Today I had PPL Lesson 8: Circuits. It has been a good few weeks since I have been flying due to the weather cancelling my lessons. Today the weather was finally good (enough) and I was finally able to start practicing circuits in strong winds which made it more challenging.
I feel this is an important point in training I feel as it means that your first solo isn’t far off.
When I arrived to the school I learned that my instructor was off and I will be with another guy called Damian. This was a little bit worrying at first as I had never flown with anyone else before, but he was really good and put me at ease.
Another student and I happened to be at the same point so we shared a pre flight briefing. After this we went and checked the plane out and took off.
Circuits came reasonably naturally to me, well, the majority of the circuit did.
Circuits are normally flown to the left and consist of crosswind, downwind, base and final legs. You can click the image to see it in its full size.
I was pretty good at the majority of the circuit aka the crosswind, downwind, base and final. My issue was the flare just before landing. I had a few hard landings but apparently this is pretty normal and my instructor said it will be a few lessons but eventually it will click.
I was told my approach is good and I am good at correcting drift and managing my speed so I just need to sort the flare out really.
I also have not done much radio work so I will also need to get that up to scratch as well as the checklists that needs to be done. These are the checklists that need to be remembered.
After Take-off Checks
B Brakes——On & Off
F Flaps——Positive Climb, retract in stages above 200
M Mixture—–Rich
C Carb Heat—–Cold
E Engine—–Check T’s & P’s, suction, not discharging
L Landing Light—–Stays on in the circuit
Downwind Checks
B Brakes ———-OFF for pressure
U Undercarriage — DOWN& Riveted
M Mixture ——– Fully Rich
F Fuel pump —— ON
L Landing lights – ON
I Instruments—–Altimeter set QNH/QFE, T’s and P’s
C Carb Heat—–On, then off.
H Harnesses & Hatches ——– SECURE
Finals Checks
F Flaps —– Set for landing 0-30
A Altimeter—–Set, Cross Check
P Power and decent rate—–As Required
C Carb Heat —– Cold Below 200′
C Clearance —– Obtained
Either way it was a good lesson and I was happy to finally get back into the sky. I’m up to 9.5 hours, so making slow but good progress. Next week I have two lessons booked.
