Straight and Level

I was flying again today. I met my instructor, Tony, who is a real comedian and a very talented teacher, at the flying club shortly after 10am. After a quick cup of tea we went out to the G1000 simulator which is really just 2 PC screens using the G1000 trainer software available from Garmin. He ran me through the basics, what knob does what and the normal startup procedure for about half an hour and then said he though I was ready to put what I'd learnt in the sim into practice on the real thing. Tony flies the Dornier 328 so he is no stranger to the glass-cockpit concept.

We taxiied out after a beautiful twin-engined Piper which was taking 4 business executives to Glasgow for the day. Interestingly enough it was being piloted by last week's instructor, Everett, and another guy who we'd seen in uniform earlier.

I taxiied out but will be the first to admit I made a mess of turning round at the end of the runway for a takeoff on 04, but oh well. I took off and lifted the Cessna into the cold but gusty air. I love taking off from runway 4 because it gives a really nice view of Newtownards. We turned and headed down the peninsula where I would do some straight and level training.

Like a lot of new pilots used to flight simulators, I suffer from "head in cockpit" syndrome - that is, spend too much time looking at the instruments and not enough looking out the window. Tony was good at stamping that out by covering the beautiful G1000 screens with his hand. The trick is to keep the dash the height of your fist under the horizon to fly straight-and-level, unless of course you have particularly big fists in which case you will eventually hit the ground and have a very bad day.

Next we practiced levelling out at selected altitudes which is a very important skill and one you keep for the rest of your aviation career. I made good progress on that but need a little more practice on using the trim effectively. I put the altitudes into the G1000 just for the practice to learn where the different knobs are.

It has to be said that it is an absolutely beautiful day here today. It's always such a pleasure to fly on a clear sunny day - we could see the shipwrecks under the sea in the Ards Peninsula. Someone told me there are 365 islands in it but I'm not sure if I believe them, although there are certainly a lot.

I flew in again for a rather exciting landing on runway 34. Like the takeoff we got an interesting view - this time of the sea wall which is right at the start of the runway. 34 is very short too so there was a fair old squeal from the tires. It was difficult to leave Charlie Juliet on the ramp as this is the last time I'll be flying for a couple of weeks at least due to a weekend in the mountains the weekend after next. Shame. Still, at least I'm ending on a high.

Thanks for reading.