Lesson 10 PPL
21 Sep 2004I was originally booked in on the 20th but couldn’t go flying then because it was too windy. However, I did have a briefing about what I would be doing during that lesson, and I was booked in for the 21st as well, so we went up then instead. I took off into the circuit and practised a few glide approach touch-and-goes, but the main part of the lesson was forced landings in fields. This was to prepare for solo flights away from the airport, we had moved on to later stages of training as I was still not old enough to actually do the solo parts yet.
PFLs are a key part of training as they teach you how to manage the aircraft if the engine were to fail and you were too far from the airfield to get back. The only option then would be to find a suitable field to put the plane down. I departed the circuit and flew out just past Tavistock towards Brentor gliding field. My instructor pulled the throttle back to idle and I practised a glide approach into it, descending to 500ft agl.
Brentor was a good spot to practice this as being a gliding site, it stands out a little but does still look like a field. The focus of the lesson was more about managing the glide of the aircraft, and the actions to verify that the engine issue wasn’t something that could be fixed, so having a defined spot to aim at made this a little easier to practice.
After about three or four attempts, starting from different altitudes and positions, we flew back towards Plymouth. While we were on the way, my instructor pulled the throttle back to idle when I wasn’t expecting it. I had to find a suitable field and glide into it, descending to 500ft agl again.
When we got back to Plymouth we joined overhead for runway 31 and again, once we were in the overhead he pulled the throttle again, and I had to do a full glide circuit from 2000ft, but this time actually land on runway 31, they had to put all the approach and landing lights on because the visibility wasn’t very good, and it was getting dark. On top of all that, I was in a different plane too (G-BSTO) and everything was in a slightly different place.
The next lesson will be a navigational briefing (2 hours) and then possibly a quick flight, weather permitting.