New Toy

In preparation for having to use the radio for the first time this weekend (otherwise known as the magic talking box) I purchased myself a new toy:

My own headset. The club does provide loan ones for students, but the one I had last time up was a little bit flakey so I figured getting something reliable was one less thing to worry about. It's a David Clark H10-13.4 which gets good write ups and seems pretty comfortable. Oh and I got it off amazon in the end - they really do sell everything!

No flying today, but a new app

Well I didn't get to do any flying today, not because of the weather (surprisingly - as it's not been great and we even had snow yesterday), but unfortunately my instructor was temporarily grounded after being involved in a road traffic collision earlier in the week. He's OK (his bike less so), but due to the pain killers he's been put on for the next few days he's not allowed to fly and that means I too am grounded.

Still we made good use of the time and ploughed through some more ground school stuff, covering stalls, spins and a few other bits and pieces. Hopefully by covering off the full briefings we can get straight up into the air (circumstances allowing) this coming Saturday.

I also got a recommendation for quite a useful app for the iPhone, which is AeroWeather. This useful little app is available either completely free w=for the lite version or £2.50 for the pro version (which adds a few extra features) and is really handy for checking weather information. It basically at a glance gives you basic details for all the airports in your nearby area, including most importantly straight away if it is suitable for VFR (Visual Flight Rules) flying:

You can then go in and get the full METAR and TAF data for your airport of choice, and it will even translate all the sometimes unintelligible stuff into simple to understand english:

It's able to access data worldwide so is useful for planning routes, and the pro version even gives you the relevant NOTAMs for the airports as well.

All in all a very useful little app to add to the arsenal.

Got some flying in.

Managed to get two sessions in this weekend as the weather has improved dramatically. Was a tad hazy today (which made actually being able to see the horizon rather tricky) but absolutely perfect conditions yesterday.

Got to do a few new things this weekend. Started off with my first go at taxing the aircraft, which I will be doing moving forward. Fairly straight forward, just got to remember to keep my speed down at times. Also today for the first time had to do all the pre-flight checks myself, doing a complete aircraft inspection “A” Check, startup procedures, taxi checks, engine checks at the hold point and altimeter setting. I also got to do my first two takeoffs, all on my own which was rather exciting (managed to use a tad too much of the runway the first time, managed to mess up the trim on the second occasion, but getting slowly better). So apart from using the radio to get taxi and takeoff clearances (which I sense is coming soon) I can pretty much (with the aid of a checklist) get the aircraft started and in the air.

Up in the air we went through a number of different exercises which included:

1. Flying at a different airspeeds straight and level
2. Ascending and Descending at different airspeeds
3. Rate 2 turns while maintaining altitude
4. Rate 1 turns while ascending and descending.

Basically all the basics you need to manoeuvre the aircraft to a particular altitude and heading.

We then moved on to do all the preparation stuff for a simulated landing (essentially preparing for it as though we were coming into land but staying at 3,000 feet), getting the flaps deployed, going through the various checks you need to do and reducing your airspeed while controlling your descent. We also did a session on slow speed flying (about 15 knots above the stall area), again doing turns, descents, ascending at those much slower speeds (where the controls are much less responsive).

They also got me to do two landing approaches, with the instructor taking over as we got to the last 100 feet or so and me just following on the controls. Landing is definitely the most hands on element of the basic flight - pretty much all the other manoeuvres are quite slow and methodical, working through the stages and trying to move the aircraft as smoothly as possible. The final stages of landing by contrast requires a lot of constant little adjustments on the controls as your trying to ensure you hit the runway as accurately as possible. Still it looks doable, and it’s not a lot of use being able to get an aircraft up in the air if you can’t get it back down again!

Got to study up on stalls and spins for next time, which will hopefully be next Sunday.

Hour count = 3.2 Total Flying Hours

Hopefully get to go flying today!

TAF is looking good (and I even understand what this means now):

EGJJ 160804Z 1609/1618 13008KT 9999 FEW015 PROB30 TEMPO 1609/1610 5000 BR BKN005=

So hopefully come 12 o'clock I will get to head up once again. Follow that with Jersey taking to Nottingham in the Rugby, and puppy sitting later on - this will hopefully be a good day!

First (of what I suspect will be many) weather delay

Well I headed up to the airport for my second proper flying lesson today, but the weather was decidedly against us. That put a stop to any chance of actually flying today, what with the combination of rain, mist, cloud and wind today. Not exactly unexpected this time of year and I suspect this will hardly be an isolated problem, especially this time of year. So two hours of ground school stuff it was to be, and at least according to the instructor, doing that now was actually a pretty good idea as it allowed us to plough through quite a lot of material and hopefully prepare well for when we do manage to get in the air.

Mostly straight forward stuff, understanding the various bits of the airplane better, going through all of the paperwork that is associated with flying, and gaining an understanding on how to read a weather report (something that I suspect will come up quite a bit if today is anything to go by!):

We also went through on the ground what we were going to do for the next few weeks and did the various briefings that were going to be needed. More on that when I get back in the air and actually get to do them.

Also over the past week I have at least started on the big pile of reading I’ve got to do. Basically in order to get your PPL you need to pass 7 written exams, namely:

1. Air Law
2. Aircraft General and Principles of Flight
3. Flight Performance
4. Human Factors
5. Meteorology 
6. Navigation
7. Radio Telephony

As I was advised to, I’ve been concentrating on Air Law to begin with, as that’s the one you need to get out of the way ASAP. All the others you can pretty much take whenever you like (although they must all be complete before you can get your licence), but until you pass Air Law they don’t allow you to fly an aircraft solo, so you need to get it done in order to progress. So I’ve been spending an hour or so each day learning about the rules of the air, different types of airspace and the difference between Flight Level and Altitude. Most of it seems fairly logical (which is probably a good thing!), although I have definitely wandered into a whole new level of the use of acronyms!

So that’s it for this week. Got two sessions booked in for next weekend, hopefully the weather will improve!

Hour 1 of 45 (at least)

So today I finally took the plunge and did something I have been meaning to do for quite a while which is start down the long road to hopefully obtaining my Private Pilots Licence. I had already been up to the local Aero Club last weekend and signed myself up for my first lesson today. It was a certainly a fun and interesting experience, and at least at this stage only a little bit daunting.

Lesson 1 was fairly straight forward, fill in some paperwork, let the instructor file the flight plan then go out and cover the basic checks of the airplane. The airplane in question being known as X-Ray - Alpha, which is a Piper Warrior II, and looks a lot like this:

After the walk round checking everything was as it should be, it was into the aircraft for a run through on what the initially bewildering array of dials and things actually mean. Certainly at first the volume of things looks a bit daunting, but for the most part if you just look at one at time they mostly make a lot of sense and will be things that you may well have come across before either on TV or video games. Certainly on my initial flight the most useful to me were the Turn and Balance indicator and the Vertical Speed Indicator.

Flying conditions today were great in terms of visibility, not so great in terms of the wind which had a 20 knot crosswind blowing from the north at a direct right angle to the runway. Fortunately lesson 1 was not going to involve take off or landing on my part so the instructor had to contend with that aspect of things (the landing at the end of the lesson was certainly interesting - having to “crab” land, pointing the aircraft quite dramatically away from the runway to keep the airplane on track and then yawing in at the last moment to land it).

The instructor sorted out all the talking to the tower, initially for permission to taxi, then to hold while we performed a series of engine and instrument tests, and finally to take off. We were then assigned an area to the south of the island to operate in, which is apparently the usual student pilot training zone. Jersey is slightly unusual as it is what is known as controlled airspace (as it has 1 airport, both general aviation and scheduled flights take place from the same location), so you have to be on the ball and be prepared to do whatever air traffic tell you to do. It was then a case of taking control and going through some basic manoeuvres, straight and level flight, turns, ascent, descents, flying with and without flaps, trimming the aircraft, and learning about the effects of the throttle (something that effects the aircraft in ways you wouldn't immediately think of). Learning what happens when you do one thing, and how it effects other things was very much the aim of the day, and just getting a feel for things.

Two thoughts at this stage on my first fly around. On the positive side, one aspect I thought would be tricky, combining the movement of the rudder pedals to that of the yolk (in order to keep the aircraft in balance during a turn), actually proved quite instinctive. On the negative, it is clearly quite easy to get confused as to where exactly you are, especially flying from Jersey where you are pretty much always flying over water and especially when you have any kind of wind blowing you constantly in one direction. At one point, even with the instructor in charge we got a warning from air traffic that we were drifting out of our designated zone and towards French controlled air space. Hopefully once less attention is required on actually flying the airplane and looking at the gauges, more attention can be utilised to keep track of where exactly I am in the sky.

Anyway, it was certainly an interesting fly around and an hour later (it felt much shorter) the instructor told me to head back towards the island and he landed us, which as I said was an interesting experience, but slightly bizarrely felt completely safe. A quick taxi and we were back on stand. The fuel guys were clearly keen today as they almost beat us there and topped up the tanks in preparation for the next flight and that was that.

So to round off the day, we got to fill in some more paperwork, I got given a big pile of books which I will have to study and do 7 exams on (joy!) and I got booked in for what will (weather permitting) be my next few lessons.

And that, as they say was that. Hour 1 complete. A minimum of 45 more to go.