Lesson 25 - first xc nav

Lesson: 25

14/XII/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 1.1h


• Total time: 20.2h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David H

I only had 0.5 day left of annual leave and it was pretty obvious that I am going to use it to fly. Following lesson 23 and the advice from Gavin that I should get ready on Navs, I took it seriously. Bought myself a new chart, a kneepad, and any the other little gadgets you need for this part of training.

I read a lot about nav before I started my PPLs but it gets more obvious after you actually flew few times. Week and a bit ago DavidP went through all the details with me. Since than I started to read the nav book, not all of it. Just some chapters to fill out the blanks.  I also re-watched some of the King's videos I have on the subject.

I had 2 slots booked but it was pretty obvious the second one will not happen as it gets dark pretty early.

Arrived at the club, David was a bit busy (he's the CFI). I just told him that I want to get up for a nav, and I will start planning it. Asked about for the wind information (which DavidP provided) and also asked someone to spare me few p-log sheets. (have to remember to prepare some for the next one).

With all that in hand I started to get cracking. It was the very first time I would do it for real. I did some random calculations before using wiz-wheel but nothing I would have to follow and fly for real before. I think it must have take me a while (don't remember the actual time). After some time David came about with my student record in his hand and told me that they really don't do nav exercises until you have about 4h solo in the circuit. I just told him that I was pretty much flying the bloody circuit for sometime now. (my own fault that I didn't went up solo earlier) And that I wanted to break away from the 'pattern'. Fair enough, he said, and started to check how was I doing.

Of all calculations, I think I had one or two things wrong. Plus - he said, distances such as 2.5 Nm from the airport you usually don't calculate, just fly visually.

I got wind calculation wrong in one place, but all the others were okay. Pretty odd since I used same wind for the whole track.

Anyway, I got everything prepared and off I went to do the pre-flights. It all went fine except for the rudder. Somehow I couldn't move it to the right. Got a bit worried and went back to the club-house. David said that it is normal and it is due to the nose wheel not being straight. Made sense, the wheel was not straightened indeed. Good, because for a second I thought I am not going to fly Today - and that the aircraft is buggered.

We both got ourselves comfortable and here's the first 'ohoh'. I have my kneepad on and I can't really move the steering column. Bit of knee movement about and all is possible. Comment from David 'if you need to move it, it is really amazing how quickly that kneepad gets out of the way'.

Did all the preparations, stared the engine, etc. Taxying was uneventful. I was watching very hard not to exceed any comfortable speeds when taxying, as CFI is very particular about that.

Sun was pretty low and intensive and there was also a bit of condensation on the windscreen that was preventing us from seeing if anything was landing or not. But somehow we managed to check it out (that's what the side windows are for sometimes).

Lined-up. I always like to ask the passenger-instructor if they are ready. David just said 'wind up the rubber band' (what a nice expression btw). And off we went.

I tried to crab a bit on the climb away, because the wind was more from the left than straight in. Somehow I managed to crab the other direction  but quickly corrected my mistake.

We departed straight from the downwind towards Comber. Once above Comber David switched to Belfast Approach and dealt with all the RT.

I made a turn to the left onto my new heading and off I went. Noted down the time, etc. Started to read the chart. We were suppose to follow a road and my oh my there was a road to my left ( sometimes disappearing under the aircraft ).

Right on time, and I could see disused airfield far ahead (now made into a race-track) - that was our first turning point.

That was easy - I said very well knowing that it could only go worse from this point on :)

Did my FREDA check and again, turned to the left onto a new heading - this time towards Hillsborough. I forgot that I could do more than 15 deg of bank so it took a while initially before I got us into 30 deg of bank.

There was some guy trying to leave belfast freq but the belfast approach controller couldn't hear him. David relayed the message when asked about it by the controller. Pretty nice. Just thought to myself - what if it was me solo and he asked me that. I would probably have to exchange quite few sentences before I would give him same sort of information. Nothing beats the experience.

About half way through the track I took out the chart to make sure we are on the right track. And - here's a surprise, we weren't. I did a bit of dead reckoning, and turned to the left back towards the town that was suppose to be below us.It was time to do the next FREDA check and it all became clear. DI was 5-10 deg off. Note to self, check the DI after each turn even if 10 minutes didn't elapse since the previous one.

We started to enjoy the views. There was just a ton of lake, and some places were pretty gray-ish - not only covered in snow/frost, but the sun was going down. It was that time of the day.

David was showing me different landmarks which I would not be able to distinguish myself otherwise. Too much information, so to say. We could see the Stormount and couple of other places. Things were making sense on the chart too. Altho roads were not as clearly visible as I thought they would be.

We soon started to see Lisburn and the shopping centre between Lisburn and Belfast it was clear that we got close to the end of that leg. And the time was also on the spot. On that leg I would loose 200 ft tops and weir a bit of the heading couple times. But it wasn't so bad. I tried to remember all the advice I was given about not fixating on tasks for too long or letting the aircraft settle before trimming.

Pretty soon we crossed the A1 and could see the Hillsborough to our left, with all its features. It was time to do another turn - this time towards Comber.

David asked for the clearance (we had to penetrate the belfast city zone I think) and I started to turn to the left. Once on the course I re trimmed and checked the DI . Pretty soon afterwards I started to check for landmarks to make sure that we didn't end up somewhere else. And everything was in the right spot. Oddly enough :P . Here's also a note to self, don't pick landmarks that are under the track directly. Pick something 1-2 miles to either side (left is obviously the best choice). Otherwise you can't see them, and I didn't fancy burning holes in the sky just to see things.

After a bit, I did another FREDA check and it was time again to check the landmarks. By now I could see the Strangford lough and the Scrabo tower. So fixing the position was pretty easy. Once overhead Comber we switched back to EGAD freq. I made an ass of myself on the radio (again) when I tried to announce our intentions.

Here was another thing I never did before - overhead join. Pretty easy in theory and it wasn't so difficult in practice either. We descended on the dead side of 04 (right hand) and I turned right cross wind, downwind. I must have let wind blow me off on the downwind, because we ended up at the other end of the universe. But I managed to turn base and do all the usual checks. This time sun wasn't blinding me so it was all good. About 400 ft away from the threshold aircraft slowed down and I had to add a bit of power. And also point the nose down a bit. I was close enough to know that one action would need to follow the other anyone.

The landing was not too bad. Pretty smooth actually but I flared a bit high. So the undercarriage got a bit of beating as a result. I was pretty happy, but David wasn't as much. I think he didn't like the high flare. Also he didn't like the fact that I still had a bit of power over the threshold. Well, I wanted to pickup a bit of speed, so we don't end up doing 45 knots over the threshold.

Taxied back to the apron. And David had few comments (which I pretty much listed above) and also said that he thinks it was pretty good flying overall.

Altho I probably won't be doing anything like that until May - June time next year. I hope next there will be a succession of solo circuits. In order to get 4h solo I need to be doing them by myself from start to finish. So far I've been let loose only for a last one of 5-6 per lesson.

Overall, quite happy. Grinning more than after first or second solo actually. Obviously I learned a lot from it. It was much more relaxed than the circuit flying and the view was spectacular :D Reminds me why I started to get myself into that business.

Here's the GPS track of my flight:

• Route: T/O RWY04, Comber, Bishop's court, Hillsborough, Comber, EGAD joined overhead for RWY 04


• Milestones: First nav, and first time with my kneepad in C152


• Exercises covered: nav


• Weather: Clear day, bit cold.

Lesson 24 - Steep turns and general handling

Lesson: 24

11/XII/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 0.7h


• Total time: 19.1h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

I had lesson booked last Sunday, but due to ice on RWYs I didn't fly. Than after the ice have melted, the bonker was not available. David P was so great to take a bit of time and explain to me all basics of navigation. Bit disappointed that I didn't had a chance to fly, I asked nice ladies at the reception desk to call me if there was any available slots on weekends. At least 45 minutes in advance, so that I could get ready and arrive bit beforehand.

Well, needless to say I didn't expect anything like that this weekend. So I decided to just go for a bit of a bimble in my car Today. We went to Bangor. I love to watch the sea, just sit and listen to its sounds and smell it. Than I remembered that one of students at the club promised to leave a book for me so we went for a walk to the scrabo tower (which has a nice view of the area including the club runways) and the plan was to go down to the club afterwards to pickup the book.

Got to the club, opened the door and lady at the reception was very surprised to see me. As it turned out she was trying to call me about 10 minutes before to let me know that there's a free slot :D Well, iphone's ring volume is quite rubbish so I never heard it. Didn't had the gear with me (note to self, cary it around on weekends, just in case!) and had my gf with me as well. And she wasn't quite pleased but wasn't resisting it either. I finally had a chance to eat something at the local Sky Cafe. And than went off to catch up with my instructor. I flew with him last time so no bother (as they say here).
Did the preflight of the unusually parked Kilo-Romeo. It was hidden behind the last hangar in the line of hangars that are facing the apron area. And it looks like someone had actually washed it. It was white again :D
When asked what do I want to do Today, I said that I wouldn't mind to do something else than circuits. After all, it has been a while since I did anything else than flying the rectangle shapes in the sky - so to say :). There were two choices , either PFLs, or steep turns. I chose the latter. Its been a while, and its fun.
So I did all the usual stuff, pretty much uneventful. I was a bit rusty, so it wasn't perfect, but I wasn't dangerous either.

We departed from the cross-wind to the south-(south)-east for some turns. Gavin gave me a chance to man the radio, but I have never spoken to anyone on the radio outside of EGAD's ATZ. Just when I was ready to talk to the Belfast Approach the frequency got very busy. So I had to wait. And it took quite a while. Usually we request the basic service as soon as we pass abeam the Mount Steward but this time we did it few miles down. I don't know what's the standard procedure in this case, ie, should you burn holes in the sky or just proceed and wait for the controller to call you names on the radio ? In any case, he didn't mind. After all, we were below 2k ft which is suppose to be fine.
As soon as I got a chance to say anything, I had to get it wrong. 'Belfast Approach, Scrabo 66' 'Scrabo 66 Belfast Approach, pass your message'. 'Belfast Approach, Scrabo 66 is C152 overhead mount steward, two POB, requesting basic service'. I don't remember what the reply was, or what did I forget (I think 'not above 2k ft' and what are we going to do and where'), but that was a face-palm moment for me. First chance to talk to a real controller and I blew it. Oh well, there will be more chances to make a foul out of myself in the future, I'm sure.
I've been trying to maintain a general heading and height, but I never managed to do both at the same time. I blame the wind, but we all know it was my fault :D
Once we got to the location the haze started to build. Vis was still good, but not perfect. I had to do quite few turns to make sure that there was no one in the vicinity. Once that was done, I got a short briefing on what are we going to do, and off I went.
I had to blew the first chance obviously. I thought that 45 deg turn will be marked on the attitude indicator, but it isn't. 60 deg is, and I was aiming for it rather than for the 45 deg which is in between 30 and 60. Monkey. Only after my second attempt did Gavin told me what I was doing it wrong. Afterwards it wasn't so bad. I only lost about ~100ft. Still not good but it was suppose to be a refresher for me. I can honestly say that flying only circuits for a long time can be quite a skill degrading thing. Or, I am again seeing things in a new light. I don't know.

Apart from just burning holes in the sky, I had a chance to reposition the aircraft between each turn on the right height, etc. It wasn't so bad.

After couple of turns I was told to head back. My slot was suppose to be about an hour. It seemed short, but considering the fact that we went quite a distance from the airfield (bottom of the peninsula, near Portaferry). I managed this time to make the call to the Belfast Approach controller without incident. I also had a chance to do some heading/speed/height adjustments just to see how I get on, and it wasn't so bad. As soon as frequency change was approved tho, I managed to make an ass out of myself on the radio again. Saying basically that I am joining on base, whilst I was still about 5 miles away from the airfield. Gavin saved the day again.

Getting closer, I did a proper lookout, and was told to do the prelanding checks. I was tempted to take out the checklist, but what Gavin mean was to do the old good BUMPFICH checks. Lets just say, it wasn't as smooth as it should be.

As soon as I turned finals, sun was blinding me. Add a haze to the equation and you can imagine what I mean.

Needless to say, I managed to cock-up that landing too. Bit too high, not too fast but I balooned once. I was tempted to go around but speed was correct, there was plenty of runway in front of us and speed was quickly bleeding off.

All in all, I was rubbish. I'm a bit of perfectionist, and very hard on myself when something goes wrong and is clearly my fault. Quite few lessons learned, and I will hope to remember all that in the future.

I got two slots booked for this Tuesday (of course, weather permitting). I want to do a short nav, the route I have to prepare will be comber-bishopscourt-hillsborough. I surely will have to wait with all the wind calculations, etc, till the day. But will attempt to calculate it Tomorrow using some current weather report . Other thing is I'll need to request Belfast City zone transit which is going to be fun. I've heard that controllers are never happy to give it when they hear that your RT is rubbish. I will also fly with the CFI who has some specific qualities which I have too (like analysing everything in detail and being anal about details). It shall be fun.

• Route: T/O RWY22, South east for few turns, and back, re-joined on base, LND RWY22


• Milestones: got out of the aerodrome traffic zone for the first time in a while. Spoke to Belfast approach by myself for the first time.


• Exercises covered: ex 6-7, 12


• Weather: some clouds, bit hazy, QNH 1026, moderate winds

Lesson 23 - more circuits, and circuits

Lesson: 23

7/XI/2010

• Lesson time: dual - 0.7h, Solo - 0.2h


• Total time: 18.4h (0.3h solo)


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

Got in earlier Today. Watched some young girl doing solo circuits bashing all morning in the Bonker. Her father is around always, watching every landing. He doesn't care about the approach, he always looks out on landing.

She only finished at 10:15, the time when I was suppose to go up. Gavin wasn't back yet, and when they landed (again, waiting in the queue at the triangle, because of all the traffic), they had a rather extensive debrief with his student.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands, and asked for the key. Took my time with preflights, because somehow I knew that I have time. The only thing that was bothering me, was a bit of oil inside one of the wheels. Apart from that , everything was super cool. I had time to make myself comfortable in the aircraft, strap myself in , etc. Meanwhile Daniel was struggling to 172 started next to the 152, I think it took like 4 times. I raised my flaps, to see it better, and thought even about possible action should there be a fire or something (you never know). But it was okay. However it doesn't hurt to be prepared for the worse.

Anyway. Gavin joined me, we talked about the plan for Today. Circuits circuits, and more circuits. On top of that, glide approach (should engine fail, but I could reach the runway), surprise efato (when instructor pulls the power on you, whist you are on the take off climb), and some solo work if time and the instructor permits. Never flew with Gavin before, so obviously he had no idea what a piece of work I am ;)

Anyway. Off we went, Gavin's call sign is 'scrabo 66'. For some reason, on the take off roll, I said 'scrabo 66 6 rolling active'. Don't ask.

Gavin told me to level off, before turning in the circuit, which should give me much better lookout. Another good piece of advice. This is the bright side to having multiple instructors.

Due to some traffic, and the fact that I started to level off before each turn, my circuits were looking a bit funny. Instead of flying parallel to the runway, I started to turn in a bit. So my base legs were rather short, and I had to S turn pretty much half of my finals. But I managed good (I think).

On my second circuit, Gavin pulled power and asked me what am I going to do now. Pushed the nose forward for 70 knots, and started to look for a field. I noticed a lot of wires in the air around pretty much all streets in the area. Very scary. I would turn 45 deg to either side, to avoid the wires, but was too low already. So I pushed the power back, and off we went. I think Gavin was ok with my implementation of the efato procedure.

On 4th circuits, I was asked to do glide approach. The basic idea is, that you have an engine failure on downwind, and you want to land on the real piece of runway. So about abeam numbers on the downwind, Gavin pulled the power again, and walked me through it. Basically, same deal as with efato, but you want to land on the rwy. Flaps 10 or 20, if required, speed at 70, trim, and start level one turn towards runway. I did that rather well, but there was the fire truck on the runway, so it was a go around. (again, cos 3rd one ended up in go around too. Daniel and student were still on the runway when I was about to land).

No GPS record from Today, cos the iphone app decided to stop recording it when I put it in my pocked :/ Oh well.

Don't remember how many circuits exactly I did. One before the last, Gavin asked me if I'm okay doing one on my own. Of course I was !.

I dropped him off at the apron, and turned around, checked for traffic twice actually (but turned in the other direction than the circuits ...). This time I was told to use 'student kilo romeo' as my call sign. There was one guy on base, so I just jumped in, announced my intentions and went up. I remember adjusting my seatbelt to be very tight, just in case. It is something that I always tell my passengers when I have one in the car. Problem with harness not done tightly is that it will actually break your bones and do more damage than good should anything go wrong. I have to say, I am pretty anal about it. But anyway.

So off I went, on cross wind some guy announced that he is going to do an overhead join, and once I turned base, I could actually see him flying over. I'm sure he wasn't doing the overhead join at 2k ft, it was more likely 1500 or so. But still safe enough.

Despite my attempts to make the circuit wide, especially on downwind, I ended up not so much parallel to the rwy, and again doing an S turn on my finals.

Apart from that, my landings were rather good I gotta say. We had to go around twice, which was a shame. But that was due to external factors.

On the last dual landing, we ended up bit high. So I was asked if I can do a slip. I know about crossing controls, etc, but never actually tried it on finals before. So I had a chance. I gotta say, it feels much better when you are the guy that actually controls the manoeuvre.

Solo circuit landing was pretty good too. I turned left to the triangle (see the EGAD layout to get the idea), and saw the aircadets guy just backtracking the active. Now I would have to wait for another guy to land (was on downwind), and aircadet moto-glider to take off before I would get to the apron. So I asked him, if he wouldn't mind letting me past. The reply was 'if you can catch up on the rwy, sure'. So I pushed the power, turned towards the apron, and passed him to his left, over a bit dodgy tarmac on the sides of the run-up bit of the runway. But managed to get by on my own. Couldn't be prouder of my achievement :)

I know it sounds corky, but these little things can be quite fulfilling.

I am still not confident enough about the size of the aircraft, to turn it around on the apron, so I kind of abandoned it between two other aircraft, but not close to the edge, but rather some distance before it:



Oooops, sorry. Wrong flick.

Here, this one should be the right one:



I was told to shut it down myself, and note the meters. And so I did.

Got a bit of a debrief, where Gavin explained why I shouldn't really do more than two notches turn on climb out. It all made sense. And after reading also Stick and Rudder, I got the idea even better.

Gavin complemented my flying, and said that I should really start thinking about doing Navs. I dunno what to say about that really (maybe you have suggestions ? ). I do the circuits for some time now, but I would also love to do some solo ones. On the other hand, seeing a bit of a different type of flying, might be quite nice. I always like new things, and get bored doing same thing after a while, so maybe he is right.

Dunno. That actually makes me wonder on the book I should start reading next. Met or Nav. The latter has to be bought, cos I don't have it.

Afterwards I ended up buying the club's t-shirt for my youngest brother. It's his birthday in bit over a week. I am going home for a week, mainly because of that event. For some reason, that has more value to me , than spending christmas at home. But than, I am not really normal anyway. Am I.

All in all, I gotta say, that I probably had even bigger smile on my face after Today's solo.

I was told, how people have this great feeling for weeks after the first solo. I don't know, I was proud of myself, eager to do more, but the feeling was more like 'finally !', rather than 'I am so great, look at me!'. But than, maybe I am just old. I remember tho, my first drive after getting my driver's license. But that's obviously not on the subject here. Suffice to say, I couldn't get enough. And I still do love to drive. I know that same thing will be true about flying.

And on that bombshell....

• Route: circuits, RWY22


• Milestones: glide approach, another solo, first side-slip on my own.


• Exercises covered: ex 12, 13 and 14


• Weather: some clouds, QNH 1013, virtually no wind or cloud on the sky.

Lesson 22 - round and round and round and .. a solo round.

Lesson: 22

31/X/2010

• Lesson time: 1.1h


• Solo time 0.1h


• Total time: 17.5h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David Phillips

:) :) :)  ...

What can I say.

Air-law passed, medical done. I was looking forward to be in the air Today. But weather forecast was indeed shit. Heavy rains, yadda yadda yadda. Typical for this region.

But, typically, people in England have no clue about irish weather, and that was indeed the case this time. Forcast was just waaay off. Its 1600 when I'm writing this, and there's still no sign of rain. Plenty of clouds, but no heavy rain forecasted for this late morning !

Following my bit rough ride through the farm land yesterday, I got out earlier Today with intention to clean my car from all that mud. It is a religious experience for me. I like it. Drive to jetwash, grab the hose and just do it. 15 minutes or so, and car is sparkling.

Off I went to the club, lesson was booked for 13:30, I got there around 13:00. As soon as I jumped in to the instructor's room, I greeted everybody (rather quietly, but David spotted me). Could see they were busy chatting, as soon as I turned around David said 'Kilo Romeo ? grab the keys, I'll do the papers and meet you in the plane'. So I went out or a preflight. David jumped back in not so soon after I've finished:



Last time I flew with David, I was still trying to nail approaches and landings. He was kind enough to do pretty tight circuits, and let me just try landing. All I can say is that I sucked at it back than.

As soon as he got in, question was - did you ever practiced forced landings after take-off. I knew where this is going, altho I equally thought - darn, there's no way I am going to go solo Today. I have probably to try few other things, like after take-off practice landings.

David quickly walked me through it. The basic idea is, that there is no time to think about what's wrong. You need to keep the speed alive, choose a place and land it. Seems pretty easy to me, but of course a lot depends on the luck. Ie, where you are , and where can you actually land it.

Today 04 was active, which means right hand circuit, and need to backtrack the whole way to the threshold. Of course, on a weekend day there's no chance to actually do it without need to use one of the taxi ways at the end of the runway. There's just too much traffic.

Anyway, we got there, 'ready?' 'ready!'. And off we went. As soon as I turned cross wind David took over to demonstrate the engine failure procedure on takeoff. Taking off 04 there's only city ahead of you, so not really possible to practice landings there, so you need to wait for the mid-cross wind leg.

We did couple circuits, some tight, some pretty good ones. No two approaches were alike. I got a chance to try the practice approach (not the landing ;) ) after engine failure. The idea is pretty simple, so not much to talk about. Also, from that height there's not much you have time to do.

I had to go around at one stage, because I ended up way too high.

I ended up retracting flaps a bit too fast on the go around, so David decided to walk me through it. I only did it once before, with Anthony. Basically, I was too quick to retract the flaps, in stages, but too quick. Basic idea is to get rid of the drag flap (retract to 20), but leave it there, until speed is good and we're off the ground. In my case, I only waited for the VSI to show positive rate, and did another stage, etc.

Another thing that I got wrong was retracting flaps too quickly on touch and go. I ended up pushing the yoke a bit, when leaning forward to retract flaps. Obviously not a good idea. Thank goodness, that the C152s nose wheel are designed to take a bit of beating.

We did about 8 altogether, and when David said that this one is for the full stop - I knew that the judgement hour is upon me ;)

Needless to say, he told me to turn left (which is nowhere in direction of the apron). We stopped and he asked me if I would be able to do one on my own. Little expecting what's really to come, I nodded saying - there always has to be the first time, and thinking "of course I am, I've been hoping to do this solo for a long time now". He just organised a lift back to the apron, and told me to turn around and get back on the runway.

I taxied back. The view was really nice. Finally I could see to the right, no obstacles blocking my view ;)

Checked the approach, no one on finals or base. Good.

Lined up, waited for some guy to vacate the rather longish 04/22 rwy.

As soon as he said that he's off, I pushed it, and was airborne in no time.

My first two calls I made as 'kilo romeo', but than got back to 'scrabo 62' - David's call sign. I got told later that I shouldn't use it.

Everything seemed to be easy-peasy. But than once I turned base, the thought got me - "shit, you're on your own buddy. No one to back you up now".

pulled the power. I noticed that it was gliding much better. So had to pull some more, but I only did notice that before turn finals.

That was probably one of my best approaches, if I might say so. Probably because I got bollocked for previous eight approaches about what I did wrong.

Landed it nicely, altho, probably a bit before numbers (David said that at this stage if I land on the first 1/3 of the rwy it will be good enough for him).

I was a bit to the side, so there was a bit of rubber burning when I touched down. But it wasn't so bad. Stall warner sounded before the touchdown.

Whenever someone requested info, David would tell them that there's student on his first solo in the circuit. Makes you feel a bit special.

Backtracked to the apron, someone congratulated me on the radio. To which I replied "I feel a bit scared", "That's the way you're suppose to feel" , "tada". :D

I sort of abandoned the aircraft on the apron, I couldn't really see any good way to turn it around.



I'm the guy on the right. You can see that the whole traffic unfroze as soon as I left the taxiway behind me ;) There was some guy waiting there in microlight, but he was kind enough to move a bit to make some space.

The feeling afterwards reminded me of my first ride in the car after I got my license. I was on high alert, shaking a bit, or you could say - excited. But wanted more and more and more. Only difference is, that here I wouldn't probably dare to do more, because I was a bit knackered.

Checking out and paying for the lesson, Daniel - instructor I flew with couple lessons back, said that he was ready to send me off back then, if I only had my airlaw.



(I only noticed when I got home, it should say 152 instead of 172).

So here's the tip, for those who only started (and you have to be one, or be pretty patient to get here through my greggish writing, or be David P :P ).  Sort out your medical and airlaw as soon as possible. You don't really wantto hear that you could have been sent solo earlier if it wasn't for these things.

I'll probably start to grin Tomorrow. Today I just can't believe that I did it :)

I have the GPS tracks for Today's lesson, but they are really irrelevant.

Big thanks to David for all tips and the trust. I hope I got all the facts right.

... :) :) :)

• Route: circuits, RWY04


• Milestones: first solo.


• Exercises covered: ex 12, 13 and 14


• Weather: some clouds, QNH 1004, bit of a cross wind.

Air-law passed !

Decided on Monday this week, that I shall pass air law this week. I did 2 shifts on Monday pretty much, one overnight, so I didn't study too much on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday I catched some bloody infection of the throat, and remained at home till end of the week. Whenever I'm ill, and at home, I would sleep very irregularly, so I had time to read and do airquiz tests. My pass mark was around 80-90 in airquiz.com and the iphone app from the great circle in england (very good app, but I would change couple things there, but as the iphone developer, I am a bit spoiled ;) ).

Woke up on Friday mid day, feeling much better, read a book some more, did more tests, with scores ranging from 60-95%.

Saturday, again, woke up midday, did three airquiz tests, and two on the iphone. All passes, altho marks were below 90 (not much off tho). Decided to phone the club, and since I haven't spoke much for the past two days, there was some babbling on the phone initially. But I was told I can just stop by, and take it Today. Jumped in the car, took route much different from the usual, so my car looks like I drove on farm roads (which I did), especially after Yesterday floods in the area.

I got the pen, papers, and was sat in the room where I usually get my briefs before lesson.

What can I say, some answers were not as clear to me as I would hope. Even tho I knew subjects. For instance, question about filing flight plan from an aerodrome where there's no designated facility for it (no atc, etc). Pretty much all answers were right (as even acknowledged by the instructor), but only one was the best one according to the CAA.

A lot of subjects on the Chicago Convention and the ICAO stuff. Far more than I expected.

Didn't have any questions on quadrantal rules, or QNH/QFE altitude/height calculations, rather disappointingly. But that doesn't mean they are not there on other tests.

All in all, my feeling after I've done it, was that I probably have failed it. But to my surprise, I got 82.5% mark. Not so bad, CFI said, that there is quite few cases of people failing it first time apparently, so - he said - not to feel too bad about it, if I fail the first one.

Passed it. Yay.

I feel like another , rather important chapter of this training is finally in front of me.

To all novice folks reading this, make yourself a favour, and pass it in earlier. If your school does ground classes, kiss the ground on which they walk. It would really be useful if I had one. (altho ulster uni does one now apparently, so not all is lost)

If weather permits, I'm flying tomorrow. And yes, I have that rather naive hope. And yes, my instructor laugh when I said it already :)

Lesson 21 - landings landings \m/

Lesson: 21

17/X/2010

• Lesson time: 1.0h


• Total time: 16.4h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

Another new instructor I have never fly with before. Gary is from NZ, and as all kiwi's he is extremely friendly guy. You can tell the guy works out, so he is quite wide so to say. And that's probably was my only thought since yesterday (no pun intended). 'how are we going to fit in 152' :) But we made it.

Like all kiwis he was straight to the point. Just wanted to get up, so he went through the checks whilst I prepared my stuff.

Initially he wanted to fly very tight circuits himself, and leave me on approach and landing, but it turned out otherwise.

There was very little traffic Today in the air, and in the club for Sunday with fairly good weather.

The checks were so quick, I barely fixed my headphones before we lined up for 22. Than just a quick push of the power, and off we went.

Circuits as circuits. Every instructor has its own ways and Gary is no exception. He wanted landing/taxi lights when necessary, etc. Also when it came to good old bump-fich, he said to dump it, and instead go through knobs and gauges in the cockpit, maintaining lookout every few. That makes much more sense that remembering some abbreviations.

Than there was approaches. I usually pull power to about 1500 RPM once I turned on base, than hold the nose, let speed bleed, and put two stages of flaps. Gary noticed that this gets me into trouble, and instead suggested about 1700 RPM which indeed helped to keep me up high enough for the approach.

So because of the speed problem, I ended up too high on the second one, and Gary showed me side slip approach. It was pretty scary I gotta say, but got us down pretty quick.

I think I nailed it by the time we did like 4th, and Gary even asked what's my medical status ("Do you have our medical sorted?"), to which I affirmed, but said that I still need to do my airlaw. He later said, that he was considering sending me solo. Nice.

Second to last circuit was just prefect, in his own words. And I nailed landing spot on. So he decided to do another one. And so the last one was just the total opposite. I think because he reminded me when turning base, that I need to put my landing light on. That sort of threw me off the track. But still it wasn't too shabby.

During the debrief, he also mentioned that I still gotta do the flares much nicer. I keep flying nearly level above the runway, instead of getting it up notch more. Apparently that would cause even greater ground effect, and will slow us down even better and cushion the landing itself. Cos one thing I noticed so far, is that I don't get the stall warner on flare. And that's probably why.

All in all very nice day. Its been a while since I flew for an hour, but I am very happy with my progress now.

I have fortnight before the next one, so need to sit down on my air-law. For various reasons I doubt that the next instructor will be keen on sending me solo, even if I will get my air-law. But I keep my fingers crossed for that.

(think this is the shortest entry ever).

• Route: circuits, RWY22


• Milestones: even better landings.


• Exercises covered: ex12 and 13


• Weather: FEW017 SCT045, QNH 1024, wind all over the place.

Lesson 20 - nailing the landings

Lesson: 20

16/X/2010

• Lesson time: 0.8h


• Total time: 15.4h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David H

My plan to fly more often is going well so far, the weather was approaching CAVOK Today. Pretty much the best you can get around here.

Started my Saturday as usual, with bit of physical, 20 miles on bicycle, including couple of steep hills to go onto. Afterwards, I was so buzzed with energy that I could not sit at home. Decided to jump in the car, and drive to the club, and learn a bit more of the airlaw in the car.

30 min before the flight, I asked for the key. I never had a chance to actually fly with David before. One of my first lessons, before I even flew for the first time that I booked with him ended up with quite extensive preflight. He was an engineer himself, so I have some common language with him. And share the love for details and technicalities.

Did my preflight. Noticing that trim tab only 'works' on one of the stabilisers. As it turned out, it is only on one of them ! it makes perfect sense, but I have no clue why haven't I noticed it before. Also port wheel was rather in poor condition in comparison with the starboard one. But it was ok according to CFI. Apparently you don't need to replace them in pairs like on an automobile, so the starboard one was brand new, and hence the contrast. Nose wheel looked a bit deflated too, but that is also on purpose. It makes the nose-wheel shim a little less. If you ever flown in C15X you know what I'm talking about.

Today was also the day I was using my Pooley's checklist, rather than the club one. It is much smaller, but I never used it in the aircraft. It does some checks in different order, and is worded differently from the one I used to use. But it is also much easier to handle in rather cramped space that C152 provides. I was quite taken over by the fact that I flew with the CFI. So I must have forgot couple things. But he is very patient, and he always gives reasons to his remarks. Which I very like. I like to know why that way, not only that I did something wrong.

Radio work went rather smooth. No probs with that anymore. I also felt much more engaged in the whole experience. Probably because again, no one was trying to grab the controls from me. Or perhaps I am getting grasp of the whole thing more and more. Dunno. I also had my 8 quid 'pilot' sunglasses on my nose, which helped to keep cool and I was able to fly into the sun for a change. I still aim to get proper ones, but can't cough up 80 quid for specs just yet. (that's nearly 40 minutes in the c152, why waste it for some top end glasses).

Took off nicely, turns were ok, but made monkey off myself during bumpfich again. David said, just to check all vitals, like instruments, fuel, breaks, carb heat, and not worry about other things.

First approach was complete rubbish. I turned on too early, mixed up things. I was very nervous, flying with David for the first time, trying to give good impression probably. Dunno.

Second one, David asked me to fly away a bit further from the runway, bumpfich suddenly decided to let me get it right. Approach was still rubbish, we had to go around, because of some guy closing in behind us.

Third one, we had aircaddet in moto-glider flying before us. Even in 152 we catch up rather quickly. I had to fly parallel to it, and had to slow down to about 65 knots, extend my downwind. This approach was much better. I got reminded again that carb heat goes out first before I pull the power. Otherwise it is pointless to do it with less hot air that goes out when you pull the power.

I was spot on on that approach, and was announced to have landed (and than took off) completely by myself, with David sitting relaxed and with hands crossed.

On fourth one I forgot about flaps, which David kindly retracted for me.

And others were just fine :) Maybe too high on the last one. But,boy other traffic can distract you.

(that blue line is when my GPS thought I took off vertically into the air)

One note, microlights. What's the point in having a radio, if from 200 ft I cannot hear you clear on mine ? Seriously. I don't know how these people are still alive.

All in all. Couple lessons learned. Carb heat goes out before power is pulled. Comes back around 200ft before landing. Lookout is very important, and so is speed on approach. It turned out that I was extremely high on approaches before, because I always felt that I am too low. So note to self, this is a landing you are getting lower, that's the point of it!

What else ? I got CFI to tell me (and my instructor for the next day), that my landings are finally coming together. That was a very high complement.

I have to say, for an ex engineer, he has a very typical sense of humour. Kind of like all of us. Good to see that some things don't change over the years. I tried to even complement him, saying that these days one would say that he has a nerd type of sense of humour. He was surprised, but I hope he didn't took that wrong.

And initially I told him, that I would do rather something else Today than circuits. But he insisted on doing one or two before doing overhead joins. I'm glad I did stay in circuit Today (sounds funny, I know).

There was also a lot of traffic Today, so I learned a good deal about listening. And also that when there's two guys in the thing, four eyes and four ears hear and see things better and quicker. Altho I believe that David heard and saw everything just fine, but elected to see if I could :)

One things makes me sad. If I had my airlaw done now, I would go solo Tomorrow most probably. Oh well, I will have again two weeks to sort that out.

:=]

• Route: circuits, RWY04


• Milestones: landed without much help 3 times ! yay.


• Exercises covered: ex12 and 13


• Weather: very clear, little bit of wind.

Medical passed

2nd class medical for 5 years passed with flying colours.

Costs nearly £200, and takes about an hour. I am not going to write too much about it here. But needless to say, I was scared like s*^t beforehand, and it turned out to be quite ok. Just got single remark from the doctor (not on the cert itself), that I need to loose weight, otherwise it might be rather hard for me to do so after I hit 35.

So, on the 'ready for solo' checklist, I still got two positions to check: (you've guessed it)air law, and learn to land properly, so that instructor will be confident I won't crash the spam can.

Next two lessons booked for this coming weekend. Subject to weather obviously.

 

Lesson 19 - yes, still in the circuit.

Lesson: 19

03/X/2010

• Lesson time: 0.6h


• Total time: 14.6h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: Daniel M

At the end of August, most instructors I flew with left the club. After quite painful September (finically), I decided to book 4 lessons in the October. There was a bit of motivation to push things forward with flying, if I want ever to get it done. I am approaching the stage, where if I won't solo soon I will loose motivation. Still quite ahead for that to happen, with my angel's patience. But on the second side of the curve (down-hill that is).

The weather wasn't looking good Yesterday, but somehow it cleared up Today. It was actually very lovely. I went cycling a bit, washed my car, and than drove to the club.

Every time I enter the club after a bit of break, I get very excited. My heart beats up very loud and high, and I nearly get into the panic state 'what would I do'.

Waited a bit for the instructor, talked to folks in the instructor room a bit. One of the students was on her solo, and she got microlight in front of her on finals, quite close. So her instructor had to tell her to go around. Dunno if it was her's first solo or not, but she was doing very good on landings. I went outside to look how everybody else is doing.

I never flew with Daniel before, he just joined the club recently, so I had no idea how he looks, or what sort of instructor he is. Won't name them here, but some instructors wouldn't let me do much if I did something wrong, the would take immediately. And in a situation where there was no danger, or anything (say taxing, etc). So I had my reservation as to who this guy will be , etc.

Anyway, the time came, and he came back from his previous lesson. After he did paperwork for the previous student, he asked me what was I doing currently, and if I am flying solo now (lol). Btw, I phoned the local CAA doc, to get an appointment. Left a message on his phone, probably will get a response on Monday. Brushing up my airlaw knowledge. Still rubbish at it. But I do realise, that I need these two things done asap, to get ahead in flying.

Anyway, told him that I am in circuits stage, and went off to checkout the aircraft.

He arrived pretty soon, and I had just to tell him, that I would like - if possible, to remain at controls whenever possible. And was happy to hear back, that this is precisely what he always does.  Such a relief.

Went flying through the checks, a bit of hesitation on the initial radio call, but all others went very smooth indeed. But I got response back from David H, with QNH 991, and active RWY 22. Read it back, nearly correct, but forgot to check the dial on the instrument. Monkey..

Lined up , did my checks, did 360 to check the circuit, and left aircraft pointing towards rwy22 entrance. Daniel was very nice to remind me, that I cannot see anyone on finals that way properly, and I should turn a bit to the right. Breaks were funny, so I did almost 360 again, this time, I could see some microlight on finals. The microlights have rubbish radios. The guys were calling from 500 ft, and I could barely hear it in the aircraft.

Taxied onto the rwy, lined up. Asked Daniel, if he is ready. He confirmed. And off I went. That beautiful feeling of taking off into the sky. And , ghaaa, sun shining into my eyes. Spoiled the fun. I started to sweat like hell. Hate it (sweating that is). Continued on, trying to remember how it is to keep the aircraft in balance. It was grand. Around 500 ft, did my lookout, and turned. Again, around 950 ft, another lookout, turn.

I did level off on the first circuit, waited a bit for the speed to build up. And now, a bit of hesitation.  Was it 2300 rpm, 2200 ? Shit. I went with 2300 first, but the aircraft was still speeding up. So lowered it a bit. I attempted (C)BUMPFICH, but it was rubbish. Even tho, I was talking to myself these checks earlier on Today whilst cycling. I also forgot radio call. Monkey.

Turned base, pulled power, waited for the speed, flaps, 10, 20. Watched for 65 knots, turned finals.. And Daniel spoke. For the first time. "you forgot your radio call". Lol. The man is an angel. He did patiently let me do all these things, and was very very patient and understanding. As usual, I made a mess out of the flare. I asked Daniel to follow me through on the next one. But he said 'well done landing'. I suppose, we walked from it (or rather pressed on for another take off - touch and go), so it wasn't so bad.

Next circuit was much better. Sun in the eyes, sweat on the take off. Than turn away from the sun for crosswind. On downwind, this time I made the call, went through the bumfich very smoothly.

On the flare I was a bit too low, this time Daniel walked me through it, even backed up the power leaver too, to show me how smoothly, yet quickly I have to release it. I did baloon on this one, but we pressed on. 22 is very long, so you can give it a try.

Pressed in the power, and off we went. i got reminded that i should really push the leaver much quicker. This is one of my fears, that I push it very hard, and the engine will quit or something. So i always do it gently, counting 1,2,3 very slowly. But looks like I have to stop that habit of mine.

Last circuit was bit tighter, cos we wanted to get away from some student soloing in 172 (I so envy these guys now) trying to cut our tail off (just kidding obviously, but in 172, the guy had no issues in catching up, and he probably doesn't realise that he is suppose to slow down when there's a slower aircraft in the circuit).

This time I was too low on the approach, and only about 45 knots. Daniel pushed in the power, so it was a balloon , but in the air, if that makes sense. And than I tried to land us, which went rather well.

Slowed us down, and quick turn to the left, as the tail cutter was right behind for touch and go.

And than we spent another 5 minutes probably, waiting for everyone to land. All of the sudden there was a queue of aircraft to land, so we had to wait. RWY22 is the longest, and widest, but also you have to back track it to get back to the apron.  Aircraft on approach has the right of way, so you cannot enter an active runway when there is anyone on the approach. I did another monkey thing there, which is, I didn't turn the aircraft so that I could see the approach well enough. Well, one more thing to learn.

We got back, I do understand what I did wrong rather well, so there was not much to discuss. Got my paperwork done, and went off to pay.

Since I was feeling so well after this lesson, I thanked Daniel for the lesson, and said that I enjoyed it very much. Not to offend any other instructor, most of whom I flew with were great, but this guy is in the same league with Rodger when it comes to patience. And somehow, it helps me great deal to absorb more that way.

Next lesson booked in two weeks. I booked for Saturday and Sunday. I think, in the future it will make sense to book for two slots in the same day, with an hour break in between.

All in all, greatly enjoyed that one.

Now, that I got two weeks, it is time to sit down and lear the bloody air-law for 100%, and also sort out my medical.

:)

• Route: circuits, RWY22


• Milestones: none ?


• Exercises covered: ex12 and 13


• Weather: very clear, little bit of wind.

Lesson 18 - Back to the basics. Basic handling, at the Trim aerodrome

Lesson: 18

28/VIII/2010

• Lesson time: 0.5h


• Total time: 14.0h


• Location: EITM ( Trim aerodrome http://www.trimflyingclub.ie/ for more info )


• Aircraft: EI-DCC (C172)


• Instructor: William Treacy

I got a newsleter from Flyer Magazine on the other day, and finally - it says, that there's a flyin nearby (ie, on the patch of land I live on currently). Decided to go, and have a look.

So, got my breakfast, and jumped in the car. 97 miles later, we got to a very nice rural area of the rep of Ireland, co Meath. I saw one aircraft on its finals, but couldn't really find an entrance to the aerodrome. Of course, my trusty iPhone came to the rescue, as always in that sort of situation :)

We parked in, and went to have a look around. In general, it is a farm strip, with a two little buildings one used as instructor's hq, and the other one as general clubhouse. From the start, you could tell, that they are not used to visitors. I didn't felt out of place, or unwelcome, but you could see, that everyone knew each other, and you didn't knew anyone :)

[caption id="attachment_148" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="View at the apron, all the visiting aircraft"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_147" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="View at the apron, all the visiting aircraft cont"][/caption]

Nonetheless, I decided to ask someone if it is possible to have a ride with instructor. I was pointed at a very nice chap name William, as it turns out he is the CFI. We got there around 15:30, and he said it might be a while later before I could actually go and have a go. Well. It would be a wasted day otherwise.

We spent a bit of time with Kate, looking around the aircraft on the apron. She was quickly bored with all that, as since we knew no one, and I only had breakfast, we decided to have something to eat at the nearby town of Trim. Plus, the club doesn't take cards ,so cash and fly is the name of the game. I needed some paper.

Trim is a small town, with a very nice castle. And quite few places to eat. We went there to have something to eat, got some cash out (as it turned out, the diner was taking cash only too, what a place..), and went off to see the castle. The entrance was 3 euro, just to see a patch of 3 acres, so imo wasn't worth it. We just went around the castle to see the place. It is a very nice place indeed. Very quiet for Saturday, and all in all very nice.

[caption id="attachment_149" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="myself in front of the Trim Castle "][/caption]

Went back to the aerodrome, I got ahold of William, and told him that I am still very keen on getting up. I guess the guy was either staggered, or couldn't believe that I am still willing to stick around. :) There was some chap having his PPL exams taken, and he was waiting for an instructor. There was an aircraft waiting and prepared for him, so William didn't wanted to use it. Meanwhile, the aircraft I wanted to go in, EI-DDC, has been away with another student. So had to wait for them to comeback.

At around 18:00, I saw the aircraft coming back, for touch and go. And than after a circuit, they landed for full stop.

Few minutes later William said, that it is the time :D I couldn't be happier. Altho, after them few hours of waiting, it probably didn't show. Mind you it was windy, and we were waiting outside all the time.

Went to the aircraft, for a preflight. As with every CFI , William was very through in his preflight checks. And I also learned few new things.

For instance, they use wooden spoons (serious) instead of dip sticks, to check fuel levels. This is because, they don't want them to drop into the tank. Very wise. But seemed to me very odd indeed. We then went on to take some fuel samples, and they were all great.

Went around the aircraft as well, and William pointed me at few things that I've never checked. For instance, he checked stall warner with his lips. Serious, you just have to put your mouth around it, and suck in a bit of air. Never seen anyone doing it to be honest. I shared couple things that I would do. Every single guy would do checks more or less differently (and I am talking about extra things outside of the checklist). So you learn every single time, you talk to some other pilot. I like it about that profession. People are not shy in sharing things. They know, every single thing you share, could save someone else's life one day.

[caption id="attachment_146" align="aligncenter" width="640" caption="The aircraft for the lesson"][/caption]

It was also understandable, that William - never seeing me before in his life - was going through things with me, as if I never flew an aircraft before. Quite strange feeling, as so far I've been flying with people who at least had access to my records. So could see that I've been doing things.

I jumped in, and very first thing I noticed, was that instruments were in different spots from what I normally would see in Ards on 172.

One of the first things on the checklist, even before you start an engine, is to extend flaps. And there's the first foobar that I encountered. Where the hell is the flaps thingie. Needless to say, there was nothing like it on the panel. I was slightly puzzled. It turned out, that on the older 172s you get 3 way switch, and a gauge. So you need to operate the flaps, and check the gauge to see where they are at.

Another new thing I learned, was to check the ailerons, first to the left, and count one-two, moving yoke to sides. And than same thing for right. They obviously need to move in different direction.

Started the engine, and there's another gotcha. Where the heck did all engine monitoring stuff go. It turned out to be on the other side, Again William had to point me to it.

We went off. Never ever before did I had a chance to taxi on a grass. So first word of advice was, sloooow. Much slower than would I would do in Ards. Another thing, he showed me, was to test some of the instruments whilst taxing. Just do few turns on the runway backtrack, to see how things are moving. Nice. I did a bit of mess when turning for the power checks. So my instructor took over again.

I lined up, started to push the power slowly in. As always, was told to do it quicker. Rotated, and it turned out again, that I pulled too much. As it turned out, the ASI is in mph not knots.

William than asked me to level off at 2000 ft, probably due to the dublin airport zone above us. Obviously, I did a mess of that. Pulled the power too early.

Than was a procession of failures. But that's my point in getting a go with someone else, somewhere else. Originally I wanted to do this back at home, but my cash buckets were running out.

He than proceed to ask me to get slightly higher up, make few turns. Than a bit of approach configuration training, trimming, etc. I did a bit of mess of everything, but was much better than last time I was doing all that to be honest.

We went a bit to the north, than turned west. All I could see were collection points on , what I thought was M1, but it was M3. It was time to head back. To be honest, nothing on the ground looked familiar. I of course, never been up in the air in the area before. And there's another thing, if you look down, and search for a farm strips, there's a surprise. There's farms wherever you look, with exception of some small towns.

I was guided as to how to set it for an approach. So far, my past quite few lessons were in 152, so I had to be told what to set to what. And as always, I was too low on the approach. (btw, I tend to do same errors in X-Plane, when I tried my skills on approach there).

William took over the landing, as again, we flew together for the first time, and of course he couldn't trust me that I would do it right.

I did a bit of taxing back to the apron in front of the club, but William parked the aircraft on a nice little concrete patch where it will be parked.

During the debrief, William explained to me why and what we did, which only agreed with my suspicions. That he was trying to see what can I do. He was very aware, that most things I did wrong were due to differences in the aircraft. One biggest criticism he had, was that I wasn't able to keep headings too well. It is something that have happened to me many times in 172s before. The more powerful engine, makes the yaw much more noticeable than in 152. In 152 I pretty much don't have to use much of the rudder to correct it, whilst 172 is very demanding in this regard. Of course, bank being secondary effect of the yaw, uncorrected, caused us to deviate of the course. And obviously, since I did a lot of power changes in the air, required rudder would be different depending on the power set at a particular moment.

I paid my fee, got back to my car. We headed back, but I needed a bit of rest on the way, I was so knackered. We stopped at a random petrol station, to fill it up. Since I had some euros left, I wanted to spend them. Plus I always like to fill it up, when it is under half full (or over half empty). Of course had to encounter some of my compatriots, showing off not so good attitude. No wonder locals than look down on me, because of my origins. Well...

On my way home, literally 2 streets away from the house, I got stopped by nice folks from PSNI. The PC that stopped me, told me that he can smell alcohol from me :D . Funny, cos I wasn't drinking since the beginning of July. I think he smelled my windscreen wash, as it was raining, and I just sprayed my windscreen massively before turning into that particular street. So 5 minutes later I was free to go home, and finally crash on my bed after a very exhausting day indeed. (it is a 2h drive each way, to/from dublin area from where I live).

• Route: Departed to the north, for general handling, than went to the west, and back to the aerodrome.


• Milestones: First flight outside of EGAD, and first one on a grass strip.


• Exercises covered: General Handling


• Weather: scattered low clouds, quite windy, and some rain.

Lesson 17, it's been a while.

Lesson: 17

16/VIII/2010

• Lesson time: 0.7h


• Total time: 13.5h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

It has been a while. Constrained by finances, after holidays I decided to get up in the air. Took Monday and Tuesday off, due to my birthday.

Haven't flown for 2 months as it turned out, and having these two days off. I phoned the club on Friday, to book Monday with Roger. He is a great instructor, very patient one. And it is a shame that I don't get a chance to fly with him more often. But unfortunately he is in the club only on Mondays and Fridays, which doesn't suit me a bit.

I got in earlier, was booked for 16:30, but got there around 15:30. I decided to end up being precisely on time, or even late sometimes. With embarrassment and bad name, comes many lost occasions to get up in the air earlier when you are just on time, or slightly late. So decided to rectify my name a bit in this regard.

The club felt slightly different, certainly more quiet - but that's because it is not weekend day. I re-read anything that I could forget (checklists, etc). Around 16:15 went over to check the aircraft.

Even the pre-flight felt strange. Like I said, it has been a while, and I have lost the groove. Had to remind myself what to do. Obviously, I know the theory, but after that time I wasn't doing it as smooth.

The bonker has new engine. And apparently went through extensive checkup. I gotta say, it was felt during the preflight. Ailerons were working smoothly as never before. Obviously engine inside looked silvery and shine. New cap and dip stick. New gears.

It wasn't as clean as I remember it from the last time tho, plenty of bugs stuck to it all over the place. yack.

Jumped inside, creamed up to my seat. It is funny also, how you forget where some instruments are. I noticed some new electronics inside as well. Nice.

Spend a bit there, with rain getting heavier. Obviously, aircrafts not having windscreen wipers, you can't see anything. The propeller is a wiper, in a way. Roger have joined me after a bit. We had only 1/4 of fuel in each tank, and he was concerned but decided that we can go and fly anyway. Very well!.

Taxying was unexpectedly easy(er). Even Roger noticed, that I no longer taxi in a serpent trail style. Did bit of a mess before the hold, I decided to turn with the wind to do my power checks, rather than into the wind, so I quickly just did 360 deg turn instead, did my power checks and off we went.

Of course, forgot to pull the yoke on the roll, so typical. And off I went, rotate at 60.

This time, having just studied the checklist, I decided to do all of them by the book. So ELF checks at 300 ft, (C)BUMPFISCH + radio call on downwind, call before turning finals, CRAP on 300 ft on finals. Radio work was never so easy to me. Of course, first approach configuration ended up to be a complete mess.

Roger previously was telling me, that approach configuration is his thing. He is very particular about it, and I know very well why. I do fully agree with him.

Part of being 'rusty', is that some things just don't come around first time. So when I was trying to fix the picture (attitude) by pushing control column, rather than using power on the approach, and doing opposite when I got 30 deg flaps on finals. I should have being using stick for it, and retrim it. Trimming wasn't so bad, but not as smooth as it used to be.

Overall, this was a lesson in reminding myself all these little things that I have forgotten. Or perhaps that's a wrong word. I do know all that. But when it comes to do it, I don't do it right.

After each circuit I got better and better, but than it was time to finish the fun. The weather wasn't getting any better.

The touch down before last, we had quite few dozen of seagulls all over the runway, and I got quite worried, but Roger said to press on. They all just few away as soon as we got close. Engine caught in an odd fashion, only once. We went off for the last circuit.

Last landing ended up in probably with 3 bumps. But Roger was very patient, and let me fix it.

We got back to the apron, I had a chance to taxi it back nearly to its hangar. Very odd to taxi so close to hangars.

All in all , lesson was very good. I certainly enjoyed it. It was a very good thing that I chose Roger to be the instructor for the day. He has this patience, that probably no one else in the club has. Even if I screw up, he will let me fix it, rather than take over straight away. It certainly makes for better progress.

Whilst waiting for Roger to comeback from his previous lesson, before preflight. I learned from Anthony that him, and few other instructors are leaving the club. For most of them, work in the club is just a way to get some experience and hours in the log book. That's a shame, because some of those instructors (including Anthony), I will miss. Hopefully new people will be as good as them.

I really enjoy this flying thing ... :D During my lunch break, I would walk around a park, over hills. And look at aircraft landing at Belfast Airport. I always think than, that this could be my job, if I choose to...

• Route: RWY 22


• Milestones: I'm back!


• Exercises covered: 12&13


• Weather: scattered clouds, quite windy, and rain. Slowly deteriorating weather.

Lesson 16, Gregg demonstrates how to land .. not

Lesson: 16

20/VI/2010

• Lesson time: 0.8h


• Total time: 12.8h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: Anthony S

Today was perfect day for flight. For some reason, there was not that many aircraft in the circuit when I drove close to the airport. Got bit worried by that, but they were flying alright.

Went out to checkout G-BNKR, it wasn't much flown Today for some reason, and my lesson was to be either last or one before last of the day.Odd. Plenty of fuel, everything in order otherwise.

Here's how it looked as I walked towards:



Now, here's a thingie that I noticed inside, the dark bit facing front. I wonder if this is so that you can put a camera there. If you know, let me know:



I did much better job taxing us to the 04 hold. Turned around nicely (Anthony asked me if I could do it) - well, in my own world that is.

And off we went. 6 circuits in whole. And everything was fine, more or less, except for the approach and landing...

I don't know what it is, but I approach more or less good. And than before the flare, madness starts. I tend to do opposite things to what needs done.

For instance, you are suppose to gently pull power and pull yoke, and let aircraft slowly and gently sink to the ground. Instead, when I see it dropping to fast, I add power, or push the stick. So out of 6 landings, probably one or two were not rubbish. Seriously. I do have to work on approach and landing some more, if I ever want to show anyone that it won't be a suicide mission to send me for a solo.

Anthony probably thinks, I am ignoring all he says. But truth of the matter is, I am trying to get a feel for all that stuff , so that I could do it myself, and react to things as they happen. Probably not the cheapest way to learn to fly (and land), but me thinks, most beneficial in terms of capabilities and knowledge. Let's just hope G-BNKR will survive that ;)

I won't bore you with details here, but out of 6 landings, we had to go around 2 times.

Side note, Kate bought me Red Ferrari ... perfumes yesterday. So Today I decided to put some on, prrrrobably too much. Anthony had to open window on one of the approaches to get some air (either that, or it was because I was running in sweat - it was damn hot). They are pretty intensive, so note to self, use less of it :)

Picture of zzz bonker's dashboard:



And circuits. One good thing, if I can think of one - is that I am taking off in much straighter line now. :)



That's it folks. Shortest post ever, I guess :)

• Route: RWY 04


• Milestones: Flap-less landing (twice). (70knts instead of 65)


• Exercises covered: 12&13


• Weather: scattered clouds, bit of wind, but otherwise perfect day for flying.

Lesson 15, approach, flare, more circuits

Lesson: 15

13/VI/2010

• Lesson time: 0.7h


• Total time: 12.2h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


• Instructor: David Phillips

The weather wasn't very stable Today. Phoned in, and was told to show up anyway. Metars were showing possible storm, but you never know.

So I got in, a bit early. Interrupted David in his lunch (sorry David). But he insisted on sitting down, and going through what we are going to do Today. So I did. This was quite a bit of preflight. With some math, etc. I like that :) . Anthony joined in as well, whilst he had his quick lunch.

Without getting too deep into details, David walked me through approach configuration, when to flare, and landing bit. And that was to be my focus for the day.

I than did preflights, and jumped into the aircraft. I got worried about weather, it started to be more gusty. You could see some rain clouds to north, and clear skies to the south.

David joined me in few minutes, and said that we should be okay, and if not, we will just go back and wait. So I went on with the usual business. I got a chance to pretty much do the whole taxing this time, with virtually no interventions from instructor (or maybe just got lucky, or better after a bit of practice Yesterday). As it turns out, for the RWY 04 you can't just backtrack it. It is rather long, and someone might fancy a landing while you are crawling back. So about half way through we went to the right, and tracked back just before start of the RWY.

On my initial climb out, I this time around was consciously trying to keep my heading alright. And it kind of worked. As usual wind was blowing me all over the place, but I tried to keep me on the same heading. David took over for a second, and let me see through rear of the aircraft. It looked not too bad. (to be honest, anything is better than what I did Yesterday anyway :P ).

The circuit was right hand. First time I ever flown one. Not much of a difference, except that there's some bloke obstructing your view when you try to pick reference point (for turn), and do look out ;) But he also tends to spot things for you, so it works out well ;)

Whilst first part of the circuit was clear, the second bit of downwind, and base were covered in rain. So it was hard to choose any reference points, and David said to make the circuit low. Don't remember heights (you can look it up on the gps track), but it was lower than usual 1000 ft.

As usual, my checks were rubbish, and I didn't managed to do any radio calls whilst in the air. Oddly enough, whilst flying with Roger, second circuit and later were spot on, and I did all the checks. Probably just the learners experience effect. As I progress, I see more and more things.

Since my focus was on landings and approach, David walked me through that, and pointed at whatever I was doing wrong.

In essence (so that I won't bore you with too many details) I did my approaches too low, and have a 'ground shy' tendency. That means, that I am afraid to lower nose, even tho I am flying too slow. That in turn causes (obviously), the glide path to be wrong. And if I start to pull the stick, to get away from ground (instinct tells you that you are going to crash if you put nose down, but in reality, you'll gain some speed, and your glide path will be more gentle) - things will only go wrong. I just have to practice that bit of landing more and more. On top of that, decision as to when to flare, and what to do in landing. But I guess, I got that better after this lesson.

So here's my first circuit:



Second one was just pretty much a repeat of the first one. With me trying to get my checks in better order:



For some reason, my GPS (iphone 3GS, and app's called MotionX GPS - very good app) lost signal few times, hence the straight line on downwind, and rather funny looking base.

After the two circuits, David said - 'look , your circuits are fine, it is the approach and landing you need to practice, so I'll make this one a quickie and leave you just to do the approach'. Idea was great. I get to do more, in less time. Always good :)

So basically he flew rather accelerated circuit, very tightly, and left me to do the final bits. Here's how it looked:



This was very quick one indeed. Upon doing that one, I discovered that it is probably the people, houses and stuff that makes me even more susceptible to the 'ground shy' effect. Basically, I can see all the movement on the ground, and I should be concentrating on the RWY and aim for the numbers.

Next one was full size, and I don't remember whether David was showing me the approach on this one, or I did another one myself. It looked like this:



For the very next one, David decided to go and fly RWY 34 (with the chance to fly over Scrabo , the bit that I like about it most :) ). There's no distractions on finals. You just fly over water. There is always someone on the sea wall, just passing underneath the aircraft as you try to land - but that doesn't make me worried too much. And I think this one was much better. Altho, I still feel like I am flaring too high.



Last one was to be a quick one, so again David did expedite us and set me up for approach:



He said this one was spot on, except for the approach, which was too low. I still seem to have to work on it. Well, that's the whole purpose of training, isn't :)

Once landed, he just said 'now take me home'. Wasn't sure if he was proposing another trip , or just wanted to go back to the clubhouse ;)

Overall, new instructor, new experiences, new perspective. This way it will probably take me longer to get the license, but I will also get more out of it (hopefully).

I know David will probably read it, so if I left anything interesting out, or got something wrong, let me know.

Finally, here's the full track (check out options->tour feature ;).

And btw, let me know,if you think I am putting in too many tracking images.

All screenshots above are from Google Earth.

• Route: RWY 04 and 34


• Milestones: hopefully got better understanding of approach, and flare, flew in rain


• Exercises covered: 12&13


• Weather: quite a windy day, some showers

Lesson 14, steep turns ... G-fun :D !

Lesson: 14

12/VI/2010

• Lesson time: 0.8h


• Total time: 11.5h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

I had a bit of break away from flying. My last flight was bit over month ago. So bit nervous, will I remember the drill ?

Got to the club just before 9, Anthony was already there. Got out of the 'instructors room'. I could see CFI was a bit puzzled as to which runway to choose, as wind was changing a lot.

I sat down, and Anthony told me that circuits are not going to be possible Today - I thought, great, so no flying. But no, turned out, we could do a bit of flying, but we have to go high up - air is much more "smooth" there. I am to do some steep turns. Well, always welcome new things.

Went out to do preflight, and soon Anthony joined me to ask me, if I wanted to fly C152 or C172. Apparently I was booked for C172. But C152 was free, and I do remember that I booked for C152 anyway (had it written down on my iphone when I booked). He went away, just to join me moments later.

Here's pic from apron cam, of me doing preflight:



You can even see some sun shining of my bald spot on top of my head :P

I was amazed how quickly I got back to reading the checklist, everything went very smooth.

As usual, taxing to the hold, and than across the runway was done in a serpent's style, but you wouldn't believe how uneasy it is to control an aircraft on the ground. After all, it wasn't designed to be driven, but was designed to fly.

Rolled to 26-34 hold ( see EGAD chart here in PDF ). Due to me being rather slow (other do the power check list very quickly from memory usually), we let guys past us, and than I did power checks. Much quicker than usual, because I already know what's coming next. And where's what.

Entered active, and backtracked it. It is funny how they always insist that I turn on the very last patch of asphalt. It is understandable, but with my still sloppy taxing skill, makes me slightly nervous.

I turned the aircraft around, and asked Anthony with grin on my face "you're ready for this?". It has been a while, so I could expect everything. Plus, I knew that the air is quite turbulent Today (gusts to 20kts I believe). I pushed the throttle, counting 1-2-3 whilst doing it. And off we went.

It doesn't bother me anymore as much as it used to, when wind tries to push you down, despite the fact that you are trying to climb up. But it is some interesting feeling. As usual, my climb out was crap. I still have to learn how to take off in straight line, rather than be blown away. Sometimes I think, it would be nice to have a rear view mirror on an aircraft (and horn, so you could scare off people wondering around the apron ). So here's my climb out, and first circuit bit profile. Cringe if you must. Advice is welcomed :P

(btw, here's the whole gps track )



As you can see, I got blown to the east quite a bit. For some reason it always happens. Perhaps because it is hard for me to follow reference point, whilst nose is up (since you see just a blue sky). My other suspicion is that I just turn to the right instinctively. Dunno. I guess it is just a matter of practice.

For the record Anthony tried to tell me about it, but he gave up I guess. We did quite an overpass, over scrabo tower. and than left circuit to south south east for some G-pressing steep turns :D

Usual trip is up to mount Steward, than switch radios over to Belfast approach, request basic service. Usually they say, not to go above certain height. This time, we climbed to 2600. I was doing quite well, oddly enough. Maybe apart from the fact that I started to level us out too quickly, and ended up loosing some height due to lack of airspeed (APT acronym, lookup my first lessons on that).

Anthony demonstrated the exercise. Basically, due to way wings work, lower wing is quite a dragger. Also, the lift component is really working under quite an angle. So for these reasons, you need to pull back, in order to stay on the same height, and add just a tad bit of power. I did it two times to the left. Anthony said he is really pleased with result. For the next one, he covered my 6 pack, thus forced me to look outside. To my amazement, this one was the best one so far. Even tho, I glanced at the instruments, I would mostly look at the attitude indicator. Just to make sure I am in 45 deg turn. Cos I have the tendency to go back to 30 or less. Basically, the idea is that you enter the turn, as you go past 30 deg, try to pull back so that you are on the same height and if you see that the nose tries to drop add just a bit of power to counteract. After that, pick a point on dashboard (or between screws on the cowling), and keep it there. Pretty simple.

Than we tried few right hand turns. These were trickier. When you do left turn, you are below horizon. On the right turn, you feel like you are on the top.

Anthony than demonstrated 60 deg turns, and also quite quick descending. Quite frankly, a this point my G-O-Meter told me I was nearing my physical limits plus we had to start to head back to the airport so I passed on offer to try it myself.

On my way back, Anthony wanted me to try to talk with belfast approach. But he passed on second thought. Also, asked me if I did any exams yet. I haven't. I don't even have medical yet. And I know time is pressing, and I should have at least airlaw and medical if I ever want to go solo around circuit. He also mentioned that there is going to be radio course pretty soon, and if I was interested. Of course I would! As for the airlaw, I would love to see course with airlaw as subject too. So far I've been scoring 60% on airquiz at most. Which is pretty poor result if you ask me.

Nearing the airport, I setup the approach configuration. Anthony helped a bit, and I did my best to land. But for some reason he took over about 300ft from the runway. I am still convinced that I was able to do it, but due to the winds probability of us going around was over 40%, and I guess he didn't wanted to chance it. Oh well, plenty more chances to do it ahead of me.

Once landed, I again was given a chance to get us back to the apron. On our way back, on RWY22 we passed C172 running on diesel (JET-A). Apparently, some photographers flying around. Diesel engines are making more and more market share in GA these days. Probably JET-A will no longer be so cheap once they get a major chunk. After all, some people live very well of our taxes, and there's tons of tax in fuel (even avgas)....

Got back to reception, to renew my UFC membership, and pay for the lesson. As it turned out, there's two "foreigners" training at the club, and they have our names sticked on top of the monitor - to make sure our names are spelled correctly. Embarrassing to be honest, slightly. I do promise, that if I ever get local citizenship I'll think about changing my name to Johnston or something simpler for everyone here to spell ;)

To summarise, it was nice to get up and fly. I did enjoy it. Never had such a grin on my face when paying 90 quid for 45 minutes in the air :) Serious fun.

• Route: RWY 34


• Milestones: pressing some Gs, 45 and 60 turns :D


• Exercises covered: 15


• Weather: clear skies, very windy tho - especially below 1500 ft.

Lesson 13, importance of landing configuration

Lesson: 13

23/IV/2010

• Lesson time: 0.8h


• Total time: 10.7h


• Location: EGAD


• Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

Another change in instructors. I was booked with David H Today, but someone amended it and I was to fly with Roger. Well, no complaints here. Roger's virtually perfect instructor. And I am not sure about the need to use the word virtually here either. :)

I got in, a bit late, Roger was sitting rather relaxed in front of a laptop. Weather wasn't perfect, so I kind of thought that we won't fly, but he said that everything is absolutely fine.

Great! He wanted me to jump ahead and do external checks, but I had to ask him for a brief. Because I know they all have their own styles of flying and teaching, I knew I could gain something from his. He has always been a great source of knowledge in the field for me, and I was not to be disappointed this time either :)

I sat down in our little room, and he went on to describe how he thinks things should be done. Now, his description wasn't any different from Anthony's, up until the point where we turn on base, and we gotta start configuring aircraft for landing.

He was very detailed there, and couldn't really make it any clearer that this is his thing. He always underlines importance of this. Now, probably because I already flew few circuits , and most of them were rubbish, and landings especially. And because Anthony explained whole thing to me already, I mean everything - pretty much on the same level. And because I know I am rubbish when it comes to approaches ! I was very interested in knowing how to do it precisely.

And I mean, Roger was very very serious when he said - that this is the most important thing when flying circuits. So here is what I do remember (probably not everything in such a detail, and I hope Roger is not reading this :P) , this is for C152 and your millage might vary:

1. pull power to about 1700


2. as soon as you pull the power, aircraft will try to maintain the speed, and nose will drop (if trimmed that is, but I assume I am trimmed most of the time


3. that means, pull the nose, not to loose any height (and he marked it with 2 exclamations here)


4. as soon as speed is on the white arch, first stage of flaps - maintain the height (3 exclamations)


5. second stage (20 deg), maintain that height (3 exclamations again)


6. setup for 65 knots (C152), and trim (3 exclamations)


7. turn finals (you shouldn't be below 600 ft at that stage, ideally)


8. 3rd stage of flaps, aircraft if trimmed should pretty much fly itself 60 knots at that stage


9. do the CRAP checklist (Roger didn't mention all points here, but that's the power of having more than one instructor - you get to learn more :D )


10. use power to maintain the approach , if trimmed well - around 300 ft above ground you shouldn't really need to use any back pressure at all unless obviously you are in a bit of wind


11. 30 ft above ground, flare. pull the power gently, pull the yoke towards yourself, and look ahead - at the end of the runway


12. if it wants to drop pull, hard at first, and than gently so you don't balloon


13. providing that you did all great, the aircraft should kiss the ground itself, basically sink as the speed bleeds off.


14. you haven't landed really until you're in full stop, or 'go' configuration - ready for another one.

I also asked about taking off, and setting for cross wind effectively, and what about the bounce on flare. The first one - is just a matter of practice. The bounce - Roger was very very clear here - that if you bounce off the runway - always go around. Don't fuss around.

And that's about it. Sounds simple. And to be honest, with 10 exclamations from myself, setting up is the shit maaan! I mean really, focusing on that was what I was missing on previous lessons. To be fair, Anthony introduced me to the whole concept. And now I'll just have to practice any bits of it that will not be as good as expected.

So, that was a brief, it took about 40 minutes, but again - Friday, everything was so relaxed, no traffic in circuit. Peace on earth ... :D

I did my preflight, setup some iPhone app to track my flight - but it turned out to be rubbish, it only recorded 10 minutes, and stopped. I'll find better one next time.

I went to my car to grab some water, as I was thirsty as hell (just had a chicken - loads of proteins make you want to drink a lot). Meanwhile Roger was adjusting the 'square', to reflect runway in use change (to 16).

I got back, did all check from the lists. And pretty nicely taxied us to 16/34 hold, where I did my power checks. Meanwhile Ian was just coming back from cross country, and passed me by whilst I was doing my checks. Nice backtrack on 16, snake trail of course ;) but I am getting better at it. Basic hint from Roger was - add bit more power, and the prop wash will make rudder more effective. It works that way. He obviously made it very very clear, to only turn around at the very end of the rwy. Pretty much kissing the grass.

I turned around, and because of the sea wall at the end of it, I knew that this is just very short. When you line up on 22, you have miles ahead of you. Here. you can tell, that every feet of that runway matters. Hence why turning so tight at the end of the runway was very important.

Very quick 1-2-3, power in, 55 kts, rotate, Vy (best rate of climb) - 65knts, and off we went for the first one.

I asked Roger to prompt me along the way. He virtually did nothing, but just sat there, obviously helped with controls, but would tell me what to do next when I hesitated. In essence, I did checks, radio calls, and flying more or less myself. That really felt nice :)

First circuit was obviously just a warm up, and wasn't that good. But wasn't that bad either. Roger was covering up speedo (ASI), to see whether I could feel the 65 knots instead of looking at it. And to my surprise, after trimming - I pretty much made it fly at 68 knots. I was seriously shocked.

Again, prompted very much along the way, we managed to do touch and go. Again, I did the radio, and flying. It is really doable, as long as things are done promptly, and Roger was helping me out here, by reminding me rather quick what's next. It is also funny how everything really slows down once you are flying the approach speeds. All of the sudden you have a lot of time.

That was the first one, second time around, I pretty much did everything up to down-wind leg without any prompting from Roger. Again, really pleased with myself. Configured for the approach, and fscked up flare... Seriously, I tried to be gentle with controls, and failed to pull it promptly. It sinked, bounced off ... Aaaargh.

I had so much in my trousers, the runway is short, we already wasted a bit by bouncing off. But Roger set us up for go-around. He was describing what was happening as we went along. But it was scary. Pretty much, you jam in the power, loose carb heat, and get it to fly above runway. When that happens, raise flaps to 20 deg, make sure you have speed, a bit of positive climb rate (very important), and only than another stage of flaps up, etc. it is very important to not loose it, and fly steady just above runway initially, otherwise bad shit may happen.

I didn't intended it to be that way, but that way I was shown how to rescue myself in case I'll get that bounce. Also, another mental note, if anyone ever will be brave enough to fly with me - tell them to sit far away from control column. Not that they will start playing with it, but if I ever will have need to pull it, I need enough space.

Anyway, went on for another two rounds, pretty uneventful - smooth and relaxed. On my final finals, with full stop, I could see some guy lining up on the grass runway (parallel to 16). He probably only noticed me, when I made the finals radio call. I remember asking Roger about what should I do, there's an aircraft there. He just said, 'let him know where you are'. It was just nice, to notice radio calls in the works. I know it seems trivial, and you probably think I am mad for mentioning it here, but that really felt good, just to hear the other guy telling you that he will wait for you to land first. Even tho it was obvious.

This is one of the things with Roger, he always tells you if you improved, and patiently prompts you what to do if you failed. But you don't feel any anger there. Just patience, buckets of it. That really helps. After all, you need to be relaxed when flying. And also that makes you learn quicker. I noticed I make a lot of progress with him. Probably would resolve to only fly with Roger, if it wasn't for the fact that I do like to get input from different angles, and even if it costs more money (and time), I hope that pays off in the future. After all, if you want to save money, you really shouldn't be learning to fly in the first place. Seriously.

And that was my Friday pretty much. Thought went through my head, to ask him if I could come back later on Today and do some more :) If it wasn't for the fact that I have work, and they really don't like it when I take too much half-days off, I would only fly during week. It is much more relaxed, and enjoyable.

• Route: RWY 16, round and round


• Milestones: landing configuration recognised


• Exercises covered: 12/13


• Weather: bit misty, strange gust blows in certain areas (thermals?) over the city of ards