First Solo Outside the circuit (to the North)

Well i got down their nice and early. It was a really cold winters day, -1 temp. It was that cold we had to wait to bring the planes around and for the wings to defrost. Well they didnt, so i did my first de-ice of the plane - with neat solution as the temp was stil below zero.

Eventually, i got in the plane (very cold) and did all the check and set off to the holding point.

First mistake i made called up with the wrong call sign - doh - had to make a correction.

Off for the first circuit. I was told i would get my clearance to depart to the north whilst taking off after my circuit - but not when landing.
So took off, 500ft rate one turn for a right hand circuit. called downwind, pre-landing checks, report final, so i did, and im coming into land and he gives me my departure clearance - after touch and go, cleared lima whisky depature, not above altitude 2000ft VFR. So im readying this back and trying to land - i could have asked him to Standby i suppose. Anyway first landing was pants! Flared too much, so
stuck so power on, and got it down ok without a bang which was good but it felt messy.

All in all the circuit felt a bit hectic, i was also on my cross wind limits too. not to mention id not been solo or done a circuit for 7 months!

So off i went for my first solo outside the circuit (and zone). Called up for zone exit, and changed to approach, they gave me FIS and call for rejoin. Stuck the transponder on ALT 7000. and headed up to 3000ft, around the outside of hucknalls ATZ - i know above 2000 and you dont need to but i thought id stay clear.

Did my freda checks and turned east to go around the south side of mansfield.

All going very well, vis was ok, and up at 3000 it was nice and calm. So im getting cocky now, this aint that bad, so i called up for QTE, just to test my RT and for a laugh :)

This was my first worry - the reply i got was "G-RY say again transmission unreadable" - oh crap not a radio failure. so i adjusted the mic boom and shouted up - luckily it was ok - i got my QTE 023 degrees

:)

So i plod on a bit more, and decided to do some steep turns and maybe a stall. Went through my HASELL checks and did a steep turn to the right, then the left - tee hee felt wicked!

So then i had ago at stalling - OMG! how nerve racking is that on your own: Powered back to idle, held the nose up, stall buzzer, nose down, full power - and were off again. Did about 3 of these, leaving them longer in the stall each time, i wasnt brave enough to do a stall in a turn though :)

Then back on my route to return to East Mids, down the M1 and into the bloody sunlight, couldnt see a thing, struggling to make out Trowel, called for Rejoin and got my clearance to enter, but what with not being able to see for the sun and haze i forgot to make my zone in call, so i got a call from approach saying "contact tower..."

Reported right base for 27, came in a bit ropey, but the landing was pretty sweet, nice and soft and on the center line for a change :)

WOW that was it - i done my first real solo flying - well pleased!

Radio Telephony Exams

Well after completing the RT course with Pete Stephens (an ATC at East Mids) I did some theory brush up for the written exam. I sat a load of mock exams, from the Pratt books, the PPL confuser and www.airquiz.com. Once happy I got myself booked in with Bev (another ATC at East Mids, who is a CAA examiner - Petes qualifications have now lapsed).

The written exam:
The normall CAA format: 40 mins, 30 questions, multiple choice 4 possible answers. After all the mock exams I had done I was happy I was going to pass I just wanted to get 100% 
So I sped through the paper and completed it in 10 mins – so I went back through it again making sure I had not misread anything, and 20 mins into the exam I declared done.
Bev was surprised how quick I was, but then we sat down and discussed the oral exam 

The oral exam:
We went through 4 pieces of A4 which were part of the exam.
1) The Instructions
2) The Flight map, showing the route and zones
3) The PLOG
4) The frequencies available for use on the map

She gave me 20 mins to work through the route and make any notes. She also said she didn’t want to see my writing a script out – lol.
So I worked through the route, noting down frequencies to use, point to make calls etc and distances for the pass your message calls. The 20 mins went very quickly.

Off to the exam room – a small box with the simulator in (headphones, switch box with push to talk and a light on the top) Apparently the light is used if you forget to do something on a leg that the instructions ask you to do.
So off I went, and let me say this was a very complicated route compared to what we had done on the course – it covered almost everything id ever seen or learnt or heard:
1) Mayday relay
2) PAN PAN and resume
3) MATZ penetration
4) LARS – RIS/RAS for danger area traffic
5) Pass your message
6) SVFR clearance.
7) QTE from a homer station
8) Call up for weather
9) Joining and landing using an AFISO.

Anyway, I made it through ok, with just a few slip ups namely:

1) I didn’t readback "5’s also" on the radio check
2) I got the mayday heading wrong, I though he said 200 degrees not 120 degrees so she said I should have said something along the lines of "Believe heading to be 200 degrees"
3) I asked for a RIS from LARS and she gave me RAS – which I read back , and I assumed she was just being generous – but I believe she wanted me to correct her and say "no RIS etc"
4) I tried to leave the Zone frequency before putting out a "Zone exit" or something along the lines of "7 miles from destianation, request frenquency change to "
5) On final join to land, I was asked to pass my message, so I did a full PYM but she said that wasn’t necessary.

All in all, I got quite a "bad exam" have spoken to others and they didn’t half as much in their oral exam.

Results:
Oral: She said I did very well – with the above points, but generally very good.
Written : YESS! 100% :) She said I must have had the text books in with me – tee hee.


Well that’s all over with now – just one more exam left – Aircraft Tech – oh and the GFT

Solo North Practice Run

Well Sunday 3pm December 4th lesson, the last lesson of the day which i was expecting to end in the dark and it did (well 5 mins before official dark - but it was dark)

This was a full practice run for the solo north which im going todo next lesson. Up out to the north, via Long Eaton Lane, to the west and north of Hucknall ATZ, around the South, East, North and West of mansfield back down the M1. We did some practice compass turns (and stalling, pfls, steep turns).

By the time we were heading back it was almost dark - really cool. We had to orbit at the zone boundary (for the first time) and came in with all the runway lights on. Did my pre-landing checks - but i must remember to power back to 1500 rpm before setting up for land (with carb heat obviously) got a good angle in, flared a bit late (Doug almost went for the controls) the landed it sweet as a nut, shame i was off the center line to the right- but even Doug said it was a sweet landing.

Apparently now, its mostly solos stuff.

PFLS and Stalls (again) GFT stylie

Well this one was another PFL and stall session. This time Doug did it GFT style: i.e. Show me a clean stall and recover when i say so, show me a full flap stall and recover at the stall warner, and show me a turn stall etc.

Oh and Doug got me to go through the HASELL and HELL checks between.

Most went well, apart from i put the nose down, then removed flap before power in the flap format - misread my own post on here -(but ive fixed it now)

Very cold day, wind from 330/13 knots hence the cold.

I drew my wind spider as instructed which was correct :)

Then we did PFLS, he kept doing these all through, mostly got them right, not a great deal to report on this lesson to be honest.

We had to orbit on right base for rway 27. We cam in quick from the North a little too quick.
Doug asked me to point the right wing at a ground feature on orbit around it, making my turns tighter when against the wind to keep my orbits as circular as possible.

Landing was bumpy on the way in, but put it down ok.

I suppose the bit of good news is that Doug wants me to do my solo North run pretty much in the next couple of lessons. I was going to booka few lessons in for the week before xmas as i finish my contract then, but doug is off on hols, but he got me to book the plane anyway as he reckons most of my time now will be solo stuff - tee hee :)

Last RT Course and tour around EGNX Tower

Well this was the last of our course and the most awaited night, as we were going to be shown around the inside of the East Midlands Control Tower and Radar :)

We met in the departure lounge at 6.45pm and went up to the board room and did the usual couple of hours RT training. We then headed off to security with our passports to get temporary passes.
After getting through security we got the lift up the new (1 year old) tower (254 steps) and got out at the lower section, which has a 360 gantry for viewing - i beleive Pete called it the media center?
We then went up a flight of stairs to the control tower itself. it was about 9.45pm a this point, so fully dark. First impressions were how quiet it was, the rest of the airport rumbled with jets coming and going , the tower however was almost silent, apparently the windows are triple glazed and heated.

We had a good look around all the systems, the ground radar, tower radar, lighting systems, ATIS, etc. All very interesting stuff, see the pictures.

Then we ploded back down to the bottom of the tower to radar, a much more oppresive place, no windows just screens to look at, seemed more intense than tower.
There they had the VDF display, with the QDM, QTE buttons, and the huge monitors showing the whole central section of the UK.

It was a very interesting trip indeed.

Ex 18 Diversions - Wind Spider

Today was my first double lesson. Very lucky with the weather as it turns out, the weeken before had been awfull,
and the rest of the weekend wasnt much better, but our 9am slot Saturday morning worked out great. Weather got a bit poor
by the time we headed back in, had to dip down below 2K feet from the 3K we were at but hey, got 1:45 mins flying time in.

We started the day of with a ful brief (my first with Doug) and we went through Doug's wind spider, which he wants me to draw
on the map for every lesson from now onwards.

Drawing the wind spider:

1) Get the wind for the altitude say 3000ft , 250/20 knots.
2) On the basis that we are travlling at 100knots airspeed, in 1/10 minute we should travle 10 miles
i.e. airspeed / 10, so whatever speed we are travelling at in 6 mins we travel 1/10 (move dec place to the left)
so 258 knots in 6 mins would cover 25.8 miles.
3) Calculate Max drift angle so put in t 100 knots and 90 degrees track off the wind, so giving full crosswind, the flight
computer will then give you your max drift angle, write this on the map.
4) for each 45 degree increment, use the whizwheel to calc ground speed with the wind, so N, NE, E, SE,S,SW,W,NW
which gives you 8 legs values - hence the spider. we know that from the groundspeed, we divide by 10 at it gives us the distance
5) Draw a point on the map somewehere not being used, for the center of the spider.
6) draw the 8 distances legs outwards in the correct direction for each of the legs of the spider.

Once completed, you then have 8 lengths in 8 directions which i indicate how far you can travel in that direction in 6 mins


Using the wind spider:

So youre flying along, and need to divert (for weather etc), you plot where you are now, look at the place you want to land,
and draw a line to it. You estimate in your head what that angle is - lets say 050 degrees. The closest spider to that is the NE
spider at 45 degrees. Using the end of pen of whatever hold then pen up to this spider line and put your finger on its length.
The go back to your new track, and measure how many of the lengths are on the track (roughly). This gives you your time, i.e. 2.5
lengths = 15 mins (2.5 * 6). We have calulated the max drift for today as being 15 degrees. and the wind is coming from 140 degrees
so we have a full crosswind from the right - so we add the full max drift.
Hence we need to fly 065 degrees for 15 mins to get to our destination.
Flyihg along, we constantly check we are tracking that our guess is right, and when we start the turn, start the watch, and gross error
check.

Anyway, we did 4 of these in our lesson today and the first 3 worked out perfectly, the last one a little less accurate on the timing,
but heading was correct, and i adjusted half way for the new times, so we got there exactly on time (2mins added to a 20 mins flight
time)

Lesson 18B - Nav - Eyebrook, Bitteswell with Doug.

Decent weather today, a bit cold - 8degrees, but turned out to be the best part of the day for flying (9am slot).
Plogged the route before hand, got to the school for 8.30, checked out the plane and got the wind from 2244.
Updates the plog and used my little pocket pc for the wind calcs, times and fuel :) (Just dont tell Doug).

Departure went fine, got out the zone etc, i didnt call Leicester radio in time really as we were overhead at 3000ft
Also messed the call up a bit as i wasnt sure what to say, as they are only radio and i didnt want to land, so made it up
and they never asked me to "pass my message", so doug jumped in after id done and passed it anyway.
Made Eyebrook fine - did all the Freda checks, turned, gross error checks fine, contacted coventry and did a full pass message - all worked out fine, they asked me to report turning Bitteswell, which i forgot to do - oops, so Doug called up.
Nav went well, on the way back another PA28 flew under us by about 300ft, spotted it as Doug asked me to descend ready for the zone, i looked down and he was there, too close for my comfort but Doug didnt seem to phased.
Back in the zone all went well, didnt get down to circuit height quick enough really, we got a very late clearance from ATC as there was an easyjet 737 sitting on the numbers about to take off, we ended up taking full flap and 55-60 knots, even then i would have gone around - too late for my liking.
We got the clearance, came in, and it got very bumpy, wake from the jet i assume, Doug even made a sharp reach for the controls - landing was very nice though :)

Things for me to remember:

Make radio calls earlier
Gross error check when got free time.
Revise radio call for leicester overhead pass
Get down to circuit height earlier
Get my pen ready when making radio calls :)

RT Couse again

Well i missed weeks 2 and 3 of the course as i was in Ibiza, we flew Wed to Wed and i forgot the course on the day i came back so also missed week 4. doh!

Well tonight, Pete brough along the simulator which was basically a headset with a control switch (7 positions) which transmitted wireless back to Pete and his brief case which had a TxR and tape recorders.

He handed out some print outs, which the spec for a route and a crib sheet and we each took a turn in doing the RT for the full flight.

Mine went pretty well, i was at an advantage to the rest of the group having done more flying and hence more radio - it has made me remeber the pass your message response now - which is good.

Need to learnt the emergency prodedures now as i missed them the previous weeks.
Should be good.

RT Couse First

Well i was at the flying school and Doug mentioned that a guy called Pete Stephens was running an RT course if i was interested. Apparently Pete is an ATC and East Mids - so i thought it would be a good idea.

So arranged with Pete, signed up for the course (£60 for 9 weeks, each wed night) However wont be make the 2nd and 3rd week as we are in Ibiza.

Popped along to Burleigh College in Lougborough for 7pm (till 9pm) and he went through intros, Cap 413, and told us about the course etc. the important points to remember, and what we would be doing, looks like it we be very usefull.

Key point - he expects us all to have passed the written and oral exams by the end of the course.

PFLs again and a Spitfire Exhibition

Well its a lovely sunny Friday morning, weather is perfect. Vis good, sun is out, CAVOK blah, blah. :)

Off we went to the North this time, after i checked her out, booked us out etc.

As we set off, the rolls royce spitfire was out of the hangar on the tarmac - looked lovely especially on this sunny morning

Did a few PFL's they still arent coming that well, cant pick a bloody field - there are too many of them. We had a look at judging the size of field needed etc.

Next thing we know, the spit fires bombs past us to the south and starts having a whale of time, we just flew along watching him barrel roll, loop the loop fantastic!



Flew back in with some basic nav, doug asked me to land on the numbers but overshot a bit - not too much but doug was moaning, still im getting used to his teaching style now :)

First lesson back after the break

Well the initial 9am lesson was cancelled but the weather turned out quite nice and sunny by lunch so had my lesson at 13:30.

Was a bit nervous about getting back into the saddle as i knew Doug would throw me in at the deep end, and what with my memory being seive like i thought i would struggle. I did revise some of the checks before going - pre- landing and made sure i could rememeber the radio calls.

Anyway, we did a variet of stuff in the lesson , all revision stuff, PFL's, Stalling and Steep Turns.
Didnt do too bad at the stalling, bit rusty but got there in the end.

Power back 15Krpm
Keep pulling back to keep the nose there
Wait for the stall warner, keep it there
Push the nose forward, full power

With flap (as above)
full power, When stable, no stall warner and +ve rate climg - remove drag flap
Wait for positive rate of climb on VSI and ALT remove second stage flap
Repeat to remove last stage.

With flap in turn
as above
full power nose down, no aileron
as soon as stable straighten up

Whole concept is to loose as little height as possible - Doug used the analogy of landing and it all goes wrong.

PFLs' - made a bit of a mess of these - im useless at finding a field - just too many of them - got the wind direction right, but picked fields too far away - Doug gave me another pointer - in no wind, use fields 0.5 - 0.75 along the wing.
I need to revise all the checks and the calls for this

I also need to revise the HASELL checks and memorise them ! :(

Did the zone entry fine, got down to 2K for the zone, pre-landing checks but came in too high after setting QFE - didnt get down to 1K, then left the final setup a little late, but landing was acceptable - although i did dump the nose in a little.

All in all - not bad considering in at the deepend and 3 months gap, radio was pretty good too.

Another one booked for tomorrow AM :)

Getting Back in the saddle

Well what with a new contract, illness and generally not getting around to it. Over 3 months have passed since ive been flying. Started a new contract in Nottingham which meant i couldnt go flying during the week. I also had 2 months off work which reduced the funds a little.

Anyway, Ive finsihed working in Nottingham and going to work for a decent company again down in Milton Keynes. With half a week off spare i decided to get my back side in gear and book some lessons in for this week, so got 3 booked in Thursday , Friday and Sunday.

Going to be a bit rusty, but it will be good to get back into flying again and hopefully get my PPL before the bad weather sets in.

Nav Exam Passed :)

Went to see my mate Gerry Price again for this one. I had read most of the course already and planned a couple of routes up for the flying as you will see from my blogs so far, but having had ago at some practice papers didnt seem to be accurate enough. Turns out the PPL Q&A book is a bit more "fussy" than the real papers.

Anyway, we covered the whole 1.5 day course in a morning, sat the exam, and passed 100% - Gerry sure makes these things alot easier than reading a plane old book.

So just got RT and Aircraft General left now.

First Lesson With Doug

Now Stuart has gone, my instructor is now Doug. A funny chap, with a completely different way of teaching. Far more hand off, and far more strict, oh and he swears alot - and makes strange noises - i think he could be insane :)

Planned the Nav route up right this time and it worked out fine. Doug got me doing all the radio, EastMids, Coventry, Cottesmore, Leicester back to East Mids - ouch.
He also showed me a couple of tips for distance finding, towns off the wing tip 1-2nm etc etc, and also to play with power and pitch in the thermals, no trim as you couldnt trim for weather like today.
Landing wasnt bad - 10 knot cross wind, bit screachy as i didnt quite get enough rudder in, but soft.

Felt like i got alot wrong, but its good that Doug is strict i imagine its more like the test will be.

Screw up Nav Excercise

Well we were supposed to be doing, Bitteswell, Eyebrook today, Stuart asked me to plan it out before gettting to the school so i did (or so i thought)

This is my last lesson with Stuart who is moving onto pastures greener - or skies bluer - actually hes still going to be based at East Mids but working for Odnance Survey aerial photography on a twin.

Anyway, off we trot, arrive at markfield, set course for Bitteswell, gross error check - cr@p - ive screwed it all up, logged the headings as Eyebrook to Bitteswell not Bitteswell Eyebrook and then to compound it all, ive done the distances the right way around.

So we did some rough calc on the fly - diversion stylie and made the best of a bad job - not a great last lesson but hey it was kinda funny. Just goes to show, gross error checks arent that pointless :)

Met Exam Passed 100%

Well upon a friends recommendation I went to see Gerry Price to do my Met Exam. Hes an ex RAF pilot from the war and a CAA examiner. You sit down in the morning and he teached you all you need to know for the exam, cooks you a great lunch (Steak and home cooked chips) some revision in the afternoon and then you sit the exam.

Sat the exam and bam - 100% well chuffed, hes a great guy, mail me offline if you want his details jim @ vwnavi dot com

So thats just Nav, Aircraft Gen and RT left - getting there.

Flight Performance and Planning Exam

Well what with all this pressure, i went down today to sit the exam. Can't beleive that the PPL Q&A book had no mock papers in it, although it said it was covered on the rear of the book. The flying school had no mock papers. I found some mock papers online at AirQuiz and did a few of them.

Anyway 40 mins later i get 90% - thats 3 down 4 to go.

One of the 2 answers i got wrong was about the take off landing percentages for dry and wet grass according to the UK AIP!. So here i am having learnt parrot fashion that table from the book, and they expect you to know the AIP book.
Im not sure what the examiners are tryin to prove here. parrot fashion learning is no use to anyone, and to test on aip stuff which just isnt in the text books or CBT is just plain nasty!

Thats my two pence said :)

More Instrument flying and Radio Nav

Weather pretty bad today for most things apart from circuits. So we went and did a full hour of instrument flying right in the middle of the cloud at 4000ft. No hood needed this time!

Quite tiring, keep on headings, using the VOR etc, maintain straight and level.

We then used landed back using the ILS which was quite cool. ATC giving us headings and descent altitudes back to home, we popped out the clouds to see the runway all lit up - reality was cloud base was at about 1200 feet but it still proved the point as was interesting if not a bit tiring.

Radio Nav Route

First experience of Nav using VOR, ADF and DME etc. Seems quite good, tune into the transmitter (Trent) ident it, using morse code. Get your distance and bearing etc using the VOR. Then over to Gamston, and back to trowell, using the radio station :)
Classic gold as the ident - tee hee.

Tracking using the VOR seems very good, and using 2 for position fix etc.

Need some more practice on these two. but hey it calls with practice.

Matlock, Blidworth

Another Nav excerise.

Sat down with the map, drew in the triangle from Trowell to Matlock to Blidworth back to Trowell. Calculated the distances, half way points, bearing and groundspeed (using wiz wheel and my Pocket PC app to check :) Then plogged it, and worked out times and fuel etec. Oh before all this we phoned and got the wind at 3000 feet, altough we were planning to fly at 2400 all the way.

It all worked out well again, hit the points spot on, although the timing was a little conservative.

All good fun though.