I was entered in two competitions today. The first was the student landings competition, where you go up and fly two circuits with an air judge. Instead of judging the entire circuit only the base and final legs are judged. If you thought it was hard to land on the landing grid with a 1-2 knot tailwind try a 3-5 knot tailwind! Needless to say I did not fly well but I don't feel too bad about it because I got to experience a tailwind landing. I know some of the people were hitting the low fence erected just outside the landing grid near the threshold. Even seasoned PPLs were having difficulty putting the plane down in the 50 point box.
The second competition thankfully didn't require a judged tailwind landing. It was the student manoeuvers competition. You take off and fly out to the training area, where you are asked to demonstrate 3 out of the following manoeuvers: medium turn, climbing turn, steep turn, descending turn and compass turn. After that you must demonstrate a standard overhead join. I had to do a climbing turn (probably the worst one I've ever done), a compass turn (was a bit nervous about it but nailed it bang on) and a steep turn to the right (I got a little high and low at times but held it together). The standard overhead join went quite well but I was a bit tight in and didn't expand the descent leg as far as I could have. I was reasonably happy with my performance but I don't think I will win any awards for it. The trip back was interesting because I was cleared for a long final approach to Grass 08 and I got us a touch high (actually I cut the throttle fairly early but WAM was doing 120kts indicated and it took a while to wash off the airspeed before I could lower flap). I did four sweeping S turns on short final and we touched down nicely on the stall horn. Funny how my best landings of the weekend were NOT judged ones! :)
The second competition thankfully didn't require a judged tailwind landing. It was the student manoeuvers competition. You take off and fly out to the training area, where you are asked to demonstrate 3 out of the following manoeuvers: medium turn, climbing turn, steep turn, descending turn and compass turn. After that you must demonstrate a standard overhead join. I had to do a climbing turn (probably the worst one I've ever done), a compass turn (was a bit nervous about it but nailed it bang on) and a steep turn to the right (I got a little high and low at times but held it together). The standard overhead join went quite well but I was a bit tight in and didn't expand the descent leg as far as I could have. I was reasonably happy with my performance but I don't think I will win any awards for it. The trip back was interesting because I was cleared for a long final approach to Grass 08 and I got us a touch high (actually I cut the throttle fairly early but WAM was doing 120kts indicated and it took a while to wash off the airspeed before I could lower flap). I did four sweeping S turns on short final and we touched down nicely on the stall horn. Funny how my best landings of the weekend were NOT judged ones! :)
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