No fly zone in Northern Ireland ...

There isn’t really a no fly zone just some of my (so called) friends have suggested that all self-respecting pilots should land immediately after I take off to avoid having to share the same bit of sky!

Anyway lesson number three was with another instructor, Roger, and the plan was to do some straight and level flight.  We began with a classroom brief on what would be required once airborne and how the lesson would need to be spread across two lessons.  Lesson one straight and level at the same power setting to be followed at another time with straight and level at different airspeeds.

Essentially, because all the flying is VFR, flying straight and level is about choosing a reference point in front of you and keeping that ‘picture’ without any pitch, roll or yaw (attitude) at the same altitude.  With this knowledge imparted on me I was given the keys got Charlie Golf (the same aircraft again) and with my new Cessna 172 checklist in hand was told to go and do the external pre-flight checks.  This is what I am doing in the picture above.  Janice still cannot be persuaded to take one of the seats in the back so she once again retired to UFC’s excellent café.

External checks done I took my seat in the cockpit and awaited Rogers arrival then again with my checklist I carried out the internal checks and engine start.  This is the first time I have done this with only me ‘pushing the knobs and pulling the switches’.  Which brings me onto my first issue that hopefully the readers of this blog from the flyers forum can offer me advice.  The checklist I have bought is the Cessna 172 from Pooleys.  This seems to be a generic checklist for all Cessna 172s and has some extra checks that do not apply to the 172SP.  Whereas I credit myself with enough intelligence to just skip these checks I am interested to see if any of you forumites have experienced this or what your opinion on this is.

Engine fired up we taxied to the runway 22 hold and carried out the power tests.  We could see a microlight on downwind and Roger called on the radio that we were going to do an immediate take off.  What this means is that as soon as we are on the runway its full power applied and off we go!  As this was only my third take off it was all a bit of a rush and I forgot to put my heels on the floor after releasing the toe brakes.  We were not trundling along with the brakes on but not having my heels on the floor did make it hard to control the yaw caused by the slipstream from the propeller.  I didn’t catch on to this until we were at about 1000 feet.  I must remember not to do this and to relax a bit more next time.

We flew down to the Ards Peninsular again to carry out the planned exercises which I enjoyed immensely especially when Roger would take control of the aircraft, put it out of trim then into an unusual attitude then hand back to me to recover …. Roll the wings level, correct the pitch and get in balance to ‘get the picture’ then trim.  Ace!

Once I was comfortable with the straight and level Roger told me to pick a reference point in the Mourne Mountains and told me to keep straight and level on it.  He then proceeded to adjust the power a few times to demonstrate how the change in power affected the attitude of the plane.  I managed to keep us on the reference point without too much trouble.

Once again the time was up far too quickly.  I wish my time spent in work passed at this perceived pace!  Back to the airfield and a landing which Roger allowed me to follow on the controls while he talked me through all that he was doing. 

All in all a great day for flying and a lesson I really enjoyed with a very good instructor.  I can’t wait for the next one!