I can assure you that although the video looks like an airshow experience, there is a lot of educational value when you actualy do it (have a look at my post about APS Upset Recovery Training).
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label Foundation Flight Training - Arizona. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Foundation Flight Training - Arizona. Show all posts
Sunday, 23 February 2014
APS Upset Recovery Training Video
It's a couple of months late, but I finally got the time to edit the GoPro footage from my Upset Recovery Training. So here it is, the worldwide premiere! I opted to simply edit it as a fun music video that everyone can watch, rather than an educational one with descriptions of all the manoeuvres etc. I used Adobe Premiere to do all of the editing, which took me around six hours. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to see if I still had some of my video editing skill that I acquired from University, so hopefully you all like it.
I can assure you that although the video looks like an airshow experience, there is a lot of educational value when you actualy do it (have a look at my post about APS Upset Recovery Training).
Enjoy!
I can assure you that although the video looks like an airshow experience, there is a lot of educational value when you actualy do it (have a look at my post about APS Upset Recovery Training).
Enjoy!
Saturday, 22 February 2014
Now a Commercial Pilot!
17th
February 2014, alarm goes off at 05:00. This is one of the few days where my
eyes opened as if I'd only closed them a few seconds beforehand. My mind is
already pretty much switched on, it's like I'm on autopilot mode. Today was the
big day, everything that I had done in Arizona will lead to what would happen
in a couple of hours. I knew it was important, but at that moment, I was as
calm as I would have been for a normal flight. Thankfully, I managed to get a
solid 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep in before my sleep cycle alarm gracefully
awoke me from my slumber.
I drove in with a classmate who had his CPL after me with the same examiner. The weather, unsurprisingly was clear as it could be in Phoenix, the air crisp like it usually is at that time in the morning, however it was forecast to rise from 9 degrees to 27 degrees Celsius in the afternoon, therefore I opted not to wear a jacket (not that I had my warm Oxford jacket in Arizona anyway). After receiving my aircraft assignment from dispatch, Seneca N91KT is what would potentially be the last aircraft I would step foot in at Falcon Field. My briefing was at 08:00, however I was yet to receive my navigation route. I saw my examiner at the stroke of the hour. After he examined my sectional chart for a good 30 seconds, he said firmly that I was to plan a direct leg from Chandler Airport to Gila Bend Airport. From that moment, I had 45 minutes to plan everything; charts, navlog and flight plan. I had already done the weather, and since it was only one leg, there wasn't too much to do.
Once ready, I was back into the office with the examiner to begin my ground brief. First was an inspection of my chart, which he accepted. He then asked me what documents are needed on-board the aircraft for it to be airworthy. Then came the time for me to give my weather brief, which is never usually an issue in Phoenix since it is SKC VFR 99% of the time. However I always call up the briefer before a progress test, this was no different. I made sure that no AIRMETS, TFRs or any adverse conditions that I may have missed when I initially got my brief. After was the Weight and Balance where he quizzed me on various things like the maximum weights, how CG affects stability and what the multiplying factors for the TODR and LDR meant. I was also asked to name pretty much all of the V speeds for the Seneca, which wasn't at all a problem seeing as they should probably be the first thing to be memorised, even before your first flight.
So after breaking a few drops of sweat, I went out to pre-flight the aircraft. I'd flown this particular aircraft a few times before, so I was rather familiar with it. One of the biggest problems with flying the Senecas here at OAA, is that the instrument layout varies from aircraft to aircraft. It's not a catastrophic problem, but can be frustrating at times since you have to slightly alter your scan. This particular aircraft was not equipped with an ADF or DME. The aircraft was also fitted with a DGI instead of a HSI. This makes life slightly more challenging, particularly for my navigation and diversion. The HSI has the luxury of being slaved to this electrically enhanced compass which is situated away from all the ferrous materials, whereas the DGI is not. This means that every 15 minutes, the DGI has to be manually aligned to the standby compass in order to correct for earth rate and transport wonder (all of which is explain in great detail during the instruments lessons in ground school).
Seneca II Radio/Nav equipment. Not all the same.
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The flight began rather smoothly; the start, run-up, taxi, take off and departure were all pretty faultless. The navigation went rather smoothly, I was on top of my gross error checks, cruise checks and gave regular position reports. When I got to my halfway point, it was clear that I had drifted slightly left of track, and I referenced an airfield and an interstate to prove it. I then used the driftlines to work out that I was approximately 8 degrees off, so I corrected 16 degrees back to the right to get me directly to my destination at my planned ETA. As soon as I had my destination in sight, I was diverted to a private airfield called Mauldin, which was North West of my turning point. Again, the diversion went rather smoothly, slightly off again on my halfway point, so I used a small 2 degree correction to get back on track.
After the navigation, my examiner vectored me southbound where he gave me an engine fire (not literally), so I followed through with the drill, and as briefed, I fully shut the engine down, in this case the left engine. After fully shutting down and securing the engine, the examiner said that the engine was no longer on fire, however did ask me what I would do right now if this were to actually happen. I said that since the aircraft was stable and no longer on fire, I would take the aircraft to Goodyear since there are facilities to get the engine repaired, to which he nodded, and I assumed that he was happy with the answer.
The next significant part of the test came the circuits, which were done at Buckeye Municipal Airport. The first landing was a flapless, followed by an engine failure after take off, which subsequently led to an asymmetric go-around, asymmetric landing, and then a departure back south. I felt the circuits went okay; the winds were rather strong, particularly during downwind where I had to use a rather large drift angle to keep it straight, and so my approaches landings weren't as good as they had been previously.
Nevertheless, very soon after departing it was time to put on the hood for some instrument time. What this part involved was the standard SPIRIT checks, followed by VOR identifying and tracking, position fixing off 2 VORS, timed turns and unusual attitude. All of which, I felt at the time went rather well, however I would say that even at this stage, I am not fully confident on the steam dials, especially after building a rather unhealthy dependency on the G1000 during the instrument phase of my single engine time.
After all the instrument stuff, it was onto the last part of the test, which was general handling. We covered all the stalls, steep turns and a Vne dive. All of which are okay at this stage of training since these manoeuvres are all drilled in early on and throughout the training. Steep turns are rather different at first in the Seneca since the visual references are completely different. I found the best way which was shown to me by an instructor was to line the top or bottom of the center windshield bar and the bottom or top corner of the windshield with the horizon. That usually gave a perfect 45 degree turn with little or no altitude loss. I am aware, reading that sentence back that the technique is quite hard to imagine, I do assure you that it does work! Anyway, the Vne dive, isn't strictly a dive at Vne. The controls are handed back to the student once the examiner has got the plane established in a dive at or near Vno, and the idea is to safely recover the aircraft and get it established into a Vx climb before it hits Vne.
After that, was the arrival back in to Falcon Field. That was it, or was it? We arrived from the South West, pretty much on a straight in for runway 4R. It was immediately clear that the traffic pattern was hectic. When I got my initial call in, the tower immediately responded with "Seneca 91KT, do not enter Falcon Class D", at which point we had to hold in a rather awkward area between two Class D airspaces, with Phoenix Skyharbor's Class B also lingering near us. Thankfully at this point, I was allowed to use the GPS which had the airspaces mapped out on the screen. After about five minutes, tower got back to me and I was cleared for a straight in on runway 4R.
The landing, after-landing and shutdown went without a hitch. After assisting me in pushing the aircraft back, the examiner gathered all of his belongings and told me to meet him back inside the building. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the point where my heart rate started to increase by several BPM, I could feel my capillaries swell up and my nerves somewhat more sensitive. I even found it trivially difficult to tie the aircraft down. Once I'd eventually gathered all of my stuff, I made a long walk back to the academy building where the big bad examiner was waiting.
Once I was inside the academy, the debrief began. My examiner did mention that I got one of the ground questions wrong, which was where the radio-telephony license is located. My reply was that I didn't know, however he informed me that there is no certificate, and that it would only be there on international flights. I was caught out on that question. Other than that, he mentioned that I should have familiarised a bit more with the DGI since I had a habit of checking and moving it too often, and that in the future if I am not familiar with the aircraft, then I should really ask for another. He also made comments on the approaches; admittedly they weren't amazing so he did just say to use less abrupt control inputs when on final. Other than that, he said that he was happy with everything else, there was not one point where I busted any of the altitude or speed limits, and so he ended with the words "I don't want to fly with you again, so It's a pass". At that point in time, it felt like 1000 tons had suddenly lifted off my shoulder. All of the work I put in over the last seven months, and especially since starting the multi-engine phase had all paid off!
After
getting my logbook stamped, I pretty much had to do a lap of the building to
get this CAE form signed my different people from different departments, for
example: Finance and Accommodation. Not that I minded really since I felt so
over the moon at what I had just achieved. Along the way, I took the
opportunity one last time, to speak to a few instructors and staff from HR who
I had kept in touch with throughout my training here. It was a rather surreal
feeling because I was in a routine, this is the building that's provided me
with the wealth of knowledge that I possess today, this is where I became a
pilot. And this place has helped me to become the proud holder of a Commercial
Pilot License.
My advice for the CPL Skills Test is to put the work in early. As soon as I got the study materials for the Seneca II, I read over and over again. Whenever I had a day off, I'd go to the academy especially to sit in an unused Seneca out on the ramp to chair fly and learn procedures. I even practiced diverting myself, just so I could get used to doing it in-flight. Some of these things certainly seem ridiculous, but hey I passed! I have no regrets of the amount of time I spent studying for this. Everyone on this course has paid a serious amount of money to do this, so it's in everyone's interest to get the most out of it. This is what I've always wanted to do, and now I'm doing it. The road was rocky, and everyone had their own challenges. Ultimately you have to put the work in yourself. There is plenty of time for fun, but the time is to be used wisely. Our class were hit with delays quite badly, which explains why me and a few other comrades ended up finishing after seven months instead of the usual five. Apart from that though, there really isn't much for me to complain about. My time in Arizona has been simply incredible, the people, the places to see, and the flying, I feel truly blessed to have had this opportunity, and hand on heart, if someone gave me the choice then I would go through ground school again to relive this experience.
It is the
end of one journey, and the beginning of a new one. That evening I boarded
BA288 back to London Heathrow on standby. The next chapter of my story is the
Instrument Rating. Stay tuned.
Wednesday, 12 February 2014
Onto The Multi Engine Stage
So now it is beginning to get serious. Over the past 7 months I have been climbing this huge mountain, and now I am approaching the summit. I am now in the last stage of flying out here in Arizona.
The multi-engine phase for our class was a strange one, being that half of us are doing it in the Seminole, and the other half in the Seneca. We did have a choice, both aircraft having their own advantages and disadvantages. The Seminole is newer, and pretty much fresh out of its box. It has the G1000, so it is really an Archer but with two engines. The disadvantage however, is that when we return to Oxford for our IR stage, we would have to revert back to a Seneca II with conventional instruments. Of course this is where making the decision to do the CPL in a Seneca II has an advantage, with the disadvantage being that the learning curve is steeper, especially given that we only have 17 hours of flight time to familiarise and pass the CPL Skills Test.
Everyone had their own reasons, with some students not really bothered about the choice and simply flying whichever aircraft they were given by the school. For me, it was a no brainer to take on the Seneca II, simply because I want to be current on it when I start the brutal IR stage.
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| Seneca II |
I had my first flight last week, which consisted of a normal take off, flight out to the practice area and a landing back at Falcon Field. The first thing I noticed was just how different my scan had to be (which was pretty non-existent on that first flight). On the G1000's PFD, everything is in front of you; the attitude, altitude, airspeed, vertical speed, heading, track, wind etc. was all there on this glorious display, along with this incredible MFD on the right screen, showing you this map with traffic everywhere. You have none of these luxuries in the Seneca II. It's like all of a sudden no longer having a washing machine.
The next thing that struck me was just how much faster I needed to think and act. In the Archer you take off at 60kts, climb out at 76kts, cruise at 105kts and fly a traffic pattern at 95kts. In the Seneca, Vr is 77kts, climb out speed is 100kts, cruising speed is 140kts and traffic pattern speed is 115kts. As you can see, thing happen much faster so it is much more important to always be thinking ahead.
As well as the difference in instruments and speeds, there is also the fact that it has two turbocharged, 200 horsepower engines. This makes it a different ball game entirely. To start with, the engines have constant speed propellers where the RPM is control by an RPM lever. Advancing the levers forward drives the blades towards fine pitch which increases the RPM, making it more efficient for take off and climb out. Pulling the levers back drives the propeller blades to coarse pitch, causing them to take bigger bites of air and therefore reducing the RPM. Without going into too much of a Systems lesson, the RPM is always constant in the air, thanks to the constant speed unit. This maintains an RPM setting through the use of a spring and flyweights which drive the propellers to fine, with oil pressure from the engine driving the propellers to coarse.
There is also the problem of overboost, since the engines have an adjustable orifice rather than a wastegate which would normally control the amount of exhaust back pressure that drives the turbine and compressor. Therefore, care must be taken to only advance the throttles enough to give the appropriate amount of take off power.
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| My new/old office |
Despite these challenges, I can honestly say that I think this is an incredible aircraft. The feeling I got from advancing those throttles for the first time and feeling that acceleration down the runway. And of course, there is that feeling of saying the words "positive rate of climb, gear up" for the first time, which made me feel that much closer to becoming an airline pilot. So far I've had five flights in this aircraft, and every lesson brings a new challenge. For me, I've found this part of training the most rewarding so far. There is so much to learn in the 17 hours that we are given in this aircraft before taking the CPL Skills Test, but I love every minute of it. For me, this is the most intense part of the training out here in Arizona. Whenever I get free time, I simply go out onto the ramp, and practice procedures in a Seneca that isn't flying. Every minute counts at this stage, and I want to make sure I am as close to perfect as possible when the CPL comes around.
I'll be updating again soon on my progress. It's not long until my CPL so the chances are, my next blog post could be as a Multi Engine Rated Commercial Pilot!
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Progress Test 4 Done. Next, Multi Engine and CPL!
You all be extremely pleased to know that yesterday, I passed my fourth and final progress test before the almighty CPL Skills Test.
PT4 is an assessment on holding procedures and non-precision approaches. At first, this phase of training to me was quite a challenge to grasp. The majority of the content on the ground made sense, but applying it in the air whilst flying was a different story entirely. The first major thing you are taught are the holds. For every approach into an airfield, you have a holding pattern, which would be the start of an approach. This is where aircraft queue up before they are cleared to shoot their final approach into the airfield. The hold is commonly a right pattern, which means you make right turns in the hold.
The photo above shows the approach plate for Buckeye on the left and my hold planning sheet on the right. The plate lists everything that the pilot needs to know about the approach such as the VOR and airfield frequencies, MSA, MDA, etc. In other words, it specifies exactly how the approach must be done.
PT4 is an assessment on holding procedures and non-precision approaches. At first, this phase of training to me was quite a challenge to grasp. The majority of the content on the ground made sense, but applying it in the air whilst flying was a different story entirely. The first major thing you are taught are the holds. For every approach into an airfield, you have a holding pattern, which would be the start of an approach. This is where aircraft queue up before they are cleared to shoot their final approach into the airfield. The hold is commonly a right pattern, which means you make right turns in the hold.
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| Right Holding Pattern With Different Types of Entry |
As well as the holding pattern, there are specific ways that an aircraft has to enter a holding pattern. If you take a look at the image above, you will see that the inbound course an aircraft enters a hold from determines the type of entry. For example, if the aircraft approaches from area 1, it would be a Direct Entry, which is usually within 30 degrees either side of the inbound leg of the hold. All of it is covered in great depth during ground school and during the F2 stage of foundation flying.
The other significant learning objective for this part of instrument flying are the approach procedures. The two main approaches that we practice at OAA are the VOR DME C into Buckeye Municipal Airport and the VOR into Runway 5 at Casa Grande Airport.
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| My wonderful kneeboard |
The image above shows exactly how the hold and approach should be flown for the Buckeye approach.
For my PT, my examiner let me choose where to go, so I picked Buckeye. He gave me the route in the brief which was 190 in and outbound over Chandler Airport's NDB, then intercept Gila Bend VOR at 240, then intercept 350 to BXK. It was taking a long time to intercept the 350 at Buckeye so I just asked if I could go direct to the beacon, ended up being a direct entry into the hold so that was simple enough. We did two holds which went pretty well apart from a slightly incorrect drift correction. I verbalised my error but he told me to disregard and just shoot the approach. After going missed, my examiner vectored me back East, just south of Goodyear and put me to the north-east of Estrella Mountains to do General Handling and Stalls. After that, he removed the hood and I flew back to Falcon via Chandler.
Overall the test went quite well, just a couple of notes on the holds which I was already expecting and on my use of throttle during unusual attitudes, which I put down to the APS training! I'm pretty happy with how it went, and felt quite well prepared. For this PT in particular I found chair flying quite useful, especially for the checklists that have to be memorised for the different stages of the approach.
So that's it, 120 hours later and I have just completed my last dual at Oxford in a single engine aircraft. It felt like yesterday when I first started learning how to fly the Archer TX, and it's rather astonishing to think of how much I've learned is such a short space of time. Very soon it will be time for me to take on a twin engine aircraft, which of course I am pretty excited about. I'll be back soon to report on how that goes! In the mean time, stay safe, and hope that you are all having an amazing 2014.
For my PT, my examiner let me choose where to go, so I picked Buckeye. He gave me the route in the brief which was 190 in and outbound over Chandler Airport's NDB, then intercept Gila Bend VOR at 240, then intercept 350 to BXK. It was taking a long time to intercept the 350 at Buckeye so I just asked if I could go direct to the beacon, ended up being a direct entry into the hold so that was simple enough. We did two holds which went pretty well apart from a slightly incorrect drift correction. I verbalised my error but he told me to disregard and just shoot the approach. After going missed, my examiner vectored me back East, just south of Goodyear and put me to the north-east of Estrella Mountains to do General Handling and Stalls. After that, he removed the hood and I flew back to Falcon via Chandler.
Overall the test went quite well, just a couple of notes on the holds which I was already expecting and on my use of throttle during unusual attitudes, which I put down to the APS training! I'm pretty happy with how it went, and felt quite well prepared. For this PT in particular I found chair flying quite useful, especially for the checklists that have to be memorised for the different stages of the approach.
So that's it, 120 hours later and I have just completed my last dual at Oxford in a single engine aircraft. It felt like yesterday when I first started learning how to fly the Archer TX, and it's rather astonishing to think of how much I've learned is such a short space of time. Very soon it will be time for me to take on a twin engine aircraft, which of course I am pretty excited about. I'll be back soon to report on how that goes! In the mean time, stay safe, and hope that you are all having an amazing 2014.
Saturday, 11 January 2014
Progress Test 3
Since PT2, I have been predominantly doing IFR flying and solo landaways. My original flight home was actually supposed to be December 6th, now my return flight has been moved to February 9th 2014. I did plan on spending Christmas back at home with the family, however I opted to stay to try and get some more flying done, and delays in training is something that's to be expected, especially considering that we are the first Oxford class out here in Falcon Field, and being a double class of over 40 students also doesn't help things. So far there's about a month spread between the students in my class (AP344) with the expected due back dates ranging from early January to mid February.
Despite the logistical problems, the quality of training is still incredible, after my second progress test I was assigned a new instructor who I got on with very well. He is not as strict as my last instructor, however teaches a lot more professionalism in terms of check lists and CRM, so I really enjoyed my time with him.
Progress Test 3 focuses on Navigation and Diversions. Not a particularly difficult one, however a lot of steps to think about. For my test, the examiner gave me my route one day in advance so I could plan it all on our charts and fill out our navlogs. What you are expected to do is fly out the departure procedure, start the navigation properly with the appropriate HAAT and FEFL checks, and when given the instruction, divert to the given alternative destination.
My ground brief started at 11:00 on the 23rd December 2013, but I made sure that I got to the academy three hours before hand so that I was fully prepared with the weather en-route, performance, mass and balance and also the pre-flight. In the brief, my examiner told me that I would do a Chandler Departure, which involves departing to the south-west, transitioning over Chandler Airport at 3200ft and the departure ending once Chandler's D Airspace has been cleared. Afterwards I was expected to track south towards a point called the Donnelly Truck Stop, then turn eastbound to a place called Picacho Stagefield, which is a heliport. At some point along the route I was told that I would be diverted to a random destination. After that I would be expected to perform a Practice Forced Landing (PFL), then once successful do a Chandler Arrival back to Falcon Field.
After a rather quick brief, we went out to the aircraft. Weather on that day was calm with no adverse conditions, with easterly winds forecast at my cruising altitude. The initial stage of the flight went very smoothly, after spotting the final destination, I was diverted to a private airstrip called U of A, which was north-west of Picacho Stagefield. I circled just east of the Stagefield to do all of my diversion planning, taking me about 3-4 minutes. In the diversions you are expected to plan out your new heading (corrected for magnetic variation), altitude, ground speed, ETA and fuel burn. All pretty simple, but care needs to be taken since the priority is that the aircraft is flown first.
My diversion didn't at first go to plan, I made the mistake of planning a wrong heading, which I spotted since my first significant visual point on route was the wrong city. After verbalising my mistake to the examiner, I used my drift lines to correct my track and rejoin my originally planned route. Upon reaching my diversion, it took me about three attempts to actually spot it since I had never seen it before. Very promptly after, the examiner cut the throttle and I went straight into a failed engine emergency procedure. Everything worked out well, apart from the fact that I didn't pick the private airstrip that I was already over! Don't ask me why I did it, I think it was just a bad day at the office and I am pretty disappointed with myself for doing that.
After arriving safely back to Falcon Field, I was given a very good debrief from the examiner. The main points that he mentioned were that instead of circling to plan the diversion, it should always be planned when approaching the next destination or turning point. His point was that it wastes time and money when circling, which is a big deal to airlines, and if there is not enough time left to calculate everything, plan just the heading and altitude first, then do speed, time, fuel burn and ETA when actually en-route to the diversion. He also mentioned about the attempts I took to spot the diversion, which is my fault since I at first I was looking at completely the wrong side of a highway and that visual clue alone would have probably helped me spot the diversion first time round. The last comment he had was of my PFL. Although my field was reasonable, it doesn't really compare to the 5000ft private airstrip which I was already over!
You'll be glad to know that I passed, but I don't feel that I passed with flying colours. I am happy that I can progress, but there are a few things that I need to take a bit more care on. I know that I need to be a lot more disciplined and methodical in my planning whilst I am flying. My advice to people when doing navigation and diversion is to take your time, have a set structure when doing everything. For instance, pre/post HAAT checklists, FEFL checks. In the diversion, simply do a HAAT checklist, so get the heading and altitude, see if you have enough time to plan the rest before you need to start your turn, if so then carry on, if not then concentrate on aviating, then take care in planning the rest of the diversion after the turn. It's very easy to be drawn into doing things quickly, however the examiner is looking more closely at how methodical you do things, with good PIC decision making, rather than speed.
The next stage from here is IFR, concentrating on Holds and Approaches. I am looking quite forward to it since I have enjoyed all the IFR flying to date, and plus it is much more applicable to what we will all be doing once we start working for an airline.
Despite the logistical problems, the quality of training is still incredible, after my second progress test I was assigned a new instructor who I got on with very well. He is not as strict as my last instructor, however teaches a lot more professionalism in terms of check lists and CRM, so I really enjoyed my time with him.
Progress Test 3 focuses on Navigation and Diversions. Not a particularly difficult one, however a lot of steps to think about. For my test, the examiner gave me my route one day in advance so I could plan it all on our charts and fill out our navlogs. What you are expected to do is fly out the departure procedure, start the navigation properly with the appropriate HAAT and FEFL checks, and when given the instruction, divert to the given alternative destination.
My ground brief started at 11:00 on the 23rd December 2013, but I made sure that I got to the academy three hours before hand so that I was fully prepared with the weather en-route, performance, mass and balance and also the pre-flight. In the brief, my examiner told me that I would do a Chandler Departure, which involves departing to the south-west, transitioning over Chandler Airport at 3200ft and the departure ending once Chandler's D Airspace has been cleared. Afterwards I was expected to track south towards a point called the Donnelly Truck Stop, then turn eastbound to a place called Picacho Stagefield, which is a heliport. At some point along the route I was told that I would be diverted to a random destination. After that I would be expected to perform a Practice Forced Landing (PFL), then once successful do a Chandler Arrival back to Falcon Field.
After a rather quick brief, we went out to the aircraft. Weather on that day was calm with no adverse conditions, with easterly winds forecast at my cruising altitude. The initial stage of the flight went very smoothly, after spotting the final destination, I was diverted to a private airstrip called U of A, which was north-west of Picacho Stagefield. I circled just east of the Stagefield to do all of my diversion planning, taking me about 3-4 minutes. In the diversions you are expected to plan out your new heading (corrected for magnetic variation), altitude, ground speed, ETA and fuel burn. All pretty simple, but care needs to be taken since the priority is that the aircraft is flown first.
My diversion didn't at first go to plan, I made the mistake of planning a wrong heading, which I spotted since my first significant visual point on route was the wrong city. After verbalising my mistake to the examiner, I used my drift lines to correct my track and rejoin my originally planned route. Upon reaching my diversion, it took me about three attempts to actually spot it since I had never seen it before. Very promptly after, the examiner cut the throttle and I went straight into a failed engine emergency procedure. Everything worked out well, apart from the fact that I didn't pick the private airstrip that I was already over! Don't ask me why I did it, I think it was just a bad day at the office and I am pretty disappointed with myself for doing that.
After arriving safely back to Falcon Field, I was given a very good debrief from the examiner. The main points that he mentioned were that instead of circling to plan the diversion, it should always be planned when approaching the next destination or turning point. His point was that it wastes time and money when circling, which is a big deal to airlines, and if there is not enough time left to calculate everything, plan just the heading and altitude first, then do speed, time, fuel burn and ETA when actually en-route to the diversion. He also mentioned about the attempts I took to spot the diversion, which is my fault since I at first I was looking at completely the wrong side of a highway and that visual clue alone would have probably helped me spot the diversion first time round. The last comment he had was of my PFL. Although my field was reasonable, it doesn't really compare to the 5000ft private airstrip which I was already over!
You'll be glad to know that I passed, but I don't feel that I passed with flying colours. I am happy that I can progress, but there are a few things that I need to take a bit more care on. I know that I need to be a lot more disciplined and methodical in my planning whilst I am flying. My advice to people when doing navigation and diversion is to take your time, have a set structure when doing everything. For instance, pre/post HAAT checklists, FEFL checks. In the diversion, simply do a HAAT checklist, so get the heading and altitude, see if you have enough time to plan the rest before you need to start your turn, if so then carry on, if not then concentrate on aviating, then take care in planning the rest of the diversion after the turn. It's very easy to be drawn into doing things quickly, however the examiner is looking more closely at how methodical you do things, with good PIC decision making, rather than speed.
The next stage from here is IFR, concentrating on Holds and Approaches. I am looking quite forward to it since I have enjoyed all the IFR flying to date, and plus it is much more applicable to what we will all be doing once we start working for an airline.
Sunday, 5 January 2014
Upset Recovery Training
Hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. Once again, apologies for the huge break in blogging as it has been rather busy for me over the past month or so.
On December 19th 2013 I took part in the APS Upset Recovery Training, which takes place at Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport. There are a variety of options for the course, depending on the ratings that you have. The basic package for VFR pilots (Which OAA gave me) lasts two days. There is also a three day package which adds on spin recovery and recovery in IMC.
A group of BA Future Pilot cadets were kind enough to offer me ride to the course over the two day duration of my course. Upon entering the APS center on day one, we were greeted by a lot of friendly staff. The APS building only really consists of a waiting room, several classrooms and offices for the instructors. After a few minutes of filling out paper work we got started with a two and a half hour introduction to the course and a briefing of our first flight (URT 1). We had an instructor named Clarke 'Otter' McNeace. All of the instructors there have an immense amount of experience on them, and because they are all ex-US Navy fighter pilots, they all still go by their call signs. The coolest instructor there had to be William 'BORNEO' Gregory, if you don't recognise the name then I suggest you copy and paste it into google, he's only an ex-Space Shuttle pilot!
Otter began the class by talking about the history of the programme, and also talked about why it came about. He brought up some accident statistics for General and Commercial Aviation, with the number one cause being loss of control in flight. What the statistics and several case studies show in both General and Commercial Aviation is that due to lack of appropriate training, pilots were using incorrect inputs to the flight controls when their aircraft was upset, putting themselves into an even worse situation and making the aircraft unrecoverable.
After the introduction, Otter went on to talk about theory of flight. It was quite possibly one of the best ground lessons I'd ever sat through. In that hour and a half he explained everything about Lift, and how G loading affects stall speed. All of this was illustrated with a drag versus angle of a attack curve, and a V-G Diagram. After the brief on the theory of flight, he then went on to talk about the aircraft and our first flight (URT-1). The most important five words of the course is: Push, Power, Rudder, Roll and Climb. These are the steps in this order that are taught here for any of the upset situations that we would encounter. For example if you're stalling, you would push to unload the Gs, which in turn reduces the stall speed so that controls can be regained. Power as appropriate, which would need to be increased in a nose-up stall on a prop. Rudder if the aircraft is yawing. Roll if the aircraft has suffered a wing drop, or even worse inverted. Then finally once the aircraft is wings level, climb to safety. It's a "Say and Do" command so everyone is expected to verbalise then initiate the recovery action.
The course is done in an Extra 300L, which is a German built, two seat, aerobatic aircraft. It has a 300HP engine, capable of +/-10Gs and a climb rate of 3200 fpm, so as you can see, I was really looking forward to having a go on this thing!
The first flight involved basic general handling and familarisation with the aircraft. After our ground brief, me and two others were called up to go first. After tightly fastening the parachute (which I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to) I stepped into the front seat of the Extra 300L, with Otter sat behind me. The first thing you notice is the complete lack of instruments, all that I had was an ASI and Altimeter. The reason being here is so that pilots who do undergo this course, learn how to spot and fix upsets visually and through seat-of-the-pants feel.
After an initial brief and being told to give a thumbs up for the Go-Pro, we were rolling on the taxi way towards the active runway. Once cleared for take off we were rolling on runway 12C, the sheer power of that engine was evident when we hit rotation speed in what must have been five seconds. Very soon after take off, Otter handed over the controls to me and vectored me towards the South East practice area to begin the maneuvers. The first thing to get used to is the sensitivity of the controls, only very small inputs are required since the aircraft has a potential roll rate of 400 degrees per second! The aircraft also uses a stick which wasn't actually too difficult to get used to.
The flight started off with a steep turns, then went into slow flight and stalls. As mentioned earlier, the Push, Power, Rudder, Roll and Climb criteria were used to recover. We then went onto an exercise called the Falling Leaf where the aircraft loses lateral stability. He starts by stalling and says to me "Now it's your chance to try and be the first person to keep the wings level using the rudder", so naturally I stepped up to the challenge. As the aircraft stalled, the left wing dropped and with my right rudder input to correct it, the aircraft immediately rolled violently to the right and I was upside down before I knew it. The aircraft was basically in free fall and even with the airspeed increasing to over 120kts, it was still stalled and buffeting. Otter then appropriately pushed and as soon as that was done, the buffeting stopped and the aircraft was now controllable. After the recovery it became clear how someone without experience would have simply kept trying to pull back with the ground racing towards them, especially with the adrenaline running.
We then went into a Zoom Maneuvre, which is a flight below 1G. This is to emphasise the controllability of the aircraft below Vs, which helps to further understand why you would push in a stalled situation, even if the aircraft is invert and diving towards the ground. To finish off, we did an Aileron Roll, Loop and flew Inverted for a few minutes which was so much fun.
Once back on the ground, some of us had a long break before our next ground brief so I went to the Gateway Cafe to grab a pretty huge sandwich. Once back in the classroom, Otter briefed us on the next two lessons (URT-2 and 3) Both of which were looking even more exciting, especially URT-3 which has an optional full deflection Roll, Loop, Cuban-8 and Hammerhead!
Day two was again an early start. Once again I was up first but this time with another instructor named Schlimmer, very nice guy. We promptly started URT-2 which consisted of Wings Level Accelerated Stalls, Steep Turns to Accelerated stalls, Slipping Techniques, Skidding Turn Stalls and Prevention, and some all attitude maneuvering. We progressed quite quickly so Schlimmer offered to bring some of the stuff in from URT-3 so that we would have more time left over at the end for "fun stuff", and of course I was very happy to agree with it.
URT-3 got very interesting, particularly with the rudder, aileron and elevator jams. The reason they teach this is due to several cases of where controls have jammed and caused fatal accidents, particularly in the case of USAir Flight 427 where a 737-3B7 that was 6 miles away on approach to Pittsburgh, suddenly spiraled and nose dived into the ground. Both pilots were extremely experienced, however none had experienced a problem like that before where the rudder servo unit suddenly became jammed below a speed that would allow aileron authority. Otter mentioned in the brief that the first and most important thing to do in this situation is to gain airspeed as quickly as possible so that enough airflow can pass over the ailerons to give them enough authority to counter the roll, which is the secondary effect from the rudder This is known as the "crossover speed". In my flight, Schlimmer taught me how to keep the aircraft straight and level in such an event, which is to pitch down, increase power, and correct with ailerons to essentially regain control and fly in a slip.
The last 20 minutes of URT-3 is something that I will always remember. In essence it was an air show experience! I mentioned that the last part of this lesson is entirely optional, and since I'm a bit of a thrill seeker I opted to see what Schlimmer could do with this aircraft. The first thing he demonstrated was the Hammerhead. The maneuvre begins by first entering a descent at full power to gain maximum airspeed, then climbing vertically. The airspeed rapidly decays and just before the upward motion of the aircraft stops, full rudder is applied so that the aircraft yaws 180 degrees and enters an immediate vertical nosedive. After the first demonstration, I was allowed to have a go! I managed to do it pretty well since it isn't a very difficult maneuvre to grasp, however the timing needs to be quite accurate. I also asked to put the smoke on which makes it look even more spectacular! After that he showed me a Knife Edge Spin, which is a forward flipping motion of the plane with one wing facing towards the ground. Then I was shown a Lomcevak, which is like a tumbling spiral front flip (if any of those descriptions make sense). Being in those two maneuvres is something that I will never forget, made even cooler by the fact that the smoke was on so it felt like I was in an air show. I have to give my respect to these instructors too for knowing how to recover the aircraft immediately, because you just have no sense of orientation.
The two day upset programme went so quickly, and when I landed at the end of that last flight I felt quite saddened to know that I would probably never experience anything quite like that again. However despite the fun and joy of experiencing what it was like to be in an air show, I feel that Upset Recovery Training has been the most important part of my training so far. Why? Because I believe it will save lives. Upset Recovery Training is vital for any pilot at any level of experience, particularly so nowadays in an age where aviation is becoming evermore automated. Aircraft are becoming more sophisticated, yet at the same time being designed in such a way where pilots are now having less to do. Good in terms of decreasing the workload, however it all comes at a price, which is that pilots are losing the aviation skills that are so desperately required when these automated systems fail. In one of the briefs, Otters advises all of us to take manual control whenever we have the chance in ALL phases of flight. In the case of Air France Flight 447, all of the flight crew had thousands of hours of experience, yet none of them had ever manually flown an aircraft at cruising altitude, so when the autopilot disengaged, none of them were prepared to fly it. That is just one case of many, and given the accident statistics, it is clear that with loss of control in flight still being the number one cause, the aviation industry needs to collectively agree on training programmes that will prepare all pilots for potential emergencies that can happen in all phases of flight. I'm very fortunate to have gained the knowledge and expertise in Upset Recovery from these very experienced instructors, and I hope that anyone else who has the opportunity to take up this programme will take it just as seriously as I did.
On December 19th 2013 I took part in the APS Upset Recovery Training, which takes place at Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport. There are a variety of options for the course, depending on the ratings that you have. The basic package for VFR pilots (Which OAA gave me) lasts two days. There is also a three day package which adds on spin recovery and recovery in IMC.
A group of BA Future Pilot cadets were kind enough to offer me ride to the course over the two day duration of my course. Upon entering the APS center on day one, we were greeted by a lot of friendly staff. The APS building only really consists of a waiting room, several classrooms and offices for the instructors. After a few minutes of filling out paper work we got started with a two and a half hour introduction to the course and a briefing of our first flight (URT 1). We had an instructor named Clarke 'Otter' McNeace. All of the instructors there have an immense amount of experience on them, and because they are all ex-US Navy fighter pilots, they all still go by their call signs. The coolest instructor there had to be William 'BORNEO' Gregory, if you don't recognise the name then I suggest you copy and paste it into google, he's only an ex-Space Shuttle pilot!
Otter began the class by talking about the history of the programme, and also talked about why it came about. He brought up some accident statistics for General and Commercial Aviation, with the number one cause being loss of control in flight. What the statistics and several case studies show in both General and Commercial Aviation is that due to lack of appropriate training, pilots were using incorrect inputs to the flight controls when their aircraft was upset, putting themselves into an even worse situation and making the aircraft unrecoverable.
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| Otter in his commercial piloting days |
After the introduction, Otter went on to talk about theory of flight. It was quite possibly one of the best ground lessons I'd ever sat through. In that hour and a half he explained everything about Lift, and how G loading affects stall speed. All of this was illustrated with a drag versus angle of a attack curve, and a V-G Diagram. After the brief on the theory of flight, he then went on to talk about the aircraft and our first flight (URT-1). The most important five words of the course is: Push, Power, Rudder, Roll and Climb. These are the steps in this order that are taught here for any of the upset situations that we would encounter. For example if you're stalling, you would push to unload the Gs, which in turn reduces the stall speed so that controls can be regained. Power as appropriate, which would need to be increased in a nose-up stall on a prop. Rudder if the aircraft is yawing. Roll if the aircraft has suffered a wing drop, or even worse inverted. Then finally once the aircraft is wings level, climb to safety. It's a "Say and Do" command so everyone is expected to verbalise then initiate the recovery action.
 |
| Before we upset the aircraft |
The first flight involved basic general handling and familarisation with the aircraft. After our ground brief, me and two others were called up to go first. After tightly fastening the parachute (which I was hoping I wouldn't have to resort to) I stepped into the front seat of the Extra 300L, with Otter sat behind me. The first thing you notice is the complete lack of instruments, all that I had was an ASI and Altimeter. The reason being here is so that pilots who do undergo this course, learn how to spot and fix upsets visually and through seat-of-the-pants feel.
After an initial brief and being told to give a thumbs up for the Go-Pro, we were rolling on the taxi way towards the active runway. Once cleared for take off we were rolling on runway 12C, the sheer power of that engine was evident when we hit rotation speed in what must have been five seconds. Very soon after take off, Otter handed over the controls to me and vectored me towards the South East practice area to begin the maneuvers. The first thing to get used to is the sensitivity of the controls, only very small inputs are required since the aircraft has a potential roll rate of 400 degrees per second! The aircraft also uses a stick which wasn't actually too difficult to get used to.
The flight started off with a steep turns, then went into slow flight and stalls. As mentioned earlier, the Push, Power, Rudder, Roll and Climb criteria were used to recover. We then went onto an exercise called the Falling Leaf where the aircraft loses lateral stability. He starts by stalling and says to me "Now it's your chance to try and be the first person to keep the wings level using the rudder", so naturally I stepped up to the challenge. As the aircraft stalled, the left wing dropped and with my right rudder input to correct it, the aircraft immediately rolled violently to the right and I was upside down before I knew it. The aircraft was basically in free fall and even with the airspeed increasing to over 120kts, it was still stalled and buffeting. Otter then appropriately pushed and as soon as that was done, the buffeting stopped and the aircraft was now controllable. After the recovery it became clear how someone without experience would have simply kept trying to pull back with the ground racing towards them, especially with the adrenaline running.
We then went into a Zoom Maneuvre, which is a flight below 1G. This is to emphasise the controllability of the aircraft below Vs, which helps to further understand why you would push in a stalled situation, even if the aircraft is invert and diving towards the ground. To finish off, we did an Aileron Roll, Loop and flew Inverted for a few minutes which was so much fun.
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| The Extra 300L fleet |
Once back on the ground, some of us had a long break before our next ground brief so I went to the Gateway Cafe to grab a pretty huge sandwich. Once back in the classroom, Otter briefed us on the next two lessons (URT-2 and 3) Both of which were looking even more exciting, especially URT-3 which has an optional full deflection Roll, Loop, Cuban-8 and Hammerhead!
Day two was again an early start. Once again I was up first but this time with another instructor named Schlimmer, very nice guy. We promptly started URT-2 which consisted of Wings Level Accelerated Stalls, Steep Turns to Accelerated stalls, Slipping Techniques, Skidding Turn Stalls and Prevention, and some all attitude maneuvering. We progressed quite quickly so Schlimmer offered to bring some of the stuff in from URT-3 so that we would have more time left over at the end for "fun stuff", and of course I was very happy to agree with it.
URT-3 got very interesting, particularly with the rudder, aileron and elevator jams. The reason they teach this is due to several cases of where controls have jammed and caused fatal accidents, particularly in the case of USAir Flight 427 where a 737-3B7 that was 6 miles away on approach to Pittsburgh, suddenly spiraled and nose dived into the ground. Both pilots were extremely experienced, however none had experienced a problem like that before where the rudder servo unit suddenly became jammed below a speed that would allow aileron authority. Otter mentioned in the brief that the first and most important thing to do in this situation is to gain airspeed as quickly as possible so that enough airflow can pass over the ailerons to give them enough authority to counter the roll, which is the secondary effect from the rudder This is known as the "crossover speed". In my flight, Schlimmer taught me how to keep the aircraft straight and level in such an event, which is to pitch down, increase power, and correct with ailerons to essentially regain control and fly in a slip.
The last 20 minutes of URT-3 is something that I will always remember. In essence it was an air show experience! I mentioned that the last part of this lesson is entirely optional, and since I'm a bit of a thrill seeker I opted to see what Schlimmer could do with this aircraft. The first thing he demonstrated was the Hammerhead. The maneuvre begins by first entering a descent at full power to gain maximum airspeed, then climbing vertically. The airspeed rapidly decays and just before the upward motion of the aircraft stops, full rudder is applied so that the aircraft yaws 180 degrees and enters an immediate vertical nosedive. After the first demonstration, I was allowed to have a go! I managed to do it pretty well since it isn't a very difficult maneuvre to grasp, however the timing needs to be quite accurate. I also asked to put the smoke on which makes it look even more spectacular! After that he showed me a Knife Edge Spin, which is a forward flipping motion of the plane with one wing facing towards the ground. Then I was shown a Lomcevak, which is like a tumbling spiral front flip (if any of those descriptions make sense). Being in those two maneuvres is something that I will never forget, made even cooler by the fact that the smoke was on so it felt like I was in an air show. I have to give my respect to these instructors too for knowing how to recover the aircraft immediately, because you just have no sense of orientation.
 |
| Inverted |
The two day upset programme went so quickly, and when I landed at the end of that last flight I felt quite saddened to know that I would probably never experience anything quite like that again. However despite the fun and joy of experiencing what it was like to be in an air show, I feel that Upset Recovery Training has been the most important part of my training so far. Why? Because I believe it will save lives. Upset Recovery Training is vital for any pilot at any level of experience, particularly so nowadays in an age where aviation is becoming evermore automated. Aircraft are becoming more sophisticated, yet at the same time being designed in such a way where pilots are now having less to do. Good in terms of decreasing the workload, however it all comes at a price, which is that pilots are losing the aviation skills that are so desperately required when these automated systems fail. In one of the briefs, Otters advises all of us to take manual control whenever we have the chance in ALL phases of flight. In the case of Air France Flight 447, all of the flight crew had thousands of hours of experience, yet none of them had ever manually flown an aircraft at cruising altitude, so when the autopilot disengaged, none of them were prepared to fly it. That is just one case of many, and given the accident statistics, it is clear that with loss of control in flight still being the number one cause, the aviation industry needs to collectively agree on training programmes that will prepare all pilots for potential emergencies that can happen in all phases of flight. I'm very fortunate to have gained the knowledge and expertise in Upset Recovery from these very experienced instructors, and I hope that anyone else who has the opportunity to take up this programme will take it just as seriously as I did.
Monday, 18 November 2013
Progress Test 2
Since the night flying it's been mainly IFR and solo cross country flying. The next milestone to follow was my second progress test. As I've mentioned, at Oxford you have four of them, each with different requirements that will prepare you for the huge CPL skills test at the end.
Progress Test 2 mainly focuses on general handling, emergency procedures and circuits with different types of landings. It all depends on which examiner students get too as they all have their own style of examining. By that I mean some will give students the freedom to go to their favourite area and some will give you a specified area to go to. Either way students get assessed on the same criteria.
The first part of the test involved an hour long quiz on the ground, I was asked to brief the weather and weight and balance. I was also quizzed about the airframe, engine and the charts. Wasn't anything too out of the ordinary, although I did have to think carefully when I was asked to describe a naturally aspirated engine! Generally though, students should be relatively clued up about this stuff by PT2.
After the quiz, I was then briefed about what was expected of me in flight. I did the sensible thing and preflighted the aircraft before going in for the briefing, so that saved a lot of time and it meant that we could takeoff a lot sooner. The flight begun with a Chandler departure, which is basically a south west departure involving a transition through Chandler Airport's airspace. Once out in the practice area I did a clean stall and a stall in the landing configuration. On these stalls you're expected to do what's called a HASELL checklist, which stands for Heading, Aircraft configuration, Security (Objects), Location and Lookout. This checklist ensures that it is safe for you to start performing stalls.
After some general handling, my examiner put me under the hood for some instrument time. He gave simply instructions such as altitudes to climb/descend to, headings to turn to, climbing/descending turns. All at rate one of course. After that I was told to go to Ak Chin Regional Airport which is an uncontrolled airfield where I was asked to perform a normal, flapless, glide-in and a performance landing, however as I was en-route the examiner cut the power and said "engine is on fire!". I got straight to it, and covered all of the engine fire checklist, had my pretend landing site in view all the way down. Worked out to be one of the best PFLs I had ever done!
After the PFL I continued to Ak Chin Regional, which was interesting because the runway was very narrow and I had never done a landing there before! After completing all of these landings, my examiner had me do the Chandler arrival back into Falcon Field to finish up. The arrival was very busy and I had to wait a good 5 minutes before I could actually make my first call to inform tower that I was coming in for a full stop!
After successfully touching down, I got my debrief. Overall I was told that it went very well but of course, there is no such thing as a perfect check ride so my examiner did tell me to work on things such as checklists, and more back pressure when flaring since some of my landings were slightly flat. The part that I was most worried about were the practice forced landings since their success depends on so many variables such as: what fields are available, the wind direction, type of terrain and how high you are. Even when you are told to go-around, care needs to be taken when dropping flaps as a lot of other students have partialled due to dropping flaps too early or when specified speed and height criteria have not been met.
Overall I was pretty happy with the test, and thankfully I had no real disaster problems so I can concentrate more on the next progress test which will be on Navigation. As I mentioned, there is no such thing as a perfect checkride or even flight for that matter. We are all human and we make mistakes from time to time, especially during checkrides because so much is going on at the same time. It is important that the criteria are met and that the flying is safe. It is also vital not to crack under pressure, even when a mistake has been made I know that I have to just carry on with the test and not give up because you could be given a chance to redeem yourself, or even a chance to redo a certain exercise to show that you can do it.
The next step from here is more IFR and Navigation flying. I also have several landaway solos which I am really looking forward to, and shall be the topic of my next blog post. Once again, thank you for reading and all the best!
Progress Test 2 mainly focuses on general handling, emergency procedures and circuits with different types of landings. It all depends on which examiner students get too as they all have their own style of examining. By that I mean some will give students the freedom to go to their favourite area and some will give you a specified area to go to. Either way students get assessed on the same criteria.
The first part of the test involved an hour long quiz on the ground, I was asked to brief the weather and weight and balance. I was also quizzed about the airframe, engine and the charts. Wasn't anything too out of the ordinary, although I did have to think carefully when I was asked to describe a naturally aspirated engine! Generally though, students should be relatively clued up about this stuff by PT2.
After the quiz, I was then briefed about what was expected of me in flight. I did the sensible thing and preflighted the aircraft before going in for the briefing, so that saved a lot of time and it meant that we could takeoff a lot sooner. The flight begun with a Chandler departure, which is basically a south west departure involving a transition through Chandler Airport's airspace. Once out in the practice area I did a clean stall and a stall in the landing configuration. On these stalls you're expected to do what's called a HASELL checklist, which stands for Heading, Aircraft configuration, Security (Objects), Location and Lookout. This checklist ensures that it is safe for you to start performing stalls.
After some general handling, my examiner put me under the hood for some instrument time. He gave simply instructions such as altitudes to climb/descend to, headings to turn to, climbing/descending turns. All at rate one of course. After that I was told to go to Ak Chin Regional Airport which is an uncontrolled airfield where I was asked to perform a normal, flapless, glide-in and a performance landing, however as I was en-route the examiner cut the power and said "engine is on fire!". I got straight to it, and covered all of the engine fire checklist, had my pretend landing site in view all the way down. Worked out to be one of the best PFLs I had ever done!
After the PFL I continued to Ak Chin Regional, which was interesting because the runway was very narrow and I had never done a landing there before! After completing all of these landings, my examiner had me do the Chandler arrival back into Falcon Field to finish up. The arrival was very busy and I had to wait a good 5 minutes before I could actually make my first call to inform tower that I was coming in for a full stop!
After successfully touching down, I got my debrief. Overall I was told that it went very well but of course, there is no such thing as a perfect check ride so my examiner did tell me to work on things such as checklists, and more back pressure when flaring since some of my landings were slightly flat. The part that I was most worried about were the practice forced landings since their success depends on so many variables such as: what fields are available, the wind direction, type of terrain and how high you are. Even when you are told to go-around, care needs to be taken when dropping flaps as a lot of other students have partialled due to dropping flaps too early or when specified speed and height criteria have not been met.
Overall I was pretty happy with the test, and thankfully I had no real disaster problems so I can concentrate more on the next progress test which will be on Navigation. As I mentioned, there is no such thing as a perfect checkride or even flight for that matter. We are all human and we make mistakes from time to time, especially during checkrides because so much is going on at the same time. It is important that the criteria are met and that the flying is safe. It is also vital not to crack under pressure, even when a mistake has been made I know that I have to just carry on with the test and not give up because you could be given a chance to redeem yourself, or even a chance to redo a certain exercise to show that you can do it.
The next step from here is more IFR and Navigation flying. I also have several landaway solos which I am really looking forward to, and shall be the topic of my next blog post. Once again, thank you for reading and all the best!
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Night Flying
Once again sorry for the delay, and I know that I've already apologised for before for the long break in my blogging! I do have quite a few posts to catch up on, however as the titles suggest, I will be talking about the absolutely spectacular night flying.
In the Oxford programme, you do 3 hours of dual night flying, 1 hour and a half of which is cross country, and you also get 2 hours of solo night time which is just flying in the traffic pattern with a minimum requirement of at least 10 landings.
The first lesson I had was a dual with my instructor which teaches flying circuits. I learned how to look for certain visual reference points at night, for example; light signals from airports and how to notice airports in cities. My instructor also made a big deal over night vision, and made sure that I dimmed the avionics as much as possible, even shining a torch inside the flight deck is potentially dangerous because it takes a long time for us to adapt back to night vision, and that's not something to want.
The first thing that struck me was how different everything feels and just how much extra care you need to take. Even with the taxi, I had to really concentrate to keep a visual of the centreline. The actual flying is very alien at first, everything that I was used to using as visual reference points were pretty much non existent, and you have to quickly get used to where certain lit landmarks are. Landing was very interesting too, the papis are evermore important on final approach. When I came to reducing power and flaring for touch down, it felt so different compared to the visual reference that I was used to during the day.
The first landing I made at night was of course atrocious, afterwards that I started getting used to it pretty well. I ended up doing a couple of normal landings, then a couple of glide ins and flapless landings. The next lesson was a night cross country to Tucson International airport. The route I planned was out to the north of Falcon Field, then south with a transition over Phoenix Skyharbor airport. The transition looked incredible, seeing Skyharbor below along with Downtown Phoenix was really something. The rest of that navigation flight was so intense, I found it challenging to read the map and even controlling the lighting from my torch just to be sure that I didn't blind myself or the instructor! The approach to Tucson went quite well. It was the first time I had ever landed at an International airport so it was a great experience to be able to see what it was all about.
The last two flights I had at night were solo circuits. It was so much fun and I remember how enjoyable my old circuit lessons were. I practiced pretty much all the different kind of landings that are expected of me. My second night circuit was particularly challenging because of the winds becoming stronger as I flew, but as you can see, my heart is still beating!
Night flying is something I'll always remember, and I was honestly so sad when I tied that aircraft down after the last night circuit, knowing that I won't be doing that for a while. It was just such a humbling moment as I saw the city lights tilting towards me as I got higher, looking out into the horizon and just see a carpet of what looks like a million fairy lights. Night flying has to go down as the most memorable things to date since I started training.
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| Sunset prior to my first night lesson |
The first lesson I had was a dual with my instructor which teaches flying circuits. I learned how to look for certain visual reference points at night, for example; light signals from airports and how to notice airports in cities. My instructor also made a big deal over night vision, and made sure that I dimmed the avionics as much as possible, even shining a torch inside the flight deck is potentially dangerous because it takes a long time for us to adapt back to night vision, and that's not something to want.
The first thing that struck me was how different everything feels and just how much extra care you need to take. Even with the taxi, I had to really concentrate to keep a visual of the centreline. The actual flying is very alien at first, everything that I was used to using as visual reference points were pretty much non existent, and you have to quickly get used to where certain lit landmarks are. Landing was very interesting too, the papis are evermore important on final approach. When I came to reducing power and flaring for touch down, it felt so different compared to the visual reference that I was used to during the day.
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| The lights over Tucson |
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| Stop at Tucson International |
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| Short final into Falcon |
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Exploring
As I mentioned in a previous post, you get a lot of free time to travel and see places while you are here. My recommendation for anyone that comes here is to take full advantage of it. This post will solely be about some of the fun stuff that me and some of my classmates have been doing since we've been here.
Flyboarding and Boats
About a month and a half ago, one of my friends here invited me to something called Flyboarding at Lake Pleasant, which is in North Phoenix. I thought to myself "Flyboarding?", seemed like some outer space type thing. However when I looked it up online, it looked like quite possibly the coolest thing ever. See for yourself here: http://azflyboardrentals.com/
How it works is that there is a board with two jets which tie onto your feet. The water pressure comes from a modified jetski which is manned by two people who seem to hopefully know what they're doing. One of the people on the jetski control the amount of power you receive at the flyboard, so depending on your experience level, they adjust the power accordingly. There were four of us that went, with 15 minutes each and although it doesn't sound like a long time, it certainly felt like more than enough since we were all exhausted by the end of it. I don't think I've ever had to use so many muscles on my legs and feet so much before.
You may wonder what else there is to do in a massive lake? Well fear not, there is indeed plenty to do in Lake Pleasant. There are jet skis, fishing and speed boats. There are also canoes but lets be honest, things without engines aren't very interesting. We got jet skis then hired a 300hp speed boat afterwards, it goes without saying that both of those things are amazing fun and with the weather being over 30 degrees Celsius in October, it is perfect for water sports!
Las Vegas
The next adventure after that brought me to the fabulous Las Vegas. I had a very good friend of mine (who himself is an OAA graduate) come to visit me for just under a week. It's the second time I've ever been and if I am to be completely honest, I think it is a place that every over 21 year old must visit at some point in their lives.
We stayed in the New York New York hotel which is on the strip. My advice is to stay anywhere along here since this is where all the magic happens. What I would also highly highly highly highly recommend to anyone who is visiting for the first time is to arrive at night, and by car. This is the second time I've ever visited so we arrived when there was still daylight. However on my first visit last year I arrived with my friends late at night. Trust me, when you drive through the pitch black desert, the first thing you'll see on the 95 is the pillar of light from the Luxor Hotel bursting into the sky. The next thing you'll notice is this surreal panorama of lights. As you get closer it just looks more and more magical. Then you'll drive through Las Vegas Boulevard, otherwise known as The Strip, where you'll see an incredible display of adult paradise. If you're arriving from the south, you'll see these incredible looking hotels and casinos, along with the street vibe and you'll understand immediately why they call it the Fabulous Las Vegas!
We went to grab some dinner at PF Changs, then got ready and partied until the early hours at The Marquee nightclub, which is inside The Cosmopolitan Hotel. I'd say it's probably the best club I have ever been to. If you're into your clubbing, you'll simply be blown away by the sheer size and beauty of this place. Beautiful layout along with beautiful people. It wasn't too different from our second night where we hit XS nightclub at The Encore Hotel. Both nights had high profile dance DJs performing there so all these clubs generally pull in a crowd.
During the day we walked around, I actually had a chance to go to the Old Las Vegas, which is quite a way south of Las Vegas Boulevard. It's amazing to see how much had changed in such a small space of time. There wasn't really much to do there in comparison to what's on offer in the current Las Vegas Strip, but it's something that has to be seen. For me, it was amazing to think of how much time and effort goes into building all these amazing structures and sites for people to just go and have a good time, even to this day. You notice if you have a chance to tour all of the casinos and hotels along the strip, that you don't really fully appreciate the quality of everything. For instance, take a look at the picture I've posted below:
What you see is the garden that they've built inside The Wynn hotel, just by the casino. I mean look at it, those plants are real and breathing. I can't begin to comprehend the amount of work that went into building this masterpiece. Having said all this, Vegas isn't a place for everyone. If you're not a smoker, drinker or clubber then it would probably be your nightmare. It is a 24 hour place and and if you are not that type of person then it is probably not for you.
Tuscon Boneyard
A place I would highly recommend to anyone who is at least remotely interested in aviation is the Tuscon Bonyard, or more appropriately named the AMARG boneyward. There aren't really many bones there, but instead a humongous collection of planes that have come to the end of their lives, ranging from world war bombers to more recent airliners. You could truly spend an entire day walking around and seeing the planes as there are apparently more dead planes here than there are registered and flying in the UK. I have generously posted a few of the pictures I took from when I went.
Grand Canyon
Well the last place I'll talk about is the Grand Canyon. I'd say of all the places I've been to since I've been here, this is the place you should really go out of your way to see. I'm sure you've all seen pictures in magazines and it just looks like a load of red rocks. Let me tell you though, no words can describe what this place actually looks like when you see it in real life with your own eyes. It is simply magnificent. Me and a few others who were brave enough went fairly close to the edge and when I look out into the distance, it felt like I could sit there for hours to absorb the greatness that was in front of me.
I was also fortunate enough to get noticed by the National Geographic! Well, the National Geographic Visitor Center but I only say the National Geographic to people since it sounds like I'm more famous. What had happened was I tweeted the picture that you see below, suddenly after a matter of minutes, the NG replied to that tweet asking me if they could use it on their Facebook page, to which I happily gave them permission. Subsequently a few days later they messaged me again asking if they could use it as their 'cover photo of the week', to which I also said yes. So yes, I am now rather famous since this cover photo has been there for a good month now!
There is quite a lot to see and do here, and there is enough time to do a lot of these activities. Of course the flying comes first, so I stress to everyone who does the flying here that it is intense and that you must stay on top of it. At the same time, most of us fly on average 4-5 days per week so there is plenty of time to still have fun. It's an opportunity of a lifetime so be sure that when you do have the time, make the most of it. If you work hard, you can play hard and you will have the time of your life.
Flyboarding and Boats
About a month and a half ago, one of my friends here invited me to something called Flyboarding at Lake Pleasant, which is in North Phoenix. I thought to myself "Flyboarding?", seemed like some outer space type thing. However when I looked it up online, it looked like quite possibly the coolest thing ever. See for yourself here: http://azflyboardrentals.com/
How it works is that there is a board with two jets which tie onto your feet. The water pressure comes from a modified jetski which is manned by two people who seem to hopefully know what they're doing. One of the people on the jetski control the amount of power you receive at the flyboard, so depending on your experience level, they adjust the power accordingly. There were four of us that went, with 15 minutes each and although it doesn't sound like a long time, it certainly felt like more than enough since we were all exhausted by the end of it. I don't think I've ever had to use so many muscles on my legs and feet so much before.
 |
| Planes aren't the only way to fly |
You may wonder what else there is to do in a massive lake? Well fear not, there is indeed plenty to do in Lake Pleasant. There are jet skis, fishing and speed boats. There are also canoes but lets be honest, things without engines aren't very interesting. We got jet skis then hired a 300hp speed boat afterwards, it goes without saying that both of those things are amazing fun and with the weather being over 30 degrees Celsius in October, it is perfect for water sports!
 |
| On a boat! |
Las Vegas
The next adventure after that brought me to the fabulous Las Vegas. I had a very good friend of mine (who himself is an OAA graduate) come to visit me for just under a week. It's the second time I've ever been and if I am to be completely honest, I think it is a place that every over 21 year old must visit at some point in their lives.
 |
| Las Vegas Boulevard |
We went to grab some dinner at PF Changs, then got ready and partied until the early hours at The Marquee nightclub, which is inside The Cosmopolitan Hotel. I'd say it's probably the best club I have ever been to. If you're into your clubbing, you'll simply be blown away by the sheer size and beauty of this place. Beautiful layout along with beautiful people. It wasn't too different from our second night where we hit XS nightclub at The Encore Hotel. Both nights had high profile dance DJs performing there so all these clubs generally pull in a crowd.
During the day we walked around, I actually had a chance to go to the Old Las Vegas, which is quite a way south of Las Vegas Boulevard. It's amazing to see how much had changed in such a small space of time. There wasn't really much to do there in comparison to what's on offer in the current Las Vegas Strip, but it's something that has to be seen. For me, it was amazing to think of how much time and effort goes into building all these amazing structures and sites for people to just go and have a good time, even to this day. You notice if you have a chance to tour all of the casinos and hotels along the strip, that you don't really fully appreciate the quality of everything. For instance, take a look at the picture I've posted below:
 |
| These flower are real |
What you see is the garden that they've built inside The Wynn hotel, just by the casino. I mean look at it, those plants are real and breathing. I can't begin to comprehend the amount of work that went into building this masterpiece. Having said all this, Vegas isn't a place for everyone. If you're not a smoker, drinker or clubber then it would probably be your nightmare. It is a 24 hour place and and if you are not that type of person then it is probably not for you.
Tuscon Boneyard
A place I would highly recommend to anyone who is at least remotely interested in aviation is the Tuscon Bonyard, or more appropriately named the AMARG boneyward. There aren't really many bones there, but instead a humongous collection of planes that have come to the end of their lives, ranging from world war bombers to more recent airliners. You could truly spend an entire day walking around and seeing the planes as there are apparently more dead planes here than there are registered and flying in the UK. I have generously posted a few of the pictures I took from when I went.
 |
| Convair B36 |
 |
| Airforce 2 - B707 |
 |
| Not sure what this is |
 |
| Airforce 2 - B707 |
 |
| US Navy F/A-18 |
Well the last place I'll talk about is the Grand Canyon. I'd say of all the places I've been to since I've been here, this is the place you should really go out of your way to see. I'm sure you've all seen pictures in magazines and it just looks like a load of red rocks. Let me tell you though, no words can describe what this place actually looks like when you see it in real life with your own eyes. It is simply magnificent. Me and a few others who were brave enough went fairly close to the edge and when I look out into the distance, it felt like I could sit there for hours to absorb the greatness that was in front of me.
 |
| On the edge |
 |
| Me being famous |
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