Landing practice … son no. 2

Will started his PPL just after we moved back to the U.K. and rattled through it … far quicker than I did all those years ago when juggling a small family .. a new (very old 1642) house and commuting from Suffolk to London every day on a motorbike, train and walk … the reverse each evening.

If the weather was good at the weekend .. I was lucky … if not … I’d just moan and do stuff around the house ticking off a never ending list of things that you have to do to old houses !

Fast forward … and back in the U.K. and one of the ‘babies’ now WhatsApp’s me at 5pm when he leaves work and states …”Meet you at the strip for circuits then ?”

I remember that, just before I went away for the weekend (a trial 3 day campervan excursion to sunny – and wet – Shropshire) I’d completed an oil change after just 4.5 hours of flying with the new engine… and left the cowls off (deliberately) to remind me to check levels and leaks before the next flight.

Nipped up to Priory Farm strip and checked levels .. all good to go .. so popped the cowls on and opened the hangar doors. I’m really fortunate here in that I’m either right behind the doors or next one in … and both are easy to pull out (compared to the Cirrus, PA32 and surprisingly heavy Cub I used to have to shift in Jersey before wheeling mine out)

Tonight, I’m pole position … so open the doors and she is already facing 01 … runway heading 01 😊 there’s a smidgen of a tailwind but, even with full fuel and a not so light pax load ..we should be off by half way

No sign of son, so walk around check and strap in … then startup to get her warm as it’s cooling now as the sun sets towards Old Buckenham

The new gauges really do show up in this light and all CHTs are reading sensible values around 14 and spring to life as the engine bursts into life first turn of the prop .. those 2 inline batteries put in 7 years ago really don’t miss a beat.

Will turns up smack on the oil temp reaching 50’ ..how does he do it ! … comes over and clambers in .. the slightly non standard way …goes to ease himself in but then pushes backward with his bum a shade too early … crack … the ply seat back cracks slightly but the 2 stiffener bars (running vertically) are fine .. just break the original glue joint that has lasted 7 years !

We shut down to check status and it’s not going anywhere with braces and his back supported on coving ..and it’s an easy fix which we both agreed could be done in situ .. probably using the super strong glue vs the epoxy I used originally

The slight downwind departure is off at about 50% of the way down the grass strip into pretty still cool air … handing over control to Will .. that’s my flying for the evening … we climb fully laden and, in these conditions, it ain’t sparkling but we circle up to around 1,100’ then idle large circle back to pick up an approach

The first approach is ok but a bit rapid as I don’t want him to get caught in any sink over the hangars … the second is way way too high but I leave him to realise .. which he does … so he sticks in a load of slide slip to try to recover to a more reasonable approach path … we duly arrive over the house, trees and hangar at around 73 KTS ..about 84 mph in old money

I suggest we make this one a fly by … so he goes for full burn up of the field (at about 10′) and pull up and away to the left (Priory has a preferred dog leg departure to avoid farms and houses)

He settles the next downwind way better … turns base and eases the the throttle back ..the height is much better .. again a slight dog leg to avoid some noise sensitive houses .. nice side slip to get her onto final and a lovely greaser

We pull away .. firewalling the throttle is giving us about 3,290 .. a smidgen short of the listed 3,300 the Jabiru manual lists .. i have my colour RPM guages going from Green to Yellow at 2,900 (to visually remind me if I leave it too fast in the crhise) and then Yellow to Red at 3,100

We make this the last landing and pull around in a large easy teardrop back to land on the Southerly direction which means we roll out at the end at the hangar doors for a shutdown… its pretty dusky now as the engine ticks down .. lift the tail and pull her in in about 20 seconds

This ‘training’ lark is quite exhausting but lovely when you get results

Back safe and warm in the hangar … seat back will be glued and clamped tomorrow …