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Flying Training

Lesson 24: Solo circuits

Saturday 13 May 2006, 7.00am with Jim Drinnan in Citabria VH-RRW

Weather: low-lying mist, wind light and variable, sunny later.

The flight was booked with Niall Higgins but Jim pulled rank and took me up again. The deal was three consistent circuits and then I could take it up on my own. The drive down was basically at night, and on arrival the folks from Balloons Aloft were just launching two balloons.

As before, I took RRW round to fill up. The starting routine for these cold mornings is four pumps on the primer and two full cycles of the throttle, then ½" open to start. At the bowser I remembered to park on the tarmac this time, but it could have been straighter. Discretion being the better part of valour, I stopped when I was less than 100% sure that my starboard wing was going to clear the light pole.

While taxiing in these cold, misty conditions, Jim had me keep carburettor heat on hot so we didn't ice up. The other trick was to taxi with the door slightly ajar to help demist the window, and do the run-up facing into the sun for the same reason.

We chose runway 10 as before, and were first in the air. Below us the mist filled the valleys, and the trees poked up through the mist leaving long shadows in the dawn light. As Jim said, "This is what flying's about."

My supervised circuits were fine, except for the second landing where I came in too fast and (I think) hit the ground tailwheel first. I then bounced from tailwheel to mains and back again with Jim yelling, "Hold the stick! Hold the stick!" I just wasn't sure which position to hold it in. Back to put the tail down? Forward to glue the mains onto the ground? Jim took the stick for a minute and I recovered to a normal rollout with just enough runway ahead to lift off again. After this I was quite surprised, but pleased, when Jim said, "Make the next one a full stop and taxi back to the office."

Once Jim was out I taxiied back to RWY for 10, not forgetting my radio call. On take-off I noted the rate of climb - just over 1000 feet per minute at 70 knots. I concentrated on making a co-ordinated crosswind turn - this requires holding in some right rudder even though it's a left turn, because of the various engine and slipstream effects. On downwind I heard a Pitts call that he was entering runway 10 for circuits. I looked over to see him take off, and knew he'd soon catch up.

I made four circuits, and on each one I heard the Pitts call out that he was doing a stop and go. His downwind and approach speeds are probably 50% greater than a Citabria - around 150 knots and 90 knots respectively - so it must have been vexing to follow this Citabria plodding round. But I just flew my normal circuits, made the best approach I could (easier with no crosswind) and revelled in the almost instant take off and fast climb.

On my first three circuits I found I was approaching the river at 70 knots, and with the memory of the earlier bouncy landing fresh in my mind, I chose to sideslip to lose speed and height together, until I was over the threshold at 60 knots. (Sideslips now feel quite natural, especially to the left.) But I was happiest with my last approach, which was at just the right speed and height with no need for a sideslip. I'd been watching the Hobbs meter so I knew this would make one hour, and it was a good one to finish on.

Back in the office, I had a couple of hours to kill before meeting Andrew Miskelly and Matt Gray, so when Niall suggested I sit the BAK exam I agreed, thinking it would just be a longer version of the Air Law test I'd done earlier, with some added aerodynamics knowledge. The first questions were straightforward, simple questions about lift and drag, flaps and stalling speed. Then I turned the page and found that the remainder of the paper concerned calculations of takeoff and landing distances, loading charts and centre of gravity calculations. I'd read the relevant parts of Bob Tait's BAK book, so I ploughed on, but I knew this was going to be no pushover.

At about 9.45am, with five questions to go, Tim said, "Here's Matt," and I looked out to see a dainty little Cessna 150 tailwheeler taxi up to the office. It pulled in next to a Citabria and Matt climbed out. We agreed that I would take a break from the exam and fly over to Wedderburn with him, and get a lift back in his truck. So he went to see Derek, (the LAME used by Curtis, who's an old friend of Matt's) while I nipped over to Airborne Aviation to say hello to Andrew Miskelly, a colleague from The Weather Company who was taking his brother up for a flight.

So at about 10am Matt and I shoe-horned ourselves into the 150, lined up on 06 and took off. The engine is 100 hp and we were fairly heavily loaded so we took a fair amount of the runway to get airborne. Climbing away at a comfortable 600 feet/minute we turned east for Wedderburn, which was clearly visible as a scar on a wooded hillside. Matt handed the controls over to me for the flight, other than a steep turn and the circuit and landing. The yoke feels very different from the Citabria's stick, and it's interesting to see that some new GA aircraft are abandoning yokes for sticks again, albeit small sidesticks like those used by PC flight simulators.

On the way we saw a hawk at our level. I was impressed by its beauty and elegance but Matt was more concerned about what it could do to the aircraft if we hit it, especially the windscreen. One more handy hint from an experienced pilot.

At hold point	Take-off	Tail up	Climbing out	Downwind, Wedderburn
Base, Wedderburn	Turning final, Wedderburn	Final, Wedderburn	Short final, Wedderburn	C150, Wedderburn

Matt brought the aircraft in for a smooth landing on Wedderburn's strip, which is half gravel and half tarmac, then taxiied to his new hanger, where he keeps the 150 along with a Beagle Airedale and another pilot's Maule. He showed me round the Airedale, which apparently is fully aerobatic, and is very plush inside with velour seats and a beautiful new paint job; metallic bronze and white. The Cessna 150 is for sale, if this is read by a pilot. [Now sold]

C150, Wedderburn

Beagle Airedale

Airedale panel

Maule, Wedderburn

Maule, Wedderburn

Then it was into Matt's truck and back to Camden where I tackled the last 5 questions in the BAK exam - 4 on loading and centre of gravity, and one on density altitude. The last one I figured out knowing that 13°C would be pretty warm for 6000 feet, so the density altitude had to be higher. Only one of the 4 options was higher than 6000' so that had to be it. I passed the paper over to Niall for marking and after a few minutes he called me over and said, "Look at this." He held the acetate over the answer sheet and very few of them matched up. I had a sinking feeling and prepared myself for much swotting on loading charts, but all I said was, "It must have been a different exam."

He laughed and said, "It was. You only got two wrong."

Caught out! I'd scored 93%. One of the incorrect answers was apparently given by every student, so there may be some doubt about the question, and the other was a 90kg difference in a maximum weight. But it was on the safe side, so I don't feel so bad.

Before I left I bought some navigation instruments and the next book in the course - Bob Tait's "VFR [Day] Study Guide" - and guess what? There were my new friends, loading charts Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. The exam would have been significantly easier if I'd already met them. Oh well.

So that's one of the two hours solo time in the circuit that I need before my first area solo. Neil Tucker informed me that I also need 2 hours' instrument time. This is confirmed by CASA's Stages in becoming a pilot:

Note the comment that only one of the two hours' instrument time needs to be instrument flight time. Ie one hour can be on a simulator. I've been advised to take this option as it's cheaper, but I'll discuss the pros and cons with the instructors.