Phase 2

• 2.1 First Solo
• 2.2 Forced Landing 1
• 2.3 Solo 2
• 2.10 Precautionary landing

2.1 First Solo

Introduction

Today was finally the day that my first solo flight took place on the Cessna 172 which is a very great experience after around 24 hours of being with a instructor at all times, you are the only one in control of the flight left.

The weather was great flying weather, with around 4 knots of wind and a beautiful blue sky filled with some cumulus clouds here and there but nothing to worry about. The temperature was around 18 degrees celcuis and the pressure around 1020 hPa.

We first did some circuits to warm up, shape things up and getting a feel for how a solo flight will go today. After that we did the actual solo flight.

Medical Class 2

Before this lesson, I did my medical examination to gain the EASA medical class 2 certificate which is required to be in an airplane on your own. This was an overview of checking ears, eyes heart, helthyness, blood pressure and such. I succeeded good, so no problems there.

The circuits

Before I was sent off to perform my first solo circuit, we did around 5 circuits with a landing as final action. The circuits went okay with some remarks about the checks and actions which I will later dive into.

The landings were really good and I finally got myself at landing the plane good for at least 4 times in a row. The first landing was okay but with some traversing motion, but was a warm up for me after around 2,5 weeks of no flying. The round-out and flair altitude were really good and the touchdowns also. Every landing is different, which may sound stupid but you get to experience this while doing, this is really true.

After 5 circuits my flight instructor wanted to call it a day and the suprised me with “Hey, great luck man I’m out of here.” Haha.

The solo circuit

So the 6th circuit I had to perform was the solo circuit. I went from the taxiway back to the beginning of the runway, then took of to turn a circuit around the aerodrome and then land again.

When becoming a pilot, flying solo and having a feeling of accountability is very important and you gain this in the lesson program. When learning to drive a car, you will drive solo after getting the exam which is really different from flying.

Cool. So I lined up on the runway, took off and made 4 left turns to land the aircraft back on the same runway. The circuit itself went okay, with some remarks which I will describe separately and made an error in the radio call on downwind but nothing to worry about. The tower/ATC knew I did my first solo so they do expect not a perfect pilot and were really humble. They applauded for the landing and made a joke that my instructor never made such a good landing. Great people, haha.

After landing and parking the plane, I was awarded some applause and congratulations and awarded a water douche just as every other pilot over the world to celebrate the first solo flight.

Remarks Circuits

The remarks of the circuits with instructor are:

• Remind the propellor slipstream, especially on final. When on high power, the nose goes to the left
• Descending turns must be done with some forward pressure on the yoke. The upgoing wing will produce some lift and can cause a climb of the plane
  • So don’t climb in turns
• Keep the approach speed on at least 65 knots, better some knots more than too less as this gives you more energy for the round out and flare
• Try to keep back pressure longer during the flare to touch down at a lower vertical speed
• During final till touchdown, keep feet straight on pedals to have good control over the direction and brakes. During touching and go, switch to heels on the ground to not make accidental brake inputs

Remarks Solo

As the first solo flight is a bit thrilling, this is a good cause of some minor errors so I will not point out everything I did wrong but will mention some room for improvement.

• Think of the radio calls you make and make them sound right, I told ATC to make a touch and go instead of a full stop as we did around 40 touch and go’s at this moment, little bit of memory based
• At rotation, let the plane gain some speed and keep 65 knots for the rest of the climb till 200 feet. From there you can switch to 75 with flaps up

What I did good on my solo flight:

• Correcting the nose attitude during touch down, was a little too fast but corrected it with just the right amount of back pressure to make it buttery
• Speeds, RPM, pitch and flap settings
• The checks and restore actions

A great summary of this flight is is: great aviation and navigation, moderate communication.

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2.2 Forced Landing 1

Introduction

Today we did the Forced Landing 1 lesson and exercises. The main objective is to have a landing plan and field within reach at any given moment as an engine can be failing unexpectedly. Training this procedure can save lives, not only of pilots but also from the passengers and even for people on the ground.

The weather was perfect today, with 3 knots of wind which is very calm. We also had almost zero clouds and minor to zero thermal/turbulence.

We skipped the first solo lesson for now, because I found the forced landing exercise important to have done prior to be alone in a plane and I still had to perform the medical assessment for the class 2 certificate which I will do after this lesson.

The Forced Landing exercise

The Forced Landing exercise is something flight instructors will do and then sometimes randomly cut the throttle to let the student pick a field and demonstrate how they would land there. Some basic information we must know:

• Wind direction
• Best glide speed is speed of minimal drag means highest gliding distance (somewhat slower decreases distance but increases time)
• Downwind increases distance, headwind decreases distance
• Flaps ensure steeper descent

A diagram of the exercise can be found here:

So basically from the beginning of the engine failure we have those 5 steps, where best glide speed and simultaneously looking for a field are the two most important steps.

1. Pitch for 65 knots (vGlide) and trim ~5 times for nose up which is down
2. Check for possible causes in the cockpit
3. If engine doesntt start, you are commited to landing and should have a landing point by now
4. On the end of downwind set Flaps 10 and keep field in reach
5. Turn to base/final and set Flaps 30 for a steep descent and land the plane
6. Evacuate (if not simulated)

So suitable fields are fields that are somewhere about between light-green to yellow.

• Dark green mostly means thick grown crops or sweetcorn for example
• Earth-colored mostly means sand and wet earth

We did this exercise about 4 times, and the first time was more like a demonstration. Then I had the controls and it went allright with some room for improvement to get a better descent path but the plane could be landed at all attempts if done better. We will contintue exercising this in the following lessons till it will be done good to perfect, as this is one of the most important lessons.

After the forced landing exercises we also did 3 circuits where 2 of the landings went very great with a clapping instructor during the second landing, where you know you are on a great pace :)

Remarks

Altough I got an applause, this doesnt mean that everything went perfect of course. The remarks of this lesson are:

• Better remember the memory items of the Forced Landings and better preparation on the forehand
• Speed on final must be kept at 65 knots at all times all the way till the runway threshold
• Better steering with the rudder during the round-out and flare
• The centerline is not a holy grail which must be hit at all times, some feet of is no problem. Safe landings is number 1 priority so do not correct for this

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2.3 Solo 2

Flight lesson 2.3 - Solo 2

The flight lesson 2.3 with name Solo 2 focusses on basic flight procedures being alone in the cockpit. In phase 1 I learned how to fly, take-off and land the plane with some turns, stalls and recovery procedures baked in. The second solo flight is much more simple and wants you to:

• Take-off
• Leave the circuit
• Perform some 30 degrees and 45 degrees (steep) turns
• Rejoin the circuit
• Perform 1 or 2 touch and go’s
• Make a full stop landing

This is really a very basic flight where most aspects will come into play, as well as every memory item, procedure and radio call must be performed.

A great way to step up the game in solo flight.

2.10 Precautionary landing

Introduction

In this lesson, we performed the Precautionary Landing exercise. This is a separate exercise from the other lessons we did till now, and focusses on to land the aircraft in a moderate controlled way outside of any aerodrome but in a field. As we still have our engine, primary and secondary flight controls, we are less dependent on those critical factors.

Causes of you having to perform a precautionary landing are often to save lives without any aerodrome in range while still having an engine and flight controls:

• Fuel miscalculation or suspected fuel leak
• Sick passenger on board
• End of daylight period and/or planned aerodrome(s) closed
• Lost in the vicinity, no contact with GPS, other aircraft
• Unplanned weather deterioration, or getting not suitable for VFR conditions

The weather during this lesson

Today we had a great day for flying in terms of visibility, clouds and precipitation but the winds were very variable. We had a variable wind between 230 degrees and 020 degrees, and about 7 to 11 knots. The METAR of a close airfield, which are the actual measures reported this:

METAR XXXX 211355Z AUTO 30010KT 230V020 9999 SCT041 19/09 Q1030=

Let’s extract this information:

Enough about the weather, let’s dive into the exercise.

The exercise explained

So the Precautionary landing exercise is somewhat different from the Forced Landing exercise, as we still have our engine and our primary/secondary flight controls. As we have this, we can make a landing in a much safer way than just putting it what is within our gliding range and wants us to first do an inspection run of the chosen field.

During the inspection run, we will fly at a constant speed of around 70 knots and count how long it takes from start to end of the field. This tells us by a rule of thumb how long the field is so we can decide to land there. We check the following things during this run:

• Time from start to end
• Trees, power lines
• Field material (softness, condition)
• Cattle/animals
• Objects at the start and end of the field
• Other possible risks

The exercise looks like this, where I have added the several steps:

So we fly 2 circles around the field, first to inspect and then to prepare and land like a normal circuit. Then we perform a soft field landing. On the last downwind, we could make use of our radio capability to inform the tower or flight information services that we need medical assistance. This can result in having that assistance minutes earlier.

Remarks

So we have performed this exercise around 3 times in this lesson. It went not perfect but also not bad. I chose the right fields to land on, preferably into the wind which gives us less ground roll. The first time, I was not perfect on speed with flaps 20 and with 10 knots of wind so I was corrected. The second and third time were much better and the third time actually having a good approach to the field with good speed.

After 3 times, we headed back to the airfield for 3 circuits with crosswind with okay landings but crosswind flying and landings are a good training area as this requires much more precise flying.

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