Flight #7

This was good flight. It was over a month ago since we last flew.

I made sure to perform circuits and the checklists in my head. And occasionally do a few rounds in FlightGear.

This seem to have helped, because it went fairly well.

We first flew around a little to get back into it. I focused on the rudder-work and trying to relax.

The turns, I thought, were quite OK actually. But flying straight and level isn't easy. At some point I was focussing on where I was going and didn't pay enough attention to keeping my altitude.

This was the consequence:

I was keeping reasonably well on 1500 ft but then I was at 1800 ft before I noticed.

After that we did circuits. My last two landings were the best, one being very smooth, the other a little less.

I topped of a little high again, but didn't over correct by pushing the nose down (except one time).

I need to put a little more right rudder as I come close to the ground next time.

A last note: at the airfield there's a public road just in front of the runway treshold. Some people thought it was safe to stand there as we were landing. I like their confidence!

Others in the Circuit

One cool thing was that another student was also flying circuits. We were a little behind them.

We're at an uncontroller airfield and airspace, so all pilots have to make sure they remain safe.

The way that works is you announce your intentions on a shared radio frequency, 118.330 to be exact. When you are entering or leaving the circuit and where in the circuit you are currently at.

It's remarkably hard to see other aircraft but it's easier when they tell you where they are. It was nice to see the plane in front of us make their base and final turns. We did have to adjust our circuit a bit to make sure we remained far enough.

We also made a nice little circle to give us some more distance:

GPS Plot

The tracker worked well this time, despite the clouds ...

Running costs

1 hour flight time: € 96
1 hour instructor: € 36