Lesson 8 PPL
31 Aug 2004It seemed like ages since my last lesson as it’d nearly been a 6 week gap! However, the main purpose of this lesson was to fly some circuits of the airport. I was doing all of the radio calls with guidance from my instructor, and flying the plane completely un-aided for the whole flight.
First of all we took off from runway 31 climbed to 3000ft (it should have been 4000ft but cloud was low) then did a few more stalling exercises, turned back towards Plymouth and did an overhead rejoin.
This is a maneuver to join the traffic pattern which involves arriving at the airport 1000ft above the normal traffic pattern altitude, and circling overhead before descending on side of the runway where other aircraft are not flying, crossing the upwind end of the active runway at the pattern/circuit altitude and then joining the circuit on the downwind leg - typically the traffic pattern involves flying in a rectangle from the runway, always making left turns which maximizes visibility of other aircraft from the captains seat
Once in the circuit, I did three go around’s (where full power is applied and you climb away before touching down), and then two touch and go’s (where you do land, but don’t slow down, apply full power and take off again straight away) all onto runway 31. Both of the landings were ok although the first one was a bit hard. Finally on the third lap, I landed this time with a very nice smooth landing, and taxied back to the flying school.