2024-05-09

Last modified: 2024-05-09 21:41:03

Microlighting

Exercise 5 "taxiing" we didn't cover explicitly, but there is taxiing at the start/end of every flight.

I think the taxiing I did today was much better than on Tuesday. I was more confident with it.

Exercise 6 is "straight and level". The goal being to maintain straight and level flight.

1. if the aircraft is disturbed in roll, rolling back to straight
2. if the aircraft is disturbed in pitch, pitching back to level
3. if you want to increase/decrease airspeed, adjusting power, then attitude, then trim
4. if there is a crosswind you need a drift angle because there is no rudder

The trim control isn't very effective on this plane so I haven't really been doing anything with it, but maybe I should try to at least learn which direction to turn it.

I got caught by surprise at the take-off because Brad told me to apply full power, but he hadn't told me that's it we're taking off. So I floored it and then we started rolling down the runway and took off! The take-off actually didn't seem very complicated. Full power, wait for it to get up to speed, bar forward until it takes off, easy peasy, no? Landing however seems harder and harder the more I learn about how you fly it.

Correcting a roll disturbance: setup a roll in the opposite direction, let it keep turning, anticipate, and straighten out in the original heading. I didn't have much trouble with roll, the control was intuitive.

Correcting a pitch disturbance: you basically need to keep the trike moving towards level. Keep the reference point on the front strut either moving towards the horizon or level with the horizon, and as long as the throttle isn't moved you'll end up level. There are 3 movements involved. Let's say it gets pitched down and we need to bring it back up. First you push the bar forwards to start bringing the nose back up, but all this time you're gaining airspeed and eventually you need to start pulling the bar back to prevent the nose from going up too far, and then eventually you need to gently let it go back to centre?

I kept getting the bar movement reversed on the pitch control. Need to remember that bar back pitches the nose down.

To increase airspeed I need to increase power with the throttle, wait for the nose to start coming up, then bar back to pitch the nose back to level, and once it is stable trim it to stay there without having to hold pressure on the bar.

I wore thinner trainers today but still had a lot of trouble with the throttle. I was thinking that the mechanism was sticky but I tried it on the ground with my hand and it didn't feel too bad. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. I can release loads of pressure from my foot and the throttle doesn't move, and then all of a sudden it will jump. I wonder if I'm getting my foot caught on something?

We didn't really experience much of a crosswind, but the principle is that if you realise you're not travelling in the direction you're heading, then you need to head into the wind accordingly.

Brad showed me a fixed-wing that was bought for £750, it looks a bit tatty but at least it proves there are planes available cheaply.