Flying Texas - Part I

So here we are on holiday in Texas. One of the reasons for choosing Texas was to get some flying lessons in in good conditions for five consecutive days. I'm learning at Fort Worth Spinks (KFWS) with Jake Huffman's Huffman Aviation in Burleson, TX. I had to jump through a number of legal hoops to be allowed to fly in the US - an application via the Alien Flight School Program from the Transport Security Administration which included fingerprinting and around £200 in fees.

All of that stuff seems worth it now. I've had three days of almost two hour lessons and while there is a lot of stuff that is different the circuit (pattern) fundamentals are the same. I'm learning in a much older PA28-180 N15BC which is in very nice shape, seems smoother than my home aircraft and is a delight to fly. The controls differ somewhat - she has choke style controls and the trim adjuster is on the cabin roof. I've really been getting into the circuit, 14 touch and goes this morning with Stephen. Jake has had me flying with trim and power, Stephen without trim at all.




The Americans are so much more relaxed about flying. We don't seem to do checks while in flight in these simple aircraft, there is a little more friendly banter with the tower and boy is this airfield quiet! In the three days so far I don't think I've shared the circuit with anyone for long. People are using their aircraft to do stuff and there aren't any other students at 7am. There is only one altitude measurement - Qfe so circuits are at 1700ft (1000ft above the airfield)





One of my favourite moments was landing for fuel at another airfield - Cleburne (KCPT). A biggish airfield with no tower or control and a very lonely by-way service station feel. While 5-Bravo-Charlie was refueled we had time for a friendly welcome chat and a look at the curiosity cabinet before heading back to Spinks.

I've just been for an FAA medical (another £50!) since both Jake and Stephen seem to think I will be able to solo by the end of the week. I'm now an official US Student Pilot!

I'm sitting in the hotel in Fort Worth at the moment looking at the rain lashing against the windows. The weather so far has been great - 10 miles visibility and low winds. Hope this clears for tomorrow!

Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar

More Practice Required

I had a lesson last Friday and today. Hoorah for the weather! Boo! for performance. On Friday after a month of no flying we were doing circuits using runway 07 - the reverse of the prevailing conditions which made life a little more difficult. Suffice to say that I wasn't really very good. Tony's advice was that I needed to walk through the circuit again. A quick practice at that and I'm back again.

Today was a CAVOK day, the hottest since last summer I suspect, at 26º. That didn't help much. Too slow, too fast, too high and too low. All over the sky. I'll admit there was some interesting turbulence from the heat. Once again I was often behind the aircraft, not being ready for the next step. What made things worse was, say, missing the 500ft mark which mean't I went on to miss the 800ft mark and then also the turn onto downwind.

I have another lesson on Friday. The forecast for the week looks good, I must concentrate and do better. I also need to learn the downwind checks properly along with the take-off brief.

Finally - A Break in the Weather

Last Friday finally saw a suitable day for a lesson. I've had lessons missed because of bad visibility, turbulence, fog, snow and holidays.

This week's lesson started very shakily - awful circuits scarcely controlling a slightly different aircraft (G-BPTE), using runway 07 and a right hand circuit. However once the wind changed and we switched to runway 25 and a left hand circuit, it all seemed to pick up.

Tony said he was impressed with the improvement. I personally think he was just relieved to be back in one piece. There was a lot of rust to be removed and I think that was a good start - I just hope we don't leave it that long next time.

Happy Landings

Last Friday's lesson was the most positive lesson I've had for ages. I'd been watching the METAR all morning from the office. I saw the cloud rising, the weather clearing up and the wind picking up. By 3pm there was blue sky, broken cloud around 2000 feet and a 14 knot almost directly down runway 25.

We took off and flew towards Reading to get me into handling the aircraft and then returned to Blackbushe to do some circuits. For the first time I felt in control of the aircraft through the whole circuit. I even did most of the radio calls. My turns onto base and final legs were much more under control (except the last one where I think I was getting carried away)

Most importantly I landed the plane a couple of times without hands on assistance from Tony. A lot still to learn - there was a couple of ballooned landings, one go around but I finally feel I can see what I should be doing.

Snow Stops Play

No flying last week - Blackbushe is closed due to snow on the runway. Ah well, more time to prepare!

Here's a photo from 2010 showing Alpha-November with a bit of snow on her. This is Iceman's pic - hope he doesn't mind too much!

Cold, Cold Flying

Another blue sky winter Friday presented excellent flying opportunities today. It was barely above freezing on the ground and this week's lesson featured much use of carb heat. Tony said it was around minus 10 at 3000ft.

I was a few minutes earlt and saw the end of Tony's previous lesson in  Alpha-November, a spot of touch and go:

 

This week was more getting back into flying with a little climbing, descending, turning and slow flight. Air pressure was high - Qnh 1040 so Alpha-November positively leapt into the air. Maintaining and 80 knot climb was a bit of a fight! For a change we're using runway 07 so things are a little backwards.

Another fairly pleasing set up for finals ended up in another reasonable landing, with a great deal of Tony's input I should say.

Tony wants to do a few circuits next week so its back to walking the circuit for me!

Winter Flight

So that was a long break, five months this time. I really mustn't do that. To that end I've decided to run for a while with 1/2 day holidays on a Friday to get some regular practice in. I also really, really need to memorise some of the well know pilot acronyms and checks.

So after such a long break I was somewhat nervous. Tony chose a simple flight with some stalling and turning exercises. The mic on my headset wasn't working so I didn't even do the radio work. Thank goodness because I also need to learn that. It had been a nice clear CAVOK morning and was still bright and clear as we took off to the west, but huge stormy cumulus clouds were visible in the distance as we gained altitude. The manoeuvres went pretty well, hearing the stall warning, feeling the light buffeting and finally the heavy bumping before pushing the stick forward and going to full power to recover. A few turns as well, some to 'clear' before stalling. Light nervousness means I don't stay at 30°, easing off by a few degrees as the turn progresses.

It seemed like a surprisingly short flight and we turned and headed for Blackbushe. Traffic had been quite heavy and lookout seemed more important than ever. Approaching deadside "over the numbers at the end of the runway" to join the circuit at 800ft. By some fluke I had the aircraft set up and trimmed at 70 knots which after a bit of Tony's input we were down. Tony said it was my best landing yet - I'm pretty sure he says that kind of thing to inspire confidence for next time.

The Weather

Despite a fine looking late summer day I arrived at Blackbushe to be greeted by Tony telling me we weren't flying. There was a lot of turbulence, wind was very gusty and veering all over the place. Tony thought it was a good time to do a lesson on weather, specifically METAR, TAF and what Tony calls Wind Checks.

I'd been looking at forecasts for a while via AeroWeather and was familiar with the kind of information passed in TAFs and METARS but it was very useful to go though what I should actually get from them. I'm going to include a write up of what Tony said here for my own learning purposes.

METAR - Met Actual Report

Weather report from the Met office reporting current conditions.

The current report for Farnborough (the local service for Blackbushe) is as follows:-

EGLF 111250Z 21016KT 180V250 9999 SCT025 19/13 Q1005

EGLF - The ICAO airport code for the station.

111250Z - Date and Time. 11th, 12:50, ZULU time (GMT)

21016KT - Wind and direction. Bearing 210 16 knots. May include G for gusts and a speed.

180V250 - Wind direction variable between 180 and 250.

9999 - Visibility. 9999m or 10km. This is as good as they measure.

SCT025 - Scattered cloud at 2500ft. Just add two zeros as Tony said to Nicholas Lyndhurst. Sometimes two cloud entries when there are layers.

19/13 - Temperature and Dew Point. Tony's tip: difference x400 for visible moisture. Today 2400ft. 

Q1005 - Qnh is 1005.

Other weather types that appear:-

VCXX - Vicinity XX

RA - Rain

SH - Showers

SHRA - Showers and rain, can include be + or -

DZ - Drizzle

RADZ - Rain and drizzle

MI - Mist

BR - Fog (Brume)

SN - Snow

GR - Hail (Tony says they say Granite Rain in the US - Grêle)

RERA - Recent rain

FU - Smoke (Fumée)

CB - Cumulo Nimbus

CU - Cumulus

TCU - Towering Cumulus

NSW - No significant weather

This guy has a nice article on the subject.

Cloud types are measured in 1/8ths of the sky so:-

FEW - Few clouds 1/8 to 2/8

SCT - Scattered clouds 3/8 to 4/8

BKN - Broken clouds 5/8 to 7/8

OVC - Overcast 8/8

TAF - Terminal Aerodrome Forecast

This is a weather forecast and has a stated valid time.

EGLF 111101Z 1112/1120 21016KT 9999 SCT020 TEMPO 1112/1120 20018G28KT

Station, date & time, wind, visibility, cloud are the same at the METAR

1112/1120 - valid time. In this case 11th 12:00 to 20:00.

TEMPO - Temporary condition which is no more than half of the forecast time

BECMG - Becoming, condition will change to.

PROB30 - Might happen

PROB40 - Probably happen. 

Wind Check

How we calculate the cross wind component. 

This is very important and based on the aircraft type we're flying. The ratings for familiar aircraft are:-

PA28 17-20 kts

C152 12 kts

We use the Clock Code to get the cross wind amount. Using runway 25 i.e. bearing of 250±10°

Wind 220 @ 40 kts. 30° difference. 30 is half clock face, so cross wind is half ∴ 20 kts.

Wind 210 @ 30 kts. 40° difference. 40 is 2/3 clock face, so 2/3 cross wind ∴ 20 kts.

Approach speed

If the wind is gusting we add 1/2 the difference in wind to the approach speed.

Thus 220 20 G30. Difference 10 means our approach speed needs 5 extra knots.

This is important on shorter runways. A PA28 has Vapp  of 70kts and Vatt 65kts. 1 knot difference is about 100ft stopping space on the runway.