Touch and Go Circuits

Hey folks!

I had another lesson today, finally. I've gotta tell you, I've never hated winter more than I do this year. That's saying a lot, because I really hate winter as it is. Turns out winter is not conducive to flying in little 125 horse powered airplanes. Who would have thunk it?

To be honest, there's not much news this time around. I practiced some more circuits today. I felt more confident today. We did touch and go circuits. A touch and go is when an airplane touches down on the runway, and takes off again without coming to a full stop. It takes some more co-ordination and focus than coming to a full stop.

The most noteworthy circuit we did was when I was coming in for a landing, my instructor got on the radio and requested a "Foxtrot" from the air traffic control. It was some kind of code I didn't understand until I was forced to find out. As I was on short final, about twenty or thirty feet from the ground, I hear the air traffic control say to me "Sierra Charlie Papa abort landing!"

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly and thoroughly my learned instincts came through. I quickly determined in my head what needs to be done in order to abort the landing and keep the airplane flying. I pushed the throttle all the way in quickly, verified that I had a positive rate of climb, then retracted the flaps in steps, making sure that the airplane remained in a positive rate of climb. Then, when I determined the airplane was in stable flight, the last step was to contact air traffic control to tell them I followed their instruction.

There are three important steps in situations that call for immediate action: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. That is to say, fly the airplane first, determine where you are secondly, and thirdly, communicate with whoever you need to communicate with.

I was glad that I followed these steps, and accomplished the procedures almost instinctively. It seemed like I was instantly locked into what I had to do, nothing else mattered at the time.

Ok, up next is yet another check-ride type lesson, where I'll fly circuits with another instructor. If he feels I performed satisfactory, he'll sign off on a solo flight, and the lesson after that should include my first solo. :)

See you soon.