More Landaways

I also got the chance to visit Earls Colne a small airfield just outside the Stansted CTA and home to the Hertfordshire Air Ambulance, both dual and solo, and went to Lydd (south coast just East of Hastings), now renamed London Ashford International, which is a much bigger airport, handling business jets, and like Southend is controlled. Lydd is tricky as there is an active military firing zone about 5km SW of the airfield and the Dungeness nuclear power plant about 10km S of the airfield, so accurate flying is needed to avoid infringing on the associated Danger/Restricted zones.

After my trip to Lydd, I sat another couple of ground exams, getting 100% in Human Performance and Limitations and 92% in Aircraft General and Principles of Flight.

I also carried out a solo triangular navigation, all part of the 10 hours minimum solo required for licence issue, via Maldon and Laddingford. Whilst in contact with Southend Radar, and having given my height and been told to report turning at Maldon, I was somewhat surprised to turn and see an Easyjet plane about 1000ft above me at 11 o'clock, about 5 miles away on a constant bearing. Fortunately the ATC, gave them a clear "Easy X-X-X, climb now to 5000 ft, traffic 2 o'clock crossing left to right, showing 2500ft". About 20 minutes later as I passed abeam Southend's ATZ, the controller asked me to turn towards the QE2 bridge, to avoid departing traffic on the 24 runway. This gave me a good chance to practice my diversions training as he didn't allow me to turn back for 10 miles by which time I was well off of my pre-planned route.

After landing safely, I felt ready for my cross country qualifier and just had to hope that the weather would hold for the next day......

Landaways and holding up Easyjet!

One of the things I was most looking forward to when I started flying was getting to fly into other airfields/airports. Before heading off on my cross-country qualifier, I need to land dual at the aerodromes I'll be visiting.

First up was Southend (now London Southend International!). Although not on my cross country qualifier, we do most of our handling in and around the area, and any problems in flight would likely necessitate a diversion here, so it's well worth getting the practice in. It's also a controlled airport, so unlike my airfield ATSU which just give information, Southend ATC give instructions which you are required to comply with.

We radioed Southend from about 15 miles away and stated our intentions; then called as requested over the reporting point, whereby we were directed to join right base for 2-4. As we announced ourselves on final approach we received our landing clearance, as follows: "Golf-Charlie Tango cleared to land runway 2-4, surface wind 2-5-0, 10 kts. break break, easy X-X-X, after the landing cessna, you are cleared to line up and wait runway 2-4" Once down we were asked to expedite our vacation of the runway so the A319 behind us burning through 2 gallons fuel a minute could get on his way to Malaga!

After parking up on our stand, I paid the landing fee, had a quick look around the airport, then booked out and headed back to Stapleford. Again with it being a controlled airfield I had to receive a taxy and a take-off clearance.

Once back at Stapleford I had enough time to do an hour's worth of solo circuits - 5 take off and landings.

Navigation

Following my successful first solo back in August, I've spent the last month practicing navigation both dual and solo, interspersed with a few more solo flights around the local circuit, building towards my cross country qualifier.

At the end of last month, we started the navigation exercises - not much point being able to fly a plane if you don't know where you're going or how to get there!! This part of flying brings in to question your organisational and planning skills. Comprehensive planning of the route before departure, gives you more time in the air to concentrate on both the actual flying and the view. The first two nav sessions were simple triangular routes to visual points overhead other airfields or major conurbations within 30 or so miles of Stapleford. First we went via Tiptree (nr Colchester) and Gravesend (South bank of the Thames), and the second was via Laddingford (a small airfield east of Tonbridge) and Eastchurch (on the Isle of Sheppy). The main skills involved (assuming accurate planning) are flying the heading you have planned, correcting for any errors at the half way point, eg. if winds are lighter/stronger than forecast, and spotting your destination.

Some destinations are easy to see - large towns with distinctive railway lines/motorway junctions etc., some are much harder - microlight airfields, with perhaps just a couple of small aircraft on a grass strip. Using the elapsed time and looking out for a couple of nearby landmarks helps!

Sometimes of course you can't get to where you are going. Bad weather, closed airfields, or aircraft/passenger problems, can all require a diversion to a nearby airfield for a precautionary landing. This navigation on the fly (pun intended) is a bit trickier, with more mental arithmetic and double checking required to ensure you end up in the right place.

If a problem develops that is more serious (i.e. engine failure), sometimes you just need to put it down where you can. Practice forced landings join the list of things you hope you never need to call upon for real. First step, adopt best glide speed; it's no good looking out of the window for the "perfect" forced landing spot if while looking for it, you lose a thousand feet of altitude and then can't make it.

Once you have best glide speed, ascertain the wind direction relative to your aircraft and find a nice large wide field within gliding distance; we want to land approximately into wind with no obstructions around. Fly a circuit of the site, and use flap as necessary to get you comfortably into the field. There are several ways of losing height without power but no ways of gaining it!

Welcome to the club!

After a hiatus of 6 weeks while the Olympic airspace restrictions were in full force, I was finally able to go back up on 18th August. The weather could not have been more perfect for the exercise no pilot can ever forget.

Exercise 14 only appears in the log book once. It's the first time you solo. Despite having been doing all of the flying myself for the last few times, there's still the fact that my instructor is sat right next to me in case I do something daft, but if she thinks I'm ready to go then I'm going.

We started the day with half an hour in the circuit dual, practicing some normal approaches, and then after 3 approaches and touch-and-goes, she asked me to land full stop and pull off the runway. "Would you like a go on your own?"

After a bit of paperwork and emergency briefings for engine fire on the ground, in the air and EFATO, a check of my valid medical and that I have passed Air Law, she jumped out and sent me off with a cheery "Enjoy!"

I pulled up near the hold and re-did my power checks, before calling the radio room with my new callsign "Student, Golf-Bravo Hotel Echo Charlie, ready for departure two two left". With a perfect 5kt headwind, I lined up, pushed the throttle forwards for full power, and at 55kts rotated and left the ground on my own in an plane! I talked myself through the entire circuit, giving a dull running commentary to an empty plane, and just 10 minutes later, I was calling "Student, Golf Echo Charlie final full stop". After a smooth landing, I pulled off the runway and received a call from the radio room "Student Golf Echo Charlie, welcome to the club!"

EFATO and glide landings

EFATO or engine failure at takeoff is of those worst case scenarios that you hope you'll never experience but you have to prepare for. Full power, nose-high attitude, low airspeed and close to the ground and the engine stops. Slow reactions = quick trip back to the ground. First reaction needs to be to pitch forward to increase airspeed to optimum glide speed of 60kts, then find the nearest field without too many trees to aim for. If you've only got 300ft off the ground and are gliding losing 100ft a minute, the maths is pretty simple.

We spent a good hour round the circuit doing 6 take-offs and landings, practicing glide approaches, and EFATO before the July weather closed in on us again and rain stopped play!

Stalling practice

Sunday 1st July - its not quite midsummer but luckily the clouds have moved away a bit so there is a decent ceiling of around 3500 ft which is perfect for our stalling practice. This is probably what people worry about the most when flying and I was quite nervous as we taxied out to 22 and took off.

I needn't have been. The first time we stalled, my instructor took the controls, eased off the power and held the nose up as the speed dropped from our cruise of 110 kts down to the stall speed of around 40kts. Despite holding the yoke right back, as we got down to the stall speed with the Warner blaring in our ears the nose of the aircraft suddenly pitched down. The recovery was so simple, just pitch the aircraft down with the yoke and immediately the airspeed begins to build and the stall ends.

My turn next, I was surprised by how difficult it was to actually stall it. The aircraft wants to pitch down when the speed drops and you have to really fight it to keep the controls back. Once again as soon as the nose dropped I pushed forwards and the airspeed began to build. With power it was even easier with only a couple of 100 feet of altitude lost.

Finished the lesson with a couple more circuits and 2 very good landings in blustery cross wind conditions, including one wing drop at 300ft: thank God for the stalling practice we'd just done as I instinctively pitched down and recovered it for a smooth touch down.

Lazy blogger

I've had a few more sessions since my last post.

Sunday 17th June

Longest flight yet, almost two hours up around the circuit and practising slow flight, as the name suggests flying slowly with flap at around 55-60 knots. Annoyingly the stall warner in the aircraft today was set a bit high so it really meant an hour of screeching in my ear. Lots of circuits followed with another 6 take off and landings in total, a couple of which were very smooth IMHO.

Sunday 24th June

A very brief early trip up to Stapleford in pretty poor weather. Arrived around 8.30 and had to wait for a couple of aircraft to come in so that they could advise on the cloud level. 1400ft so just high enough to get in a couple of circuits but no where near enough to be able to do the stalling practice I have to do before going solo. Blustery conditions and a bit of a crosswind put paid to our lesson after just half an hour although we managed one flapless landing.

Circuits (2)

Jubilee weekend and the wether was pretty poor. Luckiy the cloud was slightly higher on the bank holiday Monday so I got a chance to fly. As it was still around 2000ft we weren't able to do manouveurs - next one to learn is stalling and you need around 3500-4000ft available for that. Instead I gt some more circuit practice in. 6 take off and landings, 4 of which were touch-and-go. That's not to say there was anything wrong with them, t-a-g is jut a method by which you don't waste time waiting coming to a complete stop, taxying back to the start of the runway, waiting for any traffic to clear and then taking off again. Instead as soon as you touch-down and have slowed the aircraft to taxy speed, you put flaps up, carb heat to cold and then full power again to immediately take off for another circuit.

We did have one bounce where we landed a bit hard and came off the runway again but as it was only a couple of feet we were able to still land it. The general rule my instructor has is that any bounce is an immediate go-around, as the danger of bouncing is that you panic, push the nose down to try and land, bounce again, repeat and eventually land on the nose.

All in all a relatively successful day although once again there was about a 10kt crosswind so I've still yet to do a really smooth landing into wind. Anyway I'm off for a couple of hours today so fingers crossed the weather is on our side.

Medical passed

Arrived at the CAA headquarters for my 09:30 appt, just in time thanks to traffic on the M25. It was very efficient, although some of the staff could've been a bit friendlier - I don't think I saw a smile until the last doctor.

The medical consists of blood, urine, ECG (heart), breathing, and hearing tests, as well as a very comprehensive eye exam ; I was a bit worried at this stage as I had some difficulty reading some of the text but the optometrist told me that they're supposed to be hard to read and I was still well within required limits. As I had already done the CAD test for colour, I was told they would use this and not make me repeat it - good news as it's difficult and boring! The doctor that I saw at the end also said that it doesn't expire so no need to redo it when I renew.

After 2 hours of tests, I went to see the chief medical officer, who was very friendly, reviewed everything, listened to my chest and back, asked me to cough (!), before printing out my certificate and confirming I had passed the Class 1 medical.

Happy with this, I made the most of being at Gatwick and jetted off to Barcelona for a holiday!

Circuits

The airfield circuit depends on which runway is in use and is normally flown left hand, ie from take off: left left left left would bring you back to land at the start of the same runway. After crossing the threshold (the end of the runway in use) at 1200, we continue west towards the M11, making a left turn to head south parallel to the runway, "golf Oscar India, Downwind".

Now it's time for BUMPFLITCH: Brake pressure, Undercarriage, Mixture rich and Mags earthing, Propellor pitch fixed, Fuel on and sufficient for a go-around, Landing light on, Instrments reading correctly, Temp and pressure in the green, Carb heat on, Hatches and Harnesses secure.

Mid way of the Wollaston golf course we make another left onto base leg, now down to around 1000ft. flaps down to slow us and increase our glide angle, we make our final gentle left onto final approach, aiming to be at 800ft above the mast and radioing "final".

100 ft above the runway, the instructor asked me to "go-around", ie abort the landing. Full power, carb heat off, level wings, one stage of flaps up, pitch for climb, flaps fully up, climb to 1200 ft.

We repeated the circuit again this time landing. Just before touch-down flaring the wings to ensure the rear wheels land first and stop us bouncing. Not quite as smooth a landing as when Sue does it but we are down in one piece!

Double lesson 3/4

Finally some better weather, in fact a mini-heat wave as the press tend to call 3 consecutive days of 25deg plus. The good news on Sunday was that the weather was CAVOK - ceiling and visibility ok. I drove up to Stapleford with sister and fiancée in tow and met my parents there so an outing for the whole family. After a bite to eat in the clubhouse my instructor appeared along with G-BOOI and after a quick check of the aircraft we were ready to taxy immediately.

Today I would be doing most of the radio contact with the airfield rather than the instructor so with my new headset - an early birthday present of a uflymike adapter for my existing Bose QC15 headphones - I pressed the PTT button....
"Stapleford radio, Golf Bravo Oscar Oscar India, request radio check and airfield information"

"Golf Oscar India (they can abbreviate), readability is 5 (perfectly readable), runway in use zero four left (the left hand of the two runways on heading 40deg), left hand circuits (to control aerodrome traffic taking off/landing) QNH 1018 (local pressure setting for the altimeter)"

I read back the important points to confirm we had understood, then as it is an uncontrolled airfield, we had a good look round for traffic and I taxied over towards the runway. After doing our power checks, we taxied to the end of the runway and I radioed, first that we were "lining up" and then "ready for departure".

My first take-off was with a 10kt cross wind, so once we pushed the throttle in for full power, we needed a bit of aileron and rudder to keep us centred on the runway. At 55kts I pulled gently back on the yoke and we were airborne. Very proud of myself I immediately forgot everything I was supposed to be checking like pitch angle and needed to correct slightly as we were a touch steep - still not bad for a first try.

The next 90 minutes airborne were spent avoiding the numerous aircraft at the Southend airshow and practising level climb, climbing turn, level turn, glide descent, flap descent and turning descent - particularly important for landing circuits. I was quite happy with my progress, but just struggle to remember all the different maximum angles of bank which are different for each turn. It's also amazing how this little plane can really fight you when you, for instance, apply full power but want to remain level, and it wants to pitch up. After 90 minutes I was pretty tired.

Back towards the airfield, navigation is another tricky point, but for now it's a question of head for The Shard, cross the M25 at the A12 junction then turn to follow it west until you see the airfield. Cross the threshold of the runway at 1200ft and join the circuit. Simples!

Bloody English weather

Lesson 3 was booked for last Sunday. As advised I called Stapleford just before I left home at 2 to check if the weather was ok, as it was a cloudy day. Requirements for a light aircraft below 3000ft and 140kts are clear of cloud and in sight of the surface at all times. Cloud base was around 2000ft so it should've been fine.

However.....by the time I arrived at the airfield it was obvious that the cloud was building. We sat in the clubhouse for the briefing hoping the cloud would lift but no luck, so it was just a 1 hour theory lesson on climbing and descending!

Still, as I type this the sun is shining, the forecast is for a super weekend and best of all I don't have to work tomorrow either! I think the skies will be busy on Sunday! Hopefully I will get to do the take off myself as well.

Lesson 2

Luckily I only had to wait overnight for my next lesson as I was booked to go up on Sunday. Weather was good again, with >10k visibility. We did the walk around, checking all parts of the aircraft in and out, refuelled again - if nothing else after this I will be able to get a job refuelling planes - then I taxied over to runway 04, basically heading the opposite way from yesterday as the wind was coming from the NE.

Waited at the hold for a couple of planes to land then the instructor took us up again and did the initial climb and turn then handed over to me as she spoke with Southend radar to make sure we didn't meet any of Stelios' friends up there.

Lesson 2 was all about straight and level, how to get there, stay there and return there should something - wind, turbulence, passenger knocking the controls - take you off course. Also learnt about maintaining level flight at higher speed (when the plane wants to go up and roll left) and at safe slow speed (when the plane wants to go down!) with different stages of flaps.

Back to the airfield, again flying the whole circuit myself up until about 500ft, lining us up nicely and letting the instructor take the glory for the landing!

Got to wait a whole week for the next lesson...

First lesson, take 2

Saturday May 11th and finally the weather lifted. I drove out to Stapleford for 4 and met with my instructor Sue. She's been flying for over 15 years first as a hobby then as an instructor. We had a brief chat about the main controls and what they do - helpfully x-plane and the ground school work I'd already put in gave me a bit of a head start - then headed over to G-BOOI or (Golf Bravo Oscar Oscar India as I am getting to know her by).

First up was refuelling as she was a bit parched and after getting out of Lord Sugar's way in his very nice SR-22 we were ready to taxy. Pre takeoff vital checks done, we taxied onto 04L, Sue gave it full throttle, and 8-10 seconds later at 65 knots she eased the yoke back and up we went.

The idea of the first lesson was really just to get a feel for the controls note how different movements affect multiple things, getting used to scanning the outside of the plane rather than staring at the instruments. In fact believe it or not, once you have it trimmed for level flight you can pretty much let go of everything and it will fly where you point it (wind permitting)!

The hour seemed to go by far quicker and after a brief change of heading to avoid meting the Easyjet flight into Southend - we would definitely have come off worse - we turned back for home.

I flew most of the "circuit" that is the airspace immediately above the airfield, with my instructor just taking the controls for the landing.

End result = big grin on face and aching to go up again.

Ground School

In the meantime, I was making what I felt was relatively good progress with my groundschool. There are 7 exams to be taken in total:
 
·         Air Law and Operations Procedures
·         Aircraft General Knowledge and Principles of Flight
·         Flight Performance and Planning
·         Human Performance and Limitations
·         Meteorology
·         Navigation and Radio Navigation
·         Radio Communications
 
There is a ton of information on the Internet, but I think most people recommend doing some book-based study as well. I’ve just purchased my books from http://www.proviation.co.uk I chose the AFE series in the end, having had a quick flick through them in a bookstore and noting that the layout and pictures were readable and in-depth. The total cost of the 6 books; 5 covering the 7 topics, and one Simplifier (formally the Confuser, essentially a Q&A) was just under £100 and I also bought a Cessna 152 checklist for £6. The books should arrive tomorrow – with free delivery!
 
The websites I have been using mostly are the following:
 
http://www.pilotfriend.com/ - free website with lots of very helpful information on flying and aircraft.
 
http://www.pplcruiser.co.uk/ - £20 for 3 months access to exam questions – very good layout and usability.
 
http://www.catsaviation.com/ - free for PPL course – varying prices for more advanced courses (ATPL, IR, CPL). Much more indepth although having read every part of the AGK section, there were still questions that when I found out the correct response, I didn’t recall having read about.

First lesson booked

I booked my first lesson for Sunday 29th April and started looking at ground school information, books and distance learning.
 
Sunday 29th April arrived in the middle of a 3 week spell of miserable wet, windy, blustery weather, entirely unsuitable for flying (particularly for a novice), so I had to push my first lesson very annoyingly back to Saturday 12th May.

Choosing a flight school

Having tried very hard (and largely failed) not to get over-excited and start looking into flight schools, training and even potential pilot positions way down the line, I was now in a position to up the rate of research and the first step was to choose a flight school. I live in East London, so to do it with as little travelling as possible, it really needed to be Clacton (where I’d done a test flight previously), Southend, Biggin Hill or Stapleford Abbotts. Looking at the websites and prices as well as the feedback on PPRuNe, I chose Stapleford. It also had the advantage of being very close to my parents place (15 mins), and in an area where I had grown up, so was familiar with some of the aerial sites I might see which I felt would help when we came to the navigation sections.

The airfield itself, has 3 runways (04/22 L/R (part paved, part grass), and 10/28 (grass)) and has a decent clubhouse, an aviation supplies shop, a VOR, and a well equipped flying school (approx 15 training a/c).

I booked my CAA Class 1 medical for 30th May as I am going on holiday from Gatwick that day so thought I’d save myself a separate journey. The Class 1 medical is a bit more expensive but is really a 2 in 1 – upon passing you have a Class 1 medical for 1 year, and a Class 2 medical for 5 years; more importantly it also tells you if you are going to be able to pass the Class 1 before you start paying for commercial lessons etc.

From the beginning

I've always wanted to fly. From as early as I can remember I wanted to be a pilot, either in the air force, commercially or privately. Then at a relatively young age my dreams were dashed when I couldn't pass the Ishihara test. For the uninitiated that's the circle of coloured dots with a number, letter or squiggly line in/through it. No matter how hard I looked, held it up to the light or even tried to trace the numbers I just couldn't do it. According to the optician that made me colourblind and according to the CAA that meant I could never fly professionally. I still had a chance to fly privately...in good weather...in the UK only, so part of it was still there, but I knew I would never fly fast jet for the RAF.

After university I decided to go travelling and planned to do my PPL in Florida on the way round. However, thinking that I needed to get on and get a job, lured me back home early and resigned my dreams of flying to something I'll do "one day".

The "one day" began in April 2012 during an attempt at explaining colour blindness with the help of the Internet. I stumbled across an article that explained how the CAA had decided that the Ishihara was too much of a pass/fail test and that there were potentially people out there who were absolutely safe to fly but just couldn't do the dots! As a result they had developed a new type of test that would assess not just IF you were colourblind but by how much. The test had been developed by City University who happened to be located conveniently close to my office. I booked and paid the £150 fee over the phone. The first of many outlays towards my new hobby!

The new test is called a CAD test and consists of a grey pixelated square with moving pixels. Every few seconds a beep sounds and you have to press one of 4 buttons to indicate which corner you think a smaller coloured square moving from one diagonal to another ends at, or if there was no coloured square, just a random button. The test takes about 15 minutes but is constant and pretty tiring. After I had finished the examiner had a look at my results and said that she thought I had probably come in under the threshold (6 deutans of green anomaly) but I would have to wait until the next day for the official result. A sleepless night ensued and a restless morning until at around lunchtime I received the email I had waited for for 15 years. Yes I was slightly colourblind, but only very mildly (3 deutans) and certainly not too much to pursue a hobby or even a career in aviation.