced landing, we cut the power and selected an appropriate field to land at, this is when my lack of reading revision showed, I could not remember any speeds or anything, my flying was still good but Phil was having to talk me through a lot of it. The weather was truely shocking so we decided to head back to Newcastle where the weather was a lot better, hoping for a quick circuit.
We received our clearance back into the zone and was told to report left base for runway 25. Once we were flying left base we were told "report final number 1" which we did, I was still flying confidently and calmly at this stage, landings still fresh in my mind for some reason, I was flying at 75 knots, adjusting my altitude with the power etc, maintaining a steady approach. I pulled back on the stick to start the flare and I was holding it off well. I then pulled back a bit too much and had to apply more power before touching down, everything up to about the last 10 seconds of my landing were Ok, but that last 10 seconds was the most vital as it was the touchdown 10 seconds! I asked Phil to retract the flaps and applied full power again, rotating at 65 knots. I flew the upwind and crosswind legs well without any reminders or faults, levelling off at 1000ft. I turned onto the downwind leg and once paralell with the middle of the runway made the call "Golf Juliet Victor, Downwind Runway 25 to land" as I had almost had my hour and couldnt afford to pay anymore. I was told to report when ready for base to which I replied "Wilko Golf Juliet Victor," the circuit happens a lot faster than flying up north so I was having to work a lot harder to get everything done in time. I called ready to turn base and were given instruction to start a right hand orbit as another easyJet 737 was taking off, this gave me a chance to sort myself out and prepare for the second landing whilst having a nice view of Gosforth Race Course. After one orbit, we were given a clearance to turn onto left base and also to report final. I turned onto final for my second approach of the flight and was given a quick clearance to land, far up the runway so expedite vacation of the runway as the ATCO had a few inbounds due. I flew a smooth approach once again and flared as normal last time, this time making the error of putting the nose down, before having to sharply pull up again, resulting in quite a heavy landing. Not the best, but then again I had'nt flown in a long time and I still flew the landing unaided (even if it was a bit rusty, which is to be expected really)
We vacated the runway via Foxtrot passing a large queue of Warriors and R22's waiting at the hold before taxying to the flying school appron and parking up. The flight was over, Phil collected his belongings and walked into the building while I sat for a minute, I guess I was quickly debriefing myself on the good and bad points on my flight. Carb heat being the worst, everything else was down to rust or lack or revision. Both which can be sorted before my next flight.
All in all I was glad to be airbourne again and continue to look for work so I can start my regular flying again, something that stopped in September 2007.
Thanks for reading and happy landings!
Lesson 1 - 25/08/06 - G-BUIF - Ex 4.1, 4.11, 5, 6.1 - 1 Hour
Lesson 2 - 26/09/06 - G-BMUZ - Ex 6.1 - 1 Hour
Lesson 3 - 13/10/06 - G-BUIF - Ex 6.1, 6.2, 8 - 1 Hour
Lesson 4 - 19/11/06 - G-BMUZ - Ex 7, 8 - 1 Hour 5 Mins
Lesson 5 - 19/01/07 - G-BMUZ - Ex 7.2, 8.2 - 1 Hour
Lesson 6 - 02/02/07 - G-BRJV - Ex 9.1, 9.2 - 45 Mins
Lesson 7 - 02/03/07 - G-BRJV - Ex 10a, 10b (15 Mins) - 1 Hour 20 Mins
Lesson 8 - 01/04/07 - G-BRJV - Ex 11, 12, 13 - 1 Hour 5 Mins
Lesson 9 - 29/05/07 - G-BMUZ - Ex 12, 13 - 45 Mins
Lesson 10 - 07/07/07 - G-BUIF - Ex 10, 11 - 50 Mins
Lesson 11 - 18/09/07 - G-BMUZ - Ex 18 - 50 Mins (Flight To EGNC)" - " - Ex 12, 13, 18 - 1 Hour 10 Mins (Circuits and Flight Back Home)
Lesson 12 - 11/08/08 - G-BUIF - Revision (5 Mins) - 1 Hour
Lesson 13 - 08/01/09 - G-BRJV - Ex 9, 10, 12, 13, 16 (Revision)
Total Flight Time - 13.8 Hours
Total % of Minimum 45 Hours Completed : 30.6%
