5/10/13: Basic Circuit Training #4 & Circuit Solo Check

Unfortunately my Saturday 28th flight was cancelled as my assigned flight instructor, Doug was sick.  I was given the option to reschedule to later that day or Sunday, but I had other plans so would have to wait until the following weekend.

Saturday 5th October...  perfect day in Brisbane!  Sun was shining, no clouds, calm winds, excellent visibility... awesome day for flying!

I arrived to Archerfield early to get the pre-flight inspection done and prepare for today's lesson.  Now that I've achieved my first solo circuit, future circuit training exercises should start with a "solo check" where the Instructor rides with me for about 3-4 touch-and-go's until he's happy I can then complete some solo circuits.

Today I was back in the Jabiru J160 (the one with the partial glass cockpit) and my Instructor will be the Chief Flying Instructor, Mick.

I performed 2 touch-and-go circuits on runway 28R (right-hand circuit turns), with the third circuit ending in a full stop landing.  On my second circuit, Tower instructed me to land to a full stop on 28L meaning I had to extend my base leg to come across to the parallel runway to 28R.  Apparently a rescue helicopter required priority clearance.

After clearing the runway, Mick radioed requesting a re-taxi back to holding position for runway 28R... I'd be doing some solo circuits!  Mick asked I do 3 circuits (i.e. 2 touch-and-go landings and 1 full stop landing).

So I parked up near the holding point, let Mick out and carried onto holding point B1 for runway 28R.  I radioed Tower - "Archer Tower, Jabiru 8229 ready two eight right for circuits"

Reply came back - "This is Archer Ground".  Whoops!  Forgot to switch my radio from Ground to Tower  :-)

With that slight embarrassment out of the way, I rolled onto 28R and powered off for my first circuit...  good landing.  A key lesson whilst doing the dual circuits was that I need to maintain back elevator pressure during the landing flare.  Also I needed to add more nose up trim for the base and final circuit legs.  This will help avoid me bouncing on landing. 

The next two solo circuits were fine although the landings were not quite as consistent with the first solo circuit landing.  Practice, practice!  :-)

Third circuit I did a full stop landing, exited the runway and taxied back to the apron.  So that's 4 solo circuits under my belt now.

As an aside, I've been researching aviation headsets.  After reading loads of reviews and forums, I've settled on the David Clark H10-13.4 headset - http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/640
and the David Clark headset bag - http://www.mypilotstore.com/MyPilotStore/sep/2857

The headset is very similar to the one I've been using as provided by my flight school.  I'm hunting around for the best price and am hoping to place an order in the next week or two.

Next lesson, 8am Saturday 12th and 5am Sunday 13th... ouch!  5am... that's going to be a struggle for a Sunday morning  :-)