Biggin > Southend

I arrived at the flying club and had a chat to Bruno about what we would be doing today, he proposed the idea of bringing the student who was going to be flying after me with us (I was then flying again after him) and that we fly to Southend then Steven would fly to Rochester and I would fly the leg home back to Biggin Hill. The exercises that we were going to do (EX 4+6)

• The primary effect of each main flight control



• Flying straight and level in balance at constant power.

I was surprised when Bruno handed me the keys and told me to do the external and internal checks in my own however I really enjoyed this, after climbing on top of wings to check the fuel levels and leaving the checklist up there! I continued around the aircraft checking all the lights were working as well at strobes, flaps etc. Once I had done that Steve had arrived and we discussed the route and exercises and then went out to the aircraft to get all sat in, after getting the aircraft started I made the call to the Tower, which was different to what I had been doing the day before.... I then taxied to the engine run up area the taxing is getting a bit better (i think) then ran the engine up to make sure it was all working how it was supposed to we then continued the taxi out to holding point Alpha One runway 21. We took off and started flying out to Sevenoaks climing to 2000 feet, once clear of Sevenoaks and Biggin Hills airspace we worked our way out towards Southend and on the way did some exercises we slowed the aircraft to 65 kts and increased power to stay level it felt odd because the nose needed to be pitched up to keep the speed at 65 we then did the same by pointing the nose down to get the speed up but maintain the height we then practiced making a few turns and continued flying towards Southend passing over some good sights along the way! Once we was at St Marys we gave approach a call who told us to position for a Right downwind which we did there was two other aircraft flying into the aerodrome which we could not see so had to continue to fly downwind until the 2nd one was well clear, turning onto final we lined up with the runway and a lot was happening trying to: line up, watch the speed, watch the height, listen out to the radio, look out for other traffic, descend think about using flaps, we used up 3/4 of the runway before touching down however it was my first landing and I felt that I more in control and "on my own" which was a good thing even though I did think we was going to have to "Go Around".

After clearing the runway we taxied off and cleaned up the aircraft and parked up, off to pay the £20 landing fee and grab a coffee! - All in all a good flight which I felt I had learnt loads from!

Next flight: Later that evening.