I read this post over on the Flyer forums from one of our more literarily gifted forumites, AfricanEagle. It captures the dream of flight that all pilots feel and I thought it worth sharing. All the more impressive given that English is not Ricardo's native tongue.
Pilots are lucky people. We are lucky because we are born with a little whisper inside us that most people aren't endowed with. And sooner or later, or as a child looking up at that long white line across the sky, or when the urgencies of life has been taken care of and the first grey hairs start to appear, this little whisper becomes a breeze, and then a gust of wind and we take to the skies. Each in his own time, each in his own way, we all urge to be free to roam the cloud laced heavens. Some of us are content to leave the smell of fresh cut grass for a brief flight over the countryside, vintage cloth covered wings shining like metal from the last rays of a dying sun; others seek the flow of rising air to sustain their long and silent wings, following the roll of hills. For many happiness is skimming a sea of white fluff in a tin bubble while going from A to B, while a few find deep contentment in aerial ballet, the sky the stage for perfect figures painted by double wings and powerful engines. For others again satisfaction is keeping those little white needles perfectly crossed, the knowledge of being a professional among professionals. But in all of us there is that little whisper, that makes us special and makes us want to share the same blue sky.
Thursday, 16 September 2010
Tuesday, 7 September 2010
CPL training, part 5
Lesson 5 took the same format as lessons 2 and 3. I was given a navigation leg to complete on the way out of Liverpool, today from Oulton Park as runway 09 was in use to the microlight strip at Pound Green, west of Kidderminster. As usual when heading south from Liverpool, this entailed transiting the Shawbury AIAA and MATZ. Heading south from Oulton I changed over to talk to them and request a basic service. With nothing but a few showers around in the practically unlimited visibility, navigation proved very easy, with all the features marked on the map visible well before we were upon them.
One of the showers happened to be directly in front of us, but it wasn't heavy so I just continued on my planned track and went straight through it. We were VMC all the time and this was nothing new to me, having flown in the UK's climate for the past 6-7 years. Discussing the flight afterwards, my instructor said it was interesting that I had flown straight through the shower, as many of his other less experienced students would have diverted around it, treating a bit of rain as something to be avoided. If the shower had been a lot heavier I would have agreed, but this was nothing substantial and following the planned route is easier and more efficient than making diversions on the fly!
It was possible to identify Pound Green itself several miles before we reached it, surrounded on three sides as it is by a wood, with a railway line and river running just past it. Satisfied with the navigation, I was again given a diversion, today to Long Marston microlight strip, south of Stratford-upon-Avon. Time noted, as ever I guessed at a new heading and turned onto it. As usual, in the subsequent more detailed measurement this proved to be pretty accurate and I continued on my way. Following the track and features on the ground, I found that we were south of our intended track so made a correction to the left. I'd underestimated the correction required, and as we approached Long Marston I was still south of track, to my shame now rather too close to Bidford gliding site. I should have spotted this earlier on and made more of a correction.
Having an idea where we'd be going for a debriefing drink, I'd already tuned in Wellesbourne Mountford's frequency, eliciting a chuckle from my instructor as tacit confirmation that we would be heading there. Indeed, with Long Marston located I was told to join and land. Another light shower as we landed on Wellesbourne's tarmac runway 18 had someone else holding away from the field. What's wrong with these people?!
It was my turn to pay for the drinks and slice of cake and we sat discussing such things as people diverting around showers and my performance on the flight there for 30 minutes or so.
On the return flight we tracked slowly north to the west of Birmingham's controlled airspace and did lots of PFLs. I have a tendency to choose a field rather too close to the aircraft resulting in a somewhat steeper descent than is truly required. We used this flight to try and get out of this habit. In the end we found that the glide performance I was judging matters by was that with the undercarriage extended, and on making an approach with the wheels out the profile was much better. This isn't a method I'll be adopting, as in an unprepared field it is often better to arrive with the undercarriage up than risk the wheels digging into soft ground. We followed this with a couple of much better planned approaches. I'm sure we'll do some more next time out to make sure this knowledge has sunk in.
Rejoining the zone at Chester, I was told to make a glide approach to runway 27. In this, the normal path is flown, maintaining 1,000' until I think we would make the nominated point on the runway with the engine set to idle power. At approximately Chester, well before we began the approach, I had cheekily nominated the centre of the touchdown zone markings, some 250m along the runway, as the point I would be landing. On cutting the power before turning final, my instructor didn't seem convinced that we'd make it, and indeed further down the approach, neither was I. However, with the late extending of flaps and extension of gear, we touched down at exactly the point I nominated. Not one to easily offer compliments, I did manage to get my instructor to admit that the approach had been perfectly planned and even to write it on the student record of the flight!
The course is nearing completion and the plan for the remaining sessions is to conduct a couple of mock tests before taking the real thing sometime in early October, weather and other uncontrollables permitting.
One of the showers happened to be directly in front of us, but it wasn't heavy so I just continued on my planned track and went straight through it. We were VMC all the time and this was nothing new to me, having flown in the UK's climate for the past 6-7 years. Discussing the flight afterwards, my instructor said it was interesting that I had flown straight through the shower, as many of his other less experienced students would have diverted around it, treating a bit of rain as something to be avoided. If the shower had been a lot heavier I would have agreed, but this was nothing substantial and following the planned route is easier and more efficient than making diversions on the fly!
It was possible to identify Pound Green itself several miles before we reached it, surrounded on three sides as it is by a wood, with a railway line and river running just past it. Satisfied with the navigation, I was again given a diversion, today to Long Marston microlight strip, south of Stratford-upon-Avon. Time noted, as ever I guessed at a new heading and turned onto it. As usual, in the subsequent more detailed measurement this proved to be pretty accurate and I continued on my way. Following the track and features on the ground, I found that we were south of our intended track so made a correction to the left. I'd underestimated the correction required, and as we approached Long Marston I was still south of track, to my shame now rather too close to Bidford gliding site. I should have spotted this earlier on and made more of a correction.
Having an idea where we'd be going for a debriefing drink, I'd already tuned in Wellesbourne Mountford's frequency, eliciting a chuckle from my instructor as tacit confirmation that we would be heading there. Indeed, with Long Marston located I was told to join and land. Another light shower as we landed on Wellesbourne's tarmac runway 18 had someone else holding away from the field. What's wrong with these people?!
It was my turn to pay for the drinks and slice of cake and we sat discussing such things as people diverting around showers and my performance on the flight there for 30 minutes or so.
On the return flight we tracked slowly north to the west of Birmingham's controlled airspace and did lots of PFLs. I have a tendency to choose a field rather too close to the aircraft resulting in a somewhat steeper descent than is truly required. We used this flight to try and get out of this habit. In the end we found that the glide performance I was judging matters by was that with the undercarriage extended, and on making an approach with the wheels out the profile was much better. This isn't a method I'll be adopting, as in an unprepared field it is often better to arrive with the undercarriage up than risk the wheels digging into soft ground. We followed this with a couple of much better planned approaches. I'm sure we'll do some more next time out to make sure this knowledge has sunk in.
Rejoining the zone at Chester, I was told to make a glide approach to runway 27. In this, the normal path is flown, maintaining 1,000' until I think we would make the nominated point on the runway with the engine set to idle power. At approximately Chester, well before we began the approach, I had cheekily nominated the centre of the touchdown zone markings, some 250m along the runway, as the point I would be landing. On cutting the power before turning final, my instructor didn't seem convinced that we'd make it, and indeed further down the approach, neither was I. However, with the late extending of flaps and extension of gear, we touched down at exactly the point I nominated. Not one to easily offer compliments, I did manage to get my instructor to admit that the approach had been perfectly planned and even to write it on the student record of the flight!
The course is nearing completion and the plan for the remaining sessions is to conduct a couple of mock tests before taking the real thing sometime in early October, weather and other uncontrollables permitting.
Thursday, 2 September 2010
CPL training, part 4
Lesson 4 was yet more navigation. My regular instructor was away on one of his other flying gigs - taking a Citation to Malta for the week. Nice work if you can get it! As a result I was to fly with one of the school's other instructors, Mark.
The format was much the same as previous navigation exercises, with me planning a route from Chester to a site chosen by Mark. Today, this was to be Otherton microlight strip, south of Stafford and adjacent to the M6. With the winds forecast to be a gentle 5 knots from an easterly direction, the navigation as set to be fairly simple.
The weather proved as benign as had been forecast, with clear skies, gentle winds and no turbulence. We headed straight for Otherton and had it appear on the nose, exactly when expected. Very helpful of them to paint the numbers and other runway markings on the ground so that there was no chance of me misidentifying it! Otherton located, I was given the diversion, to Chatsworth House. The trick I was taught at the start of the navigation section of the course worked yet again and my initial guess at a heading was spot on. A quick measurement, a small correction for the light wind and we chatted our way along the route to the impressive stately home. It too turned up exactly when expected.
I was given another diversion to a small marked village to the west of Leek. Subsequent investigation has shown that this is Rudyard, though at the time I didn't know that and it didn't matter. With a small kink in the route to avoid a possibly active danger area, we again arrived at Rudyard exactly as intended. I didn't know about the danger area as when we set out I didn't know we'd be coming this way, and as it was so easy to go around I didn't feel a call to Manchester Approach was required. We retained their 7366 listening squawk while near to their zone so that should they need to contact us, they would know we were on frequency and listening out.
With Rudyard located, we returned to Liverpool, joining the zone at Chester and making an uneventful approach and landing. Mark seemed pretty pleased with my performance and on an easy day like today I'd have been rather annoyed with myself if anything had gone wrong with the navigation!
Sadly, and for the first time since I bought it about a year ago, I left my GPS bug (an iGotu GT-120) at home next to the computer and not in my flight bag. As a result I don't get to include the track for today's flight in Google Earth on my home computer.
The format was much the same as previous navigation exercises, with me planning a route from Chester to a site chosen by Mark. Today, this was to be Otherton microlight strip, south of Stafford and adjacent to the M6. With the winds forecast to be a gentle 5 knots from an easterly direction, the navigation as set to be fairly simple.
The weather proved as benign as had been forecast, with clear skies, gentle winds and no turbulence. We headed straight for Otherton and had it appear on the nose, exactly when expected. Very helpful of them to paint the numbers and other runway markings on the ground so that there was no chance of me misidentifying it! Otherton located, I was given the diversion, to Chatsworth House. The trick I was taught at the start of the navigation section of the course worked yet again and my initial guess at a heading was spot on. A quick measurement, a small correction for the light wind and we chatted our way along the route to the impressive stately home. It too turned up exactly when expected.
I was given another diversion to a small marked village to the west of Leek. Subsequent investigation has shown that this is Rudyard, though at the time I didn't know that and it didn't matter. With a small kink in the route to avoid a possibly active danger area, we again arrived at Rudyard exactly as intended. I didn't know about the danger area as when we set out I didn't know we'd be coming this way, and as it was so easy to go around I didn't feel a call to Manchester Approach was required. We retained their 7366 listening squawk while near to their zone so that should they need to contact us, they would know we were on frequency and listening out.
With Rudyard located, we returned to Liverpool, joining the zone at Chester and making an uneventful approach and landing. Mark seemed pretty pleased with my performance and on an easy day like today I'd have been rather annoyed with myself if anything had gone wrong with the navigation!
Sadly, and for the first time since I bought it about a year ago, I left my GPS bug (an iGotu GT-120) at home next to the computer and not in my flight bag. As a result I don't get to include the track for today's flight in Google Earth on my home computer.
Monday, 16 August 2010
CPL training, part 3
More CPL navigation! I was given the destination of a small village near Montgomery, in Powys. It turns out, looking on Google Maps, that it was Weston Madoc though I did not know or need to know this at the time. In keeping with last time, Liverpool were operating on runway 27 so we left the zone at Chester and the navigation was planned from there. Much like the previous session, with the preparation done in advance, the flight went according to plan and saw us arrive at the halfway point slightly east of track. I made a small correction to the course, but was admonished for doing this by feel rather than calculating a heading correction and applying it. Sometimes experience isn't a good thing, and I must calculate headings for corrections in future.
Nevertheless, with a suitable heading correction applied, we arrived overhead our destination at the expected time. It had been easy to see it coming - a lesson learned! - and be prepared to point out where it was. As the town was close to Welshpool airfield, we talked to them and gave position reports to let any local pilots know that we were there.
Earlier, while I had been preparing the aircraft, my instructor had called an airfield to check that the cafe was open. I knew the call had taken place (it was in fact my suggestion to do it while I checked the aircraft) but not which airfield it had been to. This was so that I would not know where we would be diverting to with the planned navigation complete. Above Weston Madoc, I was told to divert to Wellesbourne Mountford, a lovely airfield that I have been to several times. As before, this involves guessing a heading from the chart, setting course and then planning the diversion We turned east and I got to work with the protractor and ruler, finding that my original guess had been within a few degrees of the subsequent result. With the small correction made and timings calculated, we were on our way
It quickly became clear that we were some way south of the intended track, and that my heading keeping had been well below my usual standard. I plotted a new course and turned slightly left onto that heading, doing a much better job of holding it this time. Even so, after a short time I noticed again that we were south of the intended track. To confirm this, I was asked to make a quick position fix - no problem with a couple of VORDMEs around. I used the HON to fix our position, confirming that we were indeed south of track. Another correction and allowing some more for the wind saw us proceed to Wellesbourne without any further difficulties. On the ground over a cup of coffee for my instructor and something soft for me we agreed that the northerly wind had been stronger than forecast and that by noticing the effect of this, I had done sufficient to satisfy both my instructor and the examiner.
On the return flight, after being careful not to climb above 1500ft and infringe Birmingham's airspace - runway 36 departures from Wellesbourne are the no. 1 infringement in the UK - we did some more general handling. A few PFLs on the way west, before we could get high enough to do some steep turns and some stalls. Nothing really to report, other than continuing to practice using rudder in the steep turns to maintain altitude without looking like I'm doing so. Examiners apparently do not like this standard technique for aerobatic pilots!
Some way south of Liverpool my instructor was happy to just say "take me home" and let me get on with it. I have plenty of flights from and to there, so liaising with the controllers and getting home isn't a big deal. We entered the zone at Oulton Park (as we were VFR) and proceeded along the usual set of clearances to Helsby, the south bank of the Mersey and then onto left base. Again we had some fun squeezing in between airliners and were offered the chance, while orbiting over the south bank, to fit in between two 737s. Hauling the aircraft round to point at a short final and keeping the speed up ensured that we made the gap without difficulty and I rounded off the day with a very smooth landing.
As we got closer to Liverpool after entering the zone, there was a chance to chat - the flying at that point is routine and easy and the conditions were easy VFR. My instructor declared that I should do an instructor rating when I'm done with the CPL. Easy for him to say; it's me that would have to pay for it! It does interest me though. I've always enjoyed taking other people flying and helping fellow pilots in situations that I have more experience with. Maybe it'll happen...
Nevertheless, with a suitable heading correction applied, we arrived overhead our destination at the expected time. It had been easy to see it coming - a lesson learned! - and be prepared to point out where it was. As the town was close to Welshpool airfield, we talked to them and gave position reports to let any local pilots know that we were there.
Earlier, while I had been preparing the aircraft, my instructor had called an airfield to check that the cafe was open. I knew the call had taken place (it was in fact my suggestion to do it while I checked the aircraft) but not which airfield it had been to. This was so that I would not know where we would be diverting to with the planned navigation complete. Above Weston Madoc, I was told to divert to Wellesbourne Mountford, a lovely airfield that I have been to several times. As before, this involves guessing a heading from the chart, setting course and then planning the diversion We turned east and I got to work with the protractor and ruler, finding that my original guess had been within a few degrees of the subsequent result. With the small correction made and timings calculated, we were on our way
It quickly became clear that we were some way south of the intended track, and that my heading keeping had been well below my usual standard. I plotted a new course and turned slightly left onto that heading, doing a much better job of holding it this time. Even so, after a short time I noticed again that we were south of the intended track. To confirm this, I was asked to make a quick position fix - no problem with a couple of VORDMEs around. I used the HON to fix our position, confirming that we were indeed south of track. Another correction and allowing some more for the wind saw us proceed to Wellesbourne without any further difficulties. On the ground over a cup of coffee for my instructor and something soft for me we agreed that the northerly wind had been stronger than forecast and that by noticing the effect of this, I had done sufficient to satisfy both my instructor and the examiner.
On the return flight, after being careful not to climb above 1500ft and infringe Birmingham's airspace - runway 36 departures from Wellesbourne are the no. 1 infringement in the UK - we did some more general handling. A few PFLs on the way west, before we could get high enough to do some steep turns and some stalls. Nothing really to report, other than continuing to practice using rudder in the steep turns to maintain altitude without looking like I'm doing so. Examiners apparently do not like this standard technique for aerobatic pilots!
Some way south of Liverpool my instructor was happy to just say "take me home" and let me get on with it. I have plenty of flights from and to there, so liaising with the controllers and getting home isn't a big deal. We entered the zone at Oulton Park (as we were VFR) and proceeded along the usual set of clearances to Helsby, the south bank of the Mersey and then onto left base. Again we had some fun squeezing in between airliners and were offered the chance, while orbiting over the south bank, to fit in between two 737s. Hauling the aircraft round to point at a short final and keeping the speed up ensured that we made the gap without difficulty and I rounded off the day with a very smooth landing.
As we got closer to Liverpool after entering the zone, there was a chance to chat - the flying at that point is routine and easy and the conditions were easy VFR. My instructor declared that I should do an instructor rating when I'm done with the CPL. Easy for him to say; it's me that would have to pay for it! It does interest me though. I've always enjoyed taking other people flying and helping fellow pilots in situations that I have more experience with. Maybe it'll happen...
Thursday, 5 August 2010
CPL training, part 2
The second session of my CPL course was to focus on the other part of the required flying. With general handling not a problem, navigation was next up. Since getting a PPL, I've been navigating simply by following ground features and the magic magenta line on the GPS, largely in conjunction with the Direct To function. I've always kept tabs on my position on a chart and by this (to my knowledge) have always got where I wanted to be and avoided infringing controlled airspace. When the IR flying began, navigation got easier - a case of following the magenta line being the proper way to do things, with some tracking to and from beacons and some letting ATC tell me which direction I should go in.
For the CPL course, it's back to the age old method of dead reckoning. In this, before flight I am required to calculate the headings I should fly, taking into account forecast winds. When airborne, I follow the headings and note down the times at which I will be arriving at my waypoints. These waypoints I have to identify from the air, so I need to know how to look for at least 3 identifying features of what I can see out of the window. These can be things like a canal running through a town, a road running to the north of the waypoint where another one meets it at a certain angle or the like. Essentially, anything that I can see on my chart and can also see as a feature of whatever it is I'm navigating towards.
I was instructed to plan a flight from Liverpool to Hanley, a small airstrip to the west of Birmingham. When there, I would be given a diversion and we'd end up landing at Shobdon for refreshments before returning to Liverpool. As runway 27 was in use, I planned to leave the Liverpool zone at Chester and from there make straight for Hanley. This would involve a MATZ crossing so I would be talking to Shawbury for most of the route.
If flying the IR has taught me anything, it's how to hold height and heading. With a bit of trust in dead reckoning, at the halfway point between Chester and Hanley we were less than a mile off track, despite a fairly strong crosswind (290 at 15-20 knots), so only a small correction to the heading and ETA were required. 20 or so minutes later we were were I was expecting Hanley to be, and I managed to convince myself that it was off to our left and I had over-corrected at the half way point. As I was about to turn and search for it, my instructor told me to have a bit more faith in my planning - the strip was just to our right, exactly where it should have been. As the pilot sits on the left, it was hidden from me and had this been a test (and not my second lesson) I would at that point have failed. Looks like I'll have to be a bit less eager to make what I see on the ground fit what I see on the chart next time.
With our position at the strip confirmed, I was asked to divert towards Hay-on-Wye ("I haven't read a good book for a while..."). The procedure for the diversion will be familiar to anyone who has taken the PPL skill test or has theirs coming up, but essentially you set heading roughly towards the new destination, then draw a line on the chart, measure it and work out the direction with your handy protractor, then fill in the diversion line on your plog, calculate an ETA and get on with it. I'd managed to be remarkably accurate with my initial heading guess, and onwards we went towards Hay. It has a good few features leading up to it so this time there was no doubt that we were overhead the right place. A quick orbit for my instructor to see the town and we set heading for Shobdon.
Simple overhead join, paying attention to their noise-sensitive neighbours, a good landing and in we went for a drink. There wasn't much to talk about in reference to the flight - it had all gone according to plan - so we just chatted away about other things for 20 minutes before heading back to the aircraft and back to Liverpool.
On the climbout, we did a practice EFATO (Engine Failure After Take Off), highlighting the lack of options if anything were to go wrong shortly after getting airborne to the west of Shobdon! I elected to turn about 90 degrees to the right as that's about the only option there was. Generally, one would try not to turn too far from straight ahead but an EFATO is not a time for hard and fast rules. We'd likely have survived and got into the nominated field but I'm certainly glad it was just a practice!
After a couple of steep turns (one either way) cunningly chosen to disorient me (it didn't; I was expecting it!) I was asked to make a position fix. This is done using a couple of navaids - radio beacons on the ground - which pilots can check their direction and/or distance from. Choosing the BCN VOR as we were heading almost directly away from it, and then the HON VOR as we were heading roughly on a tangent to it meant the lines would meet at something like right angles, allowing an accurate fix. Later on, we repeated the position fix using just the SWB VOR and it's DME, which shows the direction and distance from a single point.
I was then asked to plan another diversion, this time to Bunbury, just under the 2,500ft section of Manchester's airspace. Having flown in this part of the world for my entire PPL holding life, it wasn't much of a stretch to plan the descent to remain below controlled airspace. With Bunbury located, we rejoined the Liverpool zone at Oulton Park and made for the field.
The controller tried to get us in before an Easyjet 737 that was being vectored on what amounted to a wide circuit. Able to hear that this was their plan, and after telling my instructor this was my plan, I kept our speed up all the way in to final. We landed slightly long and slightly fast so that we could be clear of the runway quickly and avoid delaying the orange holiday tube. Despite my instructor's doubts, this all worked out very well, getting both aircraft down in the most expeditious manner. We both thanked the tower over the radio and made our way to the parking area to shut down and debrief.
For the CPL course, it's back to the age old method of dead reckoning. In this, before flight I am required to calculate the headings I should fly, taking into account forecast winds. When airborne, I follow the headings and note down the times at which I will be arriving at my waypoints. These waypoints I have to identify from the air, so I need to know how to look for at least 3 identifying features of what I can see out of the window. These can be things like a canal running through a town, a road running to the north of the waypoint where another one meets it at a certain angle or the like. Essentially, anything that I can see on my chart and can also see as a feature of whatever it is I'm navigating towards.
I was instructed to plan a flight from Liverpool to Hanley, a small airstrip to the west of Birmingham. When there, I would be given a diversion and we'd end up landing at Shobdon for refreshments before returning to Liverpool. As runway 27 was in use, I planned to leave the Liverpool zone at Chester and from there make straight for Hanley. This would involve a MATZ crossing so I would be talking to Shawbury for most of the route.
If flying the IR has taught me anything, it's how to hold height and heading. With a bit of trust in dead reckoning, at the halfway point between Chester and Hanley we were less than a mile off track, despite a fairly strong crosswind (290 at 15-20 knots), so only a small correction to the heading and ETA were required. 20 or so minutes later we were were I was expecting Hanley to be, and I managed to convince myself that it was off to our left and I had over-corrected at the half way point. As I was about to turn and search for it, my instructor told me to have a bit more faith in my planning - the strip was just to our right, exactly where it should have been. As the pilot sits on the left, it was hidden from me and had this been a test (and not my second lesson) I would at that point have failed. Looks like I'll have to be a bit less eager to make what I see on the ground fit what I see on the chart next time.
With our position at the strip confirmed, I was asked to divert towards Hay-on-Wye ("I haven't read a good book for a while..."). The procedure for the diversion will be familiar to anyone who has taken the PPL skill test or has theirs coming up, but essentially you set heading roughly towards the new destination, then draw a line on the chart, measure it and work out the direction with your handy protractor, then fill in the diversion line on your plog, calculate an ETA and get on with it. I'd managed to be remarkably accurate with my initial heading guess, and onwards we went towards Hay. It has a good few features leading up to it so this time there was no doubt that we were overhead the right place. A quick orbit for my instructor to see the town and we set heading for Shobdon.
Simple overhead join, paying attention to their noise-sensitive neighbours, a good landing and in we went for a drink. There wasn't much to talk about in reference to the flight - it had all gone according to plan - so we just chatted away about other things for 20 minutes before heading back to the aircraft and back to Liverpool.
On the climbout, we did a practice EFATO (Engine Failure After Take Off), highlighting the lack of options if anything were to go wrong shortly after getting airborne to the west of Shobdon! I elected to turn about 90 degrees to the right as that's about the only option there was. Generally, one would try not to turn too far from straight ahead but an EFATO is not a time for hard and fast rules. We'd likely have survived and got into the nominated field but I'm certainly glad it was just a practice!
After a couple of steep turns (one either way) cunningly chosen to disorient me (it didn't; I was expecting it!) I was asked to make a position fix. This is done using a couple of navaids - radio beacons on the ground - which pilots can check their direction and/or distance from. Choosing the BCN VOR as we were heading almost directly away from it, and then the HON VOR as we were heading roughly on a tangent to it meant the lines would meet at something like right angles, allowing an accurate fix. Later on, we repeated the position fix using just the SWB VOR and it's DME, which shows the direction and distance from a single point.
I was then asked to plan another diversion, this time to Bunbury, just under the 2,500ft section of Manchester's airspace. Having flown in this part of the world for my entire PPL holding life, it wasn't much of a stretch to plan the descent to remain below controlled airspace. With Bunbury located, we rejoined the Liverpool zone at Oulton Park and made for the field.
The controller tried to get us in before an Easyjet 737 that was being vectored on what amounted to a wide circuit. Able to hear that this was their plan, and after telling my instructor this was my plan, I kept our speed up all the way in to final. We landed slightly long and slightly fast so that we could be clear of the runway quickly and avoid delaying the orange holiday tube. Despite my instructor's doubts, this all worked out very well, getting both aircraft down in the most expeditious manner. We both thanked the tower over the radio and made our way to the parking area to shut down and debrief.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
CPL training, part 1
Having completed the necessary ground exams years ago for the issue of my IR, I did the extra few that are required for a Commercial Pilot's License. These exams expire after 3 years and that time is coming next spring. In case I ever want to use it, I might as well get myself a CPL so with the arrangement made, today was the day for the first lesson. As an IR holder, I must complete 15 hours of instruction before I am able to take the flight test. I also need to get a class 1 medical.
On arrival at the airport, I sat down with my instructor for a lengthy pre-flight briefing about what we were going to be doing. As this would be the first of the general handling session, it was all relatively straightforward stuff with the main focus on stalling and flying circuits. Some people are very apprehensive about stalling but there's no need to be so. Provided you know what's going on, there's nothing to be afraid of, and recovery from a stall is a simple affair. No matter what the configuration of the aeroplane on entering the stall (gear up or down, flaps deployed or retracted) a forward motion on the controls and application of more power will always see you come out of the stall.
Since qualifying and during my PPL training, I have not kept count of the number of circuits I've flown but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was more than 1,000. I would hope that anyone undertaking a CPL course is capable of flying a circuit to a reasonable standard! The whiteboard session was to ensure I had been doing things right and making the correct radio calls, etc. I had been, and I'm sure my instructor would have pulled me up on this during my IR training or type conversionif there had been any issues!
With the briefing complete we conducted a normal VFR Chester departure from Liverpool's airspace. Flying circuits at a big place like Liverpool can be a waste for a couple of reasons. The runway is very long, making the circuits take longer, and you can easily be interrupted by IFR traffic (Easyjets and Ryanairs) causing you plenty of delays. With that knowledge, we chose somewhere else to fly to. Manchester Woodford was the original choice, but they are currently reinstalling or repairing their runway lighting so unusable from our perspective. The next choice was Tatenhill (EGBM) , not too far away, very friendly and conveniently my instructor wanted to have a word with their engineer about another aircraft!
On the way, we were going to do some stalling exercises. For this, we needed some height, above the level of the cloudbase. There were plenty of gaps in the clouds around so we climbed up into them to take advantage, completing fully developed clean stalls and incipient stalls in the approach and landing configurations. All things I'd done before and no problems encountered at all. Next, further en route to Tatenhill, we took on some steep turns. 60 degrees angle of bank, one to the right then one to the left, remembering to increase power slightly as the angle steepens. Again, nothing much to report and that item ticked off the list.
After making a standard overhead join it was time to complete a few circuits. There's a small noise abatement kink that cuts the corner of the turn from base to final, and a ruling to go outside a garden centre that's in the perfect place to turn from downwind onto base. The first landing was a normal approach, flaps at appropriate places, engine power available to be used etc. Following a touch and go, the second was the same again only with a better landing. The third circuit was completed without the use of flaps, so we maintained 95kts all the way down final approach. Another touch and go and the fourth circuit would be a glide approach to land. I was asked to say when I thought we would make the runway without engine power and said so a short way into a tight base leg. The throttle was pulled back and that was it, no more power to help! I had perhaps chosen to begin the glide a little early and for a while it didn't look like we would make the runway, but leaving the flaps and gear until fairly late had us landing easily onto the runway and a very smooth landing prompted my instructor to call me a show off. I'll take that compliment!
After a quick visit to the engineer's offices and to pay the landing fee, we set off back to Liverpool. No right turn out on commercial operations with a left hand circuit, even if I wouldn't have done that anyway! We simply flew out of the 2 mile ATZ in a straight line before making the right hand turn towards Liverpool.
The fun on this leg began with varying the speed we were flying at. First up we would fly slower than the normal cruise of 140kts. Initially this was 100kts, then back to 80kts, then trying for 70 but the stall warner was blaring somewhere between 70 and 75. After pootling along a lot slower than the Commander is designed for and keeping everything in balance we moved on to flying at high speed. After climbing suitably, we entered a steepish descent with cruise power still applied. The idea was to increase the airspeed to Vne (never exceed velocity) which in this case is 187kts. It took quite a steep dive to get there but we did, and with the controls feeling rather heavy we recovered to a climb, allowed the speed to bleed off and moved on. Apparently some people never even fly in the yellow arc, let alone getting anywhere near Vne!
Continuing our progress towards Liverpool,we practised some forced landings (PFLs). This was a good opportunity to try out the constant aspect approach rather than the high key/low key that I was originally taught. In this, you aim to keep the landing point in your chosen field in the same position in the window, effectively pointing at it with the wing. It's meant to be easier to judge than the high key/low key method and in my limited it doesn't seem difficult! We'll do plenty more during the course, but there's not much to it really!
With 2 or 3 PFLs complete, we made our way back to Liverpool for an uneventful VFR rejoin at Oulton Park and followed a Ryanair 737 on finals (careful of wake turbulence!) down to the runway.
Sorry for the lack of pictures but this was a training flight rather than sightseeing and I was being worked pretty hard - all the above in just an hour and a half.
On arrival at the airport, I sat down with my instructor for a lengthy pre-flight briefing about what we were going to be doing. As this would be the first of the general handling session, it was all relatively straightforward stuff with the main focus on stalling and flying circuits. Some people are very apprehensive about stalling but there's no need to be so. Provided you know what's going on, there's nothing to be afraid of, and recovery from a stall is a simple affair. No matter what the configuration of the aeroplane on entering the stall (gear up or down, flaps deployed or retracted) a forward motion on the controls and application of more power will always see you come out of the stall.
Since qualifying and during my PPL training, I have not kept count of the number of circuits I've flown but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was more than 1,000. I would hope that anyone undertaking a CPL course is capable of flying a circuit to a reasonable standard! The whiteboard session was to ensure I had been doing things right and making the correct radio calls, etc. I had been, and I'm sure my instructor would have pulled me up on this during my IR training or type conversionif there had been any issues!
With the briefing complete we conducted a normal VFR Chester departure from Liverpool's airspace. Flying circuits at a big place like Liverpool can be a waste for a couple of reasons. The runway is very long, making the circuits take longer, and you can easily be interrupted by IFR traffic (Easyjets and Ryanairs) causing you plenty of delays. With that knowledge, we chose somewhere else to fly to. Manchester Woodford was the original choice, but they are currently reinstalling or repairing their runway lighting so unusable from our perspective. The next choice was Tatenhill (EGBM) , not too far away, very friendly and conveniently my instructor wanted to have a word with their engineer about another aircraft!
On the way, we were going to do some stalling exercises. For this, we needed some height, above the level of the cloudbase. There were plenty of gaps in the clouds around so we climbed up into them to take advantage, completing fully developed clean stalls and incipient stalls in the approach and landing configurations. All things I'd done before and no problems encountered at all. Next, further en route to Tatenhill, we took on some steep turns. 60 degrees angle of bank, one to the right then one to the left, remembering to increase power slightly as the angle steepens. Again, nothing much to report and that item ticked off the list.
After making a standard overhead join it was time to complete a few circuits. There's a small noise abatement kink that cuts the corner of the turn from base to final, and a ruling to go outside a garden centre that's in the perfect place to turn from downwind onto base. The first landing was a normal approach, flaps at appropriate places, engine power available to be used etc. Following a touch and go, the second was the same again only with a better landing. The third circuit was completed without the use of flaps, so we maintained 95kts all the way down final approach. Another touch and go and the fourth circuit would be a glide approach to land. I was asked to say when I thought we would make the runway without engine power and said so a short way into a tight base leg. The throttle was pulled back and that was it, no more power to help! I had perhaps chosen to begin the glide a little early and for a while it didn't look like we would make the runway, but leaving the flaps and gear until fairly late had us landing easily onto the runway and a very smooth landing prompted my instructor to call me a show off. I'll take that compliment!
After a quick visit to the engineer's offices and to pay the landing fee, we set off back to Liverpool. No right turn out on commercial operations with a left hand circuit, even if I wouldn't have done that anyway! We simply flew out of the 2 mile ATZ in a straight line before making the right hand turn towards Liverpool.
The fun on this leg began with varying the speed we were flying at. First up we would fly slower than the normal cruise of 140kts. Initially this was 100kts, then back to 80kts, then trying for 70 but the stall warner was blaring somewhere between 70 and 75. After pootling along a lot slower than the Commander is designed for and keeping everything in balance we moved on to flying at high speed. After climbing suitably, we entered a steepish descent with cruise power still applied. The idea was to increase the airspeed to Vne (never exceed velocity) which in this case is 187kts. It took quite a steep dive to get there but we did, and with the controls feeling rather heavy we recovered to a climb, allowed the speed to bleed off and moved on. Apparently some people never even fly in the yellow arc, let alone getting anywhere near Vne!
Continuing our progress towards Liverpool,we practised some forced landings (PFLs). This was a good opportunity to try out the constant aspect approach rather than the high key/low key that I was originally taught. In this, you aim to keep the landing point in your chosen field in the same position in the window, effectively pointing at it with the wing. It's meant to be easier to judge than the high key/low key method and in my limited it doesn't seem difficult! We'll do plenty more during the course, but there's not much to it really!
With 2 or 3 PFLs complete, we made our way back to Liverpool for an uneventful VFR rejoin at Oulton Park and followed a Ryanair 737 on finals (careful of wake turbulence!) down to the runway.
Sorry for the lack of pictures but this was a training flight rather than sightseeing and I was being worked pretty hard - all the above in just an hour and a half.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
Flying a Cirrus SR20
Dave and I used to belong to the same group which operated a 1965 Cessna 172. Dave holds a UK IMC rating and doesn't fly as much as he'd like to. As a result, I've offered a few times to sit alongside and act as a confidence booster. We've done this from Barton in a G1000 C172 but finally we'd found a date that worked for both of us and the aircraft was available, so we met up and went to Blackpool Airport to take one of Aircraft Grouping's Cirrus SR20s out for the day.
We fancied going somewhere reasonably far away and Dave wanted to practice his instrument approaches with a safety pilot on board. With these criteria in mind, Plymouth was chosen as the destination for a late lunch, with a basically direct routing over Wales. Conditions for the departure at Blackpool were definitely IMC, entering cloud in the climbout and staying in it until a bit further south around Southport. To keep the stress levels high, there was something out of the ordinary with the radios and intercom - I could hear the radios fine but Dave could not, so I did that for a while. Once we'd settled into the initial parts of the cruise a few minutes after takeoff and with a lull in the radio traffic as we changed over to Liverpool radar, I took the opportunity to twiddle some dials and try both headsets. It turned out that the aircraft had been left with all the controls maxed out and this didn't do well with squelch and noise cancelling! All sorted by being able to try both headsets and play with all the controls.
As we were now in the cruise, we handed over control to the S-Tec 55X autopilot, with input to it coming from the Avidyne Entegra PFD. The system is quite intuitive - choose an target altitude, choose a vertical speed and the autopilot will maintain that vertical speed and intercept the chosen altitude. En route flying is a breeze, as the autopilot will of course follow the course set into the GPS (2 x Garmin 430W) and displayed on the nice big MFD. We took the cruise section of the flight to fiddle with the avionics, with me showing some useful features of the Garmins - we have one in our Commander - to Dave, who has little experience with them.
After talking to Exeter radar and being put onto the approach into Plymouth very high, Dave hand flew down the ILS for the practice. Without having received vertical guidance, in anger I would not have made the approach but as we were in sunny VMC there was no real issue. If it were for real, I would have descended in a more orderly manner and taken up the approach at a more realistic altitude rather than thousands of feet above it, requiring a rapid descent.
Safely on the ground and with the Cirrus refuelled, we walked up to the tower to pay our fees and asked if there was a pub or similar nearby for food. They told us the best idea may be to walk 10-15 mins down the road to The Jack Rabbit. We did, and were quite happy with the tasty food provided. It was just a quick bite, but hit the spot.
On the flight back, Cardiff radar informed us of a familiar sounding callsign off to our left and going slightly faster than us. Sure enough, it was another one of Aircraft Grouping's SR20s returning to Blackpool from a weekend in Newquay who we had in sight quickly and were on frequency with for almost all of the trip. We lost sight of them when the conditions became distinctly IMC south of Liverpool. No problem, the aircraft was flying itself, the temperature was well above freezing, Dave has an IMC rating and I have an IR! Liverpool were very helpful, allowing us to descend in an attempt to regain VMC, and allowing us to climb again once it became clear (at 1,400') that it was not going to happen. Instead, we would now be IFR and IMC all the way back to Blackpool.
Released by Liverpool and handed over to Blackpool, we received a deconfliction service as they vectored us onto the ILS for runway 28. Dave asked if I would like to fly the ILS as I don't think he was completely comfortable doing so in real IMC conditions. I jumped at the chance, and some way before we intercepted the ILS, I disengaged the autopilot and did the rest manually. It wasn't the neatest ILS I've flown, but I think for a new aircraft (to me) and a new presentation of information (glass cockpit rather than analogue dials) it was fine; we didn't go out of limits at any point and as we came closer I was doing much better at keeping us on the localiser and glideslope. We eventually broke out of the clouds at around 700', well above IR minima, but fairly close to the CAA's recommended IMC rated pilot minima.
I have landed a Cirrus once before (Cirrus UK's demonstrator, G-FIKI) and it proved easy enough, and exactly like any other forgiving tricycle light aircraft. This time was no different. Smoothly onto Blackpool's tarmac and with instructions received to taxi back to Flight Academy, our trip for lunch in the sun was complete.
We fancied going somewhere reasonably far away and Dave wanted to practice his instrument approaches with a safety pilot on board. With these criteria in mind, Plymouth was chosen as the destination for a late lunch, with a basically direct routing over Wales. Conditions for the departure at Blackpool were definitely IMC, entering cloud in the climbout and staying in it until a bit further south around Southport. To keep the stress levels high, there was something out of the ordinary with the radios and intercom - I could hear the radios fine but Dave could not, so I did that for a while. Once we'd settled into the initial parts of the cruise a few minutes after takeoff and with a lull in the radio traffic as we changed over to Liverpool radar, I took the opportunity to twiddle some dials and try both headsets. It turned out that the aircraft had been left with all the controls maxed out and this didn't do well with squelch and noise cancelling! All sorted by being able to try both headsets and play with all the controls.
As we were now in the cruise, we handed over control to the S-Tec 55X autopilot, with input to it coming from the Avidyne Entegra PFD. The system is quite intuitive - choose an target altitude, choose a vertical speed and the autopilot will maintain that vertical speed and intercept the chosen altitude. En route flying is a breeze, as the autopilot will of course follow the course set into the GPS (2 x Garmin 430W) and displayed on the nice big MFD. We took the cruise section of the flight to fiddle with the avionics, with me showing some useful features of the Garmins - we have one in our Commander - to Dave, who has little experience with them.
After talking to Exeter radar and being put onto the approach into Plymouth very high, Dave hand flew down the ILS for the practice. Without having received vertical guidance, in anger I would not have made the approach but as we were in sunny VMC there was no real issue. If it were for real, I would have descended in a more orderly manner and taken up the approach at a more realistic altitude rather than thousands of feet above it, requiring a rapid descent.
Final approach to Plymouth
Safely on the ground and with the Cirrus refuelled, we walked up to the tower to pay our fees and asked if there was a pub or similar nearby for food. They told us the best idea may be to walk 10-15 mins down the road to The Jack Rabbit. We did, and were quite happy with the tasty food provided. It was just a quick bite, but hit the spot.
On the flight back, Cardiff radar informed us of a familiar sounding callsign off to our left and going slightly faster than us. Sure enough, it was another one of Aircraft Grouping's SR20s returning to Blackpool from a weekend in Newquay who we had in sight quickly and were on frequency with for almost all of the trip. We lost sight of them when the conditions became distinctly IMC south of Liverpool. No problem, the aircraft was flying itself, the temperature was well above freezing, Dave has an IMC rating and I have an IR! Liverpool were very helpful, allowing us to descend in an attempt to regain VMC, and allowing us to climb again once it became clear (at 1,400') that it was not going to happen. Instead, we would now be IFR and IMC all the way back to Blackpool.
On the way home over sunny South Wales
Released by Liverpool and handed over to Blackpool, we received a deconfliction service as they vectored us onto the ILS for runway 28. Dave asked if I would like to fly the ILS as I don't think he was completely comfortable doing so in real IMC conditions. I jumped at the chance, and some way before we intercepted the ILS, I disengaged the autopilot and did the rest manually. It wasn't the neatest ILS I've flown, but I think for a new aircraft (to me) and a new presentation of information (glass cockpit rather than analogue dials) it was fine; we didn't go out of limits at any point and as we came closer I was doing much better at keeping us on the localiser and glideslope. We eventually broke out of the clouds at around 700', well above IR minima, but fairly close to the CAA's recommended IMC rated pilot minima.
I have landed a Cirrus once before (Cirrus UK's demonstrator, G-FIKI) and it proved easy enough, and exactly like any other forgiving tricycle light aircraft. This time was no different. Smoothly onto Blackpool's tarmac and with instructions received to taxi back to Flight Academy, our trip for lunch in the sun was complete.
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