Nav and PFL's

Seems I've forgotten to write on this for yet another week - Oh well!!! - I've spent the week doing navigation stuffs including a short trip upta trim and then back to Enfield and Kilcock. After that I was allowed to do it all on my own. The nav part was pretty easy tho as I passed Kilcock on the way out had a close encounter with a robin (other aircraft not the brother) which kinda scared the living daylights outta me and left me wondering about it halfway to trim. At which point I suddenly remembered I was supposed to be finding my way to trim and back. In the end I made it found my way to each town and back home again too!! Also did a trip to Tullamore - Athlone - Abbeysharule - Kilcock. Bout an hour and a halves worth of flying and lotsa fun so I think the plan is to repeat it as a solo flight sometime soon. The other thing i've been playing with this week is Practice Forced Landings where we're simulating an engine failure and so have to pick a field and line up to land in it all gliding. Little tricky to get it jus rite on the height side of things, tho strangely enough I seem to be too high more often then too low. Practice makes perfect tho!!!!

Solo Circuits galore

Looks like i've been slack again - but i'll blame that on the silly exams i have to do on friday - who wuda thought multiple choice questions could be so scary.... Anyways most of the weeks been spent solo-ing away in the circuit, today spent about 2 hrs up there, which brought me upto the five minimum I have to have done. So while I was heading down the downwind i took a couple of sneaky pics ( shows you jus how confident i was feeling) The first is looking forward towards Dublin, the second is over the field with the runway threshold under the wing strut and the last is proof that I brought the plane back in one piece (with a nice parking job)

The only other things i've done during the week was a nav excercise from kilcock to castlepollard to virginia last Wednesday (i think) and some advanced turning (45 degrees bank angle) on monday for an hour or so

More ticked off the list - and i think were on about 36 hrs now!!!

More Solo Time

Spent more time today flying around on my own!! In total got about 55 mins worth of circuits done on a fairly quiet day. But there were a few fun moments like when somebody turned up a little close infront and I had to try slow it down as much as possible to give me some decent space between us so that I could get down. In the end I had to go around because she was on a full stop landing and so wasted plenty of time tootling down the runway infront of me and I was told to go around. But it didn't phase me too much and I handled it without anybody else to hold my hand.

As for the actual flying it seemed good enough. Some circuits were better then others but I guess thats always gonna be the way. Some a little high on approach and some a little low. Then again there were also some that were pretty darn good. The actual touch downs were also variable but the last few when the slight cross wind calmed were pretty good too

My only slight worry is the fact that I got 10 landings done in the space of 55 mins which seems quite a few...... That may suggest I was travelling a little on the fast side, but then if it didnt cause me any probs i guess it can't be too bad. Just something to bear in mind i guess !!!!

My First Solo

Thursday and I got my first solo under my belt. Was sooo cool!!! Just one circuit but it was all me on my own and I must admit I think I managed it quite well!!! Very strange to be up there on my own in the aircraft.

Everybody had said the plane climbed far quicker without the 10 stone or whatever of instructor sitting beside ya. In fairness I didn't really notice it too much but I think that was largely due to the crosswind. Tho I did find myself leaning over towards the middle of the plane for some reason.

Felt far more confident in the plane on my own and had no hassles controlling the whole thing, Radio-wise and control-wise. Defs looking forward to the next one.....can't wait!!!

Navigation Excercise 1

Today we went playing with navigation. So before heading to the airfield this afternoon, i had to plan a route from the airfield down to Tullamore and then up to Navan before heading back to Weston again, taking account of the wind directions and speeds. It was pretty cool to get away from all the normal practice stuff and actually fly from point to point. Now my plan was pretty good, as was the actual heading holding stuffs, so that we ended up pretty much on target at most of the points.... All good so :)

I'm Flying Round in Circles

Mondays weather was a little on the rubbish side again so no flying then, Tuesday was better and did about a hlf hours worth of circuits, flying the other way down the runway.... basically meant every thing jus looked a little different, but all good all the same. Then we took a break for a while before heading out west for a while jus to fly without the hassels of the circuit. We then came back into Weston and did 3 more circuits before landing for good. Because of the longer run in on the other runway, it gave the chance to play with some pinpoint landings trying to get them as close to the piano keys at the start of the runway as possible!!! something else to aim for :)

Ups and Downs

(Sorry - this is a long one)

So after having such a good day on Monday - the rest of the week hasn't been so great. First off the weather hasn't been great originally we wanted high clouds to do more recovery from stalling and incipient (almost) spins which just wasn't becoming and so Tuesday and Wednesday were scratched from the flying point of view.

When I got out to the airfield on Thursday I learnt that I was going on a check ride with another instructor which would consist of 3 circuits, a normal flapped, a flapless, and a glide approach. If I proved that I could manage these i'd be allowed up solo into the circuit. But I messed it up.

I spose I wasn't really comfortable with what I was doing, the normal flapped was fine enough I've done enough of these to be happy with what i'm doing but in fairness the other two I've had less practice with and so just not completely certain about speeds and turning points.

The major thing I was picked up on was speed control on finals (jus before landing). Generally the idea is to keep the speed constant at a certain speed all the way down the glide path and then slowing slightly by raising the nose to touch down. To make this easier trim is used to take away most of the force needed on the control stick. So the idea is you get it trimmed and then you've got far less work to keep it constant. I think my biggest hassel was I forgot about trimming it and so was working far harder to keep it on, and failing miserably. Too much speed isnt great but handleable but too little speed brings you closer to stalling, which, when being close to the ground........IS NOT GOOD

- In truth I wouldn't have given it to me so I understand why he didn't

So since then I've been up in the circuit for nearly 3 hrs now and I think its all certainly helped. My speed control on finals is now far better, still don't think its perfect, but its certainly far better then before. Also since i've been concentrating on glide and flapless approaches im now far happier about the processes of the two. So
we'll see little more practice on Monday maybe and then hopefully I can nail the checkride, not to mention scare myself silly and head off on my own for my first solo flight :-)

Cracked the Circuit

Such a cool day - I kinda sorted the circuit today - 8 landings of different types and nailed pretty much every one of them :-D So its all about multitasking or at least making sure i keep an eye on both the picture and the speed as opposed to jus one of them!!!!

Slackass!!

So it appears I've been slack updating this thing!!! and looks like we've missed a week

So what have I been up to??

Tuesday - Drove all the way to Downpatrick and back to get my car MOT'd so im legal for the next yr (just in case) - after that came back to the flight school and tried some crosswind landings and many different types of stalls - normal, turn onto finals and when trying to stretch the glide - all lotsa fun and went pretty well

Wednesday - Incipient spin recovery and sideslipping - Incipient spins were pretty scary to start with but once I figured that I knew what I was doing and could recover it was cool. Sideslipping was pretty handy and perfectly do-able.

Thursday - Circuits - pretty rubbish day only got in 2 real landings and about 25mins worth before the weather turned rubbish enough to give up!!! Oh well try another day

Friday - Strange ol' day!! Weather was pretty rubbish, mite have got some circuits in but I wasn't really in the mood for that - so had a chat with instructor mike and took a look at navigations stuffs

Saturday and Sunday were dull ground school days - so no flying there

Dodge the Showers

Today was a weird ol' weather day, but we got up, avoided the (thundery) showers and found a nice big gap in the clouds to play in. So Stalling was the name of the day, Power off, keep the nose high to drop the speed, once the thing stalls drop the nose (slightly) and pour on the power. Easy Peesy!!!! After that it was stalling in the turn, Start the turn, pull back to tighten into the stall. Again drop the nose slightly to get outta the stall, bring it back to level and then on with the power again. So after this it was back to the field dodging the big thundery shower at kilcock, joining the downwind and down to land, none to shabbily I mite add !!!!

Windy

Today was a really gusty windy day which was a little annoying cus it meant we cudn't really spend much time in the circuit, which is one of the places I want to spend time perfecting my landings. We kinda realised the circuit wasn't on as we headed down the downwind leg (parallel to the runway) at about a 30 degree angle looking away from the runway but still flying in a straight line along it!!!. Also because the cloud base was quite low we cudn't practise stalls or spins. So in the end spent about 45 mins flying straight and level in some well bumpy and fun conditions along with more tracking sideways being blown towards headings by the wind. When we came back to land instructor mike decided it was too windy to let me land and so he'd have to do it - given the amount of fun and work he had to put the plane down, and the fact he said he didn't wanna try it again, I was glad he offered !!!

Oh Mum and Robs came out to watch me along with a camera so guess what Pics below





Loads more at http://picasaweb.google.com/peetsl

A Day of two halfs

Today was a strange one!! Started off with circuits in the morning which all went well, very happy with every single one of em. Then had a short break and went back up again for more. Second time round didn't go as well. It just wasn't coming together and i'm not sure if it was down to being slightly busier in the circuit or because I was tired or what. Meh well - think about it tonite and fly em from the chair then go back 2moro and show that circuit whos boss.

August Day One

Today wasn't as good weather as we were hoping for and so didn't really get as much flying as I wuda liked. The original plan was to go out and get some height before playing with some aircraft stalls. The cloud was supposed to be at about 5000ft, but when we got out we found that really it was only about 2000ft leaving little room to play safely..... so that was the end of that plan. Instead we did a few rate one turns, basically turning 360 degrees in 2mins and then headed back to play in the circuit after that...but unfortunately others had had that idea too and the circuit was full. So landed and did a hours ground school with the hope of the weather picking up later in the day..... But nope the misty drizzly rain stayed about for the rest of the day, so we'll jus have to play more 2moro instead :-)

Landings a Pleanty

Had two separate sessions today and spent both in the circuit doing touch and goes!! Got in 16 landings and take-offs in total. They all seemed to be quite good and certainly beginning to figure out all the little tell tale signs of whether im too high, too fast or too low. Also did two gliding approaches which are very strange purely due to the very steep descent angle heading straight for the floor before rounding out and popping it down on the deck. Weather started off nice and calm, but by the end of the day was getting really bumpy and a little crosswindy all adding to the fun. Looking forward to getting back up for more 2moro now......

By popular request the first photo has arrived. This is EI-BAT (the white one with the red strip down it) Was flying it this morning and it yet still looks intact. Its sat there beside the fuel pump on the south apron in Weston. I'll try get some more of the insides and hopefully some inflight shots

Monday 23rd

Today was such a busy day in the aircraft and all I was doing was flying in straight lines - But with lots of power, attitude and configuration changes. Each time we changed something I had to keep the aircraft flying level without climbing or descending and the changes where coming thick and fast. It was probably a good thing as it begins to get you used to the workload in the busy times of flight such as the base leg and finals before landing and hopefully it will do me well on those. Eventually got back to the airfield to land in a fairly hefty cross wind which made things interesting but yet I didn't do half badly at. So week off to go to the brissle - lets hope I don't forget it all by the time i'm back!!

Saturday 21st

Today my usual instructor went home early sick so I ended up flying about with jose, another instructor. So we headed off and did some stalling with and without power, 45deg turns and general flying. Then back to the airfield to try a few circuits - all me all down pretty well just maybe a little long. Its all getting better methinks !!!

Thursday 19th

Went for a simple fly about today which was really good as it got my confidence up after a couple of rubbish days trying to land, so lots of turns, climbs and descents.... Felt really good about it because my touch seemed to have improved a lot and I was quite relaxed in the aircraft, becoming second nature I suppose. Also since i'd been flying about inside my head I was far far better at checklists and proceedures and radio calls with the tower - only slight problem was getting back to quicker more pronounced movements when they were needed coming back to land again, but practise practise practise


Friday's weather was rubbish so no flying so instead I helped wallpapering my brothers dinging room - I think I've reached wallpapering level 2 now!!!

What happens when it rains

Today it rained so it was ground school all the way - turning and straight and level flight stuffs - lotsa fun all together :) Tho we did try to conduct one of them in Eddie Rockets (50's style burger bar) - didn't work tho :(

Oh and Murphy's law - Weather picked up after the entire day waiting - just as the instructors next student turned up - Dang it !!

Sunny Thoughts for 2moro

More Circuits

Tried more circuits today but they still weren't really working for me and it really was a case of being so overloaded - it was quite a pisser. Perhaps it was a little earlier to start on circuits and I just need a little more time of bog standard flying around. So after 3 or so quite horrible attempts we decided to call it a day at that and go fly about for a while.

Doing this I felt a lot happier, I was being far nicer and far gentler with the controls also remembering the bits and pieces that have to be done while doing all the other stuff.

So the plan for 2moro is the same to just go for a long flight and do plenty of just plain flying to get used to it all - oh and I think I'm gonna be flying the circuit in my sleep 2nite :-)

Circuits

So a sunny Saturday evening and what more could you want then to fly once again.... Today instructor mike decided he wanted to take me into the circuit to practise takeoffs and landings.

Now take-off is pretty simple full power, keep the thing on the centre line using the rudder pedals and then slowly pull back about 60 knots to start climbing into the air, climbing at about 80 knots and a climb rate of 600 to 700 feet per min. Next for the circuit we turned left perpendicular to the end of the runway and up to 1000ft for the circuit height. After a specified distance we then turned left again to enter the downwind section running perpendicular to the runway and again once we reach a specified distance past the end of the runway we turn 90 degrees left again onto the base leg. Here we slow the a/c and extend the flaps before turning left again onto finals.

Heres the really tricky part - on finals we aim for the runway and balance the speed, pitch, trim and rate of descent to arrive at the threshold at the rite speed and height, then rotating the nose up to fly level and about a foot above the runway before reducing power raising the nose slightly and dropping onto the tarmac main wheels first.....Sounds easy doesn't it.

First one went quite well apart from dropping on all wheels at the same time....Second was pretty good by my standards but then life went down hill and the next 2 were a bit rubbish. I think it was all down to the number of things having to concentrate on at the same time and also the way in which the pitch and throttle have to be used to change the approach.

So ok it didn't go fantastically but on the other hand, I made two decent landings all by myself after only flying an a/c for just 4 hours. This is apparently really quick by most standards - so I must be doing ok!! The other thing is that now that i've done it come away and thought about it all for a night, that now hopefully next time i'll be able to nail every single one of them :-)

Thursday the 12th and Friday 13th

Thursday

More good(ish) weather means more flying :-) so away we went, 1hr 35 today doing all kinds of fun and exciting things. We headed up towards Mullingar and Lough Derravaragh. Tried to make a map for those who havent a clue where it is - ( i doubt we flew quite such a straight path :-P)

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=111999216662510551498.000435147778a7add270c&ll=53.506143,-6.935463&spn=0.592962,1.277161&z=10&om=1

More practise - turns, climbs and descents. I'm getting the hang of doing the actual manouvers now but its jus all the checks and things that need to be done before and during the manouvers that are missing a little atm... but im sure it'll all come - little more involved then checkin your re-view mirror before turning the corner.

Also started playing with slow flight and stalls today which was interesting to say the least. Slow flying is weird jus because the controls get a lot more sloppy then they were before and you can pretty much move them all from extent to extent without causing much of a change of a/c heading or attitude..

Stalling was good aswell - something which we all knew to avoid at all costs from the degree but we had to practise to figure out what it felt like and how to get out of it. Theres also a really big danger of heading into a spin if your not careful with it, so using plenty of rudder as opposed to ailerons which would send us spinning pretty quickly.

After playing with this for a while it was back to weston into the circut and landing which was a joint effort between the instructor and myself, he had the rudder and throttle, i did the ailerons and the elevator.... Little heavy on the touch down but not bad for my first landing :P The major thing i copped onto today was using something in the distance to keep heading and altitude easilly without having to overuse the instruments, so picking a yellow field or set of trees to head to and keeping the picture the same as we fly along


Friday's weather was wet!!! so now flying but gave me a decent chance to get some ground school done.. Mostly stuff that i had a good grasp of but cleared up a few points that the degree missed or ignored :-!!!

But saturday looks good for flying so lets go so some more

Day 2

More good weather and more flying today.... Twas a good long one today about an hour and 40 minutes worth of flying!!

Started with me doing the preflight checks - so its my fault if the thing falls outta the sky cus a wings missing..then the instructor gets me talking to the air traffic contoller, asking for permission to start-up and taxi.. this is really scary cus you've gotta be clear quick and precise when you have no idea what you should be saying, and you get the feeling they know straight away your a newbie....

But off up the runway (25 again) with me trying desperately to keep it on the centreline using the rudder pedals one hand on the yoke and the other on the throttle... Off out west gaining height as we went, with me doing most of the hard work and the instructor helping out every now and again pointing out things that weren't the best

There was plenty of cloud about up towards 2000ft so played the dodging the clouds game for a while before the instructor decided he wanted to take me up above the clouds to see what it was like. Apparently i wont be doing any flying in clouds until the instrument rating and so shudn't have been in there but cus he was there we were ok... Flying in cloud was weird cus you really cant see a thing, its jus white all around, so using the artificial horizon to keep the wings level because you really haven't got a clue where you are any other way.

After playing about with a couple of turns and stuff in the clouds we popped out above the clouds at about 5000ft..... The best sight in the world so blue and clear with just whiteness below you!! amazing and all I wanted to do was take pictures but didn't really think I should

Other then that its was climbing and descending with and without power and direction heading holds. Also the use of flaps and sideslips for descending at slower speeds, before heading back to the airport to land.

Still loving it but now apparently I gotta read up on the books and stuff before the next one 2moro afternoon

Flying Day 1

So the weather was nice today - and I got flying!!!! First real flight in the grand scheme of things so a little un-nerving but absolutely brilliant. Today was all about what the control surfaces do and the effects they have when in the sky.

Started with a pre-flight Check (as all flights do). Then a bit of taxing down to the end of the runway - so I was using the rudder pedals to keep the plane on the yellow line down the middle of the road. Took off from runway 25 heading west-ish, being shown many of the towns and other marker points around the airfield. Climbed up to about 1000ft and then onto 1500 to start playing. After about 45 mins we were back on the ground after flying back to the airfield overhead and landing on runway 25 again...

Basic controls:- the yoke, the pedals, the throttle and the trim wheel - how to use them all - so basically roll left roll right and climbing and diving

I suppose I was quite amazed at how many different things were all going on at once and just how much concentration was needed to keep just one of them in control - maintaining the same altitude while doing other stuff - I guess its all to do with being a newbie and I'll be grand with it after a few flights.
Also how different flying the aircraft is to any of the flight sims I've messed around with before - largely based on the wind - its easily turned off on a sim - its always there in the plane!!

So in all today was cool and really enjoyable!!! and I'm now booked in pretty much everyday for the next 2 weeks - depending on the weather that'll all be flying or ground school - Can't wait !!!

Flying Day 1 (not quite)

Fraid the weather was rubbish when I went out to Weston on Wednesday.... so didnt get flying. But instead had my first ground lesson....so with instructor Danny we went through an aircraft familiarisation thing, which lets face it I kinda knew most of and pre-flight checklists, which was actually a good laugh. All I could think about was the Top Gear episode when Hammond's going nuts cus May is taking so long to do his checks. So twas all good and booked in again for Monday.....jus hope the weathers nicer to me.....

First Trip to NFC

I decided it was about time i tried to get something moving on the flying side and so went to Weston today to start everything in motion. The result is my first real flight is booked for Wednesday - all i gotta hope is that the weather is nice to me now!!

I've been up in little planes twice before.... First time was in a Cessna for a tester flight with the NFC about 8 yrs ago, the second time was last year in the degree when we went to do a flight test in a Piper P28....lotsa fun!!!!!

So this time should be for real, with long term prospects for many more... so i suppose im hoping to fly as much as i can and just enjoy it..... quite excited really

The Beginning

I'm about to start training to become a commercial pilot, something which is going to involve a lot of time, effort and money, but will hopefully result in getting a job that will be completely rewarding and which I will love every minute of.

I wanted to make this site for a few reasons:
1 So that everybody can keep an eye on me and kinda enjoy it with me - or just feel dead jealous!!

2 Its a record of everything I do - i'm gonna try update it after every flight detailing what I did on that day and hopefully including pictures and the rest - through this maybe it will help other new starters as a guide to what I faced, how and why I made the choices I did and what to expect as they start out.

So here goes..............