Instructor Joe was a no-show so I didn't go on my solo cross country last week. :-(
Saturday myself and Willie went up to do my first session of instrument appreciation. Hello artificial horizon, I think you're great...no not that kind of appreciation. We flew out west and Willie decided that the first thing that I needed to be show was "the leans". With my eyes closed and hands and feet off the controls, Willie commenced a series of turns. I was to say whether we were turning left or right. "Right....level....left, level right, level, right again" Willie instructs me to open my eyes; we're in a pronounced left hand turn yet my instincts would have been to turn left. It was a very clear demonstration of why you should trust your instruments.
So I donned the foggles, eager to see what instrument flying is really like. It is challenging and really easy to lose your grip on straight and level flight. Because of some very choppy air, I was being bumped around a lot and I found it difficult to pick up the headings Willie specified. In trying to nail the headings correctly I would fixate on the direction indicator and not keep a proper instrument scan going. As a result by the time I'd picked up the heading, I would also have picked up another 200 feet of altitude.
To close off the session, Willie decided to mock radar-vector me back to the airport. We got to within a couple of miles but the circuit pattern was too busy to fly it right down onto the approach. Foggles off, I flew the circuit as normal but the crosswind had picked up awful lot - I was almost looking out the side window on landing..... and I really need to improve my rudder working, I don't think the undercarriage appreciated the touch down on that landing.
Overall I was really pleased. The turbulence added significantly to the workload but as a first attempt it was quite respectable. I got the feeling Willie thought I had done some instrument work on a simulator - I haven't so I'm taking that as a compliment. The landing wasn't perfect but I think it the crosswind gave me more confidence to take more positive control of the airplane in future. It was a good session.
Comments