Because I had flown already on Monday, I hoped that we would have enough time in the morning for Manny to do his recency flight and fly my check flight. The weather was lovely - clear blue skies, plenty of sunshine. The wind, however, wasn't playing quite as nicely.
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| Pre-flight checks done... Ready to take to the sky! |
As an instructor, Manny needs to do a certain amount of flying for himself to keep his own skills sharp and up to date. The good thing is that he likes to do these flights with someone occupying the left seat - just as if he's demonstrating a manoeuvre during a lesson. I guess he could use a sack of potatoes... Or he could use me! I like the me option, personally!
The whole flight we were treated to a display by an Air Tractor (a very powerful and manoeuvrable crop duster) operating in some paddocks a couple of miles South East of us. It's amazing the steep turns that they do so close to the ground!
He did some crosswind circuits and then offered me to do a crosswind landing too, which he was quite impressed with. He said, "It's clear that you haven't been out flitting your time away with straight and level scenic flights - you've actually been working on things, and I can see that in the more confidence you have with crosswind techniques". It certainly was nice to hear that. Truth be told, I was actually a little surprised by the wind gradient near the surface and didn't end up having to lower the into wind wing much during hold off.
We were having so much fun, we both forgot about flying the endorsement test flight! We got back to the hangar and I looked at the clock and said "Oh bugger, can we still do the check flight?"
"Yeah, we'll fit it in... I've got a TIF right now, but we'll go right after that!"
"Cool."
I waited as Manny took a young high school student for the TIF. I had memories of my TIFs while I watched them do some touch and goes. After a brief chat with the potential student, we were strapping back in for some more crosswind circuits.
These were no ordinary circuits... Well, to me anyway! I'll explain. Up until this point in time, it just happens that we always had the wind from our left when Manny was teaching me crosswind operations. So, as a result, I hadn't had a chance to do some with the wind coming from our right. It probably doesn't seem like much - the concept is the same right, or left - however it feels very different in a side-by-side cockpit to lower the close wing or the far away wing.
Runway 31 was the best candidate - 13 knot crosswind 50 degrees off to one side. That works out to be about 11 knots crosswind component. Close to maximum demonstrated (14 knots), but not over. The wind was a bit fickle today. I'd have to be on my toes! Plus, this runway is the little grass/gravel one. If you spend too much time floating and floating, the end of the runway comes up awfully quickly!
As it turned out, the far away wing seems more natural to lower. I had no real troubles lowering that wing with confidence. Due to the gusty conditions, I had opted for reduced flap (about one quarter of full flap), but this meant that if I misjudged my power setting and carried a little extra speed into the flare we'd float for an eternity. Not good on a shorter runway!
It ended up not being so bad. I was able to hold my nerve and land several quite comfortably. There was a little bit of float, but I made sure I wasn't rushed, reset the aircraft and powered up for the next run. I did, however, give some magpies sitting on the very end of the runway the fright of their lives!
I also was trialling a new toy. Well, a new little program on my phone. It's a GPS data logger that records wherever I go, whenever I tell it to. Great fun! We were flying anti-clockwise, and the runway is the upper long side of the rectangle(ish) shape. That last one (the one with a short base and final) was Manny, wanting a go for himself. He was being a smarty-pants and used the wind to push us down to the ground, whereas I was flying a flatter approach which gave me time to get the power settings and the approach speed settled.
Now that my logbook is signed, I can take people with me and share this wonderful thing called flight! (Also, I can share some of the costs, too!) I've given my Wife first option for first passenger. We'll see how we go next week.
Another milestone, ticked off! Yay!
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