Flight Lesson

I went on a flying lesson today in Weston Airport, just outside Lucan in Dublin and what an experience it turned out to be. I got this lesson as a gift from my wife. I decided a few years ago that when the inevitable question comes up, “What would you like for Christmas/Birthday” instead of clothes or some other electronic gadget to add to my collection I would ask for an “Activity Gift”. So far, a day at Mondello race course driving a single seater race car and a Helicopter trip have been great days out and much more treasured than anything else I could have asked for. So for my birthday the flight lesson was ordered from www.topgifts.com which turn out to be a reseller for SkyTrace in Weston Airport.

Arrival

When I arrived out there the other SkyTrace customer that was sitting in reception mentioned that it can be very addictive and now I can see why, he had 20 odd flying hours under his belt and would soon be doing part solo flights. After initial check in and signing of disclaimer forms I met my pilot for the lesson Denis. He was a friendly French instructor who walked me to the plane which he described as a quite new Robin Alpha 160A Aerobatic Instruction plane. At this point I was wondering why I needed an aerobatic plane but as it turned out it was much easier to maneuver and hence better for beginners.
Take Off
I have to admit to being quite nervous as we sat into this 2 seater, single propeller plane. He turned the engine on and pulled what I can only equate to a car handbrake while the engine pulled the plane slightly and he ran through a number of pre-flight checks, then earphones on and we were off “Taxi’ing” down the runway. The chit-chat between the control tower and us was interesting to hear as we got permission to go onto the runway and advised about all the other traffic in the area and the conditions. This was uncontrolled airspace, no control tower as such just an information tower. After what seemed a quick acceleration down the runway we were up and climbing fast. This is a completely different experience to taking off in a passenger jet. You have a definite “tin can underneath you” feeling which is made only worse when even the slightest gust of air causing turbulence that shakes the entire plane sideways.

So Denis showed me the basics, lever that pushes in to accelerate, out to decelerate. Left and right pedals that control the rudder on the tail, (this makes the plane do minor sideways sliding movements) and of course the Joystick. He handed me a red felt tip pen and told me to mark a dot on the glass of the canopy where I can see the horizon line. I then took the controls and tried to keep the dot on the horizon, in other words, keep the place straight, this turned out to be harder than you’d think. The wind is pushing the plane sideways so you have to keep making lots of little corrections. Of course the 1st correction you make is a bit over-enthusiastic, even the slightest movement of the joystick and the plane turns quite dramatically.
30 degree turns
He showed me the horizon indicator dial in the instrument panel. This is like a ball suspended in liquid, the ball stays straight but the plane moves around it. It had 3 blue markings on the side of it marking 10, 20 and 30 degrees of a turn. So he then asked me to turn do a right hand 20 degree turn, so with my eyes transfixed on the dial I did as I was told while trying to keep the plane level at the same time because the nose tries to dip below the horizon dot as you turn. I repeated this for a left hand turn which was a bit more nerve-wracking because I was sitting on the left of the plane so as I did the turn I got a clear view of the patchwork of fields below me through the glass, an interesting perspective.




Climb to 2000 feet.
This turns out to be quite ok, just push the throttle lever inwards, hear the engine roar a bit more and point the nose up, then keep an eye on the altimeter until it reaches around 1900 feet then try to level it off and slow down. That was the easy bit, but as the old saying goes, “What goes up….”

Simulate engine shutdown, lets glide…
Now we were at 2000 feet he decided to simulate what would happen if the engine were to cut out, thankfully he didn’t actually turn the engine off but he pulled the throttle out so that it was simple idling, but no longer pulling the plane. As you would expect the plane slowly started to nose dive, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest, but after about 5 seconds (felt like an hour) he pulled the joystick so we were level again, still descending, but level, at this point we were effectively a glider and he assured me that we could touch down in one of the fields if we need to by gliding in. Thankfully it didn’t come to this.
Sharp 60 degree turns
Now to add some of the lessons together, press hard on the right pedal to move the tail rudder, and put the joystick hard on the right at the same time, makes you turn much quicker. Denis showed me 1st and then gave me the chance to try it. Wonderful fun, but I noticed that the plane also started pointing its nose down when you try it so you have to try and correct it by getting your red dot back on the horizon again at the same time. This obviously requires a level of co-ordination which was above me because I made a complete shambles of it.
Do you want to try some aerobatic maneuvers?
I nervously said OK and he described what we were going to do. Descend 1st then accelerate upwards and then turn the plane on its side at the top. Phew, Ready, Ok… I dunno how may times I said whaaahoooo but it was a few. Just before he did the trick he mentioned that we would be pulling around 2 “Gs” and when he says “Go” try and move my legs by stamping my feet. When I got the signal I could barely move my legs, they felt like lead, as if someone heavy was sitting on your lap and you were tying to lift the weight of them. He mentioned that any place can do 3 Gs even an airliner but this particular one can do 6 Gs because it is an aerobatic plane.

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Home Time
Looking at the clock he mentioned that 25 minutes had passed so we better head back, I felt disappointed and relieved at the same time. Doing some sightseeing he pointed to Dublin airport which is only a minute and a half away if you went in the wrong direction. He pointed to a white factory in the distance and told me to aim for that, so I had to do a large turn of say 90 degrees on phases to point the plane back in the right direction and then try and keep it steady. I had a chance to look around at this point, saw Intel and HP factories directly below me in Leixlip, I wonder does their insurance cover them for idiots like me at the controls of a plane flying above them? Anyway he took over and we flew at right angles over the runway of Weston airport, more chatter over the radio and then started a slow arc around to the runway. It was only at this point that I remembered I brought my digital camera with me so took a few shots of the view and controls. I then set a movie clip running for the landing.
Conclusions
A great experience, the best of all that I have tried to date. Would love to go back up again, this could be the start of a very expensive hobby.