Lesson 10 – Stalling at last !
Exercise 10 a&b – Slow flying and Stalls
After the last two lessons were aborted due to weather, today I finally got around to exercise 10, slow flying and stalls. I had read quite a bit about stalling from other trainee’s and how it was / could be quite a ride. For somebody that does not really ‘do’ roller coasters, could today’s lesson be one I would like to forget.
Lesson 8 was supposed to be slow flying and stalling, but a low cloud base and a weather front moving in meant that all I could do on that session was polish up on turns and clock 35 minutes, then a week later lesson 9 was was also abandoned after just 25 minutes running time, we took off, just about managed 1000 feet before hitting cloud, turned around and landed! So, having kept a keen eye on the weather this week and seeing that it looked just good enough, I was eager to get this exercise under way. Having read other blogs and posts on forums from fellow trainee’s, although eager to push on, I was quite apprehensive. I’m not a roller coaster person really and as you may have read in previous blog posts I’m not really that great with heights!
So, with the pre-takeoff checks complete I had it firmly planted in my head to nail the take off, get that throttle to full in 1-2-3 and free up brain matter and concentration on keeping straight, watching the speed and rotate. So, here goes, lined up, heels to the floor and apply full throttle… 90% to plan, there was still a little hesitation but I still had that full power in much quicker and with some instruction for the very strong crosswind we had and rotatation, took off with no intervention from my FI who congratulated me on the much better take off this time and the big chunk of right rudder I had to apply once off the ground and the crosswind took real affect, I replied with a thank you, but I guess the smile on my face said it all. Lets take her up to 3,500 and see how the weather is and remember your 500′ checks.
With the weather playing ball my FI ran me through the slow flying / stall prevention procedure. Carb heat on, gradually reduce the speed to 65 knots and do not allow the height to fall off by keeping that nose pitched higher and higher, once we hit 65 knots for a second or two, it’s forward on the column into a dive and apply full power whilst removing carb heat and then once positive airspeed gained to pull up into a climb and regain height. All this was done with ease, as you would expect from your FI.. now it was my turn ! Power reduced and pulling back on the column to raise the nose and keep the height until I hit 65 knots, ‘Pull back on the column Paul, that’s it, keep pulling, keep pulling, keep pulling !’ mentored my FI and Jeeezus, what a workout it is pulling back on that column, its so heavy and you are doing it one handed as you are also covering the throttle with your other hand. It was serious hard work, but at 65 knots I eased of and pushed the column forward into a slight dive, applied full power and put us back into a climb back to 3,500 feet. ‘I like this’ I said to myself, ‘this is much better than I thought it was going to be after reading about it from others, I’m actually enjoying this’
We practised it one more time and then did the same but this time with a stage of flaps, ‘now could this be the part that everybody has commented on?’ I wondered. No, not at all, if anything it was much easier due to the flaps giving you a much more stable slow speed flight. A couple more of these and it was time to head back home. Again my FI directed the way and we descended deadside, joined the circuit at 1000′ where the crosswind decided to re-introduce itself to us and I had to crab along quite a bit to keep her tracking straight. Again we ran through the pre-landing checks and my FI let me know he would be taking the final approach of the landing today due to the high crosswind, and with a good boot full of right rudder he brought her down and the lesson to an end.
This was my best lesson by far in my journey towards a PPL licence. Everything just went well today, my turns were much better and balanced, the slow flying and getting to the stall had gone well and had not not been the roller coaster I had been expecting and the cherry on top was the unaided take off with a good dose of crosswind. I put the take off down for the reason the rest of the lesson went well, I started the lesson with a smile and not my usual kicking for not applying full throttle putting me in a less than good mood.
Roll on the next lesson and some more slow flying, not forgetting more stalling.
This Lesson
5-08-15 : PA28-161 : G-BOZI : PUT : Conington to Conington : 10:50 : 11:50 : 1.0
Total time : 8 hours 35 mins