Slow Flying, Not Stalling

Flying Hours Today 1:00, Total 16:30

After a long enforced break over the Christmas and New Year holidays - both fell on weekends this year so the flying school was close - and a wintery cancellation last week, it was back to some proper flying again today.

The weather wasn't too bad, following a week of storms and rain it looked like the high pressure following behind would provide some respite and indeed the weather was good for general flying.

Unfortunately the weather at Sandtoft, where we were scheduled for more circuit practice wasn't good. There was fog all across the Vale of York and surrounding areas this morning, not an uncommon situation at this time of year.

Slow Flight

"This exercise is designed to provide exposure to flight at abnormaly low airspeeds so that the pilot can: recognise an inadvertent approach to the stall; experience how the aeroplane handles at abnormally low airspeed; and take recovery action by returning the aeroplane to a safe flying speed."

From Trevor Thom's The Air Pilot's Manual 1 But I still wanted to fly. I told the instructor that I wanted to cover some more low speed flying, getting more feel for flying near the stall speed and maintaining altitude with reduced power etc. We decided to go and get G-BODD prepared for take off.


During the preflight check we found that fuel was a little low so requested a refill. We had to wait for the maintenance staff to show up so it was an opportunity to view some of the aircraft in the hangar at Leeds Bradford. My first time up close with a Cessna 152 and an R22 helicopter. Interesting to see these flying machines so up close. I was really surprised to see how small the Cessna is inside. Very cozy!

We took off on R32, to exit the zone on track to Harrogate. Take off was fun, there was a slight crosswind from the left so I was turning in towards it as we took off and I might have had just a little too much aileron as the aircraft lurched to the left as we left the ground.

Everything was soon under control as we made for Harrogate. We then spent the best part of the hour just practicing low speed flying, getting control of the aircraft just above the stall speed, finding two airspeeds at the same power setting by making use of the drag curve.

We overflew Ripon, Fountains Abbey and then Pateley Bridge. I was making good use of radio and consolidating on a number of the skills I've been working on over the past few months - speed control, practiced engine failure, turning, performance via the ASI etc. A very worthwhile exercise to start the New Year with.


Before long it was time to head back to Leeds via Harrogate. We were flying into the sun and it was difficult to read the map on the way in - although we knew where to go, I wanted to practice my map reading skills. On approach to Eccup we had to complete a left hand orbit then we were 2nd in for R27. At least I was going to be able to practice one landing today.

The approach wasn't eventful. The instructor deliberately kept quite. I was following what I'd learned from the previous approaches and making small adjustments to the throttle to change the rate of descent and adjusting pitch to maintain airspeed. It is all about control and focus.

As we neared the runway I was too eager to bring the nose up so just let it rest for a short while and glide onto the runway, I dropped the power and made and almost perfect landing, except that I hadn't dropped enough power and we touched down and I bounced. I had to cut the rest of the power and then second time around we touched down. A very good approach and landing, especially because I was thinking that there was a modicum of cross wind...