Learning To Fly: Cessna C150 Conversion

I got the chance to go up in a Cessna C150 Aerobat at the weekend at Humberside airport (EGNJ). It was supposed to have been a trial flying lesson for a friend but he wasn't keen on flying in such a small aircraft so we did a deal and I bought the voucher from him.

The Cessna 150 Aerobat is a really different aircraft to my usual PA28: so small, compact and light. Humberside airport was fun too - visiting somewhere of this size for the first time as a pilot in training was interesting. I'd already checked up on the Pooleys Flight Guide for the layout and radio and was ready to go.

The principles of the pre-flight check, taxiing and handling were all the same but the takeoff run was quite different to what I'm used to. Full throttle then... take off. Where was the ground run? I expect to watch the speed increase, runway disappearing, but no, this was like a balloon - straight up and in the air.

I found the Cessna to be a bit wobbly and twitchy in flight, but in return got much more of a sensation of 'flying'. I also learned to counter wing drops with opposing rudder. Something I've never made the concious effort to do in the PA28 due to its stability. So that was very useful point to pick up.

Cruising speed was excruciatingly slow. It would have been quicker to land back at the airport, get in the car, and drive to our destination. But then I wouldn't have been given the opportunity to take some great photos of the Humber Bridge and other sites of interest for friends and family who live in the area.

The north tower of the Humber Bridge, on the right in the photo below, is a VRP - Visual Reporting Point - for local pilots, it can be seen from miles around and attracts a lot of attention from other pilots so we had to maintain a keen look-out for other aircraft in the vicinity.

My R/T was a bit rusty partly due to the poor comms set in the plane - or maybe I'm spoilt usually, and that I have my routine so ingrained from Leeds Bradford that I found it hard to switch to a different airport's features and requests.

Arriving back at Humberside airport we had some time to spare so I took the chance to do one touch and go on R03 in a left hand circuit. The first approach was fun, with a Dash 8 as the number 1 and being told to delay for wake vortex.

Regular readers will recall my last encounter with wake vortex so won't be surprised to hear that I made for a very wide bearth and aimed to land beyond the touch down point of the Dash 8 a tip given to me previously by other pilots.

Touchdown was so smooth, it felt much easier and more focussed than in the PA28 which I wasn't expecting as I felt the C150 would be much more susceptible to the light crosswind.

On the second circuit we called it a day, we would have had to have done a full stop landing anyway due to a KLM Fokker 100 taking off and leaving a wake vortex.

I was encouraged that both of my crosswind landings were pretty good, maybe I'm starting to get the hang of the crossed controls and once it becomes natural then it makes the approach and landing so much easier rather than having to conciously think about flying the aircraft.

My only piece of self criticism was that in the circuit I didn't drop to 500 ft in the base leg. Remaining at 1000ft. This felt more appropriate so that we had a long slow glide on finals. I also know that my R/T needs to be sharper as I couldn't always hear what was being stated or requested. I asked the FI what I should be working on but he didn't say there really was much to do except more practice to round things off.

That was useful feedback as the lesson had felt somewhat like an exam with someone new reviewing my capability

So now I have an entry in the log book for an additional type and would definitely be interested in doing some more Cessna flying in future.