Sunday 14 November 2010

General Rambling

After all the excitement of the alternator problem last time out, it's been a month of consolidation and confidence-building for me and CC.

The Welsh Hills near Abergavenny on a recent local flight
The alternator failure was a bit of a wake-up call for me, a gentle reminder that sometimes, things will go wrong. I wouldn't say that I've been getting complacent, but having not had a 'real' emergency in flight,  I was thankful that the first problem I had wasn't a true life-or-death situation! Reading through the flying forums that are available across the web, you don't have to look far to find a posting regarding an incident, but I still believe that flying is only as dangerous as you make it. Obviously you can't anticipate engine failures, but good training and attitude could genuinely save your skin one day. This video illustrates the value of well-drilled emergency procedures and keeping a calm head under pressure and I'd like to think that in a similar situation I'd make a similarly good fist of things, even if my watch isn't as expensive as that in the video! My PPL instructor once told me that once the engine quits, the aircraft belongs to the insurance company, and the pilots only responsibility is for the safety of those on board (and on the ground), which seems a reasonable mantra to me.

Aircraft accidents and emergencies have been at the forefront of public attention recently, with the uncontained failure of a Rolls-Royce Trent 900 on a Qantas A380 last week. The nature of the failure was pretty severe, and it looks like a turbine-disk got away, but the hysterical ramblings of the mainstream media really irritate me. The way the TV News whittled on you'd have thought that the flight had been lost with all on board, but due to the training of the crew there was no disaster - I suspect they could teach the BBC a few things in terms of professionalism. Qantas had a similar uncontrolled failure of an RB211 on a 747 less than two months previously, with a similar number on board, which didn't even make the news, probably because the aircraft wasn't largely of British origin. Trying to rubbish indigenous engineering achievements is, sadly, a favourite past-time of the British media, and the wonder of seeing an 800ton behemoth lumber into the sky apparently pales in comparison to the 'shock' that the public assumption that all modern machines will be 100% reliable has turned out to be unrealistic.
7000ft in a Cherokee. It's always sunny up here. Cold, too!

Anyway, rant over, and back to my own flying. Charlie-Charlie had a couple of weeks of down time to sort out the alternator issues, which haven't resurfaced, but out of caution (and a bit of a lack of confidence, I'll admit), I decided to replace the trip I had planned to Duxford with my Dad with a short local. This was was to be my first completely solo flight in CC, with no passengers at all, so I took the opportunity to do some general handling and some manoeuvres which inexperienced passengers normally find a little too vigorous and uncomfortable (including a practice forced landing after watching the video above). The weather was a bit overcast, but I found a gap in the clouds and took the opportunity to climb up to about 7000ft. The view over the top of the overcast was wonderful, and I was probably the only person in Gloucestershire to see the sun shine that day. I've got to get an instrument qualification at some point so that I can do this any time I like!

The next trip was to take my friend Dixie up for a blat around. The initial suggestion was to fly around the local patch, then return to Gloucester, but after my solo local flight, I was keen to go somewhere for a coffee. Dixie hadn't flown in a light aircraft before so there was a possibility of air-sickness, so we settled on Shobdon, near Hereford as a destination, mainly because it's close by, but also because I hadn't been there before (odd, considering it's probably the closest airfield to base!).

Flight planning consisted of checking the NOTAMS and weather, and calling up the destination to inform them that we would be coming, but not actually planning a route, since Shobdon isn't far outside the area that I use for general handling exercises, so I know the way by heart. We didn't need fuel, and the weather was fine, so departure was quick and easy. We ended up flying via Kidderminster, and West-Midland Safari Park, so we got to see some animals as well.

My landing at Shobdon, filmed by a helpful passenger!

There were some radio issues at Shobdon. The airfield radio was very quiet, which added a little bit of stress turning the volume controls up and down depending on who was talking, but other than that it was a straightforward join and landing, followed by a great coffee and bacon sandwich, helpfully paid for by my willing passenger! Our visit was cut a little short by incoming showers, and the trip back to Gloucester was a bit grey and murky, but very definitely still VMC.
A hangar buddy of CC. $500,000 worth when it was new!

On return to Gloucester we got the usual excellent service from ATC, and a very helpful direct join to slot in around Seneca's doing circuits and practise instrument approaches. Back on the ground, Dixie seemed most impressed with CC, but even more impressed with the Cirrus and Seneca which we share hangar space with. I always think it's strange that you drag other peoples aircraft around to get yours out, when the Cirrus costs more than twice as much as my house. It's like leaving a Ferrari 599 in a multi-storey car park with the handbrake off, so people can move it if it's in their way.

I love taking people flying: It's just so much better than being on the ground! When I was training I'd looked forward to taking all of my friends up, and generally anyone who I thought could persuade to come. In practice though, arranging a mutually convenient time, and getting that to coincide with aircraft availability and decent weather has proved very difficult, so I've only taken a few people. I'll be looking to address that over the next few months...

Monday 8 November 2010

Solo again...and a bit more excitement than I'd like!

A lot has happened since my last blog, but I've been too busy and lazy to write it up! There's too much to do in one post so I'll split it into a couple over the next few days.

I've been officially signed off to solo Charlie-Charlie for a while now, after completing the required time with Phil shortly after the last blog entry, and I've been making the most of my new-found cost-effective (ish) mode of transport.
The plan for my first solo in CC was to break the habit of my flying life so far and to actually fly somewhere for a reason rather than just for the hell of it: A trip up to Welshpool to meet up with some friends who live in the area. This sort of trip is perfect for flying - Welshpool is only about 55NM from Gloucester in the aircraft, so flights would be well under an hour from engine start to shut down, but driving would take at least two and a half hours each way, and probably more depending on traffic, and the distance driven would be almost twice that of the direct flight. I'd also flown up in that general direction before (to Sleap on my qualifying cross-country) and with the added assistance of GPS and the new nice, comfortable touring aircraft I wasn't anticipating too much stress en route, which should allow a nice day out once we arrived.
The weather and the view of Worcestershire en route to Welshpool...perfect!

On the day of the trip I woke up to perfect flying weather, great visibility and just a few clouds at 3000ft or above. I'd booked into Welshpool in advance, so all that was left to do was to get up, check the weather and NOTAMS, then drive up to the airfield to pick up CC, who (helpfully) had been left right at the front of the hangar by the previous user. Jen and I loaded up, and after a quick fuel-stop on the way out to the runway, we were up into the wide-blue and on our way.

Jen had been gradually getting used to flying, but because of the instructor time required for me to fly CC, she hadn't been up for over a month, but this was a good day to get back into it, with very little turbulence and just light winds. Once we crossed the Malverns I said my goodbyes to Gloucester and went off-radio for a bit; it was great to just fly with no chatter from the radio, and perfect conditions and scenery, until it was time to call up Welshpool for an overhead join.

The landing was a little bit cross-wind, but quite comfortable, and as soon as taxied in and shut down our friend, Chris, was waiting for us, so I showed him around the aircraft: It's fun showing non-flyers the pilot's 'office' and dispelling the myth that flying is a glamorous and high-tech activity by pointing out the 1970's switches and dials in the cockpit!
One of the only clouds in the sky on the way there.

We had a great day out around Shropshire, stopping at a pub for lunch in Shrewsbury. Sitting by the river in the beer garden (no beer for me, obviously!), knowing that CC was waiting back at Welshpool, and that we'd be flying, not driving, home was a bit strange, but something that I could get used to! Trips like this are the kind of thing I learned to fly for.

I should just leave this post there, as a perfect day, but the trip back was...eventful...and probably my most stressful flight so far.

We got back to the airfield, booked out, checked the aircraft and taxied out to the runway and did a normal takeoff, climbing out on our way home. About 5 miles south of Welshpool, and at about 2000ft, the low-voltage warning light comes on.

This my first ever technical problem in flight. I try not to flap too much, and be methodical. First things first - check all the gauges; oil temp and pressure OK (phew), fuel pressure OK, but alternator reads zero current. Alright that makes sense, and ties in with the low voltage warning light. A conversation with an instructor about the alternator system in PA28's comes into my head, apparently sometimes they trip a relay which can be set by turning them off and back on again. It works for a minute before the needle drops back to zero. Nope, it's definitely a real problem. I can't believe it, the first time out in CC and I've bloody broken it.

I don't want to get too far away from Welshpool in case this is just the start of a bigger problem, so I start a slow turn while I work out what to do. I call up Welshpool to explain the predicament and they ask if I want priority landing; my answer is no, not at the moment. They also say that there's no maintenance on site, but at first, and in a little bit of a panic I'll admit, I start heading back that way anyway. Jen's heard what's going on, and seen the warning lights, so I take take the opportunity to explain that losing an alternator doesn't mean we'll lose an engine, and that we're still perfectly safe.

At this point Phil's voice jumps into my head and I think a bit more clearly. He'd asked me about an alternator failure on my PPL skills test, and we'd later discussed what would happen if the battery ran out (you'd lose all electrical items, but not the engine or flight controls) and, crucially, how long the battery would probably last - and my planned time to Gloucester was less than this length of time. I've had a bit of time to think now, and the options are to either continue to Gloucester, or to return to a field with no maintenance, from which someone would have to fly back with a failed alternator (and less battery life because I'd use some of it for landing). The other gauges are showing no sign of problems, it looks like it's just an alternator issue, so I'm sure the safety of the flight is still intact. The weather is still good so my cockpit workload from navigation and general flying will be low. My choice is to go back to Gloucester, so I explain to Jen that I'm convinced there isn't a safety issue, and if we didn't fly it back with a broken alternator, someone else would just have to. It's not been an ideal day for allaying her discomfort with flying though!

The weather on the way back was still really good.
I call Welshpool to tell them of my intentions, and they kindly offer to call ahead to Gloucester to inform them of my ETA. After that I say my goodbyes and turn all non-essential electrical items off (radio, intercom etc.). I pre-select the Gloucester frequencies ready for when the time comes to reactivate the radio as there's not really anyone to speak to before then anyway, even if I wanted to. As it happens, there's a strong tailwind, and after only about 15 minutes its time to switch back on and call Gloucester. They're aware of my issue but I remind them anyway, just in case the radio dies while we're in the circuit, and the circuit is quiet enough to give me a direct join for runway 36.

As we descend on base leg, and the RPM drops below 2000, the low-voltage light flickers, then extinguishes. A quick check of the alternator gauge confirms it - we've got charge again. I make a pretty good landing then taxi back, and the alternator doesn't drop out throughout the whole process. I let CC idle for a bit before shut down, to restore a little extra charge to the battery. Once we've put CC back in the hangar, I call the senior members of the group (and the member who was to fly CC the next day) to inform them of the problem, and leave a note in the tech-log to explain. CC is booked in to maintenance the next day. On the way out I see Phil, and I'm pleased when he repeats, almost word for word, my reasoning for continuing to Gloucester. I made the right decision.

But what could I have done better? Well, to be honest I shouldn't have rushed into turning back to Welshpool, which probably wasted 5 or 6 minutes of useful battery life. I was flustered in the cockpit at a potential problem and didn't think through my options thoroughly enough. That said, I managed to identify the problem quickly and confirm that nothing else was going wrong, remembered my training and drills, and I made the correct decision in the end. I doubt this occurrence would have made a more experienced pilot break a sweat, but at this stage of my flying life, it was pretty stressful. It's all good experience though, I feel like I've been taught a very valuable lesson, and that I'll be better at dealing with any problems in the future. I learned about flying from that!

Sunday 12 September 2010

Much more like it...

After a couple of weeks of not achieving much due to weather and technical issues, I managed to get back in the air yesterday. The weather was great, and I still needed 1hr 55mins to meet the insurance requirements for 'CC so we decided to do a longer route around Wales, and to make it really interesting, we'd maintain a height of about 500ft above the ground all the way.

I love flying at low-level: It's what you imagine flying will be like when you're a kid. At 2000ft, everything seems quite a long way away, and you lose a lot of the sensation of your speed. When you're low, the bank angles are a lot more obvious, and you can really feel how quickly you're covering the ground. The downside of this excitement is that it's a bit more mentally draining, and that you're pretty limited on options if you were to have an engine failure, so it's not the way you'd like to fly every flight! But, although good flight planning should mean that you don't have to scud-run under bad weather at low level, it is still good to be well practiced at low-level work, just in case you get caught out...

Drop too low and you might run into one of these...not good!
The rules of the air in the UK state that the absolute minimum height that you can fly over any "person, vehicle or structure" is 500ft. If you're over the water, or land that you can be sure is uninhabited (if there is any in the UK) then you can, in theory at least, go lower than this, but the RAF like to play in the airspace below that level. Hawks and Tornado's come up pretty fast, so it's a good idea to stay out of their levels, especially as they fly a lot in Wales, although normally in Snowdonia than the area we were flying in.

Phil and I hadn't planned a specific route, other than to head over towards Hay-on-Wye, at which point we'd drop into the Wye valley and follow it up into mid-Wales. This was, strangely, the exact same navigation route that I flew on my skills test, which was also with Phil, so it was a sense of deja vu! This time though we were at about 700ft. Although I had my GPS switched on, I didn't really look at it, and I was surprised at how easily we found the town, considering how nervous about it I was on the test. A sign of some progress at least!

At Hay we dropped into the Wye valley, and followed it to Glasbury before turning North-West. Here the valley gets very steep sided and deep, so at 500ft below the surface you are actually at a level below the tops of the hills on either side, and it's great fun - hands on flying at 130mph, banking and turning to follow the bends in the river. You've got to watch out for down-draughts too, where the wind rolls down the valley sides - sometimes these winds can produce a sink rate greater than the aircraft's maximum climb, in which case you can find that you're at maximum power and climb attitude, but still descending. Obviously, this can end very badly!
 
                  
Google Map of the Approximate Route Flown 

One of the Valleys near Elan that we flew up.
At Builth Wells the valley opens out, and we pass a huge quarry before heading out over a flatter area of land. We've decided to go and find the Elan Valley reservoirs, but initially head up the wrong valley before making a turn up the a smaller valley and dropping down over Elan Valley air strip. From here it's another turn up the valley towards the reservoir.

We cross the dam at 500ft above it and head out over the reservoir, adding power over the water, gaining speed to climb up out the valley and into the open air on top of the hills. Most people would pretend that they're in a Spitfire at this point, but CC has yokes, not sticks, so for today it's a Lancaster. Childish, I know, but it's fun!

Once we've popped out the top of the valley and settled over the land again, I look at the altimeter. We've been flying while largely maintaining our altitude 'by eye' and it's a surprise to see that although we're only 500ft above ground, our altitude above the QNH (sea level) is 2500ft. A bit of a sobering reminder that if you get caught in IMC and get lost, there are potentially plenty of things to run into, even at altitudes that you would think are probably safe for the relatively flat UK terrain.

We've been radio free for a while, and we told Gloucester that we'd only be gone 90 minutes, so the decision's made to head back, albeit via Brecon and Abergavenny. We still maintain this at low level, and when we get to Abergavenny, we finally turn the radio back on. There's one last bit of fun in store as we pass Eastbach Farm strip, and Phil wants to do some fly-bys to say hello to the people he knows who fly from there. He takes control to do it, and it gives me a real demonstration of flying skill and confidence that I can only aspire to at the moment, but then Phil has 18,000 hours of light aircraft experience, and I have 55, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it!

I call up Gloucester over May Hill, and make an overhead join (my first for months!) into a circuit with just one other aircraft. I land on runway 22 into a decent breeze, and make one of my best landings for ages. It's been a good flight, and we've been away 1hr 35mins, which means I only need 20 minutes more before the sign-off in CC is complete. A couple of circuits should do the trick for that. More to the point, this flight has boosted my confidence in CC, because it's been solid maneuvering and hands on flying from start to finish. I'm starting to feel at home with her, and I can't wait to log some solo time!

Friday 10 September 2010

A frustrating couple of weeks!

That pretty much sums up the last few days in terms of flying, or lack of it.

I had to cancel my mid-week lesson at the end of August because my monthly flying budget had run out. I barely earn enough to fund this ridiculously expensive hobby at the best of times, so that's something I've had to get used to since my initial PPL training funds ran out. In addition to my monthly budget I'm trying to put aside some contingency money just in case there is a cash call from the group. Then my next flight, which was planned for the 5th of September, was canned because of weather - again something I've got used to over time.

These little delays are part of flying, but at the moment I'm especially keen to get up in the air to finish my sign-off on 'CC so that I can go and explore before the winter sets in. You're always at the mercy of the Met Office if you're a pilot, and although the best flying days are cold, frosty and clear winter days, there's a much greater chance of being cancelled due to weather once September is finished.

On the plus side, I've used my time on the ground wisely. I'm trying to get involved in the running of the CC group, and I've sat in on both of the committee meetings so far. Hopefully over the next few months this will give me a bit more insight and knowledge into my aircraft, and particularly the mountains of paperwork that need to be done in order to keep both the aircraft and pilots legal and happy.

I've downloaded the Memory Map software for my i-phone, and purchased the CAA charts for £20 and a £10 in-car suction mount. With the GPS built into the phone I'm hoping that this will be a really useful rudimentary GPS for flying. It'll only provide a moving map type system, but the software allows you to draw a route on and the only reason I really want it is to confirm my position if I become unsure. Considering that even a basic Aviation GPS is £200 I think I've done well there!

I've also embedded a Google Map on the side of this blog which shows all of the airfields I've visited up to now. At the moment it's pretty sparsely populated, but hopefully over time it'll become a bit more impressive! I've added the strips that Phil and I took in on our last flight, and all of the airfields I visited during my training.

Steve Noujaim being welcomed back by a couple of Spitfires
During the last week, Steve Noujaim completed his London-Cape Town-London record-breaking flight in his RV7. I saw the aircraft last time I was at the airfield, and it looked fantastic. Steve's achievement to fly the distance with only a 10hr turn-around in Cape Town and just 2 stops in each direction and a couple of hours sleep en-route is super-human, and I got very addicted to watching his live GPS track snake it's way down through Africa! It's the kind of challenge that I would love to take on one day, but I think I'll need a bit more of a budget and a lot more experience first. It has, at least, got me looking at the Vans RV website though, wondering whether I could afford to build an RV of my own one day! For more information on Steve and the challenge click on >this link<

Anyway, I've not much else to say at the moment. I'm hoping to fly again tomorrow, and maybe visit a couple more of the local grass fields, but the weather's not looking good at the moment. I'm also down to fly on Monday night, which, all being well, should mean that my PA28 conversion is complete. Then, the world will be my oyster!

Monday 30 August 2010

Back to School Part 2...

I'm learning...slowly. I've done 3 hours with Phil in the PA28, and on the whole it's going quite well, but at times it still feels difficult, and there's a little way to go yet.

On the initial conversion flight, buzzing around and experimenting with the handling while a long way from the ground, the G-BKCC didn't really feel that different to DJ, the larger of the Robin aircraft that I'd learned in and hired immediately after my PPL. Even the landing went well.

Very nice Cessna about to leave for Germany on a not very nice day
The next time we were due to fly was a typical British summer day - overcast and drizzling - and I couldn't even see the tops of the hills near the airfield, which is bad news, seeing as they're only 800ft high. So it was a couple of hours spent sitting round in the flying club, reading through the manual for 'CC (yep, it comes with an instruction book!), and cautiously looking out of the window. Then a Cessna with a fancy computerised cockpit and an IMC pilot departed the club for Germany into the murk, but with the promise of better weather at the destination, and no doubt was in perfect sunshing on top of the cloud a few minutes later - one day, that'll be me!

But after a while the cloud was high enough to do some circuits, which was our aim for the day anyway, and the rain had stopped, so it was time to go out and check out the aircraft. It was still blustery and generally a bit damp, but definitely flyable. We took off from runway 27 with the intention of doing a full circuit to land on the same, but were immediately asked to reposition to land on runway 22 instead, because the wind had altered...this was going to be a complicated day!

We worked hard, and set up all of the different landing and takeoffs that we could think of - normal landings, flapless, powerless gliding and a short-field landing and take off at just 70mph 'over the fence' of the airfield, managing to land, stop and take off within about 600m - pretty short for a big lump like CC. We switched runway (again!) to do some cross-wind work and eventually, after yet another runway change, pulled up to a stop and called it a day. We'd only flown for an 55 minutes but landed 10 times and used all 3 runways at Gloucester, a new record for me pretty intense in an aircraft that I'm unfamiliar with, but working hard when you're training makes it easier when you do it in 'real life'...I had to take a nap that afternoon though!
Very fun looking Skybolt and perfect conditions...tempting!

The next booking was for the August bank holiday - normally a sure fire crappy weather occasion, but actually conditions were absolutely perfect. The plan was to take off from Gloucester and buzz around to some of the local farm strips, taking in some grass landings - something that I hadn't done before.

It seems very strange, lining up into a small grass strip. We landed at Ledbury and Croft Farm, which are both really just green fields in amongst a big landscape of green fields. The trees and hedges just off of the runway concentrate the mind a bit too! Touching down is the same as on tarmac though, and then it's not much bumpier than than some of the hard strips I've landed at - the surface at Elstree was definitely as bad as either of the grass fields!

A view of Croft Farm on (Very) short final - The first grass strip I landed at.
CC At rest after the flight
It was a great flight, just what I needed after the hard work of the previous circuits session. Perfect weather and the relaxed aims of the flight reminded me what flying is supposed to be about - enjoying yourself! Phil's quite happy to do a similar type of flight next time, which will just leave an hour or so to make my time up to the insurance requirement and to get up to speed with more general handling and circuit practice. I'm confident that that will be enough to get me to that safe standard required for flying solo in CC, but if not, then I've got no qualms about having another hour or two of instruction. The aim, after all is to get better!

Looking back through to logbook now, things seem to be happening quite quickly. I've flown nearly 10 hours since my test, and I've got more than 100 landings under my belt! It only seems like yesterday that I was waiting nervously at the club for my first ever lesson! It's good to be making progress.

Tuesday 17 August 2010

Back to School

When I bought into my group aircraft, one of the conditions set by the insurance company was that I take 5 hours of instruction with an instructor before flying solo. So it's back to school for me!

My previous passion - learning how to drive properly!
The easiest way to explain flying a light aircraft to non-pilots is by comparing it to driving a car. I actually think that controlling an aeroplane in pitch, roll and yaw is more intuitive than the two-dimensional controls for a car, but the way you are taught during a PPL is completely different to learning to drive. This'll be a bit controversial, but I think the driving test consists of a lot of 'skills' that don't prepare you in any way for a real emergency or real life situations. Being able to parallel park is wonderful, but it won't save you when you have a tyre blow-out, or you get snap lift-off oversteer in a front wheel drive car on a wet, greasy road.

A PPL course is different. Obviously there are times when you can use a cut-down version of some of the procedures, but for the most part, you should actually be utilising what you learned.

3 months has slipped by since my PPL skill test. I'd planned to take a couple of check-up lessons with an instructor even before the CC insurance company insisted, to make sure that I hadn't picked up any bad (or dangerous!) habits in the 7 hours or so P1 time I've had since then. PA28 conversion training will give me the check-up I need, while introducing the aircraft to me with a safe pair of hands waiting in case I cock it up.

After an e-mail from the group treasurer to say that the insurance company had verified my details and that I was covered in the aircraft, and with my freshly arranged log-in details to the groups Internet booking system in my hands, I was straight on the phone to my flying school. My instructor for the conversion course is Phil Matthews, the CFI, who I know quite well, and knows just about everything there is to know about being a pilot. He was also my PPL examiner, which adds a certain air of authority to his opinions. We arranged to meet for an evening flight after work on a Tuesday night.

The day came, and the weather while I was at work was, to put it bluntly, awful. I tried to be interested in my day-job but the persistent drumming of heavy rain on the window made it hard to concentrate, and at lunchtime I was sure that the flight would be called off. A bit of hope came when I called the airfield at 2pm and was told that it was improving, and I couldn't believe it when at 4pm I was told that it was flyable and that I should come on up.

Awful British weather subsided into a great evening for flying
My office in Bristol is only 30 miles from the airfield but the difference in the weather made it feel like another country. CC was stuck behind a Seneca in the hangar and by the time I'd dragged her outside there was a perfect blue sky with just a few scattered, fluffy cumulus clouds. Phil and I completed the walk around and before long we were sitting at the hold raring to go.

CC's a lot more powerful than my previous aircraft, and it took a bit more rudder to keep straight on the runway during the take-off. The actual lift off is more of a rotation than in the Robins I'm used to, which just tend to fly off in their own time, but then we were away and climbing at a rate which is a bit more than I'm familiar with! We trundled westwards and, once clear of the airfield, started a programme of left and right turns up to 60 degrees of bank that Phil obviously uses for his 'standard' check ride as well as the full repertoire of stall configurations and speeds.

The PA28's controls seem a bit woolly compared to the aerobatic aircraft I trained on, but it's built to be a touring aircraft, so you would expect nothing else. The aircraft feels quite different to fly due to having a yoke to hand rather than a stick, and because it's quite a bit larger, but the handling struck me as very benign. Even (deliberate) stalls in a steep-turn failed to produce any drastic effects, and maintaining cruise altitude proved quite easy at about 2400rpm and 105kts IAS.

The largest difference in performance that I could feel was when gliding into some practice forced landings, which made up the next part of the flight. The first attempt ended up a little low (but passable) into the chosen field due to me underestimating the sink during a gliding turn, and the second a bit high due to overcompensating for it. A bit more practice there required, I think - after all, if it happens for real you don't get to go-around again!

We took another 10 minutes or so going over procedures like switching fuel tanks (unlike the Robins, CC has 2 tanks which you alternate between to maintain balance in their levels) and generally enjoying the perfect flying conditions, before we made our calls to ATC and headed back to Gloucester. After being given a left-downwind join for runway 27 at Gloucester, and I promptly started to line up with right downwind. In my defence I'd never been offered a left downwind at Gloucester because the circuit for 09/27 is always flown to the North, but no excuses - it was a silly mistake, and I'm glad Phil was there to point it out. Pre-landing checks completed, we turned base and then onto final at 600ft with full flap.

CC seems like a pretty friendly beast to land, everything seems to happen smoothly and slowly, and 180bhp means that there's plenty of power to combat any unexpected sink. I had to cut the throttle a bit earlier than I'm used to as I flared and held the wheels off the ground for as long as possible. We touched down and backtracked, taxied back to the hangar, shut down and finally pushed CC back into the hangar.

After we'd sorted out his fee, Phil went off on his way, and I went back to CC and finish off the paperwork and lock up. It was very strange wandering across the tarmac of the now almost deserted airfield, back to 'my' aircraft and hangar, after only previously having access to the airfield via flying schools. CC locked up and paperwork done, I stood in front of the hangar for a while in the silence of the cool evening air as the sun went down. A very good way to spend an evening.

Friday 6 August 2010

Introducing my new friend...

The economy is in a recession at the moment, you might have heard about it. In fact to not hear about it you have to have physically bury your head in the sand, and even then it has to be pretty deep. Everyone's talking about money...

I sold a car to pay for my PPL, so after I'd established that my flight school wouldn't run off with my money I paid for my course up front, getting a decent discount and missing the VAT rise back to 17.5% in the process. For the last few months of my course I hadn't actually handed over any money to the flying club, so fuel prices were inconsequential and I'd almost forgotten about landing fees!

Flying clubs and schools do a great job, not just in training pilots but also for rental and support after the training, but they're a business, and like any business they need to make a profit. Add in the CAA sticking it's hand in their wallet at every opportunity and it doesn't take long to see why rental prices are as high as they are. Hiring has it's advantages; maintenance, insurance and fuel are all included in the price and if something breaks you can just give the aircraft back and forget about it. If you want to take a 1 hour scenic flight once a month it's definitely the way to go.

Silverstone (on another hazy day) - A view worth £300?
But it's difficult to get the aeroplane for more than a couple of hours at a time, and even a short land-away flight can come to £300 by the time you've paid landing fees, as I discovered when I flew to Turweston to take a look at the new Silverstone circuit layout last month. Hiring is a pretty inefficient way of turning money into noise, and it just isn't sustainable if you want to go and explore. To me, that's the whole point of flying.

If you want to be cost effective, buying a share in an aircraft is a good start. I'd been vaguely looking around for a share since before my skills test, and I had found a couple of leads, but they'd led to nothing. A midweek flight one night in G-BKCC, a PA28 based at Gloucester looked promising, but there were no spaces in the group. Other groups I spoke to offered a couple of false dawns, but in the end were just not willing to let a pilot with as few as 50hrs into their club. I had a chance of a Piper Cub too, a lovely 1940's style 2-seater, but the maximum weight was just too low to make it a practical proposal.

Tripacer - A possible share...
It can be pretty disheartening, looking for a share-o-plane as a low hours pilot. Nobody seems to want you until you've got 100 hours, and I really don't know who can afford that nowadays. But my advice is to stick with it, because, like buses, 2 came along at once. A long-winded route passed through numerous phone-calls gave me an opportunity of a 1953 Piper TriPacer based at Oaksey Park, and one Friday night I got a message saying that a share had become available in CC, the PA28 I had flown in from Gloucester. The initial cost of both shares was about the same, and the rates for both aircraft meant that I'd be able to do a lot more flying with my meagre budget.

The Tripacer offered great classic flying, but the PA28 allowed me to stay at my 'home' airfield, offered better touring capacity, and most importantly, had a large, friendly group of experienced pilots who regularly buzz around Europe and that I could glean an awful lot of knowledge from. CC was the obvious choice. I'd already checked the aircraft out thoroughly when I went flying in her, so ignoring all the usual advice of taking your time to make a steady-headed decision I called up the person selling the share straight away and agreed a price. Two weeks later, the chairman of the Tripacer group called me to say they weren't happy with a low-hours pilot anyway, which made me feel pretty smug about my quick thinking to grab the CC share before someone else got it!
'My' PA28...well, sort of

It took about a month to finalise the formalities and for the committee to meet and agree me, and the insurance company had to be consulted because of my low hours and imposed some conditions. I've had to agree to take 5 hours additional training in the aircraft, and pay an additional insurance premium, both of which seem pretty sensible. I've met the committee of the group, and they're very friendly, and I still can't believe they're going to let me fly their aircraft...I guess I should say 'my' aircraft now too!

So G-BKCC ('CC for short) is my new friend. I've missed my cars - I always feel that the best cars I've ever had have become somehow more than mechanical, like an organic creature with a personality of their own. Given time, I'm sure I'll grow the same attachment to CC. I should have the training done in the next few weeks. Then I can wind my way to new destinations, and hopefully make a bit more noise, for a bit less money than before....

Wednesday 4 August 2010

Doing it for real...the first flight as a 'proper' pilot.

The first flight on your own license is a strange feeling. You step through the doors of the flying club like you've done a 50 times before, and everything looks the same. The sofa and the table are in the same place and the people sat around are invariably the same people that you've come to recognise over the last year or so. But something just feels different. The brown wallet from the CAA burning a hole in your back pocket seems to make everything a bit more real.

And strangest of all, I've got a passenger. I'd promised Jen, my girlfriend, that she'd be my first passenger and now that the time has come round, she hasn't backed down. That's despite never having been in an aeroplane of any kind before...no pressure then!

The Severn - The photo makes the haze look worse than it was
It's a bit hazy, not really ideal for someones first flight, but it's early in the morning so the thermals shouldn't be too active. We've decided to just do a short sortie around the local area in case Jen doesn't enjoy it. I settle on a simple route from Gloucester to the Severn Bridges, over Pontypool and back up to the Malverns if there's time.

After a pretty thorough passenger brief (because Jen's never been air side before), before she knows it Jen's strapped in to G-BKDJ and we're taxiing out. I call ready for departure, a private jet is told to hold and wait for us (I love it when that happens!), and we're given our clearances. Time to go.

The 'old' Severn Bridge from the air
I check that Jen's ok and feed the power in, and we accellerate smoothly away. At 50kts I raise the nosewheel, and at about 60 it all goes smooth as DJ just flies itself off. We look back in just enough time to see the Citation Jet taking off behind us, and I turn south to get out of the way. In no time we're south of Gloucester and heading for the bridges.

Jen's gone a bit quiet. Later, she admits that there was a bit of turbulence on the climb out that made her nervous, but in no time we're at our cruise altitude and the bridges are in sight. Even the haze seems to be easing off.

I love seeing things from the air, it's just something you just can't do any other way. Structures that seem enormous from the ground look tiny from just 2000ft and the green fields seem to go on forever. Jen's impressed with the colours of the resevoir near Pontypool, and we bank over it to get a better view before heading back up the river towards the Malverns.

The Forest of Dean - The haze is clearing
By the time we get as far as Ledbury there the haze is descending again. Jen's feeling ok, but the decision's made to quit while the going's good and head back to Gloucester. An overhead join and a fairly uneventful landing and we're back on terra firma.

Parking up and pulling the mixture to kill the engine is pretty satisfying. I've been able to share the experience for the first time, and hopefully Jen can see why I've been rambling on about it. Talking afterwards, it seems that some of my enthusiasm has rubbed off, but there's still a long way to go. Words like 'unnatural' are banded around to describe the takeoff, but the views were a hit, so we'll call it a success. It's only been an hour, but we've done about 110 miles, and seen an area of the country that it would've taken a whole day to cover in the car. Showing it to someone else has justified the cost and hard work at a stroke. Sometimes, life's pretty good.

Tuesday 3 August 2010

My First Post - Welcome!

So I've started the obligatory flying blog...

Hello! My name is Tim and I've recently obtained my Private Pilots License. Impressive huh? Well, actually no, not really.

The old fashioned idea that a lot of people have about pilots is that they're all jet-setting, epaulette weilding playboys who can jet off to St. Tropez at a moments notice when the tax man gets a bit close to their stash. It would be nice if that was true (and sometimes I like to pretend!), but the reality is that almost anyone can become a private pilot. Sure, to do a PPL takes some intelligence, a fair bit of commitment and a decent sized chunk of disposable income, but it's not so complex or expensive that the average man on the street can't do it. As so many pilots will tell you, it's just a question of priorities.

My father tried for a PPL in the early 90's, but unfortunately ran out of time and budget before the end, and I've been hooked on aeroplanes ever since. The RAF was my dream when I was at school, compounded by annual visits to RIAT Fairford, and a weeks work experience with Delta Jets at Kemble, but for one reason or another it never really got beyond a dream, and I ended up at university doing an engineering degree. Then, in 2009, with a decent degree and a steady job, I had the realisation that if I sold my car (my other great passion) I would have enough cash in the bank to pay for a PPL course. Once I get ideas, I tend to move fast, and 3 days later I was on the phone to a local flying club arranging a trial lesson.

The rest, as they say, is history. So many milestones flew by in the 9 months that it took me to obtain my license...trial lesson, first solo, first solo nav-ex, QXC, skills test and all the exams in between, but there are plenty of student blogs out there if you want to read about that.

So here we are, and back to my original comment that simply holding a PPL isn't that impressive. The basic license means that you're certified safe, but it doesn't make you a Sky-God...air time and experience is the key to becoming a good pilot, and that's what this blog is going to be about. From a selfish point of view, I'll be writing my experiences so that they sink in and help me improve, but I hope anybody who reads this will be encouraged to try for themselves, and maybe one or two more pilots will be born!

All the best.