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.