My Flying

I arrived extra early at the airfield during a light drizzle to attend the second edition of the Human Limitations course that is being presented by one of the members.

The turn out members was sad, pathetic and beyond the point of being extremely disappointing. This is a new course that is required to be completed by all new pilots, but one would have expected some of the older hands to at least show some interest.

I found the course material very interesting and the timing for the presentation was almost perfect as it was raining outside. The rain however did clear up and the runways were inspected and found to be useable.

By the time I took off at about 3:30 on 16R the airfield was almost deserted. The wind was a light SE and some nice clouds had formed. What proceeded was the best 45 minutes that I have ever had in the motor Falke.

I practiced everything and my confidence levels got a huge boost. My landings and approaches were spot on and for the first time in the Falke I switched off the motor for my first deadstick landing. There was even some lift around and I soared for about 15 minutes with the motor off scratching and grabbing and gaining almost 700 feet.

For me the highlight of my day was my amazing full airbrake side slipped approach. I started off intentionally high and far out and I managed a full side-slip straight for the runway. I find side-slipping very tricky what with having to cross the controls and the strange feeling one has when the plane is flying side ways. Even trickier is controlling ones direction, for example if you are slipping to the left (left aerolon and right rudder) and you drift off centre to the left, you either need to give less left aerlon or more right rudder. Nogal confusing for the brain.

Anyways a great day’s flying at 169.00ZAR.