You see, I learned to fly in a tricycle gear
With one up front and two in the rear.
She was sleek and clean and easy to steer
But this miserable thing with tires and struts
Takes a little rudder — easy, that’s too much!

It demands your attention on the takeoff roll,
Or it heads towards the boonies as you pour on the coal
Gotta hang loose, don’t over control

This wicked little plane is just too much
With a lot of zigzagging and words obscene
I think I’ve mastered this slippery machine.
It’s not too bad if you have the touch
Just a little rudder — easy, that’s too much!

I relax for a second and from the corner of my eye
I suddenly realize, with a gasp and a cry
That’s my own tail that’s going by!
You ground looping wreck,
I hate your guts
Give a little rudder — Oh no, THAT’S TOO MUCH!

*not mine

In November 2011, I did most of my nav training, flying pretty much every day. It was a fair learning curve, to try and learn how to navigate using nothing but a map, compass and watch!  I also learnt how to operate in controlled airspace, navving to Moorabbin and Essendon every nav.

Well, today it came to an end and I obtained my PPL. I’m now licenced to fly all around Australia and in CTA. I still can’t believe it’s happened!

I’m very excited about all the possibilities this opens, both in places I can fly to, and the endorsements I can now get. I have to admit I’m slightly disappointed my navs are over though, I really enjoyed the nav training, I’d say it’s definitely been the best part of my flying training so far. I’ve got lots of good memories of this training.

Still, onwards and upwards!

I thought I’d be somewhere in category 2. Yet this week I found myself dithering between whether I should go or whether I should ditch it because it was expensive ($100+ on ticket and petrol before I even got in the gate) and I really couldn’t be bothered driving all the way to Geelong (over an hour each way).

This week, between my dithering, I’ve also been reading a book by Antony Woodward called ‘Propellerhead’ (highly recommended – bought it here) and I came to a passage which seemed to sum up my feelings and made me realise just why my level of interest about the airshow wasn’t enough to outweight the cost/effort of getting there.

“I bought books about planes, but though they always seemed interesting in the shop, once I got home I seldom opened them again. Looking at pictures of planes, I soon realised, didn’t have much to do with flying…Full of hope, I went to several air shows and although they too were initially exciting, I always came away bored and slightly disappointed (with the mandatory stiff neck and a headache). They appeared to be about many things – noise, speed, power, danger, the chance of explosions – but, oddly, not really about flying or what it felt like to fly. I realised that it was doing it, not watching it, that I liked.”

The reason I love flying is for the flying itself. It’s the feeling of the aircraft under my hands, knowing I’m in control. The feeling when the wheels leave the ground and you become airborne, the fun challenge of getting everything to come together at once for landing, the thrill on a nav when all the landmarks appear right where they are on the map and you know you’ve nailed your planning. Looking at planes and watching other people fly just isn’t the same.

So I saved my $100+ to spend on flight time and learnt a little about myself

A fair bit has happened since I posted last – I’ve done some more solo time in the Jab, obtained my passenger endorsement, started my GA training in the Warrior and taken my first passenger for a flight.

Rather than doing separate posts for each flight, I’m just going to do one big update post

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First Warrior lesson – General Handling – 21st August 2010

So this was the first step along the road to obtaining my GA PPL. I was flying with T this lesson (I’m flying with T and K for my PPL). I preflighted (I’d gone out to the airfield the week before for some ground theory and had been shown a preflight then) and after we jumped in (someone should’ve told Mr Piper he could’ve afforded two doors…), I slowly went through the checklist and started it. One thing that I already love about the Warriors – the seats move forwards and backwards! Awesome!

We went out to the training area for this mission, to just go over some general handling. We did a few medium level turns, climbing, descending and also a few stalls – clean and approach configuration.

The difference in weight of the aircraft was obvious from the start, but it was particularly noticable when doing stalls. It is a lot heavier than the Jab and takes a lot more effort to make it stall. If we keep on doing stalls, I think I’m going to end up with a pretty muscled left arm!

So, basically this mission was simply getting the feel of the Warrior. We didn’t do any circuits this mission, just did a full stop landing. There was a slight crosswind which made things interesting for my first Warrior landing, but I did the landing myself and it wasn’t too bad, so I’m not displeased.

When we were taxiing back, I (despite promising myself that I would not do anything this stupid) tried to turn using the yoke. T was just like ‘You turn with your feet’ and I just shook my head at my own stupidity and said ‘I promised myself I wouldn’t do that!’. It is unbelievably tempting to do it though, I’ve nearly done it a couple more times…who decided that yokes were a good idea?

Local Flights – 22nd August 2010, 31st August 2010

I’ve also been doing some local solo flights in the Jab to build up my solo time. This was mainly just general flying, just enjoying being up there on my own. I still can’t get used to the feeling of calling up and booking a Jab whenver I like, without needing to think about instructor availability.

I also obtained my passenger endorsement on the 31st.

Second Warrior Lesson – General Handling and Crosswind Circuits – 5th September 2010

My second lesson in the Warrior was with K. First we went out to the training area to do some more general handling.

We did some steep turns in both directions. Interestingly, I find it a lot easier to read the AH in the Warrior than the digital one in the Jab. The steep turns weren’t too bad, although I need to do some work on holding the nose in the correct position during the turn.

We then did a forced landing. K said that I could pull the power whenever I was ready (since, as he pointed out, he knew that I knew how to do one from my flight test, this was just to get used to the glide characteristics of the Warrior). We’d had a discussion about how to work out wind direction during navs when there is no windsock – for example, if there’s smoke around, looking at what direction the smoke was blowing – and worked out that the wind was westerley, so I picked an east-west field to land in and pulled the power. I did a normal approach and when I reached my 1000ft point, K asked which field I was going for. I pointed it out and he was just like “erm….” and then I realised that, even though I’d worked out what the direction the wind was coming from and planned for it, I’d managed to get myself so I was landing with a tailwind and hadn’t even realised! Not my best moment there

After that we headed inbound and I made the inbound call, nearly saying that we were a Jab. I was like “Jab…erm Warrior CCQ…”. Oops!

We also did a few circuits, there was a fair crosswind which made things interesting. I’m not sure the landings were that fantastic, but they were all unassisted, which is a good thing!

First Passenger Flight – 11th September 2010

After obtaining my passenger endorsement on the 31st, I’ve been having some trouble finding people to come as pax (which I expected). They were all very keen before I got the endorsement but now it’s a possibility suddenly they’re not so into it! Either they can’t afford it (which is fair) or they want to wait until I ‘get more experience’ (how they’re going to know when that is, I’ve no idea).

Anyway, my brother bravely volunteered to be my first passenger. I was really nervous before the flight, I was really worried that it would be the one time when something went wrong with the aircraft, and he was nervous because he doesn’t particularly like heights.

Happily, it went really really well though and he enjoyed it. We just went for a fly around the southern end of the training area, just looking at the scenery. I made sure to do all turns to the left, I had to do a right turn to depart upwind and I could see that he wasn’t too keen on being on the low side of the aircraft, so made sure all turns were to the left after that.

So it was lots of fun and he enjoyed it, which I’m really pleased about. He said afterwards that I was very professional and confident and explained everything really well as we went along (yay!) and if any of my friends expressed any doubt about flying with me, to get them to talk to him

Hopefully now one person’s been up with me (and survived the experience) more people will be less dubious about coming with me.

Third Warrior Lesson – 12th September 2010

I was flying with K again this lesson and the plan was to do a lesson of circuits. I added a cushion under me this lesson, I noticed last lesson that I was losing sight of the end of the runway during flare, and was wondering if I might be sitting too low (story of my flying career, huh).

Overall, the circuits didn’t go badly. We did one or two flapped landings then flapless landings for the rest of the lesson.

The main issue that I was having was knowing when to flare. I think that mentally I’m still thinking of the nose positions of the Jab during flare and not compensating enough for the different aircraft. The weight is also a factor, K suggested that after closing the throttle to use two hands on the yoke. He also suggested to trim it during approach so that you essentially need a little forward pressure to get it down, that way you need a lot less pressure to flare.

K said that overall I’m flying the Warrior well, I just need a little more practice on the final landing stages. I’m wondering if I’m thinking too much about the fact that it’s a different aircraft and forgetting to just, well, fly the thing. Next lesson we’re going to do more circuits (working on circuit emergencies like glide approaches).

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Today was my first ‘hire & fly’ as a certified RA-Aus pilot.

I arrived and was given the folder for 4946 (after somebody asked “Who are you flying with?” and I cheerfully replied “Nobody!” ). I preflighted 4964 and backtracked down 36R. 36L was closed today so 36R was also being used for takeoffs as well as landings today. I took off from 36R and departed upwind for the training area.

I didn’t really do very much today, just flew around parts of the training area and enjoyed the view and the fact I was up there I didn’t do any stalls or anything, although I did do a couple of medium and steep turns – I’m still having some issues holding my height during the turns so I need to do some more work on those.

I did take a few pictures on my phone while I was up there though

I headed back and joined crosswind for 36.. Just before I joined crosswind another aircraft called me on the radio (after hearing my inbound call) to check my location – I’m still not totally comfortable with radio calls that aren’t the norm, but I’m getting better at it.

I did a circuit and decided to do one T&G. The landing was actually pretty nice, not quite a greaser, but pretty smooth! I stalled it on neatly and, while it wasn’t one of those ‘could hardly feel it when the wheels touched’ landings (I aim to do one of those one day, but perhaps it is a challenge to do it on grass?) but it was definitely smooth.

I did another circuit and came in for a full stop. This landing was pretty good too, I was rather impressed with my landings today. As I was taxiing towards the end of the runway a call came over the radio asking me if I could go a little faster as they were on short final (altho I don’t remeber hearing a final call from them, only base) so I just replied “Yup, no worries” and sped up a little and made it off.

As it was the last flight of the day, I taxiied it straight back to the hangar. When I got there MG and R were standing there and helped me to attempt to put it away. I say ‘attempt’ because it is rather muddy there at the moment and we maneged to get the plane bogged in the mud. We gave up on the idea of putting it in the hangar, managed to get it out of the mud and just left it outside for the night. I actually put 4 pairs of Converse shoes in the washing machine when I got home tonight to wash off the mud from the airfield they’ve collected over the last few weeks, I’m starting to think I should wear gumboots to the airfield!

I’ve got a couple more solo hours booked over the weekend, I only need 1.6 more hours to have the 10 hours PIC I need for my passenger endorsement so hopefully I can do that over the weekend. If the weather is good (which it wasn’t last weekend, sigh) I’ve got my first lesson in a Warrior too which is rather exciting.

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So, today was test day. Surprisingly the weather complied, with blue skies and only light winds.

I arrived at 1pm to do the first part of the test, the theory Q&A (or so I thought, anyway). I hung around for a bit waiting for K who was out flying. When he got back he said he hadn’t actually realised until this morning that I was doing my test today, usually the FI talks to him and gives a ‘recommendation’ but J apparently hadn’t gotten around to doing that. I was worried that that meant that I wouldn’t be able to do my test today, but K suggested that we go for a fly later and if I did well, then it’d count as my test, and if not we could treat it as another pre-licence check.

While I was hanging around waiting to go for the fly (he had another student before that), C was looking for people to act as ballast for a load check flight in a Travelair. A TravelAir is a Beech twin, and C was doing a load check flight – loading it up to near MTOW (I think). Anyway they rounded up everyone who happened to be around the office at that point to use as ballast. I was rather amused by the fact that C asked all the guys how much they weighed but not me Chivalry at work? So we all headed out to the TravelAir, climbed in and headed off for a few circuits (without any of the ballast wearing headsets). I’m not sure my ears enjoyed the experience but I definitely want to do a twin endorsement one day now

Once K was done with his student, we started off my test. First was some theory Q&A, just asking me about airspeeds for the Jabiru and the privileges/limitations of the RA-Aus certificate etc. He also asked me to calculate the density altitude for today, which took me a minute to remember how to do, it’s been a while since I did it for my BAK! I passed all that fine, so it was onto the practical part of the test.

K said that the responsibility for the flight was all mine and I was basically to just treat him as a passenger/forget he was there.

I preflighted 5231 and we taxied over to 18L for the takeoff. I realised during the run-up checks that the throttle on 5231 is still acting slightly weird (my heart sank when I realised that) but we worked around it – K said to tell him when I wanted to close the throttle and he’d tug on his side to help me. 18R was technically in use (and we would be using it for the T&Gs) but the north end of 18R is currently under water so takeoffs were from 18L. I took off, departed upwind and headed over to the northern end of the training area.

The first thing I had to do were some medium level turns in each direction. I have to admit it’s been a while since I just had to do medium level turns in a circle! I did one in each direction. I noticed that a climbed a bit during the turns, so I need to work on that.

Then I did some steep turns in each direction. I did the first one to the left but wasn’t totally happy with it so asked to do it again (which was fine). I didn’t totally maintain my height during the turns, so I need to do some work on that as well.

Next was stalling. I ran through the HASELL checks, then did the first stall – a clean, power-off stall. It didn’t really stall properly (it is a Jab after all) but the horn went off, I held it there for a moment, then recovered. The next one was also a clean power-off stall and K said that this time I wasn’t to hold it there, I was to recover as soon as the horn went off, which wasn’t a problem.  After that I did a couple of stalls in the approach configuration (half flap, power 2000rpm) and they were fine with no wing drops.

Then K pulled the power for a forced landing. We weren’t in a particularly good spot field-wise but I picked one and started the approach. I ran through the first set of checks (left to right across the panel) then the FMOST checks and, pretending that none of them worked, continued the approach. Then it was time for the Mayday call and I realised that I wasn’t actually sure where we were. I had a vague idea and knew that we were near Healesville but wasn’t sure if the town to the north or to the south of us was Healesville. I was talking out loud to myself trying to work out where I was and in the end just decided that we were south of Healesville so said that in the Mayday call. In the debrief after the flight K commented that unless I’m completely totally lost, it’s generally better not to let on to him that I’m lost. I’d completely forgotten he could hear me when I was trying to decide where I was, I was just talking to myself! So I’ll have to remember that next time I wasn’t entirely happy with my approach but we would’ve made the field and K seemed happy with it, so it was all good.

We then headed back to the field to do some circuits. It took me a little longer than I would’ve liked to spot the field, unfortunately the sun was right in front of us, which made it rather hard to see. But I spotted it, made the inbound call and headed in. There was another aircraft that was using 36, so we joined crosswind for 36. I have to admit I was rather pleased about this because, although I don’t mind 18, I prefer using 36 without the displaced threshold.

K said to do a precautionary search, so I did the 750ft and 500ft passes, we didn’t do the 50ft pass. After the first I accidentally left the flaps down for most of the circuit (oops!) only realising on late downwind, I was rather displeased at myself for that.

Then we did a couple of normal flapped approaches. The first one was pretty nice, if I do say so myself, nice and smooth (although not quite a greaser). After takeoff K pulled the power for an EFATO. I turned up slightly to the left to avoid the treeline and said that I was aiming for that field. K said that he was pleased that I didn’t decide to head for the trees, apparantly students decide to head towards the treeline more often that you’d think! The second approach was also to be a flapped approach, but on downwind K popped the circuit breaker and said that my flaps had ‘failed’ so I had to do a flapless approach, which was also pretty good.

The next circuit K pulled the power for a glide approach. I turned it towards the field and started the approach. I did some S-turns then, still too high, did a fairly steep (and fun!) sideslip not too far from the threshold to the correct height. I hadn’t done a sideslip in ages so I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. I made the field nicely and powered up for the T&G.

The final circuit was a short field landing. When we were on final K used the PTT button to turn on the runway lights on 36R – they didn’t do that much (I assume they’re only really effective in actual darkness) but it did help a bit to distinguish the runway. The landing was fine, although it did land a bit longer than I would have liked, but it was still within the limits of ‘short field’ so it was all good.

We taxiied it directly back to the hangar, managing to avoid getting bogged in the mud along the way! I wandered back to the school while K pushed it back into the hangar. I had the folder but didn’t dare look in it to see if I’d passed or not!

Shortly after, K arrived back at the school and gave me the good news – I’d passed. He did mention that I have some things to work on though – maintaining height during turns, turning the fuel pump off during cruise (I keep forgetting that one, despite my best intentions to remember it), not talking to myself about how I’m lost during a forced landing (oops), better awareness of traffic around me (I’m working on that one) and also being careful of Coldstream when heading inbound – I had thought that I was far enough away, but apparently I was a bit close, so need to be aware of that. Overall though, I passed

I still can’t believe I’ve done the test and passed, it still hasn’t hit me yet. I booked some solo time in the Jab over the weekend to try and get the last bit of solo time I need to get my passenger endorsement, and I’ve booked my first lesson in a Warrior on the weekend. I’m not sure it’ll hit me until I actually go for a solo fly. I’ve got there, I can’t believe it. Onwards and upwards onto Warriors now, time to get my PPL

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 Report coming soon.

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Report coming soon.

One option is to continue with RA-Aus and obtain a cross country (XC) endorsement, enabling me to fly around Australia in RA-Aus registered aircraft.

However, even since I began flying I’ve intended to move onto my PPL after I complete the RA-Aus training. So instead of doing navs in RA-Aus, obtaining the XC endorsement, then doing the conversion to PPL, I’ve decided to move to GA for my navs and get my PPL which (I think – I must check this sometime) will automatically give me the XC endorsement on my RA-Aus certificate.

Having decided that, I’ve been setting things rolling for beginning my GA training.

On Monday I completed the paperwork for the Student Pilot Licence and posted it off to CASA – hopefully in the next few weeks (it could take up to or over 6 weeks apparantly, but I’m hoping I’m lucky) I’ll receive my SPL and ASIC card. I also applied for an ARN which will hopefully be sent out to me soon and I can arrange to get a class 2 medical certificate from a DAME (aviation medical examiner).

I also had a chat to the CFI on Monday about my goals for PPL. I have set myself a time goal, but I’m not telling you in case I don’t meet it! Apparantly it might be a little optimistic but I pointed out that after exams in mid-October I’ll be able to fly practically every day, which should help things along a bit. I’m also planning to fly with some other instructors, to get more experience with different instructors – right now the plan is to probably fly with K and JL – although that isn’t certain yet, I’m not making any bookings or anything until I’ve completed my RA-Aus certificate (logically).

The other major change is that I’ll be switching over to a new aircraft – a Piper Warrior. These are low wing GA aircraft, a fair amount larger than the Jab! They’re also supposedly easier to fly than the Jab (well, anything seems to be really). So the first few hours of my PPL training will be conversion training onto the Warrior – going through basic handling and then first solo and first area solo etc. Hopefully that part won’t take too long, but either way it’ll be fun to move onto a new aircraft. Then it’ll be onto navs!

I also intend to get my passenger (PAX) endorsement for my RA-Aus certificate at some point, but I’m trying to decide between doing the last 2.7 solo in the Jab at the same time as starting the Warrior conversion, or waiting until I do some solo time on the Warrior and counting that for the 2.7. I’ll probably end up doing it in the Jab simply so that I can get it sooner.

So overall I’m very excited about it all – it feels a bit like a clean slate – not skills wise (hopefully!) – but new plane, new instructors and new challenges. And once I get my PPL, there’s lots of interesting endorsements to do!

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My booking last week was cancelled due to the plane I was booked on being in for a service, so today, 2 weeks later, I got to fly again. I was hoping to finish my pre-licence check today but unfortunately it was not to be.

I preflighted 4964 (yay not 5231!) and we took off from 36L, but soon had to do an orbit on downwind as the wind changed slightly and started coming from the south, meaning that 18 became the active runway.

The first thing we did was a prec search. This was the first time I’d done a prec search on 18 and it was slightly disconcerting to see how much more I had to think about it simply because the picture was different. I ended up a little close in on my first search leg (750ft AGL) but overall it wasn’t too bad.

Then we did 2 flapless landings and a short field and all I can say about all of them was that I was having an off-day and they were all pretty terrible. J actually had to come onto the controls twice to help me which hasn’t happened in a while and I definitely didn’t want it to happen today!

I have to say that I flew pretty terribly today – my approaches were a bit unstable, my landings were fairly bad and I wasn’t correcting for the slight crosswind enough which led to some quite messy turns onto final. I think I had put pressure on myself thinking that this might be the end of my pre-licence check and wanting to fly really well and as I started flying badly, and knew that I was, I put even more pressure on myself and the whole thing snowballed. I am so so disappointed in my flying today, I can’t believe I flew so badly. I knew fairly quickly that I wasn’t going to be finished with my pre-licence check today and I have to admit that even if I had been told that I could book in for my test, I would have said no – I was very displeased with my flying.

During one of of the circuits I forgot to raise the flaps after takeoff. I was trying to work out why the engine didn’t seem to be producing as much power, despite full throttle, then after turning onto downwind J suggested “Perhaps you should rise the flaps?” I was just like “Ooops, let’s just pretend I didn’t do that”

So, next week I have another round of circuits with J. I’m a bit worried about it, I feel like I’ve lost my confidence somewhat – I feel like I’ll just mess it up again. I keep telling myself to be positive, that I can fly circuits and I’ll be fine, but after my flying today I just feel like I’ll fly like that again next week.

One of my main problems is that I do not have a good relationship with practical tests – I used to do music exams and my teacher would say that I got a whole grade lower than I should have simply because of my nerves!

Still, maybe I can hope that I’ve done my lot of bad flying for a while and gotten rid of all my nerves here and I’ll be fine for next week and, hopefully not long after that, the test. But I still have this feeling that I’ve lost my confidence and next week will be the same as today.

Guess I’ll just have to wait and find out.

Rather than putting my name on here (still trying for some anonymity), I’m just going to say that out of the two candidates, only one has a female name, and that’s me.

If elected to the RA-Aus Board I will bring a new perspective, the perspective of a younger member. RA-Aus is a constantly evolving organisation and it is up to the Board to lead that evolution and represent the changing needs and views of the members. Part of this evolution is recruiting and supporting younger members and it is important that the Board reflect this. However, it is equally important to not neglect the experience and wisdom of the older members. A mix of wisdom and youthful enthusiasm working together on the Board will benefit every member of RA-Aus.

I am in my final year of an Arts/Law degree and believe that the skills I have obtained from these degrees will aid me to effectively represent the members of RA-Aus.

The purpose of an elected representative is to represent the views of the members. A Board where the representatives act only for themselves causes nothing but harm to the organisation that they claim to represent. The Board should represent the views of the members and work together for the future of the organisation and, if elected, I intend to do so.

We all share a passion for aviation. I intend to support that passion by representing the wishes of the members as a Board member and by raising awareness of RA-Aus in the wider community, to encourage the growth and evolution of this organisation. We all fly for fun and I intend to work to keep that as the central focus of RA-Aus.

For once, the weather gods decided to cooperate and gave me nice weather, so I headed out to Lilydale to do the practical part of my pre-licence check.

I was sent down to the shed (hangar) to preflight 5231. I wandered down there, found 5231 sitting outside the shed, and did the preflight. J wandered down and we jumped in and tried to start it – without much luck. It was cold, so J said that it was time to ‘get out the hairdryers’. For a moment I wondered if he actually meant hairdryers, then I figured it was some slang term for something in the hangar used to warm up the engines. We dragged it over to the hangar, then J grabbed two actual hairdryers. I was just like “You weren’t joking….” So we plugged in the hairdryers and pointed them into the air intakes for the engine to warm it up a bit. Since J had that under control, I walked down to the school to grab a 3rd cushion.

When I got back, we jumped in and tried again to start the engine. We were more successful this time and taxiied over to 36 to take off. We departed upwind and headed out to the training area.

The first thing we went through was a few stalls. I went through the HASELL checks, and after doing the clearing turn, made the decision to fly slightly further away from the nearby town before doing the stalls (PIC move, woo).

The first two stalls were power off stalls in clean configuration. They were fine, although during recovery from the second one I didn’t add the power quickly enough, so we lost some altitude.

The third stall was in the approach confirguration (2000rpm and half-flap) which was fine, no wing drop or anything.

We then tried some steep turns, in each direction. Overall they were good, I got it into the turn and it had that 2G feeling, so it was all good.

After that it was time for some unusual attitudes, with J taking control and putting it into the attitude then me having to take control and recover. We did a few high nose and a few low nose and I recovered well from each one. I made sure I remembered that you had to level the wings before raising the nose when recovering from a low nose attitude, unlike a high nose attitude where you can lower the nose and roll the wings level at the same time.

We couldn’t do any forced landings or circuits today because the throttle was playing up a bit, idling between 1300rpm and 1600rpm even with the throttle pulled fully out.

So we headed back and joined crosswind. We considered trying a precautionary search but decided that it wasn’t going to be possible because of the throttle so instead decided to do a full stop on 36R. I was determined to do the landing myself, to get the experience. We used full flap to slow us down and it turned out to be a pretty nice short field landing!

Next lesson we’re going to finish the pre-licence check, doing circuits, force landings and a precautionary search. Then, after that, assuming I do well, I’ll be able to book in for my test. Now I just need to hope for good weather!

Anyways, we didn’t get to do the practical part but did do the theory part of the check. Basically I was asked a series of questions about things like the privileges/limitations of the RA-Aus certificate, knowledge about the Jab and how I’d deal with certain scenarios in the air.

Overall it seems I would’ve passed the theory part, which is good. The flying part had to be postponed until next week, but hopefully next Saturday the weather will be kind!

I feel like I’m so close to actually doing the test, it’s rather disappointing to have it affected by weather. Ah well, I guess that’s what I get for getting to this point in the middle of winter!

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Today I was booked to do some solo time. I got some last minute instructions from J, preflighted 4964 and headed out, taking off from 36L.

I departed upwind and headed out to the training area. It was rather cloudy so I wasn’t able to get high enough to do any stalls, but I decided to practice a few steep turns. I headed out there partly just to get the extra practice departing and joining the circuit.

I did a couple of steep turns in each direction. The first few weren’t so good, but once I got back into the hang of flying the attitude and ‘pulling’ it through the turn, things definitely improved.

I had to avoid a few light rain patches, it was interesting to see the patches of rain in the sky and watch them move.

After doing the turns, I decided to head back and do some circuits. I made my inbound call and joined crosswind.

Rather than describing each circuit in detail, I’ll just list them

• a few flapped landings
• a couple of flapless landings
• one short field
• one glide approach

Happily, all of the landings were pretty good, although there was a slight thump on touchdown after the first flapped landing (but it was the first landing for the day). The glide approach was also successful, I did an S-turn, then a sideslip, then lowered one stage of flap, and nicely made the field and did a T&G. On the short-field landing, I landed slightly longer than I hoped (just after the first taxiway), I was hoping to land between the threshold and the taxiway or abeam the taxiway, but I was only just beyond the taxiway so it wasn’t too bad.

I ended up getting 1.3 solo time for today, which brings my total PIC time up to 7.3. I need another 2.7 PIC time to get my passenger endorsement.

Map for today’s flight:

Amusingly, some of my radio calls today ended up sounding a little managled at the end – Lilydale is a bit of a silly word really. I decided I sounded a bit like the Swedish Chef at times

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After heading out to the airport twice in the last two days for theory stuff and having the actual lessons cancelled, I was hoping today the weather would actually be kind and I might actually get near an aircraft. Happily, it complied and I got to fly today. The plan for today’s mission was to do some circuit revision, focusing on circuit emergencies, and basically polish up my circuits.

After preflighting a muddy 5231, we climbed in and taxiied to 36. I had to be careful when taxiing today, it was very muddy and there was a risk of doing power slides across the taxiway (which sounded rather fun really). However, while it definitely was slippery, I tried to avoid the major puddles and managed to avoid doing any proper power slides across the taxiway.

I did the takeoff from 36L, managing to avoid sliding all over the runway, and flew the first circuit.

The first approach was just a normal flapped approach. However, on short final, J pulled the power to idle to simulate an engine failure. I’d never had the engine ‘failed’ on short final before, so it was a new experience. It wasn’t too difficult to deal with, it was gliding nicely on the right approach path so I basically flew it normally and flared, and ended up with quite a nice touchdown

I powered up and started off on the next circuit. When we reached about 700ft (AGL), just before I turned crosswind, J pulled the power again for another engine ‘failure’. I immediately lowered the nose and picked a field (bet it would’ve been a muddy landing if it was a real failure!) and we powered up and continued the circuit.

Instead of landing, J told me to do a precautionary search. As you might remember, this is where you do three passes over the runway (or field or whatever, wherever you intend to land), each one at a slightly lower height, to assess the field and look for any potential obstacles. I couldn’t exactly remember what heights the passes needed to be flown at, I thought it was 500ft, 250ft and 50ft, but had a slight feeling of doubt. I nearly asked J then decided that I was doubting myself uncessarily and if it did turn out that I was wrong about the heights, then J would point it out to me. So I flew the 3 passes at those heights and, since J didn’t correct me, I’m guessing I was right!

After the 50ft pass we didn’t do a final landing circuit, but just continued on our normal circuits. J pulled another EFATO and I just dealt with it like the previous one, nose down and pick a field.

This circuit was meant to be a flapless approach, but on late downwind J pulled the power for a glide approach. I turned it towards the field and did a few S-turns to lose hieght. As we got closer I could tell that we were definitely too high, but couldn’t decide what to do to fix it (I need to become more decisive!). I lowered the first stage of flap, but it was clear that we were still quite high. We definitely would’ve made the field, but if we had landed we wouldn’t have had enough space to do a touch & go, so powered up and went around. J commented that I need to become more proactive when doing glide approaches (I know, I need to be more decisive!) but other than that, he didn’t really have much to comment on since we would’ve made the field, which is the main objective of a glide approach. So, basically, I just need to practice being decisive.

The next circuit was the final one for the mission, a short-field landing. Since we were using 36, we couldn’t aim for the actual threshold of the runway since we had to make sure we didn’t take out any cars on the road that runs just before the threshold. Happily, I managed to both avoid cleaning up the cars on the road and also put it down nicely in the place I wanted to (and without a thump either!). I also managed to avoid skidding off the side of the runway in the mud, which was rather nice

Once again, I used the app on my phone to track the path of the flight today. As it was circuits it is, unsurprisingly, not the most exciting map, but still, it’s nice to see that my circuits are actually rectangular like they’re meant to be.

Excitingly, next dual mission is going to be a pre-licence check. This is basically a mock test with J, going through a bit of everything. As it needs to be a double lesson (there is a theory component before…more studying alas), I have to wait until Sunday to do it. I did have two lessons booked on Friday and Saturday and rather than cancel I figured that since I had the plane booked, I’d just do some solo time. I need 4 more solo hours to get a passenger endorsement and I figured that it didn’t really make any difference whether I did them before or after the test. Assuming that the pre-licence check goes well, I’ll be booking in with K, the CFI, for my test! My goal is finally in sight, it seems a little scary really. I think once I get my certificate, I’ll start navs quite soon after, I may as well keep my training going at a good pace. Now I just need to hope for good weather on Sunday

I’m pleased to say that I passed the GA BAK with a mark of 87.5%

***********************

The plan for today’s mission was to learn how to deal with unusual attitudes.

I arrived, preflighted 4964 and we headed off, taking off from 18R.

We headed out to the training area and then J took control to demonstrate a few high nose attitudes.

A high nose attitude occurs when the nose is, well, high. The airspeed is decreasing and often there might be some bank as well. It can occur at full power or part power.

To recover from a high nose attitude, you first have to lower the nose to S&L attitude, add power (if full power isn’t already applied), then roll the wings level. You can roll the wings level as you push forward to lower the nose.

J demonstrated a few then said it was time for me to try. He told me to close my eyes, then he’d fly around a bit to disorient me, then put the plane into a high nose attitude and tell me to open my eyes, take control and recover.

We did 3 or 4 of these, a couple at full power and a couple at partial power. It was fairly easy to get the hang of recovering from them.

We then moved onto to trying recovery from a low nose attitude. These generally occur from something like a badly executed steep turn, where the nose is allowed to drop (such as doing a steep turn around your house, getting distracted by ‘hey cool that’s my house down there’ and not holding the attitude). The nose is pointing towards the ground, the horizon is moving up the windscreen and the airspeed in increasing rapidly.

To recover, the first thing you do is reduce power so you don’t exceed Vne (the never exceed speed) which in the Jab is 140kts. You then roll it level and AFTER rolling it, then raise the nose to the climb position. Once the nose is into the climb position, add power and climb back to a safe height. One thing to remember with recovering from a low nose attitude is that you DON’T roll and raise the nose at the same time, you must roll then raise the nose. This is to ensure that you don’t overstress the airframe (you don’t want to recover just to have the wings fall off). You might need to add a bit of foward pressure on the stick while rolling to make sure that the nose doesn’t come up with the increasing airspeed.

J demonstrated a few of those, then it was time for me to have a try. We did it the same way as with high nose attitudes, with me closing my eyes then having to open them and recover.

The first time I tried it, I rolled and raised the nose a bit together so I needed to make sure that I consciously did one then the other. We did it about 4 or so more times. One thing I need to do is to be most positive in reducing power when recovering, to make sure we don’t go over 140kts.

J then explained why we do unusual attitudes. As I’m doing a RA-Aus Certificate (at the moment anyway), you don’t do any Instrument Flight (IF) (where you fly solely by reference to the instruments). So if you fly into a cloud, you will have no idea how to deal with it. The point of doing unusual attitudes is so that if you fly into a cloud then manage to get yourself out again, you can attempt to save yourself from whatever stupid attitude you end up in. However, the big rule here is DON’T FLY INTO CLOUDS. There was a study done in the US where people with no IF training were placed in a flight simulator and told to fly solely by reference to instruments (simulating flying into a cloud). The average time until they crashed was around 120 seconds – so about 2 minutes from entering the cloud to crashing. This is largely because, when you fly, you rely primarily on your eyes to tell you what’s happening, backed up by your ears and other senses. So if you take your eyesight away (like in cloud) then it’s hard to rely on what the instruments are telling you and believe that over what your body is telling you (which is most likely wrong).

To give me an indication of just how disorienting it is to fly into cloud, J told to me close my eyes and try to fly S&L. It felt VERY weird, to try and fly simply based on what my body was telling me, without even instruments to cross reference with. J asked me a few times ‘Do you think you’re flying S&L now?’ and I was just like ‘I think so?’ As I did it for longer, more doubt crept in which tempted me to make more control inputs.

It turns out that about 4 seconds after I closed my eyes, I put the aircraft into a 15 degree bank turn and we flew a full circle and ended up pointing the same way we started, with a slightly nose high attitude. So it seems that if I ever fly into a cloud, I’ll just fly in circles inside my cloud! (Disclaimer: don’t worry, I have no intention to ever fly inside a cloud unless I’m doing an IF rating).

I’m very glad we did the unusual attitudes lesson, I feel a lot more confident about my ability to save myself if I do something stupid like mess up a steep turn. I hope I never have to use what I’ve learnt today, but I’m definitely glad I’ve learnt it!

By then it was getting rather hazy and heading towards getting dark, so we headed back to the field. I played a round of ‘find the airfield’ and only managed to see it after J pointed it out (sigh). We joined crosswind on 18 (I don’t think I’ve ever joined the circuit for 18 before actually) and flew the circuit. I have to admit, the landing really wasn’t that crash hot. At all. It was a fairly hard touchdown and for some reason which I still can’t fathom, I let the backpressure off way too soon. I couldn’t believe I’d done something that stupid. I was a bit disappointed because I thought after last lesson that my landings had improved, but today’s landing really wasn’t too good.

We taxiied back, parked, and headed in. I’ve booked in to do my BAK (Basic Aeronautical Knowledge) theory test next Saturday, I’ve been putting it off for a year so I need to set a deadline or I’ll keep putting it off. I’ve set myself the goal of learning all of the BAK in a week…hopefully I haven’t been too ambitious!

Earlier this week I got a new phone, a smartphone. I installed an app (Google MyTracks) which uses the GPS function in the phone to track your path. I turned it on at the start of my lesson and it tracked our path around the training area.

I think I’m going to have quite a lot of fun with that app!

Next lesson we’re probably going to do another session of circuits, just to polish them up. Then after that (assuming I pass my BAK that is!), hopefully we’ll be doing a pre-licence lesson where we see how I go putting everything together in one mission.

******************

After not flying at all last week for various reasons, and not flying yesterday because of weather (alas, it seems that winter is here…at least my bank account might go up a little?), today I was back to revise various things in the circuit.

I preflighted 4949, then J came out and we taxiied over to 18. As we were taxiing I asked if the changes introduced by CASA on June 3rd would make any difference at Lilydale. Basically the only difference is that it’s now legal to join the circuit on the base leg, but J advised against doing this anyway since it can make things rather messy separation-wise etc.

The strip was quite wet today so I had to be careful when taxiing/braking to make sure we didn’t skid.

So I taxiied over to 18R and did the takeoff (been a while since I’ve used 18!). Since we were using 18, I had to be careful to remember the displaced threshold when landing.

The first landing was a normal flapped landing and the next two were flapless landings. One thing I noticed (and J commented on) was that this time I was definitely being more proactive in controlling what the aircraft was doing on final. I was making lots of small changes to the power/stick to keep it going where I wanted, and adding power to keep the approach on profile etc. Basically, the things were working and it definitely made a difference to my landings, they were far smoother than usual.

After the takeoff for the next circuit, J pulled the throttle for an EFATO (I haven’t had to deal with one of those in a while). I put the nose down, said a swearword I don’t say very often (clearly I’ve been watching too much Top Gear) and picked a field. Then we powered up and continued the circuit.

The next circuit was to be a short field landing (or so I thought). Just before the base turn, J pulled the power for a glide approach. I turned towards the field and trimmed it to the glide speed. Then I decided to do an S-turn to lose some height and line us up with the runway. As we crossed the threshold of the runway (the normal threshold, not the displaced threshold) for some reason I decided to add a stage of flap – looking back on it I can see this was totally unncessary, it was nicely set up as I had it, I’ve no idea why I decided to add flap. However, adding flap had the effect of making us lose speed which wasn’t good. I tried to regain some speed by lowering the nose but wasn’t successful enough so J had to help by adding a small amount of power and lowering the nose a bit before landing it. I still don’t know why I decided to add flap, it was turning out to be a nice glide approach until then!

The next circuit was actually a short field landing. Since we were using 18 we didn’t have to worry about taking out any cars on approach, so the touchdown point was the displaced threshold (abeam the windsock) and the aim point was the normal threshold of the runway. I flew the approach quite nicely but ended up touching down slightly before the touchdown point as we essentially ran out of speed after I pulled the power back a little too early.

The next circuit was the final one for today as it was getting dark. This was another short-field landing, and I have to say this one was pretty good! I touched down just after the intended touchdown point, quite gently too, it basically all worked out rather well and J said it was ‘very nice’ so clearly it’s not just me thinking it was better than it was I didn’t just pull on the brakes to stop, I applied the brakes in short bursts to make sure the wheels didn’t lock, turned off at the second taxiway, and taxiied back to park.

I’m definitely pleased with my flying this mission. I’m more in control of the approach and I think I’m thinking about the approach both more and less – I’m clearly thinking more often about checking the approach and making corrections, but I think I’m also thinking a bit less about how to make the correction, I think that might be becoming a little more natural. J said that I still need to concentrate on making sure I monitor the approach more often – check everything every 5 seconds or so, before I tended to wait until things weren’t right before making a correction, rather than making lots of small corrections. I feel like my landings are becoming a bit more refined, rather than just ‘arriving’.

Next mission we’re going to work on unusual attitudes. I’m glad we’re going to do it, I’d prefer to go through it with an instructor than risk getting myself into trouble by myself. We have to be very careful about doing it though, since there is the risk of overstressing the airframe. So, if there’s no blog post from me afterwards, you know the wings fell off!

*******************************

I arrived slightly early again today to have a crack at the Human Factors test, another requirement for the RA-Aus certificate. I’d studied the chapter on Human Factors in my ATC BAK book which I hoped would be enough for the test. However, once I got the test I discovered that the BAK book was going to be little to no use for the test. I was pretty much guessing the answers for the entire test. To be honest, I think it will rank among one of the most useless tests I’ve ever sat. I expected some more along the lines of how certain human factors will affect your flying, not having to define terms like ‘risk’. Ah well, I got 88%, so that’s a pass, so it’s all good. Now I’ve just got the big BAK test to do sometime soon!

I preflighted 4929 and as I was out there, a man was sitting there watching with his daughter and asked me “Are you checking the plane?”. I said that I was and he looked a bit disturbed by that for some reason, then asked “Do you do that every time?”. I said yes and he looked even more disturbed! I was close to pointing out that there was nowhere to pull over in the sky if something happens so it’s better to check it all on the ground, but J came out then so I just left it.

The plan for today was to do more work on short-field landings.  We taxiied to 36 and took off from 36L.

The first circuit was just a normal flapped landing to warm up. I have to say, this was one of the smoothest landings I’ve done for a while. It had that lovely feeling where you can feel everything coming together. I’m not saying it was perfect, and definitely not a greaser, but, in my opinion at least, one of the better landings I’ve done for a while.

Then next few landings were short-field landings. I was trying to keep in mind what I’d learnt yesterday and try to avoid being high on final, but apparantly I was overcompensating slightly and coming in a bit low instead! I also tended to pull the power a little early, it’s better to wait until you’re a bit lower over the runway and use the ground effect, since the Jabs tend to lose what speed they have once the power is pulled (unlike some other aircraft which will glide further).

J took over for the next landing to demonstrate one so I could see what the picture should look like, then I had a few more tries. Generally they weren’t too bad but still not perfect.

The final landing was a full stop on 36R and wasn’t a particularly good landing. I was a bit high, so pulled the power, but misjudged our height above the runway and went to flare much too high. It was the first time in a while that J’s actually had to come onto the controls to help me rather than just making verbal suggestions. Still, we got down and taxiied back and parked.

Next lesson we’re going to do a bit more circuit revision, looking at circuit emergencies (EFATOs, glide approaches, flapless landings etc). I actually feel like I’m getting there, like I might be ready for my test soon (hopefully that’s true and not just me, but it seems like it might be the case). I’d better get on and study my BAK (which I keep putting off because it seems horribly daunting) otherwise I’ll be ready for my test but won’t have done my BAK!

]]> http://aneedforairspeed.wordpress.com/2010/05/23/short-field-landings/feed/ 1 Darky http://aneedforairspeed.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/circuits-short-field-landings/ http://aneedforairspeed.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/circuits-short-field-landings/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 10:56:05 +0000 The Flying Lawyer http://aneedforairspeed.wordpress.com/?p=1025 ]]> In which I sit the radiotelephony test, do some circuits and try to get the hang of short-field landings.

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I arrived a bit early for my lesson today, to do the radiotelephony (RT) test, which is one of the requirements for the RA-Aus certificate. I got 20/20 so it was all good I’ve arranged to have a crack at the Human Factors test tomorrow, then (I think) I’ll just have the BAK to do.

I was given the folder for 4964, went out and preflighted it then taxiied over to refuel (once again, doing it without messing it up!). They changed the checklists in the Jabs, now they include a preflight checklist and have a different layout and the checks are in a different order. I found it rather confusing to work out which box of checks I needed to be looking at, it’s going to take a bit of getting used to really.

J came out, we taxiied over to 36 and took off from 36L. The first landing was a flapped landing. For some reason (don’t ask me why) when it came time to flare I…didn’t, well not properly anyway. Not idea what was going on in my mind to be honest! So it definitely wasn’t a good landing.

The next landing was a flapped landing as well, just to make sure I didn’t lose my confidence after my previous mishap. This one was definitely better than the previous one, but it could still do with improvement.

The next time around we tried a short-field landing. This landing was unbelievably bad, I will freely admit that. I would half argue it was closer to a crash than a landing! The touchdown was pretty heavy and we bounced and I swore more than I have for a while (I’ve been trying to stop swearing). I apologised to J – both for the landing and the swearing! It was the most atrocious landing I’ve done for a while. Plus after the bounce, I hadn’t held enough backpressure on – I think it was partly the force moving my arm forward, so if it happens again I need to make a conscious effort to hold the backpressure.

The next few landings (all short-field) weren’t exactly fantastic, but they certainly weren’t as bad as the first one!

On the final landing for the mission, J took control to demonstrate a short-field landing so I could get a better idea of the sight picture I’m meant to be aiming for. I think when I was doing it I might have been coming in a bit fast, which didn’t help my chances. One thing that I also need to get used to, is the higher nose attitude during flare that you need for a short-field landing – less finesse, more planting it on the runway.

One thing I’ve noticed since I’ve been flying in the afternoons is having to deal with the different sun position – at times on approach, it can be difficult to make out the runway which makes things a little more difficult. It may mean that it takes me slightly longer to get the hang of short-field landings but I like that I’m getting experience in these different conditions, it can only help me in the long run.

Next mission we’re going to have another session of short-field landings and I’m going to get there a bit early to sit the Human Factors test. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more luck with the short-field landings or, at least, avoid anymore landings like my first short-field one today!

Today, 22/05/10, marks one year of flying for me – I took my TIF on 22/05/09. It’s been a year of adventures, as I try to get my head around learning how to control an aircraft. I’ve gone from knowing absolutely nothing at all about aircraft, to flying an aircraft solo – rather a big move really. I may not have my certificate yet (soon!) but I prefer having more experience beforehand than getting myself into trouble afterwards. I honestly can’t believe it’s been a year – it seems like it hasn’t been that long and also seems like it’s been longer.

This is also marks one year of this blog. I’ve tried blogs before and they’ve never lasted a week, so I’m impressed that this one has lasted a year – and I’ve no plans to stop now!

]]> http://aneedforairspeed.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/circuits-short-field-landings/feed/ 0 Darky