Fear of the Ground

I had a very good lesson with Barrie on Friday. It was bright and overcast with a layer of cloud at 3000ft. Wind was around almost straight down the runway at 10 kts and we were using runway 07 - not my traditional favourite though it worked out pretty well today.  There wasn't much messing around, alpha check and we were off. I entirely missed the pre-flight power checks while Barrie tried to sort out some static on the radio. Oops. The first circuit was a bit rough and the second was marred by somebody in a C152 cutting in front of us not leaving much room and forcing a bit of slow flight to let him land. My circuits were okay and my setup and approach seemed to be working. However once again my tendency to pull back on the stick while on finals rises its head again - too slow and too low. Barrie told me it's quite common - the instinct to pull away from the ground as one gets close. He came up with the idea to put his hand behind the stick to stop me if I pull back. After a couple of circuits it started to work and I had a great lesson. Anyway here's G-BPTE waiting for me.

It must be time to try again

I hadn't flown since September - what on earth stopped me? Fear of exams? Fear of getting better? The weather over the winter has been terrible and I don't imagine I'd have got that much flying in, but that's no excuse.

I have to take Air Law and Human Factors exams. Still.

Anyway I had a lesson a couple of weeks ago and another on Friday. Tony has moved on from Blackbushe and now lives in Florida so I have new flying instructors. I had met them and seen them around - it's a small club. I flew with Steve the first week and Barrie on Friday. Two quite different styles but I hope between them they can get the point across.

I'm back in the circuit which feels familiar. There is quite a workload as usual and I have got much out of practice. The weather was at least awesome on Friday:

My lesson with Steve last week included some crosswind landings - I'm not sure I'm quite ready for that yet, lets get back into the swing eh?

Tempus Fugit

It's been about three weeks since I last posted - how remiss of me. I've had two lessons in that time. Alpha-November is back from her inspection which I'm happy about.

The first had perfect still hot weather and my flying reflected that. Everything was much improved and I managed several good landings. The airfield was quiet - we're still in Olympic mode and not many people are up and about. We did land and do a long taxi back to give a corporate jet space to land at one point.

The week after that had strong crosswinds that were out of limits for student pilots - the first time I've heard that!

This week I flew on a Wednesday and things were a bit rougher. I need a better picture of the runway in my head as I come in to land. I was having trouble judging height and keeping an eye on the numbers, so much so that Tony thought I was aiming at the trees before the runway. Tony also emphasised the use of rudder and gave me a rudder 101 refresh brief after the lesson. I really don't use enough especially noticeable in a crosswind. Also many gentle prods to complete the Air Law exam which I've started reading for. Olympic restrictions have been lifted and the circuit was noticeably busier.

At work the MD (who has been a pilot for many years) has taken an interest and has been giving me encouragement. He's lent me a copy of Alan Bramson's Make Better Landings which he highly recommended.

Sunday Morning

A bright and early start for me on Sunday morning. Tony had a spare slot at 9am which he called to offer so I jumped at the chance. I had a pretty good night's sleep unlike Friday and was feeling more on the ball. Once again we're in Tango-Echo - Islam picked up Alpha-November for her service while I was alpha checking. Hopefully she'll be back for next Friday.

This morning was a visually impressive day to fly. Black clouds with showers dotted around the landscape along with excellent visibility (London was clear on the horizon) meant a great morning to be up there. There was a 10-12kt wind blowing straight down the runway for the most part and the temperature was around 15ºC. All of which meant Tango-Echo was climbing very well, especially compared to Friday.

After two lessons in Tango-Echo I'm much more used to her ways. A 70kt descent matches 80mph on the air speed indicator and the left hand tank fuel gauge doesn't work.

The lesson itself felt pretty good. I feel very much in charge for 90% of the circuit with everything up to turning finals pretty smooth. I'm still having a few little problems keeping the speed up and judging the approach. Tony advised checking out some cockpit POV landings on YouTube. Judging the flare was a bit bad too - again probably one good landing. Tony was full of praise for my pre-landing checks and most of the handling and airmanship. I'm handling most of the radio work now which I'm pleased with and I'm also able to stumble through the pre-flight briefing. One of the YouTube videos I found was an airline pre-flight brief and I get a better idea of how this fits in.

This week's acronym is ATPL - the checks just before calling the tower at the runway holding point.

A - Approach (clear)
T - Transponder to ALT
P - Pitot heat (not always required)
L - Lights (recognition strobe)

I feel happier and increasingly confident now. I've been reading around and checking the flight manual for landing advice. Reading the instructions? Whatever next. The Thinking Pilot's Flight Manual by Rick Durden is a great read and in one of his examples about a PA28 pilot's landing problems I couldn't help but see the same symptoms I was having. I'll re-read before my lesson next time.

Up, Down, Flying Around

Today was quite an interesting day for a lesson. Firstly although it was hazy and sunny at home Blackbushe had no sun and visibility was down to 2-2.5km which was okay for circuits. Secondly the Olympic restrictions are bugging everyone at the club. Viv and Tony were pulling their hair out trying to submit flight plans on the internet when I arrived, which left Tony in an uncharacteristically quiet mood. It hadn't helped that he'd been flying earlier with a broken transponder and Atlas didn't want him to come back to Blackbushe but remain outside the Olympic restriction zone.  I wasn't totally on the ball - not as good as last week anyway which didn't help. Add to all of this the fact that Alpha-November is off for a service and we had to fly G-BPTE with it's airspeed indicator in MPH, lack of HSI and really heavy rudder. I need to overcome these little obstacles - frame of mind; changes in aircraft and weather; minor lack of sleep.

We flew circuits for an hour during which time I managed one landing I was praised for, two hefty balloons and one when I took so long to get down we ran out of runway and had to taxi back to the holding point to take off again. The airfield was quiet - not surprising given the conditions.

In the end Tony was happy I was making progress and once again urged me to take the Air Law exam.  Challenge: I feel I still need to get a handle on changing conditions like allowing for the wind. I have another lesson on Sunday 0900 - lets hope the weather improves a bit.

One Fine Day

Look - nice light winds

An excellent morning's flying was had today. I'd booked a lesson for 9am but things were delayed as Tony was stuck on the M25 so we didn't take off until 10:20. However this week I did a much better attempt at remembering how to fly. Farnborough's restrictions were gone so the circuit was a little less cramped and rushed than previous weeks, the weather was calm - a 4kt breeze from the North and I was in a much better frame of mind. I'd finished everything for my medical; had been practising the pre-landing checks all week and had been swatting for the Aviation Law exam.


I did one rough circuit and then began to shake off the previous few crappy weeks flying. I flew much more on the numbers as Tony asked - descent speed 70kts and runway 25 markings. I remembered all of the relevant actions at the right time and even managed  to fit in an attempt at pre-landing checks every circuit. The radio work was almost all mine and I felt much more in control. Tony had me aiming before the numbers this week. He's even keener for me to do the exam and I think a few more sessions like that and things will be awesome. Tony even said he was falling asleep at some points today.

Back at Blackbushe

Alpha-November after my lesson on 6th July

So back in the UK and the weather has been spectacularly bad. Wind, rain and low cloud for three weeks meant no flying. Despite awful weather forecasts I have managed to fly both last Friday and the previous one which was awesome.

Last Friday I felt on top of my game - my flying was so much better. The circuit being used was 25L which after Texas felt much smaller. Blackbushe has a 4400ft runway vs Spinks at 6002ft or 5697ft at Cleburne. If you add to that the Farnborough Airshow flying restrictions this meant we were keeping a tight circuit, turning as soon as we reached circuit height at 800ft.

Despite these little issues I had a pretty good lesson, feeling much more confident and flying with much better control. I had a few issues with landings, mostly flying too slow at the end of finals, but hopefully those would be ironed out in short order.

They lesson ended when the very dark clouds to the west finally reached the airfield and poured their contents on us.

Last Friday (13th!) I flew again. Once more the weather forecast was awful, but my 9am slot mean I got the best of the weather. There was a 12kt wind blowing straight down the runway and things looked good. For some reason I wasn't flying very well though. Once again my approaches were too slow and (we later discovered) I was steadily pulling back on the stick as I got closer to the ground - my airspeed was dropping far too low. I think I was fixating on the trees just before the runway, rather than looking at the numbers. We finished early so that I didn't develop that as a habit.

My other problem was that strangely on climb out and turn at 500ft my turns were far too sharp - 30º. Tony explained later that the stall speed at 45º was 80kts - the climb speed and that 30º was really too close. A few little gusts of wind were knocking us about an we could easily change by 15º.

On the plus side I did most of the radio work this week with initial calls, downwind and finals. I do need to learn the downwind checks though. BUMFFILCH

[carb heat on]
Brakes
Undercarriage
Mixture
Fuel - sufficient for alternate
Flaps
Instruments
Lights
Carb Heat
Hatches, harnesses (seats and door)

I've also been for my CAA medical and eye test this week which seem good - much to my relief. I've just posted the eye test results so hopefully will get my medical certificate this week. As part of this I now have my CAA reference number, which will become my license number when I qualify! Both medical and eye tests were much more in depth than in the States with an ECG and eye pressure tests as part of the process. I have done a little work on Aviation Law and plan to take that exam soon.

My birthday weekend this year was a flying treat - the Airshows at Waddington and Flying Legends at Duxford. Waddington was mostly an awesome display of jet power, but I think Duxford wins with it's nine Spitfires flying among countless other WWII aircraft. Lots of photos and afterwards I found myself buying a new camera - my old one doesn't do these displays justice.

Solo Texas - Flying Texas Part II

It seems the weather in Texas isn't as stable as I'd hoped. The leftovers from the previous day's storm were still hanging around and I lost the fourth day of flying to some 900ft clouds, which since the pattern is at 1000ft isn't much use.


On the Friday my wife Theresa joined us for a site seeing tour over Fort Worth for my final lesson. Slow gentle turns around the Downtown area provided some fantastic views of the towering buildings we'd been looking at from the ground. Jake directed us away to the west where the airforce base he served at was located. I got to fly over the runway at 2000ft - it was a quiet day.

We returned to Spinks and did a few patterns with Theresa still on board and then Jake called the tower and asked for permission for the two of them to go up there. He gave me some last minute advice - Don't worry, they know what you're doing. They all hopped out and I was on my own. Three patterns was the plan and I was feeling pretty good. My radio work was a bit shabby - calling ground when I should should been calling the tower. That was quickly fixed with a quick Garmin button press. My first two circuits were below average, but I successfully perfomed the touch and goes without breaking anything. A few minutes of excitement came when the tower asked my to fly a right hand circuit rather than the left hand I'd been doing all day. That went surprisingly smoothly once I got over the initial shock - I hadn't heard that request before! My final approach and full stop were much better and before I knew it I was taxi-ing back to the tower to pick up my passengers.

Jake had his own special way of celebrating a new solo pilot - cutting the shirt tails. It seems to stem from his Air Force days. I hope that's a hundred dollar shirt he said! I've had a brilliant few days and Jake and his team have been fantastic teachers as well as excellent companions. I'll certainly have Texas on my mind for future US flying.

So that was it! My first solo. In the USA at least. I still need my UK medical and Air Law exam before I can do it over here, but the confidence and 8 hours practice in Texas have made the world of difference.