Flying Training
Lesson 58: Training Area
Sunday 16 March 2008, 9.30pm in Warrior VH-LJL. Instructor: Jim Drinnan
Weather: Broken cloud, scattered to the east. Wind SSE 7 gusting to 10 kts.
Now that I've taken up a couple of passengers (Brendan and Alexander) in the Citabria, I've realised that while I find it fun to fly, it's not necessarily as satisfying for the person in the back (especially if they're susceptible to airsickness, as Alexander was). So I booked a session in Piper Warrior VH-LJL with Jim Drinnan, with a view to being checked out to fly it solo. Also, this is the type of aircraft in which I'll be doing the navigation lessons, so it will be good to be able to concentrate on the navigation rather than flying the aircraft.
So I excused myself to the boys and drove down to Camden at 8am. On the way I passed through some fog, and on calling the AWIS found that there was broken cloud at 100 feet and at 2,100 feet. This caused lost time at Curtis and other operators. In fact Camden was unusually busy, as the ATC were carrying out experience flights. Runways 06 and 28 were in use.
I'd memorised all the speeds of the Warrior, and run through the emergency
procedures. There were no surprises on the preflight - a couple of items on the
MR (eg check transponder) were not due till November. A few things to note:
- The radio has no flip-flop - it must be tuned to each new frequency.
- Strobes are a switch on the RHS of the panel, above the circuit breakers.
- Parking brake - pull and depress button to park; pull again without depressing the button to release.
- Annunciator check is an unlabelled button to the left of the annunciator (ie warning light) panel. Have the seat correctly adjusted otherwise these lights are hidden under the coaming.
- Seat adjustment is like a car - by lifting the bar at the front of the seat, then moving it forwards or backwards. If the seat's too far back, you risk aching legs the next day from stretching to reach the rudder pedals!
- The seat belt is a lap sash arrangement (unlike the full harness on the Citabria). The sash clips onto the lap belt. Leave it loose enough to reach the fuel selector.
- Start on lower tank. Take off and land on fuller tank. Switch over after half an hour, then every hour during flight.
- To start the engine, turn the ignition key and depress it. It's a form of childproofing.
After starting up and checking the ATIS, we followed the queue of aircraft out to the run-up bay, and eventually were given clearance to take off. Keeping straight was easy in the Warrior, and (initially at least) I avoided the temptation to steer with the yoke. One reminder: locate and check the windsock before take off, to determine whether there's a crosswind.
Pulling the yoke back to release pressure on the nosewheel, I lifted off at 60 knots, then at Jim's prompting held the nose down till the take-off safety speed of 67 knots. The Warrior is not a sprightly performer when compared with the Citabria. In fact it's a slug. Climbing at 80 knots the hill at the end of the runway seemed a lot closer in the Warrior than in the Citabria.
Turn crosswind at 800 feet. Look back. Square to the runway. Fuel pump off. Climb to 1300 feet and level off. By now we could look around and see that we were in a big, circular clear patch surrounded by cloud at a height of around 4000 feet. Jim encouraged me to make a climbing turn (so that the wings were easily visible to other aircraft) and we clambered up to 4000 feet, turning alternately right and left as we did so. He reminded me that it was perfectly OK to be overhead Camden at 4000 feet (CTA extends only to 2000 feet), but that we would do the stalls and steep turns closer to Mulgoa (south of Mayfield).
Eventually we levelled off in a clear patch and I set carby heat on and throttled back for the stall. Jim watched for my reaction as we got slower and slower. The nose was nothing like as high as the Citabria, and at first there was no stall warning, just a judder. I waited for the nose to drop, and it didn't. Jim laughed and said, "It doesn't stall!" And right enough, it just sat there, perfectly stable, just nodding its nose a little and descending at 500 feet per minute. Eventually we were able to get the stall warning to go off (I hadn't had time to check it on the preflight), but even then there was no nose or wing drop. Jim demonstrated that all you had to do to recover was to push the yoke forwards. You don't even need to touch the throttle.
So, that was that. So much for the emergency drills. Now back to Camden for circuits. Jim had me descend to 2000 feet and make an inbound call at Mayfield. We were asked to join base for 06 and report at two miles. This was when Jim asked me how I was going to make my 2-mile call. He's keen on these calls being informative for other pilots, so a simple, "two miles" doesn't cut it. He wanted to hear, "Lima Juliet Lima, approaching two mile base, one thousand eight hundred feet, for circuits" and he made me practice before making the call till I got it right.
Once in the circuit the flying got rather less relaxing. My first landing tested out the oleos and found them to be sturdy. Flaps up, throttle up and round again. Jim said, "It's all about relaxing". I think that perhaps my seat was too far back, so I was leaning forwards and not really letting the seat support me. Also my leg muscles are aching now with the effort of holding the rudder.
Round we went again, and again. There really isn't any substitute for practice. Compared to the Citabria, you need to keep more throttle on, and anticipate more, because it doesn't respond as quickly. Jim commented that I need to point more at the threshold, that I was effectively flaring while still on final. I eventually nailed this, and then the challenge was to get just the right amount of flare and hold it off without ballooning, meanwhile using very fine power adjustments to stop it thumping into the runway.
The second-last landing was rather heavy, but Jim said, "Make the next one a full stop," and the last one was probably my best, though Jim said, "It would have been nice to be on the centreline." I need to remember, apparently, to steer with my feet, not the "steering wheel" in my hand. That should have been for holding the into-wind wing down to correct for crosswind.
So, I need to do the same again before having a chance of going solo. This will need to be within the next 4 weeks to keep my solo privileges. I'd like to keep my hand in on the Citabria too.
Lessons Learned
- LJL's radio has no flip-flop - must be tuned to each frequency
- Strobes are a switch on the RHS of the panel, above the circuit breakers
- Fuel pump on to start, off to taxi, on to take off, off on crosswind, on again on downwind.
- 2 stages of flap on base - lower the nose with each stage and trim. Consider a third stage on final if too high (in preference to a sideslip). Stages 2 and 3 require the button on the flap lever to be depressed. Did I mention lowering the nose?
- Parking brake - pull and depress button to park; pull again without depressing the button to release.
- Annunciator check is an unlabelled button to the left of the annunciator (ie warning light) panel. Have the seat correctly adjusted otherwise these lights are hidden under the coaming.
- Seat adjustment is like a car - by lifting the bar at the front of the seat, then moving it forwards or backwards.
- Seat belt is lap sash. The sash clips onto the lap belt. Leave it loose enough to reach the fuel selector.
- Start on lower tank. Take off and land on fuller tank. Switch over after half an hour, then every hour during flight.
- Transponder to Alt before take-off.
- Remember to adjust the gyro after setting the altimeter (I did remember).
- Turn key and push it in to start.
- Remember left hand on yoke.
- Don't use the yoke as a steering wheel, either on the ground (which I mainly remembered) or in the air (Jim says I used it on final, but said this was not unusual with pilots trained on an aircraft with a stick).
- It's OK to taxi onto the grass to turn into the run-up bay, if it's full.
- 2-mile call should state position. No need to prefix with "Camden Tower" if you've already made contact. So: "Lima Juliet Lima, approaching two mile base, one thousand eight hundred feet, for circuits".
- When given a sequence or 'follow' instruction, always state, "Looking for traffic" unless you've already sighted it. But no need to say "Traffic sighted". The tower assumes you will sight it at some point. But, if unclear of the traffic, ask for clarification. Eg we were given number three, behind an aircraft on base, and the only aircraft we could see was turning final, so Jim asked the tower whether that was the aircraft we were to follow.
- Jim would like my radio responses to be a bit snappier.
Photos
 Morning fog |
 RRW |
 RRW |
 Winjeel |
LJL |
 LJL |
 LJL cockpit |
 LJL panel |