I Landed a real plane for the 1st time!

[ardypilot]

This evening I took my first lesson towards my PPL in ZK-CIT down at Ardmore, and after going through all the 'effects of controls' and 'straight and level flight' practicals and really getting to know how the trim level works, I entered the circuit on right downwind leg, turned onto base, lined myself up on finals and made a touch-and-go landing on runway 03 in the little taildragger!

It was a bit all over the place, not on the centreline, and I bounced up one time before settling my wheels down, but I did it! and feel quite proud of myself now! for me, lol!

I took off again afterwards and followed the circuit round, lined the aircraft up on finals and my instructor landed it the second time, making a much better job of it than me

While I was at Ardmore, I saw ZK-JMP taxing then taking off and dam does it get up high fast! Also, the Warbirds Catalina was flying around making touch and goes as the pilots need to have made three landings in it every 90 days to keep their licenses current or something- all in preparation for flying her down to the Art Deco weekend in Napier apparently... another pretty bird that caught my eye down at AR was this baby:

That's right, my favourite old DAK in her lovely new colours- Beautiful! I couldn't see any 'DAK' rego on her though (before it was hidden in 1/2 sized font under the rear wings) so I guess it must have been re registered under 'NZ3546' ... can anyone confirm this?

Oh and here is a few pics of the Catalina I saw today if any one is interested:

[ZK-Brock]

Sweet Trolly, your first landing in a taildragger! That's awesome! How are you going about this PPL training?

BTW was it a 3-point landing or on the wheels? Wheel landing cause you bounce more generally...

[Alex]

Great stuff Trolly, thanks for letting us know.

Alex

[Jimmy]

Awsome Andrew

Well done

[kiwiflyboy]

I was down at Aero-tech today, and JMP was in there for maintenance, that thing is so ruthless, its great, Trolly, that thing can line up and be airborne prior to the threshold. Those Pilatus' have terrific short field capabilities. And entering a left downwind for 03, would not be a good start for your training, 03 is a right hand circuit, 21 is left. If you dont mind me asking, how old are ya Trolly?

[ardypilot]

How are you going about this PPL training?

I am helping build a website for the 'Professional Aviation Services' company who operate CIT, and in return I get 1 free lesson per month (More info on that later)

was it a 3-point landing or on the wheels?

It was meant to be a three pointer... lol, I got the front two wheels down, bounced, then got down on all three. I expect everyone watching at the Aero Club had a good laugh out of it

03 is a right hand circuit, 21 is left.

* I meant right hand, will edit my post now. We entered the circuit from the Hunia training area to the South. While we where doing the preflight, some noob who had not listened to the ATIS landed on runway 03 in a Cessna. I am 17 by the way.

[Craig]

I was down at Aero-tech today, and JMP was in there for maintenance, that thing is so ruthless, its great, Trolly, that thing can line up and be airborne prior to the threshold. Those Pilatus' have terrific short field capabilities.

My dz use to have a porter , i want it back ( VH-MKT, yup the FSD one is IT )

[Charl]

Cool. cool. and cool
Man's on a mission, good show Andrew

[kiwiflyboy]

Friday was a pain in the ass day, the wind was swinging all over the place, all 2 knots of it..... no matter what i did i would float like a bitc*, at one point i was moving my aim point 300 meters back from the threshold and would still float past it........ i hate no wind days! 17 is a good age to ease into it, you can go solo and get ur PPL when ready.

[chopper_nut]

Well done, its a big moment when you carry out a landing more or less by yourself for the first time. I still remember my first, hell it wasnt that long ago. I really enjoy flying on days where there is no wind, its a real challenge, the key is to get set up really early. At WLG we have one of the biggest circuits around so its quite easy to get yourself slowed up and pull out all the flap you can.

[kiwiflyboy]

I was focusing mainly of flap-less touch and goes on our grass (580m) i think......

[ZK-Brock]

Flapless on 580m? Can't see myself trying that...However adding flaps does add difficulty in Xwind conditions if I remember

[kiwiflyboy]

In a 172, you take 20 of flap for a crosswind, that gives you a good forward view, and helps you keep your speed up..