My Ga training - Lesson 2

[Tomo]

Well, this time I flew over to Caboolture in the Jabiru 120, left Dalby just after first light Friday morning. Beautiful flight over there, with a tiny headwind. 1hr and 8 minutes it took.

 

Landed, tied down and went to have a drink and chat with Bryan. Discussed what we were going to do, briefed etc etc... I went and pre-flighted the aircraft - C172

 

He came out, and we piled in, ran through the checklists, gave him my pax brief, fired up and taxied to 12. By the time we got there, temps were coming up. Runups, pre take off checks, take off brief, entered lined up and away we went.

 

Around we went, him ironing out the bad bits in me, and getting me to do this and that. First landing wasn't to bad, but approach and decent was a bit agricultural, so worked on that next time. After the 3rd time around, I had finally worked out the sequence needed to do almost hands off set up for approach and decent. Fourth landing something went pretty haywhy and I bounced it, didn't like the look, so hit power. Discussed what went wrong as we were going around again. After that everything fell into place as I was starting to get the feel of what this thing can and can't do, and what it does and doesn't like doing. Next one he did an EFATO on me, set it up for a good as it's gonna get landing spot. Happy, power back on and around we went again. This time power went mid downwind, made a glide approach and landing on the strip - best landing I had done he said. Away we went again, this time he made me pull over after landing. And asked "Happy to do three circuits on your own?" Yes!

 

I was a little surprised at that actually, since I had started off a little rugged, and after only about 40 minutes with him, (total dual to date was only 1.8hrs, which was also my TT in this category of aircraft).

 

Anyway, let him out, and taxied back to 12, took off, did the three landings and taxied off the strip, got the thumbs up from Bryan who stood and watched. Parked and tied down the aircraft. Then went and had a brief discussion on what we'd done, questioning on this and that etc...

 

Had a bit to eat, stretch of the legs, then got the ok to go and do as many circuits as I wished. Got the aircraft ready again, taxied out and did an hr of circuit bashing, and really getting to know this machine I'm now hurtling around in. Played around with a few flap settings, landing styles etc, and really got my numbers down pat. As people will tell you, if you fly by the numbers on these things, they do the rest, how true.

 

So after that, went and tied down again. Had a bit of a talk over a few bits and pieces. And that pretty much covered me for the day, as he was off elsewhere.

 

In summary, it was a pleasant surprise for me to be let loose, as at first It was a pretty full on few circuits, getting to know both the aircraft again, and also him. But he is a great guy, to the point, but with some humour in there which helped a bit till I could do things fluently.

 

Was going to do Short fielders and a few other bits on the Saturday, but when my time came, it started raining, so cancelled that.

 

I now have to decide whether I want to do the GFPT test now (General handling), or do it all when I do the PPL test, (Nav's + General handling). It is up to me to decide what I prefer. He generally encourages people to do their GFPT, so it gets the general handling bit out of the way, so all you have to do is the Nav's at PPL time, Less stressful. I'm not sure which way to go yet...

 

Fortunately I was kept fairly busy on the Saturday taking family and friends flying in the Jabiru, that was heaps of fun, and was a good way to get myself used to the area a lot better. I was going to go home Saturday afternoon, but the weather had other ideas, so I gave up that idea.

 

Sunday was another interesting day, I did get home - it took all day to cover an hrs flying distance - But that's another story!

 

 

[P4D]

Thanks Tomo A great read

 

 

[eightyknots]

My Ga training - Lesson 2[/url]

My Ga training - lesson 2

 

Hi Tomo,

 

You say "Lesson 2" and you're already doing solos?

 

I hope to start PPL training in August. I had a meeting yesterday with the CFI and she said that there would be a quite a number of lessons before I could solo.

 

Well done Tomo

 

 

[farri]

Goodonya Tomo,It looks like you`ve got what it takes.:thumb_up::thumb_up::thumb_up:

 

Good luck for the future.

 

Cheers,

 

Frank.

 

 

[dazza 38]

:score 010:Well Done Tomo.

 

 

[Yenn]

Good one Tomo.

 

So now you know it is easier to fly Cessna than a Jab, would you agree?

 

 

[Tomo]

You say "Lesson 2" and you're already doing solos?

I hope to start PPL training in August. I had a meeting yesterday with the CFI and she said that there would be a quite a number of lessons before I could solo.

 

Well done Tomo

Thanks mate,

 

The CFI will probably just say that to make you certain of the situation, remember they need to see you fly first to have a full grip on how far you need to go. Unless of course the CFI you saw had already flown with you etc...

 

Like I said though, it was a pleasant surprise to myself, as I didn't have any idea he would let me solo that soon.

 

 

[Tomo]

Thanks to everyone, very encouraging to me, a lot of you would be responsible for what I know, so thanks a lot. :thumb_up:

 

So now you know it is easier to fly Cessna than a Jab, would you agree?

I don't like singling out a different aircraft in a way, as each have there own personalities.

 

But, for what it's worth, the Cessna sits where you put it, do the numbers and it basically stays there on the trim. More inertia so takes a little longer to slow up, hold off and landing is pretty straight forward, but a lot stiffer on the elevator!!

 

The rudders are quite stiff compared, but you see the size difference and you can see why!

 

I dunno, if you look out the front, you just do what you need to, to keep it doing what you want, no matter what aircraft you fly it all goes pretty well.

 

I enjoy the J120, it and me get on well together...

 

 

[moy71]

nicely done!

 

 

[Tomo]

Thanks Dave and Moy.

 

C172 is a big jump from a J120, any reason you did that? A C150/2 would cost a lot less and a lot more balanced on the controls. The C172 has quite a heavy elevator compared to the aileron and the C150 has a relatievly lighter elevator and rudder. I am told the rudder in the Jab is quite heavy compared to the C150.

Well I did want something that is a little different otherwise I'm not really going anywhere... If you know what I mean. And it wasn't all that much different, as it probably is a little easier to fly compared to a lot of things I have flown.

 

I may have that added benefit of having flown a reasonable range of aircraft before hand, so the change over wasn't to hard.

 

The difference would be, you fly something like a Jabiru a lot more, whereas the Cessna you just sit there and wait, even in a crosswind it's pretty stable. You still fly it, but the amount would be a lot different, just like you fly a Dragonfly a lot more than a Drifter, and a Drifter more than a Jab, and so on...

 

 

[shags_j]

Good work Tommo.

 

Eightyknots: the c172 is an easy bird to fly and tommo has spent a lot of time in the Jab already. What Tommo said in the last post is exactly right.

 

Glad to know that school is good Tommo as I was thinking of doing mine there.

 

 

[Spriteah]

Tomo,

 

Did you have to do a pre flight test and Training area test? Before the solo. As this has suddenly appeared in my training.

 

Jim.

 

 

[Tomo]

G'day Jim, if I had to, I wasn't actually told about it... the 50 minutes with the CFI (Bryon) may have been a test... I dunno.

 

As for training area test... not sure what that means. That stalls and stuff? Or just so you know where to go?

 

 

[johndl]

Excellent article Tomo and very informative for those of us thinking of dabbling in GA :) ps well done soloing so soon!

 

 

[Tomo]

Excellent article Tomo and very informative for those of us thinking of dabbling in GA :) ps well done soloing so soon!

Thanks a lot John :big_grin: