Stalls (basic)

Second lesson this week and it was stalls. I was quietly hoping that we would do stalls and advanced stalls today. Not so, too much to cover, so they are in two lessons. There are two reasons for my enthusiasm. First is that stalls are the closest thing to aerobatics so far and secondly, when stalls are done, we get to start circuits. I've booked for next Sunday morning, hoping that is when circuits would start. So with advanced stalls still to be done, I think I'm going to have to find time for another lesson so we can get to circuits on Sunday.

Startup and taxi out were good, run up ok too. We rolled out to runway 06L and had immediate clearance. I had controls and started our roll in VH-IGX with full power. At about 20 knots Adams door popped open slightly. He managed to pull it shut ok pretty much straight away and we continued our takeoff. All good and we were away, tracking south west then out to the training area. The thing I noticed today, is that I'm feeling more natural on the controls and that far less thought is required. The Attitude, Lookup, Attitude and Performance checks are becoming automatic as well. While performing each of the basic manoeuvres, the quick checks on the appropriate instruments are becoming more routine. Even setting the elevator trim is becoming automatic too.

The lesson involved basic stalls. This involved bringing the engine back and holding the aircraft at the same altitude. So all we are doing is constantly increasing the Angle of Attack (AoA), upto about 16 degrees when our Cessna stalls. At this point the air speed is about 40 knots in clean configuration (no flaps or load). The stall buzzer comes on and the nose drops. It was the same routine for each stall. The focus was on three types of recovery. The glide recovery. No power and a drop in the attitude (lower the nose) to decrease the AoA. We lost about 200 ft with this recover. The next was a power recovery. This time as we lowered the nose slightly we used full power. We lost about 75 ft with this recover. The last stall was the incipient. This one we lowered the nose and full power right on the stall. We didn't loose any altitude at all with this recovery. Having done each a few times, we headed home.

We approached Jandakot via Forrestdale Lake. My radio calls today were alot better, getting all the read backs right. A not insignificant help was using the LiveATC iPhone app to listen into and get used to calls. Anyway, the approach to Jandakot was over the airfield, joining the circuit downwind (to the North today) and around into runway 06L. I had controls through the decent and onto the ground. Adam claimed that I did it myself today :) He guided me through every step and the landing was a big improvement from yesterday. Bring on the circuits, this landing thing is fun :)

For something new, I mounted up my GoPro HD Hero camera on the side window to record the flight. It started just after we fueled up and climbed into the aircraft. However, I had left it in full HD model at 60 frames a second. That means it ran for about 35 minutes till it hit the 4gb file size and shut down. What it missed was literally half the lesson, including the Wing Drop that Adam demonstrated and the landing. Will bring it to 720i and 30 fps for the next flight. At some point we'll get some footage up on Youtube to show what its all about...

Flightpath...