Lesson 02: Straight and Level
Trying to be clever I’ve been doing a bit of reading before the first lessons so I should a bit of knowledge about what should be happening. But that just makes the flying more difficult.
Four forces affect an aeroplane in flight. Weight pulls it down but lift keeps it up; thrust pulls it forwards but drag holds it back. Get these forces in equilibrium and one can achieve straight and level flight at a desired speed. Sounds simple, right?
Well it would help if I understood what different controls did. Instead there was a fundamental midunderstanding of how the throttle and the elevator work. Having only flown once before I thought that it was pretty simple: open the throttle (push it in) to go faster, close it to slow down. Pull the control stick back to go up, push it forwards to go down. Sadly, it’s not as simple as that. Airspeed, climbing and descent are controlled by the combination of throttle and angle of attack (A/A – the angle of the wing versus the passing air). So it’s possible to have a high A/A (nose up high) and a low engine power and stay straight and level: or have a low A/A and high power and still stay straight and level.
This is going to cause me some confusion until I get it sorted in my head. Nevertheless it’s fun to be flying up there.
The lesson went well but I made a devestating impact on my first day when it was time to refuel. Having grounded the aircraft I took out the marked piece of wooden doweling which one dips into the tanks to measure fuel levels (surprisingly, the most accurate way). Unfortunately it slipped from my butterfingers and went right inside. I couldn’t see it anywhere! Too worried to do anything, I walked shamefaced upstairs and confessed. Thankfully the only reaction was laughter, and we eventually managed to get the bit of wood out. Touch and go for me there for a while! A dipstick with a dipstick. Lesson learnt.
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