Carried out pre-flight checks followed by takeoff – much straighter down the runway this time; I am getting used to the idea of steering with my feet – different runway today 15, we used 24 on previous  flights.

As a reminder to myself – the runway is chosen to ensure we take off into wind – or as near as can be.  Runways are numbered using the first two digits of their heading dropping the last digit and rounded to the nearest 10 so 24 is 240° and 15 is 150° – using the opposite ends will be 06 and 33.

We did a bit of consolidation of last Fridays lessons followed by level turns and turning whilst climbing and descending.

We were on our way back when Frank told me we would be doing some stall recognition and recovery next time – he then demonstrated what it felt like to stall followed by the standard recovery procedure. Just as I was thinking ‘that’s something to look forward to next time’ he asked if I wanted to try it – well you just have to don’t you. So off with the power, keep the nose up and gradually pull back on the stick as airspeed reduces –  I tell you it is a bit unnerving doing something that all your instincts are screaming at you is just wrong – as air speed reduces the nose pitches higher  – the stall warning indicator sounds in your ear but you keep back pressure on the stick – the aeroplane starts buffeting and eventually the nose just drops even though the stick is right back – that’s the stall.

The recovery is straight forward – ease forward on the stick and apply full power – of course the first time I pushed forward too much and too fast which has the effect of ballooning bringing the aeroplane into a secondary stall. OK I got it wrong but lesson well learnt – it was much better on the second go. Now I know what the symptoms are if it happens I should be able to cope with it – of course the idea is to not get into a full stall in the first place but it’s good to know what happens so you can better prevent it.

Back for the landing – came round on the approach a bit to much and found myself too far left – I was a bit slow in correcting the line so Frank helped out a bit but handed back to me for the landing.

All in all another good flight – Up again on Friday – consolidating today’s lessons then into the circuit training – hopefully with a bit of practice I will get the landings a bit better.

If your interested in flying I can’t recommend it enough – check out the Sibson site for more information.