Sunday 25 December 2011

xmas, new year, moving the blog (here!)

So folks,
Belated happy xmas wishes, and may the new year bring all the joy you need.
As for me, I’ve been in a flying-sleep mode for a while now, due to financial constrains, etc.

Advice of the day, if you are learning to fly, have about £500 buffered before you fly. Will make things easier ;)

I’m also moving my blog to http://yetanotherpplblog.blogspot.com/
Why? Because they are less pain in the butt then wordpress. Simple.
Yes they are owned by Google, and I’m not a fan of corporations, but still. Better deals :)

Hopefully I’ll resume my flying training around March next year :) So see you then.

See Ya !

Sunday 18 September 2011

Lesson 34


Lesson: 34


18/IX/2011

  • Lessons time: dual - 0.8h, solo - none

  • Total time: 29.1h (1.1h solo)

  • Location: EGAD

  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)



If you thought I'm gone for good - think again.

With holidays over, I decided to give the "new" club a visit. With the new CFI, a lot of positive change took place. For instance: late Thursdays. So, as you can imagine - I decided to stop by one Thursday after work to see how it looks like. Boy I was for a surprise. To skip through the boring stuff, in the end - I decided to book a lesson with a instructor that I've seen since the start of my aviation journey, but never flew with. Ray sticks in your memory. And he is a very nice guy. After Today I can also honestly say that he is one good instructor.

So anyway, got there earlier - just in case no one recognised my face. Went for tea with few instructors beforehand, just to listen to the latest rumours.

After that I went on to check the good old Bonker. Still the same old beast. Someone told me that it looks quite old and scary inside, but I kind of like it. There are some new aircraft coming to the club soon, in the same price range - so I guess I'll have a chance to fly something brand new - and compare the experience. For the time being, bonker is fine. It takes all the hammering studes put it through without a whine.

Anyway, flying. Of course, it was given that no one will send me solo on first day after 4 months, and with the cross wind.

So I did the first circuit. Ray started to ask me some very sensible questions. One - on the down-wind (which I called cross wind by mistake, what a monkey) - do you think - if the donkey quit - you'd be able to glide back to the runway. Of course not, I was miles away. Very good point.

So next circuits were more sort of elliptical in shape.

Ray was very happy about me doing the level off every 500 ft on climb-out (i.e. before the turn into crosswind). I would also start a turn at around 800 ft downwind. Made sense, and it meant that I could indeed at least reach the dry land - should the rubber band break.

The wind started to pick up closer to the ground, and I have failed to compensate using enough rudder. So the next touch and go was kind of scary. But I handled it.

So for the next one, Ray decided to show me what to do with rudder. I guess it was one of those things that goes away after a while. Something to remember, that even tho flying sticks in memory like riding a bicycle, there are some things you wouldn't do as good once you are out of practice.

So for the next challenge, mr Ray decided to cover the ASI and 'the ball' with chart. I was forced to look outside, and only use my attitude and judgement to set the speed. I was scared at first, and amazed later at how well I did. I was off by 5-10 kts, but always over the speed, not under. Which is of course important. Well, at least seems safer - given that we have tarmac runways, that are long enough for small biz jet. If it was grass short strip it would have been a different ball.

So that was a bit of fun and challenge. Ray said, that if the cross wind didn't get so bad - he would have let me have one solo circuit. So I guess, overall - I wasn't so bad.

I was also amazed how easy the radio has become.

At the end, the complementary gps track. No height tho - because go-flying went absent on all of us, and I have no where to convert the GPX tracks so that I would get the height coloured track. Oh well.



  • Route: T/O RWY 04 right hand circuits, maaasive cross winds, wind-shears, and of course 1 go around .

  • Milestones: It's been a while.

  • Exercises covered: circuits.

  • Weather: quite a gust, cross wind. Typical nice day :)

Monday 9 May 2011

(short) Lesson 33


Lesson: 33


02/V/2011

  • Lessons time: dual - 0.5h, solo - zeeero

  • Total time: 28.3h (1.1h solo)

  • Location: EGAD

  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

  • Instructor: David P

Lesson booked for 9, but I decided to be earlier this time. And what happens ? I had to search for my instructor, cos he wasn't there. Obviously I would need to be earlier few times more for anyone to notice :) When David finally showed up (was talking to another instructor) - his diagnosis was pretty clear. You want to get solo hours, forget about Today. Crosswind is quite strong, and despite the fact that there's quite a few runways at EGAD, none of them suit the wind. Oh joy. So I just said - give me half an hour, better then nothing.

Once I got to the aircraft, I realised that I didn't pack my checklists. Usually my GF takes care of that, but she was over at mom's house for a while. No bother (with belfast accent !), someone in the club always has one. I managed to speak to some other student pre-flying (flighting?) 172. Social interaction between students, rare thing.

Anyway, off we went. David showed me what to do in case I really forget the checklist, how to cope. Basic idea is to go through every knob and lever. Of course, not really a good idea to fly without the checklist. Some people won't be able to tell us about it.

The wind was quite strong. So strong, that I had to extend downwind a bit, and go through landing configuration quite swiftly. Of course I didn't do it quite well the first time around, so the usual procedure was carried out - go around.

I had quite fun landing in cross wind. Never before in my short life as rookie-wannabe-pilot had I to aim at the runway through the door window. But there's always the first one.

All in all, very enjoyable. I learned massive amount of little things about crosswind handling. Of course not the best set of circuits ever, but nonetheless I think David wasn't disappointed with my performance.

To keep him happy, I asked him to take few pics of myself flying. A, my family never seen me doing this, and B - 28h under belt, and no pic in the cockpit. Shouldn't happen ;)

Please forgive my massive double neck. I should have had my fleece zipper undone. I look more chubbier then usual. Otherwise, enjoy ;)

[gallery link="file" columns="1"]



  • Route: T/O RWY04 circuits, maaasive cross winds, wind-shears, and of course 1 go around .

  • Milestones: back in the saddle.

  • Exercises covered: circuits.

  • Weather: quite a gust, otherwise beautiful day.

Friday 8 April 2011

RT practical passed

RT practical exam passed.

Some of the calls I did actually rather poorly, but still managed to get enough right to pass.
The examiner have said, that he heard me doing much better during earlier sessions.


Now only if I had enough cash to fly this month :/

Monday 4 April 2011

Lessons 31 and 32. More circuits


Lesson: 31 and 32


02,03/IV/2011

  • Lessons time: dual - 1.7h (0.9, 0.8) solo - 0.0.

  • Total time: 27.9h (1.1h solo)

  • Location: EGAD

  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)



(And) Yet another two lessons in circuit.

Booked two lessons for the weekend. Both with Gavin. Its been a bit since I last flew with him.

Basically circuits were in order. He assured me that if I do well and gods of weather are cooperating I will be sent solo. To save you the time, I wasn't sent solo.

On Saturday my flying was terrible, to say the least. We did few circuits, and attempted to do few glide approaches, but there was always someone in the way (ie , in front of us, or one occasion

backtracking the active when I was about to land. Had to go around. ) . As always I blamed the winds, but as always I'm to blame. Devil's in the details, and I seem to notice a lot of those little things. Probably too many to handle.

On Saturday we seemed to have quite a thermal over the city (on finals). Which blew me up. Trying to correct it was a nightmare. Gavin wanted to see me going around once or twice, and also pulled the power on the climb out once to see what would I do. I think in general he was satisfied with my reaction to that.

One thing that set him aside (and makes few other instructors rather unhappy), is the fact that he likes to apply some safety measures that others don't seem to approve of. Namely, on climb out, level out at 500 ft, to check the blind spot - just a push and pull on the yoke really. Reasons being, that the circuit is a climb, and as in any climb you would do 500 ft checks, you need to do them in the circuit as well. Other relatively novel thing, which others don't teach - is to only set the 'drag' flap (30 deg in the G-BNKR) whilst being on very close final. This is due to the fact that you don't want that drag when over the city, in case your engine quits.

Now, I knew he likes that sort of circuit before, but never asked him about the reasons - thus I couldn't argue with other instructors about it. To be honest, I was very angry (mainly due to my poor performance) on Saturday, and started to wonder whether it is due to the instructor. But had a nice debrief with Gavin, where I basically lied down all my frustrations and observations, and he was very good at explaining reasons behind his way of things, and also promised me to talk to other instructors about it.

Sunday flying was much better, but meanwhile I had quite few expenses and instead of flying 4-5 lessons this month the Sunday one is probably going to be my last one (this month at least). We were promised a bonus at work, but it kind of didn't happened (yet). If it will, I'll most certainly spend it on the flying. Ever since I started this, I have no savings, and my finances are shattered. Doesn't help also that my gf is out of work. But anyway, enough ranting -  back to flying.

Sunday was way much better. Weather wasn't still good enough for me to go solo ( strong winds, as they do happen at this time of the year ) - but at least my circuits were much better. Unfortunately due to my own stupidity (dead battery in gps) - I have no gps track for Sunday. Basically I did few picture perfect circuits, apart from the approach. This time, there was no thermal over the city, so I was ending up too low. Started too add too much power, ended up too high, then turned it into the speed, etc, etc. But I started to get a feel of that too. Gavin wanted me to go around twice, and also we did this time two glide approaches. First one was dead on, on the second one he started to tell me about setting up the speed first - which blew me too far out, and I would in reality end up somewhere in bushes before the runway. Luckily the engine was running fine.

One nice thing about this weekend, my RT was dead on - apparently. This obviously isn't a miracle. I invested in an RT course. It pays off to do it. There's a guy next door (in the aero-heli) who's doing it, and he is brilliant. Not only very patient with my - frankly annoying - personality. But also very capable. It looks like I'm going to be able to pass my practical RT this month too.

That's indeed a boost for me, especially since its been a while since I've been solo. This is mostly due to the weather not being on my side. I feel like more I fly with instructor on board worse I get. I probably need to do few solo circuits to boost my confidence in flying, and move over to my Nav exercises. I'll most likely take about a month break (or perhaps even two) to repair my finances, in the mean time - doing the RT and perhaps the Nav theory too.



Saturday's GPS track:



  • Route: T/O RWY22 circuits, cross winds, wind-shears, and of course go arounds .

  • Milestones: hmm, none.

  • Exercises covered: circuits.

  • Weather: quite a gust, bit cloudy but clearing up.

Saturday 26 March 2011

Lesson 30 - never tired of the circuit bashing


Lesson: 30


25/III/2011

  • Lesson time: dual - 1.6h (in 0.8h instalments), solo - 0.0.

  • Total time: 26.2h (1.1h solo)

  • Location: EGAD

  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

Yet another circuit bashing lesson.

Not much to write about really (for change this won't be a long elaborate).

I booked two slots on the day. Morning 9:00 one, and 13:30 one in the afternoon.

Circuits, as usual - pretty much. In the morning the wind was rather calm, so circuits were rather uneventful. Rodger very patiently talked me through things I'm still doing wrong (and there's still a lot :/) which is pretty much setting up the aircraft on the base leg to be ready for finals. I tried my best to follow the instructions, but I believe the wind was spoiling my fun a lot.

One thing apparent about the rwy 34 is that you fly around the Scrabo hill and your finals are over the water and sea wall. The wind seems do be doing all sorts of weird things and conspire against the aircraft setup. So it was quite a laborious flying. To my amazement, I managed to retract flaps after applying full power once. Very bad mistake. Rodger obviously noted that, and said that if he is to send me solo, it will be in the afternoon - because of that mistake.

The afternoon lesson was to be much different. The wind was much violent, and we had a crosswind. Which would be fine, but it was alternating between left or right of the runway. This meant that I had to go around few times and it was quite unpleasant to fly in conditions like that on whole extent of the circuit. For instance the final approach leg required quite a bit of power and initially I would end up low because I didn't want to add too much too fast.

Speaking of go arounds. I was very confident in doing them, and Rodger said the same thing. I still have to be more patient about retracting flaps - but I am not trying to do them all at once - which should mean that I'll live a bit longer :) One go around was due to the fact that I ended up too fast, and wasn't still firmly on the ground before runway intersection. On second occasion wind changed direction as I was trying to flare. One wheel touched the ground, whilst the other was still up. And I think third one was due to me being generally too high.

In the beginning of part two I said to Rodger that there's no way that I would want to fly this on my own. His response was that this weren't conditions he would send even the best student (like myself) solo. I couldn't laugh, I was grateful that I didn't had to try in these conditions. Probably felt grateful I don't have to go solo for the first time in my life.

All in all, it was a great experience. I certainly had to sweat much more to keep the thing running. On top of that there was a lot of traffic. At some stage Rodger said that it feels like Heathrow. Seriously, I think I didn't make my downwind and finals calls for 3-4 circuits, because there was that much radio chatter.



As usual, here are the mandatory gps tracks:


[caption id="attachment_253" align="aligncenter" width="700" caption="morning flying"][/caption]



afternoon flying



On Monday I'm starting the RT course. There's a guy doing RT courses in the club, and I think its worth spending some time (and money) on that.

Still need to do my Nav exam too.

Next flying next weekend, and then I'll probably take a month break to repair my finances.





  • Route: T/O RWY34 circuits, cross winds, wind-shears, and of course go arounds .

  • Milestones: rwy 34 circuits in wind that changes a lot.

  • Exercises covered: circuits.

  • Weather: quite a gust, bit cloudy but clearing up.

Saturday 19 March 2011

Lesson 29 - Going around twice, doesn't make you twice as good


Lesson: 29


19/III/2011

  • Lesson time: dual - 0.6h,solo - 0.4.

  • Total time: 24.6h (1.1h solo)

  • Location: EGAD

  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)


I hate 9 o'clock flying. I always sleep in. Today's not exception. Got in the car 8:50, phoned the club. Some unexpected voice picked up. I said I'm running late.

About 20 minutes later, and few racers trying to catch me on the dual carriage way (speed limit is 70 mph, so stop blocking me silly people) I got to the club. And I was for the shock.

It's Rodger. Long time no flying togetha !. I said to him 'you do realise its saturday'. He _never_ works weekends, much to my unhappiness because he is one of the best guys there.





Preflight, usual stuff. Engine was a bit cold (it was below zero at night). Everything fine, off we go.

Rodger said - the deal is simple, you fly few circuits with me just being a 90+ kg ballast and then you do few solo ones.

Also, the deal was that the first one is uneventful. And so it was. Actually its two weeks since the last one and I hardly noticed.

On the second one (as expected), to add a bit of a cheer Rodger pull the power and crossed his hands :) Nice. Fortunately I got it nicely trimmed, aimed for the right field.

On the third one Rodger told me to do flap-less, which I did. Unfortunately some virtual cock decided to drive onto our runway and I had to do a go-around. Handled nicely, Rodger was happy.

Fourth one was a glide one, so I got the power pulled on downwind 'oops, what do we do'. It went well. I was a tad short of the numbers, lesson learned.

As we were doing these circuits, I noticed that the wind was starting to get stronger. On the go around there, we were tossed all over the place over the runway.

One more circuit, and Rodger let me out on my own.



Everything was fine until I got to the finals bit. Again, the wind started to toss me about. And I ended up - in my mind too high to continue. So I applied the power nicely. C152 is not very powerful, but I got nearly 1000ft climb rate there, with full flaps, and speed was around 70 knots. I turned the trim towards neutral because the amount of force I had to apply was just enormous.

And off I went. Over the downwind I wasn't quite happy, but took few deep breaths with yoga-like movements of my head and hands to calm myself down. It was quite windy.

Second approach was much better, but somehow I managed to bounce quite high. High enough to decide that it is time to go-around. Again. Now , only this time I knew that as I pushed the power I had to push the yoke quite hard to keep it level. Which I did, and Rodger later confirmed that my second go-around looked very good.

You can imagine my frustration on downwind on this one, but I said to myself - ok, that's it, time to land. I am getting over my comfort zone here, and not enjoying it properly.

I was ready to go around if something happens again, don't get me wrong. But this time I came down just nice.

Before you say that Rodger should not have sent me solo in first place, to be honest conditions were very good when we did the last circuit. I learned quite few lessons Today.

Let me share (and write it down for my own record). First, when you go around. The aircraft is trimmed to descend. You will have to apply quite a bit of force to keep it level. But it is important to do so.

(of course need to take the flaps off in stages goes without saying). Secondly, It is important to aim for the numbers, and refocus to the end of the runway as you round out. I don't think I did it right Today.

Rodger took quite a bit of time to talk me through that stuff Today. And also said he was happy to see that I took the decision to go around. There's nothing worse then pilot trying to salvage a landing.

And I'm glad I did it too. I would have learned nothing good if I did try to salvage landings and everything was okay.

The first approach apparently, from Rodger's perspective was looking good. But it was probably the wind that made me decide to go around. The bounce on the second one was high enough so I had the time to take that decision. I've seen some youtube videos with people bouncing on landing and ending up with bent prop. Don't like to repeat someone else's mistakes myself.

All in all. First time I went around myself, solo. And I'm proud of it :P



First go-around





Second:





Flap-less mini circuit ;) :





  • Route: T/O RWY22 circuits, flapless, EFATO, go arounds.

  • Milestones: solo go arounds.

  • Exercises covered: circuits.

  • Weather: quite a gust, but apart from that beautiful day.

Monday 7 March 2011

Lesson 28 - wheel up

Lesson: 28


06/III/2011

  • Lesson time: dual - 0.7h,solo - nope.

  • Total time: 23.6h (0.7h solo)

  • Location: EGAD

  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

  • Instructor: David P


 

Got in the club to the club early morning. DavidP was on the phone so with the Cesar's thumb up/down gesture I requested the go/no go info. Thumbs up.

Got the key, went for a preflight.

[gallery columns="1"]

David got soon after I sat down inside comfortably. Wind was favouring rwy 16 which I have never flew a circuit on so a bit new experience. There's a police station antennae mast to fly over when you approach the 16 for landing and I knew that (from other blog and also from looking at the vfr plate for EGAD ).

I managed to turn with the wind to do my power checks, clearly a stilly mistake. But David very calmly hinted me about it.

Off I went to backtrack 16, and got ready to roll. The day was murky, clouds were at around 1500 ft so David asked me to turn the landing or taxing light on so we're bit more visible.

Put the power in, and off we went. I managed to under turn first crosswind turn aiming for visual point that I would aim for if I flew rwy 22. I usually use DI and try to think about the wind at the same time, but after my last lesson I was so tensed up that I simply didn't. Nothing that I couldn't fix later on.

Few usual mistakes, like forgetting the downwind call. I was told to slap myself for making the downwind call too early on the next circuit. Clearly something that has to do with multiple instructors. David told me to make the call when I'm abeam the runway threshold. And so I will stick to that method.

I got so very fixated on trying to avoid the mast when turning from base to finals, that I started to fly very wide trying to keep the mast to the port side and only correcting the approach once I was clear of it. Obviously not a good idea. David nicely demonstrated how it can be done, basically trying to turn just before the mast and use it as sort of a pivot point. It worked very well (as you can see from the gps track at the end).

On one of the circuits I was so busy talking about something boring, that I forgot to put the 3rd stage of flaps on finals - monkey. Obviously had to self-slap myself for that.

Oh, one neat trick David taught me and he probably would not mind me sharing here. When turning base, I would pull the carb heat on, reduced the power, and as soon as ASI is over the white arc I would start setting the flaps. Well, there's just one problem with it. You get this bumpy sort of reaction from the aircraft when you do that. So the trick David showed me, was to slow the aircraft down quite a bit before applying flaps. Everything's much more relaxed and no bumps.

For the last one circuit David asked me if we could land it on the grass. On the left hand side of runway 16 there's a patch of grass that can be used for grass landing practice (dunno about t/o) . David thought I tried grass before at the Trim aerodrome (see that 'episode' for more info).

Strange experience landing on the grass. For one, that bit of grass is half the length of the runway 16 and right behind it is another hard surfaced runway. So if you don't stop on time, your wheels are going to stay on the grass :)

But all in all landing on the grass was quite nice. Certainly more gentle and cushioned. Weird thing tho was that I had to keep the yoke pretty much pulled towards me all the time. Felt like one wheel motorcycle stunt.

Obviously following my last lesson stunt, asking for a solo would be really rude, so in all honesty I didn't count on it at all. David's only remark was that I somehow don't feel as confident as I used to. Probably true, last lesson did show me that over confidence is not a really good idea.

As they say "Two steps forward, one step back".

If I had to summarise the whole lesson, it was a very relaxing experience. Pretty much a bliss. David does tolerate my jabbering much better then most instructors and hence why I probably prefer him over so many others. He is also very patient and doesn't rush things too much.

And at the end I was promised a solo next time. Well, I bloody hope I will get some solo time otherwise in that pace it will take another 10 hours to get required 3 hours solo circuit consolidation :)

 

Mandatory GPS track

 

  • Route: T/O RWY16 circuits, last landing on the 16 grass.

  • Milestones: Grass landing, regained a bit more confidence.

  • Exercises covered: circuits.

  • Weather: bit windy, lowish cloud base.


 

Sunday 13 February 2011

Lesson 27 - "Flying is a very humbling experience"

Lesson: 27

13/II/2011

  • Lesson time: dual - 1.5h,solo - big fat not.
  • Total time: 22.8h (0.7h solo)
  • Location: EGAD
  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)
  • Instructor: Gary and David H

What a day.

I should probably rename this blog by now to 'Gregg is trying to kill himself and make it look like an accident'. But seriously, it seems that the whole training does have a certain flow pattern to it, like this: "struggle, happy, crap, almost killed myself, I'm the master of the skies, you're an utter shit". And repeat that over and over again.

Jokes aside, my only hope for Today was to actually get some time up in the air. Previous few lessons were canceled due to the weather so I was counting on this one.

I was booked for 11, but they phoned me to change it to 9:30 for some reason. Fair enough I thought, not much of a difference. Except that I had to get up very earlier.

Got to the club few minutes past nine and already one bad news. Some guy is going to fly the C152 for 30 minutes, and got there before me. We all knew how that's going to end...

Whilst waiting it turned out there's another slot free at 13:30, so I booked myself in on that one too.  50 minutes later I was in the air....

Lets say, that I had a certain hope that I will do some solo circuits Today. I did three circuits with Gary, I don't think he liked what he saw. So needless to say, no solo for me. And because I was booked at 13:30 he decided that 3 is enough, and I will get some chance later anyway. "David will sign you off for some solo later on, oh, and relax, don't be so tensed up". The last comment was very important. Fair enough, it sounded like I will do some solo circuits Today indeed. Good stuff. Meanwhile because of the guy who got in front of me Gary was having a bit of a backlog, so he decided that since I have another booking and 30 minutes is enough to get me warmed up.

Left my stuff in the car and decided to have a lunch at the airport's cafe. Rumour has it that the food is excellent there, so it was time for me to verify it first hand. Settled for the Irish Stew, I started to read previous month's (February) Flyer magazine. Needless to say, the food was superb, and at the end I paid for the stew + small bottle of coke £4.75. Bargain if you ask me. Apparently tho the owner is struggling a bit and is lacking customers. It would be a terrible shame if he was to leave for some place else. Gotta make sure that I buy some stuff there once in a while.

Half past one and David H gave me the key. I did a preflight, and waited for him whilst he was having some lunch. Clearly my aim was at this stage to impress him, so he will let me do some solo flying. Simple, aye ?

Well, he just said - treat me like a dumb ballast. You're in control, lets do some flying. Fair enough - I thought. First circuit wasn't too bad. Landing was terrible, but I landed on the first 3rd of the runway so by the student standards it wasn't so terrible (apparently). Second one, he asked me if I can make it a glide approach/landing. So half way through the down-wind I asked if I should pull the power now, and turn now. "you're in control, make the decision yourself". I put down the first stage of flaps whilst turning and almost immediately started to drop like a stone because of that. "Use flaps only when you are sure you will make it, aim for the end of the runway and use flaps to land short of that aiming point". So, second circuit was shambles. Had to go-around.

Third one was suppose to be a retry, but there was someone already on the base leg, so I had to make it a normal one. And here's where all the hell started to break loose. For some unexplainable reason I failed to retract flaps. So power-in and the aircraft bounced. I started to sweat like a pig, David was trying to talk some sense into me but I was clearly very shocked by the experience.

Fourth circuit, I did the same thing. But the landing was good. I touched down slightly before the threshold and asked on the climb-out "I suppose there's no extra points for touching down few feet before the numbers". In return I was told a story of a guy who ended up dead because he landed short on a field and wheels ended up in a ditch that separated fields. 10ft more - he said, and the guy would have made it.

Fifth circuit - I did same thing with flaps (face-palm) . On the take-off I planned to ask David for quick clarification as to what should I do in what order, because it was clear to me that I got something mixed up here. But as I was thinking that, he said "Three strikes, you're out. We're going to fly over the peninsula and I'll show you what would have happened if you have failed to spot it and pitched the nose up". We got up to 3400ft, and David commenced the demonstration. Did a funny impression of me (not funny once you see it someone else doing it). Approach speed set, 30 deg flaps. Full power and pitched up. I saw that coming, so I quickly read the 'spin recovery instructions" over the yoke and made sure my 'gay shades' are going to stay on.

Now, apparently spin recovery is not in the syllabus of PPL so I never had the pleasure. But what happened caused me to grin even more then my second solo. Green field under us, with some tree and a house was just getting bigger and bigger and started to circle around. I thought to myself "there's no way on earth that I would recover from that", when Belfast Approach asked us to change our squawking code :D And then massive G and we were straight and level again. "We lost 700 ft, look. If you did it over the runway, you wouldn't have had 700ft. 50ft if you were lucky maybe. Some years ago someone did that and they ended up wrecking perfectly fine aircraft. They were lucky enough to walk away from this but most aren't so lucky".

Needless to say my sad old man's cocky nature got slammed quite harshly right in my face. And thank (insert your favour story's character here) for that. Just when I thought I am doing well and I thought I only need to do some circuit consolidation. After Today's lesson I highly doubt I will ever repeat the same mistake, even if confused and under stress. I was trying to to impress the instructor enough to be sent solo, and I should have had made it perfect flying experience. Mind you I did already fly solo few circuits in my life. Some even with touch and go's and never ever did the same thing. That should tell you's something.

Our return journey was rather uneventful. Except for some guy in a microlight who was in front of us "Such and such, overhead mount steward at 1800 ft, switching over to the newtownards radio at 128.30". I looked down over at the mount Steward, there was nothing there. And few seconds later I saw an aircraft slightly higher then we were to our right. We were at 2000 ft... I asked David if I should turn right and overtake him, because we were pretty much on constant bearing and we know how that ends. In the end I ended up doing rather large circle to the south west to over take him (we were faster in the C152 anyway then the microlight) and did overhead join (second in my life), rather poorly (I should have done a large D, and the curvy part was a very flat one in my case). But I got us down in one piece. By the time I got back to the club with my wallet rest of the crew already knew what I have done so I guess I will not fly solo for another lesson or two. Well, If that means I am going to be a safer pilot - money well spent.

And here's the GPS track from that lesson (for some reason the bloody Garmin e-trex device decided not to save the altitude information):

  • Route: T/O RWY22 circuits, spiral dive around the Peninsula
  • Milestones: I'm a big fat pillock is what I am, and I got it proven.
  • Exercises covered: circuits, how to detect idiots.
  • Weather: not much wind, low clouds in the morning

Monday 10 January 2011

Lesson 26 - First one after the winter







Lesson: 26


9/I/2011

  • Lesson time: dual - 0.7h, solo - 0.4h

  • Total time: 21.3h (0.7h solo)

  • Location: EGAD

  • Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)

  • Instructor: David P


Following Yesterday's fiasco I was just hoping the ice will melt by the time I get the the club. I also hopped it won't rain/snow/whatever.

And oddly enough when I phoned the club the answer was that is fine.

Went for a walk before the lesson and the day was nice. The sun was bit low and that's always worrying. It was tiresome just driving there, and flying in the sun on finals is not a lot of fun. Trust me. Same with climbing away on take off. You can't see anything. Even sunglasses don't help much.

I sat down in the club watching some helis outside. Waiting for David to comeback from his previous lesson. He got back pretty soon.

Anyways, the subject for Today was the circuits. I wouldn't expect anything else to be honest.

Grabbed the key and me shades from the car and off I went to do the preflight. On my way there I was captured on club's webcam (bottom right, the huge bloke):



Everything was grand, half in each tank, oil at 6. All good to go. The yellow heli started its engine whilst I was taxing by. Bit worried, but David said that it didn't had its governor engaged yet so we are safe. Grand. Power-checks, checked the approach, and off we went for a straight take off.

By the time we started to fly the sun was more or less covered behind clouds. Not many but very good protection against getting blinded.

The first circuit was rather uneventful. I forgot my finals call (as I will couple more times), landing was a sack of rubbish (as most will on the day). I blamed it on the fact that I wasn't flying for a bit but truth is I know I could have done better.

Just as I applied the power to take off the aircraft started to weir off to the right hand side. And trust me, David is not to be blamed for the lack of balance.

As soon as he spotted it he said "I got controls" as he stopped the aircraft quickly. The right break for some reason was jammed, or something. Dunno. I swear I didn't pull the parking break leaver during the BUMPFICH checks too much instead of the primer. And even if that was to blame, it happened later on the day on my first touch and go but nowhere as much.

After few retries everything was back to normal so 180 deg turn around 22 threshold and I got the controls back. As we were climbing away, David cut the power and said "what are you going to do now". Dunno how it happened but all of the sudden I got a big hill in front of the aircraft and the future wasn't looking good, if that was a real engine failure we would be doomed. David said to me that for some reason I started to turn to the right. Which I swear I could not remember at that time. But the GPS track does confirm that. Anyhow, note to self don't fly straight into a hill if your engine fails. Not a good idea.

Off I went to do the remaining bit of the circuit. Again failed to do the finals call. Touch and go, no problems with breaks this time. But I did notice, that wind was changing a bit. Blowing me off to the right on final. We talked about the previous 'dont go right' moment, and whilst over water on cross wind leg, David pulled the power again. Great. Now the choice was pretty obvious, turn towards the land, pick a field, extend flaps in stages, and land. And I think I did this one bit more effectively than the previous one. He caught me by surprise, as usually instructors don't do that once we are over water. Land is very close, but still. Following a funny shaped crosswind leg I started to turn towards downwind meanwhile looking closely around for any aircraft that could be above us. In particular for microlight things. They fly lower circuits and usually their radios are just there for a good weight balance.

Next landing was probably the best one of the day. Still not something I wish people would judge me for but good nonetheless.

On climb-out, as you might have guessed, another power cut. Another field to pick, etc.

Next Landing and David asked me to taxi back to the apron to let him go.  I haven't seen that but he probably kissed the ground once I turned around ;)

On my own, yuppie.

Waited for a land-rover to get off the runway, 'shhteeudent kilo romeo, ermmm entering active for immediate take off' and off I went. (yes I need to learn how to pronounce 'student' properly).

The sky has cleared at this stage, so on my climb-out I could not see my attitude, nor my speedo. Just looked to the side to see the attitude. Once I could see again, speedo was on 65 knots. Not too bad. Cleared right, and turn to the left. The circuit was rather uneventful. I think I pretty fast there, still about 150 ft below the circuit height so decided to trade some speed for height. By the time I did my checks (this time tapping on breaks twice to make sure they are off), it was time to turn base. And than finals. The landing was rather terrible, I ended up far beyond numbers. As soon as I touched (in a bit of a cross wind, so my left wheel touched first) it started to weir to the right. Not too much, so I pushed the power in and it automagically started to go straight again. Good, otherwise I would have to stop and call it a day. The plan was to do at least 3 circuits so off I went. By the time I took off there was not much runway left. Note to self, try touching down on the numbers next time please.

My next circuit was quite ok. Again, blinded by the sun. The wind picked up again as I started to descend. I can clearly see on the GPS track, that I was flying at nearly 45 deg to the downwind on the base leg. Landing was nothing to be proud off, but I have to yet do some proper training with the cross wind landings in mind. Best of course with some ballast on the right hand seat in case I do something wrong ;) I know the theory, but I have to apply it in practice.

Got blown off on the base leg, ...  again. I tried correcting, but probably not enough.

The last landing was probably worse of them all, third circuit - so the last one. I left through triangle, did all the right call (me thinks) 'shhtudeent kilo romeo runway  vacated'. "which one, monkey!"

There was some guy in tail-dragger landing behind me. And instead of going all the way around he started to turn in front of me as I was waiting for the runway to clear. I thought he is just trying to ram me, so I moved a bit to the left. Feeling bit guilty as I had to go past the point that in theory makes me enter the active runway but still faaaaaaar away from the edge of it.

He just turned around behind me, facing back the approach. Stopped. Good. Obviously at this stage I was turned towards the base/finals to see any incoming traffic. And there was a microlight on finals. So I waited. Just before the guy was over the threshold, the taildragger guy decided to put the power on a bit, and move forward. Dunno if he was trying to make me move, or something. Obviously he couldn't see the approach, as he was facing it back. I decided to keep my hand on the power leaver in case he makes a move or something. And obviously I didn't forget about my carb-heat whilst waiting. It wouldn't be nice if the carb clogged whilst I was trying to backtrack on the active runway :)

Just before the turn to the apron, David asked me to note down the meter. To which I just replied 'wilco', rather proud of myself that I know such sophisticated lingo ;)

There was a bit of space between two 172s and a RAF moto-glider, so I neatly turned around there watching the spacing. Previous two times after solo I did pretty much abandon the aircraft somewhere on the apron, so parking it this time was a milestone in it self. Probably the only thing I did fully right on the day.

Obviously it turned out that I did note the wrong thing, so had to go back and get the right numbers. On my way back some student next to fly the Kilo Romeo started to ask me about the aircraft key, and fuel on board. I didn't remember what was it to be honest, even tho I looked at the fuel gauge on my last down-wind check.

This time I didn't note the number down, but just tried to remember it in my head. Obviously as soon as the guy started to ask me about fuel and the key I was afraid I might just need to make another trip down to the aircraft. But luckily I did remember it :)

During the flight I noticed that I do sometimes need more rudder when turning finals. I asked David if it is due to the wind perhaps. The simple explanation is that it is just a visual illusion. And adding too much rudder close to the ground, slow speed, etc, is not a good idea. So it was good that I did have a glance at the slip-ball to make sure I am not overdoing it.

All in all, my longest solo so far. Next lesson booked for next week. Hopefully ice/snow won't be a threat by that time.

Also, I think I should get some award for the longest entry that just describes flying 7 circuits ... Seriously. I wish I was writing code that fast.




  • Route: T/O RWY22 circuits

  • Milestones: none, if so, regression

  • Exercises covered: circuits

  • Weather: Mostly clear, gusty, quite sunny. Sometimes dazzling on t/o.