Flight #14 - Shoreham - Second circuits

I had not enjoyed my first circuits session. Over an hour I did 8 take-offs and landings, but every circuit I did something wrong and I came away feeling very frustrated. Over the past months I felt I had learnt so much but in that one lesson it felt like I was back as a total beginner.

The key challenge for circuits is that you have to do many things at once, perfectly coordinated, for it all to come together in a controlled experience. The cross-wind on my first circuits session had not helped, but that's no excuse...
1/. Position. You need to follow a tight circuit pattern and even 5 degrees out needs to be spotted and fixed.
2/. Height. It's east to rise above circuit height (1100 ft at Shoreham) which then makes the approach more challenging.
3/. Speed. By definition there are many throttle changes in doing a circuit, from full power to idle, plus 4x 90 degree turns. Doing all this whilst following the correct speed profile on each leg is challenging.
4/. Configuration. Keeping the aircraft in trim is a challenge as you need to make quite large trim changes between climb, level flight, and descent. Plus of course you change aircraft configuration considerably through the circuit as you go from zero to full flap (and not forgetting to check speed is below Vfe before lowering flap!)
5/. Airmanship. At all times you need to be aware of what's going on outside the aircraft. This is really the most important thing but the first that is forgotten as time is spent scanning instruments or starting at the runway to do all of the above!

In short I felt I managed to get about 1 of the above right on each circuit, and I'm not even doing the radio calls yet!

I felt so bad I Googled other people's first circuit experiences and sure enough lots of people have a tough time with them. Still, as I like to say about tough things - "there's only one way through it, and that's through it". It gets me through most touch things in life (work challenges mainly) so you can put that on my gravestone if you like.

I just had an afternoon come free when I could fly. To fly or go for a run or chill out? For the first time I wondered whether I should fly. The first circuit experiences were just not fun. But given my motto I knew I just had to put in the time and improve my skill, so made a last-minute booking with my Flying Instructor (FI) and was lucky to get the last-minute booking to be honest.

The weather was great - the sky was quite clear with just a little haze, and a 5 to 10 kt wind pretty much down the runway. Cold at just a few degrees above zero, but crisp. The FI asked me to go check out the aircraft and add some oil. Even though it was the afternoon the aircraft had not flown that day as they had been unable to start it in the morning (!)

I added the oil, did the checkout without checking electrics to conserve battery (as requested by FI), fitted my Go Pro, and got settled. Unfortunately I fitted the GoPro badly and it fell off the window onto the back seat shortly after take-off so no video I'm afraid. Plus a new cockpit audio attenuator isn't yet configured right so I didn't even get any audio this time either.

The FI joined me and did the pre-engine start so he could coax the engine to start, which it did on the second attempt. I did the rest of the checks and taxied us to the holding point of runway 20. After a couple of minutes we were given permission to line-up, then take-off, and we were soon climbing out over the beach at Shoreham over the Solent. I climbed us at full power and as we crossed the sealine at around 500 ft I turned left onto Crosswind leg at 20' bank and continued the climb. As we approached 1100 ft (circuit height) I lowered the nose, throttled back to 2300 RPM, and prepared to turn left onto Downwind leg.

However, as I throttled back the engine spluttered a little and ran rough. The moment this happened the FI said firmly "I have control". "You have control" I answered and took hands and feet off controls. I wasn't scared. I could see the runway out to our left and knew that the FI was a highly-competent pilot and if the worst happened and we lost the engine I knew he would put the aircraft down safely. The FI went through a quick sequence of checks. Fuel, okay. Check both mags, okay. Full throttle, hold, idle, hold, full throttle, hold, idle, hold, back to cruise. All now sounded okay. "We'll keep an eye on that and make sure our circuits are tight" he said. Fine by me. With that he gave me control and off we went.

Generally I flew better on this lesson than on the first circuit training lesson. I would say I was getting 3 of the 5 key things above right most of the time. I cut a few corners on the circuit. I didn't anticipate the turn onto final well enough so overshot a bit and had to realign with runway a few times, I put the flaps down a bit fast once or twice, and my tracking on the runway after landing before raising flaps and applying full power to take off again wasn't great. However the key thing for me is I felt I was in much better control than the first time, and my flares and hold-offs for landings were much better.

After 9 circuits we brought it to a close with the FI doing the last turn to final and landing as we were close behind another aircraft in the circuit. He flew slower than usual at 65 kts, and announced as such multiple times on the radio so the tower had confidence we wouldn't catch the aircraft in front, and the guy behind us in the circuit knew he also had to fly slowly to avoid catching us up. Once on the ground he sped up for a fast taxi along the runway - again to help the guy behind us. My FI is a great flyer, and a role model for airmanship.

Sorry no video or audio for this blog. I know what I have been doing wrong with the GoPro so will get that right next time, and will try the audio attenuator in a very different setting next time so hopefully there will be audio too.

Weather...
- EGKA 231350Z 21008KT 9999 FEW046 05/01 Q1025
- At 13:50 GMT on 23rd (January) wind 210 degrees at 8 kts, visibility 10km or more, few clouds at 4600 ft. Temperature 5 degrees, dew point 1 degree. Barometric pressure 1025 hPa.

Blood sugar readings...
> 2 hours before flight: 10.2
< 30 mins before flight: 10.0
before landing: 10.3 (taken after landing as I was constantly landing so no time to check sugar)

Flying hours...
This flight: 1h 5m
Accumulated: 15h 15m

Flight #13 - Shoreham - First circuits

Finally today I had the chance to fly on a weekday, and attempt circuits. These are not allowed at weekends in order to keep aircraft down for nearby residents.

The weather was very mild for early January at 9 degrees, with winds ranging 9 to 15 kts at 260 degrees. Flying off runway 20 at Shoreham this would be quite an "interesting" crosswind.

As I was flying at  midday I had a carb-free breakfast so I wouldn't need to inject insulin. My blood sugars mid-morning were 9.4 and after that the milk in a couple of teas and coffees lifted them slightly further.

I headed out ahead of the Flying Instructor (FI) and checked out the plane - something I love to do. If I ever am blessed and own my own plan this will be something that I will really look forward to doing at a relaxed pace. Rather annoyingly my GoPro kept falling off the side window onto the back seat while I was doing the pre-flight checks. I suspect a cleaning product has been used on the windows which meant the attachment couldn't get good suction. Also, I couldn't find my audio adapter from 3.5mm to 6.3mm so I couldn't record the comms systems. Finally I managed to secure the camera so that it stayed on - and I managed to get video of a couple of circuits before it fell off again.

After the FI joined me I taxied off the apron, down to the runway, and did power checks. The FI took off and flew the first circuit, telling me exactly what he was doing as he went. He is an amazing pilot! The key think with a circuit is that you are always doing multiple things at once, and of course need to remember to do standard good airmanship at the same time like keep a good lookout. I wasn't great at lookout today - was too focused on the circuit.

As soon as he landed for a touch-and-go he retracted the flaps, applied full power and we took off again. When the climb was established he passed control to me. That's where the following video starts, and shows me doing my first two circuits. After that we lost the camera into the back seat so no more video I'm afraid.

All in all I did 8 circuits myself. The landings did not look as good as the videos show, and I struggled to do a good job of multiple things at once. I will need a lot of practice to do this well.

Here's the breakdown of what you do each circuit...

Takoff and fly upwind
- Rotate smoothly at 65 kts
- Apply rudder to keep aircraft balanced (today a lot due to crosswind!) and keep wings level with aileron
- Pitch for 75 kts
- Trim the aircraft
- At about 500 ft after passing over the coast do a thorough lookout then turn left with 20' bank
- Enter Crosswind leg while still climbing

Flying Crosswind
- Keep climbing while pitching for 75 kts
- Scan carefully behind aircraft for other aircraft joining the circuit
- When runway at 45' level out at 1100 ft and turn left with 30' bank
- Note this is a difficult turn to do well as must not continue climbing and must not over-speed / under-speed
- Enter Downwind leg

Flying Downwind
- Pitch for 95 kts, level flight at 1100 ft
- Trim the aircraft
- Look left for aircraft joining the circuit
- Key thing here is to scan for other aircraft while checking Runway, Airspeed, Height - repeat
- Need to make sure you are tracking parallel to runway and adjust for any wind drift
- Radio call "Downwind" when able to do so
- Just before runway is 45' behind, do a thorough scan for aircraft and turn left with 30' bank, level
- Enter Base leg

Flying Base
- Carb Heat on, engine to 1500 RPM (adjust as necessary depending on the day)
- Check speed is below Vfe (103 kts)
- Apply two stages of flap
- Pitch for 75 kts, top of console approx a hand span below the horizon
- Trim the aircraft
- Make sure the aircraft is descending properly (approx 500 fpm RoD) and if not reduce power
- Anticipate turn onto base to avoid overshoot, unless needed due to cross-wind
- At the "right" place do a thorough scan for aircraft and turn left with 30' bank (watch speed)
- Enter Final leg

Flying Final
- Line up on runway allowing an offset for any crosswind (today a lot!)
- Add third stage of flap
- Pitch for 70 kts
- Radio call "Final"
- Check height using PAPI if present, if not use runway perspective
- Descend using aim point approx one third way along runway for circuit training
- At 300 ft set Carb Heat to cold so we have extra performance if we need it for Go Around
Check approach is stable, runway clear, and permissions obtained
- Close throttle, maintain speed (approx 60 ft altitude)
- Only when down at 30-40 ft level out and then progressively lift nose to hold aircraft off
- If landing in crosswind then crab along runway until about to land then use rudder to straighten out, with opposite aileron to keep wings level
- Let main wheels land on runway, use rudder to steer, let nose wheel settle
- As doing circuits then remove all flap, apply full power, keep straight with rudder, rotate at 65 kts

That's it. Sound easy? It is easy - to do badly!

I hope that it felt hard because of the crosswind as I found the whole thing tiring and quite frustrating as I wanted to do really smooth controlled landings but the pressure of always doing so many things is quite relentless. I hope when I am better at landing that I will come away feeling happier than i did today.

Here's the circuit plan for the airfield (I was flying the blue circuit today)...

Weather...
- EGKA 021120Z 26009KT CAVOK 09/04 Q1032
- At 11:20 GMT on 2nd (January) wind 260 degrees at 9 kts, ceiling and visibility okay. Temperature 9 degrees, dew point 4 degrees. Barometric pressure 1032 hPa.

Blood sugar readings...
> 2 hours before flight: 9.4
< 30 mins before flight: 10.5
Before landing: 11.5 (taken after landing as I was constantly landing so no time to check sugar)

Flying hours...
This flight: 1h
Accumulated: 14h 10m