More Solo Action

I finally flew again after my first solo - two missed weeks with weather and work. Friday had been a great day so far, I'd had the morning off as well and got my hands on an iPhone 5s. It was a bright day with variable light winds and runway 25 was in use. As I arrived I noticed there were none of the familiar PA28's parked. Normally this means someone is having a lesson and probably one of them is off for a service. There was a stranger, G-BXWO was parked in the club's space.

Inside only Barrie was around - he said he'd be doing the lesson as Steve was engaged. Steve had mentioned beginning the navigation exercises which I loved the idea of, but Barrie said we'd do some circuits and most importantly if he was happy he'd send me solo again! The mysterious new bird was to be our aircraft so off I went to Alpha check her. She'd just arrived that morning and he warned me that the pilot who had delivered her had flown his whole journey on one tank. Whisky Oscar has a few more niceties than my regular pair of PA28's. She's fitted with door stops, sun visors, a transponder (!), her air speed indicator is in knots and she is in a much tidier condition. It looked to me like she'd been operating from a farm strip - grass in the tire tread and bird droppings all over the stabilator.

I flew three circuits with Barrie and after dropping him back at the club was send off on my own for another three. The crosswind caught me out on the first circuit with Barrie and my landing was a bit messy, but the wind dropped entirely for every other circuit and I had a great flight with Barrie praising the neatness of my circuits. The airspace was a little more crowded than my solo day but nothing that made me uncomfortable.

Barrie recommended that next time I go solo into the local area to get a feel for that! That would be awesome. I have some holiday to burn so I'll try to get an additional lesson in this week.

I'm pretty sure that this is a shot of me taxiing out with Barrie clearly visible in the right seat.

Solo!

Sunny day from Tango Echo
 our local floatplane Sierra Lima

So after all of the previous week's nonsense I finally flew my UK solo on 30th August. Another of our sunny days - this time with the addition of a 9kt wind pretty much straight down runway 25. Today's choice of aircraft was Tango-Echo.

Steve asked me to check the aircraft and refuel if I thought she needed it. I thought she was on about half tabs and hearing many instructors voices in my head "It's better to have too much fuel that too little" and knowing Steve might be a while I thought I'd go and top up. Positioning in the queue for fuel was a bit far out, so I had to start her again to move up to the bowser. Refueling was done just in time for Steve to come over and sign for the fuel. Starting her a a bit of a bind - 'we' flooded her for her third start of the sortie (I'm pretty sure she didn't need priming). Steve showed me a technique for starting a flooded aircraft - went a bit over my head but I'll look it up! There was some filming going on of an AW109 so power checks were done at holding point Alpha - positioning so that we didn't roll onto the runway or hit any signs should the brakes give way.

Steady wind, down the runway

I flew three circuits and Steve told the tower we were landing. Once we were clear he called the tower and told Jamie that I'd be going solo.  Steve advised me to call "Student Golf-Tango-Echo" for my initial call of if I wanted anybody to know I was by myself. One circuit was my lot. Since the filming was taking place on the main apron I was advised to backtrack along the runway from holding point Charlie - all new stuff. Steve hopped out and set of for the club house and I was off. I taxied to holding point Charlie and called the tower to tell them I was ready for the backtrack. I was cleared onto the runway, taxied beyond the 25 numbers and did a wide turn. Again I called the tower - this time I remembered to say Student! Student Golf-Tango-Echo ready for departure.

My single solo circuit wasn't too bad - Steve had pointed out the aircraft would climb better and be more difficult to persuade to descend - boy was she ever. I was too high on finals but I brought her under control and landed fairly smoothly - described by one observer in the cafe as the best landing they'd seen all day.

So here he is - Captain Smith just leaving the aircraft. It was a sweaty exhausting affair but I loved every second of it. Another circuit please!

Captain Smith

Texas - the Return

Naw. Not really, but I have had a chunk of time off this week in an attempt to go solo in the UK. It's also quite hot and pretty humid so that fits the Texas thing too. I flew on Tuesday and Wednesday with the plan to fly Thursday and Friday (more of that later). I was also planning to knuckle down take the Air Law and the Human Factors exams.

So Tuesday was in Alpha-November (Ah! knots!). Runway 25 in use, wind between nothing and 10kts gusts. I had an average lesson - some rough landings and some okay ones. I'm just warming up I think to myself, things like remembering that the air speed indicator is in knots, so landing at 80 is FAR TOO FAST. It was a lovely warm still/gusty day with lots of thermals and air movement from the heat.

Wednesday was much better from a flying point of view. We started again in Alpha-November. Steve started her (she has electrical problems and there's a real knack to getting her going) but we got as far as power checks to discover she was running really rough on one magneto. Some high exhaust temperature running to clear the spark plugs proved futile so we trundled back to swap over to Tango-Echo. The flying went well and Steve was talking about Solo - until I mentioned I hadn't sat the exams. Even Jamie in the tower 'knew' I was going to go. Shame. Anyway that day I sat the Air Law exam and passed (82%).

The next stage of my plan was to spend the evening and most of the next day studying Human Factors and take that exam before my Thursday lesson. And so it was. 95% on that one - all ready for my solo. The weather was good, clouds at 2000 feet or so, the odd gust of wind - nothing serious. Alpha-November had an engineer just finishing work on her as I arrived and Tango-Echo was sitting there so all looked good.

The booking before mine, Brian, was about to take Alpha-November so that left Tango-Echo for me. However as has happened they couldn't start her, so he took Tango-Echo. I watched from the cafe as he taxied out and then did some very odd manoeuvres on the apron by the power check. He then taxied back to the RedAir apron. It turns out the left brake wasn't working very well.  Even worse he worked for the AAIB and signed the aircraft U/S in the tech log. It's only a suspected hydraulic seal, but it needs an engineer and won't be fixed until tomorrow. I thought I was done for the day, but Steve had put Alpha-November's battery on charge in the mean-time so we gave that a whirl. But she wouldn't start. Sigh. So that was it. Steve ran though my exam results with me and I was off home for a beer. Here's Steve fitting the 'charged' battery followed by the offending item. To be fair Alpha-November has had a long standing problem caused by having aluminium wiring rather than copper which causes her to discard batteries once they're down to 90% capacity. Any chance we could get this fixed perhaps Islam? I figure between me and the AAIB man they lost 3 hours flying revenue this afternoon alone. I'm thinking of writing a letter - that's how I feel.

Come on, Exams!

I missed last week because the weather wasn't great - low cloud and very strong crosswinds. I got as far as the cockpit but it wasn't to be as more low cloud gathered. I did have a chat with Barrie afterwards about exams.

I've been working on my Air Law exam in the last couple of weeks - a few more good sessions and Barrie says I will be soloing, but not without this and the Human Factors exam. So off I go. Work has been unexpectedly busy this week otherwise I'd probably have gone for it. A work course next week means it's unlikely to happen then, so maybe I'll book a shed load of time off the week after and sort all this out.

A did fly today however. Today we had Tango Echo using runway 25. A bit of weirdness with radios - people kept cutting over me. Once again I got to fuel the aircraft by myself - a disconcerting moment seeing the bowser drive off as I pulled up, but only a few minutes delay as they fueled a nearby R22. Barrie joined me just as I was about to start up again.

I was dealing with a 10kt crosswind again today - things were quite variable. Out of seven circuits a couple were awful, a couple I went around (much to the praise to Barrie) and the remaining three were close to being good.

A Great Afternoon's Flying

It was another hot sunny day last Friday. We were back on runway 025L - my favoured side, although after last week's lesson it would have been nice to practise maintaining height in the right hand turn. Today's aircraft was Alpha November - I just have to remember we land at 70 kts and since knots are the only thing on Alpha November's air speed indicator - don't land at 80 kts! There was notable effect from thermals today - quite lumpy sometimes and the odd random lift.

I had a great lesson, circuits were neat and controlled and approaches were good and I actually managed to focus on the flare and landing. Out of nine landings Barrie said I did three landings he was pleased with. You know you're doing okay when the flying instructor hardly says a word throughout the circuit.

Air Tourism

A bit of a late entry for last week's lesson since I'm flying again today.

As we discussed last time I flew with Barrie we went into the local area to practise some basic maneuvers - flying straight and level and medium level turns.

Once again we had a clear sunny day, although the wind was pretty variable and gusty. Runway 07 in use and we were flying my old friend Tango Echo.

This is a shot of Reading on the way back:

Things seemed quite different today. There was a normal take-off followed by a constant climb to around 2000ft and we headed west. A few miles out (and when there was actually breathing space) Barrie radioed Farnborough 122.5 requesting basic service for a VFR training flight.

We spent a good while practising medium level turns to the left and right. Barrie noticed I tended to climb on right hand turns - it's more of a struggle to look out on the right hand side plus I'm a bit stiffer on that side. All of this means I pull back on the controls slightly when looking right! This also explains why right hand circuits are more difficult for me. Quite an insight!

Heading back to Blackbushe - Blackbushe and Farnborough just visible:

The Fine Weather Continues

Another perfect day for weather on Friday. Again runray 07 but this time in Alpha November. This was a much better session, this time with Steve. He's always keen to get the student doing everything so for the first time I took the aircraft for fuel - look at me with my taxis solo! I taxied and turned into the wind by the bowser and he joined me once the refuel was done to show me signing for the fuel and noting the correct amount (not the big display). All good experience.

This week my circuits were a bit messy, but much better than last week's debacle. I was having a mental blank over the air speed indicator being in knots in Alpha November where Tango Echo shows MPH on the outside. I did the first couple of landings at 80 kts thinking that was 80 MPH or 70 kts - very shabby. We placed much more focus on the final and landing. As usual I'm landing too flat, need to hold off longer. The heat means there are some strong themals when decending over the car auction car park - massive piece of tarmac just before the boundary. I also made some more positive decisions to go around. Remember Ian, don't exceed 400ft over the airfield. 

There was another PA28 in the circuit with what looked like a less experienced pilot - they certainly were well over the 800ft mark - a place I know well! A couple of circuits were skewed trying not to catch them up so Steve radioed the tower and advised we'd like to cut the corner off, turning just on the far airfield boundary after the tower so we could nip ahead. This odd manouver once again spoiled my concentration for a bit but we were soon back on track. I probably shouldn't let this kind of thing get to me. We even caught them up again by the end of the session.

Stunning Day, Not so Stunning Flying

Last Friday was great for flying if perhaps a little warm. The wind scarcely got over 4 kts and visibility was good if not perfect. I mean look at the sky behind the control tower:-

For some reason I was pretty awful though. I couldn't do medium level turns without climbing, couldn't manage straight and level, was behind the aircraft all the way. We were in Tango Echo and using runway 07 (not my fave). We'd taken off for the first circuit when the tower said they'd forgotten to tell us about Class D airspace taking effect in 6 minutes. They were happy for us to fly as long as we set the transponder appropriately. Sadly Tango Echo doesn't have a transponder (nor pitot heat, nor landing light) so we had to land for 35 minutes until the restriction cleared. Normally this restriction is because of a Royal Flight, the cynical story in the club house was that Prince Andrew was off to play golf. Once cleared we rushed to the aircraft, dashed off the checks and galloped into the air. All of this seemed to put me on the back foot though. All too high, trying too hard to get down and generally making a hash of things.

Barrie said next time we'd go into the local area and practice these 'easy' manuouvers until they were polished. Fair enough. I think on reflection I was feeling a bit under the weather and the heat, lesson disruption and right hand circuit didn't help - one to consider for the future I think.

I'd seriously like to spend a whole week doing lessons but my immediate work schedule is going to make that difficult.