Fog - here all week

Same bloody weather all week, low cloud - aka fog!

Weather Sucks

Yet another foggy spring morning! Time for the family.

Lesson 15: More Circuits (ex 12,13e)

So ive just sat 2 mock air laws, and will be sitting the real thing after this lesson (see my previous blog)

This lesson went reasonably well, less crosswind today, so i got lined up easier. Made a few mistakes on the RT (Used Affirm instead of reading back the instruction)
We did glide approaches, flap and full flap approaches, normall 2 stage approaches and engine cuts on climb out.

My landings still arent right, im flaring a little too late and too much, a fraction earlier and smoother would be lots better, going to try and drum that into my seive like memory for next time.

Onwards and upwards!

Air Law Exams

A bit of a day today. I decided to take a mock air law exam and see how i got on. If i did ok, maybe sit another and then the real thing.

Well i sat my first mock, which was ok, struggled on some cargo type questions, but passed with 87.5% (a pass is 75%)
Stuart said that was about the best mark he had seen for a first attempt. He suggested i sit another mock, just in case i fluked it, so i did, and i got 100% wahey!

It was then time for a lesson (see my next post) and back in for a coffee, and then the real thing.
The difference with the real exam is that instead of 3 multiple choice answers you get four. I sat the exam and found it alot harder, i actually thought i might have failed, maybe it was just nerves??
Anyway i passed with 87.5% again - so im please, it would have been nice to get over 90% but hey!

All in all a good day, thats my medical and air law out the way, nothing stopping me from going solo now, apart from my landings :)

Weather or NOT

Cancelled lesson today, Vis was down to 3Km, so we binned the lesson.

Lesson 14: Instrument flying (Ex 19)

Had a weeks break as Stuart has been off on a course (lets hope he knew how to fly already :) )

Well i turned up for circuits today and the vis was quite poor - 8K and patchy. So Stuart said we would do some instrument flying. The PPL requirement is for you to be able to perform a level 180 turn on instruments to allow you to get out of a cloud you may have strayed into.

So i took off and we climbed out to uncontrolled airspace (Gamston Departure 3K feet)
when we out of controlled airspace i had to put on the IFR hood, which covers you field of view and limits you to looking only at the instrument panel

The IFR Hood


Its amazing how much you do have to concentrate on the AI, the Altimeter,ASI and DI, constantly checking all three in the "T" shape. You cant rely on one instrument to give you a correct picture.

I did the turn well (apparently) so we did a couple more, and Stuart was well pleased. So we went on to some more advanced stuff (not required for the PPL) such as recovery from unusual attitudes, dives and climbs etc - power on, nose down, no elevators until speed is back up, power back level off etc.

All quite cool, then came back and did a flapless landing, came in quite quickly compared to flaps, and had to bleed the speed off in the flare which seemed to last ages.

Good lesson though, Stuart didnt half throw the plane around to try and disorientate me :)

Lesson 13: Advanced Turns Ex15 (and one circuit ex 12,13)

We were due to do circuits today, circuits, circuits, circuits till solo circuits for 3 hours
then move onto to further lessons but a Jet turned up and did circuits so it was a no go.

So we decided we would move on and do Ex 15 - Advanced Turning. We covered the briefing of level steep turns and descending steep turns.

The definition of a steep turn is over 30 degrees, 60 is the max limit which you want to keep away from in the Warrior - unless speed and height are more than adequate.

The turns we did today we aimed at around 45 degrees - the 2 outer marks on the AI indicate 60 and 30 degrees so inbetween the two.

As lift needs to be increased during a steep turn due to the vertical component of the lift vector being at an angle to the actual lift.
Generally enter the turn, as you pass 30 degrees put the power on and "drag the nose around the horizon", a fair amount of back pressure required, and done primarily on visual cues. Plenty of G force, quite good fun, although alot less disorientating when you do the manouver yourself.

Went reasonably well, not too difficult im sure would come with practice. These turns are designed more as avoidance turns - slam in the turn, power on, get out the way.

We practiced a few in glide descent, Stuart did a daddy one at 90 degrees, with the noise almost pointing down at the ground - all we needed was a bomb release button :)

Came back a little early and did one touch and go and circuit that went well, reasonable landing, but the last landing i fooked up, stuart had to recover as i flared to early.

All in all though a good learning day, oh and did i say, i passed my medical yesterday :)

Medical Day - Arghhh!

Well i must say im pretty nervous about the medical. No pass means no more flying for me - somthing i dont like the thought of. In the past ive had a few medical problems such as borderline blood pressure etc.

Anyway, off i went to see Dr Hill in Burton-upon-trent. He was a really nice guy, retired from GP but still does aviation medicals.

The medical went pretty much as follows:

Fill out a couple of forms, personal details, licence type and medical history type stuff.

(Strip down and lie on the couch)

# Blood pressure test, pulse (mine was 140/70)
# Listened to my heart
# Tapped my chest and back (not sure what this test was for)
# Pressed around my abdomen, and felt my kidneys
# ECG - for about 30 seconds tops - he printed off the results
# Weight Measurement
# Height measurement

(Get dressed)

Eye tests:
# Read standard board with letters on with each eye and then both
# Read small print up close with each eye
# Read medium print at arms length with each eye (Instrument type reading)
# He then used a contraption developed by the RAF, it sat on my nose and had bar with a guage on protruding horizontally away from my head, on the bar was a sliding cube, on the cude on each side were various text and lines. The first test he showed me some text and slowly moved the cube down the bar, towards my nose and i had to tell him when the text went blurred. The second test was the same with a single line on the cube, and i had to tell him when it appeared as 2 lines. These tests apparently test your short distance vision. On the bar is then written ages, my was about 34 - (im 32) so i passed fine.
# Color Blind test - a book with colored dots in and numbers in the dots, read out the numbers
# Peripheral Vision test: He stood in front of me (about a foot away) and told me to look at his nose, he then held his hands out behind me and waved his fingers as he brought he hands slowly around to the front, i had to say when i could see his fingers moving (whilst still looking at his nose) He repeated this above, same level and below my eye level.
# Looked into my eyes with a lense and light.

Hearing Test:
# Looked into my ears. Also closed and ear and asked if i could hear him, then repated with the other ear.

Blood Test:
# Small pin prick (similar to sugar test), dropped a small amount of blood onto some glass and in it went into a machine for 5 mins, this then came back and told him i wasn't anemic (spelling)

Peak Flow Test:
# Blow into a tube and hard and fast as you can, this moves a needle up a guage showing the flow - mine went off the scale :)

Urine Test:
# I assume this tests for all sorts, blood, sugar etc.


TESTS OVER!!!

YIPPEEEE I PASSED!!!!

Captain Jimbo is on the loose!

He actually issued me my medical certificate there and then which i was suprised about, he also went on his pc and connected to the CAA and registered me there and then, and gave me my CAA ref number - apparent he is one of 46 out of the 300 AME's that can do this.

Right - Air Law exam - here i come!

Snow - Great at xmas, not for flying.

Another snow out day. Vis down to 4km and no horizon not good for circuits, booked in for Thursday so will have to wait till then. Medical on Wednesday.