Of course, it is the early Spring weather which is really to blame - those fronts keep arriving from over the Tasman Sea - all the way from the West Island (or Australia, if you prefer!!)
Having flown the club's 172s mostly over the Winter I felt in the need of a "refresher" on the Arrow and had booked DQV with CFI, Roger for a couple of hours this morning. All looked good early on with light winds and overcast at around 2500'. That started to change, though.
I dragged the plane out of its hangar, preflighted, and wandered back to the club to tell Roger all was well. He took a look at the book and saw we had two hours and decided a cup of tea and a bit of cake was in order before going up as the weather was starting to close in and it would be circuits only; plenty of time for that.
So, after a cup of tea, we walked to the plane, started up, called the tower and were cleared to taxi to E1 for runway 18L. I remembered to "exercise" the prop after the engine run-up (that means bringing the pitch lever back - coarser pitch - until the revs drop and then full fine again three times to get the oil circulating in the constant speed mechanism) but was told off a little for taxying on the brakes - naughty, stresses the undercarriage.
At the holding point it was just starting to rain and everyone was coming home and a quiet circuit quickly became very busy. We were told there would be a delay for circuits, Grrr!! At least the air switch on the Arrow meant I was not paying for the time. It was also starting to rain lightly. After three landings and several minutes Roger called the tower and asked for a clearance to the East instead of circuits. That was given and just after the next landing we were cleared to take off from 18L. We did the pre take-off checks while on the move, turned onto the runway centreline and started to roll without waiting. Nice and straight back on the column and rotate at about 65 knots, out of runway, quick squeeze of the brakes and gear up, fuel pump off, 80 knots and climbing, flaps up then climbing power and pitch - all done pretty smoothly and with no hesitation. So far, so good.
Even better; at 500' indicated (300' agl) we were recleared for circuits by the tower. I thanked them, read back the clearance and turned crosswind to start my first circuit. Visibility was not good (great British understatement, it was b****y awful; I would not have been going up on my own) and it was taking longer than usual to spot traffic ahead - white painted planes in rain haze against light grey, lowish cloud are not easy to pick out. Good job there were two pairs of eyes in the cockpit.
The first approach was Ok but I let the speed bleed off a bit too much and was only 60 knots at a half mile out. Too slow in the Arrow as Roger correctly pointed out to me. That was rectified by a bit of throttle and nose down and we flew onto the runway nicely but I was a bit slow closing the throttle and the flare went on for a good 100 metres or so - OK on the 6000' 18L but might have been interesting on a short grass strip.
After that, all went pretty well. Speeds correct on the approach, only 25º flap because of the crosswind and flare pretty near perfect and two smooth touch and goes. The weather was getting progressively worse, visibility barely more than the circuit dimensions so we called for a full stop, this time on 18R, the 625m (2050') paved/grass strip parallel to the main runway. Precision landing, then, full flap and about 65 knots over the threshold, putting the wheels down pretty much on the numbers but a little to the right close to the grass edge, quickly corrected, though and a straight landing roll to the end and taxi off. Strictly speaking, we should have refuelled but Roger looked out and muttered about the rain coming down and told me to taxi to the hangar. There had been 110 litres in at the start and we had only been going for 40 minutes so at least we weren't leaving the plane totally empty for the next flyer.
Nice one, thanks Roger. He hadn't seen any major problems with my flying and suggested I go up solo soon on a better day and do some steep turns and stalls. I made a booking in DQV for two weeks today. (I have 172, WAM booked for next week). Fingers crossed for the weather!!
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