After six hours of high speed taxi practice spread over two months, I did my first circuit in 4 years in my Sonerai at 07:00 on Sunday 30 January 2005! (See the front page of the Sonerai_Aircraft Yahoo group for a picture.)
The takeoff was straight as an arrow. I accelerated at full throttle to 70 mph and eased back on the stick and.. We’re flying! Accelerate to 90 mph and maintain 90mph. wow 600fpm! We’re way up here and still over the runway! Not too bad for an underpowered Sonerai taking off at 4100foot at 23C. I ease back to 3/4 throttle and settle into a steady 300fpm climb out to circuit altitude watching the temps more than anything else. She used to overheat very quickly before I modified the oil cooler setup and changed to a full flow oil cooler. I throttle back a little more and settle into circuit altitude at 100mph.
Hold-on what’s this? The ball is all the way to the left! Full throttle and a little right rudder goes together right? WRONG! This is a VW motor with the prop turning the OTHER way. I forgot! I put my foot hard onto the ball and whooooaaa. “Not so hard please?” says the plain. The ball goes all the way to the other side. This is definitely not a Twin Astir Glider!!! On downwind I play around with the rudder to get the feel. Just a touch on the rudder pedals is all that’s required. As a matter of fact it seems that she flies straightest with my feet OFF the pedals. Ouch my ego. Tower: “UNIFORM LIMA GOLF, report final for runway 29 number one!” Oops, I forgot to call right-hand downwind. Anyway “Aviate, Navigate and then communicate..” Not so? OK that made me feel better again. Now for the turn onto base.
Lead in a little right aileron, check the ball with light touches on the pedals and what a pleasure. Almost like an instant right turn! This little aerie turns on a tickie! I throttle back to 2500 RPM to start the descent. I turn onto final ever so gently and line up with the runway, but something’s not right. I’m way too high. I’m still sitting at 5000’ and the VSI says I’m not descending at all. I throttle back all the way and the VSI says I’m descending now at 600fpm at 90mph. I slow down to 70mph, but the descent rate only drops away to 100fpm and then settles back and stays at 600fpm. While I do like these figures, I don’t like my approach at all and decide to go around. I’m definitely not going to start trying side slips this close to the ground on my first flight attempt!!!.
The second circuit goes much better than the first. I even remember my radio calls. The ball stays in the vicinity of where it should be most of the times. Still a bit sloppy in the turns, but I’ll just have to keep on practicing, practicing, practicing and practicing until it’s perfect. What a pleasant problem!
This time on downwind I leave the throttle at 3/4 setting to see what happens.. This Sonerai has no in-flight trim capability. So I need to keep forward pressure on the stick to stop her from climbing. 110mph and still she wants to climb. I’m at 5200’ so I increase the forward pressure on the stick. More.. More. 120mph. still needs more pressure.. Back to 5100’ and doing 130mph. I maintain 5100’ and the speed comes down to 125mph and stays there. Now I’m almost on top of the N1 and I do a quick turn onto base. Wheeeee! What a feeling! Things are starting to click together now. My tummies hurting from the excitement! This is the most fun I’ve had in four years!
I throttle right back on base leg and check airspeed 90mph, altitude 5000’ and descending 600fpm. I turn onto final for runway 29 and call final. The tower says: “ULG cleared to land, wind light variable.” Right, so now I’ve got a nice looooong final to get myself lined up for touch down. I add a little throttle again to maintain 400fpm. Man, this baby just wants to fly. Now we’re too high again. Throttle back down. I drop the left wing very slightly and feed in some right rudder. Nose down to maintain speed and we start going down. That’s enough.. Straighten out and enjoy the ride down. Check airspeed, runway, windsock, airspeed, runway, windsock, airspeed, runway, windsock. The windsock says I’m landing with a tailwind component. No matter, it’s a long runway and I’m going to touch down on the threshold… I flaaaaiiiiirrrrrr ballooooon! Give Power stabilise, close power and settle again, sinking, stick back, sinking, stick back, sinking, stick back, with the stick in my stomach I wait for the touch down and the tap dance to commence and “BANG”!
This is not a Cessna! I was too high! I peer past the left of the nose and do the tap dance to keep her rolling straight. I don’t touch the brakes. We roll all the way to the end of the runway and exit at the 11 threshold. I stop to close my eyes and say “Thank You!”
Regards
André Viljoen
