Refresher Training
I'm fairly pleased at the moment as I have managed to log another five hours flying over just two days, a great improvement on what I've done recently. Most of these hours were on a trip out to France on Saturday as well as some refresher training in the Arrow on emergencies.
The French trip in a seperate report to follow, but first the serious stuff. I'd read a few articles about the importance of being up to speed with emergency procedures but just hadn't got round to doing anything about it. That was about to change. I booked the plane and my friendly flying instructor for a whole evening and set about the task.
I started out with some full panel instrument flying with climbing and descending turns and intercepting a radial to the Shawbury VOR. I felt rusty at first but with some good instruction I began to get the hang of the techniques and settle down. Recoveries from unusual attitudes followed which went well despite my lack of current instrument flying practice. We went on to cover simulated engine fire at altitude with emergency descent and forced landing; engine failure after take off and engine failure at low altitude in the cruise followed by a a couple of low level (500ft) circuits and a final glide approach from over the airfield at 1900 feet. I just made it to the landing with gear and flaps coming down at around 300 ft.
I was tired but pleased with how the two sessions had gone. A discussion at Sleap while we had a drink covered the other items on my list to seek advice on. All in all a very useful hour and a half flying. I will fix up another session in the near future, ideally every quarter but probably every six months would be more likely to be achievable.
Thinking about emergencies is good as we so often take the outcome of a flight as fairly predictable. One day it may not be and it's a case of trying to stack the odds in my favour as much as possible.
The French trip in a seperate report to follow, but first the serious stuff. I'd read a few articles about the importance of being up to speed with emergency procedures but just hadn't got round to doing anything about it. That was about to change. I booked the plane and my friendly flying instructor for a whole evening and set about the task.
I started out with some full panel instrument flying with climbing and descending turns and intercepting a radial to the Shawbury VOR. I felt rusty at first but with some good instruction I began to get the hang of the techniques and settle down. Recoveries from unusual attitudes followed which went well despite my lack of current instrument flying practice. We went on to cover simulated engine fire at altitude with emergency descent and forced landing; engine failure after take off and engine failure at low altitude in the cruise followed by a a couple of low level (500ft) circuits and a final glide approach from over the airfield at 1900 feet. I just made it to the landing with gear and flaps coming down at around 300 ft.
I was tired but pleased with how the two sessions had gone. A discussion at Sleap while we had a drink covered the other items on my list to seek advice on. All in all a very useful hour and a half flying. I will fix up another session in the near future, ideally every quarter but probably every six months would be more likely to be achievable.
Thinking about emergencies is good as we so often take the outcome of a flight as fairly predictable. One day it may not be and it's a case of trying to stack the odds in my favour as much as possible.
posted by David M at 9:30 PM
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