Strapless landings

Tuesday 28th February

After completing my QXC yesterday, today is allocated for filling in the blanks in the training and the start of the final polishing of the flying performance for the skills test on Thursday. It is an early start as I need to be at NAC by 7am.
I made up another of those rolls that would be my lunch. If only I could remember to take the Lurpak out of the fridge when I got up then maybe I would not have to chip off lumps and try to get them to stick to the bread instead of the knife. My flight bag was really heavy with the Flying Training reference book in there with everything else. On my way through the breakfast area I have a drink of orange juice, and get a couple of apples for snacks in the day and also pick up some paper serviettes to wipe off the dew from my bike and saddle. I quite enjoy these early starts (don’t tell NAC this) as you are cycling when the sun is coming up, there is not too much traffic about and you arrive with rosy cheeks and all those Endomorphins in your system. It really sets you up for the day. My first flight is in N946AC with Nikki. We set off soon after 7 and fly to the South East and over the farmers fields where it is good to practice manoeuvres as long as you broadcast what you will be doing. We practiced the various types of stalls and their recovery, slow flight, steep turns, turning stalls, pfl’s and the standard rate 180 degree turn in a cloud situation. It all went well and Nikki said to take us back to Naples where I would do a flapless landing. In N946AC it was also be a “strapless landing” as the door no longer had a strap on it from when I gave it a good tug yesterday. I was tempted to tell Richard that it just fell off in my hand but I only tell the truth, and I knew he wouldn’t have believed me. On my approach to Naples I was too high and in recovering from this, too fast, so I made a mess of the landing and this was a shame as most of the rest was good. Back on the ground Nikki gave me a list of “reminders” of things I need to do on the skills test. The dual flight just completed was 1.5 hours and my next flight was to go back solo and practice most of these exercises again starting at 11am.

I am allocated N939AC for my flight. Having not flown it before I am looking extra hard at it on the pre-flight checks. All is well and off I go and do my practising over the farmer’s fields. On my return to Naples I am supposed to do a flapless landing but arrive way too high (even the tower told some other traffic in the pattern about me being high) so I had to revert to full flap and idle power. I’m not quite up to side slipping to lose height this close to the ground yet.

Back at NAC we go through the de-brief on my 1.2 hour flight. Nikki had lots of paperwork to do. Just as I was taking this picture she had realised that I was not paying attention and was up to something.



I made a phone call to England and then met new arrivals Carrie and her dad Alister. Apparently they have been reading my blog. Carrie had been here recently and would be starting the ATPL course later this year. She has spent quite a lot of time flying microlights’ and got her PPL in San Diego.


Carrie’s enthusiasm for flying has been picked up by Alister and he is here at NAC for six weeks doing his PPL from a standing start. Best of luck Alister, you will soon be enjoying possibly the best six weeks of your life.


Alister already into using the training videos. The first flying lesson is tomorrow. He says that the weather here is better than where he lives in Portugal.

I managed to eat my lunch and was due to fly again at 3pm. This time it is another dual flight with Nikki. It was my third flight of the day and my third different aircraft, N938AC. Maybe Richard was trying to reduce the wear rate that I was giving 946. After a really good check-over, Nikki joined me and we set off for the farmers fields and the coast near Marco Island. Here I did some hood work with ‘unusual attitudes’. The hood restricts your view so that you can only see the instruments. Then you close you eyes whist Nikki throws the aircraft about the sky to disorientate you (it works), after which you open your eyes and need to recover to straight and level flight by just looking at the instruments and making the necessary corrective action. It is a strange sensation and it will take me a while to get it 100% but it was stimulating. I also tried the standard rate turn with the hood and it should have been straight forward but I seemed to struggle with it. The hood was deposited in the back and then Nikki applied carb heat and idled the throttle and I had to practice a forced landing without power. My chosen landing place was the beach but I went through the ‘fix the problem’ circle and should not have as we were under 2000ft when the practice started. This is all excellent learning practice for the actual skills test. After climbing above the fields I learnt about steep descending turns and did some side slipping practice. After the practice it was time to go back but as the runway had changed it required approaching from over the toll booths on the I75. This was done and Nikki said to do a short field landing. I seem quite good at these as I have a tendency to arrive to high as I did on this occasion. The landing was good though and I taxied off the runway on the first taxiway and only had yards to go to get to the NAC ramp. Nikki is going to sort out my arrival height problem tomorrow although I just need to get down to the circuit height of 1000ft much earlier. This had been a 1.2 hour flight, so I had clocked up 3.9 hours on this beautiful sunny day. After more de-brief paperwork I set off back to the hotel. I swapped my heavy flight bag for a rucksack and cycled back out to the nearby store where I restocked on orange juice, lager and a couple of their strange selection of microwave meals. It is very hard to find one that has meat in it. It is a great store for vegetarians and vegans.

I have another early start in the morning but have just got time to mention some more “wish I had bought with me items” :-

If you are cycling, a big rucksack that will contain all the bits you need for flying

A cycle toolkit

Some map cleaning fluid, although I find that anti mosquito spray works well. (have not seen any mossy’s since I have been here)

A bigger bottle of shower gel

A bigger bottle of deodorant. I got one from Walmart. It smells of popcorn of course.

A while ago I did a post where I referred to a flock of birds on the beach. The picture only had half a dozen birds and that is hardly a flock. This is the picture that I meant to post.


For those that want to know what a peewit is here is a picture of one


It is also known as a lapwing.

I have not forgotten ‘jogging us style’ it is just that I am too tired right now.

Be in touch at the end of another sunny Florida day.

Peewit