Solo Check / Fanstop and Fourth Solo

Today was my last solo in the circuits. The rule of thumb is that a student will fly for 2 hours in the circuit on his/her own then after that point will be allowed out of the circuit. I was so wanting to get some solo time out of the circuit, but knew more time in had to be done first!

Again, I was in G-CEZP which is the G1000 plane Flying Time have. I had to do one quick landing with Dave first to make sure I was capable of landing in the conditions. As we were taking off from runway 02 (Basically North) we could take advantage of doing whats known as a "fanstop". A FanStop is a practise where the instructor, after around 500 feet will close the throttle to simulate an engine failure after takeoff (EFATO).

We were around 700 feet, I can't quite remember where he closed the throttle and made sure I did the following:

1) Take up correct glide speed
2) Find A Field To Land In (and assess - do I need flaps to get down etc)
3) Call out a MAYDAY to Shoreham Tower (don't really do this in the sim, but would in real life)
4) If I have time (which is unlikely - probably take 30 seconds to crash land safely in a field of my choice) I will troubleshoot the engine and try a different ECU / FUEL TXFER etc..

I have included the audio of my flight below for you to listen to along with the track:

Instrument Flying

Today I turned up at the airport with 1600 feet before any sort of cloud was present, a 7 knot wind and runway 07 in use....damn the thought of circuits on 07 didn't fill me with too much joy. It also looked like the cloud base was lowering with some slight drizzle...OK maybe Dave will do Instrument flying with me I wished...Perfect as there is even cloud to help us!

When I got to the school I asked Dave whether he thought it would be a good idea to do the mandatory hour instrument flying, he said he had also thought about this. On we went for our brief!

The main points to remember from this brief were as follows:

1) Remember IFR - the acronym for...

Icing - what is the temperature, will we pick up ice?
Freezing Protection - Pitot Heat ON / TKS / ANT ICE ON if applicable
Radar service - Change frequency and get Radar coverage on Farnborough or similar

TRUST THE INSTRUMENTS!

In the instrument scan the Attitude Indicator is the primary instrument to check through every time. The basic Six Pack set of instruments will need this to be looked at every scan. The reason is if this is as expected then the rest of the parameters should be, but we will look onto that next.

Only look at the instruments that are needed to be looked at. For example, in the climb from 2000 feet to 4500 feet, don't include the Altimeter in the scan at first because there is no point in watching it spin around!

The basic six pack of gauges are shown below, however today I was flying G-CEZP, so you need to look at the picture beneath this one...




Above, look for the standard six pack - it's all on one screen, makes for a very quick and accurate scan, especially when airspeed needs to be exact for climbing and descending.

Dave started off by proving to me that I need to trust my instruments when flying in cloud. I knew this from my exams, but not to the extent he was going to demonstrate. In the briefing he told me at the start he will make me shut my eyes and put my head down, while he takes control and does a few manouvers, when he asks I will have to state what I thought was happening. My first thought was, ahh shut eye - I feel like i'm on a commercial flight I can fall asleep!...Only joking, but it did feel weird not controlling the plane and having my eyes shut.

Anyway, Dave performed a few maneuvers then asked me the first time what I thought was happening. I felt like I was in a straight and level climb. He told me to open my eyes. As I opened them I couldn't have been any more wrong! I was in a 30 degree left hand descending turn - I burst into hysteric laughter, it was so funny!

The second one I swore I was in a descent, again, straight and level, so this is what I stated. I opened my eyes and saw we were in a right turn climb!

The next one felt like we were in a climb, this time to the right. Guess what - descending turn to the left again.

The moral to this story is that Humans are not made to fly, they are made for the ground, so in cloud you need to trust the instruments and NOT your bodies senses, which will be a lot more heightened because of the 'loss of sight' (the cockpit fills with white!) Your body will be wrong, the instruments (making sure vacuum pump is operational and circuit breakers have not popped out) will be correct...FACT.



Banking turns
Banking turns are made with the following simple formula:

1/10th of airspeed(knots) + 7knots = bank angle in degrees

We were flying about 100knots, therefore our bank angle in IFR was 17 degrees, which is easy to achieve on the fantastic Garmin 1000 screens shown above.


We were on Shoreham approach frequency and were losing the horizon at 2000 feet, so we were at the foot of the cloud. This didn't matter for this lesson. Dave got me to put on a set of 'foggles' which are a set of glasses with a frosted layer at the top so you cannot see out of the window, and a clear bottom section so you can read the instruments. Dave then got me to fly straight and level, and do a few turns.

Then once we changed to Farnborough Radar Dave demonstrated a climb to 3000 feet which was a climb of 9 degrees nose up and 91 to 93 knots of airspeed. A descent with the similar approach, however rate of descent would be 500 feet per minute.

He told me to take the foggles off, where we were now in complete cloud. Everything in the cockpit was extremely bright, however the windows were a bright solid white. We were in cloud. I then performed a couple of climbs, descents lots of turns onto headings and the 'what would you do if you entered cloud by accident' a 180 turn out of the stuff.

I had such a great time flying in IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions) and Dave knew this by a constant grin on my face I think!

It was fun, and could save my life someday - can't be a bad lesson can it!

Forced Landings Part Two

Summary
-----------

Name: Flying Lesson - Forced Landings part two
Date: 10 Oct 2009 12:07 pm
Distance: 71.9 nautical miles
Elapsed Time: 1:12:09
Avg Speed: 59.8 kts
Max Speed: 128.6 kts
Avg Pace: 01' 00" per nm
Min Altitude: 156 ft
Max Altitude: 4,771 ft
Start Time: 2009-10-10T11:07:59Z
Start Location:
Latitude: 50.834066º N
Longitude: 0.289012º W
End Time: 2009-10-10T12:20:09Z
End Location:
Latitude: 50.833988º N
Longitude: 0.288423º W



Today I we had the choice of three exercises:

1) Go Solo for solo circuits
2) Forced landings part two
3) Fly the navigation exercise I planned yesterday (EGKA - Ashford - Hastings - EGKA)

I had the plane booked from 0930 till 1330, however the Annual on this plane was expired, so I had to wait till 12 till I could fly a plane - G-CEZP (DA40 with Glass cockpit). So the only remaining option really was number 2, which was forced landings part two.

The part two comprised of me doing the forced landing from start to finish and encorporate the emergency checks and a MAYDAY call.

The first forced landing went as follows: We headed to the west; to Selsey area, where we remained on the right of a Cessna 152 going in the same direction. We caught the cessna up and overtook it with ease! We were doing 125knots airspeed (144mph) he would have been doing 90kts max (103mph). It was great to fly behind him, along side (with legal separation) then overtake him.

Dave asked me to climb to 4500 feet on the shoreham QNH which was above some clouds (still in sight of the surface) then around a Cumulonimbus cloud. Once I was at that Altitude, Dave cut the throttle and said no more, right this is what happened very quickly:

1) Trade speed for height and maintain best glide speed of 70knots
2) trim for 70knots 0% engine thrust
3) find and select a field
3b) MAYDAY (labelled below fig 1.0)
4) Thrust lever to MAX
4) Check engine annunciators on primary display (fig 1.0 right hand side of screen labelled "low oil pressure"
5) Check engine gauges on secondary display (fig 1.0 column of gauges on left hand side of screen)
6) Alternate Air ON
7) Fuel Level is ON
8) Fuel QTY Check
9) Fuel Transfer ON
10) ECU Reset - press and hold "ECU TEST" for 2 seconds
11) Try ECU Channel B
12) Recycle the Engine Master Switch OFF-ON

fig 1.0 click to enlarge

Standard MAYDAY Call:
ME: MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY Shoreham Approach Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa. Location North East Selsey Town. Complete Engine Failure. 2 POB. Intentions Land In Field NE Town.

Shoreham: No answer, BECAUSE I didn't press the button as it was a practice! :D

We did this a few times, I have added the flight tracks below.

The flight overall

The forced landings

The 'mess' of the circuit - described below...

The runway in use was 25 grass, however coming from the west it would have fit in quite well to do a left base to runway 02 for some crosswind practise. Dave asked me to request 02 as he wanted me to demonstrate a crosswind - which was great, I like crosswind landings - they are exciting and challenging.


Right, OK 25 is in use, and you can see the runway circuit (well out of scale I might add) in green and the direction arrows in blue. The normal circuit height at shoreham is 1100 feet due to surrounding high ground.

our intentions were for us to come in on the red line as above, then descend and land on 02.

What we ended up doing is pictured below:




Basically we only got cleared to hold at SRH in the overhead at 2500 feet. Which we did. We then got cleared to descend to a high circuit height of 1600 feet, which we did and call 'high downwind'. This confused me as I had not done this before and thought we needed to descend on the downwind leg to 1100 feet, Dave corrected this - obvious now as it's the live side...hmm.

Anyway we ended going out to sea, which you can see and the radio was busy with other traffic on 25 - so we didn't get a word in. We then turned base leg (one before final leg) and turned final. We called a 2 mile final at 1600 feet and got told to descend when ready - we were now ready and cleared to descend. What we didn't know was there was a c152 which had just taken off on it's right hand crosswind leg! So Dave quickly did a Right hand orbit - he was in control before this point anyway as I think I had been overloaded with new strange information! Anyway, now I understand it it's all good. The close call wasn't a close call and wasn't anyones fault, the Cessna did a tighter than expected (controllers expectations) first turn if anything.

Forced Landings Part One

Summary of flight
----------------------

Forced Landings Part 1

Date: 4 Oct 2009 10:40 am
Distance: 90.4 nautical miles
Elapsed Time: 1:37:40
Avg Speed: 55.6 kts
Max Speed: 140.8 kts
Avg Pace: 01' 05" per nm
Min Altitude: 165 ft
Max Altitude: 3,186 ft
Start Time: 2009-10-04T09:40:13Z
Start Location:
Latitude: 50.833950º N
Longitude: 0.288352º W
End Time: 2009-10-04T11:17:53Z
Latitude: 50.833981º N
Longitude: 0.288524º W

Click to enlarge

Today I flew over to the east of the airport to practise some forced landings. Forced landings are what it is described really - you are forced to land because your engine has failed or lost most power. An example could be contaminated fuel, the reason I state this is because there is a lot of systems redundancy in light aircraft (and heavy).

For example the DA40 I fly has two seperate ECU's (like in your car - but you will only have one) Channels A and B. An automatic override for these two ECU's plus a manual override in case one fails. Planes which run with AVGAS have Magnetos, all light aircraft will have two of these.

Anyway, back to the theory. My notes show the following:

As you can see from the simple diagram below. The field is the green splodge in the middle which we are aiming to land in. It must sport the following features:

+ Be long enough and wide to allow for a crosswind (safe amount of space)
+ Be a greeny/light browny colour, of basically short grass ideally
+ Not be a ploughed field
+ Not have livestock in the field
+ Not have power lines on the approach
+ Be in the correct direction to fly approach into wind
+ Ideally have houses nearby for a coffee afterwards
+ There is no significant slope - if there is make sure it is uphill (to stop quicker)


In aviation we use "The 5 S's"

* Size
* Shape
* Surface
* Slope
* Shoots / Surroundings

Once we have found a field (this needs to be done quickly) we need to plan a circuit. As you can see, the first leg will be an upwind leg at 2500', any lower and you will need to change the circuit to suit. As you fly around the circuit make sure you keep the wingtip on the aiming point which you will have established by now, this will make a decent circuit for the chosen field.

By the time you have finished on the downwind leg you will have 1000 feet left, the idea now is to make a long base leg and short final leg, the reason is that the final will be into wind, so that you have plenty of safety height, thus planning it on the base leg (the leg before the final to land).

You can see my flight in the pictures below, showing the detail of the forced landing practice. To comply with the law - the 500 foot rule we only went down to this height, a couple of times on each field. This is so we didn't annoy the residents close by to the fields below.

Runway 25 Grass Circuits

Circuits at Shoreham RWY25 wind approx 30mph
Name: Track 001
Date: 3 Oct 2009 10:27 am
Distance: 52.2 nautical miles
Elapsed Time: 1:39:16
Avg Speed: 31.5 kts
Max Speed: 138.0 kts
Avg Pace: 01' 54" per nm
Min Altitude: 173 ft
Max Altitude: 1,606 ft
Start Time: 2009-10-03T09:27:17Z
Start Location:
Latitude: 50.834307º N
Longitude: 0.289295º W
End Time: 2009-10-03T11:06:34Z
End Location:
Latitude: 50.833695º N
Longitude: 0.288670º W


Today I had the privilege of flying, as I left home it was rainy, however down on the coast it looked more promising with clouds being reported at 1200 feet, which is ok for circuits. The wind at this stage was being reported as 11 knots, which is ok - however it was forecast to come in a lot stronger later on, which it did!

Re-Familiarising myself with grass again took a few touch and go's, I think a good one was the third or fourth. By the time I had started my circuits the wind was gusting in the high 20's some of the time, however it was more or less down the runway, which was nice.

The problem with runway 25 is that we fly our base leg over the houses of Shoreham at about 800 feet and reducing. If we're high, this is fine as you can close the throttle, put down the landing flaps early (on final, as opposing to wait until 300' as the plane will be too draggy otherwise), however there was a significant amount of sink on the final part of the circuit over the houses, the sort of negative G you can feel going over a bridge hump. Over the river we got even more sink, so once I was established on the correct glidepath (no PAPI to help on grass at shoreham) I had to set about 50% of power over the sinking areas, then reduce to the normal 25% power with drag flaps (landing flaps) lowered.

I have posted my 6 touch and go's below. You may think they look odd, however they look very good to me despite a 30knot (at 1000 feet) wind pushing me around on the runway heading. Imagine the wind direction and speed on the first part of the circuit leg (crosswind), this has an impact on the heading I need to fly.

Close up of takeoff and landings - click to enlarge

As there was such a stong wind, I felt things were a lot quicker. On takeoff we climbed quicker than before. A couple of times I didn't bring up the flaps until 500 feet, because I was making sure the speed was ok for windsheer - it climbs so quickly in these conditions!

Whole circuits - Please click on the picture to enlarge it

Notice when I left the circuit and did two orbits. This was to create a separation (as we were on finals) between us and a visiting aircraft landing on tarmac runway 20. As you can see how strong the wind was, my turns stayed the same in the plane (standard rate one turn) , however the wind pushed us over.

All in all, good lesson - not so fun because it there was a very very high cockpit work load. However my instructor said I did extremely well and have proved I can handle 30knot winds and would let me go solo in these conditions next time.

Second Solo

Today was the day of my second solo, just as special as the first - however I felt completely relaxed up there. This solo comprised of two touch and go's and a landing. Pictures and movie say it all really!

Thursday 27th August

This flight was hopefully going to give me some more solo time to build my confidence, however due to the wind we were using runway 25 which meant taking off and landing on grass, I had only done this once before - so it was good practise.

It was just after the airshow and the ground was extremely bumpy, we got launched at about 35 knots, at that speed it wasn't sufficient to hold off as it was below the stall speed. At about 45 knots we got launched again, there I held the stick back to get a foot off the ground and hold it there waiting for the speed to build up, once 60 knots arrived I initiated the climb attitude.

After a few landings, 3 were good and one go around due to bumpy landing (I blame the ground!) Dave suggested we do some crosswind practise which I was well up for!

I did two great landings (even if i say so myself) in the crosswind on runway 20. More of that next time I hope!

First Solo!!!

First Solo Flight...

I had an instructor called Richard. I could tell is high up in the Flying School however he wasn't at all intimidating - a very nice bloke indeed.



I did 3 touch and go's with him, the favoured runway was 25 (250 degrees magnetic orientation), however the grass was being cut (and I wouldn't have done my solo on 25 anyway, which was lucky - same thing as last time) so 20 was the active. The wind was 270 at 10-12 knots, to make a sporty crosswind. I was told 12 knots is actually over limits for the plane - but we did one touch and go with this windspeed (because we were already in the air), which was great as I felt like this could be the most taxing set of landings I would be making in the weather circumstances (the remaining landings the surface wind calmed down to 10 knots crosswind) - the problem was my landings were consistently great, no bumps, no stalls from 1 foot, just the soft screech of the gear touching the tarmac!



However during these strong x-winds, I lined the plane up with the runway, so when i kicked it straight i was left of the centreline, so Richard taught me to position right of the runway and then let the wind sort me out on final - this worked a treat but felt very uncomfortable because of the view of the runway, it was way over to my left! Even still I found I was left of the runway centre line - not too much of a problem because I dipped the into wind wing enough to keep me straight.



Anyway, did three of these (only for charged for two haha!) then he informed the tower we were downwind to land. He then said "sounds like good news mike!". We landed, went onto the apron and he jumped out, I ran through my checks and taxiied to the active.



On the takeoff roll it was so much lighter without someone in the RHS and because the wind was blowing from that direction anyway the right wing lifted up about 40 knots (rotation speed is 60)! OK right aileron into wind quickly and sort the rudder out, not long before I was away.



The rate of climb with only one person in was quite amazing, it certainly makes a difference, by the time I had reached the coast I was looking at having about 800 feet of height!



On the downwind leg I made my usual BUMFICH checks:



o Brakes are off

o Undercarriage fixed

o Mixture fully rich

o Fuel in balance (Transfer Fuel?) / QTY / Temperature

o Instruments all in the green / Directional Gyro aligned with compass, if not, align

o Carb Heat - not fitted as Diesel Injection

o Hatches / Harnesses all secure



Then called the tower for downwind to land. They told me I was number one, which was nice as I didn't have to look out for any other traffic (maybe they all knew I was 'on L plates' and all landed!).



On base I reduced the power to 15% as usual and then deployed the first stage of flaps, stick forward to keep the speed about 90knots, and trim to set position, looking for the extended centre line of the runway, make the turn - watch the speed, make sure you're not too slow to stall (no worries here as I was still 85 knots), nice 30 degree bank turn.



On Final the PAPI was indicating slightly high, so after reducing power very slightly and lowering the nose I intercepted the correct glide path. Bit bumpy from the hills around here and getting a bit of sink on the river and a bit of lift off the A27 so always making adjustments for this.



I then kicked her straight with the centreline and dipped the right wing to compensate, this was done about 10-20 feet above the ground. Roundout was nice and smooth (the DA40 only needs very small inputs on the control stick, it is very light and sensitive), then felt the right wheel touch down, the left followed then the nose gear after that.



The tower said "Student G-CDEK, Congratulations. Vacate left to park via Alpha" to my reply was a non-standard radio reply of "Wooo hooo, thank you. Vacate left to park via Alpha".



The landing was pretty good, even though I was left of the centre line again - must sort that out, but my instructor said he saw me put the right wing into wind which was good.





I rememeber sat doing my after landing checklist, I sat there for about 5 seconds laughing loudly tomyself! I had done it, all the waiting and nervousness finished, until next time...





Next Lesson (SOLO) - 27th August 2009.

Solo Day...No Solo...

I went up with Peter today who will be the man who would have signed me off for my solo and sent me solo initially, however the weather let me down.

The automated service which tells me the latest information (ATIS) was telling me the cloud base was at 1000 feet, which would have marginally been ok for circuits - I would have been happy doing circuits at that height anyway. However, when we got up there it was a completely different story - the cloudbase was about 700-800 feet :(

I stopped the climb as I didn't want to go IMC (illegal to fly in cloud at my stage of training), I told Peter what I was doing - he was fine with this. I then called the tower up to tell them I was downwind (as i do everytime), they asked me to report my height, to which I told them 'currently 800 feet, just below cloud'. Their reply was, circuit cancelled due low cloud, report final to land. My disappointed response was, Report Final To Land.

Such a shame, oh well the forecast showed improvement in the day, the instructor and plane were available all day - woo! however, there was no improvement. The only improvement was a different runway, which would have actually made it hard for me as the grass runway they had changed to I had only made one takeoff and landing on before - I wouldn't be confortable going solo on that (the cloud hadn't even lifted either, so just as well I didn't go ahead on grass!).

OK, Next lesson is booked in on Monday morning at 0930 with a guy called Richard, who will be able to sign me off for solo. Dave will be able to authorise me after that point - I think they need a second opinion type thing on sending students solo.

Never thought I would say this but...ROLL ON MONDAY MORNING!!!

Conditions - Runway 20, wind 240 at 15knots, temp 17oC dew 16oC, cloud broken 900', scattered 1000'.

Pre Solo Check Flight

Pre Solo Check Flight

I had my pre solo check flight with my instructor Dave today. On the whole it went well, except one landing which was too hard and I instincivly pushed forward on the control column - bad move, but it came down ok after the first bump.

I took off on runway 20 as the sea breeze had kicked round with winds gusting to 16 in the later parts of the lesson, which was ok.

I did my first circuit without problem, noticing the pattern was very busy so I needed to keep an eye out for other traffic. As my last approach was slightly too fast I wanted to make sure I nailed 70-75 knots over the threshold, and on the later parts of the approach. This went well, the first landing was good, very smooth - the flaps went to take off position and full power was applied for the takeoff roll for the second circuit.

The second landing was hard, this was because I was going to slowly, probably let the speed bleed off too soon on the roundout and we must have stalled about a foot or so in the air, this didn't help that I flared too high anyway, but this was an overreaction to the flaring too late on the last set of landings!

We then did a departure to the west for a crosswind rejoin, where we were told to report downwind. The next approach I was making sure the speed was good and stayed good for the approach and flare, I think this time I left the power on a bit longer, this obviously worked as it was again another smooth landing, however, the 16 knot gust caught the right wing and lifted it in the air, correcting this and holding back on the stick, slowly the plane came back to the ground where dave said 'we have a cheeky bit of gusty crosswind there'.

Afterwards Dave said i'm ready to go solo on Saturday! The big day dawns...(just depending on weather now)

Next Lesson - Solo Check, Saturday 15th August.

Weather for lesson later...

EGKA 111059Z 1112/1120 34009KT 9999 SCT020

Meaning between 12 and 8pm tonight the wind will be 340 degrees at 09 knots with cloud base scattered at 2000 feet, which are ideal conditions to fly in, and should make the circuit quite smooth later.

I will be flying in Zulu Papa (G-CEZP), which is my preferred aircraft as she has twin Garmin G1000 Screens for the PFD (primary flight display) and MFD (Multi Function Display). The PFD host the "six pack" of primary flight instruments, while the MFD hosts the GPS moving map display, wind direction and speed, and engine instruments (fuel qty / fuel temp / oil press / oil temp / rpm / load / volts / amps / gearbox temp / coolant temp).

I will be flying circuits and seeing at the wind is 340 I will be on runway 02 which will result in another engine failure after takeoff - with me flying it this time possibly.

Lets see how my landings go this time...

Glide Approaches and an Engine Failure...

Engine Failure / FANSTOP

OK, I probably got you interested with an engine failure, however this was planned just after takeoff. Dave told the tower this was what we were going to do. The tower approved it and told us to tell them when we were climbing again.

At 600 feet dave pulled the power level to Idle where the engine load goes to idle/3% and effectively will be creating more drag than if it had stopped still, probably. We looked for the field and selected one, made a turn towards it, he then said to me, now we would use flaps to get us in the field. Full power and off we went, with a call to the tower to let them know we were ok and climbing back to circuit height (1100')

First Landing
This was an amazing feeling, the right gear touching down first, straight down the runway, very smooth and soft. I hope this would carry on (it didn't).

Glide Approaches
These are to simulate the loss of thrust in the circuit to land. What usually happens is that when the left hand wing is 45 degrees to the end of the runway you would make your turn onto Final, however as we had a tailwind on Final at 1000 feet (but a headwind on the surface - strange I know) we had to extend this slightly. The power would come back to Idle again and flaps would be used to control / increase the rate of descent. The glide speed is 75 knots in the Diamond DA40, it is important to keep this speed constant, let it bleed off and you could stall and die / let it increase too much, you may overshoot the runway on landing and die. So there is a lot riding on staying alive, and the plane in one piece.

The first one I made the descision to go around due to guesstimating that I would use up 1/2 the runway even before I would flare out - good descision.

The second landing I made it on the ground, however my speed was far too high, I was at 80knots and I should have been at 70-75knots, this made a big difference. I also flared too late resulting in a bit of a bumpy landing. Not so bad this time.

The next glide approach was ok, however I needed to put on some more power to actually make the runway and not scare the people driving in their cars on the A27 East and West Bound. This was quite a bumpy landing due to, again flaring too late. I was also sorting out a slight x-wind too, which i managed if nothing else.

Fairly disappointed with my performance I was talking to Dave about the lesson, who said I will take one more lesson to recap the 3 different landing configs (flapped/flapless/glide) and if I satisfy this criteria then I will be booked in to go SOLO NEXT SATURDAY! (depending on our glorious weather)

Next Lesson - Tuesday 11th August <-- Roll on Tuesday and get those landings sorted!!!

She was TECH

G-CEZR was faulty :( I turned up to a couple of gents coming back into the club to tell Elaine the administrator that Zulu Romeo was not fit to fly - the reason was the trim wheel would not move to the take-off position.


If you look at the picture the white line on the silver display is where the trim is currently set. This was right at the NOSE UP position, and it would not move despite trying. Above that you can see the Emergency FUEL valve.

I have a lesson booked in Friday at 1645 - 1700, I have a good feeling about this.

Dave thinks I may go solo in the next two hours! oooooweeee!!

Exam Pass - Navigation...

Forgot to mention, on Saturday just gone I passed my Navigation exam. That was my last written one, so the only thing to do now is the Radio practical exam...roger

EGKA 051101Z 0512/0520 17006KT 9999 SCT035 <-- Oh yes i'm going flying

Hopefully to practise an engine failure after takeoff (EFATO) and some flapless landings... The only thing that can stop me now is a tech plane! I am flying a new addition to their fleet - a DA40 G1000 with Long Range tanks .... lets see how she gets off the ground! (G-CEZR)

Flight - Weds 22nd July 2009

I had taken a Wednesday morning off work so I can practise some circuits. The reason being Shoreham doesn't allow circuits after 1800 or on Sundays, so if my instructor is busy on the Saturday (he works for Monarch part time) then I cannot practise - probably the hardest part of the course to book in - with the UK weather as well!

I arrived at the school slightly nervous for a change! I think that is because my solo is just around the corner, however after browsing through the magazines I found myself looking at an article on the Blades - who are a fantastic aerobatic team and thought to myself; these guys make it look so easy, they just get on and do it, so why don't I. Surprising my nerves quit, then I wished I had some of the Red Bull Air race on my iPod so I could quickly have a watch at their skills, but then I had to go and check the plane out!

Anyway, the plane only just flew, but I was told to drain all fuel sumps due to fungus growing in the tanks (this is due to tanks not being full overnight, moisture is then in the tanks when the temperature reaches the dew point - with this hot weather fungus grows in there quite quickly!). I drained the tanks 3 times until there was no more black bits coming out - job done. I checked the rest of the plane out with detail - oil level was fine 1/2 full and it was still trickling into the sump (the DA40's have wet sumps where the sump forms the crankcase, same as road cars).

Dave's last student overran, so this left me with 35 mins of circuits which was fine given the wind conditions, any more and I think I may have deteriorated.

The wind was 220 degrees at 18 knots, increasing to 20 knots. So we taxied to runway 20 via kilo taxi way, holding at kilo one and calling 'ready for departure'. Lined up on the runway. Cleared to take off, set power and released the brakes...of we went, again.

With a strong wind I was amazed at the Diamond's climb capability, which usually isn't too exciting, but this time we were off the runway before half way I guess, by the time we reached the coast I had seen 700 feet (obviously putting the flaps to zero at 300')

The circuit was the same as I had experienced before... onto the landings:

1) The approach was solid, despite getting bumped around on every single bit of air in the friction layer, even thermalling off the hills around the airport on base leg. The PAPI was showing a good light combination and I felt the picture 'looked right', the landing was great - I allowed an extra 10 knots in these gusty (Gust to 25 knots) conditions, it was the right choice! As we touched down, it was quite firm, but we did not bounce, that was it, I casually flicked the flap switch and set power, watching the speed increase. I said to Dave, that was quite firm - he stated that is exactly what we wanted in those conditions, no point in making a smooth landing, just get it down - So I was happy about that

2) Again, good approach (said by the man in the know) and this time, instead of a firm landing, this was probably my best landing ever. I could hardly feel the wheels touch the runway, and the nice reassuring sound of the tyres sqeaking to let me know I had returned to Earth made me think to hold the elevators and wait for the front wheel to come down, don't push forward on the stick. Again, flaps up, off we go. Dave laughed and said, that was a great landing - wow, that one felt good.

3) This landing got us on the ground...! The approach was good, lined up on the centre line, 50 feet, 40 feet, 20 feet looking great. Gust of wind cocked us about 40 degrees sideways! My instant reaction was to stamp on the opposite rudder pedal lining us straight with the runway..this was perfect - however concentrating on that unexpected issue made a firm landing again, however this was all good. Dave was happy, if he is happy with my progress, then I am!


NEXT EXAM - Navigation: Saturday 1st August 1000
NEXT LESSON: Saturday 1st August 1300

Exam Pass - Flight Performance and Planning

While I was away on holiday I came to the conclusion that the confuser I have is extremely poor for Navigation, so I would look through Flight Performance and Planning - which I did.

Well I passed with 90% - the two questions I got wrong involved percentages as stopping distances on varying runway aspects (grass and downslope) so remember your percentages as well as decimals for stopping and taking off.

Look At The Windsock!

Tonight I took off at 1750 local with intentions of doing one of two touch and go's (where you land and take off without stopping on the runway) before the circuit curfew at 1800 local.

I was cleared for takeoff for a left hand circuit for runway two zero. I read back take off clearance, set the power to MAX, waiting for the Percentage Gauge to reach 100% then release the toe brakes.

The power took quite a while to get to 100% in this aircraft, it ticked over slowly from 90% up to 100%, so I was sat there for about 3-4 seconds while this happened. Once it reached 100% i let the brakes go, did not give enough right rudder (read up on gyroscopic effect on propellers and thrust) and the plane veered over to the left, 3/4 right rudder didn't really change the situation too much so full right rudder was input, this slowly steered us (with castoring front wheel - no steer) back to the centre line, but not quick enough for my liking - so i dabbed the right wheel brake to get us back on track without compromising runway take off required. OK, fine I have corrected it, now check the airspeed is alive with engine temperatures and pressures are all within limits - they were...rotate at 60knots IAS (Indicated Air Speed).

On the climb out I noticed the "Lo Volt" warning light illuminated and was flashing. On a quick cross check with the DA40's Voltmeter gauge, on the main engine page (which was showing 13.9 volts) and on the standby voltmeter which also has the OAT (outside temperature) this was showing from 13.8 - 14.0 volts, which, for this aircraft is perfectly fine. I kept an eye on it and occasionally it would flash, sometimes it would not - obviously a fault in this warning light's circuit somewhere.

The first circuit was very rusty in my opinion with doing the flare out (back to my old tricks) a bit too high, i knew straight away and corrected it - not as pretty as it could have been to be honest. The second landing was set up perfectly, with small power adjustments keeping me on the glidepath - I was thinking this was going to be good, however on this occasion the wind had picked up slightly to about 10 knots and was more of a crosswind, which I was allowing for. But the problem came on touchdown when I didn't straighten up properly, so we tried to land about 2 degrees off being straight down the runway...again not as pretty as it could have been.

* gyroscopic effect on propellers and thrust
Effectively this will send the airflow down the fuselage in a spiral motion missing the ailerons as it funnels down, however the enhanced airflow meets the rudder on one side (depending on propeller direction) and cocking the plane in the direction. The DA40 directs the plane to the left, therefore on applying high power for any task right rudder will be needed. Apparently this plane (G-CCHD) needs more right rudder than the other DA40 in the fleet.



NEXT LESSON: Weds 22nd July - 1100 for circuits

After a break...back into it

After a relaxing break in Zakynthos I have my first lesson booked in tonight at 17:30. Looking at the weather below it is looking OK (however it only goes up to 1500 - i will check the later one at lunchtime). The cloud is a bit low for circuits at Lydd if it becomes any lower (circuit height at Shoreham is 1100'

SHOREHAM

EGKA 160727Z 1607/1615 22007KT 9999 FEW015

I have cracked landings :D

Well, only flapped landings, flapless will need a bit more of work! From my last lesson where I had to do departures and rejoins I only managed to get in two landings, and they were both poor/dangerous/annoying/demoralising, today I thought right I'm going to nail them. I have had a week of thinking and this is what I came up with:

+ I didn't level off so much before but went straight into the flare, thus ballooning, or start to balloon.
+ I used too much elevator input in the flare, when it should have been very gradual - i read somewhere on here someone notched it back like a car's handbrake - this worked for me
+ look down the end of the runway and not immediately in front of you
+ a good approach makes all the difference - even though I did have 4 whites on the PAPI at one point and managed to 'grease' the landing

but most importantly i found this was the difference between it 'clicking' and not was:

+ fly the airplane all the time and hold off as long as you can until you hear the tyres touch!


Today I did:

11 Touch and Go's with flaps and flapless
2 full stop landings
2 go around (with no flaps)

I'm very pleased with my progress seeing as today Dave, even had his hands on his lap as opposed to him helping me out etc. Hope this useful bit of information (how to land the plane) will stick in my brain forever more.

Shoreham tower are excellent, and Dave my instructor is a very brave and trusting bloke! Credit to both of them :)

Flight 9 - 28th May 2009

2 Hour Lesson - Touch and go's at Lydd (EGMD)

The brief for today's flight was to fly from Shoreham to Lydd (Nr Rye) to do some circuits. Why was Lydd the chosen airport? Well Shoreham doesn't accept circuits after 1800 (my lesson was originally at 1800), another reason is Lydd is generally quieter than shoreham, plus it has a wider and longer runway - all in my favour for learning!

Things to never do ever ever again that I did tonight (may I add after one of the hardest days at work in a long while - I got up at 0530!):

• Attempt to run over a taxi light at the power check area of Shoreham (or anywhere else! - I didn't hit it though - 'could have fit a bus through there')

• DO NOT Leave the fuel transfer on - the diamond feeds only from the Left hand tank, so when this runs down you need to TX fuel from the right hand tank to the left hand tank. However, if the left hand lank fills up it will flash "FUEL TXFER" at you on the screen instead of remaining steadily lit and will not transfer any more, because it cannot!

• DO NOT Apply full power before setting flaps to TakeOff on a touch and go

Radio Chatter from Shoreham, to Farnborough Radar To Lydd Approach

a) G-CEZP Request Frequency Change Farnborough Radar 12x.xxx

b) G-ZP Frequency Change Approved, Call Farnborough Radar 12x.xxx

a) G-CEZP Is a Diamond DA40 Overhead Hastings 3300ft From Shoreham To Lydd Request BASIC SERVICE

b) G-CEZP Sqawk 4623 QNH 1031

c) Sqawk 4623 QNH 1013

a) G-CEZP Request Frequency Change Lydd Approach 12xx.xxx

b) G-CEZP Frequency change approved, sqawk 7000

a) Lydd Approach G-CEZP

b) Good evening G-CEzP Pass your message

c) Good evening. G-CEZP is a da40 from shoreham to lydd overhead RYE 3300ft information K QNH 1031 request join. basic service

d) G-CEZP report 4 miles to run

e) Wilko G-CEZP

----4 miles to run on the DME

f) G-CEZP is 4 miles to run

g) G-CEZP report overhead 1500 feet

h) report overhead 1500 feet G-CEZP

i) G-CEZP overhead

j) G-CEZP report downwind runway 20

k) report downwind G-CEZP

The first three touch and Go's Dave helped me out with to give me a good idea on the picture of the runway - how it should look etc, also the PAPI is a great help (actual Shoreham runway and PAPI shown below). However the last one at Lydd and the full stop landing at Shoreham I did by myself which was a great confidence boost as I felt the lesson was a bit overwhelming and tricky - flying the circuit was fine, the landing was the hardest part.

Here are some pictures driving to the airport.

Weather looking good just by the airport on the A27

Runway in to the distance (extended centre line) and PAPI on the right hand side (set of 4 lights)

Tomorrow's Lesson...

Tomorrow will be a lesson on circuits. As I will be leaving work early (about 1630) to get to Shoreham for 1730ish this will be too late for circuits at Shoreham. What Dave has proposed to do is goto Lydd Airport and do some circuits there (labelled as London's Ashford Airport! shown below):



So tonight I will be writing down the following information on my clipboard ready, and having my map and airport chart with me!

ATIS: 129.225 Tel: 01797322422

Approach:

Tower:

VOR/NDB:

Bearing From Shoreham (EGKA):

Distance:

Minimum Safe Altitude (+1000 feet):

Time Based on cruise at 120 knots:

Flight 8 - 23rd May 2009

Exercise 10b, 11: Stalling and Incipient Spin Avoidance

Second stalling exercises, Dave wanted to get a wing drop in there so I could get signed off for exercise 11 which is the incipient stage of the spin then recovering (as the DA40 is not rated for spinning).

To achieve this we needed to perform some power on stalls also, which simulated the base leg and approach coming into land, respectively with 15% and 20% power.


Design of Aircraft Wing
------------------------

The wing incoroprates 'stall strips' (see below) which affect the aerodynamics of the wing. This is designed to stall the inboard section of the wing, before the outboard section. Therefore if the inboard section stalls first, there will be little chance of spinning (unless the aircraft is out of balance - see yawing).

Inboard Section of a Wing (Attaching to fuselage)

Now, because there is power on (say 20% / 1700rpm) the airflow is flowing in a circular formation around the fuselage, over the inboard section of the wings to the rudder and ailerons. Now, here the outboard section of the wing is likely to stall first because there is good airflow over the inboard section, which should be stalling first. Hence you will be more likely 80% chance of getting a wing drop.

Stall Diagram (Wing Section Side On)

This wing drop will then develop into a full spin if the correct avoidance procedures are not followed. The rudder pedal opposite to the spin should be depressed enough to stop the spin and level the wing, then full power with a nose pitch down should be adopted shortly followed by (flaps up if req'd) climb to desired alt.


NEXT LESSON: 28th May 2009

Flight 7 - 19th May 2009

Exercise 10b: Stalling

This was my first taste at stalling. Today I performed stalls with no power (set to idle / 6%). The first stall we lost about 200 feet which was too much, the next 2 were better - only losing 100 feet in altitude.

Flight 6 - Saturday 9th May

This flight was with one of the CFI’s of the flying school. I felt more nervous for this lesson because he was the CFI, and knew one day I would need to impress maybe this person or another with my skills test enabling me to fly on my own forever more.

The flight started off on a busy Saturday afternoon at approximately 1330. Shoreham airport was buzzing with planes and the radio was extremely busy – there was hardly a gap between transmissions!

I knew the airport was busy and expected to start off transmitting on the Tower frequency (when Shoreham is busy they use two frequencies – Tower and Approach, when the workload is less for the tower they just use Approach). I listened to the ATIS which told me the runway details wind speeds etc and I heard the work Tower frequency on xxx.xx. I thought OK I will dial this in to the COM 1 on the radio, which I did. I asked Noel my instructor for the flight if he has finished writing down the ATIS details for himself, which he acknowledged he had.

He then asked me the question – “Did they say Approach or Tower” I stated confidently “Tower” and made my transmission:

ME: “Shoreham Tower, Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa”

Tower Freq: “Golf Zulu Papa use Approach on xxxxxxx”

ME: “xxxx dayseemal xxx”

I then changed frequencies and looked a bit sheepish! Baa.

OK, I then was explained that the ATIS stated the frequency in use. I think I need to make sure I listen properly next time. I think I will go on a busy day to remind myself what it will sound like.

Then after waiting 45 seconds for a gap in other aircraft transmissions I made my Taxi call to Approach.

“Shoreham Approach, Golf Zulu Papa is a DA40 on the Flying Time Ramp with information Hotel QNH 1016. Request Radio check and taxi. VFR flight to the West.”

“Golf Zulu Papa, Line up Kilo one via Kilo runway two zero”

“Line up Kilo one via kilo, runway two zero. Golf Zulu Papa”

Off we then Taxiied to taxiway kilo. After we cleared our company DA40 at the front row I did my brake checks and stated “you have control”, where Noel then tried his brake pedals to make sure his worked too. I then proceeded to taxi to Kilo. I checked the Directional Gyro, compass to make sure they turned with the turns on the ramp, the artificial horizon remained level and the slip/skid indicator showed a skid. All these did as they should. However I was told these should be done on the Taxiways and not the ramp as there are other aircraft on the ramp to avoid. I couldn’t agree more – a nugget of information for the next flight!

The actual flight was non-eventful with some rate one and climbing turns etc. Noel demonstrated a full stall over the sea out to Littlehampton. It was the first time I had experienced a stall, so was very interesting and quite exciting! The stall recovery procedure is:

1) keep the wings level with the rudder pedals

2) aileron stick center

3) push forward on the elevator

4) power to 100%

5) into a climb at 80 knots leading to 70 knots

I also had a peek at my ‘student progress card’ where Dave comments in detail on my flight so if another instructor was to take over he would know how good/bad I was. I kept on seeing ‘progressing very quickly’ and positive comments like this – which is what he tells me anyway, which can only be good!

Next Flight -Tuesday 19th May

Class One Medical Pass...

Today I took the class one medical at the CAA head offices at Gatwick, UK. People from around the world have to take their initial medical here.

After a series of tests lasting around 2 hours 45 mins I passed! Therefore I am officially fit to fly commercial jets for the next year, until the next checkup.

DA40 Has Gone Tech!

I got a phone call earlier from my instructor stating that the DA40 booked out for me has 'gone tech'. He explained it has an inop FADEC controller...Which basically means that the ECU (equivalent in a car) has gone mental and the engine will not run properly. I am unsure of the exact details, but I will be interested to find out what has happened to it.

The DA40's have Two ECU's so if there is a problem with the main one it automatically switches over to the second ECU. If the automatic switching does not work then the pilot can manually switch to ECU B.

Forecast for later

TAFs
	SHOREHAM	EGKA 061100Z 0612/0620 26012KT 9999 FEW020 TEMPO 0612/0620 9000 PROB30 0618/0620 BKN008

Shows that there is good visibility between the hours of 12 and 20 (10km or more) with few clouds at 2000 feet, which is great. However there is a temporary 30% probability that between 1800 and 2000 there will be broken cloud at 800 feet...hmm not so good as the lesson is at 1800...we shall see!

Flight 5 - May 2nd 2009

In the last lesson I performed 30 degree (rate one) turns to the left and right. You may think it seems trivial, however there is a lot to turning a plane. The following need to be taken into consideration:

- Sitting on the left means left hand turns the nose will sit on the horizon to keep altitude
- Sitting on the left means right hand turns will look like the plane is diving to the ground, however it is staying on the altitude. This is due to the left hand seat being higher than the right in a right hand turn.
- Look out from the opposite side to where you are turning, then over the nose to the direction you are turning
- Maintaining altitude by outside references. Instruments are not constantly scanned. They are only used to verify what you are seeing outside. So scan for traffic in the 2 second per segment sections, all across the screen (12 seconds maybe), then back across the instruments to make sure you haven't lost / gained height, speed, Temperatures and Pressures All OK? then back to the lookout. Hence lookout is the main priority
- Scanning for traffic. The eye only focuses a couple of meters in front of where you are looking, therefore you need to force the focus on a far away landmark, whilst scanning for traffic.

Lookout is so important, because in the UK when we get a nice and sunny day it brings everyone out for local flights. It is not uncommon for a general aviation airport, such as Shoreham (my home airport) to have 4 planes in the hold on the ground, while 4 or 5 are busy in the circuit maintaining separation waiting to land.

Today in the flight we practised climbing and descending turns with variable power:

- gliding descend (6% idle power)
- 15% power
- 25% power
- 40% power

all to note the rate of descent.

POWER - governs the rate of descent
ATTITUDE - governs the speed

Some lesson facts...

+ In a 30 degree bank 5 knots will be lost in airspeed
+ Lookout over opposite shoulder first, then lookout into the turn
+ Right hand turn needs more rudder than left hand turn due to the slipstream over the rudder in a climb (especially) or cruise
+ left hand turn doesn't need as much rudder due to slipstream from the prop (if spins clockwise as most GA (general aviation) aircraft do, such as the DA40, PA28 Cessna 150/152 etc.
+ Back pressure is needed to maintain altitude, look at the VSI (pictured below) this gives an accurate pre warning over the Altimeter (on the G1000 there is even a purple tape which shows what the Altitude loss/gain will be in 7 seconds time...clever - wonder why I want to learn on this type?!)
+ Climbing turn ONLY 15 DEGREES OF BANK (otherwise rate of climb is lost due to drag in higher wing). Also stall speed is increased. (30 degrees is 1.5g therefore stall speed increases)
+ Descending turn 30 Degrees of Bank as gravity helps us out here. Monitor speed.

The approach to Shoreham was non-eventful I made the following Radio Calls:

ME: 'Shoreham Tower, Golf Echo Kilo Currently Overhead Bognor, Altitude 3300 feet, Information Echo, QNH 1025. Request Crosswind Join Runway Two Zero'

ATC: 'Golf Echo Kilo Report ABeam Worthing Pier'

ME: 'Report Worthing Pier, Golf Echo Kilo'

OR I think it could have been...

ME: 'Wilko, Golf Echo Kilo'

To state that I will comply with your request....Nevermind, I will try that next time and see how impressed Dave is!

Can I just add it is hard (and fun) to read the descending checklist and note down new QNH's, Runways, Wind Speeds etc while flying and looking out for other traffic! But I am so pleased Dave has given me this responsibility so early on. It shows two things, I am slightly competant to do this and, as mentioned before I like this as I am increasing the amount of workload I do for myself.

ME: ' Golf Echo Kilo Is At Worthing Pier'

Then Shoreham Tower made us pass over to Approach and told us our position in the circuit (which we sneaked in front of a PA28 who was making a very wide crosswind leg). I aimed for the numbers on the opposite end to landing for the crosswind join.

The circuit is a rectangle really...

- Crosswind flying over and away from the runway
- Downwind is adjacent to the runway
- Base leg is flying back to the runway
- Finals is flying toward the runway to land

I made the crosswind join with 50% power, reminded to me by Dave. I was then following a PA28 where I had to give sufficient spacing before turning onto downwind. I obviously did this well as Dave didn't say anything! No news is good news and all :o)

Anyway, following this PA28 on downwind Dave said 'he is flying a bomber circuit' which I didn't have a clue what it was, but now i do! Down to the end of the downwind I made a left turn to the base leg aiming to the left of the chimney in the vincinity, over the hills.

I then spotted an aircraft lined up on runway two zero for takeoff and said to Dave, the PA28 in front of us will need to go around! Which he did, however it left us sufficient space to land.

The approach was more bumpy than I thought with a 10 knot wind. However I kept it on the extended centre line and Dave said 'I'm going to follow you through on this'. Right, this is all me now landing this £200k piece of equipment (however you don't think that at the time, at the time I'm focused on doing the best job I can, there is pressure, but not monitary value pressure) I felt Dave give some firm inputs to the control stick while I was landing. It was such a smooth landing...

I can only think Dave did this one, but give me some credit for it!

Can't wait for a low speed wind to nail the landing...The next lesson (below) is not looking too good with 30mph gusts...I wonder if I will fly...

NEXT LESSON: Wednesday 6th May (fingers x'd for weather)

Flight 4 - May 1st 2009

Plane: G-CDEK DA40 with Conventional cockpit.

Right, another flight after work. The forecast was looking a little iffy half way through the day with clouds at 300 feet most of lunchtime and looking pretty grim. However it did state that it would clear with clouds at 3000 feet with 10Km visibility...it was spot on. By the time I got to Shoreham the weather was gorgeous, not a cloud in sight.

In the classroom I was briefed that we would be making rate one (30° bank) turns to the left and right using the outside as a real horizon, rather than the artificial horizon with precise marks on for 10°, 20°, 30° and 60° (shown below). It was a lot easier than expected for left hand turns (where I was lower than the instructor - as the Captain or Pilot in Command sits on the left always in fixed wing). Basically the nose sits on the horizon with a 30° bank angle (easier to see than describe). Back pressure on the elevator is needed to keep the altitude.



However right hand turns the nose looks like it is down low, because of the high position in the cockpit. Again similar principle - if in doubt look at the VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator) gauge (shown below), should be set to Zero, so no sink and no lift.


I found these interesting because I think I learnt a lot about lookout and the blind spots of the DA40. In a right hand turn the left wing is a blind spot, also the sun screen on the canopy above also is - due to the high cockpit position. However in a left hand turn the right hand wing is a blind spot.

The correct lookout technique is to look from the blind spot from the direction you are turning, then use the correct scanning method (2 secs each portion of the windshield) making your way over to the direction you are heading. Then a quick scan of the instruments to make sure everything adds up to what you are seeing outside.

En route back to Shoreham I made our radio call to request the join to runway 20 (runway 25 was actually in use (grass runway)), but we wanted to use the tarmac runway for a crosswind example.

Dave gave me control of the plane while I got the checklist out and performed the checks. This was great as I felt like I had a huge responsibility, where it felt like Dave didn't need to do anything - I like the independance of doing things myself!

The radio call went a bit like this:

ME: Shoreham Approach. Golf Charlie Delta Echo Kilo
ATC: Golf Echo Kilo Pass your message.

ME: Golf Charlie Echo Kilo is overhead Littlehampton three thousand four hundred feet with information papa, QNH 1025 request crosswind join for runway two zero.


On the way back I tried to gather my bearings with the surroundings, but I'm finding it hard to pick the airport out at the moment - i'm sure that will come with time familiarising myself with the area.

After I had made an approach we were about 200 feet when Dave took over for the final approach and the landing. We encountered some windsheer (very dangerous for light and heavy aircraft on landing) which meant we lost approximately 50 foot in a split second, so on with the power and adjust the plane with the 10 knot cross winds.

Dave demonstrated a fine landing, in what I later described as 'something I wouldn't be able to do ever!' Obviously I am early days, and will be trained on proper cross wind techniques, but it still felt extremely daunting...

NEXT Lesson: Tomorrow at 1000!

Flight 3 - April 26th 2009

Today I knew I needed to nail the radio after last time where I occasionally spluttered and also make small clearing turns beneath me before descending, this clears the nose so I can check for any traffic below at a constant altitude, or even more dangerous traffic below climbing.

Both of these points annoyed me last time so I had to nail them...I did.

Take Off
After clearance to take off from the tower I increased the power from idle to max whilst holding the plane still with toe brakes. I then wait for the power gauge (in percent) to reach 100% then a quick check of: Oil Press, Oil Temp, Fuel Temp, Coolant Temp making sure they are in the green....Then release the brakes steering the plane down the centre line.

At this point I am putting in more right rudder to compensate for the yawing effect from full power. (prop slipstream circles around the fuselage and finishes up on the rudder trying to yaw it round). Watching the speed tape for 60knots which is rotate speed and we're in the air. Carefully watching the speed and angle of attack to make sure the plane doesn't stall.

At 300 feet I make sure the speed is within the green (won't stall) then raise the flaps to 0 degrees. Watch out for the sink this has on the plane and accelerate to 70 knots. 70 Knots is the best rate of climb on the DA40 which I will use a lot.

So to summarise:

• Toe brakes until 100%
• Aileron into wind
• Steer down the centre line
• Rotate at 60 knots
• Keep the slip ball in the middle (boot full of right rudder - flying clean)
• Raise flaps within green arc at 300 feet
• Maintain 70 knots climb speed - top of garmin screen on horizon

Then I did some slow flight with 1 (15°) and 2 (40°) stages of flaps at different power settings and speeds.

The thing to watch out for when lowering the flaps is that

1. For stage 1 flaps speed is <>
2. For stage 2 flaps speed is <>
3. Maintain / Adjust attitude for speed
   
4. Trim
   

And raising flaps you need to

1. Make sure the speed is within the green speed tape band - to ensure the plane will not stall when raised
2. Maintain / Adjust attitude for speed
3. Trim

I then flew the base leg (all be it a wide leg to allow for traffic separation), then found the imaginary extended centre line, making a 15° bank to the left onto finals.

Speed is now less than 91 knots so the second stage of flaps can come in, allow for the ballon as the nose tries to raise and increase power to maintain speed to compensate for the extra drag.

On finals I look at the PAPI on the left hand side of the runway on the ground. The PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator - shown below) was showing 3 reds, so I increase power to slow the sink rate to meet the 3 degree angle of descent. As expected two reds and two whites shine right back at me. I then reduce the power slightly, probably to 50% or so to continue the descent.

At this point there are quite a few thermals on this hot and sunny morning coming off the fields to the north of runway two zero. This is bumping us around, and for me adding to the excitement of landing the plane. I keep the plane on a good approach track and we get to 50, 40, 30, 20 feet Runway numbers still below my eye line in view - all looks good.

Dave told me that I will do the landing, but he will put in some inputs to the stick as prompts while talking me through everything. I flared a bit too early I think, and the aircraft bounced (on it's main gear I will add), however after the second touch it came neatly under control - thanks to Dave. I then took control for the landing run braking and turning on the allocated taxiway. Some might say I got my money's worth out of my landing fee!

Needless to say next time I'm going to grease the landing! I hope...




NEXT LESSON: Friday 1st May 2009.

Flight 2 - April 23rd 2009

Today I was flying G-CEZP, which is a DA40 Equipped with Full 2 Screen Garmin G1000 equipment.

Click for larger picture

1) Walkaround and Preflight

This went without issue, one thing I noticed was that the Auto Pilot Circuit breaker was popped out. I pushed it back in and spoke to Dave about it. This has been pulled because the AP was INOP, therefore to stop it potentially trying to take over. On the ramp i pulled it to kill power to the autopilot systems.


2) Engine start procedure

On the Garmin G1000 models the procedure is slightly different, but the different checklists obviously allow for this so the procedure is as easy as on the conventional DA40, except the engine temperatures and pressures, volts, amps, fuel temp, fuel qty, coolant temp is all on the MFD (secondary screen) for monitoring.

3) Radio Call

Template:
a) Who
b) Where
c) What info known
d) QNH
e) What we want

As Dave gave me control of the radio, this is what I said when it came to the "Release Brakes" for Taxy on the checklist.

ME : "Shoreham Approach. Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa"
ATC: "Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa, Pass Your Message"

ME : "Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa IS a DA40 ON Flying Time Ramp. INFORMATION Kilo, QNH 1022. REQUEST Radio Check And Taxi. VFR Flight To The East"

ATC: "Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa TAXI Kilo One VIA Kilo Runway Two Zero"
ME : "Taxi Kilo One Via Kilo Runway Two Zero. Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa"

When we had done the engine power tests and waiting at Kilo One...
ME : "Golf Charlie Echo Zulu Papa Ready for Departure"
ATC: "Golf Zulu Papa Line Up Runway Two Zero"
ME : "Line Up Runway Two Zero Golf Zulu Papa"
ATC: "Golf Zulu Papa. Clear take off runway two zero"
ME : "Clear take off runway two zero. Golf Zulu Papa"

Once we took off we went through the following:

o Full Power Climbs
o Glide Descents
o 30% Power Descents
o 15% Power Descents
o Maintaining good lookout and clearing turns
o Slow flight with one stage of flaps (Takeoff flaps < 108 knots)

Then I flew us back to Shoreham where Dave guided me through the heights and power settings I should be at. Then he made me imagine an extended centre line on the runway and turn onto it.

I made the left hand turn, making sure I was keeping the target speed of 70 knots, with 15% power this was a descending turn; what we wanted.

Dave stated I need to keep the runway numbers below eye level, this was then part of my cockpit workload with the speed and power. Then the final stage of flaps came in, so elevator down, trim for attitude and put on some power, maybe as much as 40% or 50% just to keep about 65 to 70 knots, this is crucial to avoid stalling at such low altitudes - which would be fatal.

I brought the aircraft down to what I estimate to have been about 40 feet where Dave took over. On the landing roll I had control of slowing the aircraft down to taxi speed, then turn onto the taxiway, back to flying time ramp. I was completely shocked that Dave was very impressed with my approach and even asked me if I had done it before, which I haven't!

Conclusion: Cannot wait until my next lesson on Sunday 26th April at 10:00. Fingers crossed for the weather as I can really do with having the next lesson in close proximity to this one!

See you on the 26th...

Exam Pass

Today at approximately 10:29 and a half I passed the Communications written exam, which is basically questions regarding radio, how to communicate and what to communicate for every aspect of flying.

I achieved a total of 96.66667% where I got one incorrect!

Next Exam booked for 23rd May 09 - Principles of Flight which includes the following subjects:

o The Atmosphere
o The Four Forces
o Stability and Control
o Trimming Controls
o Flaps and Stalls
o The Stall
o Avoidance of Spins
o Load Factor
o Aero Engines (everything except Jet)
- Engine Design
- Four Stroke Cycle
- Two Stroke Cycle
- Wankel Engines
- Turbocharged and Superchaged theory
o The Fuel System
o The Induction System
o The Ignition System
o The Cooling System
o The Oil System
o The Propeller
o Engine Handling including Fire procedures and Mixture enriching Lean of Peak, Rich of Peak etc
o Aircraft Systems
o Instruments
o Airworthyness
o Aero Flight Safety
o Operational Flight Safety
o Mass and Balance
o Take off and Climb
o In Flight Performance
o Descent and Landing Performance

This is one exam I aim to update on a basis where I learn / revise a subject then post the most useful points on here.

17th April Lesson...CANCELLED

Again, thanks to the Great British weather in April another lesson has been cancelled...Not surprising when you see the current METAR (current observation):

METARs
	SHOREHAM	EGKA 171350Z 32004KT 6000 -DZ FEW007 SCT009 BKN011 11/09 Q1011

Which basically translates to 6000 meters visibility with light drizzle, few clouds at 700 feet, scattered clouds at 900 feet and broken cloud at 1100 feet, temperature 11 / dewpoint 09. No good seeing as circuit height is 1100 feet..... :(

Right, next week i'm going to book in three lessons!

Actually it's a blessing in disguise as I have my Communications Exam tomorrow at 10:00! Gives me some extra time to revise / learn!

Flight # 1

What a great flight - it felt so good to get back up in the air again!

I had a pre flight brief with Dave who showed me some presentation slides of what we were going to re-cover and cover for the lesson. The actual aircraft flown is pictured below.

(click for a larger view)

The main points of today's lesson would be:

1) Getting a feel for Taxiing
2) Straight and level flight
3) Maintaining a heading
4) Maintaining an Altitude
5) Increasing altitude (less than +/- 100 feet)
6) Decreasing altitude (less than +/- 100 feet)
7) Increasing altitude (more than +/- 100 feet)
8) Decreasing altitude (more than +/- 100 feet)
9) Recovering from unusual speeds and attitudes
10) Slow flight (90 knots)
11) Very slow flight (75 - 80 knots)
12) Fast flight (125 knots)
13) Very last part of the landing run (braking) to Taxi back to stand.
14) Fast and Slow Taxi speeds

The points mentioned above were in an order where if he felt I was competent at the current task he would push me onto the next one - this is exactly the style of teaching I need. I work best under pressure.

I also contributed by putting in a couple of rate one turns (30 degree bank), whilst maintaining lookout and altitude.

As you can see we covered a lot of ground (or air) today and I'm looking forward to the next lesson where I have to read up on Exercise 12 - Take off.

Today I flew a conventional cockpit Diamond DA40, which doesn't feature the Garmin G1000 but still has full FADEC controlling a Turbo Diesel Engine (1.7) with Variable Pitch Propeller. Apart from the lack of 2 Garmin screens it flies identical to the Glass cockpit varient. An example cockpit photo is shown below:

DA40 Conventional Cockpit - click for a larger picture
(Not G-CCHD)

Some notes from the lesson and pre/post briefs:

PAT - Power / Attitude / Trim

Power Settings
Takeoff	100 %							N/A
Cruise	70 %							115kts
Slow Cruise	50 %							90kts
Very Slow Cruise	40 %							80kts
Cruise to Circuit Height (1100ft at EGKA)	30 %							110kts
Base Leg Decend	15 %							<>

Power is added - Yaws left, needs right boot
Power is reduced - Yaws right, needs left boot

• On takeoff, hold the toe brakes and add full power. Wait until the power gauge shows 100% then release brakes steering with rudder pedals. Wait until Vr (Rotate) which is 60 knots (conditions dependant).

• When joining the circuit to land make sure the plane doesn't veer from circuit height, which at Shoreham is 1100 feet. On base add T/O flaps at 70knots, at 600' add Full Flaps and keep speed at 60 knots - will need to add lots more power when full flaps are extended. Keep the attitude correct.

• The numbers on the RWY should be below eye height.



NEXT LESSON: Friday 17th April

Second Lesson...CANCELLED

OK, Today was looking to be a great day; the sun was shining and the birds were singing (probably, I don't really pay any attention to that)...Great, no problem - my second lesson will be flyable I think.

I get a phone call from my instructor before I get to the airport who has just had a weather update and tells me there will be some extensive fog and mist coming in from the Sea. (Comes in with a Sea Breeze*).

METARs
	SHOREHAM	EGKA 051650Z 17003KT 9000 FEW006 BKN010 08/06 Q1021

As Dave, my instructor didn't want me to waste a journey he kindly offered to go through the walk around and pre-start checklist on the Garmin G1000 equipped Diamond DA40. He spent about an hour on this with me, so next time I can do everything myself running off the checklists.

DA40 (Not Actual Aircraft) with Garmin G1000 PFD and MFD
(click for a larger picture)

* Sea Breezes are caused by the diurnal variation of temperature and the different heating properties of land and sea, i.e. the sea takes longer to heat up than the land. So the air over the land heats up and rises, whereas the air over the sea remains cool. Therefore there is a higher pressure over the sea than over the land. So then the air flows across the pressure gradient from high to low, thus air will blow from the sea on to the land.

NEXT LESSON: Tuesday 7th April at 18:00

First Lesson...CANCELLED!

Unfortunately due to the weather (see METAR below) there will be no flying for me today! I was booked in to fly at 1000. As my instructor is fully booked today there won't be an opportunity to fly later, unless someone cancels their lesson - go on cancel someone; the Grand National is on today!

Next lesson tomorrow at 1600 should be better...hopefully!

METARs
	SHOREHAM	EGKA 040950Z 21005KT 1200 -DZ BR BKN003 09/09 Q1019
	TAFs
	SHOREHAM	EGKA 040800Z 0409/0418 21010KT 1300 -DZ BR BKN005 PROB30 TEMPO 0409/0410 BKN003 BECMG 0410/0412 27008KT 9999 NSW SCT020

The METAR In English = Observed at 09:50 GMT (ten mins ago with BST) with a 210 degree / 5 Knot wind (not bad)...1200 Meters Visibility (bad).... Slight Drizzle....Mist....Broken cloud at 300 feet (bad bad bad)... Temperature is 9 degrees C, Dewpoint is 9 degrees C (moist air...bad).

If you have a look at the image below you can see loads of poor weather around...well today, now! 'B' is not a good area right now...


Some webcam images taken from 10:12 GMT (11:12 BST)



No spectators today...

No evidence of any planes taxiing to the pumps


All the planes from SFC have their covers on! Can't even make out the college for the mist and fog!

No planes taxiing!


NEXT LESSON: Sunday 5th April at 1600

-------------------------------------------------------

Class One Medical Booked...

I have just booked my class one medical at CAA, Gatwick. Luckily enough I work within walking distance so it's not too much trouble for me to get there!

This is booked for Friday 8th May and is costing me 317 of my English Monies!

Happy Times...

TB20 Flight

This was a flight with a friend of mine in his TB20. I was a passenger in this flight where everything is explained. I found this extremely beneficial to me as, if any pilots are reading this your perception of things in the air can feel different on the ground! For example it may be obvious how something operates in a stress free environment - you try that in the air while you're monitoring a whole lot more.

I urge anyone who is wanting to train for their PPLto get in the air as much as possible. Ask around for empty seats going. If it is a G reg then you can contribute to the cost too (as long as you don't pay more than the pilots share). Get in the air.

Here is a 15 minute snippet of the taxi, take off and landing.


97Mb Video

Exam Pass

Meteorology, This one I have been dreading the most up to now. Yes it was more interesting than Air Law but I found Air Law easier than Met. Probably because with Met I actually wanted to understand everything, not just memorise the questions and answers (in effect).

Anyway achieved 100% on this one, so I am very excite :D

Exam Pass

I went for the easiest of them all next; Human Performance and Limitations. I got 100% on this one.

Exam Pass

Passed Air Law - Woo, a whole entire 90% I think I will be re-reading to book over and over, until it sinks in forever more...

Preparing for first lesson

Well, it's not my first lesson as I have already logged 1.5 hours of instructional time with a couple of flying schools as I was testing the water. This is a great idea as you can get a feel for how the club is run and find the best one suited to you. The deciding factors are:
- Distance from where you live
- Fleet of aircraft: Ideally you want to be training on a type that you will fly afterwards
- Will you have access to briefing rooms, a computer for up to date TAF's METAR's NOTAMS etc
- If you aspire to go down the IR, MEP, CPL route are you able to train for these privaledges at the school (obviously one can go elsewhere)
- More importantly is the price right!?

So I have picked my school - Flying Time down at Shoreham (EGKA), UK. http://www.flyingtime.co.uk

The first reason I have chosen this school is because of the friendly, more than helpful professional staff that run Flying Time. The second being they have a new fleet of DA40's, both Glass (Garmin G1000) and the traditional style cockpit, a DA42 Twin plus other aircraft such as the Cessna 172, Aztec etc.

For in flight recording I have a Minidisc recorder with a 3.5mm to 1/4" jack connector which will plug straight into the rear passenger headphone socket. This will enable the entire cockpit chatter, ATC instructions and readbacks to be recorded. This will be valuable when it comes to perfecting Radio Telephony.

DA40 From Lydd To Shoreham

This was filmed in 2008. A colleague and I decided that we would have a trial lesson to Lydd and back in a DA40. He would fly one leg and I would fly the other leg. Coins were thrown in the air, lost and I decided I would like to fly the return leg, back to Shoreham so Richard flew to Lydd. This enabled me to soak up the atmosphere as a PAX for things to come!

The film is courtesy of Richard and his steady hand :o/ Cheers mate, if you want me to do any filming for you I will do it with my feet - seriously you did a great job...anyway, here is the film! It's quite long and possibly boring. But hey you might even see some coastline scenery and the odd plane...

90Mb

Flying in the Dirty Dozen

The Dirty Dozen; G-BPAX is a Cessna 150.



I have had a couple of flights in the Dirty Dozen with a friend of mine - Roger (Thanks Rog!), one to Bembridge (video below) and one to Headcorn (great airfield with very good atmosphere - Parachutes and if you're lucky Extras doing aeros above the airfield! :D)

This video shows the take off from Bembridge on RWY 12. A nice view over the beach and cliffs of Isle of Wight enroute back to Shoreham (EGKA). Have a look...

Gliding...

I started gliding because I wanted to get airborne. This for me was so exciting - flying using soaring skills. I really didn't want to have to glide because I am a typical bloke who loves engines, engines / motors, anything which propels something metallic fast is my idea of fun. I will post some examples below:

Interesting things
+ Piston aircraft
+ Turbine aircraft
+ Jet aircraft....you get the idea
+ Speedboats
+ Jet Skis
+ Fast cars

Boring things (In my previous opinion)
- Gliding
- Rowing boats
- Walking
- Falling over / crawling (only after a few beers)
- Sailing (I have yet to try this and really wouldn't mind!)
- ... anyway, you get the idea.

So Gliding wasn't on my priority list. I had been told my a mate who leads a group of ATC lads that it is great fun...hmm, yeah ok mate.

What a handsome lad...on the left! :D

Then I got told by a current 747 pilot (Thanks Hans!) that I know that gliding is great fun and I should try it...OK then I will give it a go, anyway how hard can it be?

I scouted out a couple of gliding schools near me and found one I liked the look of. Lots of friendly helpers with lots of club gliders and some fun Kawasaki six wheelers to blat around the fields tugging the gliders around.


I signed up and before I knew it I had 5 hours / 7 flights in my log book. I urge anyone to try gliding before powered flight as it really gave me such a good understanding of the controls, radio and flying properly, flying efficiently. Don't slip in a glider because you will unnecessarily lose height which you may not be able to get back again! Such a buzz it really is.



And it's cheap, if you get some good thermals going you can easily have over an hours flight from a 2500ft Aerotow. I had to ask to land after 1.5 hours as I was progressively getting worse at flying at that point.