Simviation Forums

After a few weeks (do to travel) I got my 2nd lesson in today. Did the usual...taxi, takeoff, turns, steep turns, stalls, etc. Then I started turns around a point, doing left hand turns I was fine (sitting in the left seat), but the right hand turns were a bit harder do to the fact my seat was back farther than the instructors so it made it a bit tricky to see out the window,  I just had to aim for the point and hope it was still there. Also it was hard to find a point to circle round, first place, house in open field (noticed it was the chief of police's house). Second place, a small group of trees (On the other side of trees noticed trailer with group of rednecks running out of it, not wanting to get shot at we left). Finally we found an old barn and no-one shot at us, so that was good. Then I did a touch and go with a crosswind, the airplane can be used again. On the go part of the touch and go we noticed KCLT had changed departure runways when a 737 came straight at us at 6'000 ft. All in all it was a fun time, can't wait for the third  :)  

Turns about a point are tricky. While you're training, it's all about gauging the wind (obviously) and until you get feel for compensating for wind, you're kinda groping and correcting by visual reference. It's kinda like rudder use. Eventually you'll feel the the coordination in the seat of your pants, and will actually fly cleaner turns than if you kept that ball centered. Same for ground references. Eventually you'll be able to feel your way around a point. Just like eventually your patterns will square off on instinct, regardless of the wind.

As with all other aspects of training,, you gotta keep the time between lessons to a minimum...

Fun as heck.. hu ?

Yup, the key to any of those ground ref maneuvers is to know what the wind is up to as you enter- can't just go at it or you'll make it sloppy. In time you will find that if you enter a circling turn with some forethought, you'll be able to keep your eyes on the target and still fly a good circle at a constant altitude.

As for right turns: it's not the instructor's head, it's yours.  
Just takes practice, because the view always seems "wrong" when turning right from the left seat. Eventually you learn to compensate for the different angle... and take it from me, you'll be wasting your time trying to polish right turns while looking at the gyro horizon. That's just there so your instructor can tell if you're doing it right.

Glad nobody shot you down- keep up the good work!

Glad nobody shot you down

So am I