‘Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth and danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings’. The first line of John Gillespie Magee’s poem, High Flight, inspired me to find out what he was actually feeling when he composed it during the Second World War. So before trepidation knocked on my door, I picked up the phone to my local flying school, and booked a trial lesson.
Pre-Flight and Take-Off
My flying instructor, Kerry, was a jovial old chap, whose passion for flying compounded my excitement for what I was about to experience. After we’d completed the pre-flight checks, I opened the cockpit window and shouted ‘all clear’ before turning the ignition key and starting the engine of the Cessna 172. To my surprise, he asked me to taxi out to the runway whilst he made all the radio calls. After zig-zagging for a while, I got used to steering the Cessna with my feet, using the rudder pedals, and before I’d had a chance to collect myself, I was faced with the imposing view of the runway before me.
He asked me to apply full throttle and follow-through with the controls as he accelerated the Cessna to its take-off speed of 50 knots. And then we were off the runway, accelerating away from the ground at around 500 feet per minute, me wondering if I’d ever get out of this noisy, bone jangling contraption alive.
Basic Manoeuvres
After climbing to 5000 feet, we set course for the training area. Here, Kerry talked me through some basic manoeuvres such as flying straight and level, climbing, descending and turning. All required use of throttle and control column and I was surprised how responsive the plane was to my input. The control column needed to be handled gently, using two fingers to move it rather than gripping it with my whole hand.
After a while, Kerry sensed my confidence was increasing and decided to take control and show me some advanced manoeuvres to keep me from getting too cocky. I followed him through a controlled stall. This involved cutting the engine to idle, whilst pulling back on the control column to keep altitude. Eventually the wings lose their ability to produce lift and the little Cessna dropped 500 feet in a couple of seconds. Kerry recovered the aircraft just as I recovered my breath.

Approach and Landing
Heading back to the airfield, Kerry took control and seemed to be in constant communication with the tower. His language was peppered with phonetics and numbers and it was difficult to make sense of what was actually being said.
As we neared the airfield, I felt a rush of excitement in my belly as I couldn’t wait to tell my friends back on the ground, what I’d just experienced. I sat exhausted and happy whilst Kerry was aligning the craft with the runway centre-line. Applying flap, decreasing throttle, then allowing the Cessna to glide over the threshold before greasing the wheels onto the tarmac.
I was sold. I totally got what old John Gillespie Magee was on about. I went straight to the flying school and booked myself another lesson.

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As the adage says, what goes up must come down and in aviation, landing is a phase of flight which can give pilots both pride and embarrassment. Landing an airplane requires precise control of speed and descent and it is essential to fly a good approach in order to land smoothly and safely. When I was learning to fly, landing an airplane was not something which came naturally to me and there were several walks of shame from the aircraft back to the flying school. However, by the time I was ready to fly my first solo, I was greasing those wheels on the tarmac like a pro. If you are finding it difficult to do smooth landings, don’t worry too much. You won’t break the undercarriage and all pilots have to go through the same struggle. However, soon you will be wondering why on earth it was so hard to master it in the first place.
As crosswind landings warrant an entire post, I will leave them out until another day. I learnt in a Cessna 172, so all speeds and flap setting apply to this aircraft type.

Prepare for landing on base and final legs

Normal landing
As I mentioned before, a good landing follows a good approach. It’s important to have the aircraft flying at the correct speed on final, and this means reducing the speed on the downwind and base legs.
Before turning from downwind to base, reduce power to 1500rpm, hold the nose level and allow the speed to drop to 75 KIAS. Apply 10 degrees of flap. When the threshold of the runway is about 45 degrees behind you, turn onto the base leg.
While on base, apply 20 degrees of flap and get your speed down to 70 KIAS. You should aim to be turning onto final at 500 ft AGL.
Once on final, apply 30 degrees of flap and keep speed at 65 KIAS. Control the descent using power. Aim for a spot on the runway just forward of the threshold (piano keys) and keep that spot in the same position in your cockpit window. If the spot is moving downwards, you are too high and will overshoot your aiming point, so reduce power. If the spot is moving upwards, you will undershoot, so apply a little power.
Once over the threshold it is time to flare. When to do this takes good judgement and a lot of practice. Flare too high, and the aircraft will drop onto the runway and bounce. Flaring too low is called crashing into the runway!

Short Field

The main objective for a short field landing is to clear any obstacles in the approach path and land in the minimum distance possible.
In order to clear obstacles in the approach path calls for a steeper angle of descent which means a lower approach speed and use of full flap. Once clear of any obstacles, power should be reduced to idle. Touch down and flare should be as close to the threshold as possible, retracting flaps and applying full brakes when safe to do so.
I hope you have enjoyed today’s post. Please feel free to comment if you have anything relevant to say. Please do not spam as you will be wasting your time.

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