Got to Archerfield early so while I waited for my instructor, I phoned the Archerfield AWIS recording for weather details, etc. I also listened to Archer Tower on a VHF handheld radio to get a feel for traffic within the Archerfield airspace. Wind was 260 degrees magnetic at 5 knots, so obviously the active today would be runways 28R/28L.
No pre-flight theory for this flight lesson today. I did the pre-flight inspection of the aircraft (parked on the apron) and then jumped in to run through the startup checklists. I performed all the taxiing, run-up and take-off whilst doing the radio work. Took off on runway 28R, made a right turn onto crosswind then onto downwind heading about 100 degrees magnetic at 1000ft towards the Eastern Training Area.
Once clear of the Archerfield Class D controlled zone (CTR), I climbed up to 1500ft and after clearing the Class C controlled airspace (CTA) 2000ft lower limit step, I climbed up to 2500ft. Maximum altitude in the Eastern training area without infringing into Class C airspace is either 3500ft or 4500ft depending on your location.
We performed the pre-aerobatic checklist (H.A.S.E.L.L) prior to stall practice and David, my instructor for today, then demonstrated some stalls again. Taking over control, I then replicated the stalls. We performed some more developed stalls this time with flap, both idle throttle and powered. This produced larger wing drops so I really had to jump on the rudder. Basically if a wing drops, apply opposite rudder whilst simultaneously applying full throttle and relieve back pressure on elevator (let the nose drop to recover). DON'T USE AIELRONS IN STALL RECOVERY. I also tried stall recovery without applying throttle, simply using rudder and elevator.
Got a bit more practise in on turns, climbs and descents and obviously straight & level flight during the run out to the Eastern training area.
We headed back to Archerfield via the Eastern inbound VFR approach path. Flying over Target department store near Springwood, I radioed Archerfield Tower:
"Archer Tower, G'day, Jabiru 7984, Target One thousand five hundred with Foxtrot, request circuits on arrival"
The Tower controllers gave us a straight-in approach for runway 28R. Maintaining 1500ft and lining up with runway 28R, we began our final approach descent abeam the QEII stadium (near Mt Gravatt Garden City shopping centre). This is about 3 nautical miles from the runway threshold. Final approach configuration is about 1800RPM, 70KIAS, full flaps and about -600ft/min.
This would be a "touch-and-go" landing meaning we land and whilst still rolling, take-off again. So we landed as normal but once all wheels were on the ground, we quickly retract flaps to 1st stage, set elevator trim to neutral and apply full throttle for take-off. Rotate at 55KIAS and climb at 70KIAS maintaining runway heading.
For those not sure, let me explain a typical traffic circuit (or "traffic pattern" as called in the USA):
As you can see in the picture above, a circuit is a racetrack style path flown by aircraft during departure or intending to land. Circuits almost always consist of left-hand turns (ie a left-hand circuit). Right-hand circuits (ie with all right-hand turns) may be in place where parallel runways are active or where stated in the En Route Supplement Australia (ERSA) book which is basically a listing of all Australian aerodromes with details.
For a number of reasons, take-offs and landings are almost always done INTO the wind. The first "leg" of the circuit is the Upwind leg (or called Take-off leg in the picture above). On this circuit leg we're maintain runway heading doing 70KIAS with flaps up at 300ft.
At 500ft we commence our left turn which brings the aircraft onto the Crosswind leg. This leg can be flown straight (as shown in the picture above) or as we do, a long shallow turn meaning the Crosswind leg is actually curved. We're still doing a climbing turn at 70KIAS on the Crosswind leg and should be at 750ft mid-Crosswind.
Turning Crosswind onto the Downwind leg, we're now levelling off at 1000ft (standard circuit height for medium-performance aircraft) and we're now speeding up to 90-95KIAS with 2900RPM. Early downwind leg we do our landing checklist then make the downwind radio call to Archerfield Tower.
Late downwind leg when we're abeam the runway threshold, we throttle back to 2000RPM and apply 1st stage flaps (when slow enough) aiming for 75KIAS whilst maintaining 1000ft altitude.
At about 45 degrees to the runway threshold (very late downwind leg), we throttle back to 1800RPM and commence a descending left turn onto the Base leg aiming for 75KIAS (again another long shallow turn as we did in the Crosswind leg). We're descending about -500ft/min on the Base leg and should be at 750ft mid-Base.
Here comes the fun bit... turning Base leg onto the Final leg. Here we extend full flaps, maintain about 1800RPM to achieve 70 KIAS descending at about -600ft/min. This configuration remains unchanged throughout the Final leg. Minor directional changes are made to line up with the runway centreline (ie horizontal position) and also ensure runway threshold remains mid windscreen (for my height) (ie vertical position). As we come down, we close the throttle when over the aimpoint (just past threshold), roundout the attitude for the landing float and ease back on the elevator for the landing flare... landed!
The above circuit leg aircraft configurations are for a Jabiru J170 so would be different for different aircraft.
Aircraft can depart an aerodrome by extending one of the circuit legs, eg take-off, fly Upwind leg, then Crosswind leg, then Downwind leg and keep flying Downwind leg heading until clear then commence own navigation. The same could be done when departing by extending the crosswind leg or upwind leg.
Aircraft arriving at a controlled aerodrome like Archerfield are given circuit joining instructions, eg join downwind runway 28R, or join final runway 28R or join base runway 28R. This gives the pilot information on how to position the aircraft to join onto the circuit leg as advised by Tower controllers. Joining downwind, either 45 degrees to early or mid-downwind or straight into downwind is the preferred, common circuit joining method.
David demonstrated one circuit and I flew the next circuit assisted. As we turned onto crosswind for the last circuit, Archerfield Tower advised they were closing for the day so need to tune to Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF). This basically means the Archerfield Class D airspace is now uncontrolled Glass G airspace and CTAF radio procedures now apply. We completed the circuit coming to a full stop landing.
My last flight lesson was the first flight of the day so I gained some experience with removing the tie-downs, covers, etc and the slightly different startup procedure. Today's flight lesson was the last flight of the day so I gained some experience with parking the aircraft off the apron and putting on the tie-downs, covers etc.
So that's all my basic flight training done including the exams :-)
Next I move onto basic circuit training which involves a series of flight lessons doing touch-and-go circuits. I keep doing these until the flight school is confident and I'm confident I can do a solo circuit safely.
I'm wanting to get my theory exams done ahead of time if possible so I can focus on my practical flying skills. What I learn in the books is what I'm applying up there, so will be beneficial to get these exams out of the way sooner rather than later I think.
Thanks for reading this (rather long!) post and please come back for my next post on Circuits #1... Saturday 27th July! :-)
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