Weeks 10 + 11: Performance

Another two weeks of ground school have come and gone, as has another lengthy subject; Performance. It's mainly related to, funnily enough, the performance of an aircraft at the various stages of flight and the external conditions that can have significant effects on the aircraft in question.

So for example, we are required to work out (with the seemingly endless supply of graphs), the distance required for the aircraft to take off depending on the weight, altitude, temperature, wind, slope etc, and the speeds at which it will lift off the runway and safely climb away at a given rate of climb and thrust setting. I think a lot of people assume planes apply full power, hurtle down the runway and take off the same way every time, but there's a lot of factors that I've just mentioned which can make a huge difference. Having a runway contaminated with water can cause its takeoff and landing distance to increase because of the lack of friction, so making sure the aircraft has enough runway is very important!

There's also a decent chunk of theory involved, some of which we originally covered in Principles of Flight, which fortunately makes the learning curve a little less steep!

Although Performance is of course relevant, I'd be lying if I said it was my favourite subject! There's a lot of speeds and numbers to learn off by heart, and it's not as interesting as some of the other subjects I've done. Oh well, I'd best get on with it!

I also had a good time volunteering at the CTC Open Day the Saturday before last. It was good to give aspiring pilots some advice and just have a general chat, as this time last year I was in the same position! I also managed to get some time in the simulator, which is always a bonus!