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10 - Golf Mike Bravo Going Around. Again!
24th May
A break for the weekend, and the final lesson in this block on Monday. Somehow over the weekend I managed to unlearn pretty much everything we'd done on Friday, or at least it felt like that. Add to the mix the fact that I wrongfooted myself by turning up two hours early for the lesson! (memo to self: Look at the calendar, dummy!)
We were back on runway 26 at Enstone, so a right turn towards Shipston, and contact Wellesbourne Information once we are abeam. It's actually quite bumpy at 2500 feet, and I have trouble pushing the button to change frequencies. As the guy on the radio (is he a FISO? I'm not quite sure what the terms are. Enstone I think is an A/G - we call 'Enstone Radio', anyway) gives the QFE, I dial it into the altimiter (trying to be a bit clever here!), but actually set 1012 instead of 1008. Well, it was two graduations away from the bold 1010 mark, just in the wrong direction! That's twice I've made that mistake. Think I'll have to spend some time on the ground just practising setting the altimeter...
To be honest, my rudder control is improving (in the air anyway), and I managed to get through the BUMPFITCH checks much better (completing them too!), plus the RT is much better. But landing? That's turned into a bit of a disaster zone! I was okay turning base, selecting the first stage of flap and slowing to 75 kts, but then turning final, selecting the second stage of flap and 60 kts consistently left me too high. Sometimes way too high. That was my first go around. And another, and another. One time Alistair said as we were on final "if you were solo, this would be a go around". We bounced, and I agreed that we should have gone around. I guess he did that to demonstrate WHY it would be a go around. Also, twice I was too slow on approach and set off the stall warner, so I had to drop the nose and add some power in a bit of a hurry, so the stall prevention practice a couple of lessons ago has already paid off! (even so, Alistair was even quicker at yelling at me to drop the nose!)
In the end, 8 unimpressive touch and gos, plus three go arounds, and we called it quits. Just to round it off, on the final approach back into Enstone, firstly my downwind positioning was all to pot, probably triggering a letter to the local MP from 'Angry of Little Snoring In the Bath' complaining of being dive bombed by those 'noisy rascals' at the flying club, and then on final I was too low, causing Alistair to call for a bit more throttle. So I whack the throttle lever forward, giving the best part of 1800 revs and an instantaneous "I have control" from Alistair. Oh well. It can only get better...
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