My Flying

Well, the Twin has been grounded. Seems as if the previous hard landings have left their mark and a crack was identified on the side of the fuselage near the rear cockpit. It will hopefully be repaired during the course of next week.

So today it was me, the Falke and instructor F(2). He showed me through a complete pre-flight DI showing me things I'd never seen before. After this we executed three touch 'n go cross wind landings on 08L. They didn't go off too well as not only did I miss judge the turn to finals and thus fly too deep, having then to correct, I also had a hard time keeping the plane straight along the runway. This may sound silly, but when rolling along the ground, the runway and bush look the same to me as both are the same colour and the grass almost the same length.

After this be climbed out to 2000 ft for some stalls and 'incipient spins'. I say 'incipient' as they didn't feel very incipient to me, more like a mushy side slip fall out of the sky thing.

Our final landing was on 34L into wind and things went off much better and I was relieved when the instructor asked if I wanted to do a solo flight. I of course said yes and he said that I should also execute a touch 'n go if I felt comfortable.

The first circuit was, dare I say, almost prefect. I was very chuffed with myself. It was square, no engine was required and the flare and hold off were A-ok. The second circuit was more messy. During downwind I was distracted by all the radio traffic and a Yak on finals for 34L (I was aiming for 34R). So my downwind was too deep.

To correct I decided not to add power, but to glider 45˚ to the threshold. As it turns out I made it, just a little low, but well enough over the fence. As I turned finals very late the landing wasn't my best, but good enough I suppose.

A good days flying and I'm very happy with my performance, 55 minutes flying time a bit pricey at 242,50ZAR. Power flying tends to start getting expensive after the first ½ hour.

As it turned out, my big day! I went solo. A really really lekker feeling. Everything went nice and smoothly, and to quote a phrase: I love it when a plan comes together.

The day started off badly with a misfiring winch and the DI of the Twin finding a nasty looking crack in the fuselage that warranted a closer look and involved removing the wings and various other bits from the cockpit.

Furthermore, the instructor didn't arrive, so the Twin couldn't be inspected or even if it was ok, flown. Fortunately an off duty instructor F(1) arrived and offered me a flight in the motor Falke. I was up for 23 minutes and did three touch and goes on 26R with a light westerly blowing. He then says to me that he would send me solo if there was another instructor to check me out, and what happens? Like magic another off duty instructor arrives F(6), we do a check flight and he's happy.

So then it's me, the Falke (9 flights with 4 hours) and the open runway ahead of me. It's true what they say, you aren't really that nervous. You know what to do, have just rehearsed it a few times and off you go. As that wheel lifted off the ground I said to myself: now you HAVE to land by yourself. And I did, a little deep and one bounce too many, but I was back on the ground.

After that it was the celebrations in the club house and my flight in the solo bar stool. Three flights (37 minutes) = 151,50ZAR.

The solo bar stool is a stool rigged out with pedals and a stick that needs to successfully "fly" a circuit and land. It's a little trickier after a beer or two.

Raining and generally miserable outside. So this makes is three no fly Sundays in a row.

Today I thought, as the glider rapidly approached the runway with that sinking bottomless feeling you get in your gut, we break this aeroplane! And it hard, very hard, hard enough for my head to get thrown forward and bashed back into the headrest.

But yet, after emerging from the cockpit, slight stirred and a little shaken, all the pieces were still attached and the main tyre was still inflated. Man, do they build these planes tough.

So how did all this happen?

Long story, but basically we have been having lots of issues with the winch lately. Coughing, spluttering and sometimes even dying during the early stages of the launch. These situations are very tricky to handle because when the winch stops pulling, the parachute opens and the glider, still having momentum, rolls into/over the shoot. This has two potential problems (a) the steel links on the chute impacts and breaks/damages the canopy or (b) the glider rolls over the cable and if the winch gets going again there is the possibility that the cable/chute will snare the glider pulling it uncontrollably down the runway and possibly even into the air. Both scenarios are definitely not wanted.

Last week and the instructor cr@pped me out for not pulling the plug soon enough. The shoot first partially opened as the winch hesitated, then fully opened. It was then I pulled the release. We were still on the ground at the time.

So today I'm watching the chute like a hawk. During the first launch of the day the glider starts to slowly accelerate and I can feel some light jerking and I know something isn't too well down at the other end of the runway; I'm ready to pull. Just as the plane get's airborne, the chute partially opens and bang, I pull the plug and push the nose down.

The instructor F(6) immediately takes control pulls up the nose and veers the plane off to the left. He then lines up the runway, pulls the brakes and bam, we are down hard from about 3 to 4 metres up.

So what happened? He tells me I was over eager pulling the plug and the reason he veered the plane off to the left was that he didn't want to land on the cable that was still being pulled down the runway. The risk, he tells me, is that the cable could snag the aeroplane and pull uncontrollably down the runway. Fair enough, but I don't understand why he landed us so hard.

But did I release too soon? I'm not convinced. How was I supposed to know whether the winch was not going to play up again. The way I figured it, in those few split seconds, was that rather pull the plug a few metres from the ground and land ahead than have to wonder if the winch would get us up and perhaps cough it higher up at a more risky altitude. Anyways.

Two launch attempts later by the instructor (solo) and flying is abandoned for the day due to it being too risky with a faulty winch.

Again frustration is starting to set in; faulty winch last week and this week again results in no flying again.