Crosswindlanding

The whole way to the airfield, i was looking at the weather, and not liking what i saw.   It was raining when i got to the airfield.   As i arrived the instructor asked if i’d like to take the J230 up instead today, for something different, and i agreed and started my daily and pre-flight inspection on that instead.   After that was complete,   a discussion commenced about what we were going to do.   I really need ot be doing more upper air work again, but the weather was not going ot let that happen.    After the rain ceased, and the cloud lifted, we set off in the J230.     My first thought when i pushed the starter button and it spun into life was just how sweet the exhaust note was.    I’d noted it before outside  when others had been around,  but it sounds very nice inside too.     Full throttle and we were away,  settled into a nice climb, flaps up early, airspeed quickly gaining, climb to about 500’AGL, and decide the cloud is just too low, so drop back down to about 400′ AGL and complete the circuit and land.    On the downwind leg, i think we were doing about 110kt.   Thats about 15kts quicker than the J170 normally does.

Initial thoughts on the J170, were that it it sounds nice, cruises quicker, flys similarly (same wing as J170) climbs like a rocket, even though we only climbed 500′, is more crammed in the front seats,   legs more bent, panel/throttle/instruments/windscreen all a lot closer.   A combination of good and bad.     But i do like the exhaust note.

The low level circuit is very similar to a standard height circuit, but flown at a low altitude., so the circuit is much smaller, and a lot quicker to fly.   All the checks are the same, everything else is the same.

After more rain, then some wind, then more rain, then really low cloud, and 2 hours of sitting around in the hangar chatting, the weather cleared up a bit and we hopped in the Inspected and pre-flighted J170.   We went up and flew 2 low level circuits, then the instructor asked me to let him out, and i flew another 7 on my own, then ran out of time.

The low level circuits were fairly uneventful (the way all flying should be!) and after a while a few other aircraft decided to join in the circuits as well.    I got through 9 circuits in 0.9hrs including a stop to let the instructor out, so thye are fairly fast.   I think i can usually only mange 6 or 7 standard circuits in an hour.

All up, it was an interesting morning, with some entertaining banter taking place as we all waited for the weather to clear.

I still need to be studying for the Basic Aeronautical Knowledge exam.

Solo Hours: 3.6
Dual Hours : 18.1
Total: 21.7