The Duchess cockpit is roomy and all the buttons look like they belong to a real aircraft, rather than the small plastic bits and bobs found in the beloved Cessna 150.
Also big, proper throttle, propeller and mixture levers (and two of each!).
After some familiarisation with the layout and starting procedures, I took-off and did an hour of flying to the north of Bournemouth. The cloudbase was a problem, but we managed to find a small pocket of clear sky just north of Blandford, where we climbed up to 6500ft and did some stalls, tight turns, and practiced the emergency gear extension procedure.
The weather then started closing in rapidly so we expedited a descent adn made it back to Bournemouth just before the heavens opened again. My first landing in the Duchess was OK, a little high initially and then a slightly overenthusiastic flare, so we balloned a little, but she settled back to the runway. A very forgiving aircraft, apparently.
Overall a good start I think. Lots to learn though, and now I need to go and study for tomorrow.
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