Date: 31/3/2007
Time: 14:00 - 15:00 (PUT)
Aircraft: Ikarus C42 - G-CDRO
Exercise: Ex 12 & 13
And I thought last time was windy! Today it is about 20 kts, gusting up to 35. One of the other instructors has already cancelled the rest of his lessons for the day. Steve finished with his previous client, and says it's a bit windy and leaves the decision of whether I want to go to me. Hmmm - I don't want to blouse-out on some good experience, but I also don't want a demoralising session. It is quite blowy. Oh well, lets give it a go; if it turns out too bad, then we can always stop.
I fuel the plane, give it a daily inspection and then find Steve. We then start untying the tie-down ropes and realise that there is a squall coming through of particularly high, gusty wind and decide to leave it for a while. After a cup of coffee/chocolate and a chat later the squall and rain has passed and we decide to give it a go.
After the run-up checks we call 'lining up on 03' to which Popham Radio responds " The wind is a bit .... interesting!" in a questioning tone. Steve does the first low hop to see what it's like, then it's my turn. It's a bit lumpy/bumpy and you really have to be ready to control-out the knocks with relatively quick reactions. We do several of these and they aren't perfect, but not too bad. Then we move on to some high hops which are a bit wobbly, but have been a lot worse. Once we're happy with these we then do a few circuits. On the crosswind legs the plane seems to be about 45degrees to the actual direction of travel to compensate for the wind. However I anticipate this and the circuits are quite good. Landings perhaps a little flat.
Given the conditions, I think that I did OK today. Steve says that if the conditions were better, I would have been up solo. Sadly there will be another break in my training as I have to go into hospital on Wednesday for some surgery and I don't know how long the recuperation will take.