I have another flight under my belt now. When I went to the flying club today, the winds were 20 knots gusting 30. Unal asked me if I wanted to go up, and I said absolutely. We were directed to runway 32, which is the 10,000’ one, which meant that we had to taxi all the way to the main apron, and follow WestJet planes.
The flight was indeed bumpy - sometimes one wing dropped 60 degrees, and the wind blew us off course constantly. One other thing happened as I was approaching the runway for the last time today. An F-18 took off runway 32, and the instant he was clear of the runway, put the plane into a vertical climb. At the time, we were flying at 1,500’, but the jet must have been higher than us within 2-3 seconds. The invisible column of turbulent air he left was blown by the strong wind all the way down the runway towards the point I was going to touch down. Sure enough, out of nowhere, my plane dropped like a rock, and a wing dropped. It reminded me of flying a glider, and going through turbulence!
I realize it must be hard to visualize what I mean when I talk about runway 32/22, and the circuit. To give an idea of what the airport looks like, here is a screenshot from Google Earth. You can see the flying club at the green dot. The normal circuit we fly from 22 is shown in red.
