Date: 07/07/2006
Time: 18:30 - 19:30 (PUT)
Aircraft: Ikarus C42 - G-CDMS
Exercise: Low Hops 1 - Ex 12 & 13
First time for trying low hops (in the air). The basic idea is to just-about take off at one end of the runway, fly a few feet off the ground, and land at the other end. Sounds easy, doesn't it?
Initially we aren't even going that far, by mainly dragging the rear wheels along the ground (intentionally). The first few runs, Steve does the throttle, so I only need to play with the joystick and rudder pedals.
More right rudder . . . more right rudder . . . MORE right rudder . . . MORE RIGHT RUDDER.
The trick is to point the plane straight down the runway using the rudder, keep the nose attitude with the elevator and adjust the lateral movement using the ailerons. Not as easy as it sounds. I start off fairly bad, failing to resist the temptation of yawing the plane to adjust lateral position, rather than the wing-down technique.
However, I do feel after a while that I am getting better so at least it is in the right direction.
Each run is interleaved with a slow taxi back to the start of the runway (26), chasing the many rabbits that run around on the taxiway.
More of this next time, I think.