Lesson 20, Solo Circuits

Today wifey a.k.a Tristine decided to come along and watch me fly, I told her about what to expect as I was doing solo circuits today providing the instuctor cleared me to fly. We had to wait around for 40 minutes until a plane was available as todays schedule had slipped back a bit so we grabbed a coffee in the airfield bistro. Tristine was asking lots of questions about the aircraft and flying, it felt good being able to answer them.

Once Foxtrot Victor returned with it's previous student I went out and carried out the transit pre-flight checks, these checks are getting quicker and quicker each time, not through complacency just through not needing to refer to the checklist as often. Mathew , another instructor soon joined me (Antonio was having a well earned day off) and we proceeded with the take off routine.

I carried out a couple of circuits with Mathew, which went well so on the second landing he jumped out. I refueled the Katana and then departed on my own, giving Tristine a wave as I passed her at the apron. I felt relaxed and calm as I carried out all the engine and pre-takeoff checks and before long was in the air. I noticed once again the weight difference, the Katana climbed like a rocket upon take-off.

My circuits were pretty much boring and effortless, strange for me to say that, I mean I enjoyed flying but the circuit procedures have become second nature now. I did not accept any mistakes in my circuit and all the time flew to the best of my ability. I set a goal for myself today, to improve my judgement of the approach with different flap settings as this is an area that needs work. I believe I achieved my goal, my approaches got steadily better with each circuit and the landings were on the most part good, although my last touch-down was a small bounce.

Today I did 0.8 hours solo with 6 circuits and landings with full flap, 1 stage of flap and no flap, I have scheduled in a morning slot on Wednesday to do more of the same.

Tristine was very patient waiting and it was really nice to have her there supporting me, she watched the entire time and managed to take a few pictures. (I will try and post them soon).

Roll on Wednesday!

Lesson 19, PFL's and IMC

Todays lesson marks the longest I have gone without flying since I began training, therefore I was desperately keen to get back in the air. The weather today is warm but with many layers of cumulus cloud overhead with scattered showers and a light wind. The weather was not ideal for solo circuits today therefore we decided to leave the circuit and go do some duel practice forced landings.

I first had a long briefing discussing all the symptoms and causes of engine failure, such as fuel starvation or ignition failure. All of these I had discussed before but this time was in much more detail. We briefed on the procedure; to establish best glide speed and look for a suitable landing area before trying to restart the engine and carrying out the appropriate steps. Then making a mayday call and finally securing the aircraft such as turning off fuel, electrics, ignition before landing. Alot of steps to remember but I have been assured that I will practice all aspects of forced landings many many times until it becomes automatic.

It started showering outside so I waited around awhile while Antonio went to grab a sandwich, as soon as it stopped I went out and pre-flighted the Katana. Antonio caught up with me as I finished the checks so I took off and headed towards a countryside area favoured for practice landings.

Once in the air a smile soon developed. The weather was simply amazing, we were flying at around 2500AMSL and passing overhead small occasional cumulus formations along with more cloud above. Through breaks in the clouds the sun streamed through highlighting all the little rain showers coming from individual clouds. We avoided much of the rain but occasionally flew into some just for the fun of it. Before long we reached our intended practice area, it is a very beautiful area, miles of fields, wooded areas and hills with the occasional ponds and streams. (The area I am talking about is South of Newbury). It is days like today that are probably the best for flying and you truly get an appreciation for the beauty of nature and the weather. At one time we passed close to two other aircraft flying in formation, one was a PA28 the other we were not sure about. Farnborough radar kept us informed the entire flight of nearby traffic avoiding getting uncomfortably close.

Antonio pulled the power suddenly and immediately I began the procedures discussed earlier. This was going to take a bit of practice as in my first effort I forgot to pick out a suitable landing area. On the second attempt it was much better, everything was good and we went through the entire process, initiating a recovery before the wheels touched the ground. We had plenty of space in which to practice and stayed clear of any built-up areas (farm houses) and power cables. We continued to do PFL's for the next hour, each time Antonio would catch me out by asking to climb to 3000ft then pulling the power just after establishing the climb, he would also pull the power while banking onto a given heading. All of this was excellent practice! Most instructors will prevent the aircraft getting below two or three hundred feet above the ground however Antonio's opinion was that that was not real enough. I couldn't agree more, completing the PFL to the point of no doubt about making a successful landing was highly valuable and really reinforced my confidence in the aircraft. Also was a lot of fun buzzing corn fields to within a few feet, before climbing away.

The PFL's went very well, I need to work on them more to become totally automatic with the procedures and no doubt I will get alot more practice to nail the lesson 100%. Antonio suggested we try something new, IMC flight. Now I have been looking forward to this, just to experience it. Antonio is IFR rated and therefore it was no problem to fly into some cloud. The cloud was actually pretty thin in most parts so Antonio restricted my view to just the instruments then gave me instructions to follow such as heading changes, altitude changes and both at the same time. I have had alot of practice doing this on Flight Sim 2004, where the instruments are the primary focus rather than the view outside the aircraft, this practice paid off and I felt at home doing this. Antonio expressed his satisfaction.

Finally to cap off the lesson I did some navigation using a map and trying to establish our position (all the flying with restricted view had totally thrown my ideas about our position) then to head back to Blackbushe. At first I incorrectly guessed that a town to our left hand side was Newbury but soon established that it was in fact Reading by looking at the motorway and nearby lakes, I then estimated the correct course to Blackbushe from here. After ten or fifteen minutes maintaining this course, Blackbushe appeared in our 12 o'clock position (directly ahead). Blackbushe Information informed us the circuit was presently unoccupied therefore we requested a glide approach. I flew directly over the runway at 2000 AGL and Antonio cut the power, I did the PFL checks then banked around to the left at best glide and eventually lined up the runway, we were a little high so set full flap and landed softly about a third way in to the runway. I did one more circuit to practice another full flap landing which was not so good (I seem to have lost the technique on full flap landings, so need to regain this!).

So concludes a long and productive lesson, I am still smiling now as I gotta tell ya I enjoyed every moment! I am flying again tomorrow this time for solo circuits if the weather holds out (it is forecast to improve).

Wx bad

Another cancellation this morning due to the weather. There is heavy rain and thunderstorms expected to last untill the weekend which will likely scrub any chance of flying before next week. My next actual lesson is on the 6th August, so it will mark the longest break from flying since I began taking lessons. Although the weather is a part of aviation, it has come at a particularly irritating time for me, having carried out my solo I now want to consolidate that experience.

Cancelled

This mornings lesson was cancelled due to the weather, at least I guess it has brought a little welcome relief from the recent heat and humidity. Next lesson is on Wednesday morning before work.

Good lesson learnt

Today I was scheduled to do some solo circuits, the weather didn't look too great (overcast with spots of rain) but was good enough for circuits. I turned up and soon the aircraft returned from the previous lesson so I carried out the 'A' checks. Antonio came out to give me a hand and just as I finished the checks another student appeared at the plane saying "I must have the plane now" .. Antonio and me look at each other as if to say "????" he said he had it booked (which he didn't he had booked the next hour after me). Anyway Antonio went in to speak to the operational staff while I remained with the other student, he was clearly aggravated and began to complain to me about the fact that he has had alot of cancellations because of weather and he has yet to solo despite having many hours. I figured, jeez if he so annoyed I will let him have the plane as he obviously needed the time more than me. When his instructor turned up he mentioned he wanted to do three hours of circuits, to which his instructor said no for all the obvious reasons (I mean one hour of circuits can be hard work, let alone three!).

Therefore I gave up my slot and was instead offered this students slot for one hour later, more was said on this matter by various people which I can not write about here. To tell the truth though I didn't mind, I was just surprised someone would be willing to fly when he was feeling pretty angry.

The hour soon passed, we watched some private jets arrive along with a large private helicopter. Out stepped a bunch of very well dressed, obviously very rich people on their way to watch their horses race at Newbury. I felt suddenly underdressed in a pair of cords and a t-shirt.

Echo Hotel returned and I went out to meet the aircraft, after the other student thanked me (he seemed alot calmer now) I assured him it was no problem and took over the keys. I carried out the second A check of the day and taxied out with Antonio beside me, our plan was to go up for one or two circuits to check out the flying conditions, if it was good I would then solo. At engine run up I did the normal checks, however when I switched to R magneto, whoosh.. down went the rpm's and the engine began running badly, ok not seen this before. Left was fine, right was inconsitently dropping way way too much rpms, we tried it at different power settings and it appeared that below 1500rpm it would start rough running, then around 1200rpm it suddenly dropped off to struggle to idle even. Not good, I stated immediately I would not fly today (especially not solo) like that, Antonio also agreed no way could we go like that. Antonio took some notes for maintainence and I taxied and parked.

One of those days today! but hey at least I got two more 'A' check practice and 10 minutes taxi practice! ;-) Still once again, I think positive things came from this experience.. at least now I know what I am looking for when I check the magnetos.

Early this morning before coming to Blackbushe I drove over to a nearby flying shop and invested in a headset, a David Clark H10 13.4 as was recommended to me. At least I got to test that out briefly also.

I have a 2 hour slot booked for tomorrow morning but it doesn't look likely to happen due to the weather worsening, tomorrow is expected to be strong and heavy rain, so I think I will likely study instead.

Lesson 18, Solo

Thankfully I did get to do my solo after-all. The time today passed slowly and with each passing hour I thought my chances of soloing today were steadily decreasing, however at around 4:30pm I had a call from Antonio to say I can do it.

I got there as quickly as I could, scared that the opportunity would slip from my grasp once again, or they would change their minds about letting me loose with an aeroplane. Once I arrived I had a short wait for G-BWEH to return with it's previous student, while waiting my nerves started to jangle, I just wanted to do this! It was actually a fairly surreal moment, I knew I could do the solo but some doubts crept in. Things like the active runway (07) I had not practiced in awhile, and the thoughts of checklists etc.

Before long EH returned so I jumped in with the chief flying instructor and we got going, then everything went wrong. My take-off was just unbelievably poor.. I allowed the aircraft to lift too early, we touched the runway gently before taking off again! Argh.. bad.. I have never taken off so badly before and I can't explain why I did this time. First circuit was passable, at least I remembered the checks although I managed to screw up the height on the circuit, approach with flaps was poor. Landing good thankfully. Second circuit was a little better but again way way poorer than I have been doing up till now. I was expecting him to refuse the solo, however the moment we touched down he asked me "ok ready to go on your own", I was initially unsure whether he said that because he had confidence in my terrible display or was just trying to get out the plane away from this madman pilot!

I decided at that point that I had to go.. I knew I could do allot better and was determined to get this right.

Funnily enough, once alone in the aircraft, all my apprehension about soloing evaporated. I taxied and carefully ran through all the checks, making sure nothing was missed then taxied out for take-off. After another Katana landed I received the call "Golf Echo Hotel, take off at your discretion, wind is 090 06 knots" so off I went. The Katana shot into the air much quicker than I am used to, the weight difference solo sure made a difference. After completing the turn onto crosswind I was already at circuit height so reduced power and turned onto downwind. Checks completed and radio call made I was advised of two other aircraft, I saw a piper come from my left and join on downwind ahead of me. I was number 2 to land behind him.

Whilst up there it felt strange to be flying alone, I felt a sense of serenity and also was acutelly aware of all the little noises and movements of the aircraft, this felt great!

I turned crosswind after watching the Piper pass my starboard wing on his final and decided I would do a normal flap landing, so lowered 1st stage of flap and set up the aircraft to descend at 70 knts. I turned final and lowered 2nd stage of flap, hmm.. ok she doesn't want to sink so much with just one in the aircraft, reducing power.. hmm starting to look high still. I made the decision to continue with the descent rather than go-around because there was enough distance still so cut to idle and glided in gently. The landing again was different, she did not want to land! The Katana just floated for quite away before gently dropping on to the runway, I bounced a tiny bit then maintained back and then landed properley. Lesson learnt, landing solo will take a bit of practice.

I cleared the runway and Blackbushe Information called out "Golf Echo Hotel, congratulations on first solo!" I thanked them and taxied back to parking. Antonio came out to greet me and congratulate me, I thanked him also for getting me to this point. By this time the event was sinking in, I was wearing a dumb grin. We went inside the office and everyone immediately offered their congratulations, then the jokes started, Antonio mentioned that I will solo allot more now so I accused him of being afraid to fly with me.

All in all, I am still buzzing with the experience and I can't wait for tomorrow’s hour long solo, providing the weather holds out. For now I am going to head out to a pub to hoist a drink to the air gods!

Wx is not my friend

Woke up early this morning having spent the previous evening going over emergency checklists for engine fire, electrical fire etc, in preperation for the check-out before solo today. I drew back the curtains and clear blue sky with nearly no wind, all looks good so I head down to the flying school. Time I arrive there cloud has appeared overhead and there appears to be alot of haze, looking accross the runway the far trees look fairly obscured, hmm this is not looking good.

Before long Antonio arrives as does Peter, the chief flying instructor, he decides to go up and check the weather in the air as the METAR reports cloudbase at 1300ft, which may be ok for the solo (circuit height is 800ft AGL). While he is gone Antonio and me chat for awhile, discussing procedures and his first solo experience, it is good and he does a great job of keeping me relaxed.

Peter returns and says it is excellent weather for solo flight, nearly no wind, smooth air but visibility is just too poor due to the rising haze. I am dissappointed but then these things happen.

I *might* get a chance to solo later on today, depending on the visibility and if space can be made on the schedule for both Antonio and Peter. I will post again if I do get to go, otherwise it might happen over the weekend. I am so psyched to do this I hope I don't get another week of waiting.

Lesson 17, High Wind Landings

Today I woke up expecting to solo (given Antonio's permission), the sky was clear of cloud, sun shining and a light westerley wind. However as the day wore on I checked the TAF's and each one predicted strong winds and rain, sure enough time it got to my lesson there was a 20knt wind from the West but no rain as yet.

Whilst waiting around I went outside and watched others coming in to land, several landings were aborted and saw one aircraft balloon three times and bounce 3 times before landing. All aircraft landing looked to be having a few problems of some sort with the strong wind.

Antonio returned from his previous lesson and I was glad to hear the words that I can't solo today because of the strong gusty winds as I definately would have decided not to fly solo in conditions like these. He mentioned that it is very bumpy up there and hard to land. He said I can fly duel but I might not like it once in the air, he left it up to me to decide. I decided to fly anyway as it will be good practice to carry out some landings in weather like this.

During the pre-flight the plane was getting blown around quite a bit and Antonio explained how the conditions will be on the aircraft in flight, this was good as it is far better to know what to expect. We gained a reluctant sounding clearance and were soon into the air. Immediately I saw what he meant, climbing was made difficult by the constant fluctuation in airspeed I also was off track as I climbed out. I turned crosswind and the aircraft is getting thrown around a whole lot, I struggled up to circuit height just in time to turn downwind. I decided I would carry out a flapless approach and began my base descent and final, the whole time the aircraft is bucking around but hey at least it's exciting! During final I was struggling with the airspeed as it was fluctuating from 50 knts to 100knts rapidly as the aircraft bumped around and I struggled to keep the wings level, I ended up much to high as a result so initiated a go-around. The tower advised me a helicopter was below taking off from the helicopter runway (yes they have runways?!?) following the runway I looked out of my left window down at the chopper grass runway and saw a chopper swinging around madly from side to side, it looked out of control for a moment then regained straight and level flight, phew... it looked very close to becoming a nasty incident. (It was a training flight and the instructor took over).

I went around for another go, this time I decided that my ASI was not much good to me when it is swinging around so I concentrated solely on the position of the nose in the horizon and the feel of the aircraft and kept a good look out. Another flapless approach and this time better, the aircraft was still bucking around, dropping 50ft or so before lifting 50ft and trying to roll one way or the other with the wind. This time my landing was good although I needed alot more power right up to the threshold to keep her where I wanted her.

I did several more of these circuits during which the rain started, flying in the rain was a new experience but not a bad one, Antonio was a little surprised I could handle these conditions which increased my confidence. All in all I made 5 soft good landings in difficult conditions and therefore was very pleased with the lesson, I am glad I decided to fly because now I know how to handle those situations in the future as the weather is not always going to play nice. We noted 220/20 + 5 Landings in my logbook and turned our attention to the solo.

My next lesson is on Friday, Antonio has asked me to prepare to solo on Friday because I am more than ready. Friday will be a short lesson, I will firstly do a couple of circuits with Antonio then a circuit with the chief flying instructor to clear me to solo and then the solo itself. I just hope the wind backs off!

Air Law Exam Passed

The past few evenings/days have found me revising in preperation for the Air Law exam, I am using the AFE study books by Jeremy Pratt and have found them to be simple to understand and easy to read. I decided this morning I felt confident with my recently aquired knowledge and therefore went to Blackbushe to sit the exam.

The exam paper was challenging and I only managed a score of 85% which was slightly dissappointing, there were two questions I really should have got right and mistakenly didn't. I did however manage to get more than the 75% required and therefore gained a pass result. This now means I can solo tomorrow perhaps, depending on Antonio's confidence I won't kill myself in the process.

With hindsight, I have had alot of lessons recently and this has meant my practical flying knowledge has exceeded my theoretical knowledge. I'm thinking now would be a good time to ease back on the practical side, reducing to one or two lessons a week in order to give me the time to cover the other exam material adequately. I have a week off work booked in August where I plan to fly 2 hours each day, which I will keep as I hope to cover some of the navigation curriculm within that week, but until then I will spend more time concentrating on the theory side.

Lesson 16, Aircraft Carrier Landings

I was intending to sit the Aviation Law exam this morning but following revision last night I did not feel entirely confident that I had revised enough. I didn't want to take the exam knowing that I had reservations about my understanding of the subject, I want to sit it when I know I fully understand. It would be foolish to needlessly fail an exam.

I went to Blackbushe early anyhow to let them know I wasn't going to take it today which was fine and Antonio asked if I wanted to fly instead, flying sounded good so up we went.

This morning was so hazy due to the overnight dew rising into the atmosphere, although not a cloud was in sight it was barely VMC even though the METAR was giving 9999 vis. My first circuit was routine, approach was good, speed good, landing .. poop, a big steaming pile of poop. Up till now I have never had a truly bad landing, but this beat my previous failures. Basically I was concentrating on lining up exactly with the centre line and touching down on the numbers, I miss-judged my speed and flared much to late. Touched down fairly hard just before the threshold, bounced a bit into the air before touching down a second time. Antonio commented "excellent aircraft carrier landing!". Although I was appalled by my landing, Antonio mentioned he regularly experiences far far worse at the hands of students. In hindsight I am glad I landed badly, it has taught me to not to become over-confident!

We carried on and did a mixture of approaches, with full flap, no flap and glide, along with two Engine Out simulations. My subsequent approaches and landings were thankfully good. Once landed I took the aircraft over to the fuel pumps and after refueling Antonio told me to taxi the aircraft back to the parking area and put her in the second bay, my first solo taxi. All went well although was a little strange being alone. I parked and returned to the office to complete the log book.

I will now sit the Law exam over the weekend, giving me a little more time to prepare and then fly and hopefully solo on Monday morning.

Lesson 15, More Glide Approaches

I don't have long to write this report so I will keep it shorter than usual. Had an excellent lesson this morning, the sky was cloudless and zero wind although visibility was poor with heavy heat haze.

The aim today was to polish off approaches/glide approaches/precision landings, we soon got in the air and did some circuits although this time as we were alone in the circuit we practiced a much tighter circuit, on downwind keeping the runway under the middle of the left wing. This is good practice for smaller airfields. We started with flapless approaches, this was made slightly more difficult because of having no wind to slow the aircraft down. Initially was not perfect, I was getting the approach correct and the nose on the centre line but flaring too late and missing the numbers. I resolved to touch the numbers from now on! and the next few landings were perfect, right on centre line and right on the numbers. Antonio was very pleased and kept saying "omg, perfect!, do it again!". I then switched to a full flap landing to remind myself of the difference, before carrying out two glide approaches. Antonio told me to pull the power on downwind leg when I thought I could make it to land on the runway, I was just passing the runway threshold and thought hmm perhaps a little early but I will try it here. I did a wide sweeping turn through base and final at constant 70knts descent (from 800AGL) and just made a landing just short of the numbers. It was close but I made it.

These glide approaches are not part of the formal sylabus however it certainly has given me a much greater appreciation for the aircraft and also the perspective on the approach, all in all practicing these has made my approaches much easier to judge.

We again carried out some emergency procedures and all went well before finally returning to land.

Some wierd things happened recently..

Firstly, last night the police arrived in a chopper escorting a piper warrior to land. This turned out to be a student pilot on his first solo cross country (from another flying school) his radio failed so he squawked 7600 and flew straight into Heathrow controlled airspace, incoming and departing flights had to be stopped. He was intercepted and brought back to Blackbushe, I can't help feeling sorry for him and his instructor, who is now in a heap of trouble.

Lastly this morning after returning from the lesson we were in the office completing my log book when another aircraft outside collided with a parked Comanche. The aircraft responsible was being taxied for run-up by it's owner and somehow he managed to hit the front of the Comanche with his starboard wing. Some damage occurred to both planes and the owner of the Commanche soon showed up with his wife planning to fly this morning. As you can imagine, he was not overly happy.

I had another lesson booked in for tomorrow morning, however we decided it would be better for me to spend the time sitting the Air Law exam and then solo probably over the weekend (if a slot opens up) otherwise on Monday.

Lesson 14, Glide Approaches

This mornings lesson was a repeat of yesterdays lesson trying to improve on flapless approaches and also to try some glide approaches (as part of Engine Failure procedure).

Preflighting was quicker and took around 10 minutes to complete and before long we were in the air. I felt much more focussed today and felt that I could improve, I think feeling positive and confident can make a whole lot of difference to flying ability.

The first few circuits were flapless and each one improved on the last. Antonio noticed I was chasing my airspeed alot by watching the indicator rather than looking outside so he covered the instruments with his map and insisted I judge my approach solely by looking outside. This made alot of difference, I was able to obtain the correct speed and glide to make a decent landing just beyond the numbers. Another good lesson learnt. I did several circuits and landings without any instruments and this helped my technique enormously, it is also very important to learn because if I am flying and I lose my primary instruments due to a pitot problem then I can still achieve a safe landing.

Something new today, midway through downwind leg, antonio cut power and told me to land on the runway. This I have to tell you surprised me, I thought no way am I going to make the runway as I have quite some distance to go to even line up. My instant thought was to turn immediately towards the airfield, however Antonio told me to carry on and fly the base leg and approach normally and maintain 70knts best glide speed. I continued downwind and then turned base a little earlier and the aircraft gradually sank lower and lower, now turned final and all was looking ok.. landed just beyond the numbers. The katana has an awesome glide! The glide began at 800 AGL and gave me good time to still complete the circuit. Antonio mentioned you couldn't do that in a 4 seater or many 2 seaters as they sink much faster but what he was trying to show me was that characteristic of the katana, this baby always wants to fly!.

We also carried out another couple of engine failure simulations which all went fine. So total of eight circuits and eight take-offs/landings without flaps. Todays lesson went very well and I made progress and no mistakes.

Antonio mentioned that I should sit the Air Law exam asap as I am ready to solo and he feels that it would help my confidence to reach that landmark. He is leaving it up to me now to decide when I want to solo. So more studying tonight and hopefully I will try and sit this on either Thursday or Friday. I have another lesson booked in tomorrow where we plan to do more instrument-less circuits and to continue to improve approaches. My landings now are more good than bad, although sometimes I deviate from centreline which I need to work on as I won't always have the luxury of a wide runway. In fact that is one disadvantage of learning at Blackbushe Airport (EGLK), the runway is huge, 4403ft long and 150ft wide. I think in many respects a smaller runway would be beneficial to learn from as it would force me to concentrate more on the centreline and touching down on the numbers.

Another pilot pass

Clumpinglitter has now passed her final checkride and has gained her PPL. Congratulations! :-)

Lesson 13, Flapless Landings + Engine Out Sim

I had another early morning lesson before work today, mainly to take advantage of the excellent weather. The purpose of today’s lesson was to try some different landings and engine out after take off procedures. Unfortunately I could not fly for long this morning due to work meeting therefore we only managed a 45 minute lesson with 5 circuits/landings and a couple of EOATO’s.

This lesson I did one landing with full flap and four landings with no flap, the main difference was the airspeeds, on base we use 80 knt descent and then on final a 70 knt approach. I found flapless landings easier than normal flap landings, purely because the plane is more controllable with a higher airspeed. Each landing was a “greaser” which was good and I am starting to get more of a feel for landing, however I found I was eating up long stretches of the runway unnecessarily, this was happening because I am being too gentle with the throttle and need to cut the throttle earlier.

I made a few other mistakes today, my approach judgement still needs work and twice today I forgot to carry out finals checks, another stupid mistake was my hand kept leaving the throttle when taking-off. I need to be more consistent and just not forget simple things like this. I have to admit my mind was not as focussed this morning as it normally is when I fly, partly because I was aware of the time constraints. Still, no excuses I MUST not allow myself to be non-focussed when flying, it is quite literally a matter of life and death.

On the positive side the engine out simulations went like clockwork. Tomorrow’s lesson I believe will be more of the same and I will try to polish my weak points with the circuit/landing. I plan also to spend this evening revising for the air law exam.

Lesson 12, Engine Failure Practice

The weather this morning was a complete contrast to yesterday, beautiful clear skies and light wind of around 6-8 knts. The purpose of todays lesson was to practice some more circuits and landings and also to try some engine out procedures.

I arrived on time and Antonio was already at the aircraft carrying out the pre-flight A checks. Today I decided to bring along a video camera to record the forward view from just behind the cockpit in the luggage area, I rigged this up so it was holding firm. Antonio asked if I was planning on making a documentary, so I replied "yes, I am doing a documentary on rogue flight instructors", after that he accused me of being a secret member of the CAA.

I completed the pre-flight checks and we were soon in the air. The first circuit was good, nice approach and the landing was my best yet, couldn't even feel it touch the runway! Antonio was impressed and made it clear he now expects me to do that everytime! After climb-out from the touch-and-go he pulled the throttle to idle at around 500 feet and I carried out a little hesitant engine failure procedure, my mistakes were obvious such as raising the nose immediately to slow to 70 knts (best glide speed) rather than allowing the aircraft to slowly achieve 70 knts. I told myself I will do this better next time.

We did some more circuits and touch-and-goes however none of the landings were as good as my first. One more engine failure practice which was much improved. On one of the circuits I turned final and noticed a Cessna still sitting at the runway threshold, I was distracted by this I was half expecting a go around and therefore did not concentrate on my approach. This led to me being far to high on the approach. I quickly lost height by cutting the throttle to idle and by this time the Cessna was taking off, following a steep descent I made a landing but bounced slightly this time. Antonio told me quite rightly that I must concentrate on my approach and not allow events to distract me, also pointing out that a go-around can be decided at a much later stage. On the next circuit I began my flare before touching done and Antonio called "Go around", and I was able to quickly get the aircraft into the right configuration and successfully go around. Lesson learnt.

I have found that carrying out the circuit now has become so much easier, I am always mentally well ahead of the aircraft now and the circuit therefore seems like a much slower process than before. Antonio mentioned I am ready to solo now, which makes me excited and nervous at the same time. On the one hand I know I can do it, I just have yet to prepare my mind for taking that responsibility. He suggested I take the exam on Air Law, Operational Procedures & Communications during the coming week as that is required before I can solo.

After the lesson today I checked my video camera and discovered it had recorded all of about 3 seconds footage! damn. I must have hit the record button twice and therefore end up pausing it. Oh well, will try again to capture some video next lesson.

Lesson 11, Circuits and Landings

I arrived at 8am this morning but the cloud base was clearly very low with alot of mist over the runway, so I didn't hold out much hope of getting some flying today. I saw Antonio and commented that the weather was looking crap and he replied "no, it's excellent for taxi practice" which made me laugh. The cloud was sitting at 700ft AGL and a dew point of 14/13 so hence alot of mist. I hung around for awhile but it was not improving so we called the lesson off.

However, this afternoon Antonio called me and told me the cloud has lifted enough to do circuits so I jumped in the car and headed back to Blackbushe. I preflighted much quicker this time and before long we were in the air. Todays lesson was to continue practicing circuits and also to focus on landings.

I did 8 circuits and carried out 8 landings, Antonio just sat back with his hands well away from the stick for the most part and mentioned that he was very pleased with the circuits and the landings. The landings were all ok, although one I bounced a small amount, the rest were smooth, on the centre line and good. I had one experience worth mentioning while on approach, I was at 300ft AGL, full flaps, descending at 60knts with an 8knt crosswind and a bump in the air caused the nose to pitch up suddenly and brought on a short wail from the stall horn, a wing dropped immediately and I surprised myself by taking corrective action with the rudder and power, without thinking. This was good, because it shows the training is sinking in and also it reminds me to stay focussed and to expect the unexpected.

Very pleased with todays lesson, landings are getting easier for me to judge now in terms of the flare and the approach. My next lesson is tomorrow morning, just hoping the weather behaves as forecast (the forecasters got it wrong today thats for sure).

Lesson 10, Stalls and Circuits

I did not have a lesson scheduled for today however Antonio called me and asked if I wanted a lesson late in the day. I naturally could not refuse! :-). The weather today has been much better with the wind dying down and CAVOK conditions, in fact it is forecast to improve over the next few days further.

I arrived at Blackbushe and Antonio had just returned with his previous student. While I was waiting around we met and compared notes as to how we were doing, he has more hours than me currently at 25 hours but has yet to solo, I wished him luck and went out to preflight the Katana carrying out the transit checks.

The lesson plan today was changed because the conditions were good for having a second stalls lesson and we hoped to get in a couple of touch-and-goes at the end. Previously my stalls were ok although I had yet to nail the recovery in a full flap banking configuration, so I hoped I could remember the technique.

I took the aircraft out to the practice area and climbed to 3500ft AMSL and carried out the necessary 'HASSLE' checks, all was good so.. carb heat on, reduce power, full flap and banking at 30 degrees, raising the noise all the time and holding the bank angle with the rudder. Recover, carb heat cold, full power roll out with the rudder and raise nose. Sounds easy right? well it should be, but for some reason although my brain knew what to do, my body was non-compliant. I kept instinctively trying to roll out with the stick, this caused more height loss.

My second attempt was no better, Antonio then demonstrated the recovery and my third again was poor. This went on for a little while, either I was not holding the bank angle of 30 degrees with the rudder, not pulling back far enough or recovering badly. Finally I did one which was a vast improvement. It was frustrating because I KNEW what I was doing wrong on each failure yet repeated the mistake again, therefore I asked that I get another lesson on these to get it right.

We made our way back to Blackbushe avoiding alot of other traffic around and joined the circuit for a touch-and-go. The circuit today was very busy today so this added some pressure to get things right. Luckily my circuit was perfect and the approach was good and amazingly a very soft and straight landing just beyond the numbers. I took off again and went around for another go, again all was fine although had two amusing incidents on downwind, the first was the radio call. Today I was flying a different Katana 'G-BWFV' from my usual 'G-BWLS' and when making the call I kind of went "GOLF LIIFREFOXTROT VIERRA, I mean VICTOR! hahaha.. for landing on downwind", I am not sure what was worse, my radio call or the fact that Antonio was laughing and shaking his head. I received a response from Blackbushe tower of, "GOLF FOXTROT VICTOR, have you been drinking?". Anyway with both of us laughing I started turning base and Antonio said "there is a crosswind so we will do a flaps up landing" to which I replied "ya, ok" and then immediately selected one stage of flap out of habit! Antonio then went into hysterical laughter and pointed out my mistake, we laughed all the way to the landing.

All in all was a very good lesson despite how it sounds, I need to be sure for myself and Antonio that I am comfortable with stall recovery when in that configuration, and despite the frustration it highlighted my need to practice this more. Two more landings and good circuits were however encouraging along with my general flight handling. The funny moments at least leave me with a smile on my face.

Next lesson is tomorrow morning.

Bombs

Just thought I would mention, London appears to be experiencing a terrorist attack. We are receiving calls from concerned spouses at work, whatever the outcome of today it will not be concessions to any agenda of those responsible.

Strong winds

This mornings lesson was again cancelled due to strong winds at 17knts gusting to 22knts, the wind is blowing directly accross the runway and therefore beyond the limitations of the Katana. Oh well, can't always get favourable weather. Next lesson is on Saturday.

Cancelled

I arrived shortly before my lesson was to start today but it did not look to good, the wind accross the runway was persistant and strong, Antonio soon got back from a previous lesson and decided to cancel it. It was just too strong and gusting around 20knts and landing is challenging in these conditions even for an experienced pilot. Instead, I had a briefing on engine failure on or shortly after take-off which was interesting because we ended up discussing how best to actually crash. As in if you know your going to crash into say trees, fences, small mountains and so forth, you can still orchestrate your own crash. We discussed how best to actually impact, i.e: tip the wing into the ground or obstacle which would reduce some of the inertia. Antonio preferred the idea of crashing head long, and personally I favoured the 'rip the wing off first' approach.

Nothing quite like spending an hour discussing your own potential demise! Of course, if I die in a flaming fireball plunging to the earth on my first solo I will be very very angry. The black humour is possibly not to healthy however I am a subscriber to the lifes a laugh and deaths a joke principal.

The reason for all this was I am due to practice engine-out's for my next lesson as well as continuing circuits. My circuit work from now on will be focussed on the actually landing as up until now I have been focussing more on the circuit procedures and approach.

Next lesson is scheduled for tomorrow morning, so hopefully this wind will lessen.

Lesson 9, Circuits

After what seems a long break from flying I woke up hoping that the weather would be ok. Yesterday was real bad with torrential rain and heavy electrical storms although it was forecast to begin to clear for today. The weather recently has been strange, baking hot then a couple of days later heavy rain, then baking hot again. Anyway, at 6am the skies looked bright with only scattered cloud although a lot of grey on the horizon so I figured I would get down to Blackbushe as it looked ok for flying at least for now.

This morning was slightly different from my previous lessons, this time I was required to carry out the pre-flight checks with Antonio offering explainations for each step against the checklist. It is important that I understand what each step of the check is for and why it needs to be carried out. The past few lessons I have been slowly introduced to some of the checks, but today was all the checks in their entirety, needless-to-say this took a little time although I think after doing this a couple of times the process will speed up. The Katana is actually quicker to preflight than any of the 4 seaters or the Cessna 152 so I am informed.

The lesson today was to continue practicing the circuit, following on from last weeks success, the difference being the weather. There was a reasonably strong crosswind at 10knts gusting to 15knts and the air all the way around the circuit was pretty bumpy. To tell the truth I was kind of glad for the weather, I think learning when it is rough like this is beneficial for the future as I can not always expect smooth air and the wind blowing in the right direction.

My first circuit was pretty poor, I didn't feel 'ahead' of the aircraft and events were moving faster than my brain would respond. The reason the circuit became poor was because on the crosswind leg I allowed the aircraft to climb to almost 1000ft AAL and then had to spend time losing height to stay at the circuit height of 800ft AAL. This was a good lesson to learn, I must try to make sure I stay ahead of the aircraft otherwise playing catch up easily allows mistakes to creep in due to the increased pressure to carry out all the checks, radio etc.

Another very good lesson was learned today, on the third circuit I turned onto crosswind in a 70knt climbing turn at 15 degree of bank after the touch-and-go, a strong gust of wind hit the plane and I was at 45 degrees in an instant! This showed me the importance of keeping the bank angle shallow as had I been turning at say 30 degrees it could very easily of ended up at 60 degrees which at that height and airspeed would be 'a very bad thing'. As it was I was able to correct quickly and continue the climb and roll-out.

The past few days I had practiced the checks for the circuit and this practice paid off, I was able to complete all checks on each circuit without forgetting any. My approaches were on the most part good although I had a couple of occasions when I was either slightly too low or high. I corrected without input from Antonio. Landing was made a little tricky because of the air bumps, but I carried out one landing which was entirely my own, under the conditions this impressed Antonio as the landing was near perfect! (more by luck than design!). My rudder work after touch down and before taking off again was shaky and hesitant and this is something I need to work on.

All in all todays lesson was a success, I learnt some good points and consolidated my understanding of the circuit. I am hoping to fly again tomorrow should the weather hold out.

Money and Homework

This weekend I decided to buy all the resources I needed for the ground school studies along with paying for 45 more hours of lessons, groundschool, fuel surcharges and landing fees, along with annual membership of the flight school. Expensive outlay but at least I can concentrate on flying rather than the financial aspects afterwards. Hopefully that will cover most of my costs until I achieve the PPL, excluding the actual checkride. For the benefit of others thinking of learning, to date I have spent around £1200.00 prior to this weekend and now have spent £6,500.00 so approximately £7,700.00, in my opinion a small price to pay for the privilege of flight.

Having now been armed with stacks of books, charts, rulers and a flight computer.. oh and some shiny new pens(?!?), I decided that as I wasn't flying this weekend I should make a start at learning the theory. To begin with I have to take and pass a written exam in Air Law & Communications and a Radiography test before I solo, therefore I gingerly began my studies with the appropriately labelled books. I will be taking ground school classes also shortly to reinforce self-study.

The fact is that every pilot has to absorb unholy amounts of information, this to me is somewhat encouraging. If the same principles were applied to the road you would not see so many muppets driving around. In my opinion, before someone is allowed to touch the driving seat of a car they should first have to undergo much stricter and a much deeper level of training than they currently receive.

Anyway, roll on Tuesday and my next flying lesson.

Lesson 8, Circuits

Unfortunately I was not able to get in flight in between Tuesday and today as all slots were already taken and the weather yesterday was heavy rain and cloud. I went to sleep last night hoping the weather would improve by the morning as forecast and luckily the forecasters were correct, this morning the skies were looking fairly good and no rain.

Once I arrived at Blackbushe the cloud base was scattered at 1500AGL although was expected to rise to 2000AGL within an hour. This ruled out more Stalls practice, although Antonio expressed his satisfaction with my Stalls and felt it would be more productive to move on and concentrate on pattern work. I have been looking forward to learning the circuit in a real aircraft rather than a simulated one in FlightSim 2004, in FS2004 I have spent quite a bit of time practicing the circuit so I was hoping that would have prepared me quite well for starting circuits for my PPL.

After a briefing covering all the checks that need to be made at various points around the circuit we go out to take-off. During taxi, I suddenly notice that I had stopped even thinking about taxing, I was just doing it. Funny that something that was so difficult only a couple of weeks ago is now feeling second nature. My take-off was again improved on my previous lesson this time sticking directly to the centre line of the runway, to be honest, taking off used to make me feel a little nervous, now I find I am gaining confidence and all the nerves are gone.

Once airborne, I climb at 70knts and passing 300ft I start checks, brakes have pressure and parking brake is off, flaps are up, reduce prop speed to green sector, T’s & P’s all look good. I pass 500ft and carry out 15 degree bank to crosswind still climbing at 70knts levelling off at 800ft, the height of the circuit at Blackbushe. I turn to downwind and shortly begin downwind checks, brakes are off, landing gear is down (no undercarriage on katana), mixture is full rich (auto-mixture on katana), fuel pump is on, altimeter is set correctly and altitude is 800ft, I make radio call “GOLF LIMA SIERRA on downwind for touch and go” and receive request to report final, Carb heat check, T’s and P’s. Phew.. a lot to do! I then turn to base reducing throttle and attitude back to 70knts and set one stage of flap to descend gradually. Turning to final I set full flap, 60knts and crab to the runway (because of crosswind). Landing is good so around we go again.

Apologies to anyone reading all that in such fine detail, it helps me to recount the events to fix it in my mind. My first circuit went very well, I forgot to carry out the carb check on downwind and was reminded by Antonio and I was having problems this time around maintaining 70knts on climb, this was largely due to my mind being focussed on checks rather than actually flying the aircraft. We did several more ‘touch and go’s and the last one Antonio told me to do it without any comment from him, it went well although my final approach was bad, I was much to high.

The time went typically fast and it wasn’t long before we landed permanently. I felt elated because it went better than both I and Antonio expected, sure it wasn’t perfect but for first attempt I can not be to self critical. Antonio was very pleased and he said it was exceptionally good for first circuit lesson. I want to get back up there as I write this to continue the circuits. Apparently a few more of these with some practice aborted landings and practice forced landings and then I will be ready to solo, I am certainly in no hurry though!

I think I have four lessons scheduled next week so I hopefully will get increasingly comfortable with circuits.

Incidentally I had a couple of ‘OMG’ moments while flying today, the sudden realisation and awareness that I was flying an aircraft with a degree of confidence. It’s a good feeling. :-)