She has been up before and was gripping the seat at take-off and every time we turned. She was coaxed to hold the yoke only to go into a death grip and pull back causing a sudden climb. After that on a previous flight, it was good that she wanted to try again.
The weather on Monday was not so good cloud in layers, some of it low and occasional spits of rain. Not so bad by late afternoon so I thought we would give it a go. Turned up at the airport to find the new ‘square section’ nosewheel tyre had been fitted (should help to overcome our nosewheel shimmy) and the faulty plug had been replaced (always a bonus).
So gave her a thorough passenger safety brief again and noted that the clouds were starting to break up revealing nice blue bits in between.
Off we went from runway 27 to do some ‘that’s where mum lives – that’s where I live’ type flying, so reasonably low and tight turns. She was so fixed on trying to spot the houses that she didn’t seem to notice the steep turn. Things are looking up!
After the house spotting, climbed over Woolstone Hill to 2900’ initially, trimmed the aircraft and got her nice and settled, then let Linda hold the controls for straight and level pointed at the Malverns. She was better this time, still over controlling and had to get her to relax her ‘death grip’ several times and feel the aircraft and the trim. After prompting, she was holding it within + / - 100’ and generally heading towards the Malverns – not bad at all.
By now the clouds had well and truly broken up into quite scattered at about 5500’ so decided to go up and have a play. Climbed to 5500’ where we were pretty much level with the base and had a nice ‘map like’ view of the ground as relief disappears and the Malverns looked flat.
Well, we had a BBQ waiting and all good things must come to an end, so set course for Gloucester and put the plane into a cruise descent for a rejoin. Gloucester was fairly quiet with only one in the circuit and was given a downwind join for 27 right hand circuits. Decided to make the most of the block landing fee and do one touch and go. The touch and go was very smooth though I say it myself. My next circuit was fine, but with a more ‘normal’ landing – anyway, I managed to stop before the first intersection on 27 and vacate quickly as there was another aircraft not far behind landing off an NDB / DME approach, and the last thing he wanted was to have to do a go around because I was still trundling up the runway to the end!
Anyway, the plane flew very nicely, no trouble with the plugs and no nose wheel shimmy. My sister certainly enjoyed it as well and I think has a far better understanding of the primary and secondary effect of the controls.
Now looking forward to giving the plane a good wash and shammy at the start of August and my trip to Hannover in mid-August.
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