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
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