Pompous Ramblings

Flight 1 – VH-BUA (Bravo Uniform Alpha)

Signed in and got a visitor’s pass first, then did the pre-flight brief.  Learned about climbing, cruising and descending and then went out to the aircraft (a Cessna 172) for an introduction to the flight controls.

Found out about fuel straining and what to look for in the preflight walk-around and got taken through the checklist.

I got to taxi the plane down to the end of the runway.  I was all over the place.  I could hear the whole airport laughing at me in my imagination.  :p  The rudder pedals are harder to get the hang of than I thought they would be.  Andrew (my instructor and all-around great guy) told me that I was doing better than most trainee pilots do in their first lesson – apparently most of them almost go off the side of the taxiway!  He said that if others did as well as I did, there would be a lot more good pilots in the world… Though I think he might have been exaggerating a little.

He managed all of the communications with the tower, and we stopped at the holding area at the end of the taxiway before being given runway clearance and finally, clearance to take off.

We climbed to our assigned altitude of 1,500ft and after reaching it, Andrew gave me control.  We headed southeast, following the coast to Byron Bay.  Along the way I did my first climb, up to about 2,500ft.  To climb, you push the throttle all the way in and pull back on the control wheel.  Coordinating that was hard enough, but it was easy compared to adjusting the trim while maintaining the climb.  As you get the trim right, the resistance on the control wheel drops, and if you’re not careful, you will end up pulling up too much and climbing too fast.

The initial plan was to perform another climb to 3,500ft but there was a cloud ceiling at about 3,000ft that put an end to that idea.  We stayed at 2,500ft for most of the flight.

Being out of the controlled airspace around the airport, we were allowed pretty much free reign, as all northbound aircraft are directed around the training area.  When we reached Byron Bay, I did a large left hand turn out over the water and around the headland.  It’s a different feeling flying over the water.  Not -bad- per say, just different.  The lack of landmarks can be disorienting and you might as well be in the middle of the ocean for all you can tell your position.  I imagine it would be easier if there was less cloud cover and if there were watercraft to provide some idea of position.

After doing a few turns and a couple of laps around Byron, we turned northwards on a 0 degree heading.  We followed the coast over land up toward Fingal Head, and Andrew pulled out the throttle, which caused us to start descending.  We descended to 1,500ft according to instructions from ATC.  I had to pull back on the control wheel to prevent us from descending too fast.  About a mile from Fingal we were directed over water and we passed between Cook Island and Fingal Head, at which point Andrew took control.

ATC directed us to continue long into the wind overwater as we travelled past the airport.  Andrew explained that this was so the controller could safely direct other aircraft overland, away from us.  I think it was more for the other aircraft’s safety than ours.  ;)

ATC estimated another mile before they could clear us to turn for final approach.  It was about this time that Andrew started a slow descent (much slower than mine) to 1,000 ft.

We came around and followed another Cessna 172 in to land.  He seemed rather slow in clearing the runway – or at least slow enough for Andrew to make comment.

As we came in to land, Andrew pulled the throttle right out, taking the engine almost to idle.  There was a bit of a crosswind at (if I remember correctly) 220 degrees.  I’m glad I wasn’t landing.

With landing finished, Andrew switched the radio frequency to Ground Control who cleared us to the taxiway.  We cleared the runway quickly and took the nearest taxiway to Air Gold Coast’s hangar back to the tie-down point.  Ground Control instructed us to hasten our taxi as another aircraft was awaiting taxi clearance.  I couldn’t see the aircraft myself.

That concluded the flight – Andrew took care of the shutdown checklist, and we vacated the aircraft.

Skills Learnt:
Cruising
Climbing
Descending
Banking/Turning
Taxiing

Issues:
Taxiing needs a LOT of work
Seemed to be climbing slightly while cruising – trim?
Coordinating trim adjustment during climb & descent
Too much focus on altimeter at this stage
Seat could possibly be a bit more forward

Cost: $285
Total so far: $285

Aeroplane: Cessna 172
Flight time: 1.1 hours
Total so far: 1.1 hours

Tags: Airport, Cessna 172, Coolangatta, Flight, Training, VH-BUA
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