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.

First Nav Ex - Eyebrook - Bitteswell

Well this was my first experience of Nav, plogging and flying a route. Sat down with a map and draw a triangle on the map from Markfield to Eyebrook to Bitteswell and back to Markfield. Calculated the length of each leg, got the wind forecast for 3000 feet and used the whiz wheel (and my Pocket Pc app) to calculate headings and ground speeds. From this you can get the times for each leg. Mark the half way points, and draw fan lines 10 degrees either side of track, to help you if you go off course.

Flying the route worked out well, no correction and give or take 10 seconds the times worked well too. Important to remember again to navigate via watch, map then ground to confirm your location. Also when turning onto the new legs, gross error check - oh and Freda checks all the time as usual!

But quite an interesting flight, had a look at bruntinghthorpe again, and made more of a visual note of what Markfield looks like - 3 huge quarries next to the M1.

Ex 10B and 16

A bit of a filler excercise this one, more stalling and PFL's. Pick a field and go for it, shout mayday, turn everything off.

Stalling, idle power, pull nose up to keep height, listen for stall, buffet, nose down, full power, positive climb,

Same again for stall with flap, and in the turn with flap.
Remembering not to use aileron during the stall unless you like spining!

Solo circuit Extravaganza!

Well a big day this one, ive got 3 lessons booked in. The first two of the day turned out to be solo circuits for me :)

The last one, ive blogged on its own as its a different excercise.

Both trips involved Stuart coming with me for the first circuit then getting out at the compass base.

I pilied in the time today, got a total of 2:25 solo time in :)
I had everything in the circuits today:
Left hand
Right Hand
Change overs
Late clearance from atc, saying i may have to go around due to vortex
Orbit everywhere
Extend downwind for 3nm to allow 737 in
Grass cutting clearance - displaced threshold at Mike etc

You name it!

Very tired at the end of the day. Most of my landings were fair, no big bangs, but only a couple which were very sweet! I did try my hand at adding a bit of power as i flared to early on one, at it worked well. Learnt alot today - sleep now! oh no another lesson coming.

More circuits

Dual circuits, weather not too great, so we did some dual, flapped and flapless.
Not much more to report really, just another circuit lesson

First Nav Lesson (Ex 12,13,18)

Well i had 2 lessons booked in today, hoping to get some solo consolidation in. One at 9am and one at 16.30. The 9am the weather was looking borderline, cross wind, bumpy etc, so we planned the first nav exercise. Nun-Brun as they call it at the school, Markfield to Nuneaton to Bruntingthorpe. Drew the triangle on the map, calcuated the leg lengths, called up for the wind at 2500, calculated the headings from the track and the wind drift etc, and eta's. It was all a bit rushed as we tried to cram it in.

We tried one circuit before going as it looked like it might be ok, but it wasnt so after my landing, we went off and did the Nav.

We got to Markfield, started the clock, set the heading and speed, got there early but spot on location wise and we checked half way through the leg. Nuneaton is an interesting place, its the MIRA car testing center so its something to see from the air. The rest the clock and off the Bruntingthorpe, same again, then back for Markfield, all went well, somehow each leg was quicker than we calculated, but spot on location wise, except for the last Markfield where we were a little East of where we should have been.

But all in all an interesting introduction to route planning, Ploging, and Nav.
Must remember "Watch to Map to Ground". i.e. how far into the leg are we time wise, then find it on the map, then look out for what we expect to see on the ground. Avoiding the temptation to look on the ground then back at the map.

The second lesson got scrapped, the wind picked up more so, even though id called in, drove down and checked the aircraft out, had to just drive back home, no solo and no flying :(

Still i did fancy being up there on my own.

More Circuits

More dual circuits, bad weather too windy so we called it a day 30 mins total. Not really worth doing it to be honest, but i guess it keeps me current.

Human Factors Exam

Been studying over the bank holiday weekend. Read the human factors book, and looked at the CBT stuff - not all of it though as its quite boring and i was doing well in the practice exams in the PPL Q&A book.

So went down to the flying school this morning to sit the mock. Sat it and got 90%, got caught out on a couple of what i thought were badly worded questions but hey.

I sat the real exam, and some how managed to get 100% :)

That will do me.

So had a quick chat with the lady there, and decided to do Nav next as its the next part of the flying lessons. So i bought myself a whole load of Nav stuff:
Nav computer, scale ruler, protractor, diary (to log my lessons :)
New 2005 half mill chart, pens, etc etc etc.

So ive started reading Nav now, trying to get these exams sorted asap, i have a feeling Nav isnt going to be as simple as HF :)