Energy is the key!

‘So – whaddya learn today Abner?’

‘Well Maw, seems enegy’s whur-its at flyin them thar planes wit the lil wheel doohicky at the back an all’

‘Y’mean yoo bin flyin all this time an you ain’t figgurd that aht yet?’

‘No Maw, guess I’m not real smart lahk’


OK – so that sums up my lesson flying circuits in the RV6 taildragger. The weather was good, with about 10 kts just slightly off the runway of 22 at Gloucester. Of course as I took off a large nasty cloud appeared and kicked up some gusts. The tower gave me a running commentary on the weather on my first final. It started with.

‘Wind 230 at 12 gusting 30’

Then as if that wasn’t enough to get my attention,

‘Caution, turbulence reported over the buildings on short final’

OK – wide awake now! The first two T&G’s were tentative and workmanlike, but OK I guess. Controlling the roll was better as were the subsequent takes offs.

The next few were one good and one not so good. But on the not so good ones, Roly asked me what happened and I told him. I know what I am doing wrong and at least do correct it.

Well in the end, I guess I just ran out of different ways of screwing up the landings and started to do good ones fairly consistently. It helped that the nasty black cloud had moved off and at least the wind had died down.

I learned that energy is the key and that the RV6 is happiest landing at 65kts and that there is a huge difference between 65 and 70 kts. That extra five knots will have you holding off for quite some time at the mercy of every crazy gust of wind.

In the end, after 11 circuits, Roly offered to jump out (I think he planned to do this when we had stopped on the ground!) and let me do a couple of solo circuits. I was sorely tempted, but as I am going on holiday to Canada shortly, then moving house on the weekend I get back, all this means I won’t fly again until 23 February at the earliest, so I declined, saying I preferred to do this again in late February and take it from there when I know I can fly most weekends.

So the drill is to do some decent landings with Roly in simple wind conditions, then fly off myself a few times in winds of 10 kts or less and no more than 30 degrees off the runway to build my confidence, then come back to him for serious crosswind training and full sign off.

Sounds good and I can’t wait. My wife is starting to wince at landing and instructor fees!