Flying Circuits

Last Thursday, the 4th consequetive day of flying, we finally got to circuits :)

It meant more acronyms for checks you need to remember. The best one is the downwind check, BUMFIS or BUMFOH.  There are acronyms for absolutely everything and I must admit, I'm struggling to remember when to use each.  The "flying circuits" guide is literally just a list of acronyms jammed into every spare space on the page, well where there isn't the picture describing the actual real message of the page, the diagram describing how to fly a circuit.  The other challenge is that the same letter in two acronyms means something different, or worse, the same letter which is in multiple acronyms means something different.  The plan is to create a cheat sheet of the acronyms and keep it nearby.  Then regularly test one self until these things are habit.

Anyway, Adam was pretty easy on me from the checks point of view (ie. he did most of them).  That way I could focus on the other minor thing we were doing, say, trying to fly the plane around the circuit, land it and take off again...

So the circuit.  Lots of fun.  It is where everything learnt till this point comes into action and quickly too.  Radio calls, taxiing, crossing runways, taking off, climbing, checks, climbing turn, more climbing, medium turn, straight and level, more radio, more checks, descending, descending turns, more checks, communications, lining up the runway and then the new bit, landing the plane properly and then taking off again.  The things that are well left out of circuits, stalls...

We did 5 circuits with 4 touch and go's.   There was a good 12 knot cross wind, which made lining up and staying aligned with the runway more difficult.  Adam said I did pretty well, except the last one where I managed to  put the plane on the edge of the runway just as we flared.  Ok a flare, it is the glide at the end of the landing descent which runs off speed and lets the plane nicely touch down on the runway.  I think the flare and the landing descent are going to be the hardest thing to master about the circuits.  The rest seemed pretty straight forward (apart from those damn acronyms)...

Well at the moment I don't have a next lesson booked, however I think next Sunday is going to be the first realistic chance.  That means the first solo is not going to be too far away, sweet!  However it is dependant on those damn forms being processed first though, could be 6 weeks then...