One day I woke up and wondered about learning to fly. Not something I'd always wanted to do but just wondered why I hadn't tried it before. Eventually I grew some nads and took a trial lesson to see if neanderthal man can fly.

Here's how I got hooked!!!

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1 - Introductory Flight - Air Experience

This was introduction to light aircraft. I've flown over 2000 hrs on commercial flights as a passenger throughout my career but this time I was at the controls. After a short ground briefing on pre-flight checks Phil my Training Captain for the day got us in the air.

Thoroughly enjoyed this flight; hands off most of the way. Coming back from the Southport area learnt to do clean turns using the rudder as well as the ailerons; tracked the M61 back matching every turn. Got abit bumpy over Bolton. Winter Hill, the Reebok Stadium and Bury centre looked quite spectacular from above. Bounced once on the landing and only used the first half of 27R before the aircraft was taxiing. Spent the rest of the day with a huge grin on my face. Got the bug!!!!

2 - Flight Experience - Ex 4 - Effect of controls, Ex 6(i) & (v)

With my new Instructor Steve - went through all the pre-flight checks as per my new PA28 Piper Warrior checklist; Steve commenting as I went along; abit hurried as the lesson started late because Steve was running late due to the previous student doing a "go-around" and aborting a landing (for reasons I was to experience later). The Instructor called Barton Information and set QNH (the pressure setting in millibars relative to Mean Sea Level on the Altimeter to ensure we didn't get in the way of any bigger traffic). After performing the start up checks I started the engine. The instructor taxied us to the holding point Alpha 3 to do the power and pre take-off checks. My mind was buzzing now trying to remember the small things that make a big difference if you screw them up from all my pre-reading!!! Zero wind (just hot air from my side). My instructor told me about 'following through' and not to worry about placing my hands on his to feel the throttle control. As long as it doesn't involves hands on knees I guess it was ok. Not the interpretation of 'following through' that I had in my mind which could create problems at 3000ft. Take off went well and I felt all his corrections on the control column and rudder as we took off. Headed out west of Winter Hill after the climb. First we had to locate all the other air traffic before getting into my training antics!! After levelling off at 3000ft (max allowed without mixing it with the big boys). I was shown the pitch trim wheel and its use in relieving the pressure on the control column. I was surprised how much strength was needed to hold the column when the aircraft needed trimming. Getting a feel for the trim wheel was fairly easy and something not too different from my 'Battle of Britain' escapades on the flight sim where I had to trim for level flight too. After trimming both ways up/down next was the 'bumps'. Pitching up and pitching down. Easy money really, airspeed increased and decreased as one would expect; not unexpected from an aerodynamically designed slick piece of engineering..... spent a lot more time looking around this flight and tried to spot all the planes before my instructor could. Amazed how difficult they were to spot. When your instructor sees one and points it out and you can't see it you feel like Mister bleedin' Magoo!!. Tried the book recommendation of fixing your view statically and trying to see if you could see something move relative to it. It worked although I need to be a lot quicker or we'll be over the Isle of Mann before I say "all clear Steve, what's next?" Next came rolls with the aileron right and left. Roll 20-30 degrees, no rudder so the plane tends to an increasing mild spiral descent because it slips sideways; the sequence is; roll until the Instructor grins sardonically then center the control column. Start to feel like things (like life!!) are slipping away; roll straight, airspeed had increased at this point. Pitch up to level off and regain some lost altitude back to our playground ceiling. Same on the other side - easy. Then came the best bit. Effects of rudder. Steve, my instructor ruddered right with his best clog on. I followed through (not literally) and felt the deflection go quite far with my right foot. The tendency to roll and go into a spiral descent was at least twice what it was with aileron only. Nose was pitched quite far down and I could feel the airspeed increase quickly; leveling off seemed to pull some G and then we ballooned over our target height and I felt myself go weightless. Big grins all round and the admittance that he likes doing that (now I want a go). I yawed to the right and demonstrated how to be a real pussy because my attempt was technically correct but wouldn't have given anybody air sickness.... No grins....Right!! Best clog on here we go the other way. On recovery I must have weighed 20 stone and all those parts of the body that do sag felt like they were bottomed out.... I thoroughly enjoyed it. (with the words to one of my favourite songs going through my mind I "...peel me off the ceiling baby)... we ballooned over the top. "What next? FREDA -i.e. regular checks to make sure everything is ok. Fuel Radio Engine Direction Indicator and Altitude. Straight forward stuff that's not automatic yet and I'll have to do them all the time when my brain engages properly.

Time to head home; Descended to 1800ft (the circuit joining height) Steve called in and got us on the merry go round. Circled the airfield on the dead side. Steve took over and I shut-up as I know from my first flight the instructors concentration during this operation needed no distraction as he looked very nervous during the landing. I followed through again (I write this without grinning this time) Two stages of flap applied straight away with equalising pitch down so we don't balloon up. Earlier Steve had a "go-around" or aborted landing with a student because there was no wind, therefore, the plane ground speed is greater on landing making the runway a little short on stopping distance. He said he aimed for the big white 27; must have gone over it at 20 feet and we seemed to hang in the air for ages and only touched down half way through the runway. I fully understood the issue as we were still doing 40 knots all wheels on the ground and a hedge fast approaching. Anyway as it happens he never touched the brakes and the ground friction and uneven ground slowed us down (I was feeling this through my brake / rudder pedals). Taxied off the end and stopped for some landing checks. After that he had me taxi all the way to our resting place which involved a nice chicane past the AVGAS fuel storage tank and several expensive aircraft to place ours by the tower. Before shutting and down and resisting the tendency to shout "YEOH" at this time I performed the run down checks as per my checklist just to make sure we don't hand over a flying banana to the next Instructor / Student. Big grins all round. Steve was happy and I still want to learn to fly.

3 - Effects of Controls - Ex 4 Effects of Controls (ii) (iii) (iv) (vi) Ex 5 Taxiing

At home having got up early to decode the TAFs and Metars (Basically the actual and forecast weather at local aerodromes); looked ok apart from the fog. Temp and dew point were almost the same (risk of low lying fog). Took another look at my RT calls. I was determined that this time I was going to have a bash after taking detailed notes from Steve after our last ground school session. None too shabby as it turned out but in need of modification. Well I arrived early (actually one hour earlier - chomping at the bit) The fog was lifting but Steve informed me that one of the other instructors had just tried to de-ice Charlie Brava without success. Aerofoils cease to be aerofoils with ice on them. (Reference - Munich Disaster) We agreed to do the pre-flights in the aircraft and he said we could taxi around to the fuel bowser and refuel her. We had a good session in the aircraft then I did all the pre-flight check internal and external. The refueling was straight forward then we went and parked in the open in the rising sun. Things were looking up. Then sun was melting the ice. For about 15 minutes we were picking ice off the wings and stabilator then Steve announced that we were on!!! Fantastic. Steve went to book out and get the latest ATIS. I prepared my kneepad and all the relevant info I was going to need. I did the internals again. Started her up. Unfortunately my estimate of 1/2 an inch of throttle was more like 1 1/2 inches and the nose dipped steeply taking me by surprise. An embarrassed look to Steve who did comment as well as a nifty power decrease set things right again. I did the first call, Steve advised the replies..... mmm… replies some work needed there anyway during the lesson I did all the other calls apart from the "circuit departing" call which I was ready for but Steve jumped in before I could suggest it.

Power checks and pre-take off checks. 25 degrees flap selected for the departure. Taxied to be able to see the approach, the I called ready for departure, replied Runway 27R. Steve took over, I followed through. This time he talked as we went down the runway. No rudder corrections at all; quite early on he had pulled back on the control column and we were airborne at +- 60 knots. I felt that fantastic feeling wash over me again and we climbed to 500ft. We turned and continued climbing to 1800ft. Apparently controlled airspace above, its plain and clear on my map but I never really thought about it before, Barton is contained in one corner of the Manchester control zone and there a little slice of pie there for Barton Pilots to be able to get the F outta Dodge without upsetting anyone. Once close to the M61 we climbed further to 2600 ft. The rest of the air work was completed between the Rebook Staduim and the edge of Liverpool's control zone which extends along the M58 and on the Liverpool side of the M6 as far as Skelmsdale. I did all the trimming from here on in. Got it wrong first time then once my brain fired up I found this very easy. The effects of the controls with hi and low airspeed. (Constant power setting) therefore pitch was used to create the airspeed differences. Not a great deal of feel change but the controls felt tighter at higher airspeed. I tried yaw and pitch together with gave that queasy feeling in my stomach. Steve mentioned something about carrots so I thought it best to stick to the program. We looked at the slipstream effect at constant airspeed. Again not a great deal of difference. Bear in mind that 2300 rpm cruising and 2500 rpm max is a relatively small change in rpm anyway. Slowed the aircraft to 80 knots and looked at the effects of 10, 25 and 40 degree of flap. Most noticeable are the ballooning tendency and the extra pressure to be held on the control column when untrimmed. Sometime during the journey we changed fuel tanks. Simple procedure, just make sure your fuel pump is on!!! Bugger just remembered I didn't set the conspicuity code on the transponder. It was set right when I shut down after the lesson. Steve must have done it. Have to not forget that next time.

During the exercises Steve prompted me to do the FREDA checks which I did OK except I forgot that the carb heat should be applied when checking the Engine.... must do better.... After the exercises we positioned at the Reebok, I made the call giving position and requesting information for an overhead join. Made a bit of an arse of the reply but recovered well to score a last minute goal. Quite happy with my first attempts and not too many on frequency to hear me make an arse of it. Climbed to 1800ft on QFE (relative to height above the aerodrome). Made a mental note of the airfield however Vis was not so great that I couldn't see it until we were almost there. Swinton Interchange is a great visual reference point (VRP) and can easily be seen when you are close to Barton. I called overhead and descended on the deadside to 1000ft to Steve's satisfaction. Crossed the numbers on the runway (basically a required method of entry into the circuit), looking left for departing planes. I turned downwind and did the call. I turned on base then Steve took over. 1500 rpm, 10 degrees of flap, turned on final, 25 degrees of flap, I called it. Beautiful landing, at one point I thought we were a tad low and it seemed like we didn't clear the hedge by much, sure its my inexperience showing, touched down about a third along the runway and Steve had us off the runway fairly sharpish. After landing checks (for some strange reason I wanted to turn the radio off - Think I interpreted the checklist wrongly, then I taxied us back to the LAC parking spaces, it was tight between the fuel bower and the Club Grob so Steve did the taxiing. I did the run down checks and stopped the engine. Very happy. After all the bloody waiting finally got myself up and ticked off a fair bit of the exercises with ground and air work. Learnt a lot. All my turns were good apart from one where I lost a bit of height. I had control most of the way. Need some preparatory tweaks and adjustments especially to RT and drills. On the whole very pleased. Steve said so too. Let hope the good weather stays until tomorrow.

4 - Straight and Level - Ex 6 (I) Ex 4 Complete

The TAF and Metar didn't seem too bad. However, I noticed that the spot winds at 1000ft and 2000 ft over Manchester were at 20knts. The wind direction was opposite the normal direction so left hand circuits, bit of surface cross wind. I though this should make my straight and level exercises a wee bit more challenging. Understatement of the Year as it turned out. Anyway the plane was being refueled. I told the chap who was handing the aircraft over what I was doing. He said it may be difficult as there was no horizon and that conditions were choppy.

I started her up and Steve moved the aircraft to a safe location away from the pumps and I completed the internal checks. Again sat there in silence until I figured out that switching the radio on might help. Flaps stuck again.. Seems that the flaps on Charlie Bravo do that. I've seen it once before. Steve suggested it was me.... maybe because of my slow deliberate movements, maybe they recognise green students!!! I tried to do the radio calls again today but a combination of deafness, an irritating mic that kept swinging away from my face and having a mouth (and brain) full of cotton wool meant that I was going to give very crappy disjointed replies for the whole time. There was another reason too. Later. Take-off was on 090L today, Steve demonstrated a very nice crosswind takeoff with a bit of right aileron on the takeoff roll and If I'm not mistaken he had some right rudder on as well as soon as we left the runway to face into the wind. What preceded was a roller coaster ride on the climb with central Manchester dead ahead. On our usual route out over the M61. Things were pretty bumpy and I struggled with the controls to keep straight and level. Indeed I couldn't see a horizon and my natural attitude was fixed wrongly so we descended a few times gradually during the exercises. First was aircraft trimming. Now my brain was fixed as far as the correction required, i.e. nose want to go up wheel forward to remove that force and vice versa. Out of Trim. Steve turned the trim wheel whilst I maintained straight and level. Holding the attitude your required whilst trimming was the key here. It could take alot of force with one hand, made more difficult by the bumpy ride and buffeting we were receiving from the wind. We had a quick run over the effects of controls, then we picked out VRP's and used them as a reference to fly on a track. I had a pretty good idea which direction the wind was coming from so I selected a heading that was 10 degrees right and bobs your uncle. Not too bad considering that the nose was jumping 10 degrees either side with the gusts.

Steve wanted to show me the mixture control. First we climbed to a more suitable altitude then he leaned off, the engine revs dropped he added half and inch. Seemed straight forward, we agreed that we we'd revisit this when we had more altitude to play with as I'd like to try it. Disappointed that all my radio call replies went tits up. I found the workload keeping straight and level scrambled my brain. Not all bad news, I spotted all the traffic (whether Steve had spotted and said nothing I don't know) Steve hadn't spotted the Police helicopter cutting across our path at which point we had to take an evasive action. One more thing to tick off, cabin heat, defrost etc... useful demonstration as I realised my fingers were freezing. Throughout the lesson I did all the climbing although I know its on the list for next lesson as there is still so much going on or should be going on that I am missing.

Time to head home, I called overhead the Reebok, made an arse of the reply (Back to the drawing board). Now then for some reason I thought that the dead side would change when the circuit direction changes. No it doesn't the traffic just goes the other way around. So this time we passed the airfield at 1800 ft QFE on the right descended on the deadside to 900ft oopps I slipped a bit there. Steve brought her back to 1000ft as we crossed the 270 number. Turned downwind, Steve called it, turned onto base (1 traffic behind who I could see and hear on frequency), 2 stages of flap, trim for 70 knots, on final 40 degree flap. We approached crabbing to the right, Steve was aiming for 65 knots but we crossed the threshold at 73 knots, we kept the crabbed config up until the nose wheel was going to touch down. Very smooth landing. We left the runway at a reasonable speed given the close proximity of the traffic behind. I taxied us to a parking T on the grass, did the run down checks and shut down. After parking we went through the lesson and Steve preceded to go through the next things to do. Learning wise I tried new things and kept straight and level in conditions with blustery wind conditions and no horizon. I found the turbulence a bit unsettling in that I expended too much effort controlling the aircraft with my brain disengaged on the other stuff. I did at least remember the Carb heat during every FREDA check.

5- Climbs and Descents Part 1

Well the TAF, METAR, Forms 214 and 215 really didn't look inviting for a flying day, High winds..... However I noticed that the winds were at 240 degrees, only 30 degrees off Runway 27 so the crosswind component will be bugger all (Max Xwind 17 knots for a P28) I called Barton and sensed the excitement in the the instructors voice (not sure which one). Zoomed down the motorway. Steve was there waiting for me. Charlie Alpha today (I'm happy to try the other aircraft as well as the instruments are not the same and it would be good to split my time since I could be doing the skills test in either). After checking the lights and stall warner (Charlie Alphas lights actually work!!)(I forgot the bloody pitot tube under the port wing, (Steve was still outside and said it was fine) I gave Charlie Alpha a thorough external inspection. Only thing of note was that either the engine oil was clear or there was none in it... Luckily for me it was the former. There appeared to be a que forming at the pumps so Steve suggested we get ourselves over soonest so he started her up and moved us to the pumps. Filled to the tabs. Steve started it up and I taxied us to a suitable place facing into wind (which was now getting right up there). We started again I did the internals to start. I made the call. Did ok but still not perfect.

Moved her over to Alpha 3 holding point into wind. I Performed the power checks and the pre-take off. The Grob was on final so Steve told me to amend my call for departure to include "... after Grob on Final". Two stages of flap - we left the ground much earlier than usual due the high wind vector down the runway. I was hoping that the turbulence encountered in the last lesson would be less today - Its much harder to concentrate on learning and practicing new maneuvers in turbulence (or at least it is for me). We headed for Winter Hill, then went between the M61 and the Reebok which was our usual route out. It was pretty turbulent as the wind was coming from behind and gusting. We climbed a bit higher and the gusting and turbulence just disappeared, the sun came out and our usual play area (between Winter Hill to Southport) was sun drenched!!! A cruise climb was made at 90 knots, the cowling was only just above the horizon. Cruise climbing allows for more cooling action than say best angle climb.

Practiced straight flight by using the wind direction to add a lead to my heading. FREDA - remembering the mnemonics was not a problem - Today I learnt about breaking them up and ensuring that my pitch attitude remained the same. I actually lost 400 ft whilst doing my first FREDA. What worked for me is taking a look outside after every letter and using one hand on the control column which is opposite to the hand I am touching the gauges / controls with. Steve pointed out how slow we were moving relative to the ground. TBH I could not really tell whether it was slow or not because I had nothing to compare it with. Ok the meat of the lesson. Climbs and descents. First climbs at 80 knots (Best Rate of Climb - book says 79 knots but whose counting). So Ts and Ps, lookout and around, Increase power 1-2-3 the nose pitches up, right clog to correct for yaw, (a wee delay on this also the yawing action is not that great). Adjust the attitude to give a steady 80 knots; control forces are quite high at this time. Leveling off, pitch forward allow the speed to build up and reduce the power to normal, let everything settle and re-trim if required. During my attempt I trimmed the climb as well (not because I'm a smart arse I just want to practice). Descending a little different (Glide descents to be specific)... Carb heat on, reduce the power to idle 1-2-3-4, hold the attitude until the speed reduces, then drop the nose to maintain 75 knots (Best Glide Speed), just using the pitch attitude. I re-trimmed on my attempt again. Steve demonstrated the Best angle of Climb which occurs at 65 knots (Book says 63 knots what's a few knots between friends). The difference leveling off CF with climbing is that, carb heat off, the power was applied first, minor correction for yaw, nose naturally pitched up and the IAS increased, holding the correct nose attitude, I trimmed off the forces.

Today I recognised, Martin Mere, Leigh Flash, the 3 lakes which point at the Reebok. Woodvale stood out today. I saw that big prison (Have to find out the name of it). I also noted that the Camelot Tent was quite close to the M6. Brain function reaching 12% must be doing well!!. Time to head home. I did the inward call. Thought I did Ok until Steve commented that I used the shortened call sign in my reply rather than the long one because BI had not shortened it!!! HHmm. Again we were virtually over Barton before I actually picked it up. Hopefully someday soon I may recognise what an airfield looks like from the air. Circuit went fine, the turbulence on final was quite special; at times were looked so far off course. Not too much flair, missed the threshold speed as I was away with the fairies. Ste was planning 70 knots for a two stages of flap instead of the book 65 knot approach because of the turbulence. The rest went as per book. Good lesson - Steve thought so too. Now I need to make the drills and procedures second nature. Got a double next crossed fingers. Steve asked me to read up on turns as well.

6 - Practice Climbs and Descents Ex 7i and 8i Plus Introduction to Turns Ex 9;

The weather was looking good although the winds were going to increase. Wasn't sure whether I would manage the double. Met Steve outside at the aircraft I already had ATIS. (Forgot to look at the wind - However the wind sock was showing about 15 knots at 180 degrees. So a nice Xwind for take off). I did a thorough check on Charlie Alpha. I started her up and taxied her to the pumps. Filled to tabs then found a quite spot off Runway 32 to do the pre-flight. Externals already done. I am getting better and quicker at this now. (Still forgot the DI vrs Compass which I set later whilst rolling) Called BI silence... called again got a response but I'm not sure they heard all of my call as the asked for my callsign again... Somehow I was not keying the mic properly and they couldn't hear me. Bit miffed as I just when I get the calls right no bugger can hear me!!! Right I taxied to Bravo 3. Got a good feel for taxiing now. Nice tight turn for the power checks into wind. Steve had briefed me on the takeoff as though I was going to do the majority of it however I reckon the Xwind put changed his mind as I just followed through. Although we did do the pre-take off drill, Primary aiming point secondary aiming point for when the nose is up, runway is clear, windsock direction and wind strength, no lights from the tower away we go. Tricky takeoff, quite bumpy on the route heading to the centre of Manchester, turned left and I took over for the climb to 1800 ft. For the rest of the lesson I practiced Best rate of Climb (80 knts) as well as some cruise climbs at 90 knts. Also glide descents. All went very well and we had some smooth air in our play area. I prompted all the FREDA checks and performed them all wary of my height although on one FREDA I drifted 20 degree right because I hadn't led the heading to account for the wind. Practiced that as well. All fairly easy stuff. Steve introduced me to medium turns. Again easy stuff and I found them relatively easy to maintain altitude and level on on a heading. Saw the white buildings near Warton, had no probs with the Reebok Stadium- Chorley lakes, Southport gas bowser stood out as did the top of the Mast at Winter hill which was just stuck out at the top. At one point we passed through some thin clouds at 2500ft; Steve asked me whether we were still legal?? I said we could still see the ground through them, Steve gave me the impression that that was OK for him too although in a skills test I should consider routing around them to demonstrate an understanding of the VRF minima. Point taken.

A very good lesson and I felt quite comfortable. That was until we headed for home. For some reason the air over the Barton area at 2000ft and below was very unsettled. I called overhead the Reebok requesting joining instructions. Again silence... then the radio sprang into life, I almost got the reply right, for some reason I keep saying "runway 9 Left" instead of "runway 09 left". Anyway point noted and must do better. I spotted Barton again a bit late although I am now getting used to the area from above. Makro should be a good marker but just didn't stand out. I traced the bend in the Ship Canal against Leigh Flash and dissected to where the airfield should be. Anyway the whole descent and subsequent landing were done mainly by Steve because the turbulence and gusting was quite severe and we literally were considerably crabbed to the direction of the runway up until not too far from the threshold. Past the numbers at about 70 knots and touched down nicely although we weaved from side to side for half the length of the runway before things came under control. I got the impression that Steve didn't like his landing although of I remember reading somewhere, "any landing you survive is a good one". Given the buffeting I thought he did a fine job. The Xwind must have been at or slightly above the limit for the aircraft (in excess of 17 knots). We went to the LAC portacabin after shutting down.

7. Practice Ex 6 - 9

Steve did his admin them we looked at the ATIS. Wind 140 degrees 14 knots - therefore technically nothing stopping us for another lesson. I managed to get the mic arm fixed on my headset which had been beggaring me off all the last lesson because it would swing away from my mouth every time I was about to speak. I'd already mentioned to Steve that I would like to practice those things I'd learnt over the last two lessons before progressing. You literally feel like you've only done something once before moving on. I'm quite happy to consolidate my learning by practicing because I will be having a month away at a time etc... So I glided over the internals and got us to departure, again BI didn't hear me; Gotta be me and that dodgy switch on the control arm. Again takeoff was fraught with quite severe turbulence and a crosswind which registered a lot more than ATIS suggested. We basically flew the same route.

Steve said very little but just had me turning on specified headings, climbing and descending throughout (including trimming). I went through the motions and gave a running commentary as I went along. I prompted the FREDA checks and all in all I was satisfied that I can Glide Descent and Best rate Climb safely and reasonably accurately as well as set a heading to track to a feature taking the wind into account. Trimming is sorted as well. I can make Medium turns safely without losing height whilst keeping a good lookout. Great. Getting more confidence. Again Steve took over in the circuit as the turbulence was severe again. I am getting more used to it now and expect I'll see a lot more. Its quite a close call as you approach 09L as there are some pylons not far from the airfield, we passed over at 300ft QFE. This landing was firmer but Steve had more control as we were rolling than last time. The Xwind was quite severe again and we had a serious lead into the wind just before the wheels touched. I still feel the whole circuit thing is a little way off yet and Xwind landing look very tricky indeed.

8 - Straight and level in different configurations Ex 6 II

Beautiful clear day. Bloody cold but the TAFs and Metars looked fine. I arrived about 15 mins early to see Steve by the control tower. He was grinning from ear to ear and I guess we were on. I went and did the checks whilst Steve booked Charlie Bravo out. Just completed everything when he arrived back. After a quick briefing. I started her up and we set off across the grass and rejoined the concrete taxiway to Holding Point Alpha 3. Two other aircraft were on power checks ahead and I could see one traffic on final. The DI was goosed and didn't appear to be moving as it should. Steve had me call ready for departure after departing traffic. I was told to report lined up. However, once lined up BI called my clearance before I could get my call in. Wind was about 10 knts 30 degs off to the right at 300 deg. Although I was technically doing the take I could only class it as half a takeoff, I started it, Steve crabbed us as soon as we were airborne... big rush... Now I took the climb, it was a bit bumpy but not too bad. I was blatantly aware that the turbulence had my IAS jumping around a bit (60-70 knts), being only 10knts above stall, I found myself drawn to it as stalling wouldn't be too clever at 300ft. I prompted and removed flap at 400ft (I was going to at 300ft but Steve reminded me QNH would have us less than 300ft if I removed flap too soon- fair point) I let the speed build up but by pitching the nose down slightly to 80 knts and then removed flaps. Made a turn towards Winter Hill and cruise climbed up to 3200ft. Steve reminded me about the 500ft weaves to check the way ahead. It was a lovely clear beautiful day; I could see all the Blackpool coast. Both Blackpool and Warton Aerodromes. Southport Gas Bowser was lit up by the sun. Could even see the Welsh Mountains. It was only choppy every now and again. Just enough to keep me paying attention to my drift. DI was definitely knackered. With Vis so good it didn't seem important. I made the departing call. Infact, I made nearly all the calls and it went very well apart from getting the Callsign wrong on the inward call which didn't seem to matter as it was a great flying day.

Today we practiced maintaining straight and level flight with changes in power settings with related attitude changes. 2000RPM+ gave around 80 knots, 2500 RPM gave around 100 knots. We flew using 25 deg flap and drag flap looking at the varying rates of descent whilst maintaining airspeed with attitude. Its all easy to understand; just needs to be practiced. I configured for Slow Safe Cruise (25 deg flap and 70 knots) This was easy to attain and gave very good visibility because the plane is pitched forward but still flying straight. We went off the normal track and flew all the way to the Pole Hill VOR. The wind farms made great VRPs. I could see the wind farm which was on the edge of the Leeds Bradford Control Area. We passed to the right of Darwin. I got a good VRP on Peel Tower, (visible from my house), we passed directly over Helmshore (not named on the aeronautical map but I know the area). Heading back we flew over Bury. Steve gave the option of a join on right base or an overhead. I wanted overhead (for purely selfish, I want to play out longer reasons!!). I did all the maneuvering in the circuit. Called everything except final. My brain is still a little slow in circuits. You've gotta get after it (I'm still trying to remember the mnemonics). Anyway I virtually had it right on downwind. One traffic ahead and we were very close behind. I wasn't sure he was touching and going; he was as it turned out (lucky for us). Steve landed her and at the end of the ground roll we seemed to skid sideways. I certainly didn't feel any large rudder pedal movements. Quickly back to the school. I shut everything down. Jimmy riddle then back for the next episode.

9 - Climbs Ex 7 II and Descents 8 II in different configurations

Now or never... I had her on the runway lined up. This time I was going to takeoff for the first time. I recited the takeoff verse Steve uses, Primary aiming, secondary aiming, no lights from the tower, Compass said 270 degrees (DI still knackered) runway clear. Heels on the deck (ie applying the toe brakes whilst trying to takeoff would ruin everyone's day, plus there were too many people watching to go hedge cutting today. I was lined up on the LH side of runway 27R (less potholes and roadworks!!!). Wind was +- 10-15 knots coming from 30 degrees to the right. Right aileron, I had the power on quicker this time. My feet were firmly on those rudders and I was ready for what fate was about to throw at me. Halfway down the runway I held the control column back to keep the nose up estimating the division by half of the distance remaining. Up she lifted, bit of right clog into the wind, wings rocks a bit. Not exactly sure whether all the movements were mine but must have been 90%. I flew with a fairly low pitch angle for a few seconds then pitched the nose up at Steve's cue. Euphoria rose and immediately disappeared when I looked at the highly variable ASI too close to stall for comfort. Concentrated hard on survival until 400ft or so when I could remove all flap and see a more reassuring ASI. Fantastic.... Quite a bit of traffic around. Had us watching and changes course on more than one occasion.

I spent this lesson climbing and descending with different flap on getting the pitch attitude right to maintain the right IAS. I hardly had time for any time for trimming so I was knackered after 50 mins (something I need to be quicker at). Anyway, we covered quite alot. We also did the go around procedure.... full power, fly level, remove drag flap, climb away. Guess I'll be getting plenty of practice for that later on. I did all the calls except the inward and final. Steve suggested some intriguing mix of mush I'd never heard before for the inward call so I let him do it. This time we joined on Right base. He knew his angles well. To me we seemed to be 30 Degrees out but But I guess its not too important (that's just my inexperience showing through). We adopted slow safe cruise fairly early on. Steve took over on base. We were still at 1000ft when turning on final which was too high but the ROD was high. Just before the threshold we had some interesting turbulence which was attempting to insist we land on Runway 30R. Things appeared to iron themselves out and we landed well, corrections made before the main wheels were down. A good two hours bagged. Climbing, descending and basic turning no problem. First takeoff done and I guess all the rest will be mine from now on. RT none too shabby as well. All my bathroom RT seems to be paying off. Next Slow flight and stalling!!!!!

10 - Descents, Slow Safe Cruise, Go-arounds and Stalling, Ex 8 II, 10a and 10b

Happy Birthday - I got my birthday present when I looked out at first light to see my window of opportunity. TAF and METAR looked OK but the forecast looked dire... Snow. Bury soon became fogged in as I was getting ready to leave so I called the LAC, Julie said it was snowing but only slightly and it was expected to pass. Couldn't hear anyone on frequency on the way down even though the webby said that the airfield was open. I saw Steve filling up Charlie Bravo so I intercepted him. Before I knew it we were waiting for departure. My official 2nd takeoff went well, slight crosswind, bobbed around a bit once airborne but settled nicely into a best angle of climb at 65 knots. I had control nearly all lesson. It was absolutely beautiful some clouds but the sun was shining and there was only minor turbulence which disappeared above 2500ft.

Straight into it, descents and climbs with power and flaps. Reasonably straight forward. A lot of feel in this that I still don't really have yet but given time to think about it and make minor adjustments it was fine. Slow safe Cruise with 25 degree flap 2100 rpm and 70 knots went very well indeed. Of particular note was the readjustment to the power setting after slowing down to slow safe cruise because once the wind milling effect was removed as the airspeed dropped I would find that the RPMs dropped to 1950 rpm. Twice I only noticed this after wondering why I was dropping so much with the nose attitude I had and 70 knots. What I gained today was the freedom to decide and use different power settings as my choice to suit various situations. Twice I focused on a runway marker and used power and flaps simulating being on base and final. Not so easy and I am sure the sense of urgency will be a little different with the ground fast approaching however it was nice to combine the two. Basically, too low power on, pitch up to maintain airspeed; too high, reduce power and pitch down to maintain airspeed. Sounds easy but getting things to function that way was not straightforward. All in all I did 20 mins of slow flight, including straight and level, turns (15 degrees is max allowed) climbs and descents. Had another bash at the go around procedure. Power on, remove drag flap pitch up and climb then remove flaps when high and fast enough. Need to practice this as its still a wee bit alien to me.

Before heading back Steve demonstrated a few stalls without power. Very benign response; the buffeting and stall Warner went on for quite a while before we got the nose to drop. All this was in a clean configuration. I had learnt the HASELL checks the night before so it all went fine. Easy money.

I made the inward call not stating my position; didn't seem to matter as no-one asked for it and I was having a ball although I must try harder. On the whole my RT was good and Steve said as much. We joined downwind. I almost remembered the pre-landing checks. BUMCFFHC (Brakes, Undercarriage, Mixture rich, Carb heat hot, Fuel contents OK and pump on, Flaps (clean on DW) Harnesses secure and last of all Carb Heat cold. The approach and landing were done by Steve. 30 degree turn on base, carb heat hot, reduce to 1500 RPM, 25 degree flap. I've not got the aiming points right yet but its coming. On the 15 degree final turn we should be around minimum 500ft. (we were at 700ft). On the ground run we skidded sideways again. I think Steve was using the brake and reckon he changed his mind and stay on the runway to let the speed decrease some more by friction.

11 - Climbing and Descending Turns, Slow Flight and Stalling Ex 9, 10a and 10b

Barton was relatively quiet which helped a great deal as I was doing the taking off. It seemed to go abit pair shaped half way down the runway, we drifted off the runway to the left (we were on the left hand edge anyway so the drift was not so dramatic). After getting airborne I asked Steve what happened and he said that I'd not applied enough right clog to cope with the helical wind effect and the crosswind (which was greater than the last takeoff). Fair cop.

We headed off towards Pole Hill. Hugged the underside of the clouds on the way up. This was fun just nipping at their bases. The whole spatial awareness near cloud feels weird. I practiced climbing and descending turns, basically, 15 degree max on climbing 30 degrees OK on descending. very easy and I did well. Did another 30 mins of slow flight in 25 degree config whilst admiring the view over Pole Hill. We managed to find the VOR again. I had control for 95% of this flight. Doing so many hours in a short space of time really helps to develop some feel and confidence quickly.

We did several stalls without power. The last one was entirely my own. The clouds were closing in on us and we had to pick our spots. The main thing I learnt was to keep my right hand on the power quadrant. HASELL checks went well and I learnt to weave and look around properly beforehand.

I called us in overhead the Swinton Interchange to join right base. We had to get down quick as we were about to enter Manchester TMA at 2000ft. Now I flew base and lined up for final. I followed through the whole landing. Again we skidded on the ice in the last third of the runway. I'm getting there but still too much going on. My RT is getting better and I'm starting to pay attention to the responses that fire back at me and how to interpret this. It will be a good Intro for my RT course in April.

12 - Slow Flight Ex 10a

The Metar and TAF looked good. As I walked past the hanger I noticed that none of the planes were out and there was a gathering of florescent hi-vis tops in the office - gassing no doubt - confirmed. Airfield closed due to surface conditions. Vis was pretty crap as well. Another inspection at 1030hrs. I resigned myself to another missed slot.

Whilst biting into a particularly runny egg and bacon bap at the LAC cafe the rumour of the airfield opening swept by on the wind. The air became electric and Steve and I scoffed our tucker quick time; drank our coffees quicker than we should have done then steamed off to the Flying School clubhouse. I got the ATIS; The keys for Charlie Bravo. A one of the many cheerful fill-up chaps (never seen the same guy twice) stuck some blue stuff in from the mobile bowser whilst I pre-flighted Charlie Bravo. I taxied her between two aircraft. There was only a foot either side. I was sweating I can tell you. Anyway, zoomed around to Holding Point Bravo 3 (We were cleared for Bravo 4 but there was not enough room to turn and face the wind for the pre-take off checks (100 degrees, 10 degs off runway 09L, 5 knts) then turn again without going over rough ground. I called ready for departure whilst rolling (there was one on downwind I couldn't see but we had time to takeoff). Steve launched into the takeoff prep verbally just as I was about to speak. I increased the power more quickly but still smoothly. My aiming point was a block of flats... taking off from 09 does add a wee bit of urgency about taking off. The runway is pretty uneven. There wasn't much wind effect and I only used slight right rudder. Only a slight Xwind, I was suppose to use slight right aileron but soon forgot about that as I could see the cheap PVC double glazing getting clearer directly ahead. I purposely counted a 1-2-3 before pitching up after the aircraft lifted off. 65knts more or less and not too much turbulence. Vis was crap but good enough I suppose. I climbed to 2000ft on QNH and switched the transponder on. I made the departing called, performed a FREDA check. Slow flight, 2000rpm - 2 stages of flap, 70 knots, trim. Might be me but I find very little to trim off when changing between configurations. Only trimming for climbs and descents do I find major control forces evident (I am a hamfisted bugger at the best of times). We climbed up to see where the cloudbase was. Reckon the clouds were at about 2700ft, not really high enough for stalls unfortunately. Shame I was looking forward to some more stalls, especially the ones where I may regret having just eaten a big sweaty bacon and egg bap :-)

Steve announced that we were going to do theoretical circuits. Well what can I say; I've mentally prepared myself for this, have the whole picture in my head. Takes 6 minutes apparently for a full circuit I'm led to believe.... It was frantic; whilst going through the motions, carb heat was all over the place, I lost 20 degrees heading here or there (because I wasn't thinking about leading my track) I lost 100 feet here or there because my brain had negotiated a straight swap with that sweaty egg I'd just eaten. I was aware that I wasn't looking out as much as I should be doing. So I forced myself to work harder; we carried on; must have done it 3-4 times; I was doing a 'going around' procedure at each theoretical landing stage then climbing out to circuit height. On the last one it was coming. I was making theoretical calls to Steve (who became Barton FIS) I was more height aware and heading aware using the cardinal points as final-upwind, crosswind, downwind and base leg headings. It was coming and I need to do more of this. Don't forget this is me doing circuits without a proper ground bearing i.e. a runway to line up on (made it harder). Of course there was no other circuit traffic to distract you - which made it easier than the real thing I suppose. I was too slow in the BUMCFFHC checks. Learnt to include the footbrake pressure as well as part of B. With the 'going around' procedure I was indecisive and too slow. FULL POWER - LEVEL OFF - LOSE DRAG FLAP - SPEED INCREASES - PITCH UP - 65 KNOTS - 300ft AGL LOSE FLAPS - LET SPEED INCREASE TO 80 KNTS (ENGAGE BRAIN AND TURN AFTER 500FT BACK ON CROSSWIND (INSTEAD OF CLIMBING TO OUTER SPACE THEN TURNING). All in all from theoretical climb-out back to that point was a large workload in 6 minutes.

Then Steve announced we should head back; Gave me a heading and a direction. We did some more slow flight toward Barton. I did the inward call and made a small fluff. Now spotting Barton. I got the usual question…..Where's Barton? I could see Leigh Flash - projected the line - no good - the bend in the Manchester ship canal was buried in murk. I estimated and apparently was correct although I'm not entirely happy with this. Steve pointed out the yellowish fields in the vicinity of Barton; Got to say we seem to have a different reference point every time we head in. Will I ever find it on my own? OK 2000ft, staying out of the Manchester TMA and therefore still legal, I dropped us gradually to 1900ft. Correcting from QNH to QFE has the effect of reducing the indicated altitude to around overhead join height. I had control all through the circuit. Bugger !!! lost some height coming over the numbers on crosswind after descending deadside at 900ft. I climber it sneakily back to 1000ft with a touch of pitch and power. Circuit stuff again. I think I did fine. I called downwind, made an arse by including the contact after my call sign (that's what you get for being a smart arse) Base went fine. Checks went fine. I turned skirting the boggy marsh land that stands out on LH circuits. (I spend too long faffing with the trim to get 70knots) The saving grace was a perfect turn onto final at 700ft and I trimmed for 65knots. I flew the approach down to 300ft (with no wind it seemed fairly easy), after removing the carb heat Steve took over and made the final landing run. He held the flare a very long time whilst talking too me. Half way down the runway we touched down, little rough. He commented that I had trimmed the aircraft very nicely for landing ;-) I was rather pleased with myself. It was a tough lesson. I knew it was coming and it didn't disappoint. I was completely drained and felt that I could have done a lot better but I'll get my chance to prove it soon enough. I was glad Steve drove me a bit harder and nit picked all my errors. I need it to push me to be better at it. In my experience, I aim for 100% in everything leaving no stone unturned. I'm at the point where I need driving hard to get the precision thing sorted.
Good tough lesson. I'm sure there will be many more.

13 - More slow flight; Complete Stalling Ex 10a & 10b

Up later than I wanted to be. Looked outside :-) we're on. Printed out the TAF and METAR. Looked OK apart from becoming RA (Rain) and SN (Snow) later.

I arrived to find Steve refueling Charlie Bravo. I met him at the aircraft. I thoroughly checked and prepared myself for the next flight. Then Steve rolled up and said we had the wrong aircraft (that's half an hour wasted!!!) I checked out Charlie Alpha. Fuel was below the Tabs, Steve was happy to go up.

All my calls were perfect today :-) big beam - (in reality I'm only making a fraction of the calls I will be making once I stray away from Barton). I taxied us around to Bravo 3 holding. Pre-take-off preps and checks. Called "ready for departure whilst rolling. There was no traffic in the circuit. This time Steve said nothing. I talked him through the takeoff preps on the runway. 1-2-3 full power on. Wind was right in our face so I was aware that the aircraft may want to takeoff before its ready. I kept a tight reign on the rudder (wiggled a little bit). Sure enough she wanted to take off so I held the pressure on whilst trying to keep it straight. Up she comes - 1-2-3 Pitch up... For me a perfect takeoff I asked Steve later in the climb whether or not he did anything. He said no :-) Only feedback being pick the nose wheel up a little earlier in the ground run. I know this would have had us off the ground earlier. Still preferable to damaging the nose wheel - point taken - That would make landing very interesting.

I took us towards Winter Hill. Slow Safe Flight at 70 knots, Some climbing, turning and descending. Then slow flight at 65 knots. Again climbing, descending and turning. Vis was getting worse and we were being pushed more towards Warton's airspace as time went on. Stalling, Power on stalls with and without flaps, stalls whilst turning. Enjoyed this as we pulled some descent Gs whilst pulling up. :-) My attempts were fairly innocuous. Stalling with wing drop. Not too exciting, it was hard to get the wing to drop at all. (I agreed with Steve that we can do some proper spinning and spin recovery in the club Grob when the good weather arrives). Can't do them in a PA28 :-( I need to get the stalling procedure off pat a little more... just slicker that's all... its not hard and SSR is easy in a PA28. I was losing very little height in my stalls (wonder how that would feel turning onto final from base at 600ft...)

Heading back to Barton the vis got quite bad. We had snow in our face and the promised crappy weather looked like it had arrived. I agree in the air that we'll have an extended lesson rather than land and have another bash as it looked like our weather window was disappearing.

I called us in, did an overhead join over the numbers. I tracked the aircraft nicely on crosswind to account for the wind blowing us off track. We got distracted on Downwind by the radio. Couldn't get the call in as the world and his dog were on air telling their life stories. Called late downwind. Steve performed the checks (I wanted to do it but I think he jumped in just to get them done) We turned a little late. Approach config, 70 knots and trimmed best I could. Turned on final, I overshot slightly. Think Steve was pleased with my recognition of the fact and correction of the problem. (I read the section in Thom 2 nights before and it helped with the rules of thumb). I flew the final approach. Drag flap and trim for 65 knots. It was all going well. My perception has us lower than Steve's for whatever reason. I was happy but Steve wanted more height, I removed carb heat at 250 ft. I was going to take it all the way (Steve seemed happy to let me continue) until a bloody violent gust caught us 100 ft and dropped the starboard wing, Steve took over the controls, I felt some violent rudder movements going down. The wind kept crabbing us on the runway and Steve was fighting to straighten her up. He admitted afterwards that it was a difficult landing and was glad he grabbed the controls when he did. So was I :-o (although I wanted to have a bash I may have struggled on the hold off and flare with the turbulence. My turn will come) Another good lesson. A good round off for March. More than half my bookings were scrapped because of the weather. Either next lesson or the one after that will be the start of circuit bashing and my striving towards landings and solo flight. Can't wait. Roll on April.

Wellesbourne Student Fly-in 18th March

I had two offers to take me from Barton. Firstly Robbo from the Forum (he wasn't sure his plane would be back from its annual so I committed to the Citabration Group. G-ATGO a Cessna 172 was in Liverpool.

We met at Barton and drove to Liverpool. Keene Air (The handling agent I think) was a nice little set-up Golf Oscar was pulled out for us and a litre of the slippery stuff was stuck in as it was lacking. Dave was in the Pilots seat for the outward trip. The wind was at 080 deg 14 knots. Almost right down runway 09. Departing Liverpool was incredible easy. I saw a Tomahawk do a touch and go first. There were two GA flights out before us and an Easy Jet taxiing towards the end of the runway which departed after us. (I heard the pilot called us as a visual contact - quite disturbing to know that there's a jet somewhere behind you). No flap for takeoff We departed Midway from Holding Point Echo. The RT was buzzing. Couldn't believe how fast they were talking. Take off was reasonably uneventful. We were cleared to Oulton Park VRP (we wanted Chester but in Class D we have to do what were told). My nav plan was from Chester so that was now out. Anyway Oulton Park is not that far maybe less than 10 nm from Chester East of Chester so a small track correction was expected. From then on we muddled on in some pretty crap vis between 1400 and 1900 ft. I called out all the VRPs I could see with Neil confirming my attempts. Railways lines, bodies of water, motorways and large areas of trees stood out quite well. Dave had a GPS fired up as well which I tried to ignore but eventually found myself drawn to it to check my suspicions. Think I did quite well. But that was just the Nav. If I was on my own flying as well I can imagine it would be alot harder. We passed close to Cosford and Wolverhampton airspace. Vis improved slightly. We cut the corner over Redditch and headed straight for Wellsbourne. My timings were spot on even though we were flying a slightly different track. We heard Mike in the Citabria call in, He was maybe 5-10 minutes ahead. The runway crosswind was right up there 18 gusting 30 knots. We heard Mike state that he would have a go and decided on final. He made a nice call to the tower saying that it wasn't too bad (more for our benefit as he knew we were close behind).

The Saturday Market on Runway 05 stood out for miles. Dave called us in. One of the other forumites made some interesting comments after he landed which had us cracking up whilst approaching the circuit. We descended deadside and had a good look around (we saw Mike and the Citabria taxiing below us. Base and final went OK Dave opted for only 10 degrees of flap and a higher approach speed which was prudent given the gusting winds. We crabbed on landing, I could feel the spring on the nosewheel kick in and straighten us up when the nosewheel finally did touch. There were only three other aircraft there at that time (Many more arrived later). One of them was a Jet Provost... I spoke to the pilot at lunch and it had taken him only 18 minutes to travel from North Weald to Wellesbourne!!! That's hardly enough time to make the RT calls never mind anything else!!! It was bollock freezing on the tarmac so we all headed off en masse to the cafe for a very welcome coffee and a Bacon and egg sandwich!!! Maybe a little premature because we eventually all buggered off to a nice pub a few miles away courtesy of 'Flyin Dutch'. Many more flyers turned up and there were some real characters.

We had a jaunt around the Museum at Wellesborne. A Sea Vixen and a Vulcan cockpit were accessible as well as lots of other WWII type memorabilia etc Lots of mangled engines and pieces of aircraft some of it German.

After saying good-bye and shaking a few hands; We headed out to the aircraft. The JP was just firing up. Its hot jet blast was welcome in the bloody cold. I got in the Citabria with Mike for the journey back..

It was a fore and aft type seating arrangement with a stick. I had power and carb heat, small rudder pedals and tiny almost toy like brakes. With the rudder control wires passing my feet I was very careful where all my stuff rested!! It was gusting pretty high and we expected an interesting takeoff We were airborne pretty quick. The Citabria has a Lycoming 150 which is very powerful for a very light small aircraft. I could feel the punch as he applied full power. We departed using Wellesborne's special departure procedures to avoid buzzing the nearby village. We flew over Stratford. I saw the RSC and the bridge over the river. One of my favourite places - happy times. Conditions were the same as the trip out. At one point Mike pointed out that he thinks we picked up some carb ice!!! The revs were higher after a carb heat application demonstrating that carb heat had changed something. Mike was using his mini GPs as I hadn't planned the route for the Citabria. I had an idea of the reciprocal. Golf Oscar was somewhere behind us. Eventually it appeared on our left near Wolverhampton and flew on ahead being 5 knots quicker in cruise. Mike gave me control after Cosford and I flew the Citabria at 1700ft using his GPs to track (I could see the IAS and just about see the altimeter over Mikes shoulder). It was fantastic - Indescribable - I didn't sleep that night. The tick was very sensitive and you only needed slight pressure. It was very easy to relax on the stick more so than a control arm. It feels more natural. It was abit turbulent so I had to keep my wits about me. I slacked on the nav since I was sat on my map glancing at the GPs over Mikes right shoulder (the whole kneeboard thing didn't work with the stick between your legs - have to re-think that one). I was loving it; through the low level route the sun came out and the vis became great it became a perfect flying day. My hands were frozen but I was in control. I flew the Manchester Low Level Route. We monitored Manchester's busy approach frequency along the way. Mike pointed out all the landmarks I have to look out for. I'll be doing it on my solo Navs and landaways so it was great experience. I correctly pointed out Barton to Mike (rather pleased with myself considering I'm usually over it before I see it). When approaching the airfield I voluntarily gave control back to Mike so he could fly the long final and have everything shipshape. It was a class landing. What a fantastic day. I hope to jump in on a few more fly-ins as a stude before my licence. The Nav planning and instruction I received for it was invaluable, thanks to Neil, Dave and Keith. Just at the right time as I'm planning to do my Nav exam next before meteorology.

14 - Circuits Circuits Circuits Ex 12 & 13

I was expecting to be a bit rusty after my enforced break from flying due to work and I was. The weather looked a bit naff vis wise but for once it wasn't raining. Arrived half an hour early to find Steve and Tony (another FI) tucking into a bacon and egg bap. Steve said he'd be ready for a bash. There was a trial flight booked at twelve and we'd have to make sure that wasn't going ahead due to the vis first ... In the meantime sat in Charlie Alpha. Went through the radio stack in great detail from the Nav point of view, VOR's, radials, DME and NDBs. It was interesting and obviously something I need to practice on the flight sim when the time comes (bout the most useful application for the Flight Sim). I could see other planes filling up and we were going to go too.

I pre-flighted Charlie Bravo. Steve forgot my Headphones (I need to be responsible for my own headset)... 10 minute delay. I called for the departure and taxi information since we didn't have the ATIS. At Bravo 3 holding I called "Departing after the landing traffic". Lined up; went thro the runway checks for Steve's benefit. Off we went.... The roll went on for ever and the plane just did not want to lift up, the stall warner flicked a couple of time and we must have been right on the stall limit. The forces on the control column were greater than usual. We lifted up and she veered off left then started climbing!!!! Not one of my best takeoffs ... What went wrong was my first question at about 300 ft.... Somewhere during the Pre-take-off checks I'd skipped the part where I selected 2 stages of takeoff flap so we did a flapless takeoff :-o No wonder I had difficulty getting the bloody thing in the air. I won't forget that lesson in a hurry. Although I put in right aileron for a RH crosswind, I took it off too early. Steve later explained that you can take some of it off but not all until you leave the ground...

In the subsequent circuits my climb outs were generally good, losing flaps between 300-400ft, 15 degree climbing turns onto crosswind. I was surprised how close to the flats we were when I didn't use best angle of climb 65 knots. Steve never mentioned it but I will try and hit 65 sooner to get height more quickly next time. I maybe scared a few old folks half to death by brushing their roofs with my wheels.. or so it felt!!! My crosswind legs were OK; once or twice a bit long and hit 1100ft on one climb out. If I get to 1000ft sooner I will have more time to let the aircraft settle before the downwind turn. On downwind it took me a few circuits before I could successfully got a feel for the ground features to track along. Of course the wing relative to the airstrip is the best indicator but in the poor vis the runway faded and I could just see a large field instead.

I could see almost no features on the horizon due to the poor vis; Plus I was surprised how easy it was to lose the airfield. When I did lose it I just made sure my heading was right to I could be rightly positioned to find it again on the base turn. Steve did all the calls. I expected to do them however it worked out for the best as we had a lot of other things to talk about and I was concentrating on the circuits procedures Steve was calling and placing all the traffic. I was only partially doing this as there's too much going on in the first circuit lesson to try and do everything. I remembered and did all the pre-landing checks to my satisfaction. Steve didn't comment. The boggy area was a good VRP for the base turns; we tried short and long turns over this with varying results. Of course a head wind made the Base leg longer. I felt pretty comfortable with the whole base leg thing and reckon I'm not too far out on the final turn; At least half of my turns were spot on. The whole pitching, getting the correct speed and trimming thing is still a bit alien although my last three circuits were definitely better and was better prepared in the approach. One approach was very low over the pylons, at least a couple of other were way too high. (infact one was so high we just did a go- around). There was a slight crosswind but we still had to crab the aircraft into wind. The final approach and touchdowns were OK, 80 per cent of them were too long, so we changed my natural aiming point to 50m before the numbers and that seemed to do the trick. The main surprising thing was that Steve was pushing the control column forward to not flare (too much) when we were 10 ft off the ground, in effect to fly level. I felt comfortable with fixing my aiming point once we were level. The hold off and pulling back to increase the angle of attack whilst trying to arrest the sink was not too difficult. We did not bounce once. The application of full power and the yaw control was straight forward. Steve was removing the drag flap each time. I think he didn't want me to do everything as I should be getting the flare and round out right first - fair point. We did 6 touch and goes and one go-around. It pretty much went as I expected. Not the full workload yet but very useful to get a feel for approaches, flares and hold offs. The flare and hold off were a new experience as was taking off with no flaps on a short grass runway!!!! Getting the power/pitch and thus approach speed right was not too easy although I felt this was coming in the last two attempts. I did maybe 50 per cent of the landing but I still feel Steve on the controls like an immovable brick. I have a tendency to use the aileron too much when on the final approach rather than use the rudder more at slow speeds. I know that practice will make almost perfect. :-)

15 - Thump and Goes Ex 12 & 13; Advanced Turns Ex 15

Well a double lesson promised to provide lots of excitement and it didn't let me down. The TAF and METAR were fine. The weather outside looked great in Bury but became overcast over Barton. Didn't stop us as the murk was above circuit height :-). I got the ATIS. Took the plane to the pumps. Filled to the tabs. Found a nice spot to get my shed together. I did all the RT and what a difference a total grilling by Malcolm Dobson last Sunday made. I was now totally confident and now have no fear of the microphone. Thanks Malc!!! BTW I'd recommend the Malcolm Dobson Experience to anyone (He's World famous at Leeds/Bradord and further afield); he won't let one mistake pass you by without jumping all over it. The end result is either a nervous broken wreck or a potential pilot who can recognizes every mistake they've just made!!! I'm happy to report that I progressed to the later. I did all the RT all lesson and don't remember making a boob (although I'm not sure I stated my exact position when on the inward call). Steve and I agreed we'll do circuits until we've had enough then head out to the north west play ground for some fun. Takeoff was a bit scrabbly but up is up and it beat the hell out of my last one :-) Right hand circuits today.

What a fantastic experience. In total 10 touch and goes and one go-around after I goofed one of the flares and ballooned spectacularly. All in all I was rather pleased with myself. Most of the early ones Steve was intervening or following through. After that he removed his hands and the ship was mine. Only one greaser and I was say the last three were nice (for me). I still don't feel 100% as we seem to be attacking the ground at a high sink rate and I've a tendency to flare too high. Twice I felt myself push forward and Steve corrected me verbally; its better the hold the nose attitude and let it sink rather than nose it down and stress the nose wheel. The slightly offset wind 290/15knts did make a difference and I always had a slight crab on. Still not kicking the nose around at the right time. Landing with a small offset when the wheels touchdown gives a sideways sensation and tends to introduce some to'ing and fro'ing as I fight the rudder to stay straight. On nearly all attempts I was heading just right off runway by the time I was ready to apply power again. Today I took some rudder authority and booted the bugger right as I applied full power. Steve appeared to be happy with my control movements. I started with a tendency to be perfect on final turn, lose too much height and end up flying a flat approach (probably scaring the wits out of a few old biddies in the flats on final, who when opening their curtains see my wheels wizz by :-o ) I flew tighter circuits and considering it was a change in circuit direction. I found +- 5-8km vis made it easy picking VRPs and for leading the track for the wind. I was doing my final turns between 700- 900 ft which seemed about right. There was a slight ballooning tendency coming over the flats that Steve reckons made it a lot harder. It certainty wasn't as bad has its been in the past!!

After being thumped a few times more we agreed to bugger off north west and do some other stuff. FREDAR then HASELL checks. I did a power off stall; not difficult at all. Buzzer bleating, wind buffet, keep pulling back, using the rudder to prevent any wing drop tendency... release the forces...pitch down airspeed increases.. power on, correct for yaw, carb heat cold and bobs yer uncle. Next, recovery from a spiral descent... Lookout... power off ... roll... starts to enter a spiral descent…centre ailerons, speed increases ... centre wings with aileron, pitch up and as the speed reduces meet it with power and rudder correction.

Advanced turns. 45 deg turns; very easy, look out, bank to 45 degrees increase power by a few 100 RPM. Not too bad. I yoyo'ed a bit trying to keep the same altitude whilst looking around for other traffic. I am blatantly aware that my eyes should spend more time outside of the cockpit to ensure we don't bump into anyone else. (its not just our playground). Now 60 degree turns... Wow.. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Lookout, bank, full power as you are banking, more rudder than on 45's, pull back the column (actually the control forces were very high and only the sardonic grin and Steve's insistence that we turn on a sixpence gave me the extra strength needed to pull some G's. Not only was this more fun but I also found this easier than 45's because I could see the instruments and look out of the cockpit without too many problems.

Heading back to Barton we decided to re-visit crossed controls, I like doing this. it must look very strange to people from the ground. The forces on the aircraft are what you would get when crosswind landing, i.e. right wing drops suddenly, left clog, right aileron to stop the roll. We did another touch and go. The approach was great, 100 ft away sorta scrabbly, I thought the touch and go was not the best one I'd done but Steve thought it was!!!! Then I do believe I did the same for the landing, approach and trim fine. It landed heavily. I'm still missing something in the round-out and flare feel wise that will kill the aggressive set-downs on the main wheels. We ran long and I did have to use the brakes to reduce the speed. I was so elated that we'd survived the last lesson I almost forgot to the after landing checks. This was probably the best lesson I'd had so far.

16 - Another Sunny Circuit day Ex 12 & 13

The weather was lovely and the wind was hovering between 290 and 320 degrees making Runway 27R and RH circuits on again.... poor old biddies in the flats weren't going to get a lie in this morning. We were under way early. In the air before half nine. I rotated a tad early on the take off. I need to get the pressure just right. If you try too hard to protect the nose wheel you lift off too early. The stall warner went off whilst rotating telling me I did rotate too quickly. 7 touch and goes, 2 go-arounds and a perfect landing. Today I had control and Steve didn't touch the controls (if he did it was sneaky and I didn't feel or see it). The first two touch and goes went really well, quite long but down as VG according to Steve; Then I goofed and flared too much on the next one. The bounce was so embarrassingly high we were never going to touch the runway again this side of Xmas, so I powered away on Steve's command. Then preceded 3 mediocre (in my books) T & Gs, Steve had them down as VG, Good and Flattish (translated into English means that means "don't break the feckin' nose wheel off") point taken. I need to flare a tad more. There was very little in it between not flaring enough (donking the nose wheel) or flaring too much and ballooning up into the air. Next came a screwed up approach and I rotated far too early and it floated half way down the runway so we just went around for another go. Then came an OK T & G. . It was getting late and Steve said I'm doing the landing and he was going to say nothing and touch nothing..... It went great; approach good, a little off track (I seemed to be left of track on every approach fighting the wind to get back to centre right, I used the power and pitch just right over the flats which always seemed to unsettle things. Its strange because you feel like you are nose diving for the hedge when you pitch forward to maintain the speed and reduce the power. You have to reduce the power over the flats because there must be an air stream pushing up which appeared to want to bugger up all my approaches. Anyway I rotated over the hedge. Again like last lesson moving my aiming point forward had me better placed. The round out and flare were perfect. I didn't have to kick the plane around too far to get it centered. It was nice and smooth and I held the pressure off the nose wheel as long as I could. It weaved a bit but that was minor. I was elated. Steve said it was a greaser. I then remembered that I was still going at some speed so I tagged the brakes until we were slow enough to vacate the runway. I thought the last lesson was a confidence booster but this one really helped. Big grin. Next lesson is a double and we discussed a little landaway in with circuits and other bits and bobs.

17 - Circuits, Flapless approaches, then buggered off North West because of the traffic Jams on Runway 09L, SDR, Steep Turns then EFATO, Ex 12, 13 & 15

There was a risk of a Nav exercise. I planned the route to Sleap the night before. As it happened Steve decided to just concentrate on the route to first solo which makes sense. We'll get plenty of nav jolies later on. I arrived early. It was a beautiful day. Slight Xwind on 09L of 7 knots. Perfect for starting to appreciate Xwind take-offs and landings. Steve gave me the keys and I taxi'ed Charlie Alpha to the pumps by myself. I had her filled to the tabs. Then I went and positioned her on a parking tee. The brakes were off at 0910hrs. I did a perfect crosswind takeoff take off and she was straight all the way to lift off. This time I purposely held it on the runway to get more speed. Better than the usual scrabbly lift-off. I must learn to correct for the wind on the upwind leg too as we drifted off centre line a few times. On the first base leg I turned too early so Steve said we'd do a glide approach instead. It went well as we powered away. After that I did 5 Touch &Goes, 3 were good, one was far too flat one was too high & fast and we thumped the runway as I was going around (bugger that cost me 2 quid!!!). The airfield was getting really busy as there was a fly-in organised at Popham (apparently). Steve and I decided we'd bugger off north west for some advanced training. We did a recovery from a spiral descent - power off, level wings, pitch up and meet the decrease in airspeed with power to hold cruise speed. 45 degree turns, went OK, I need to practice these things more regularly, keeping my altitude right is not so easy. 60 degree turns, same deal (my right is definitely better than my left) I tend to still hold back pressure on the roll out, I actually climbed 400ft on the roll out alone!!!! more practice more practice. Still I enjoyed doing them; not sure how many Gs we pulled. Maybe I'm developing a stomach for aerobatics. I'll comment again after Steve and I have done some real spins in the Club Grob :-) EFATO Engine failure after takeoff drill. Steve demonstrated this, pitch for 75, trim, find a suitable field within a 30 degree arc, committed to land, mayday call, mixture ICO, mags off, master off, flaps as required. We lost 1000ft during the demonstration. Imagine that happening at 300ft....... guess I've gotta be quicker.

We flew back towards Barton after Steve gave me some instruction on the MCT VOR and how we can position ourselves on it. The radio Nav stuff is all new to me. Once I've studied it its something I can practice on the flight sim without picking up any bad habits. Must admit it didn't all sink in as I need some time to digest and discuss what I'd just done as well as fly the plane straight and level and keep a good lookout. Infact, in the middle of a Steep 60 deg left turn I saw an plane that Steve didn't so I turned further than my desired track to take me away from it then leveled out so we could visualise it. Nowhere in sight. I know I didn't dream it. Just shows how difficult spotting other traffic can be. We headed back to Barton to join the circuit from the overhead. First I did another flapless approach; I recognised being too high and cut the power early. It was a perfect touch and go. I'm really getting a lot better at kicking straight just before the wheels touchdown and the subsequent getting back to the air before we lose too much speed. Rather pleased with myself. The flapless approach is not helped by the bloody pylons making me miss a beat as I fly just over them. Its a very flat approach. Its easy to add speed but difficult to wash off as well. For the landing Steve announced that he'd show me a glide approach. We turned base very early, carb heat on, power off, it looked like we were not going to reach at one stage but my perception was wrong. 2 stages of flap and the third applied just before the boundary. I landed her, it felt very nice and smooth. I let the speed wash off before I applied a touch of brakes to get the speed down to a fast taxi for vacating the runway. Straight to the pumps. Filled up again then I parked her next to Charlie Delta. Another high learning curve lesson, more T & Gs with flapless thrown in for good measure. Fantastic.

18 - Windy Circuits (Too windy for Solo :-( ) Sneaky abandoned takeoff, EFATO, Compass errors, practicing Steep turns and VOR / DME tracking Pole Hill VOR (Ex 12, 13, 15 18a and 18c)

Today was a mixed bag. I knew the solo was off as the wind was 90 degrees to the Runway direction giving a crosswind of approx 10knts. Certainly more than my personal limit. Charlie was Alpha was having its brakes fixed so we had to wait in the cafe. Once ready I had everything sorted. I started the takeoff roll, about 1/2 to 1/3 of the way along Steve called an abandoned takeoff I cut the power. The plane had already veered over to the left on 27L and I struggled to keep it straight rather than try too hard to get back on runway 27R. I didn't use the brakes as it was quite bumpy and stamping on the brakes could have pitched us forward with the risk of dinging the prop the way the plane was pitching around. I let friction take over and eventually I dabbed the brakes and we went straight around for another takeoff. I wondered about the RT but Steve told me he'd already arranged this with the tower. Sneaky so and so. I should have guessed as we did talk about this prior to the lesson but agreed nothing

Takeoff went well. It was bumpy in the circuit today. Didn't take me long to figure out the wind corrections. We did 3 touch and goes. The first one Steve took control as god knows what the wind was doing over the flats on the approach. I did the touch and go. Scrabbly. The second one the wind gusted and ballooned us too high so we just went around. The third was flattish and I felt Steve do a major right rudder correction. I didn't even feel the crosswind and probably would not have been prepared for it either. Steve called a "fanstop" on the climb out from 27R. I went straight to glide. I chose a field off to the left at about 30 degrees. I said I'd not deploy flaps as it was quite a stretch; Steve said his choice was a ploughed field. My choice was into wind (the field was the longest) There was a small field off to the right but closer inspection showed a telephone line stretching across the middle which would not have been much fun noticing that when at 100ft. The fourth approach was a touch and go. Steve said it was OK but I was not satisfied that I had enough control just before the hedge to judge it. I certainly got the flare on this one. Since there was no way I was going to go solo in that Xwind we decided to bugger off towards our playground and cover more of the syllabus. During the buggering off phase Steve called a "fanstop" I trimmed and we discussed forced landing sites again. We didn't go through all the EFATO touch drills even though I did learn them the night before and was practicing fanstop whilst driving down the motorway on the way to Barton. I though my appreciation of the wind in the circuit was ok. I also had a reasonable handle on the circuit traffic this lesson. The wind effect over the flats and the cross wind were beyond my skill level so I was abit disappointed that I couldn't solo.

Off we toddled towards Winter Hill. Then we tracked to Southport. The Direction Indicator was knackered and was spinning like a catherine wheel so we were on the compass anyway. Steve demonstrated the turning, acceleration and deceleration errors in the compass. It went very well. UNOS Undershoot North Overshoot South worked by +- 30 degrees each time. Accelerating gave a Northerly swing and deceleration gave a southerly swing. Very straight forward. I then performed a HELL check prior to 45 degree and 60 degree steep turns. They were much better than last time. I had a better handle on the cowling position and altitude control in the turn. The gusting wind didn't make it easy nevertheless I was pleased with my results.

Then we switched to Nav mode. We tuned into the Pole Hill VOR. Identified it. Vol down, Nav 2, Vol up and pull, ident, The VOR gave a radial of 241 degrees. The VOR dial showed TO. I turned towards the VOR using the compass (a lot more unstable than using a DI but of course that was knackered. The track line tended towards centre and the dots to the left gave the track error. We eventually settled on about 10-20 degrees of wind correction. Steve switched on the DME (morse every third VOR signal) so we could read off the Ground Speed and the distance to the VOR. Steve visually pointed out Pole Hill VOR. Easy when you know where to look. We flew straight over it to demonstrate the cone of confusion with the TO tab changing to Orange NAV and then changing to FROM as we continued on past it. We turned and repeated the same exercise except being on the FROM radial of 241 degs (which almost had us lined up for the Swinton Interchange VRP). I called just prior to this asking for a join on right base. With two in the circuit this should be OK Barton crept up sooner than I though it would considering we were into wind. We joined right base. The approach went OK up until the just over the flats when rough air had us all over. On the runway there was almost no Xwind this time. We've had better landings. I taxied us straight to the pumps then had her back on a flying club slot for the next lesson. All in all a good lesson for introducing some new stuff and practicing other things. Can't say I got too much from the circuit stuff as the wind ruined any chances I had of fully practicing touch and goes and landings. Maybe next time.

19 - More Circuit Bashing Ex 12 & 13, Short Field and Glide approaches

A Two hour slot to play with. The vis was crap so no way we were going anywhere but the circuit. The wind was straight down 09 at about 10 knots making the downwind leg slightly quicker. 14 touch and goes with one go around and one full stop landing. I'm completely happy with the take off and the circuit procedures now from take-off to final approach. I do all the RT. As for the touch and goes, Steve helped me with the first three until my brain was shaken into partial functionality by the heavy thumps. I did bugger up the first approach completely; too low and very flat. I almost had to power it all the way in. The next two were good according to Steve. I still thought they were scrabbly with some assistance from Steve. I did the next one and it OK, a bit heavy-ish. Then we did some short field approaches. Basically, 60 knots over the hedge instead of 65 knots and you would hit the brakes once down too which we obviously didn't do. Two were good and one was too low. The touches were fairly heavy I think due to the low speed. One glide approach looked good. i.e. no power aim 1/3 past the numbers, it became obvious that the sink rate was too high and we were going to set down in the rough grass just before the runway proper so I applied a tad of power. Then we floated too far and went around after a slap on the runway. We laughed about it on the way because I came out with a comedy moment and called it a flapping glide. Guess you had to be there. On the second glide approach it was very nice, I got all the flaps down and the T & G was good. Number 15 was a normal approach. I was too high, rotated too high ballooned and just went around. I had to admit I was getting tired and although I wanted to do more they were likely to deteriorate here on in until broke something or worse. I said as much to Steve so around one more time for a full stop landing. The landing went well. A wee bit heavy after a long float due to the fact that the speed was very low. My flare was good but I was probably a foot or two above where I should have been. Throughout the circuit the visibility was naff. On downwind I was almost losing sight of the runway. Learning points, I was reducing the power too early. If I get the speed over the hedge right that's not a problem but I've a tendency to be too low speed wise and end up with too fast a sink and slap the runway. On a positive note I did dab the power on one of the bounces to kill any aggressive sink. Steve noticed and commented positively.

I taxied Charlie Alpha straight to the pumps. After filling I noticed that the left hand hydraulic brake had no pressure under the pedal. I limped the plane over to maintenance then buggered off for a coke and a bacon and egg barm!!!! 1hour 45 mins goes like 15 mins when you are in the air. You don't realise how tiring it can be. The circuit is a lot of work. I trim whenever I can to remove the control forces. Again no solo. I was sorta disappointed. Maybe my touch and goes were not convincing enough. The vis was crap (which I suspect was the main reason). It was definitely an off day for touch and goes and I guess Steve will send me when I'm on an ON day.

20 - Circuits and First Solo!!!! Ex 12, 13 and Ex 14

Well I was woken up to tweeting birds and rays of sunshine. Off to Barton nice and early. Too early but what the hell. Martin had almost all the planes out and I had Charlie Alpha checked out nice and early. Spot on 9am I got the ATIS. The wind was calm. I did wonder whether this would preclude any solo flight because the landing run would be a lot longer.

The paragliders had been having some fun early in the morning. They were camped by the end of 09L. The FISO pointed this out to us. It wasn't going to be a problem. So short field take-off for the first time. Feet on the brakes, full power, rotate at 55 knots... it went beautifully. The circuit was clear. I performed two touch and goes that went off really well. I was high on the final turn both times. However I find a steeper glide slope feels right. Steve didn't say a word. After the first touch and go I heard Paul in Alpha Whiskey asking for taxi. On the upwind leg after the second touch and go Steve spoke for the first time and said "Right , lets make this a full stop" SOLO SOLO SOLO SOLO was going through my mind.. What can I say I did the best landing I've done so far. It was an absolute greaser. Bet I can't do that again. I took Steve to the tower. He gave me a briefing and buggered off to the tower. By now the butterflies were there. I know I can do it but its so easy to do something really stupid and get in a mess.

Anyway I called for Taxi. Bravo 3. With other aircraft moving around now it was getting busy. I was no 2 behind a microlight. Went through all my checklists religiously. Nothing amiss. Power checks and pre-take off checks. The microlight was still buggering about so I just bypassed up. Now there was air traffic in the circuit. I called ready for departure after the landing C150. (piloted by my mate Paul who went solo last Thurs - Papa Uniform). He actually did a perfect touch and go!!! I lined up; Got permission to take off at my discretion. Crap… I could still see Papa Uniform climbing away. I needed more separation. I ran through my pre-take off chant waving my finger around as I usually do speaking out loud (even though I was by myself) I purposely slowed down my take-off checks. Couldn't delay anymore or else I would start getting badgered. Full power, full right clog to try and keep it straight... I weaved a bit down the runway, rotated and away I went. I went damn quick without my instructor next to me. I couldn't see the Cessna at all, I stated this to ATC when I reported downwind. My buddy Paul intevened and said he extend downwind so I could get in without being concerned for separation (I'll be paying back that one). Again I was high in the circuit 1100 ft but no worries. I knocked the power off early and turned final at around 700ft. I have no idea how high I went over the pylons at. I was focused on the picture. Height good, speed good, a little high, dab less power, pitch forward to keep the speed right, a little crosswind pushing me left, so I ruddered right by 5 degrees or so and stayed slightly crabbed. Over the hedge at 200ft, my glide slopes high, power right down, pitch forward, a steep approach but within the normal range (I prefer the steep approaches anyway)

Kaza had it right. Thanks for that pic buddy!!!!

Towards the long grass, can't even dare to look at the speed and the altimeter is irrelevant as I can see blades of grass, round out, flare... bugger a little too much... "Fly the aircraft fly the aircraft" I can hear my instructor saying, left rudder right aileron to get straight, pull back pull back... bloody hell this things never going to touch down, I really feel the sink and pull back pull back CLONK.... I'm down. Not one of my better landings.... still doing fifty and I start dabbing the brakes. The tower congratulate me on my first solo. I feel a big permanent grin appear. After landing checks, then I taxi around all the club aircraft to my spot. Mixture to lean... the prop stops. My instructor opens the door and shakes my hand "Well Done"

One day later with a very sore head it has finally struck me

21- Circuit, Touch and Goes, Go-Arounds and Solo Consolidation, Ex 12, 13 and 14

It was absolutely lovely outside. The wind was straight down 09. A good day for solo consolidation. Charlie Alpha was late back from a student Solo. When I got to her I discovered the left brake was dead again. This is becoming a regular problem and one which LAC need to address. Anyway around to the maintenance building. The system was bled at the disc caliper. Again there was sufficient pressure. Maybe air had got in the system. There are three cylinders, no leaks evident. Must be air trapped in a dead end.

Once it was sorted I obtained taxi to Bravo 4 but found two aircraft ahead. There were others in the circuit as well. Again I boffed getting the power check direction correct. Perhaps my natural DI is knackered. Its an age thing. Senile at 39!!! In my defense there is not a lot of area in which a turn can be made and an aircraft snook up behind me so I couldn't backtrack. Anyway, I called ready for departure after the traffic on final. Take-off was uneventful. The circuit was a little bit bumpy and we were behind 4 aircraft. I then preceded to do 5 touch and goes. One was flattish and one was low. Definitely coming in too low and flat buggers my approach up because I end up adding power once past the hedge. Not particularly good or memorable in my books. In the circuit I had to extend upwind, crosswind and downwind for the other traffic. I did 3 circuits in slow safe cruise to try and keep my separation. My full stop landing was ok. I flared a little too early but the recovery was ok.
Steve went off and we agreed I'd do 2 touch and goes then a full stop by myself. Off I went. Sweating profusely now. Take-off went well. I then did 2 go-arounds. Each time I flared, ballooned and the balloons appeared a little too high and long for me to continue with the touch and go. Then I did a good landing. It started as a touch and go but I stalled on the hold off and was going way too slow to even think about trying to get my arse above the hedge in front of me. Actually the flare was good and the hold off went OK. Around to the tower like I meant it. The FISO asked me my intentions. I basically said its up to my instructor. Steve was happy for me to have another bash. Great!!!!! Off I toddled again, power checks, ready for departure. The circuit was quieter this time although the air was getting bumpier. Take off went well. My first attempt actually succeeded in a 'good' touch and go.... about bloody time too I said out loud to myself as I was climbing away. I'd noticed that during my downwind checks the left brake had no pressure in it at all !!!! This was going to make me more focused now I had no real way of stopping the aircraft if I overshoot :-o..... I decided that I felt fine and wanted to get a few Ts and Gs in before I land. I had the same problem as before. Approaches a bit scabbly for whatever reason, both times I flared, ballooned and it seemed that I was half way down the runway each time so I went around. Only afterwards did Steve tell me that I was using only the first 20% of the runway and had plenty of room to let the plane sink for a touch and go... Guess my natural instincts told me not enough room. Something I have to work on. I know my aiming point is a little too far forward. On one of the flattish T and Gs with Steve I was going to do a beautiful landing in the long grass before the start of the runway. By now I was starting to feel tired. I had more attempts in me but best to call it a day one Touch and Go too early than being really tired and keep going around getting more frustrated. My landing was not the best I'd done. I bounced a little bit but Steve thought it looked good from where he was. Back to fight another day. I was a little disappointed with my attempts at touch and goes although stepping back I had just done 1 hour by myself. Done two landings and take-offs by myself. My circuit awareness is improving and the fact I had no brakes worth speaking about didn't phase me. Therefore pat on the back :-) I was not at all worried and was only concerned about arsing up my touch and goes. I feel confident that I can land when I want to.

22 - Circuit, Touch and bounces, More Solo Consolidation, Ex 12 , 13 and 1

Another fantastic glorious day :-). There was a risk that Charlie Alpha would be in maintenance for the dreaded brakes and it was. However, Charlie Bravo had 10 mins to go before its 50 hour service and Steve obtained permission for me to use it for solo consolidation. Permission granted. I checked it out. Got the ATIS which subsequently completely changed by the time I'd done the internals. 27R today. Steve came with me to start. One go around, my picture was all wrong, too high too fast, I tried to recover it but I must have been doing 70 plus over the hedge so straight for a go-around. Morningitus with a touch or moronitus thrown in. The next one (a touch and go ) was better although I am still approaching too high and was fast on the runway. The third one was good. Now I was getting my speed down on the approach. Steve wanted to do a full stop landing so I could carry on alone. I felt happier as I was seemingly getting better. I seem to still need the first practice of the day with Steve to get my picture right. The landing was good. I held the nose wheel up nicely.

Before long I was back in the air by myself. I only had 35 mins to play with. My first touch and go was great. The next was a bit scrabbly as I ballooned a bit and the plane appeared to bounce three times on the suspension. The next one was about the same. I was in control and felt that even bounces were not risking the nose wheel. My speed was good, 65 knots over the hedge both times. "Come in No 3" . Looking at my watch I'd promised to be in for 25 to the hour and I had 5 mins left so time to land. Approach started good but became flat. The speed was always good. I had to drag it in with power over the flats as I was flat. I thought I'd done a good job of keeping the speed right under the circumstances. 65 knots maybe even less over the hedge. I rounded out quite low and made a very light 3 point landing. Not really recommended for nose wheel aircraft but it all felt smooth and I had lots of room to slow the aircraft down since there was no wind to slow the aircraft. In hindsight I should have rounded out a little higher then held the float with increasing back pressure as it sunk. Not unduly worried I was at least happy that I didn't appear to overstress the aircraft. All in all a good lesson because I negotiated the flats by myself. No mean feat as the approach is completely different that 09L. My RT was good and professional today. I'm gaining in confidence if not a little bit in ability although the round out, flare judgment thing needs a lot more work.

23 - Circuits in rain and low cloud, blind flapless and glide approaches Ex 12 & 13

I couldn't drag the TAF or METAR out of the PC before I set off. The tower staff were having the same problem when I asked them. I prepared Charlie Alpha; had her fuelled and on a Tee ready for when Steve arrived. We planned to leave the circuit and see if we could knock off some bits and bobs because touch and goes were not permitted. Short field take-off technique. Went well. Must remember to hold the nose wheel up, relax the pressure as we pick up speed so not to lift off too early, then rotate positively. I'm getting better at it.

After we turned crosswind and departed the circuit it was obvious that the clouds were not going to let us continue with our quest. At that opportune moment the tower announced that touch and goes were on. It took about 1 second for us to agree that it was better to stay in the circuit otherwise we'd be lost in cloud pretty quickly. It was raining but only lightly. This combined with a dirty windscreen meant that I could not see the numbers or even the runway when turning onto final. The wind drift was minimal and I'd made sure my DI was spot on so I was happy to track along using that until I could make out the big crosses on disused runway 09R. However, this did not appear to upset any of my approaches at all.

First of all 4 touch and goes; Three flapless - I'd had trouble with these before but today it all came right. I made three very good touch and goes from these. Only one did I drag in with power where my base turn was probably too far. A higher nose attitude really helped today to arrest the descent. The pylons on approach to 09L are very sobering. I made two glide approaches. Both went brilliantly. I selected the correct flaps at the right time. The first was a good touch and go. The second (entirely my own) I was a little high on the round out, we dropped below the stall speed and the stall warner was bleating, I felt a large sink (maybe only 2 ft more than normal) Felt like dropping off the top of the wardrobe. It bumped down but not too harshly. Because we'd slowed down so much we turned it into a landing and taxied back around to Bravo 3. Steve said it was good and would have passed a skills test. Big inner beam!! I know I can do better than that with practice. After we took off again (takeoff was absolutely textbook. I now fully understand exactly what is going on and have a good feel for it now). A crosswind had developed (just at the right time). We did a crosswind touch and go. Steve was providing the major control inputs to demonstrate. We floated in slow motion over the runway whilst he demonstrated a perfect crosswind touch and go. It was beautiful. On the next downwind leg we were intending to carry on however by the time we were looking at turning base it was obvious that we were about to be lost in clouds and the vis had got considerably worse and now it was raining a little harder. I did a crosswind landing. It was great. The best lesson I had done since going solo. I felt that my flare and hold off were 10 times better than before and my approaches are getting some feel in there now. A great lesson to finish on before I go back to work.

24 - Circuit - Solo Consolidation Ex 12, 13 and 14

After a month away I was itching to get back in the air. Once I got buried in the checklist it all started coming back. No wind to speak about.

Beautiful day. We did two T & Gs. First one was good; the second one we ballooned after the initial flare but still had enough room and speed for a touch and go. Not bad. A bit close over the hedge. Not sure how many beats Steve missed. Then Steve asked me how I felt. Fine. So full stop landing. The approach was fairly flat. The landing was fine my speed was less than 65 knots it went great. Smooth landing.

Solo consolidation. I felt fine and had convinced my self that after a month away I was not going to forget something basic and make a mess. I was completely happy with my two touch and goes. Steve said they were a little flat. My full stop landing - an absolute greaser. Perfect flare, hold off was entirely stable and I tilted the aircraft back to make the lightest of touches that a pro pilot would have been whooping at. I've not forgotten how to fly and feel like I'm just picking up from where I left off. Brilliant

25 - Sideslips, PFLs VOR fixing, Track to Pole Hill Ex 16, 18C

Today was a mixed bag. Weather was not so nice. Wind was 30 degrees off 27R and was gusting. Once we were up it was just fab as usual. Clouds were at about 4000ft and the vis was more than 10K. I could see Liverpool control tower; Southport etc… It was my first ride in G-ISHA. A new PA28. Infact, I changed most of my bookings for this as it's got comfy seats and the instruments looked planned instead of pinned on the imaginary donkey like CA and CB.

We headed out towards Southport and Martin Mere. Steve demonstrated Side slipping. Something he doesn't like doing. I guess that's because it's a technique used to increase your rate of descent. I found this quite easy. It's just crossed controls except you are in a glide descent whilst doing it. Normal ROD was about 500 ft/min. With side slipping the rate of descent was just over 1000ft per minute. Funny how I can see this on the altimeter and vertical speed indicator but I cannot physically feel the difference between a 1000ft or 500ft/min descent. Disconcerting.

Next I did my first practiced forced landing. All over the show. I managed to select a field but getting lined up to be 1000ft on the base turn didn't seem right and we had to select another field. Steve selected full drag flap and we went around at 500ft. I had the flap selection time right as Steve did it as I was just mentioning it. Then we climbed up to 2500ft again and I tried again. This time I picked a field, got myself nicely at about 1200ft on the base turn. Final looked good; now I could see my chosen field had an upslope which would really help us stop in a bind. I had two options. For me the safer one only had low trees at the threshold. Steve selected a route to the right that I had looked at but it had two trees in the middle which I didn't fancy negotiating on the ground run. I selected flaps at the right time and I think Steve was satisfied with my attempt. Of course I was only doing the selecting and flying. The full procedure goes, glide, 75 knots trim, assess wind (I just used last known), check fuel, mixture etc to see if there's anything obvious that's wrong, attempt a restart. Mayday call on frequency, then secure the aircraft, mixture cut off, mags off, master off, basically shut everything down. Looking forward to practicing more as it was quite challenging and of course each one will be different.

After climbing back up we tracked Pole Hill VOR. We went in slow safe cruise mode with two stages of flap at 70 knots (in order for my brain to soak up the snippets that Steve was feeding me with!!) I recognize the POL morse ident now. What I have learned is to take a fix using a FROM radial and track to the VOR using a TO radial. We actually did take a position fix, one from MCT (at Manchester Airport and one from Pole Hill). Of course I didn't have a ruler with me or a china graph pen. God knows where I am going to store those!!!! Anyway now I need to be better organized in the cockpit and be ready for these things.

Whilst over Pole Hill Steve demonstrated a steep descending turn (45 degrees). Very easy. Trim for 75 knot descent, 45 degrees bank and use the elevator to maintain the airspeed. I only did one.

After looking at the map I estimated a radial from Pole Hill VOR to be 240 degree M to Winter Hill. Looking out I realized that I didn't have a clue where I was. I saw a cliff edge and assumed that it was Winter Hill even though the mast was not in view. It wasn't and it was pretty disconcerting to be asked where we are and I didn't know…It was Pendle Hill. Even though I was tracking to the radial my direction was right only my natural compass had screwed up. Anyway we eventually joined the radial. It's the 220 deg radial from Pole Hill that goes to Barton. The 153 degree radial from MCT also dissects Barton and is good to know. I'll have to practice those on the sim for sure.

I elected to join overhead (just for the practice and I'm paying the fuel bill) I extended downwind because of one ahead. I had to power it in on final and ended up a little high. I had just more than 60 knots over the hedge and there was no crosswind vector. My roundout was ok and the touchdown went fine after a long sink. Steve said afterwards that I'd knocked the power off too quick. Also I needed to be smoother in all aspects of my handling. I realize that the methodical robot like drills can make for mechanical selections. Something I'll work on now it's been noticed. A good lesson.

26 - Circuits, Precautionary Landing EFATO and glide landing Ex 12, 13 and 17.

The weather outlook didn't look good. I wasn't even sure that the vis was good enough for circuits. Well it was but just not good enough for solo consolidation. Runway 27L was finally ready for use. Lots of T & G's. As usual I was a bit rusty to start with. 1) too high on short final, no wind so the float went on for ever. 2) this was flatter but I think I was rounding out too high. 3) OK. 4) too high over the fence, rounded out too high. It became obvious that the runway was mainly gone before we'd touch down again. Went around, 5) Short field - 60 knots again floated long. 6) Much better - I was getting the power right now. 7) Steve was helping me to get the roundout correct on this one. He holds it flatter than I do. An immovable brick :-) 8) a very good touch and go, 9) good, 10) very good 11) very good, I was really getting the feel now. I was bang on 60 knots over the hedge, sometimes I had to add a tad of power because the airspeed was dipping below 60 and the stall warner was bleeping (plus we were very close to the hedge. 12) Very Good.

Next we did the precautionary landing. There were 6 in the circuit at one point. One crazy MF cut in on me and Papa Uniform who was just ahead of me. Waste of time as he just had to go around anyway because he was too close to the aircraft in front. Pillock!!!I spent all the time in slow safe cruise trying to open the separation with Papa Uniform which I succeeded in doing. On one occasion I lost Papa Uniform to have her pop up on my left wing!!!! It was quite a shock. Man I couldn't fly the plane any slower or I'd drop out of the sky. Anyway I extended one downwind to regain the separation. Charlie Bravo was on my tail the whole lesson even though I couldn't see it. His downwind calls were very close to mine.
We climbed away this time doing a left hand circuit at 500 ft. I remained with 25 degree flap in SSC, couldn't get the speed washed off so it was mainly done at 80 knots. I set my DI to align with my imaginary field (Runway 27L/R). Steve gave me a good aiming point just off the right of the runway centerline. A green shed in the sewage works. I came down to 300ft and inspected my prospective landing site. Climbed back to 500ft and did another tight left hand circuit. This time I came down to 100ft to inspect the surface. Then I climbed back to 500 ft. I moved down wind over to get a better / longer approach because it would have been too tight a turn. Then It became a normal touch and go which was a bit scrabbly but I did the job. Ex 17 ticked off. I opted for one more touch and go. 14) Very good - I'd really got the view and speed right now. Steve cut the power and called a fanstop once we were clear. I was just in the process of removing flap so I stuck some back on again and adopted glide config. The choice of emergency landing sites were crap. There were ploughed fields with bloody great cuts in there straight ahead which would most certainly destroy / remove the wheels. Tough call.

Then on base Steve killed the power and said that the engine had stopped again.....hellfire.. this piece of crap keeps failing on me...... I wasn't even sure I'd clear the motorway bridge. I just unceremoniously cut the corner and as it turned out I had plenty of height especially with all those 1 bar electric fires on in the flats as the balloon was really helpful. I selected 2 stages of flap probably too conservatively, Steve said I could go straight to 3 so I did and I still had too much height, adopted a rather Kamikaze attitude and nosed on down, the speed washed off quicker that I thought it would as I was still only doing 60 knots over the hedge. Rather long float and a not so cushioned landing. Steve was happy with it though. Good lesson. Good fun and more confidence built.

Barton / Netherthorpe / Sheffield City / Croston Moor / Barton

This trip was on and off. I wasn't really prepared for it as I had a lot going on at home so all I managed to do was to get the tracks and 10 degree track lines on the map. I copied Keith's plogs whilst scoffing a sandwich. After pulling Kilo Yankee out of the hanger we got straight to it. Keith did all the departing RT after that I did 90% of it. Good practice. Passed my message to East Midlands Approach and obtained a flight information service. (Begrudgingly given I might add). Kilo Yankee was not handling too well with both me and Keith and 3/4 filled with fuel. With the high pressure conditions were not conducive to the best performance anyway. We struggled to gain altitude on climbing out. Something to do with me being obese according to my BMI.........

Me....maybe I forgot to shave in all the excitement

We took off and climbed to the overhead.

I learnt that the climbing call is made in the usual downwind position. Once at 1800ft height TURN - TIME - TALK - TASK; in other words turn onto your target heading, note the time, Keith told BI our intentions and we left the frequency to monitor Manchester frequency. Had to descend almost immediately to avoid the Manchester Class D over the LLR. Task - FREDAR!!!! The first way point was the junction of the M62 and M6. Very easy to see. I didn't see the church spire in Warrington but it was on Keith's side. Then down the LLR. I picked out Thelwall Viaduct, Northwich stood out with the industrial towers just north; The crossing railways is a very good VRP. There's also a radar or small radio telescope. Stretton Aerodrome was pointed out to me. We found Ashcroft fairly easily.

Straight and level at 1900ft approaching Sandbach whilst listening to Mancheter approach. Climbed to 2000 ft flew over Sandbach and right over Leek.

Lots of VRPs to go at. Keith told me about putting the map away and only looking at it again when you are 2 minutes from the waypoint. I also learnt about the gross error check straight after a turning point. All good stuff.

After Leek I tried to contact East Midlands for a flight information service but was ignored all the way until my next waypoint just South of Chatsworth House. (They were just too busy and the controller appeared to be having a bad hair day). Then grumpy chops wanted my details (too bleedin' late then!!) I did eventually obtain a flight information service once I was on the edge of their zone. Then to Netherthorpe. No one manning the radio so we just made blind calls. Keith did a nice landing on 06. There was a lovely brown smoldering pile of dung just off the runway giving a fabulous wind indicator for the landing if not the most aromatic fragrance. I think we woke up the chappie manning the control center. Unbelievable. Two runways (granted one short); new hangers loads of GA aircraft, cafe shut nothing happening, what a waste of a beautiful day.... We were the only flyers not in our coffins. It was a really nice place. 06 slopes down so one has to be careful. Probably not a great strip for the Warrior but ok for a toy 150. Plus its 250 ft AMSL so the circuit height was 1250ft and an overhead join at 2250ft.

Netherthorpe's nerve centre

The trip to Sheffield City was quick but eventful. The VRP for joining is the junction of the M1 / M18 which is very easily picked out. Some chap didn't hear his clearance right and we has to miss the first approach because he was on the runway coming in the opposite direction whilst we were on final. Second time there was some turbulence at the lower levels but it all went well. Sheffield City Airport - lovely place loads of facilities and again nothing happening!!! Should be buzzing!!!! Something to do with having built a major airport right next to a community not impressed with 747 winding up in their back gardens. We refueled. (one thing I learnt that on a landaway make sure you are there in person to witness the re-fuelling - if the Chappie would have overfilled the tank we could have been in trouble with weight and balance and the angry residents of the local community) Off we went again. I did all the RT and enjoyed myself. Monitored Manchester Approach for the latest QNH because we were in rising ground and nearing their airspace above. We spent some time looking for Croston Moor. Big mast near by is a good VRP There is a lake nearby the airstrip and the airstrip has a quarry at one end. On taking a look on the airstrip from above the windsock showed an unfavorable tailwind cf with the slope of the runway. We decided it was not a good idea to have a bash (Keith had not landed there before). Wise decision. I was not disappointed. Safety has to be assured.
Next we tracked across to Bolton. Lots of Motorways and lakes to use a VRPs. Keith suggested we fly over my house so we tracked the M66 to Greenmount and he passed left so I could take pictures out of the right hand window. Fantastic to see your own house from above.

Tottington (bottom left); Hollymont School (left centre) and Greenmount Village (centre two thirds up)

Greenmount Village

Hollymount School (bottom right), Greenmount Cricket club (right of centre)

Next we headed to Barton. I called for joining instructions. It all went well and Keith greased her onto the bumpy 09R. Fantastic afternoons work. Invaluable experience for my training. Reckon I'll rip the RT and enjoy it once I get doing it 100% by myself. Navving is a little harder. Being able to spot airfield is harder than you would imagine as well as fly the plane. Thanks Keith for the great experience.

27 - Circuits, Crosswind Ex 12 & 13

The wind was 90 degrees to the runway. Couldn't make its mind which way it was going to blow. During my internal checks the runway in use changed from 27L to 09R. Whilst in the air the runway direction changed again and we had to bugger off to Swinton VRP and orbit until we were asked our intentions after which we joined right base. We did 4 touch and goes then a full stop. 1) Good - I didn't think so, my usual getting to know you circuit, then the runway direction changed. 2) OK - think it was a bit flat, 3) OK, 4) was definitely flat and then we did a full stop which had us stalled onto the runway as I came over the hedge at 55 knots stall warner bleeping, no float just seemed to belly flop onto the runway harder than I would have liked. I should have added power as we were going too slow. The circuit was busy and the crosswind / approach balloon thing was playing havoc with my runway work that Steve obviously decided today was not going to be a solo consolidation day. I was rather disappointed to be honest but the whole runway turbulence was really hard work.

We took off again 6) OK with help. I found that there was no crosswind over the flats but it became apparent on the ground. 7) Good, 8) OK, 9) Good. The Full stop was Good. I was definitely getting better although I still think we are approaching too slow. I don't seem to be able to maintain the airspeed at 65 knots. Also the sink after the roundout was too large meaning that I was rounding out too high. I can do better. But obviously not today. A bad hair day if ever there was one.

28 - Circuits, Crosswind, Solo Consolidation Ex 12 & 13

Fantastic day; the wind was as again at 90 degs to the runway but 09R was in use. Today I had Charlie Bravo. I was happy about this as I thought my mediocre performance in Hotel Alpha had something to do with the little control arm and the longer float it appeared to have. I was right. The wind direction and strength varied all over the place but today I had its measure. I was crabbed coming in over the pylons, then the crosswind seemed to disappear on the runway and I could kick straight coming over the hedge. I did one touch and go then landed and dropped Steve off (Very good and very good I found out later). The new runway ain't half bumpy. On touch and goes I was being launched into the air whether I liked it or not :-) Even during the two landings I took-off again. It was quite exciting. I held the nose wheel right up so that the low speed would keep my arse out of the air. I did four very good touch and goes (according to Steve) and he classed my landing as good. Probably because I had a little balloon; touchdown was still smooth but by that time I'd reached the bumpy part of the runway and I was being thrown around a bit.

Great confidence boost. That's my solo consolidation hours finished now. I start the Nav ex's for real from the next lesson. I have 36 hours under my belt (inclusive 3 solo)

29 - Dual to Burscough; Dual to Burnley - Diversion to Reebok / Diversion to Barton at low level (Low Level Navigation) - Ex 18 A and B

Vis was poor and there was no horizon so solo was out. Steve wanted to get the Burscough trip out of the way anyway. First part was my trip to Burscough. Climbed to the overhead. Got my fix overhead Barton. (In the PA28 it appears that you have to almost estimate the exact overhead position because you cannot bloody well see anything below - what I needed to do was pass slightly to the right). I did a position report after leaving Barton. Gross error check; Leigh Flash on the left and departing from the M62, FREDAR check. 1/4 point I had to be at 1100ft to not bust the Low Level Route. Maintaining track was easy. My half way checks had me right on track; the VRP at the M58/M6 junction, the lakes worked out well. Well I arrived at Martin Mere (missed the bowser ahead and the railway crossing which is not obvious from the map. I knew which side of Martin Mere it should be on. I orbited in slow safe cruise, picked the Burscough village wrongly and couldn't find it. Then I realised I took an industrial estate (which isn't shown on the map as Burscough village). I traced a river correctly and then I saw it a tarmac (old) runway. No markings. Took me a lot longer than I had hoped. Position fixed, position report to Barton and I tracked back. All went well up until the half way point. I did a check on my error and I incorrectly estimated 10 degrees out so I corrected left by 20 degrees which threw me out for arriving at Barton. When the time was up I orbited to get a look around and I was 2 nm NW of Barton. (I think the problem was I only used one reference to fix my position. If I had used more than one I may have realized my mistake). I called in; climbed to the overhead and joined the circuit. LH 09R. I was a bit too tight on my decent to circuit height. My approach was way too high so I killed the power and did a glide approach all the way to a full stop landing which was OK. I was a bit disappointed to have got the error correction so far out. However the first leg was spot on so I got something right and learnt something.

After fetchin my chinagraph pencil and doing a basic plan to Burnley we set off again. Climbed to the overhead and took a fix. The vis was getting worse even though I climbed higher due to the rising ground. At half way fixing was easy because I could see Peel Tower which had me right over my house. When Steve asked me where I was I just said I'm over Bury of course (looking straight at Peel Tower). Then he clicked that it was my home town : At about the 3/4 position Steve told me I was lost. He already told me that I would become lost. I drew and Arc and estimated 10% drew another arc. It was very rough. Then I picked features off the ground and looked on the map to find them. Not too difficult as I recognised the M66 turn off for Rossendale immediately, again my home patch and not the best place to do the exercise. Slow safe cruise whilst orbiting. Not so easy as I had to keep checking my bank angle to make sure I wasn't going to do any aerobatics whilst studying the map.

Steve wanted a diversion to the Reebok / M61 services. Worked out fairly well. Just had to keep checking my height and speed whilst orbiting. I set off; held the heading. At the 3/4 point I estimated being left of track by about 1/2 nm. I made a RH correction and ended up between the service station and the Reebok right on cue. This time Steve told me there was descending cloud and he wanted to go back to Barton. Again orbited in slow safe cruise, a quick line, filled out the plog, FREDAR and general preparations for slow flight. Descended to 1100ft then off we went. Looking ahead I told Steve the zig zag route I was going to follow and why.; He was happy with my plan. Somewhere near to Wigan I told Steve that I would climb (if the cloud was really low I would speak to Barton about a low level circuit). I climbed to the overhead; This time although my approach was high again I did a much better landing (adding power over the hedge as the speed went below 60 knots). At first I thought I'd landed flat but Steve reckons we hit a bump!!! Anyway I was pleased with my revised efforts and it turned out to be a good practice day. I am ready to do Burscough Solo.

30 - Instrument Flight; VOR Fixing, Ex 19 and 18C

The haze was so bad that I wasn't even sure it would be acceptable for VFR!!! Anyway it was and I took Hotel Alpha today. After taking off I headed North in the direction of Winter Hill. Steve had already briefed me on the instrument flight techniques. The air was very calm indeed. Once trimmed I could just let go of the controls. He had me climbing, descending, turning onto different headings. It was very easy. I did a rate one turn using instruments. I timed it as well. At 3 deg per second a 180 deg turn took 1 minute. I'd started my count before the TI was in the correct position so I rolled out 20 degrees too early. However, Steve seemed to think that it was good enough to pass a skills test. Basically I'm happy with it. I will revise it just before my test but there's bigger fish to fry at the moment. I've read about examiners taking students through cloud on the test! Next came a position fix using two VORs. First I took a fix from WAL (Wallasey), identified it. 60 degrees, I drew a rough line on the map. Then I took a fix from MCT (Manchester), Identified that one and drew another line at ~+-320 degs. The lines crossed Just South of Wigan, When infact I was just North of Wigan. Steve seemed to think that it was a good effort despite the little error. I already knew that using POL and WAL was going to introduce a large error because I lay between the two. I know if I use the plotter I just bought I can get it more accurate for my Skills test. Heading back to Barton in instrument mode I tracked TO the 153 radial on MCT (which dissects Barton. Steve activated the DME at 21nm from MCT (Barton is only 8 nm from MCT) I made a rough time estimate that Steve was again happy with.
Landing went ok, I ballooned a little but had her down nicely although I needed the whole runway in which to slow down.

Good lesson. I killed instrument flight and was pleased with my VOR fixing effort. Its coming slowly.
Here's hoping for a clear day on Wed

31 - Solo Navex to Burscough / Dual through the LLR to Beeston Castle and Crewe.

Although the weather wasn't promising it was still good enough. Steve said I should just go straight off and do my solo to Burscough. This will be the first time I'd go without Steve for a little check first to ensure that I had infact loaded my brain!!!! I wasn't nervous at all. I was excited. I also felt relieved that I'll finally go and toddle off by myself on what was an easy little trip.
By the time I had everything ready for departure the cloud had crept over and the promised cold front was incoming.... I wasted no time at all in getting my arse airborne. Last thing I needed was poor vis to screw up my first jolie. Climbed to the overhead. Things didn't look so bad from up there. The cloud base was somewhere in between 2500 and 3000ft. I gave a position report. FREDAR, then held my heading. Leigh flash passed by on the left as per plan. I saw Wigan, the four lakes at the half way point. Crossed the Motorway (M6) at the point where the railway crosses the M6. Bang on track. I knew to look out for the crossing railways (once you know about it its so easy), the bowser at Southport came into view. As soon as I saw that I practically knew where the disused airfield was. Then as I could see Martin Mere come into view I could also see Burscough airfield right on cue. Passed it 1 min early. I took a wide sweep, noted the time overhead then reported my position to Barton. Heading back the vis wasn't great but my lakes stood out. I reckon I had a slight right track error so made a small correction. I was very happy to see Barton from so far away exactly where I wanted it to be (my worst fear was missing it then flying around in circles worrying about it; anyway it didn't happen). I joined overhead into absolute mayhem. There were planes everywhere according to the radio. I didn't see any until I'd just turned late downwind. A Cessna 150 appeared in front of me from nowhere just after I'd turned downwind. I went to slow safe cruise immediately and just rode behind him. He did a wide circuit. I had no choice but to follow him to keep him in view. I lost him after I'd turned base. After just turning final he popped up right in front of me closer this time!!!! It could have been another aircraft because I saw another Cessna about going over the hedge on final. Now I was really close. I kept my calm and he was further away than I first thought. I had plenty of time to get my final approach right. A little balloon (normal in Hotel Alpha) then I did a nice soft touchdown. Job done easy money. I was happy that I made no mistakes start to finish.

I still had another slot so I planned a quick plog down the Low Level Route. This time I took Steve. It was a site seeing tour to get me used to transiting the low level route. I didn't really stick to my plan as Steve was constantly talking and I was looking at all his references. I tried to obtain a FIS from Manchester approach. However 'Grumpy' told 'Sleepy' that he wasn't getting a FIS this side of Xmas. I know my RT isn't sounding professional yet but the reply I got was less than polite. Was worth a try as it didn't appear too busy. Obviously the wrong controller as the next one was giving them away in cereal packets and was treating people like human beings. Anyway, it was great to do the LLR again. The Church in Warrington, not easy to spot from some angles. Thelwall Viaduct, This time Stretton Airfield jumped out at me big time. The Towers at Winnington stood out nicely. The Ship Canal, a good position line, The M56 another good position line, The lakes to the left stood out well. I saw my crossing railway lines (we were bang on track) Winsford stood out nicely with its two built up areas, a train line going to the left hand part of Winsford. Ashcroft was a brown field and the airstrip was just visible (obvious once you were over it) but not the easiest thing to spot. The was a building and a track close by just to the left heading south. Oulton Park stood out on the right hidden in the trees given away by the crescent shaped lake. Calverley (disused airstrip) was just a group of blue buildings even though on the map it says disused airfield. Beeston Castle and the two hills in a row behind it stood out very nicely and gave me very good spatial awareness. Infact, they virtually point towards Ashcroft. We turned East I identified Nantwich, then Crewe. Steve pointed out the railway lines heading to Chester and Manchester. We flew over Sandbach then turned West. I identified Calverley once I could get my bearings on Beeston Castle. Took me about 10 secs of searching. Eventually I narrowed things down and identified Ashcroft. That wasn't easy. After turning back onto track we went North through the LLR. Steve had tuned to Whitegate NDB so I always had a relative position to that. Fiddlers Ferry Power Station stood out. Most of the VRPs were on the right. Eventually we were over the church in Warrington. We continued North rather than tracking to Barton so he could show me the VRPs to Blackpool. Passed Haydock racecourse to the left, keeping the motorway on the LH side ensured that we didn't bust Liverpool's airspace. Steve pointed out another gas bowser that looked like Southport's but obviously wasn't. Must remember not to confuse that one. We then tracked North until just before Wigan, in sight of the Southport gas bowser hence I had my bearings for Blackpool. Then we headed back to Barton. Joined downwind; wasn't as busy this time. I came in slow over the hedge rounded out a little late but this time no balloon. I just greased it onto the runway. Great progress. Tomorrow wx permitting we are off to the seaside!!!!!

32 - Dual Landaway to Blackpool

Was in Charlie Alpha today. The weather was changed from yesterday. The wind was at 300-310 degrees 16 knots. Technically runway 27 would still be OK but Barton info said the runway in use is 32. Unfortunately we were already parked on it! We were unceremoniously moved on by the FISO and rightly so. We get so used to parking on the Tees most of the year we get complacent never expecting it to be open. This I think is a club failing because the map shows the area not being within the normal operating area without permission. A quick turn and we were at Alpha 1. I was a bit flustered as I hadn't been prepared for this. Runway 32 is very short. I need time to consider the crosswind and mentally prepare. Internal and power checks done. Wind was straight at us for take off. I basically stopped just off the tarmac still on the verge before the runway start. I wanted the maximum distance. Not being able to calculate the take-off distance without the charts I had to trust my instructors judgment. I used 2/3 of the runway to get 50 knots before rotating. Climb performance was OK. It was only in the air that I realized I used the normal takeoff technique and had a reasonable amount of runway left. If I do that again myself its going to be the short field technique for sure. I did a small correction to our heading and we were on the planned heading. Steve didn't want to climb to the overhead. I doubt it would be required because we were almost on the correct heading. I saw us pass the East Lancs at the right time.

I asked Steve about when to change frequency and he said go on then like I already should have done it!!!! Personally I thought it was best to be clear of Barton since we could still encounter their traffic but I kept that to myself. I told Barton we were changing and changed to Warton. I called Warton Radar, was given a squawk; there was quite a lot of RT traffic going on. I was waiting to pass my message. I heard "pass your message" but not my call sign. Steve just passed the message I was prepared for. Bugger. They wanted us to route in via Southport Pier but I guess that won't be too difficult to find (not in the AIP I might add - what next "…call overhead Grimshaws chippy…."). I visually plotted a route to Southport which just had us left of track. Since there was only one pier going out to sea at Southport even I could spot that. Warton gave us good traffic information. The informed us about a contact to our left. He wasn't too far away. How the hell did we miss him. The controller must have thought he was taking care of the blind society open day!! I reported overhead Southport pier with my height and QNH, we were told to squawk 7000 and contact Blackpool Tower. I did so and they stated a Left Base join for runway 31. Approach was fine. A little fast but it was a long runway. Steve seemed to want to have some input into the landing so he was doing more than following thro. His prerogative or maybe being my first hard tarmac landing he wanted to make sure I judged my distances correctly. I'd heard of folks pranging the tail of club Grobs on rounding out because they were lower than they thought they were. I had no probs. We touched down nicely. Rolled all the way to the end at a reasonably high speed. Just before Fylde Park GA parking area Steve asked for permission to park there which was granted. Not a lot of room and must admit I didn't know which way to face my aircraft to not block anyone in or end up blocked in myself. It looked so much bigger on the map.

After shutting down we walked though to the fire office desk and got a booking in form. I filled it in and we walked outside and back into the information point. I paid for the landing and then we had a very nice coffee. I booked out over the phone on 8212 ATC. Then back to the aircraft.

After getting everything shipshape I got the ATIS. I made the first call and wrote down the taxi instructions. Taxi to Charlie 2 via taxiway Bravo and Charlie QFE 1030. Pleased with myself as the instructions were not so straight forward and I read back perfectly. As soon as we reached Charlie 2 we were given permission to cross and track along the active runway 28 to Charlie 4. At Charlie 4 I did the power checks. In the middle we were asked if ready for the departure clearance. Steve said affirm. I wasn't quick enough and it was pretty garbled anyway. We had to turn left at 500ft and report over St Annes Pier. (another VRP not mentioned in the AIP….. not far from the Smith allotments by the Labour Club…know it well). Steve read this back. Then we were told to line up and wait. Whilst waiting we were given out takeoff clearance. I went for best rate of climb turned left a little early (on QNH….ooopps) St Anne's pier was easy to spot. Mr Magoo the trainee pilot managed it all by himself. By the time we were over it I was almost at 1500ft. I was climbing hard as there was no altitude restrictions given by the controller. I didn't fancy a dip in the sea with the engine knackered.. it looked rather cold and uninviting. Then we were told about a Harrier jet taking off from Warton and to watch out for it. He also mentioned we were to be at 1000ft so I descended rather sharpish. I saw the Harrier shoot up left at a fantastic rate of climb just over my left shoulder. Very impressive. At some point we were changed to Warton Radar. They said we can climb to 2000ft ft above Southport pier. And to freecall Woodvale. I didn't realize how close to Woodvale we were. The runways were not too far away and I could have been not too far away from their ATZ. I didn't anticipate this in my planning although I did have the Woodvale frequency to hand (as well as all the others in the North West) I (We) passed the message and they gave us a FIS.

On the way back to Barton I used my original planned heading and I estimated that we were a few mile right of the planned track. We had to descend because of the LLR then climb back up at the other side. I saw the airfield and set QFE. The runway in use was 32. I wasn't happy about this. It looked like a bloody golf green from the air. I requested the wind and it appeared that a change back to R27 was imminent. I said to Steve 32 is too short so we requested a change to 27. I think he was happy with my train of thought. Sometimes I'm not sure though. I had to do a tight turn to get back across the numbers. Then it became a normal approach. We were crabbed coming in but the crosswind appeared to disappear just over the hedge. We ballooned a little (again Steve was having input for some strange reason which is beginning to annoy me because I was well in control and two helpings of round out made twice the balloon). Anyway, the landing was nice and smooth.

Was harder coming back than going. Reckon it will be ok when I do it by myself. I feel the need to do more by myself now. Like driving you'll only really learn once you are by yourself making your own decisions

33 - PFLs(Practice Forced Landings), Slow Safe Cruise, Position Fix, Tracking a VOR, Circuits - Revision

After looking at the weather in the morning it was going to get progressively worse. I was particularly looking at the low level route since the solo was on the cards. Steve agreed it was not upto it so next on my list was practicing PFLs including all the touch drills. I was feeling confident and was flying the plane accurately. Once we'd positioned on the Reebok we headed out towards Southport.

The PFL went ok. I picked a field; as it turned out I chose another when I realised that I was too high on the approach. My touch drills getting there. A bit rusty. Basically, get the glide right first, I lost too much height on the first one messing about not paying attention to my glide. Pick a field (this can be more than one option) Assess the wind. (for the first we stuck with the no wind scenario; for the last couple I asked Steve to come up with a theoretical wind which will give me more realism. After I'd selected my downwind 1000ft position I did a scan check to try and establish why the engine had stopped (talking through as I went but not actually touching, fuel pump on, mixture rich, primer in (no primer in HA being a Warrior III)), Ps Ts Fuel Gauges, Mags on both, change tanks, Restart - No start, Mayday call - this went OK One of them I didn't know my position, get onto final approach, then ICO, mags master off, fuel off. On No 2 I was way off my first choice of landing site but another choice presented. I had looked at that field but it had cows along one side that I did not want to negotiate. As it turned out it would have been the right choice. The second one would have had me amongst cabbage patch but they would still do in a bind. All in all I made some forward progress and was happy that my attempts were getting better. Then we went into Slow Safe Cruise and practice, climbing, turning, descending. . We even did abit of instrument work. (Straight and level and straight and level and speed and straight and level and straight and level and VSI etc etc....) I had to turn from 110 degrees to 240 degrees at Rate 1. I had a brain failure and Steve reminded me that each 30 degrees is 10 seconds (3 degrees per second). I did the turn and rolled out within 10 degrees of my heading. Pleased with that. Steve had all this down as good. The only thing that I really had to think about was when going from Slow Safe Cruise to normal cruise make sure you apply the power first. Steve asked me to fly at exactly 100 knots. I had no probs achieving this. It took a little bit of power and attitude adjustment to get right but I was comfortable with this.

Now Steve asked me to get a position fix; I stated that I would adopt SSC and do a left hand orbit. I opted for MCT first. I drew a line from Trent VOR instead of MCT (only spotted this later when I checked again - Bugger) I think its time for the little sticky wheels to go on my map!! My line from MCT was again like a dogs hind leg. When I drew the line from WAL I got my plotter out and drew a line. Ultimately this in conjunction with the stick on roses are going to allow me to be more accurate with fixes. I didn't do bad considering. Happy with my attempt. Next I tracked to POL. I took the radial from and held a track to be able to meet it. Before reaching the Reebok I tracked to MCT on the 153 radial how Steve had shown me. I even kicked in the DME, identified the morse code and established myself as being 20 nm from MCT (that's 12mn from Barton +- 8 minutes at cruise). I managed to pick out Barton, primarily through Barton Bridge but then it became obvious where Trafford Park was as well as the colour of the ground had it in only one possible place. The Vis wasn't very good. I'd been cloud dodging all lesson.

I joined overhead; Had it all under control. The first approach was a normal touch and go. We had to do a very wide circuit as there was an aircraft on the very edge of the circuit. I stated this on my downwind call so that the offending little cessna would for want of a better phrase "shit or get off the pot". Eventually we swung in behind him in SSC to get our separation. My first "touch and go" was good. My second approach was flapless (simulating flap operating failure). I had quite abit of speed on however I kept the nose high and it washed off nicely; very good according to Steve. Next I did a glide approach (simulating an approach with engine failure); would have been nice but I was a tad short. Reckon I stuck drag flaps on a little bit too soon. I had to help it in with a tad of power for the last 20ft to get to the shorter grass.(a flapping glide -I'm good at them :-)) That was down as good. Lastly the landing in normal configuration. I was a little crabbed coming over the hedge as I was with all the approaches. The balloon as I kick straight taking me abit by surprise. I kept it under control and landed nicely with a short ground run. I did come over the hedge abit slow (60 knots). I could have powered it in a little more. Over to a Tee on Runway 32. During the round up discussion Steve mention about when to book my skills test. It hit me like a stone. I guess he's right. Technically I am getting there handling wise. After the Navex's there's not much else to do but revise. A good lesson especially getting back in the saddle after 1 month away.

34 - Steep Turns / Stalling - Recovery from stalls in Normal configs - Standard Stall Recovery - Tracking VORs

The Tafs and the Metars were not good. Crap vis to start with rain and CBs later on.(Thunderstorms with associated windshear where I can lose control amongst other things). If I had any chance of the LLR solo (Low Level Route between Manchester and Liverpool controlled airspace) then it would be earlier rather than later. It was a no go :-(. Infact I didn't even know where we could do anything else useful. Steve suggested we go up and have a look to see whether we could do some stalls in steep turns. Charlie Alpha today. I am totally confident now with all my checks and taxiing / groundwork. Started writing the hobbs and times down. Good preparation for when I have to do it solo. Take off went ok. Into the murk. It appeared that our playground area between Winter Hill and Southport was clearer than all around. So upto 3000ft. I'm much better now at recognising the local area, the bend in the river at Warton, then the big white jail, the buildings at Wigan, Martin Mere and the bowser at Southport.

First off, a HASELL check, then 45 deg Steep turn revision. RH turn was great, LH was abit more difficult; practiced this twice, my second attempt was better. Next 60 Degree steep turns. This was exciting, pulling back required the strength of Hercules. Again my right was perfect and Steve said so. My left was abit wobbly but I doubt an examiner would fail it. We did this a few times. The Stalling in Steep turns (the 60 deg variety :-)) Wow; whilst at a 60 degree bank pulling Gs you pull back very hard to get the speed down and the stall warner bleeping. The was no nose drop and the plane was flying very slowly. We did the full and incipient stalls both left and right. Just relaxing on the control column tended to unstall the wings, roll out then apply power as required. 60 degrees feels and looks like 90 degrees. you feel that you don't have to go much further to flip the wing over and go into a dive. Each time we rolled out we flew through our own little wake turbulence!!!! There was a little judder and it was over. Bizarre.

Next we practiced stalls in the approach configuration. Entry was level flight ,carb heat hot, power off, 2 stages flap, pull back nose up and wait for the stall warner, slight buffet, column forward simultaneously applying full power, carb heat cold, climb away at 65 knots. Remove flap as required. We did the same thing in approach configuration in a RH and LH turn (simulating the base turn). Finally with full flap, carb heat on power off, pull back, warner, buffet, column forward power on full, carb heat cold, remove drag flap, climb at 65 knts then as required remove flaps.

Then I tracked to POL (on the way to Winter Hill.). Took a 153 radial to MCT. Called in overhead the Reebok and tracked to the Airfield using VOR/ DME combo. The vis was pretty bad and it took me a while to find the airfield. Overhead join. My approach and landing were good. A little flat, no balloon and a nice smooth touchdown onto a bumpy runway. For the first time Steve put down 'Very Good' and ticked the 'Ready for Skills Test'. I felt fully in control and comfortable with all my airwork I'll have to have a little revision before my test but I'm itching to get the navigation exercises done now. Its all upto the British Weather.........help!!!

35 - Solo Low Level Route - Dual Triangular Route - Solo Triangular Route

What a fantastic day. I had the plane booked for two slots. As soon as I saw the weather outside at 07:30 I downloaded the weather forecast and sure enough here was my best window of opportunity to get as much done as possible. The traffic down to Barton was bad (bloody typical). Anyway when I got there Steve turned up as I was just heading over to the aircraft. .

Hotel Alpha today (I was happy about this because it has an integral GPS moving map as part of the radio stack. Cheating I know but hey its my arse up there!!) .

PART I - Solo down the Low Level Route .

After a quick briefing by Steve. I Asked for taxi. Runway 32 was on. I'd already spoken to Steve about this. Whilst I was happy to take-off from 32 I was not happy to land only because it was very short and I'd not done the circuits on this runway to get familiar. I didn't want too many firsts in one trip. I already had alot to think about. Taxied to Alpha 1. Lined up. This time I applied the Short Field take-off technique. i.e. Full Power holding it on the brakes. I did get a good speed up before rotating, 50 knots or so. I had about 12 knots in my face so it climbed nicely. I turned straight onto my heading. I didn't give a position report as it didn't seem relevant since I was turning straight onto heading. I climbed to 1200 ft on Manchester QNH. I pretty much stayed at this all the way to Ashcroft. .

Before I knew it I was overhead Warrington and St Elphins spire appeared where I wanted it to be. I tried to get a word in edgeways to Manchester Approach but there was lots of GA traffic being given a flight information service. At least they was giving away Flight Information to GA aircraft. After being referred to as the "unknown contact" transiting the LLR I decided to try for a flight information service and it was duly given. It really is a choice thing. If Manchester Approach is busy with commercial traffic you can just listen on frequency. If not then ask them for a service. Depends on who you speak to. Steve reckons its always best to be speaking to someone. I found the workload distracted me from reading my map and looking outside.

I eyeballed Charlie Alpha coming the other way thro the corridor. I waggled my wings. Spoke with Rick the Instructor later he said he flashed his lights but I never saw anything. I did see another contact as well. I actually didn't get alot of time to look at the map. Luckily I had identified Stretton, could see the towers at Northwich and I could see the small range of hills to the South where Beeston Castle was nestled. Manchester then asked me to report at Ashcroft so I thought it was best not to go for a little bimble around Crewe as it would be buggering them about. I saw the conurbation's at Winsford, then joy as Oulton Park lake came into view. I was bang on track. About 1 minute to go I saw the lovely green runways of Ashcroft farm. After a session of whooping and general red-neck type celebration I remembered that I was still piloting an aircraft and Ashcroft may have traffic in its circuit or overhead. I took a nice sweeping LH turn passed over took my time. After I filled my plog out I passed a position report to Manchester. With the wind in my face this took longer. I was relaxed; saw my crossing railways. Eventually I saw the M56, from that I could trace Stretton Airfield further ahead I could see Thelwal viaduct. I was exactly where I wanted to be. .

The conurbation of Warrington stretched before me. I routed to the eastern edge because at 1200ft it would be difficult to find a field to glide to if the engine failed. St Elphins came into view. I turned took my time filled out the plog, then called Manchester for a frequency change to Barton. Barton ATZ was busy. I was abeam Leigh Flash before I could ask for joining instructions. They were expecting me and I was given 27R RH circuits. There was a tiger moth and a microlight using 32 so I had to be extra careful when coming in as our circuits were not matched and we could be in conflict. Took me a wile to find Barton. Eventually I spotted it. Called over head. I saw a plane on climb out from 32 and had to keep a eye out. We had at least 500 ft vertical separation (On paper). The turbulence coming in over the flats had me crabbed and working the power. I came in a little flat and did a very nice landing. Job done. .

PART II Dual Triangular - Barton>Burscough>Samlesbury>Barton .

After a cup of coffee and a call of nature I took off from 27R this time (I did have to hold at holding point Alpha 1 since there was still traffic operating from 32). I took Steve with me this time. I climbed to the overhead. I did give a position report to Barton. Steve recommended that I get the turning point at Burscough first before changing to Warton. Burscough came in right on the nose. I then obtained a Matz penetration from Warton Radar. She was most helpful and polite and made everything RT a pleasure. I didn't need to pass my message but she did ask me to report over Samlesbury. Warton wasn't busy at all and there was long silences on the radio. Leyland came into view nicely. The motorway system on the far side made very good visual spotting. The snaking River Ribble came into view ( in a moment of madness I called it the wobbly wibble - still don't know why - ozone euphoria maybe). That had me looking for the glider site. There was a large airfield right on the nose. Steve confirmed that it was indeed Samlesbury. We turned before just to avoid their overhead. The radar controller saw this straight away and asked us our intentions. I told her, got my plog together and gave her a good position report. I adjusted my track to pass left of Winter Hill to regain the planned track. (turning early had thrown us out). Abeam Winter Hill I requested a frequency change back to Barton. Overhead Bolton I called in and requested joining information. I opted to join left base since that was the direction we were coming in at. Steve was happy about this cos it would help get me away quicker to solo the route we had just done. Again turbulence over the flats had us rocking and rolling on the way in. I had its measure and greased her down again. (very happy with my landings). We parked infront of the tower.

PART III Solo Triangular - Barton>Samlesbury>Burcough>Barton

Steve jumped out and just said "off you go". I went thro all my checks again. They gave me runway 27. Before I knew it I was heading to Bolton; I'd switched to Warton. The same lady controller was on. I passed her my details (perfectly I think). Whilst mentally planning ahead for my turn I read the wrong line in my plog and thought that I had got my second heading incorrect. With 2 minutes to the turning point I used the straight edge of my checklist on the map and just created a new heading then back calculated to a compass heading taking into account the 4 degrees West Variation. Easy enough and I could see some very easy features to recognise around. It was only after I gave my position report after passing Samlesbury that I realised I was looking at line three on the plog instead of line two... bugger... Anyway I was happy that if I had screwed up I could calmly generate new headings in the air whilst flying the plane safely. I actually got a confidence boost from this because my estimated heading was within 10 degrees of the originally planned heading. Everything went well. I was at 2500ft. Couldn't climb higher because the cloud base was just above me. I was experiencing a little turbulence. Nothing that could have spilled my can of lager :-). Burscough came into view nicely and on time. After taking my fix I thanked Warton Radar "again" for the service. I joined overhead Barton. I had requested 27R after being given 32. (In hindsight I should have asked for the wind then asked for 27R - point taken). The turbulence over the flats was meaner than a junkyard dog. I really had to work the power. At one point the speed jumped from 70 down to 50 and the stall warner went off. I instinctively added a bootful of power and we were back on track. Again the crosswind disappeared over the hedge. I ballooned and was too high so I stuffed it down a little with no power, she sank and I held off. The touchdown was still smooth after such a aerobatic approach.

All in all a fantastic flying day. I liased with two major ATC's satisfactorily, didn't get lost, don't think I busted anyone's airspace. I felt fully in control and coped well with my own little theoretical in-flight drama (redoing/checking my plog in flight). It was made easier with the moving map; Certainly the workload would have been higher in the LLR Solo. ATC were very helpful and didn't overload me. Big grin... beers on the cards tonight.

36 - Circuits - Flapless and Glide Approaches

It looked absolutely crap out of my bedroom window at 8:30 hrs. I went down to Barton anyway. It started clearing up. However the Metars and TAFs painted a grim picture. Steve suggested circuits in Charlie Bravo. I was up for some of that. In total 7 touch and gos with one go around. The vis in the circuit was grim and just doable. There was a microlight flying circuits as well as the Ikarus. Since I was faster than both I extended quite a few times and went into slow safe cruise a couple of times also. 1) Touch and go - "A bit Flat" I thought this was the usual getting to know you circuit. I flew too close to the airfield and wildly overshot the final turn and I ended up flying a flatter approach than I would have liked. 2) & 3) Touch and Goes both "Good". Was finding my wings now. 4) Flapless T and G - "Highish speed" fair cop. 5) Flapless T and G - "Good" - I had the measure of this one, higher nose more power - seemed awfully close to the hedge. 6) Glide approach to a T and G - "Very Good" - Steve said he couldn't do better - I was high on approach and the flap selection brought me down nicely. 7) Glide approach and T and G - I was a bit buggered up by extending in downwind and SSC for the microlight. Just had too much speed too high, too late selection had me 50 ft above the centre of the runway. I just went around. 8) Glide approach and T and G - again the microlight got in the way but I was better prepared. Worked out just great. A bit flat in my books I gave a nad of power just before the hedge so it became a flapping glide :-). On the climbout Steve cut the power and called a fanstop.. I went straight into glide at 75 knts and looked ahead for a suitable field to set down in. There was one, bit short and trees at the start. I dumped all the flaps and nose down towards it, became obvious that I was too high, just to the left at 90 degrees was my best chance. I had enough room to swoop down on that, Just before my swoop Steve called a Go-Around. Full power, lose drag flap and best angle of climb at 65 knts. Steve said OK lets land. Approach was the best one yet, bit flat at the end. I rounded high a little high (by my reckoning) a large sink but I caught it nicely with the elevator to give us a nice smooth touchdown. Steve had it down as "Very Good". After we stopped he gave me the chit saying " Fully complete and understood, Ready for test!!" A good circuit revision lesson. Next on the card the Dual to Wolverhampton.

37 - Wolverhampton Dual

I got there earlyish. Steve was up with someone else for the first slot. I went thro my elaborate plans to figure out that I'd left the whole met package at home. Didn't really matter as I had committed to memory the conditions. Basically it would be gusty thro the low level but the cloud base and the forecast provided a nice window.

A nice stiff wind almost down 27L we took off and turned straight onto heading. Only climbed to 1200ft on QNH. Warrington came into view. I changed to Manchester Approach. I passed my message well I thought. I thought I was being pushed to the left hand side of the low level so I added some Right track. .(Steve told me afterwards that I was actually bang on and didn't need to). I saw Oulton and Ashcroft came into view eventually. I climbed to 2000ft and subsequently 2500ft. I made two calls to Shawbury but there was nobody home. I called London Information on 124.75 and obtained an FIS. I was firstly taken aback by the low RPS. We had changed from 1012 to 1005. At first I wasn't even sure it was a pressure setting so I queried Steve. Somehow during the next 15 minutes or so I didn't steer my correct heading religiously and ended too far right of track. (10 degrees plus to be precise because I almost transited Ternhills overhead). I misread the Wreakin for something else. No it seems obvious but at the time I was not able to pick any significant. Landmarks to be able to place myself. Over Telford Steve pointed out the Football pitch with a sign saying TELFORD FOOTBALL CLUB. I was pissed off that my error had just got larger until I was really unsure of my position.

We were so far to the west of Cosford that it was not worth calling them. I contacted Wolverhampton Information and obtained joining instructions for an overhead join on runway 28. The circuit and landing went fine. Left hand circuit and I remembered about the 1300 ft heli restriction on the deadside. The landing was a nice smooth landing. We taxied around the airfield to park by the tower on the grass. I quickly paid the landing fee and we promptly started up and asked for taxi again. Over at F2 HP we did our power checks. A rolling start had us airborne at 60 knots. We climbed to the overhead. I took a big wide sweep and went upto 2500ft. I handled the radio really well for the quickfire change from Wolverhampton to Cosford. I held my track better this time. I changed to London Information at Newport. We saw a glider and took some avoiding action. Then back on track. Beeston Castle Hills stood out in the distance left of track where they should be. Looking at the bigger picture I could see Stafford. I could see Stoke. It did seem easier this way around. I flew just to the left hand edge of Nantwich. Bang on track. The Blue Calverley buildings stood out really well. I descended before Nantwich to 1200 ft to be lined up with the low level. Changed to Manchester approach but it was really busy so we just listened. Ashcroft was not so easy to see. Infact by positioning on Oulton Park and Winsford I knew we were directly over it. Down the low level I knew I was left of track but happy with that because I could see all my landmarks, Great Budworth , the M56, Stretton and Thelwall. St Elpins appeared right on the nose. I tracked slightly right and continued until I was over the motorway (M62). Then I turned, called Barton for joining instructions. I joined overhead. There was 3 in the circuit. The wind was 28015G25. Steve had me split the difference and I stated that I would land at 65+5 knots. Landing was abit special. My ground speed was very slow. We seemed to hang in a gust. The sink was quite large and I had CA back as far as she could go when the wheels touched down.

All in all a good learning experience. Steve said my return leg was very good. Things I'm going to do different. Keep my map orientated with the writing as I got in a mess trying to fly up map. Hold my station better, Stay on track. Do not correct before the 1/2 way point and use power to keep the altitude station. I tended to go up/down 300 ft along the journey.

38 - Dual Longish Triangular - Planned Barton>Shobden>Leicester>Barton - The Great Wall of Wolverhampton

I prepared everything the night before. After checking the weather out in the morning there appeared to be alot of mist around but it was doable. It was likely that the sun would raise the ambient temperature above the the dewpoint and things should be clear by the time I was to fly. I called Shobden from the car park for PPR and they said it was overcast with a cloud base at 1500ft - 2000ft. They informed me that there was a low level pass planned by a couple of Hercules around the time I was getting in. I called my wife who was just blasting along the M42 and she said it was blue skies with a few clouds. All sounded good to me.

I finally bought myself a fuel tester. 'bout bloody time too. Don't know why but I've never seen any instructor at Barton do this!!! I was shown on my very first lesson. After reading about an incident involving contaminated fuel in one of the magazines I'm convinced that that's one bad habit I'm going to do something about. We got underway. Steve was happy to depart on downwind. When taking off from 09 I personally thing the overhead is a better place to be. As it turned out I appeared to be riding along the East Lancs when I should have been left of it. This was a recurrent theme throughout the trip. Either the wind was different or the DI was playing up or I was just shit. Don't really know.

Down the low level I recognised that I was drifting left because I was closer to Stretton than I should have been so I made a visual correction along the way once I correctly identified the conurbation at Winsford.. Once I had Oulton Park Ashcroft came into view on the left. I did a sweeping turn to pass overhead. I didn't speak with Manchester since the frequency was very busy. This time I flew my track precisely. I obtained a FIS from Shawbury Radar and was squawking 0240 (their standard conspicuity code apparently). I remembered about changing the tanks half way (next time I will write that on my map as a double reminder). I correctly identified us as being 10 degrees left of track and made a right correction by 20degrees. I was happier this time. I could not see the Wreakin but I could see lakes and forests correctly.. I was passed over to Cosford fairly late by Shawbury. In hindsight I should have asked for a climb earlier. I climbed to 3000ft to avoid Cosford's ATZ. I called Cosford fairly late. Reported overhead as requested. I was on track. However I could see a wall of cloud ahead. I informed Cosford that I would be descending to avoid cloud. It was amazing how quickly it came upon me. I told the controller I was continuing to 1500ft. It became obvious that we would not be able to continue with our planned trip. Steve gave me vectors to route back around the outside of Cosford's ATZ towards Stafford.

I wasn't exactly sure where I was so I told Steve I'd like to do a position fix. Steve said OK. I went to slow safe cruise. I used Shawbury VOR to get a radial of about 110 degs. Then I took a DME from the same VOR and got 22nm. Using my plotter I accurately drew my position. Steve said I was spot on. I picked the nearest town (Penkridge) and created a diversion plog on my chart. Then I flew the track. I contacted Shawbury and obtained a flight information service. I was at 3200ft and lovin it :-)

It became obvious that we were not flying the correct track when I saw I was right next to a huge conurbation!!! It could only be Stoke. The problem was that the DI had drifted by 15 degrees.... I'm beginning to suspect a problem with it. However I should be more vigilant and check it more often. I correctly identified Crewe. Steve asked me to skirt around it. I'd descended to 2000ft. I traced all the railway lines coming out of Crewe. By just using the map and looking out to establish a heading to Ashcroft I was about 60 degrees out. If I were to use the compass in this equation I'd be spot on. Once I saw Calverley, the blue buildings just standing out I could trace a line to Ashcroft. I took a position fix over Ashcroft and off down the corridor again. I was about to ask for a FIS from Manchester Approach when Steve asked me not to bother. The incoming leg and the landing were uneventful. I landed a tad long and had a few knots too much speed but it was still smooth and in control. Another good learning experience. I think I'm ready to have a bash at my QXC.

39 - Revision - SSC - Position Fix - Diversion and Low level Nav - Flapless and glide approaches

The aim of this lesson as far as I was concerned was to start the revision of the syllabus. Steve even brought the foggles but there wasn't a chance we were going to use them. Charlie Bravo today. Take off went well considering it was 09R. We headed towards the Reebok. I was struggling at 2000ft to stay out of cloud. We headed towards Leyland area. . SSC then I took a radial from MCT and POL. I was relatively happy with my attempt. Steve reckoned I had a parallax error in my estimation. I should have taken more notice of the readout of the radial to check. Headed off at 125 degrees after initially thinking of going in 310 degrees but I was 180 degrees out of phase. Anyway I came up with a diversion to the Swinton VRP. Almost immediately things didn't seem right. I should have crossed a motorway..... no motorway and the vis was so crap I didn't recognize any features. I found a motorway with a train line crossing it and a canal by the side of it. Very difficult to find on the may. Eventually figured out that I was North West of Wigan after some debate. The JJB was in sight although I hadn't twigged that. We orbited in slow safe and changed the heading by approx 20 degrees out X 2 for the half was mark... Steve had me fly at 100 degrees. I came in nicely to join the M61 picked out the Reebok and I could just see Leigh Flash. I turned left just past Bolton. Tuned to MCT and set a radial TO of 153 degrees. I tracked at 210 to meet the radial then straight to Barton.

I was quite close before I saw the airfield. First of all I did a flapless touch and go. That went well. Then I tried three times to do a glide approach. First off I was too far away and powered on for a go around. Second time I was closer but there was still an aircraft on the runway so I had to go around again. Third time lucky. I really cut the corner this time. again I didn't deploy any flap as I was stretching the glide anyway. Full stop landing was ok although Steve did most of it trying to demonstrate the correct picture. Personally I know my picture is slightly different but I roundout lower and set down flatter. I am comfortable with that. We had a small balloon and a long sink to a reasonable smooth landing.

It was a useful lesson. The nav side I cannot do enough of. I really need to practice and practice this; especially important as I fly 3 different planes with 3 different radio stacks. One more small step forward on the confidence side.

40 - Revision - Flapless, glide and normal approaches

I was all prepared for a decent Nav ex with Gary since Steve was away. The weather to the North was just not good enough. Instead I agreed to do some circuits with Gary instead. I was determined the get them perfect. It was relatively quiet so I got to take off. Everything went well. Take off went very well. Not much wind so I used quite alot of the runway even after demonstrating a short field takeoff (I noted that I only used 2000 revs at the threshold - mental note use full power next time). Gary never said anything.

My circuits were good if a little wide. On a couple of occasions had to go wide because of other aircraft. Gary's points on fine tuning -approaching 1000 ft I tended to back off the power too quickly rather than getting the speed up to 95 first. Also I needed a little more speed control and I needed to trim more. On my downwind checks I needed to STATE what I was doing. He's absolutely right. I fully agreed with his comments and it would make me perform the checks more rigorously. As for the rest Gary said some very complimentary remarks and said my flying was at a very good standard. Apart from the time when I caught the power level whilst reaching for the trim wheel. Scared the bejesus out of him!!!! :-)

On the climb out Gary sprung an EFATO on me. I'd hardly had a chance to adopt a glide attitude and pick a field when he said go around. We did some touch and goes. First off was a flapless. I came over the hedge at 73 knots too fast. I floated quite far and was ready for a touch and go but Gary wanted to land and take off again. Must admit I would have continued with it but I don't think there was much danger. Of course I would have been at best rate of climb and not best angle. My second takeoff was just fab. Best I'd done. Textbook. Gary said it was very good. Glide approach. I had to stretch it so much so that Gary had his hands on the throttle and I didn't dump the flaps until I was over the hedge. I wasn't quite straight on touching down but it was a very good touch and go. Next an ordinary touch and go. Totally spot on. Speed was perfect and it all went well. Finally my landing was right on the money.

A great revision lesson and a good introduction to Gary. It will be good to have two supervising instructors who can supervise my cross countries. That will open up more days. Its obvious that my cross country is only going to happen once Gary has seen some Nav and enroute RT from me.

41 - Class D Zone Transit - General Nav and Diversion

There was a clear blue sky at 9am. By the time I got to Barton Clouds were forming. Still I was ready for the Navex. I arrived early. I got HA fuelled up. Gary headed over pretty worried and told me I wasn't allowed to maneuvre the aircraft by myself. I'd done it many times before with Steve but I guess some apply the rules stricter than others

I took off and turned directly onto my track after taking my time from just before the start of the roll. I held my heading. Had no time for FREDA or gross error checks although I could see fiddlers Ferry and the M62. I quickly tranferred my frequency. After 10 seconds or so of quiet I called Liverpool Approach for a zone transit. I had to get him to repeat the clearance because it was just not clear at all. Burtonwood was very easy to spot from the air so my time turn was good. I could already see St Helens and I was lined up nicely with the tower. I did climb to 1400 ft and route around . The motorways pretty much showed where Kirby was. I was given a FIS by Liverpool. Time turn and headed out towards Clitheroe. There was a big cloud over Chorley. We had to descend anyway to get below the clouds. I was doing a 45 degrees route around the cloud when Gary decided to do a diversion. I went into slow safe cruise and orbited over the last Chorley lake.

My plog worked out fine. I had to route to the right of Winter Hill to avoid the mast. I identified the Rossendale Valley and also the target windfarm. I then did another diversion direct to Barton. Once I found Swinton VRP we orbited whilst I called us in.

I'd cut the corner and ended up quite high on approach. Gary demonstrated a nice little sideslip and I took control for a nice landing at just over 60 knots over the hedge. On the whole a reasonable practice although the legs were too short and the workload was high for me to be accurate and 100% with my Nav.

42 - Crosswind Circuits

With Gary again today. Wind was 10 knots at 200 degs and we were using Runway 27L. Almost a full 10 knot crosswind. We did three circuits in total. First was tough. I flared too early and floated too long. Gary said go around. The second my approach was much better. Again I flared too high but reckoned it was looking good for a landing but Gary reckoned we had too much sideways drift component. It didn't seem that bad. I should have used more left aileron to drop the left wing a tad. That would have apparently stopped the sideways drift. Not something I've not done alot of and I would like more practice at. Gary said go around again. My third was good. Approach spot on although I did quite alot of corrections on the way in. I kicked straight high again and this time the sideways drift was not too bad although it was there we touched down OK. Tough lesson. Working it on the way in took all my concentration.

43 - Upper Air Work Revision / Crosswind Circuits

Back with Steve. I arrived early. I changed to Charlie Alphaso I could get it ready for Steve. I took the time to practice PFLs using touch drills and talking to myself.

First of all I got the easy stuff out of the way with. Slow Safe Cruise, turning and climbing as accurately as possible. It was really smooth air so this was very easy. Flying the plane at 105 knots. Standard stall recovery. Started with a full HASELL chack then after that I hust did hell checks until we were finished. SSR - S&L, Carb heat on, Power off, Pitch up and at Steve command, relax the control column and full power, carb heat cold, pitch up. Approach config, RH turn, Carb heat on, power off, pull into the turn, roll straight power on, carb heat off, pitch up to climb at 65knts. Landing Config - Straight and level, 65 knots with drag flap on. Carb heat on, Power off pitch up relax control column apply full power, lose drag flap, carb heat cold pitch up and climb at 65 knts. Spiral descent. Just roll to one side, and let the speed and ROD run away, power off, roll straight and pitch up, meet the speed with power when about right then pitch up.

Next was steep turns left and right, 45 and 60 degs - no problems at all and fairly accurate to boot!!! :-)

A PFL - well my practice paid off. I did really well. Trim for glide, assess the wind, checks , restart - nogo, Mayday call. I was abit quick in wanting to shut things down, next should be hatches (top latch) and harness. Lined up on a real beauty of a field. I warmed the engine at the right time (to stretch my glide), I was great on height, 2 stages then not long after drag flap, it was looking great, go around, I did the right procedure and did a climbing turn away as instructed. One of my best yet.

Next came a position fix. Not so easy as the cloud had come in and I found it hard judging the horizon. I wasn't too far out either. Then I tracked to Pole Hill. Demonstrating a knowledge of which way to turn was important. Then I demonstrated finding the 153 radial through Barton and taking a heading to join it. We called in over Bolton. I joined overhead. Then came some some crosswind circuit practice. 1) longish and high as usual - Go around. 2) Really a demonstration by Steve. 3) More of my input 4) almost all my own and then a FS landing which was minew apart from an immovable brick stopping me from being too flat. I found it really good practice even with Steve's input. I know the mechanics of a good crosswind touch and go and landing.

A very beneficial 2 hours practice. Didn't realise how knackered I was until I stepped out of the plane.

44 - Dual Navex to Wolverhampton

After not flying for two weeks I was looking at the weather at home and hoping for an improvement. Met Gary who was coming back from pulling out the planes and discussed the updated TAFs. Things were improving. All the 9999s and the cloudbase was around 2500ft. The European map showed no change for the next 12 hours so we decided to go for it and check out the other side of the low level route

After filling to Tabs we taxied onto a Runway 32 Tee. Internal checks, then around to Alpha 3 holding point for our power checks on the tarmac due to the poor surface. Take-off went well. Straight onto our heading and we only climbed to 1200ft on Manchester QNH as we were nearly flying on track. I handed off Barton switched to Manchester Approach. I was going to set the new Squawk code (7366) when I noticed that Gary had already set that. He set mode Alpha instead of Charlie which I thought strange but was too busy to question him on until later. My turning point came up fast.. I was happy with my VFR nav through the LLR. I know all the best places to look out for now. We were left of track but not that far and I stated as much to Gary. I chose not to correct because it was very small. The crossing railways is a fab point to judge your track error. Gary picked Oulton Park incorrectly. Not sure whether he was testing me but I knew it was not correct because the Winsford conurbation points at Oulton Park and sure enough Oulton appeared but only after I picked out Ashcroft Farm. . The different coloured grass stood out well against the green Fields. Calverley stood out well today. Funny how in a lower visibility. Overcast sky I could recognise colours better and so be absolutely sure of where I was.

Made the turn bang on the money. Nantwich was directly ahead right where it should be. This was where I called Shawbury asking for a Matz penetration (because I was below 3000 ft). One thing I didn't notice before is the canal which we keep left off tracking our direction. Normally this part of the journey is devoid of visual references. Another thing of note is two lakes on opposite sides opposite the 1/4 mark. Good clues. I had to tell Shawbury when I was at the zone boundary and they finally gave me the MATZ penetration on a QFE. Gary had me ask Shawbury about the Glider site at Market Drayton I was about to pass through. Shawbury didn't know so I did a 30 degree route around. Took us only 1 1/2 minutes to strike out over Market Drayton and 1 1/2 minutes to get back on track confirmed by the position of the canal. At the 1/2 way point we were still on track. I could see Newport and the lake. Bang on track. Shawbury gave me the regional Pressure setting. I requested a frequency to change to Cosford approach. I called Cosford but no answer, called again. Gary said we must route around. (Cosford has gliders upto 3300 ft and there was no way we could pass overhead). We could see the Wreakin and Telford by now. We did a 40 degree diversion around. I could now see Bridgenorth and estimate where Half Penny Green was but buggered if I could find it. I called them and obtained joining instructions. My RT was abit scrabbly today. I descended to 2000ft on QFE and performed an overhead join careful not to go below 1300ft on the deadside. I turned onto downwind a little early and ended up having a short base but my approach and landing went like a dream. I exited and was told to park in the concrete area by the control tower.

Tower staff were very friendly indeed. Absolute pleasure. Had a quick coffee with Gary and then we were back to the aircraft pushing back. 6 US quartz left enough for our journey back. I'd flown all the way on one tank (actually meant to change half way but I forgot. so we could use one tank all the way home to even things up abit. Take-off was flapless. I held it on the ground until we had enough speed and let the headwind do the rest. We climbed pretty quick to begin with. I made a mental note to be more accurate with my climb out speed. We climbed to the overhead and once clear of the ATZ I transferred to Cosford Again no joy so blind calls whilst we routed around via Telford. I was more precise on this route around, 40 degrees and 4 minutes each leg. Newport came in Nicely as did our canal. I obtained another MATZ penetration. At one point we had pop up traffic very close above us that was not warned to us by Shawbury. We had to dive to avoid it. I am sure that the other pilot did not see us. Anyway the rest was academic all as per plan on time and on track. I was very comfortable with my Nav. Hotel Alpha swinging DI appears to have been fixed. My RT was abit disjointed but OK considering my lack of practice. My landings and approaches were good in my own book. I used intermittent Carb heat which Gary was pleased about. The setting up on Wolverhampton was abit hurried. I was happy with my planning and think I covered all the bases I needed too. My speed awareness still needs a little work and fuel management too. All in all not bad for two months away. Gary was happy and I think I convinced him I can do VFR nav. . A few more tick boxes with Gary then he wants me to Solo Blackpool. After that I should be able to do my QXC possibly before Steve gets back. Fingers crossed.

45 - Airwork Revision

After much disappointment I plogged and was ready for a Solo to Blackpool. Whilst it was touch and go the student minima was not met so Gary just gave me the option of flying or not. I decided to fly. Gary wanted to do some steep turns... I was always up for that :-)

I got us off the ground. A nice headwind has us off the runway at 40 knots. I held the nose down to get speed before pitching for best angle. Bit bumpy on the climbout. Was promising to be a bumpy lesson (why I was actually looking forward to this I don't know :-)) However once at 1500ft all turbulence disappeared.

We flew to winter hill. It was OK upto 3000ft. HASELL then steep turns left and riight of the 45 and 60 degree variety. Always fun. I wasn't as good as last time but the horizon was blurred today. I was completely happy with my attempts though. Next recovery from spiral descent. Again easy procedure Gary wanted the speedto come down to 80 before I pitched for a climb. I wanted to convert speed into immediate height but Gary wasn't too keen on the quick reversal of attitude. He has a point. Next steep gliding turns. Two stages of flap, 75 knots and trim, then pitch down and trim for 85 and 45 degree turns. Be very useful for emergencies when needing toing to change direction very quickly with no engine. After that Gary took me behind winter hill and told me to get him back to Barton. I decided to do a proper diversion and picked out a prominent lake that I could distinguish from the map. Slow safe cruise and orbit. I drew my line successfully, I came up with 187 degrees (thanks to my windstar :-) ). 10 nm aI estimated groundspeed to be 100 knots. I think that was an underestimate. I stabbed at 6 minutes which should have been at least 7. Gary said 8. At the half way point (Bolton) it was actually 5 minutes to go so my eta was going to be 4 minutes out (Gary's 2 minutes) I saw Swinton VRP. Called for information (I said instructions which is incorrect Gary never said anything) spotted the airfeild early and set QFE. During my final approach checks I opted for landing light etc.... not sure why I get resistance from instructors but I'd prefer to fly in the vicinity of an airfield looking like a Xmas tree.

The final approach was abit bumpy and I struggled to stay on track. However all that disapperaed over the hedge. I drove it onto the runway keeping a tad power till quite late. I held the nose up and we did a nice smooth touch down. My left brake was kaput so we just let friction stop us.

A good revision lesson if only to get me in the seat again. Having only flown twice before since November I needed some currency which is why I chose to spend the money. Worth every penny.

46 - Landing practice

Steve was back on the scene. I was ready for the Blackpool solo and the weather was looking doable. Still Steve wanted me to show him a few landings and in the mean time. We'd get up and have a look over Blackpool yonder!!!

It was gusty in the climbout. I took Steve to winter hill. A HASELL check then we did stall in a clean config, stall in approach config at a bank and stalling in landing config. All fairly straight forward stuff. Then came the PFL. I was in my element. All my practice on the outside lane of the motorway kicked in. I picked a perfect field. All went well and I was back on target drag flap selected probably down to 200-300 ft before Steve asked me to climb away. Steve couldn't fault it.

After selecting MCT VOR I identified and we joined the 153 track. I called in and got the joining instructions. I then did two touch and goes. First one good and the second one down as very good. (personally I don't know why it was so much better than the first!!) Both were trying to use the Xwind technique but just ended up scrappy in my books as the wind disappeared over the runway. My landing was down as good. I did a couple of minor balloons but managed a smooth landing and held the nose wheel up reasonably well.

47 - "There and back again" - Solo to Blackpool

After convincing Steve that I knew the difference between the wings and the propeller; he said I could go to Blackpool solo. I was chomping at the bit. He just said as a matter of fact "go on then see you later". Before I knew it I was lined up ready for take-off. Straight after take off I climbed to 1200ft on the correct heading. I had to stay at this until past Leigh Flash as I was tagging the LLR. Leigh Flash kept me right. Clear blue skies and improving vis. I contacted Warton Radar over Standish. They asked me to report over Southport Pier. No problem. I decided to continue my heading until I had Southport Pier in sight then a leisurely track across to it. I was given a sqawk of 3641 :-) Remembered to change tanks at my half way point. The M/way came in right on cue. Warton passed me traffic info; someone heading straight for me above my height. Eventually I saw him and informed Warton. I gave Warton a revised ETA for Southport as I realised that I had not given the original one correctly and their change of my plan meant an extra minute or two anyway. Just As I was coming up on the pier I contacted Warton again. They asked me to track to St Anne's pier and change to Blackpool Tower on 118.4. As I was approaching the pier I called Blackpool Tower. They asked me to join left base of Runway 28 (The big one). I accepted this with a big grin. I was informed about a helicopter in my area but never saw him. Did a FREDA for field approach checks. I noticed that I needed a heading correction as I was dropping to the circuit height. I corrected right to make sure I had enough room for a reasonable final leg. Ended up quite a short final leg but I was loving it. PAPI had picked me up and I was 4 whites, a fairly steep approach had me on two whites. I landed over the threshold with full flap on I remember thinking I wanted to make the softest of touchdown which I achieved with great success by just holding the airplane up as long as possible as low as possible. Euphoria washed over me. I took down some nifty taxi instructions, and told them when I was vacated. Parked at Fylde Park.

Ran off paid my landing fee. Had a bullshit with one of the re-fuellers then booked out with ATC. Told em I was going to Barton and I was happy to report over St Anne's Marshside or Southport. I restarted the aircraft. Got the ATIS information from the correct frequency. Called for Taxi. I backtracked runway 25 and told them when I was ready. It was alot of fun being directed and hearing the way the controller was arranging all the traffic on the ground. I'd done my power checks prior to entering the runway for a backtrack as the controller was busy and I didn't want to do them on the runway. If the ground controller would have pushed me I was ready to respond back to him that I was just completing my power checks. As it happened it worked out just fine. I was asked to climb and turn left and head towards St Annes Pier. It was a very quick hand-off to Warton. I told Warton that I wished to track to Marshside then turn for Barton. They gave me no further instructions although I did have a FIS. I requested a change to Barton Information (forget where) and I was asked to sqawk 7000. Coming back I noted that I was left of track because I was not to far from the services on the M6 and I noted that I was about 3 degs left. I added 5 degrees right and stuck with that. I could see the Reebok now and I called in for airfield information for an overhead join. Barton was not easy to see. I adjusted my height to 1900ft to avoid Manchester's zone. After spotting the high level bridge I found Barton. Set QFE and joined overhead. My landing was less than perfect although it was smooth and not flat it was a little long. I was asked to vacate left. came off a little early and found myself going too fast to back track. Anyway from there it was easy money. A great confidence booster. Ready for QXC.

48 - Circuits

The first time in 6 weeks. The vis didn't look so great. I told Gary that my QXC was out anyway as 1) I wasn't really current and 2) I felt like shit (my own fault - Heavy night out with the lads in Oxford) Since I hadn't done any circuit lessons for quite a while I wanted to do this.

It all started coming back. Take-off went well. It was quite bumpy on the climb out. The vis was really crap. Quite deceiving really. First was a touch and go went OK although I didn't take up drag flap before applying power. Next a planned go-around; this went well. I made sure I used a bootfull of right rudder when the time came along. There was two in the circuit now. I could only see one ahead. We chose slow safe cruise to keep our separation right. Next a flapless approach. I was too low too far out and had to use quite abit of power to prop myself up. I was too low and it needed a bootful of power near the threshold. We used up too much of the runway trying to get stable again and went around. I tried it again. This approach was much better. I drifted in once I had it all set up. Just near the threashold there was a huge sink and we appeared to be dropping flat downwards. The stall warner went and I added some power. Due to being in the ground affect are I pulled back on the control column to arrest the sink; also we were very close to the ground and I didn't have enough room tho push forward for some airspeed. It was a firm touch and go but I think Gary was pleased with my decision making. Great fun. Last of all a glide approach. This went very well. I never really nailed the final approach on them all (was overshooting) but I was and confident with the minor corrections required during the final approach. I was abit too low so I decided to forego use of drag flap. This was a good decision. It worked out really well. There wasn't much cross wind and I had no problems plonking it down. A great lesson and one for the currency. Happy to just go and do QXC next :-)

49 - Qualifying Cross Country - Solo Barton>Wolverhampton>Blackpool>Barton

One look out of the window and I knew I was on. Had the brief with Steve in the office. It was very brief as well; however I was happy that Gary and I had done a thorough check the day before. Steve had also fueled up Charlie Alpha and fully checked the weather as well.

I had abit of a false start because I thought the radio was giving a problem. It was just that I had never used the standby/active selector before. Anyway once I got my arse in gear. I was up and away. I left straight out. The compass and DI were not ringing true and I had some doubts about continuing. After I turned up the low level corridor between Manchesters and Liverpool's airspace it did seem too bad and I was fairly confident that I knew exactly where I was going and things were just coming in on the nose. I was slightly too the right down the corridor. After turning over Ashcroft I climbed and then further climbed upto 2400ft. I struggled with the PTT button. There's definitely a fault with it and it pissed me off the whole trip. It made passing my message to Shawbury and subsequently Cosford very stressful. On top of the this the vis deteriorated significantly to the point where I thought about turning back. However, I was prepared to press on and it did stay the same or improve slightly. Had it had got any worse I would have gone back to Barton.

I left Shawbury after Newport and managed to transit Cosford's overhead even given the crap comms cos of the PTT button. I spotted Wolverhampton fairly early and joined their overhead. Did an absolute greaser on 28. Then around to the tower to park. I was given a GOOD by the FISO. They were as friendly as ever and gave me good service by letting me check the Blackpool and en route weather for the next leg. The vis was about the same. I was prepared to go to the overhead and make my continuation decision there. As it turned out it was fine. I did climb to the overhead and go over to Cosford early. Good job really as it was a real pain trying to get my message across again. Anyway once I saw the airfield I repositioned as per my plog. There seem to be a 20 degree error. Either the wind was grossly different or the compass was bolloxed. Anyway I had plenty of references to go by so I continued. Obtained a MATZ penetration from the RAF controller and had a nice relaxing jaunt upto Ashcroft. Calverley gave me a good pointer as to where ashcroft was and from my angle of approach it was clearly visible. The LLR was abit bumpy but I was too busy watching my track. It all went well and before I knew it Leigh Flash was on the nose. I turned headed for the two small hills west of Wigan (clearly visible on the map) I called Warton abeam Skelmsdale and reported overhead Marside. I was asked to hold whilst two hawks were doing things at Warton. It must have been 15 -20 minutes before I gave the controller an aerial *ahem* just to remind her that although I like flying doing aerial pirouettes for too long had me concerned about my fuel stocks. I was told to head for St Annes and change to Blackpool Approach. The first time I'd used 118.4. They were ready for me and offered a left base join. Given that runway 28 is very long I had to be sharpish about being established on base. It all went like a dream. A fairly steep approach as I had all whites till quite late in. Being a long runway I had no problems with a long float so I preceded to float long and make the softest of touchdowns. This time I had a marshaller direct me to the white box by the fuel pumps. Took me a while to get all the paper sorted and to book out. Once back to the plane I got the ATIS. I was given complicated ground instructions but read them back perfectly. The controllers were very good and don't seem to push a departure clearance on you too early knowing that you are busy with power checks. I backtracked along 28. I heard circuit traffic and thought there will be a conflict soon. Not long after the controller asked me if I could swing a 180 and depart immediately. I did the fliers equivalent of a handbrake turn and pushed the power on. With two stages of flap on I knew I'd be in the air quickly. I turned over St Anne's towards Marside. Transferred to Warton Radar again. I was given a sqawk but never moved the knob from standby. I only realised this when the controller warned someone else of my presence and said I wasn't showing altitude. Not long after this I changed to Barton. I called in overhead Wigan and obtained a joining information. Again my compass was sending me in the wrong direction (20 or so degrees left) I knew that this was wrong and split the difference because I knew roughly where I was and where I was going. I spotted Barton Bridge then the airfield. What preceded reasonable approach followed by a nice landing. Little long but smooth and controlled. I was chuffed although also abit pissed off as the journey was made alot harder by a faulty PTT button. A compass / DI that is suspect. I'd done it on my familiarity with the terrain. I feature crawled more than I should have done but I just did not trust what I was seeing. Of course the wind could have been grossly different but I wasn't prepared to fly too far off track in crap vis when I knew where I was.I made good use of my half way fuel tank changes. All my aerodrome work and awareness was good. Happy with my approaches and landings. Job done. Next Revision.

50 - Solo Circuits

Steve and I had figured out that I was still 25 minutes short on solo time. The weather was perfect and now was as good a time as any. I took Charlie Bravo as I knew that the radio worked ok. I didn't need any crap from a poor PTT button. I did 10 circuits in total. The air was bumpy. Vis wasn't so great but I always had a good view of the airfield. The wind at ground level was always changing and quite stiff in your face. Every now and again a croswind. I found this quite challenging. There was a big sink over the flats and what was happening on the runway was tricky. After a could of reasonable touch and goes I did two go arounds. Either I was too fast or I just didn't have my shit together at all. On the subsequent 6 circuits I was trying to nail the cross wind technique. Steve's main criticism afterward was that I was landing too flat. Keeping the nosewheel up and not ballooning was the key. Something I still haven't mastered. My first two Touch n Goes were quite long after balooning both times. Two other critiques of myself were building on the downwind turn. I'll have to demonstrate greater control to stop that. Maybe only climb to 950 ft and see where in my turn I can stop this. Maybe relaxing abit on the control column whilst turning. Overshooting final is still a particular problem. Just turning slightly earlier with a shallow bank was the key to cracking this one. All in all I've met the hours requirement. More solo didn't do me any harm and I desparetly need the currency.

51 - Last Revision

Barton only was fogged in. I was hoping for a real good revision session. However in the UK you have to take what you can get.

It was Hotel Alpha and Gary today. I'd planned for Settle but we'd already decided that we wouldn't have time to get through the Nav and would just go to the half way point. I departed overhead, so far so good. Gross error checks OK. Quarter point came in just right. Track seemed ok so no correction. We were 1 minute late at the quarter point so I gave Gary a revised half way and final ETA. He decided I'd go straight under the hood. He had me flying on instruments only. All turns were made at 15 degrees using a rate 1 turn on the TI. All climbs and descents were cruise climbs and descents. Fairly easy stuff. The wind made it alot harder than normal but I managed to succeeded in not climbing or dropping more than 100ft. I did a FREDA under the hood too. Next came a a position fix two VORs. First Manchester. Unfortunately this was on ATIS. It still worked but I discussed this with Gary that I shouldn't really use it because I could not identify it by morse. I used it anyway and came up with 005 degrees from MCT and 260 degrees from POL. This was very accurate. The main thing I learned is that I need to take both fixes then plot them as soon as possible. That way it would be more accurate. Good point.

Next I created a diversion from one of the lakes below back to Barton. As usual this was a 3 handed job. I always struggle because I am half concentrating on my orbit so it takes me a while to create a diversion. Time Turn and I was on my way back to Barton. I called in for joining information whilst looking at the halfway point. Vis was pretty but I think Gary was happy and I spotted Barton early; that really helped reduce the stress levels. Next came a good circuit. I completely misjudged my glide approach and ended up really high. We were going to do a glide approach on the second one but someone else got in the way and I just did a normal approach. Good judgment upto the hedge. I rotated abit low and just set all wheels down; smoothly but not ok as I didn't have time to protect the nosewheel. Flat. It was good to fly and it was all abit quick and pressured. Now thats it no more practice. Next comes the test.

52 - General Skills Test

After getting up early the excitement soon died down when I looked at the TAFs. My Northern route had me planned to pass over high ground; cloud base was too low and the vis was iffy. After going through the test in theory I hung around like a spare part for a while. Looking down Blackpool way it looked decidedly clearer backed up by the local weather. Last minute (just I was was packing my bag to go home) I'm asked to plan a route up the west coast fairly sharpish so we didn't run out of time

Although the route was not really that difficult. (My gross error checks were all starting with "well there's the Irish Sea".) I had to transit a Matz heading out and transit Blackpool's ATZ coming back. At the start I had to bugger about at a turning point inside the LLR to lined up with a longish 1st main leg; didn't help that I had to depart overhead Barton to tick the GST boxes then quickly get down to avoid busting Manchester's airspace. It didn't all go as smooth as I wanted it too. Nerves crept in and my RT suffered (I was taken over by a Mysteron; and an absent minded one at that). However, I think I accurately corrected and revised headings and ETA's at the 1st quarter point and revised the final ETA again at my half way point. Being unfamiliar with the reporting North of Blackpool it increased the workload a tad learning them on the go with no prior preparation (Not having been anywhere near my original planned inland route). Heading north the cloud base lowered and I ended up at 1800ft. Straight ahead patchy clouds. I expressed my concerned to the examiner and offered to route around (which would have had me sea bound by less than a mile. He just wanted me to plough on through. Turned out they were a lot thinner and more insignificant that I anticipated. Some were below us now too. Still I arrived on time. Over my turning point I did get a great view of Lake Windermere. Headed back South for the next leg. This time I needed no track corrections just a small ETA correction. I obtained a Matz penetration and was subsequently handed over to Blackpool Radar to transit their ATZ; just then. Out came the foggles and I transited Blackpool and didn't see bugger all. After the DI was artificially changed and I'd done all the instrument work.

Then came the locate your exact position. I used Wallasey and Pole Hill VORs and reckoned I was pretty close. Next came "get me to such a place" I guessed that was examiner speak for a diversion. I fully plogged and drew up the lot. After making the half way point he asked me whether I wanted a break or do I want some more �. Since I was on a roll I suggested we were in a good spot for the airwork exercises. First he had me do 45 degree turns. After my usual "getting to know you" turn I did OK. Recovery from a spiral descent. He gave me more of a spiral descent than I have seen before we were over 140 knots and I was very careful getting things back under control. The same the other way. Clean stall. Approach and Final Approach configuration - all straightforward. Next came my PFL. Something I've done really well with in my lessons recently. Brain fuzz slowed me down and he took me right down. My field wasn't long enough and I'd used up some of it. I was committed. In retrospect I could have side slipped and got down a little quicker (OK in a PA28). I opted for getting on the grass and theoretically hitting the hedge at the opposite end hopefully at a vastly reduced speed he took me down very low before telling me to climb away. I was abit unhappy with this effort and offered to show him a better one. He said not to worry.

Track MCT back to Barton. Straight forward and Mr Magoo managed to spot the airfield from quite far away today. Straight into the circuit session. Touch and go - happy with this. Flapless - worked OK. Glide - set up and approach worked out well (no need for a flapping glide). I touched down with more side drift than I should have done. Poor judgment on my part (I should have gone around). The examiner said it was ok. I was more concerned with the bits I was going to leave behind. EFATO on the climb out. Some bastard has ploughed up all the fields and dug holes in them for a laugh. On Runway 27 at Barton there's wires and pylons on the climb out. The power being pulled after the wire leaves very little to aim for. After adopting glide I just dumped the flaps to get down on the green field just after the pylons. Didn't get low enough to judge. Sideslip again may have helped and again I just didn't do it. On the climb out I was asked to climb to the overhead and was instructed to cut the power at a convenient time and do a glide approach to a touch and go. My eye was in now. I enjoyed this and nailed it. On the climb out I was instructed to perform a precautionary left hand circuit to land. Only done this once before but it's fairly straightforward and went well to a reasonable landing. After I shut down my examiner told me I'd passed.

This is what it took to get a PPL(A)

Ground School

2 hrs - Pre-flight Checks; Detailed Instrument Instruction

2 hrs - Circuit description and procedures; P28 Pilot Operating Manual. Crosswind take-offs and landings

2 hrs - Air Law Q & A, Barton RT procedures; Barton ATC Visit.

2 hrs - Pre-flight Planning; Air Navigation

Hours

69 Hours

The minimum requirement is at least 45 hours which must include the following:

JAR Class II medical

25 Hours of Flight Instruction.

10 Hours of Solo Flight Time including at least: 5 hours of Solo cross country to include a 150nm cross country flight with at least 2 full stop landings at 2 different aerodromes other than the departure point.

A Skills Test inclusive of the following exercises

Exercises to be completed:

Exercise Topic

1 Familiarisation with the aeroplane
1E Emergency drills
2 Preparation for and action after flight
3 Air experience
4 Effects of controls
5 Taxiing
5E Taxiing emergencies
6 Straight and level flight
7 Climbing
8 Descending
9 Turning
10A Slow flight
10B Stalling
11 Spin avoidance
12 Take-off and climb to down-wind position
13 Circuit, approach and landing
12/13E Emergencies (on take-off/landing)
14 First solo
15 Advanced turning
16 Forced landing without power
17 Precautionary landings
18A Navigation

Navigation Exercises that I completed

- Dual to Burscough
- Solo To Burscough
- Dual Blackburn Navex
- Dual to Blackpool
- Dual LLR
- Solo Local flight
- Solo LLR
- Dual Triangular
- Solo Triangular
- Dual Wolverhampton
- QXC

18B Navigation at lower levels and reduced visibility
18C Radio Navigation
19 Basic instrument flight

Examinations to be completed within an 18 month period prior to completing the Skill Test

1 - Air Law - Passed 95% (Generally has to be done before your first solo)

2 - Communications - Passed 100% Oral Telephony Licence Exam Passed

3- Air Navigation - Passed 92%

4 - Meteorology - Passed 90%

5 - Flight Performance and Planning- Passed 100%

6 - Aircraft General and Principles of Flight Passed 98%

7- Human Performance and Limitations- Passed 95%