Morning Mist

After my previous lesson was cancelled, it was nice - in a bleary-eyed, drowsy sort of way - to rise at 7am on a Saturday for another early flight. I was down at the airfield well before my 9am slot so I got to see them preparing for the day's operations, which was nice. I met up with Sam, the same instructor as last time, who sent me off to prepare Charlie Juliet for the day's flying. I love doing the preflight checks. The photo (admittedly too dark, mobile phone cameras make the 'pit of the C172 look really dark for some reason) shows the PFD (primary flight display) of the glass cockpit Cessna after I had turned on the Avionics buses to check the screen operation and check the warning annuciations on the PFD. Apart from this pre-flight ritual we don't normally have the avionics on without the engine running - they would run the battery down otherwise.

For some reason I didn't fly as well as I had last time - a combination of a late night and having a seat which felt a bit too low and far back. I don't think I adjusted it properly on the ground. We couldn't do the climbing/turning excercises Sam had been hoping to go over due to the lack of a horizon outside, as it was still obscured in the morning mist. As much as I love these early morning lessons, if they are going to give me a foggy horizon come Autumn then I will have to try and opt for something a bit later. (that's right, despite the thousands of pounds' worth of electronic magic in the cockpit, PPL training flights are still flown VFR (visual flight rules), so for the purposes of training we have to use the external horizon!). I did a few climbs and descents - it was particularly bumpy down at around 500ft although above 1000ft it was pretty smooth, apart from a 20kt crosswind. We just flew down the peninsula a bit then came back up - no point in spending the money on the full hour I had booked up there when we couldn't do the lesson. Still, it was nice to get my feet off the ground and get a bit more practice - and 0.5 hours in the logbook is better than nothing!

On the upside, my next lesson is at 11.45am next Saturday - so hopefully the morning mist will have cleared by then (if the weather is flyable at all - fingers crossed!). Watch this space.