Climbing, glidings & turns

On 17 February, I completed Exercises 7 & 8: climbing and ascending in G-OOFT for my third lesson. The focus was on PAT: power, attitude then trim. The aim is to fly the climbed trimmed and hold the attitude whilst at 75 knots. The weather, as usual was pretty overcast and we didn't get above 2,300 ft. Comment from Keith: "Everything is coming along nicely." which is dead encouraging.

Today, 2 March, I flew G-CEEY for my fourth lesson in brilliant blue sky; we focused on turns in the climb and glide. Need to watch out for reduced stall margins whilst flying the manoeuvre. I climbed several times to 3,500 ft and then did both level and turned glide descents in full control. We then progressed to the same manoeuvres under different flap configurations. Once I had this sorted, we then did glide descents under full flap and then 'go arounds', i.e powering away. We did this on an old disused runway, descending to 700ft, 1/2 mile from touchdown and the powering out, managing attitude and trimming the climb. I then flew back from the Aylesbury area, where we had been pootling about, back to Elstree and flew a great approach, including all the radio work, and a pretty ropy landing (didn't flare at the right time and ballooned a bit and swung left on touchdown). I was a bit disappointed but Keith again was very positive about my progress so I guess I'm on track. Next week: stalls and stall recovery!