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FlyingForFun
10th Nov 2003, 08:07
The Private Flying forum is full of reports of first solos, qualifying cross countries and skills tests. It doesn't take too much time searching the Web (http://dir.yahoo.com/Recreation/Aviation/Training/Student_Journals_and_Diaries/) to find diaries of PPL students, or even the occassional FAA IR student - and we can't forget PPRuNe's very own Pink Aviator (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=90756). Only last week, another PPRuNer posted a link to his seaplane rating diary (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=107960).

But I've never seen a CPL diary on-line.

Whenever I ask anyone about the CPL, all they say is that "it's the same as the PPL but you have to be more accurate". So what exactly do you do for the 25 hours you have to spend in the air with an instructor? Which bits do people find easy or difficult? Interesting or tedious?

Anyway, here I am in sunny Florida (ok, so it's not so sunny right now - it's barely stopped raining since I got here!), a whole day into my CPL experience. So I thought that, if anyone would be interested in it, I'd write a diary and post it here.

Let me know if you think this would be interesting. If no one's interested then I won't waste my time with it, but if it's going to be useful then I'll post daily updates, describing the flying that I've done each day.

FFF
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Backontrack
10th Nov 2003, 15:15
FFF

I would be interested as I also started my CPL last Wednesday and as yet I haven't flown at all due to weather! V.Frustrating as I've done approx 300 miles back and forth to the FTO based on the TAF's issued in the hope it is flyable, however, fog, mist, low cloud, generally poor weather all round, aren't TAF's great and so accurate....not!

I would be interested to see how quickly you progress in sunny Florida, once the rain stops of course......I have already thought it may be worth the trip so I can get the CPL done ASAP..Would also be interested to know which FTO you have chosen and why as my experience of foreign schools has to date not been that good, both in S.Africa and California.

Good luck and I look forward to seeing your comments.

Mobieus1
10th Nov 2003, 16:09
Hi FFF

I would like to see a diary- just to give me a bit of heads up before I start next summer and what the CPL involves exactly??
:ok:

QNH 1013
10th Nov 2003, 16:09
FFF, Yes please do write it all up for us. I certainly would like to know what is going to be expected. I am hoping it will be easier than the IR, but it sounds like weather is a bigger factor, particularly since I expect to start early in February.

Good Luck !

buzzc152
10th Nov 2003, 18:29
Go for it FFF, I think this would be a real benefit to people (esp me).

ps, what school are you at ?

Penguina
10th Nov 2003, 19:29
Oh, go on then, I know you're going to anyway... :rolleyes: :D

mad_jock
10th Nov 2003, 20:07
I bet is sounds very similar to a PPL diary.

Promise its is just a rehash of the PPl with a dash of the IMC, but with a UC and wobberly prop to play with.

MJ

FlyingForFun
11th Nov 2003, 03:29
Ok, it seems like this is something which people would find useful, so I'll give it a go. MJ - I'm sure you're right about it being a rehash of the PPL, but from my own experience, and judging by the replies so far, it would still be useful for others to see just how close it is to the PPL. (Besides which, I didn't write a PPL diary!)

A couple of posters (and a Private Message too) have asked which school I'm at. I'm at EFT, in Fort Pierce. It was a tough choice between all of the Florida-based schools, the reason I chose EFT was a combination of good reports on PPRuNe, and being impressed with the attitude of the instructors both when I e-mailed them, and when I spoke to them on the phone.

Anyway, here goes!

Day 1 - Sunday 9th November

I woke up nice and early, my body still on UK time having only flown in yesterday. A quick peek out the window showed that the rain, which had started at 9.30 the previous night, had not stopped. Great - I come 4000 miles just for the good weather, and now my first flying day is going to be weathered off!

But by the time I headed out for some breakfast, the rain had stopped, and although the cloud didn't look much higher than 50', it was visibly lifting as the sun started to warm the air. By the time I arrived at Fort Pierce airfield I was pretty confident that I'd get some flying done.

I was introduced to my instructor. He explained that he would not be my CPL instructor - that all he would be doing with me is bringing me up to the required standard to be able to start the CPL course. By having a non-CPL instructor do this, we could keep the costs down, since I would be paying less for his time than I would for a CPL instructor's time. He was confident that, since I was reasonably current, this wouldn't take too long. I was less confident, since the last time I flew I found that I'd forgotten how to do some of the manoevres that I had barely practiced since my PPL.

The first flight, he told me, would be to familiarise myself with the local area - have a look at the reporting points, local features, how to find the airfield and distinguish it from nearby Vero Beach airport. But after we'd finished briefing, the base of the scattered cumulous was around 1000' - we'd be able to fly above the clouds, but wouldn't have a clear view of the ground, which would defeat the object of the flight.

We quickly re-planned, and then did a detailed pre-flight of the Cessna 172 that we'd be flying before heading out for a soft-field take-off. The nose came off the ground almost instantly, and then as we accelerated the left wing dropped sharply and the stall warner went off. I quickly corrected with right aileron, and realised that I had forgotten to take into account the crosswind. With a 15G20kt wind, about 40 degrees off the runway, some into-wind aileron was definitely required. My first mistake of the day.

Off to the east, and climbing to 2700' between gaps in the clouds. The instructor pointed out two of the four reporting points - the other two were too obscured by clouds - as well as ways to identify Fort Pierce and Vero Beach airports, and then we found ourselves some space to practice some steep turns. The first turn, to the right, was pretty good, although as I let off the back-pressure coming out of the turn I pushed the nose forward very slightly, and lost 100' in the process. My instructor was very quick to point this out to me, but said that, apart from that, I'd done a good job. The turn to the left was slightly less successful, developing into a spiral dive at two points, but I caught it, rolled out of the dive, and re-established the steep turn.

There wasn't very much more we could do in this weather, so we headed back to the airport. The first landing was to be a touch+go. I kicked off the crab at about 200' and rounded out wing-low over the numbers. The landing was firm, but my instructor was happy because, in difficult conditions, it was perfectly safe. The next landing was a full stop, and this time I rounded out a touch high, and when I heard the stall warner go off I wasn't happy that we were close enough to the runway. I lowered the nose to stop the stall warner, but I should have done this with power rather than elevators, and the nose dipped a little more than I intended - just enough to wake up my instructor, so that although he again said that I'd done a good job again, I knew that I could have done better.

That was all the flying we were to do today - we decided to hope for better weather tomorrow. This suited me, because soon after lunch my jetlag started to kick in. We sat down to brief the next day's flight, and I found myself yawning towards the end of the briefing.

The briefing covered two things: PFLs (which would be the main object of the flight), and checklists. The requirements for PFLs are far more detailed than was required for the PPL course. When the instructor cuts the engine, whilst slowing to Vg, I will be expected to ask the instructor/examiner if the engine is on fire. How I progress from there will depend on his answer. If there's no fire, it's a standard PFL, but if there is an engine fire then I will perform the engire fire checklist instead of the restart checklist. After this, I will have to ask whether the fire is out. If it is, I will continue with a PFL (without trying to restart the engine), but if the engine is still on fire I will execute an emergency descent - basically a steep descending turn, with flaps (and, when I move to a complex aircraft, gear) down, at Vfe. Every 90 degrees I will ask whether the fire is out, and act accordingly.

The approach and landing itself is also covered in a little more detail than it was for my PPL, talking about exactly where the aiming point will be, and how it will change as each stage of flaps is added. We also talked in detail about the checklists, priorities and procedures - not just what we do, but why we do it (why we apply carb heat in the restart checks is pretty obvious, but why we never retract flaps, and what happens to Vg as the flap settings are altered, needed a little more thought).

When we moved on to talk about checklists, the emphasis was on having a formal, professional system for everything. We amended some of the standard checlists that I'd used (my instructor was surprised that none of my checklists mention landing lights, for example), and went through checlists for every stage of the flight. From the point where we line up on the runway, all further checklists are obviously to be memorised - that includes the lining up checklist, the rolling checklist, the after takeoff checklist, and the checklist for leaving the circuit, as well as HASELLL (if you only learnt it with two L's, like me, then the third L is for Landing light), FREDA and so on. I will need to learn all of these checklists thoroughly tonight, because I will be expected to use them all proficiently from tomorrow.

Today was a fairly gentle introduction to the standard of flying which I will be expected to continuously fly to over the next three weeks. It's going to be a long, hard three weeks, but if I put the effort in, it will all become second nature by the end, and will make my flying much more consistent, as well as adding a professional manner to it.

That's all for today - I have to go and learn my checklists!

Day 2 - Monday 10th November

The sky started off blue, but the cloud soon started building up - although it was much higher than yesterday. But the wind was going to be a problem today: 15G20kts, 50 degrees off the runway. We decided to pre-flight the aircraft, but by the time we'd finished, the forecast had increased to 15G25kts, and one very experienced instructor we spoke to who had just landed estimated that the actual wind was higher than that.

My instructor was ready to go, but I wasn't so sure. The wind was outside the aircraft's demonstrated maximum crosswind, and I could tell that it was very gusty without having to read a forecast. I told the instructor that I wouldn't normally fly in this weather, but left the choice to him. But here was a difference between PPL training and CPL training - the instructor would not make a decision. I was in charge, and it was my call. I decided not to go.

The instructor told me afterwards that he would have been happy to fly in that weather, although it would obviously have been slightly "sporting". But he couldn't fault me for not going. We had a discussion about decision-making, and we both agreed that P1 must not allow his decisions to be influenced by passengers. For the purpose of this course, I am P1 and my instructor is a passenger, regardless of what it says in my logbook.

I spent the afternoon exploring the local shopping mall. Hope it improves for tomorrow, but I think this low-pressure area is forecast to hang around Miami for a little while yet. So much for the Sunshine State.

FFF
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Evo
11th Nov 2003, 04:22
Nice one FFF, enjoy... and keep up the diary :ok:

Andy_R
11th Nov 2003, 04:35
Your usual informative writing FFF. Keep it up, sure it's of interest to many.

J-Heller
11th Nov 2003, 05:13
Nice one FFF, entertaining reading. Anyone starting a CPL in the UK soon - would make an interesting comparison.

JH

Obs cop
11th Nov 2003, 08:33
Cracking read FFF.

Keep up the good work and good luck.

Regards

Obs cop

AlphaGolfLima
11th Nov 2003, 10:53
nice reading - I appreciate you putting that much effort into
something like that - would love to see more such stuff here -
maybe one should give it a designated thread or some other
place where this stuff can be collected ?


keep up the good work !


regs

AGL

mad_jock
11th Nov 2003, 16:47
Go for it FFF.

I must admit it is rather interesting hearing whats in a SEP CPL.

I hope your brave enough to do the diary for the IR :D


Good luck

MJ

Send Clowns
11th Nov 2003, 16:58
Come down to EGHH, backontrack. I am a part-time PPL destructor, and have not cancelled a trip in weeks!

Northern Highflyer
11th Nov 2003, 17:56
Well done FFF.

Extremely detailed, descriptive diary, and on top of all the training too. Very useful for those of us that are behind you. Keep it up. :ok:

High Wing Drifter
11th Nov 2003, 20:25
A very interesting read FFF. Who said flying in Florida is a bad thing because the weather is too good :hmm:

Anyway, why not Blog your CPL diary here: www.blogger.com. If not it is worth a browse anyway.

:ok:

Penguina
11th Nov 2003, 21:41
Good stuff FFF, please keep it up, though don't let it interfere with the training if the opportunities to fly don't get more frequent!

Don't worry, sure the weather will clear up and you'll come back all tanned. :cool:

fonawah
11th Nov 2003, 23:24
Trully inspirational reading FFF, keep it up.
Good luck with the weather

eire_boy
12th Nov 2003, 04:30
FFF.. makes greating reading, looking forward to the rest of it.. good luck with the weather :)

FlyingForFun
12th Nov 2003, 07:43
I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying this - I'm definitely enjoying writing it. And it also helps me gather my thoughts about each flight, too. Anyway, here's today's flight:

Day 3 - Tuesday 11th November

Finally, I've had a full day of flying!!!

The weather today was similar to yesterday, with scattered clouds at 2500' and a fairly strong, gusty wind. But the wind had veered to within 30 degrees of the runway, and the gaps in the clouds were more than big enough for us to work with, so we went flying. The weather forecasters seem to think that this is the end of the bad weather, so I'm looking forward to blue skies tomorrow. I flew twice today, performing very similar exercises each time around.

The first thing we worked on were stalls: a fully developed stall in the clean configuration, followed by incipient stalls on a simulated base-to-final turn, and on a simulated final approach. No real problems with these, although it took a couple of attempts to get the pitch on the recovery to exactly the point where the instructor wanted it. (My initial reaction was to pitch down quite a lot, in order to ensure the wing is flying properly, but particularly on the incipient stalls this is not necessary, and results in excessive loss of altitude.)

The next task for the day was slow flight. I soon had the stall warner going, but the instructor wanted me to slow down even more, to just a knot or two above the stall. It took a lot of concentration to set the aircraft up for this, to hold it there, and then to turn with 5 degrees of bank, but it wasn't particular difficult. The instructor was sufficiently satisfied that we only needed to do this one the first flight of the day, whereas most of the other exercises we practiced both times. Steep turns we only practiced once, too, to iron out the problems from Sunday's steep turns. Much better today - not quite steep enough at times maybe, but no spiral dives.

PFLs were to be the problem item for the day. We did two PFLs on the first flight. The first PFL went pretty well - we had an engine fire, and it took a reasonable amount of time in the emergency descent before it was extinguished. (The instructor later told me that we were so high that the PFL would be too easy from up there, which was why he let me descend for so long before the fire went out... but I just thought it was fun!) Once the fire was out, I set up to land in a suitable field, and made the field quite comfortably. What I didn't do so well, though, was the checks. I tried to restart the engine despite it having been on fire, then forgot to squawk 7700, declare Mayday or do the shut-down checks.

The second PFL I tried to make sure I got all the checks in. My instructor pointed out a field to me this time, before positioning me in a roughly suitable place to start the exercise, to make it easy for me. I did get the checks in - but they were very rushed, and in the process I failed to notice that my instructor's "suitable place to make it easy" was (deliberately, he claimed, although I wasn't so sure!) far too close. Once I'd finished the checks I realised we were close and high, and corrected for it, and again we made the field comfortably.

During the debrief, the instructor suggested that I need to slow the checks down. Of course I have to get them all in - but not at the expense of flying the aircraft, which is what happened on the second attempt. So, during the second flight, we did two more PFLs. This time the checks were much better, with everything completed calmy and properly. But I failed to make the field both times.

I think the problem is multi-tasking. At the moment, I'm having to work too hard on both the checks and the flying, and I can't do both at once. I need one or the other to become totally second nature so that I can get on with doing it in the background. So tonight I will study the checks again, and make sure I know where to move my hands, what to say, and when to do each check. Hopefully when we try again tomorrow this will free up some mental capacity for me to concentrate on making the field.

The final flying task for the day was some circuits - with a cross-wind, of course. No real problems here. I don't get to practice in cross-winds much since my home airfield, White Waltham, nearly always has a runway that's into wind. But after a couple of days practice here, the technique is starting to come back to me. I accepted the criticism from my instructor about not using ailerons properly on the ground (remember the soft-field take-off last Sunday???), and once I made an effort to remember this, the landings and take-offs were much smoother.

Tomorrow, as well as revising some of the general handling again (mainly the PFLs), we will be doing some navigation, and we spent a while briefing for that. The technique they like to use here is the "1/2 way mark" technique, where you make a mark 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 of the way along each leg. I prefer the 6-minute-mark technique myself, since it's more suitable for legs of varying lengths, but I'm quite happy to use their technique for the CPL course. What I wasn't so happy about, though, was that they are insisting on me using the school's plog. I have two issues with this. The first is that it's too big - I don't like having an A4 kneeboard, and I've designed a plog which fits very nicely onto my A5 kneedboard which I normally use. We compared the two, and found that I have all the same information on my own plog as they have on theirs, but they won't let me use it. The second problem is that their plog is, quite frankly, crap! It's not immediately obvious which heading/altitude/etc corresponds to which leg. Columns that need to be filled in in flight, such as Actual Time of Arrival, are duplicated so that you need to fill them in twice. The column for the actual duration of a leg is nowhere near the columns for the actual start time and arrival time, which makes it difficult to calculate. It looks like someone has simply thrown all the information onto a piece of paper, without any thought being put into how to lay them out.

I have reluctantly agreed to have a go at using this plog. If I really can't get to grips with it (and I'm sure I will get used to it eventually, except maybe for its size) then I will have to bring the subject up with my CPL instructor and try to convince him to let me use my own plog.

Right now, though, it's homework time. I have more checklists to learn. The navigation checklist doesn't cover anything I don't do already (Turn, Time, Talk, for example, and FREDA) - although it includes some techniques that are specific to the 1/2-way mark method of navigation. I also have a "passenger briefing" checklist to learn. It covers the initial briefing for a passenger who's not familiar with the aircraft, as well as a pre-takeoff and pre-landing briefing. By the time I come to take the test, I should be able to recite all of these, and sound professional as I do so.

As well as the checklists, I also have the plan a navigation leg for tomorrow. It's a fairly short leg (30-odd miles), from a road junction close to the airport, to a point where a canal meets a lake. Once I arrive at the destination, I will be diverted, and will have to fly the diversion under the hood, making use of navaids to confirm my progress and my final destination. I'm told that my IMC rating will mean that this won't be difficult - I hope they're right!

FFF
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mrbungle
12th Nov 2003, 10:38
Good going FFF.
It makes excellent reading. Best of Luck with the rest of the CPL.

mad_jock
12th Nov 2003, 17:14
FFF you better get used to the A4 plog its what you will use on the IR. And when you write your nav log you will need all the space you can get.

:d sounds like everything is coming along nicely

MJ

Funkie
13th Nov 2003, 01:33
Great stuff,

I can't wait to start myself. Need to get the PPL out the way first though!!

Any chance one of the mods could make this one a sticky??

Cheers,

Funkie:ok:

FlyingForFun
13th Nov 2003, 03:52
Day 4 - Wednesday 12 November

Today's flying was a mix of very good and very bad.

Once again I flew twice. The main emphasis of the first flight was navigation, with a bit of general handling, and then some more general handling and circuits in the second flight.

The VFR navigation was simple enough. The instructor asked me not to compensate for wind, because he wanted to demonstrate how to correct for an error in the wind forecast. For the CPL test, once I set my heading I won't be able to look at my chart until 2 minutes before I reach each of the four waypoints (1/4-way, 1/2-way, 3/4-way and the destination). This seems pretty stupid to me - if I have an excellent navigation feature which isn't near one of these points, but the point itself is in the middle of nowhere, then I have to fix my position when I'm in the middle of nowhere rather than near the useful feature. I suppose the reason it's done this way is to demonstrate that you know the principals of ded reckoning, but it's certainly not the most effective way of getting from A to B. Still, the navigtion itself was fine - we were right of track at the 1/4-way mark because we hadn't corrected for the wind, but we soon fixed that, and arrived overhead the destination well within the allowable time.

The IFR diversion which followed is also not done the way which I'd do it in real life. I'm expected to use a ruler to draw my diversion leg and measure it. I will then take regular VOR/DME readings, and use a ruler to plot these on the chart. I have never used a ruler in the cockpit before, I've always believed that your time is far better spent flying than plotting accurate VOR radials. But this is not the way it's done for the CPL test, where accuracy is key, and without an accurate distance to your destination you can't give an accurate ETA. Again, though, there was no problem with this leg (except that one of the DME's I was using was over-reading by several miles, as we confirmed visually).

So, onto the general handling. Stalls were fine today, as were steep turns. PFLs were far better than yesterday - I did forget to do my shut-down checks once, and forget to warm the engine twice, but after a few goes I was able to get everything done. A huge improvement all round, and I was feeling pretty good.

Then we went to do some circuits - mainly glide approaches. ATC at Fort Pierce were extremely busy, we had trouble finding a gap in which to call them. Eventually we managed to contact them, and were told to hold over one of the reporting points, expect a 5-minute delay. While we were holding, ATC told another aircraft that they were too busy to accept any more touch+goes. We decided to head a few miles north, to Vero Beach, instead.

The runway at Vero Beach had far more cross-wind than at Fort Pierce, and it was pretty gusty too. It should have been well within my capabilities - but it wasn't. I managed to get on the ground safely after glide approaches a few times, but it wasn't pretty. We decided to do one normal, powered approach and then head home. And that's when it all went wrong. The approach was pretty normal - a bit high, but no big deal. But my speed control was terrible, and I came over the numbers with about 10kts of extra speed. We floated on and on down the runway, and eventually touched down over half way along it. I was aware we were running out of runway. What I should have done was get on the brakes and abandon the touch+go. But what I did instead was push the throttle in. That's right... no raising the flaps, just add power and take off with full flaps. As soon as I realised my mistake I went to raise the flaps - which resulted in the instructor having to stop me before we sank back onto the runway, and also resulted in my getting a very well-deserved b0ll0cking.

We flew back to Fort Pierce, and I managed a pretty good landing to finish off with. The conclusion from the Vero Beach incident was that it was poor decision-making. When running out of runway, the best decision is to stop. My instructor told me not to worry about it, to learn from it and move on. Well, I have learnt from it, and I have moved on - but it's hard to not worry about it. I really should be beyond the point where I can make stupid mistakes like that.

Anyway, other than this incident, I'm now at pre-CPL standard. Tomorrow morning's flight is an extra flight - not something that's required, but something I'm looking forward to just the same. You can read all about it tomorrow! And then in the afternoon I start my CPL training for real.

FFF
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High Wing Drifter
13th Nov 2003, 04:53
FFF,

Something funny happens to me when an instructor sits next to me - I become ever so slighty more stupid than I was before. God knows what it is and I hope I can shake it. Basically, I know exactly the situations you describe, except probably a little more so and in PPL form :}

I have to say, this is great reading made especially good by the honest warts'n'all descriptions.

I'll be URLing in for tomorrows thrilling installment :D

HWD.

P.S. All we need now is Pilot Pete to continue his tales from the right seat :)

Northern Highflyer
13th Nov 2003, 17:21
FFF

Nice to know I am not the only one that makes basic errors (even though I am not doing CPL yet). I would much prefer to fly with someone who makes errors, admits to them and learns from them, rather than someone who believes they are perfect and never do anything wrong. I still make errors akin to someone with about 5 hours TT and beat myself up about it at times.

Sounds like you are having a great time and learning a lot.

Enjoy tomorrow.

NHF :ok:

Hufty
13th Nov 2003, 18:22
Great idea!

I'm starting my CPL at EFT soon too so it is interesting to hear how you're getting on.

Good luck with it all (especially the wx.) and I look forward to the next post!!

Hufty.

wbryce
13th Nov 2003, 20:16
Very intreasting FFF

Ive just sat and read your diary, will be planning to check this topic every day to tune into whats happening!

Keep up the good work

Penguina
13th Nov 2003, 20:22
Hi FFF,

Keep writing, this is excellent. Amazing what the presence of an instructor (esp. a new one) and completely unfamiliar surroundings can do, really, isn't it? You make the silly daft mistakes instead of the long-term complacent mistakes!

Looking forward to the next installment (oh, and well done on cracking the PFLs - sorted that out quickly, didn't you?!)

P

Fancy Navigator
13th Nov 2003, 21:21
Very informative, FFF, Keep it up:D

FlyingForFun
14th Nov 2003, 06:56
Thanks for the encouragement everyone. HWD said that he becomes "ever so slightly more stupid" when sat next to an instructor. I can relate to that I think :D However, the point of the CPL course is that the guy sat next to me is not an instructor, he's a passenger. I think that this is maybe even more important than the increased level of accuracy that everyone else talks about... it's all about changing the way you think about, and approach, your flying - doing everything methodically and professionally.

Anyway, a much better day today, having learnt the lessons from yesterday. Here's today's flight:

Day 5 - Thursday 13 November

Well, I didn't manage to do my bonus flight today.

You don't need an FAA license to do the CPL course, since there is no need to log any P1 time. But I thought that, since I'm in the USA, it was a good opportunity to replace my FAA license which I carelessly lost a year or so ago. That required a visit to the FSDO at Orlando. When I mentioned that I'd need a morning off to drive to Orlando, the instructor suggested we could fly there, if I didn't mind the extra cost. Cool - I was definitely up for that! The biggest airport I've flown into so far is Tucson International in Arizona. Orlando is huge by comparison, definitely an experience that I wanted. Plus I hoped to get some good aerial shots of Disney World on the way!

Well, I woke up nice and early and got a weather briefing. Although it was beautiful weather in Fort Pierce, the forecast for Orlando was fog. Sanford airport - just a few miles north of Orlando - was already reporting IMC conditions, and it was drifting south. We still had the option of going IFR, though, so I asked the briefer to give me the Notams. I'd managed to book my appointment at the FSDO for the day when the President was in Orlando - there was a huge restricted area which would effectively make it impossible for us to get home if I was delayed at the FSDO. So we had to scrap that idea, and I went by car instead - and Tucson is still the biggest airport in my logbook.

Once I got back from Orlando, it was time to start the CPL course. I sat down with my new instructor, and we spent some time going over the course. It is much more formal than I'm used to - the contents of every flight is pre-arranged, and planned to the nearest 0.1 hours, such that it works out at exactly 25 hours. Of course it's always possible that I'll have to re-do a part of one lesson, or even the whole lesson if it goes really badly, but obviously I'm hoping that doesn't happen, and that I finish the course in the minimum amount of time.

The first CPL flight is a very easy flight - climbs, descents, turns, climbing and descending turns and so on. It's basically a revision of some of the PPL stuff which we use every day, except that it requires more accuracy. I was asked to transition from a Vx climb to a Vy climb, level off at specified altitudes, turn in the climb (being sure to maintain Vy speed) and so on. We reviewed climbs with flaps, comparing the attitude to clean climbs. Descents had to be at a specified airspeed, something which I've never had to do before other than during an approach, but turned out to be very easy. We also did some glide descents, not aiming anywhere in particular, but watching where the aiming point was and how it moved as we added flaps. And we did some straight-in approaches to a runway-shaped field, starting at whatever height and distance my instructor felt like, and judging how much power and flap to use.

I had no problem with any of this, and we headed back to the airfield. On the first approach, there was an aircraft holding short of the runway waiting to depart after we'd landed. At about 100' my instructor told me that the aircraft had just taxied onto the runway, so I went around, and landed off of the next approach. I'd be lying if I said I was totally relaxed as I rounded out, after yesterday's experience, but I'd had plenty of time to reflect on yesterday and put it behind me, so I made a concious effort to concentrate on the picture, focus my attention in the right place, and flare nicely. The landing wasn't the best ever, but it was certainly good. Much happier than yesterday, we taxied in.

During the de-brief, my instructor told me that he was happy with my performance. He commented on the fact that my lookout was good, which I was very pleased with because that's something I've been criticised for in the past, especially in high-wing aircraft. His biggest negative point was in my use of checklists. I'd missed a couple of points in the 300' checklist, and forgotten to do the 1000' checklist on the departure. But he also wants me to start talking through my checks before climbing, descending and so on. Of course I will always check that the mixture is rich and the carb heat is cold before I start a climb, but he wants me to say these things out loud - or at least point to the controls so that the examiner can see that I'm checking them. He also wants me to add a check of Ts and Ps before performing these manoevres, which isn't something I've ever done before but makes perfect sense, so I'll need to make sure I remember that in future.

Tomorrow, we have two flights planned. The first is circuits, and the second is a cross-country which I will be planning tonight. We will be visiting two airfields, and crossing some military areas, so I'll need to have all the frequencies and procedures planned, as well as the distances, headings and times.

The first 1.2 hours towards the 25 hours that I need was pretty easy. I've been warned that the next couple of lessons are easy, too, but that it gets harder after that - not only do the exercises become more demanding, but the captaincy part of the course will become more and more significant as I have to stop treating the guy sitting next to me like an instructor and start treating him like a fare-paying passenger. But right now I'm pleased that I performed well, and my confidence has been restored before any more damage was done.

FFF
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VFE
14th Nov 2003, 07:57
Fantastic idea you've got here FFF. Just wish I'd thought of it before starting my CPL. If nothing else it ensures the school won't dick you around for fear of bad publicity.

Very cunning sir!

VFE.

*. . . .makes mental note to do the same if possible on IR*

SpeedBird 001
14th Nov 2003, 08:30
FFF,

For what it is worth - I'm a 22 year old PPl holder just starting my ATPL ground school. I've alreqady taken your advice and gone with Bristol. It means alot to get some TRUE feedback from the flying aspect of the CPL course. Now that you have provided us with the practicle side of things, I wonder if anyone out there will be so kind as to give us a run through in the ground school!! Cheers for any advice in advance and thanx FFF for the run through!!!! I know a documentary + CPL training aint easy:p

All the best

Speed Bird 001 :ok:

FlyingForFun
15th Nov 2003, 05:18
Speedbird, you want a run-through of the ground school? Study, study, study and more study should about cover it! :D Good luck with it.

VFE - I'm not that devious, but now you mention it, that is a nice side benefit, isn't it? Actually, if anyone at the school is reading this, they haven't said anything to me about it yet. At least one instructor has mentioned PPRuNe, though, so I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

Day 5 - Friday 14 November

The first of today's flights was circuits, and in this flight I discovered the eccentricity of the Florida wind. The ATIS informed us that runway 27 was in use. By the time we'd called for taxy clearance, the runway in use had changed to 32. After a couple of circuits, the wind started changing speed and direction pretty much every 30 seconds, which resulted in some interesting non-standard r/t by the controller as he tried to let everyone in the circuit know what their wind components were. ("N123 you're cleared to land, wind is, um, er, looks like it's just swinging around to 050 - no, it's back at 010 about 10 to 15 knots. You guys better be careful out there!") Eventually, he decided to switch to runway 9, and stayed there for the rest of the day.

During all of this, I was doing a combination of flapless, glide, and "normal" (whatever normal is when the wind is like that) approaches, and handling it all pretty well. (I did screw up when the runway was changed, but soon got that sorted out.) We also had a go at a short-field approach, but twice I managed to end up far too high and went around, and I wasn't asked to do another one. Interestingly, although my first few landings were good, they weren't quite perfect - there was just a little bit of crab left on each time. But as the crosswind component increased, the landings improved, and my final 3 landings all got applause from my instructor as the into-wind wheel touched first, followed by the down-wind wheel and then the nosewheel.

The de-brief was mostly positive, which pretty much reflected the way I thought the flight went. The biggest criticism was for not flying square circuits - I tended to drift away from the runway on both the downwind and the base leg. There is another circuit session scheduled in the syllabus, and during this session we will have to have another go at short-field landings, as well as bad-weather circuits (we decided that there was a little too much low-level windshear to be hanging around at 500' for any longer than necessary today, which is why we didn't do bad-weather circuits this morning).

And so on to the VFR navigation from this afternoon. The briefing was quite long, and pretty much reinforced my opinion of the techniques I'm being taught. The reason for using the 1/2-way marks, my instructor said, is because it's very easy to update your ETA along the route. That's true - but my instructor conceded that it's also very easy with 6-minute marks (your 6-minute marks become 7-minute marks, or 5-minute marks). As for the plog, it seems that most of the instructors at the school, mine included, agree with me that it's really not suitable for the job. I changed some of the column headings around, included some that were missing, and crossed out some that are simply no use whatsoever, and eventually came up with something which I thought was useable, and my instructor thought was close enough to what the CAA have authorised for no-one to complain about.

We again discussed the idea that I'm not allowed to look at my chart except for within 2 minutes of one of my checkpoints. As I said the other day, I think this is a rather ridiculous way of flying - but it was made even more ridiculous today, when my instructor suggested that, although I'm not allowed to look at the chart, there's nothing stopping me making a sketch on my plog to show all the main features along my route, and confirming my ded reckoning using that instead!!!

Briefing finished, and there was plenty of time before the flight for me to copy all the numbers from the plog I did last night onto a copy of my "amended" plog with the more sensible columns. Once again, I was not allowed to use any wind correction, relying instead on working out the wind correction at my first way-point. (I think this is a very good idea, by the way - obviously not realistic, but it's very hard to demonstrate to someone how to get back on track if they never get off track to start with.) And then it was time to go flying - first to Okeechobee, then on to River Ranch!

The weather this afternoon was absolutely beautiful - blue, cloudless skies, and visibility which went on for miles and miles. There was a bit of crap lower down which reduced the vis to about 20 miles, and was also pretty bumpy, but above that was the best flying weather I've seen in the week or so I've been here. I hadn't quite got the hang of sketching the important features, so the visibility didn't help me all that much when the few features I had sketched turned out to be those ones that are totally invisible until you're on top of them! But it's all part of the learning curve, and next time we do VFR navigation I'll have a much better idea of what to put on my plog in order to play the game correctly.

It all started to get interesting on the second leg, though. This was the leg which took us through two Military Operating Areas. My pre-flight briefing had established that only one of those was active, but we'd still need to contact Miami Centre to get through that zone. (MOAs in the US have a very similar legal status to the UK MATZ - there are no rules preventing you from flying through them without talking to anyone, but it's not generally considered to be a clever thing to do.) I dialled the frequency, and although I could hear several aircraft I couldn't hear Miami's reply. I climbed a couple of thousand feet, and then I could hear Miami loud and clear, so I called them up - but it seemed that they couldn't hear me. Either that, or they were just ignoring me! We tried the second radio, but again got no response. I suspected a radio problem, but my instructor told me afterwards that this area is well know locally for being a bit of a radio black-spot, especially in good weather. 20 miles away in any direction, and you can talk to Miami without any trouble, but this one spot was known to be a problem.

We were now speeding towards the MOA without having been able to make contact. I wasn't quite sure where I should be going, but I knew I didn't want to be going in this direciton. I turned to the north whilst trying to figure out what to do. And here's where the whole "I'm Captain" mentality comes into play. Right now, my though process was something along the following lines: Ok - my instructor has given me a nice easy navigation leg to break me in gently. It hasn't gone according to plan - not through anything I've done - so I'm expecting him to give me an alternative destination, or possibly have me head home. WRONG! The CPL mentality should be as follows: Ok, we need to get to River Ranch. I can't go the way I'd planned, so I need to find an alternative route. This mentality is not a problem - it's something I've done many times, whether it's been for a weather diversion, or because I've been unable to contact someone, or denied a clearance. So why didn't I think to do it today? I have no idea! I think it must be this whole thing about becoming stupid when there's an instructor sat next to you.

My instructor didn't seem to think this was such a big deal. It's very early on in the training, and he expects me to still treat him like an instructor to a certain extent. He was pleased that I'd taken the initiative to make the initial turn to the north away from the MOA - so even though I hadn't come up with a positive plan of action I'd still kept us safe. Not a big problem, but I think it's an interesting mistake to learn from for the future.

Now, I know you're all wondering how I'm getting on with my new plog. Well, the plog isn't too bad. I did manage, twice, to fly the true track instead of the magnetic track (on my usual plog I fold the true track out of sight because it's not really very much use in flight) but that's nothing which a highlighter pen won't fix for the next flight. The one thing I really haven't been able to get to grips with, though, is having an A4 kneeboard. It prevents me from having full, free movement of the controls. It's big enough that when I move it in any way it interferes with the controls and I need to grap hold of them before we enter an unusual attitude. I've also followed the advice of my earlier instructor and clipped my chart to the back of it, which means that I need to turn it over constantly in flight, and also rotate it. I think I'm going to try flying with the chart not clipped to the kneeboard next time - this will save me from having to flip the kneeboard, and will also avoid the problems of rotating it. (When it's rotated, it interferes with the controls every single time instead of just sometimes.)

Both of today's flights were really enjoyable. I'm beginning to settle down now, becoming comfortable with the local area and with the interesting local wind patterns. I also like my new instructor - so far I have only once had any doubt what he was asking from me, and that was cleared up almost immediately.

Tomorrow, we move on to the IFR stuff. I can guarantee the weather will be good - it's nearly always good when I'm going to be under foggles! :D

FFF
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FlyingForFun
16th Nov 2003, 09:01
Day 6 - Saturday 15 November

Today, my instructor was off sick. That wasn't a big surprise - both he and I have had some kind of bug for a few days, but while mine started off manageable and gradually got better, his started off manageable and gradually got worse. Fortunately, though, it was possible to reschedule both of today's flights with different instructors.

This morning, I flew with one of the school's managers. The lesson was full-panel IMC general handling, and shouldn't cause problems for anyone with a current IMC rating. As I predicted yesterday, the weather was beautiful, but I had to put some foggles on and we started off with straight+level flight. Then we did climbing and descending at specified airspeeds, before doing a couple of rate one turns. No problems there, so we moved on to steeper turns, first at 30 degrees of bank, then at 45. The turn at 45 degrees of bank isn't actually required, but it's good practice just the same. It turned out to be the only difficult task of the morning - the trick, just as with visual steep turns, is to maintain the correct attitude, whilst also scanning the other instruments to check your progress, but I let the nose drop very slightly towards the end of the turn, and lost about 150'.

Now that we'd done all the necessary manoevres, the next step was to combine them. I was asked to climb to a specified altitude. Then, shortly before arriving at the designated altitude, I'd have to turn onto a given heading. We did several of these, both climbing and descending, and the instructor timed the turns so that, gradually, I needed to roll out of the turn closer and closer towards the altitude at which I was to level off. It's vital to keep the scan going - to maintain the correct attitude, and also to watch the DI and the altimeter so that both the turn and the climb/descent can be stopped at exactly the right point. But as long as your eyes can be everywhere at once, it's no problem. The task was made a little more difficult by the weather. It started off beautifully smooth, but gradually got more and more bumpy as the sun heated everything up, so I had to work quite hard by the end just to maintain the attitude - which just added to the fun, of course!

That was all for the morning lesson. The debrief was fairly short, since the instructor was happy that I could fly on a full panel pretty well. The things which I need to improve on centre more on checklists (again!) than flying. I missed the landing light on the approach checks, and he wanted to see more frequent FREDA checks too. But I can feel myself becoming more and more confident with the use of the checklists, to the point that whenever the aircraft is settled down I'm started to ask myself which checklist I should be doing. Not always - but sometimes, and that's a good sign.

The second lesson was with a different instructor, and quite late in the afternoon. We started up, and taxied out (and I forgot my taxy checks - damn!), and then did the power checks. Set 1700rpm, check the brakes are holding. Carb heat on - why has the carb heat lever come off in my hand??? We taxied back in.

Luckilly, because it was already quite late, there was a nice selection of other aircraft for us to choose between. By the time we'd fuelled and pre-flighted another aeroplane, it was getting dark - and I was about to log my first night hours of the season.

The lesson was an IMC lesson, but I was allowed to take the foggles off a couple of times to admire the night sky. We climbed above a scattered layer of cumulous clouds, and the view with the clouds and the city lights below us, and stars above us, was amazing. My instructor also took the opportunity to point out a couple of points about visual night-flying. I've never done any night-flying over the sea before, and I was amazed at how hard it is to see the horizon. It's very easy to confuse ships with stars and get a false impression of where the horizon is. Using all the instruments available when flying at night is always a good idea, but even more so over the ocean.

Back to the planned lesson, though. Some more advanced full-panel work, such as unusual attitude recovery, and slow flight (the slow flight caught me out until I figured out that we were on the back of the drag curve at 65kts - once I realised that it was easy). Then we simulated a vacuum failure, and it was time to practice climbs, descents and turns on a partial panel. All of this is stuff that is covered on the IMC course, but although I try to practice my IMC flying reasonably regularly, I haven't done any partial panel work since I passed the test, so the refresher was welcome and needed. It didn't take too long to get back into it, but I will have to try to find a way to work some partial panel practice into my regular flying when I finish the CPL course.

I was pretty pleased with my first night landing since last winter - not perfect, but acceptable - although I didn't make enough use of the instruments in the circuit and rather carelessly let the airspeed get a little low.

Hopefully I'll have my regular instructor back tomorrow.

FFF
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Andy_R
16th Nov 2003, 11:23
Frank, honest and informative. Keep up the good work FFF, sure we all appreciate the first hand accounts you are putting so much effort into.

High Wing Drifter
16th Nov 2003, 15:22
FFF,

I have nominated this for the BBC's "The Big Read" :D

Anyway, regarding the navigation. I was taught to do DR pretty to a similar method in my PPL as you are now. Basically, I needed to always mark down the half-way point (not quarter unless a very long leg), but this was simply to be able to quickly work-out a heading correction using my 10nm thumb as the half and quarter markers help you to make a glance estimation of how far you have travelled. The difference being that I was taught to only time to significant visual features, about every 6-10 mins as you do. My ETA updates are based on my arrival time at a visual feature with a judgement on if the ETA will continue to change (wrong wind) or it was simply being off track for a leg.

As for the not looking at the chart within 2 mins of arrival at a check-point, that is also how I was taught and still do it (more or less). I find it works pretty well, except it is pretty impossible not to think "Where am I" mid way between two check-points. My instructor was adamant that I keep looking out, rather than in. However, the lookout is something, as you mentioned, that I know I start off doing well, but will obviously require more constant practice to make instinctive.

Anyway, I will keep using this DR method in anticipation that it will be required learning for the CPL.

Cheers FFF, great reading :)
HWD.

Gin Slinger
16th Nov 2003, 21:17
Q. Why foggles and not screens? I'm guessing it's some sort of FAA requirement.

I've flown with both and find screens much more relaxing - foggles tend to push down on your nose and also prevent a proper seal forming around your ear with the headset.

Having said that, knowing just how many light aircraft there are in the Florida sky, foggles are much better from a collision avoidance point of view.

Thanks for doing this FFF - it's one of my favourite Wannabe threads ever, up there with Pilot Pete's 'how I made it' essay.

yeboin
16th Nov 2003, 23:32
This is great thanks for doing it FFF, really well written, good luck with the rest of the course.
:ok:

Penguina
17th Nov 2003, 00:24
All these people praising you for this diary, when we know how much you hate talking about flying! ;) :p

But keep it up; this is good. Bet wannabes is getting more visitors because of it.

SquawkModeA
17th Nov 2003, 01:19
Have to agree; you're a pretty good writer. Keep it up!

FlyingForFun
17th Nov 2003, 06:32
Penguina - you're right, I hate talking about flying, almost as much as I hate flying :D

HWD - that's very intersting. I've heard of the half-way method being used for PPL training before (I think it's pretty common, in fact - it's just not the way I personally prefer), but never heard of not being allowed to look at the chart. I know what you mean about not thinking about where you are.... during today's nav (which you can read about below), I knew that I was right of track, but wasn't allowed to get back on track - I have to stay within 5 degrees of my planned heading, even if I know it's wrong, until one of the pre-determined points where I can update it. Not the way I'd fly in "real life", and my instructor agrees, but it's the way the CAA want us to do it for the skills test!

Anyway, the more observant amongst you may have noticed that I have two "Day 5"s so far... This isn't deliberate, it's just that I can't count! I won't bother changing the previous posts, but I'll put in the correct day numbers from now on - so that's why there's no "Day 7".

Day 8 - Sunday 16 November

My regular instructor was back today, feeling much better. We flew two flights - two quite different flights.

PFLs was the subject of the first flight. Well, PFLs and engine fires. The flight was very similar to the PFLs that I did during the pre-CPL with the other instructor. The drill was exactly the same: "Is there an engine fire", and then respond appropriately. We started off with my instrucor positioning me nicely for a good field, then moved on to having engine fires at random points in the sky. Each time I found a field, and made it safely. (Well, ok then - one time I put the flaps down a little too early and cut it very tight, but probably still made it.) I was pretty happy.

My instructor was happy too. He had two comments for me. The first was that I need to think about the paying passenger sat next to me - he's going to be aware that something's wrong, and quite likely will be pretty scared. As well as flying the aircraft and doing all the necessary checks, I also need to explain to my passenger what's going on - that the engine has caught fire, so I've shut it down and we're going to do a forced landing in that large field down there. I have to do this in a calm, professional voice, even if I'm not feeling calm and professional about the fact that every field for miles is unsuitable!

The second comment was about my field selection. Every time, I picked a field which was suitable... but my instructor felt that I wasn't often picking the most suitable field. He thinks this is because my lookout isn't up to scratch. I'm spending lots of time looking ahead, and not enough time looking sideways and downwards (neither for emergency landing sites nor for traffic). He proved the point by pulling the power when were within gliding distance of no less than 3 private airstrips, and I didn't spot any of them - although he did admit that he does that to all his students, and none of them notice the airstrips, so I didn't feel so bad about not seeing them myself.

Now that we'd covered PFLs, I was warned that my engine may fail at any point on any flight from now on - and even if my engine doesn't fail, my instructor can still ask me where we'd land if it did, and expect a near-instant reply.

We had a break for lunch, during which I planned the afternoon's navigation leg. It was a simple leg, to a private airfield called River Oak. Once again I wasn't allowed to use any wind correction. After that, I was told to expect a diversion - but, unlike the CPL test, the diversion would be VMC today, using navaids to fix the position along the route.

At the quarter-way point, I correctly identified that the wind had blown me to the right of track, and I corrected. At the half way point, I correctly took out half of the previous correction. The three-quarter way point was very close to Obeechokee airfield, and should be very easy... but I managed to miss the two large tarmac runways at Okeechobee just off to my right, and pointed out an empty field just in front of the nose instead! No problem - my instructor helped me out a little, but I was happy that I would have realised the error pretty quickly. Having established that I was off track, I added a correction for the final quarter of the leg, and arrived on time. At least, I thought I'd arrived - the fork in the canal was where it was supposed to be, as was the road, but I couldn't see an airfield. I explained to my instructor that I was confident that I was in the right place, and we'd circle a couple of times until we spotted the airfield. I found it eventually - it's one of those "airport communities" where people live alongside the runway and have hangars instead of garages. Wouldn't you love to live on one of those??? But if you're looking for a runway, and you don't know that it's an airport community, it's very difficult to find, because everything we know about runways tells us that they won't be in the middle of a bunch of houses!

The diversion was to another private strip, called Adams. I planned a heading and a time, and set course, then began the task of tuning and identing navaids, and plotting radials. Suddenly, I found myself very busy. The aircraft didn't have a DME fitted, so I had to take cross-cuts from two VORs. One of the two I selected turned out to be out of range, which made me even busier as I had to plan again. Eventually, I got two radials, and plotted a point which was on track, so I was happy - although I had flown just a couple of miles from Okeechobee airfield at 2000' without having called them on the radio.

We found Adams fairly easilly - it turned out to be one of the three fields which I hadn't noticed when doing PFLs this morning, but it was much easier to spot when I was looking for it.

So the nav went pretty well, then. Except it didn't. Laterally, it went reasonably well. But vertically, I was all over the place. I planned to fly at 4500', with cloud bases forecast just above that, but I found the clouds to be closer to 2500', so I settled on 2000' as my altitude. Which was fine - except that I wandered around between around 1850' and 2200' the whole time. It was particularly bad on the diversion, but wasn't good on the planned leg either. I was particularly unhappy with this flight, mainly because of the altitude deviations, but I seemed to generally be slightly behind the whole time, and my headings, although accurate enough to get us where we were going, weren't as accurate as I know they can be.

During the debrief, my instructor confirmed what I already knew - that I was spending too much time navigating, especially when I had VORs to contend with, and not enough time flying. For my next navigation trip, I will need to make a concious effort to break everything down into small tasks, and fly the aircraft in between. Centre the VOR needle, then fly. Centre the second VOR needle, then fly. Write down the time, then fly. Place the ruler for the first radial, then fly. Draw the radial, then fly. And so on. As well as this, I'm hoping that as I practice the new techniques I'm being taught, they will gradually start to become second nature, and as I spend less time thinking about them I will have more spare capacity to get everything done. One hint from my instructor was to plot the VOR radials to the half-way point of the diversion, then select those radials on the OBS and wait until the needles centre themselves. I'll have to try that one.

After the diversion, my instructor gave me the engine failure he'd half-promised. Although it was behind me, I knew that Adams was within gliding distance since we'd just flown over it, so I starting pointing the aircraft that way. I then asked if there was an engine fire - there wasn't, which was lucky because it had taken me long enough to get around to asking the question that the fire would have spread by then if there had been one! I turned downwind for Adams, and then my instructor pointed out that I'd turned the wrong way, and we'd be landing downwind. Damn!!! A total lack of thinking, having been too busy being pleased with myself for remembering that Adams was behind us.

Tomorrow, I have a day off (it's normal to fly 6 days a week at EFT), so my next flight will be on Tuesday - so that's all until then!

FFF
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Northern Highflyer
17th Nov 2003, 17:31
An excellent read, and it sounds like you have had a busy week.

How many flying hours have you completed in that week ?

Will you also be doing your MEP rating as part of this course ?

fonawah
17th Nov 2003, 17:49
Keep up the good work FFF!
Just one question. Please excuse my ignorance but what are foggles?

Evo
17th Nov 2003, 18:52
Please excuse my ignorance but what are foggles?


Plastic glasses which restrict your field of view so you can only see the instruments. Used to turn VMC into IMC :)

jnp
17th Nov 2003, 23:15
FFF - you're doing a fantastic job, keep up the good work. I just have a few questions (apologies if you've covered these before);

1) What are the actual course costs (when you include all study materials etc) - are the figures on the EFT website pretty realistic?

2) What kind of accommodation have you got and how much is it costing - what would be a reasonable daily budget for food/lodging, based on your experience?

3) How much training are you doing on this trip (apart from CPL) - ME, IR etc, or are you going back for these later?

Hope you don't mind me asking these. Best of luck for the rest of the CPL course.

JNP :)

Keygrip
18th Nov 2003, 10:17
Rather hoped to see Day 9 - How I entertained myself on a day off in Vero Beach

Now, that would take some writing - but many people ask.

FlyingForFun
19th Nov 2003, 08:14
Ok - a few questions to answer:

Norther Highflyer - a quick check of my logbook shows that, between Sunday 9th and Sunday 16th inclusive, I flew just under 18 hours. I'm flying for roughly 3 hours a day, generally in two blocks of around 1.5 hours, but obviously flew a little less for the first two days because of weather. And no, this a single-engine CPL. The training is in C172 and PA28R, and the test will be in a PA28R.

Fonawah - exactly as Evo describes it!

Jnp - no, the figures on the website are not realistic. As with just about all figures, they are an absolute minimum assuming you get through in minimum time. But if you come to EFT having not flown here before, then you will need to do a pre-CPL, which is what I did for the first few days. Even if you're a perfect pilot, you'll still need an hour or two to get up to speed with the local procedures, reporting points, airfield layout, nearby features and so on. Remember, at the end of the skills test you can expect your examiner to vector you around and then ask you to take him home - so you'd better know the area! And of course none of us are perfect pilots - I was reasonably current when I came here, but still took a few hours to get up to speed before I started the course, but the less current you are the longer your pre-CPL will take. And once you do start, there's still no guarantee that you'll get through in minimum time.

Accommodation - I'm staying in a hotel in Vero Beach. I decided not to stay at the accommodation the school provides, for several reasons. I heard a few bad things about their accommodation - although they have since moved their housing to a completely different location so everything I heard is, apparently, invalid now. Also, I didn't want to be tied to the school any more than necessary, and I like to be able to get away at the end of the day. If you're looking to save money, then stay at the school's accommodation, and ask them to find you someone to room-share with. I don't know the exact costs, but I think it would work out at around $20/night. Maybe $30 a night including food if you can live cheaply. Those are just guesses, though.

And your final question - I'm just doing the CPL. I only have 3 weeks off work, and to do the CPL in this time is pretty tight anyway.

Keygrip - the way I entertained myself on my day off was to get out of Vero Beach!!! Answer your phone some time, and try not to e-mail me at the account I told you I wouldn't be reading regularly while I'm here, and I might just tell you more about it ;)
<<edit: not a very thorough answer. Beer? Friday, maybe!!(keygrip)>>

On to today's entry:

Day 9 - Tuesday 18 November

Today, for the first time, I failed a portion of an exercise.

The morning's flight went pretty well. The aim of the flight was to cover nav-aid tracking - tracking to and from VORs and NDBs. This was all done under the foggles, and once again, it shouldn't be a problem for anyone with an IMC rating. I was quite happy finding my radial from a specified VOR, then tracking to and from the VOR (careful - if you've just found a radial, then you're asked to track to the VOR, you'll probably want to twist the OBS through 180 degrees!). Homing on an NDB is no problem, and although I had to think a little about tracking a QDM or QDR to/from the NDB, it didn't take too long to remember how to do it from my IMC training.

Once we'd done all that, I took the foggles off and began flying back to base. That's when my instructor pulled the throttle on me. I was very slow to react, but got slowed to 65kts whilst establishing that there was a fire that went out when I shut the engine down, and when I began looking for a field I noticed the private strip that was conveniently positioned on my left - coincidentally (if you believe in coincidence!) the same field that I've had an engine failure near to twice recently! I was at 2500', on a wide downwind - higher than I'd normally be on downwind, but being wide would compensate for that, so I decided to fly a wide circuit from my current position. This was a mistake. Flying a larger circuit makes it very difficult to judge where you're going to land, and I ended up slightly short of the field. This was probably because of the wind, which had a long time on my wide downwind to push me away from the field, and then a long time on final to keep pushing me away from the field. Lesson learnt - next time, in a similar situation, do S-turns to get to a normal PFL-downwind position at 1500'.

The syllabus includes another session of nav-aid tracking, but my instructor feels that this isn't necessary. This gives us an extra flight to work on whatever we feel needs working on instead, so I was pretty happy with that.

Over lunch, I planned the navigation exercise for the afternoon. Just like the CPL skills test, this was to be a single VFR leg, followed by a diversion into IMC, and this time I was allowed to plan a wind correction.

Things started going wrong at the 1/4 way point, which was right next to a small lake. The lake I'd picked turned out to be one of those that's invisible from the air, but I incorrectly singled out a different lake. Once I figured out that it was the wrong lake (the roads near it weren't going the right way) I became fixated with the chart, trying to figure out where I was. My lookout suffered, and my instructor told me that I was steering a very constant heading 3 degrees to the left of what I'd planned, although I wasn't aware of that. The half-way point wasn't near any good landmarks - I knew that before I'd started. So the half-way point came and went, and I still had not had a single good fix on my position. I was confident I was on track at this point, because I could clearly see the large lake near my 3/4 point in the distance, but I didn't know if I was on time or not. I continued flying 3 degrees to the left of my planned heading (it just happened that the wind, from the left, was stronger than forecast so the incorrect heading I was flying was working well), and found my destination easilly in the end, but it wasn't the most confident navigation leg ever.

Then I was diverted to a mast which my instructor "wanted to photograph", and quickly went into IMC. I was in the same aircraft that I'd used before for navigation - the one with no DME - so again I was doing VOR/VOR fixes. This time, I was trying to break everything down so as to not loose concentration on my flying - and the flying, although not perfect, wasn't too bad (except that I kept applying left aileron every time I looked down at the chart - must remember to take hands off the controls completely in future!) Unfortunately, the navigation wasn't working at all. The first fix turned out to be well off track. I looked for the problem, but couldn't see anything wrong, so I tried again for another fix. At around that time, I got a warning flag on one of the VORs. I selected another VOR, tuned and idented it, and then started over again getting a fix. By now, my chart was a mess of radials and tracks, and I was getting stressed. I didn't manage to get a single position fix. On one occassion, I read a radial of 205 off the OBS when it was actually reading 215 - carelessness which I can only put down to being busy and stressed. Eventually, my instructor took over the flying to let me concentrate on the navigation, and I got a good fix, on track but slightly past the destination. While I was busy getting worried about fixing our position, I had paid no attention to the clock, and hadn't noticed that I should have arrived two minutes earlier.

It's obvious that I can fly an aeroplane accurately, in VMC and IMC. It's also obvious that I can get a VOR/VOR fix, and plot it on the chart. What I can't do is do both at once. I couldn't complain when my instructor said that we'd need to spend some extra time on this. I think we've just found what to do instead of nav-aid tracking.

There were a couple of other points mentioned during the de-brief. One was the lack of a gross-error check. The location of Fort Pierce, right next to the coast, makes gross error checks very easy - the coast will be on your left if you're going south, on your right if you're going north, and behind you if you're going west! It's one of those things that you do subconciously when you set heading - you will immediately realise if the coast is the wrong side of you. But I have to remember to say that out loud - and also add extra features like the location of large roads, towns, etc. Likewise, on the diversion, I need a gross error check when I set my heading, and I need to tell the instructor/examiner about it.

We also talked about the VFR leg. The main point to come from this was that I must not seem to be unsure of what I'm doing. We all know that we don't need to be 100% sure of our exact location at every point along the flight. We all know that sometimes features don't appear when you expect them to, and that some areas don't have any good features to navigate by. But what you don't want to do is tell your (presumably non-pilot, fare-paying) passenger that "I'm not quite sure where we are, but I think we're around the 1/2-way point." Much better to just stay quiet and keep flying the correct heading. When you do get a fix, you can update your ETA and heading, but until that point, there's no need to say anything - and no need to worry about it and stare at the chart either.

My instructor thinks that my VFR navigation will be fine after doing the remainder of the planned navigation exercises, and I think he's probably right. Today I made the mistake of thinking that I have to get a fix at each of my way-points, but as I get to use this method of navigation more and more I'll make fewer and fewer of these mistakes until eventually I don't make any of them any more.

The IFR stuff, on the other hand, I'm not quite sure what to do about. The plan for tomorrow morning is to put the foggles on, and then my instructor will tell me to fly heading XXX for YY minutes, and I'll get nav-aid fixes along the way. Hopefully it will come with more practice. I'm also going to try using finer markers to plot the radials, so my chart doesn't become too difficult to read under all the lines. That, of course, is weather-permitting, because there are storms forecast for tomorrow.

FFF
------------------

Gin Slinger
19th Nov 2003, 08:28
Reading FFF's words has reminded me just how tricky (and sometimes bloody pointless) some of CPL actually was.

The IR in comparison is a doodle. No lookout to bother with (except a quick visual circuit at the end), no silly cross fixing of radials (just tracking from one beacon to the next), and best of all, if your passenger does ask you to divert for an inpromptu photo shoot, you can tell him to piss off, because that's not in your flight plan ;)

FlyingForFun
20th Nov 2003, 03:52
Day 10 - Wednesday 19 November

No flying today.

I had two flights scheduled - one at 10am, and one at 2pm. At 9.30am, pilots who had just landed were saying that it was flyable weather. The TAF was telling a different story, though - FM1500 (i.e. 10.00 local) TEMPO VRB15G35 +RA BKN005CB. Several people were taking off to get a bit of flying in before the weather arrived, but I decided to stay on the ground.

Well, the weather forecasters were wrong. 10.00 came and went, and then 11.00, then midday, and still no sign of the storms. I could have flown after all, but it's always better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here, so I wasn't sorry.

At 1.30, I was back at the airfield getting a weather forecast for the afternoon flight. Amended TAFs for several regions showed that the forecasters knew they'd got it wrong. I spoke to a weather briefer for the latest information. The leading edge of the precipitation would reach Fort Pierce within about two hours, they told me, and the front itself would arrive some time after that. So I was pretty confident of getting an hour or so of flying before the weather arrived - except that the wind was 50 degrees off the runway, and right on the limits. I got the low level winds - 40 knots at 3000' - and decided that although I could probably fly safely, it wasn't worth it - it was going to be very bumpy, and extremely difficult to get position fixes, and that wouldn't do me any good at all. Well, the weather forecasters were wrong again - just 20 minutes later, the skies opened up, and I was extremely pleased that I was on the ground!

I did manage to get two things done today. First of all, I took a good look at the Piper Arrow which I'll be taking my skills test in. It's got an extremely good nav fit, which will make it much easier to do the position fixing. The RMI means that I can read my radial from a VOR without having to twist the OBS and centre the needle. The DME can work off the frequency of either of the two VORs - there's no need to tune it separately. The ADF needle is also on the RMI, so that can be used just as easilly as a VOR. Hopefully these time-saving devices will give me that extra bit of spare capacity to make things a little easier. But of course my examiner can tell me that my RMI or my DME is unserviceable, so I still need to be able to work with the basic tools that I've got in the Cessnas.

I also spent a while talking to my instructor, finding ways of making the task of plotting these fixes easier. I have now removed my chart from the back of my clipboard, and bought a different shaped folder to clip it to separately. This way, I can fold it in half to make it a more manageable size on my lap, or to stow it in the pocket by my seat when I'm not using it, and I don't have to flip the clipboard over to see it. But the chart is still mounted on a solid surface so that I can write on it easily. The new shape has a lot more space east-west, which has allowed me to have a couple of extra navaids showing. One VOR in particular might have been useful on the last couple of exercises I've done, but I couldn't see it the way my chart was folded before.

I have also discovered the central rule on my ruler/protractor tool. There is a pin-hole near one end of the tool, and a hollow space running along most of the length of the tool, with nautical miles marked along it. I have attached a pin to the tool, and I can now push the pin through the pin-hole onto chart, positioned over a VOR, and then spin it around to the appropriate radial. I can either draw the radial, or mark off a particular DME distance.

Of course I don't know how much any of this is going to help when I use it in the air, but by tomorrow the weather should have cleared up and I'll be able to find out.

FFF
------------

PS - Keygrip, beer Friday sounds good! :ok:

mad_jock
20th Nov 2003, 08:31
Watch it FFF you don't want to get a reputation for hanging around in florida bars with a bloke twice your age with a dodgy shirt and hair do. :D

Going for beers with keygrip is a good laugh, get him to tell you his dodgy MEP stories IFR into EDI.

MJ

Must agree about the IR none of this crap about logging all your RT and course changes etc

FlyingForFun
21st Nov 2003, 06:05
Day 11 - Thursday 20 November

The first flight today was dedicated to working on position fixing in IMC. I put the foggles on, steered headings my instructor gave me, and gave him position fixes. Sometimes he'd ask for a VOR/VOR fix, sometimes I'd give him a VOR/DME fix. A couple of times he specified the beacons I was to use, other times I chose appropriate beacons myself. We did this for nearly an hour. I don't know how many position fixes I made in that hour, but gradually I was getting more and more comfortable with them. It still doesn't feel natural to be plotting and measuring in between instrument scans, but it's getting better. The biggest problem now is that my scan is suffering while I'm plotting - not enough to send us spiralling into the ground, but enough that there's a chance I may loose my heading. One technique which my instructor wants me to use to fix this is to steer with my feet while I'm busy plotting, leaving my hands free, and this helps. It all needs a little more practice, but at least I believe it's possible now!

After we'd had enough of that, we did some unusual attitude recoveries on instruments, just to keep me sharp, and then I took the foggles off. As soon as the foggles came off, my instructor gave me an engine failure. I was totally disoriented, not knowing where I was and having just recovered from a spiral dive which my instructor put me in. But I was fairly quick to establish Vg and check that there was no engine fire, and then began looking for a field. I found one, positioned myself for it, and began running through the checklists. So far, so good, but then my instructor asked me about the wind, and I realised that I was going to be landing downwind. Or was I? No - I had actually planned it correctly, but the instructor's question put that bit of doubt into my mind. Even with the doubt there, I decided it was too late to fix it, and continued to position for the (downwind? upwind?) landing - but all this confusion had taken my mind off the flying, and I overshot the field. Lesson 1 - think about the wind. But there was a second lesson, too, regarding choice of field. The overshoot for my field was some trees, leaving me with very few options, but my instructor pointed out some perfect fields nearby, where if I'd picked one near the middle I'd have had alternatives in both the overshoot and the undershoot if necessary. So, as well as not forgetting the wind, I have to remember to look not just at the field I'm planning on landing in, but also those around it, and incorporate that into my field selection. An improvement on previous unscheduled PFLs - at least I responded quickly this time - but still lots of room for improvement.

And then it was on to a navigation exercise for the afternoon - to a private airstrip called Gamebird Groves. It would also be my first time going any distance to the north of the airfield, so I would be in territory I didn't know at all. I planned it all, and then checked the weather, and found the crosswind component was outside our limits. This is getting very frustrating now!

Still, the wind had been veering around all day, and I hoped that if we left it a while it would continue to veer until it was within limits for runway 09. We had some lunch, and checked the weather again later in the afternoon. The wind hadn't continued to veer.... instead, it had decided to back around so that it was now within limits for runway 32, so we were good to go!

The VFR leg of this trip was better and more confident than the previous nav trip that I did, except that I missed my destination by several miles. At the quarter-way point, I was on track and on time. At the half-way point, I fixed my position about two degrees to the left of the planned track, so I corrected for that. The three-quarter-way point was in the middle of nowhere, I had no way of fixing my position. But when the appropriate time came around on my stopwatch, I took out a portion of the correction that I'd applied earlier, and told the instructor what I was doing. But that's where it went wrong, because I hadn't taken out enough of the correction, so I continued to drift to the right. This isn't a major problem in itself, as long as you notice what is happening and fix it. But when I found three very distinctive lakes, and a radar head, just off to my right, I didn't realise their significance. I continued flying my heading, and when it was time to look at the chart, I eventually established that I was right of track, and found my way to the destination. But it was too late - the record will show that I was 7 miles away from my destination, which is significantly more than the 3 miles which is allowed. So how do I fix this? Well, the biggest problem was not correcting the problem as soon as I saw the lakes, and that comes down to the fact that my plog only highlighted features which I expected to see in front of me, or right next to my track - it didn't identify features several miles off my track. But when you are several miles off track, for whatever reason, the easiest way of picking up on that error is to be aware of what features you might encounter off-track. So, for my next navigation exercise I will make sure my plog contains details of as many features as I can find, both on and off track.

And then it was onto the IMC diversion. Did the morning's exercise help? Yes it did - there's no doubt. I set my heading, put the foggles on, and ran through all the necessary checks. Then I got my first fix, and found myself a mile or two off track. I corrected for that, got another fix, found myself back on track again. A couple more fixes along the way went very well, too. At around the half-way point I realised I was ahead of schedule, so I revised my ETA. And when both my stopwatch and my latest position fix said that we would shortly be arriving at the mast that I'd been diverted to, I took the foggles off and the mast was just off to my left, but only by a mile or so.

The IMC diversion was not perfect, and there's still a lot more work to do before it is up to CPL standards. The main area that needs working on is keeping the scan going while I'm getting my fixes. My instructor thinks that I'm taking my eyes away from the instruments for as much as 20 seconds at a time - I haven't timed myself, but I'm sure he's right. I also need to remember to do FREDAI checks between fixes. But, compared to earlier in the week, there is a big improvement.

So I'm pretty pleased with today. Neither the VFR nor the IFR navigation are up to scratch yet, but the improvement in both is encouraging. The VFR navigation is simply a case of making all the mistakes that I can make so that I can learn from them - today's mistake was a new one to learn from which I won't make again. The IMC work is more a case of needing practice rather than learning from mistakes - but we still have about five more navigation exercises planned for me to practice on, which I hope will be enough. And if it's not enough, we'll just have to do more until I've got it right.

I have three flights planned for tomorrow, because we need to start making up for time which we've lost due to the weather. The first of these will be stalling, but I suspect there may be some navigation later in the day...

FFF
---------------

QNH 1013
21st Nov 2003, 16:42
This is fantastic. I'm taking notes on all the tips and techniques, so I can practice as much as possible in advance of my course. Please can you give us an indication of how many hours you have done on the course so far ?
Thanks for the info. Best of Luck with the wx and rest of the course.

easyflyer
21st Nov 2003, 17:09
Thanks FfF - this is an excellent read - most informative. Good luck with the remainder of the course.

Re: the wind thing, you may already do this, but on my chart I chinagraph a wind vector - a quick glance at the chart reminds of the direction and speed, making those PFLs much easier and eliminating that downwind landing doubt!

High Wing Drifter
21st Nov 2003, 20:13
Good point easyFlyer. That is especially so if you always make sure the map is always oriented so that chart north faces north and not the often seen mistake of aligning the map so that chart north is aligned with your heading. As my instructor said: "If you don't, one day it will catch you out!"

Penguina
21st Nov 2003, 21:14
Blimey, it sounds like hard work!

Fantastic diary, though - looking forward to the next installment already! :)

p.savage
22nd Nov 2003, 07:37
Excellent FFF. Truly a fantastic insight into CPL training.

Do you have any pictures? Always interested to see the aircraft, facilities and your local training area.

Cheers

Paul

FlyingForFun
22nd Nov 2003, 07:43
QNH - I've done about 18 or 19 hours of the course so far. That doesn't include the pre-CPL, though.

Paul - no, no pictures yet, although I will make sure I get some before I leave! Don't expect them to go on-line until I get back home, though, because I didn't bring the lead that connects the computer to the camera with me!

Day 12 - Friday 21 November

The only thing on the syllabus which we haven't covered yet is stalls, so that's what we did this morning. There's really not very much to say about the flight, though - it was almost a repeat of the stalling I did in the pre-CPL. I remembered the third L in the HASELLL checks, but almost forgot about the Lookout (I said it, looked out, but didn't do a clearing turn until my instructor prompted me - oops!) Apart from that, though, the three different types of stall all went fairly smoothly. I sometimes got a secondary stall when recovering from the clean stall - must remember not to raise the nose until the airspeed has built a little. And I must also get into the habit of applying power at the same time as lowering the nose - especially on the incipient stalls, where the lowering of the nose is less important than the power.

Stalls completed, and I suddenly found myself with an engine fire. Shut the engine down, the fire hadn't gone out, so I began an emergency descent. During the descent, I had been planning which field to land it, so that when the fire went out at around 3000' I was ready to set up for the landing. I headed for my high-key point - and then realised that I'd planned my high-key point at the wrong end of the field! At this point, I thought I screwed it up (and so did my instructor, he later admitted), but I stayed calm and re-planned. I figured out which side the low-key point was on (the oposite side to where I'd originally planned it, and facing in the other direction), and headed directly towards it. I was a little high when I arrived, but did some S-turns, being careful to keep the field in sight. I was shortly turning base at 1000', and when I rolled out on final I was just a touch high, which was easillly corrected with flaps and a small S-turn. I made the field - by far my best unexpected PFL yet, despite the original c0ck-up. A couple more of those, and hopefully they'll be CPL standard.

After lunch, we scheduled the "extra" navigation trip which I said that we would do. In order to not diverge from the syllabus too much, my instructor was keen to do some other stuff, too, so he asked me to plan a very short navigation, to give us time for some general handling afterwards.

The VFR leg should have been very easy. Most of the leg was roughly parallel to a railway line. The private airfield I was looking for was just after I crossed a road, railway line and some power lines. And it was only 20 miles. The only problem was that there was no easy way of identifying my half-way point (the leg was too short to have 1/4 and 3/4 way points).

I set myself on track, remembering to tell the instructor about the gross error checks. I paralleled the railway line, and the clock indicated that I was at the halfway point. So far so good - I was confident I was on track, but it was hard to tell if I was on time. I continued flying, and about a minute before the expected time, I saw a set of power lines crossing in front of me. Excellent - I'm there! No sign of the airfield, though, so I began circling. Then I saw the canal off to the right of my track. I had expected the canal to be to the right of my track, but it should have been a couple of miles before my destination. I'd screwed up.

I pointed myself back on the original heading, and, around a minute later, I saw another power line - this time with a road and a railway line running alongside it, as I expected. And, sure enough, the airfield I was looking for was tucked alongside it. The mistake I'd made was not believing my stopwatch. The secondary mistake was mis-identifying the power lines - no excuse for that, I should have realised it was the wrong power lines because of the lack of the road and the railway - but this wouldn't have mattered if only I'd believed in the stopwatch.

Then it was onto the IFR diversion. I set heading, put the foggles on, spent a while getting everything set up, and did a FREDA check. Then I got a position fix. About 6 or 7 miles left of track. No - I can't be that far off track, so close to the start of the leg. I got another fix, which showed that I was paralleling my intended track, about 7 miles to its left. I selected a different VOR/DME to confirm this - but the second VOR/DME said the same thing. I was definitely left of track. I applied a heading correction to the right, and got another fix. A bigger heading correction to the right, and another fix. I was converging with my intended track, but not fast enough. I applied one last huge heading correction to the right, and then my stopwatch told me we should be overhead the village we were looking for. I took the foggles off, and, although it took me a minute or two to identify it, I was exactly where I wanted to be!!!

I asked my instructor what I did wrong at the start of the diversion. He said that the problem was that it took me 5 minutes before I did my first FREDA check - I spent far too long getting everything set up first. The DI had wandered, so for the first 5 minutes I was flying the wrong heading. That's what got me off track. Not a big problem, since I identified that I was off track, verified it, and corrected it. But it's important to do FREDA checks immediately after any "turn, time, talk".

Before we headed back, we had time for me to put the foggles on again for some unusual attitudes, and VOR/NDB tracking. No problems there, and I didn't expect any problems. I took the foggles off, and immediately had an engine failure. There was no fire, so I pitched for Vg and picked a nice green field. Looking around me, though, I realised that we were close to Adams - our favourite private strip for doing PFLs near to. I looked around, but couldn't see Adams anywhere. Damn - I know it's here somewhere! Ok, I can't see it, so I'm going to carry on planning for the green field that I've already picked out. If I see Adams at any point, I'll make a decision on whether I'm suitably positioned to change my mind.

I'd passed the test. My instructor had deliberately pulled the power on me when we were directly overhead Adams, knowing that I wouldn't be able to see it. But I'd recognised my position (having just been under the foggles), and made a good choice to stick with the field I could see. There was no need to carry on with the PFL - I levelled off and we flew back to the airfield for a couple of quick circuits.

After checking the logbooks and student records, we figured out that the third flight wasn't actually required today. I won't have enough spare time to have another full day off if I want to leave myself enough time to be comfortable, but it's better to fly a little every day than to try to fly three times in one day. So it was just the two flights today. What's more, we're coming up to the 20 hour mark. The course requires a minimum of 5 hours on a complex aeroplane, but the instructors at EFT find that a little over 5 hours is usually better for most students. So that means that tody was my last flight in the Cessna - tomorrow morning, I will have a familiarisation flight in the Piper Arrow!

FFF
---------------

FlyingForFun
23rd Nov 2003, 07:52
Day 13 - Sat 22 November

I woke up this morning with a very slightly sore head. I was pretty sure that I hadn't drunk enough last night to cause this... which left only one possible explaination. It must have been caused by the loud shirt which Keygrip was wearing when we met for a drink last night! But I checked the rugby result - nice one England! - and suddenly everything felt fine again, so I was good to go for my Arrow familiarisation flight. Although I don't have a day off planned, my instructor needed a day off, so I flew with a different instructor today. My regular instructor was, I suspect, happilly tucked up in bed after watching the rugby!

I had a slight advantage in that I logged around 20 hours in an Arrow a couple of years ago. But although I remembered much of it, there were still a few small details which I'd forgotten. For anyone who is completely new to the world of complex aircraft, though, here is an idea of what you can expect at this stage, based on my memory from two years ago, and talking to instructors at EFT. The world of complex aircraft involves two extra things, neither of which are very difficult. Retractable undercarriage - make sure it's up once you take off and don't have enough useful runway to be able to land back on it again. Also make sure it's up when you do a go-around. Make sure it's down when you do your pre-landing checks. Check that it's down on base leg. Really definitely check that it's down on final. And that's about it!

Then there's the constant-speed prop. Instead of learning RPM settings for, say, cruise, or descent, you have to learn an RPM/Manifold Pressure setting. There's also a setting for the climb, which you would typically set at around 500' (having used full power and maximum RPM for take-off). The settings which EFT teach happen to be exactly the same as the ones I learnt for my previous Arrow-flying. The POH will have tables full of valid settings, but really as long as you learn one setting for each phase of flight which you're happy with, that's sufficient, and that's exactly the way EFT teach it. Remember to move the levers in the correct order (mixture, prop, power to increase the power, or power, prop, mixture to decrease the power) so that you don't apply too much power for the engine speed (imagine flooring the accelerator in your car in 4th gear at 10mph for an analagy). And that's it. Pretty simple.

The only difficult part about the Arrow is nothing to do with its complexity - it's to do with its speed. The instructors tell me that most students have problems adapting to a 120kt aeroplane, and I remember from when I first checked out on the Arrow that this was what I had trouble with. That wasn't a problem today, though, because the Europa which I fly in England is also a 120kt aeroplane, so I've had plenty of time to adapt to the extra few knots.

We took off, pulled the gear up, reduced the power to the climb settings, and then increased speed to a cruise climb. I soon found the first thing that I'd forgotten, which is that as your altitude increases, the ambient air pressure decreases, which causes a decrease in the manifold pressure. You have to increase the throttle setting a touch every 500-1000' to ensure that the manifold pressure stays at the 25" climb setting. Even maintaining this power, though, the Arrow does not climb particularly fast, especially with two big blokes and full tanks of fuel. But before very long we reached a safe enough height to do some Vx climbs, Vy climbs, transitions between the two, and so on. Then we moved on to steep turns. The Arrow's controls are much heavier than the Cessna, and at first I didn't apply quite enough back-pressure and lost a bit of height. The solution was to remember to set the attitude and keep it - once I had my eyes firmly fixed on the horizon, and learnt to ignore the false horizon to the east where a cloud layer had formed over the sea, steep turns clicked into place quite easilly. We did some cruise descents and glide descents, but there wasn't very much more that needed doing before we headed back to land.

Check that gear is down as part of the downwind checks, of course, and then increase the RPM to 2500 when approaching the airfield. On base, check the gear again, and push the prop lever all the way forward (I stuck with the GUMP check that I'd been taught before - Gas (pump on, check which tank you're using and that there's sufficient remaining), Undercarriage (down - 3 greens), Mixture (full forward), Prop (full forward) and my instructor seemed happy with that). Turn final, check for 3 greens again, and round out for a not-perfect-but-quite-safe landing.

For the afternoon flight, we were torn between stalls and emergencies. But the cloud-base was sufficiently low that stalling would either have meant getting up close to the clouds, or climbing well above them, so emergencies won. A few extra things to remember in the Arrow. Immediate actions on engine failure - as well as pitching to Vg (80kts) and asking if there's a fire, you have to set the prop to fully coarse, so it provides minimal drag on the way down. Gear - most likely you will want to land gear up. If the field is at all short or boggy, or if you're forced to land on water, you will definitely want gear up. If you do decide to land with gear down, remember that it produces a lot of extra drag (this might be quite useful if you find yourself a little high). Also remember that the hydraulics are electrically operated. There is an emergency gear lowering lever, of course, but if there's any chance you might want to land with the gear down, leave the battery on. But the biggest thing to remember is that the Arrow glides much much worse than the Cessna, which reduces your options, and catches most people out the first time.

The instructor pulled the power on me, and I quickly set myself up for what I thought was a Vg attitude, coarsened the prop and established that there was no fire. I picked a nearby field, and made sure I stayed tight. The attitude wasn't quite working - I was a little fast - so I adjusted my mental picture of what I thought Vg looked like and corrected, before running through the normal re-start and shut-down drills, declaring Mayday, and briefing my passenger about what was happening. I did seem to be very high and very close, though - I had over-compensated for the poor glide performance of the Arrow! I did some S-turns, turned onto final, and was contemplating using the gear to increase the drag. But it turned out that the flaps are very effective at getting you down quickly even without the gear, so the gear wasn't necessary. Electrics off, tell my passenger to Brace, Brace, Brace, and the instructor told me to go around. Retract the drag flaps and check the gear is up - and I had another engine failure! No time to anything this time except pick a field and shut down - and then I was going around again.

We climbed back up to a nice safe height, and then had a go at an engine fire. This was something I don't remember ever practicing before on the Arrow. The drill is exactly the same as for the Cessna, except for the prop. Set up for Vg and coarsen the prop whilst establishing that there's a fire. Run through the shut-down checks, and then ask if the fire's out. It wasn't out, so I put down full flaps and began an emergency descent. What I hadn't done, though, was fine the prop. The fine prop adds drag, which will increase the rate of descent - which is exactly what you want to do for an emergency descent. Once the fire is out, roll wings level, retract the flaps... but don't forget to coarsen the prop again if you want to glide any kind of distance! It'd not difficult, once you know the procedure, so the second one we did I got right.

Then I got my first chance to play with the wonderful nav kit in the Arrow, when I was asked to get a position fix. Except that my instructor gave me multiple failures! The HSI and DME both failed. Then Nav 2 failed. And when I tried to tune Nav 1, I found that it was jammed, so I could only use the Vero Beach VOR!

It was time to see what I had available. I had a working RMI. I could use the Vero Beach VOR, and I also had an ADF, which I tuned to Fort Pierce. And suddenly the beauty of the RMI became obvious. All I needed to do was read the QDR for both the VOR and NDB off the RMI (ok, so I should have checked it against the compass first to ensure the slaving hadn't failed) and draw two lines on the chart, and I had a fix. It doesn't get much easier!

We set ourselves up for a flapless approach back at Fort Pierce. ATC left us a little close to the aircraft in front (for real - this one wasn't a practice), so I elected to go around, which my instructor congratulated me for. But I was getting an absolutely terrible rate of climb, and I wasn't sure why. I looked over everything, and eventually realised I'd left the gear down. Particularly disappointing, because my Europa has retractable undercarriage, and I do plenty of go-arounds in that (usually when I c0ck up a landing!), so getting the gear up isn't something that I have any excuse for forgetting. Still, better to do it today than on the day of my test - as long as I don't forget it again, it's not a problem.

I like the Arrow. It could do with more pockets for keeping charts and clipboards and checlists in, and it could do with a few more horsepower, but getting back into a PA28 of any kind always feels a little like coming home, since I did my PPL in a Warrior.

FFF
-------------

Keygrip
23rd Nov 2003, 10:48
Loud shirt?? Loud shirt?? Cheeky bugga - that one was almost asleep.

Loud shirt indeed!! Humphh.

No. 2
24th Nov 2003, 00:07
Excellent post FFF.

Please tell me though, why do you normally keep the gear up for an emergency landing?

No. 2

Keygrip
24th Nov 2003, 07:01
Oi - FFF - it's gone dark already - where's the update?

You said "No more days off" - people are waiting for this. C'mon.

FlyingForFun
24th Nov 2003, 09:22
Wow, people are actually waiting for my update now? :eek:

No. 2 - the subject of where to leave the gear for an emergency landing is open for debate. In fact, it has been debated several times in the Private Flying forum, and I was discussing it with Keygrip this morning. Basically, you have two options. If you land with the gear up, the landing roll will be very much shorter, which may be the difference between going into the trees at the end of the field or not - and that might mean the difference between walking away uninjured or not. If the field is boggy, the gear can dig in and tip the aircraft over, which again may mean the difference between being uninjured or not. That is the argument for leaving the gear up. (On water, it's been pretty much proven than the aircraft is far more likely to stay upright with the gear up, and I don't think there's any debate about this.)

The argument for putting the gear down is based on preserving the aircraft. With the gear up, you will almost certainly cause damage to the underside of the aircraft, the prop, and the engine. If the problem can be easilly fixed, you won't be able to fly the aircraft out of the field, or even taxy it to somewhere that it can be more easilly recovered from. So there's a good argument for getting the gear down to look after the aircraft.

Personally, I'd rather look after myself and my pax than the aircraft. But I can see the other side of the argument too. You won't fail any test, whichever method you use, as far as I'm aware.

Anyway, so much for "no more days off" - here's today's entry:

Day 14 - Sunday 23 November

No flying today. The tyres on the Arrow were worn to the limit, and by the time they were changed there wouldn't be enough daylight left. I had noticed yesterday that the tyres were very worn, but the tread was still discernable, and I was expecting it to last until after my skills test. But there had been a couple of flights between yesterday and today, and I was wrong - there were patches on the main wheels where I couldn't detect any more tread.

So where does this leave me? Well, our plan allowed time for weather delays, tech delays and so on, so we should still be ok. What's more, my instructor tells me that I've done nearly everything now, which I find quite scary, as I thought I had quite a few more flights still to do! I have two more things I haven't done in the Arrow yet - stalls and navigation. Normally this would be two flights, one covering stalls and one navigation exercise, but we might combine these into one longer flight. I have to do a practice test, ideally with a different instructor although it doesn't have to be, and then I may need to fly once more if any issues come up during the practice test. And that's it! If all goes according to plan, there's still no reason why I shouldn't be able to take the skills test, with enough time to spare for a re-test if I don't manage to pass first time. So I'm only getting a little bit stressed about lack of time!

I have just re-read what I wrote yesterday, and realised something that I didn't realise as I was writing it. I think I've just about got this "captaincy" thing now! Reading through yesterday's entry, I realised that the word I was using to describe the guy sitting next to me flicked between "instructor" and "passenger", and that's pretty much exactly how I thought of him during the flight. And that, I think, is what it's all about.

I had a similar experience today, after pre-flighting the Arrow - although I didn't handle it quite as well, it still shows the difference in the way I'm thinking. My instructor asked if I was ready, and I said that I'm "not completely happy about the tyres." I have to admit I was waiting for him to make the call, but when he asked if we were going or not, I knew that it was my choice. I thought about it for a second, and then said "No." And that was it. I was in charge, and it was my call. As I've said before, this is nothing new - every time I fly my own aircraft, I make the decisions about whether any problems are going to stop me flying or not. But most low-hours pilots will act differently when they fly with an instructor - or with an examiner. And the examiner wants to see how you will act around a non-pilot passenger. What I think the course teaches you to do is behave as if the person sitting next to you really is just a passenger - purely so that he can mark your ability to act properly in that situation.

Ok - that's enough for tonight about the philosophy of the course! Tomorrow morning, I expect to be doing the last few things on the course, in an Arrow with nice new tyres.

FFF
--------------

Tinstaafl
24th Nov 2003, 21:22
A forced landing (erm...... crash) with the gear down gives additional structure between you & terra firma to absorb & dissipate the energy. Something to consider.


FF, I agree with your thoughts about their navigation technique. I'll stick with using what's available, when it's available - especially in remote/featureless places. And what about all the other nav. techniques? Deliberate track error and funnel, line, boundary & lead-in features, track crawling (yes, it can be appropriate) etc etc? Mandating 1/4, 1/2 & 3/4 ONLY checks forces a navigational error to persist that could have been corrected sooner. It also relies on there being a feature at exactly those points. What if you want to regain track at a particular place? Or have an airspace avoidance issue that requires the deviation to corrected immediately?

Hmmm......How would you recognise that this was the case if you're only allowed to consult your chart 2 mins prior to the 1/4, 1/2 & 3/4 points? Oh, that's what the self drawn mud-map is about. How stupid. There's already a much better drawing available. It's called a 'chart'. :rolleyes:

Flying Farmer
24th Nov 2003, 23:03
Great stuff FFF,brings back a few memories,
Not that it's a lot of use with a HSI but use 4T's ie: turn, time, talk, twist(align DI).
Here's to a first time pass, have fun and enjoy the checkflight.

Flying F

mad_jock
24th Nov 2003, 23:38
I am pretty sure that keygrip was actually the inventor of the original hi viz jacket airside.

Nothing like sitting in a bar, outside in the middle of winter.

Keep it up FFF

MJ

FlyingForFun
25th Nov 2003, 06:59
:D @ MJ!!!

Day 15 - Monday 24 November

Arrived this morning to find the Arrow back on the line, with two new tyres. (And four new brake pads, too!)

Just one flight today, but it was a much longer flight than normal. The aim was to finish everything on the syllabus which we still needed to do, and I think we were pretty successful. But for me, the best bit was that I have finally completed a navigation exercise which I was happy with!

The navigation was to yet another private strip - this time it was Lykes Brighton, just to the west of Lake Okeechobee. I did my gross error check, set my heading, got a traffic advisory service from Miami Centre, ran through all the other checks I needed to run through, and waited for the 1/4-way point to arrive. Part of the route was parallel to a road, so I could see we were roughly on track. The 1/4-way point was adjacent to a corner in the canal system, and sure enough the corner was just off my left wingtip exactly on time. It seemed a little closer than I expeted, so I made some small heading corrections. We passed a large mound a little before the half-way point slightly early, and since there was no way of identifying the half-way point I used this mound to adjust my ETA slightly. I cancelled the radar service when we reached Miami's radio blackspot (the one I discovered a couple of weeks ago), and called up Okeechobee to let them know I'd be overflying their airfield. Okeechobee appeared exactly where it was supposed to, and then there weren't very many more features, except for some canals, until the destination. The vis was good enough to be able to see the canal all the way into the distance, and spot a junction which was roughly abeam my destination, so I had plenty of time to find the strip - but I still didn't see it. But I had positively identified two roads and a canal, so when the stopwatch said that we were there I knew we were in the right place. I circled twice, and then saw the grass strip - my first VFR navigation using this technique which has gone exactly according to plan!

The diversion was interesting. My passenger wanted to go to another private airfield to the east of Lake Okeechobee. The direct route would take us right over the lake - something I wasn't going to do without survival equipment. (The locals here don't like flying over the lake even when they have life-jackets and so on. The chances of becoming crocodile-dinner if the engine quits are a little too high!) So it would have to be a two-leg diversion, first of all to the northern corner of the lake, and then turning en-route.

I put the foggles on and did the necessary checks. My first position fix showed me being slightly right of track, which I corrected for, and my second position fix showed me being back on track, so I took half of the correction out. I had set the second OBS to the radial at which I would need to turn. I got another position fix, which showed me being a couple of miles from my turning point... but both the stopwatch and the OBS told me I was there already. Two against one - I figured that the position fix was wrong, since both the stopwatch and the OBS were contradicting it. I turned onto the second leg, got several more position fixes, and "popped out of the cloud" with the airifled about a mile in front of me, just off to the right of the nose!

I later asked my instructor why my position fix appeared wrong. He told me that it wasn't wrong - but that it took me a minute to plot it, and in that minutes we'd travelled two miles. In future, when I plot a position fix, I must say to my passenger (as well as myself) that "this is where we were a minute ago" (or two minutes ago, or whatever), rather than "this is where we are". And that really was the only thing wrong with the whole navigation. I am extremely happy about that - I just hope it goes this well on the test!

We still hadn't done any stalls in the Arrow, so that was the next thing on the agenda. The clean stall was very easy - the standard technique, with the standard recovery - the only difference being to remember to fine the prop below 100kts. The other two (incipient) stalls were a little bit tricky. Not the stalls themselves - entering the incipient stall and recovering from it are standard, and not difficult. But the procedure for entering the stall is a little more complex than on the Cessna, since you have to integrate the lowering of the gear and flaps, and the fining of the prop, into the lookout and the stall entry. There really isn't anything hard here, it's just a case of remembering which levers to pull, how far to pull them, and in what order. After two or three goes they were acceptable - not perfect, but with a bit of thought put into it away from the aeroplane they will be fine.

The rest of the lesson was a recap of things like steep turns, just to make sure I'm happy with all the general handling. And then I had an engine fire.

I quickly pitched for 80kts, nearly but not quite forgot to coarsen the prop, and shut the engine down. The fire hadn't gone out, so I entered an emergency descent. During the emergency descent, one large green field to the north stood out as an emergency landing sight, so after the fire went out and I'd set up Vg and re-coarsened the prop, I planned the approach to that field. I was too low to make the high-key point, but if I flew straight across the field I should reach the low-key point at around 1500'. That worked out pretty well, and I turned downwind and then base. I had turned base too early - I knew it, and my instructor knew it. I had the option of S-turns, flaps and gear to get the Arrow down... but the field I had picked was right in the middle of the green bit, so the easiest thing to do was to re-plan, and head for the next field instead. I overflew the edge of the field at exactly the right height to flare for a wheels-down forced landing (wheels down to help get me down quicker, and also because the field was long enough that I wasn't worried about going off the end), and then went around. During the de-brief, my instructor told me what I already - that my choice of field was what made the PFL easy, because I've finally learnt to fly towards the biggest greenest area I can see! This is the first time that I've chosen the field that he had in mind when he pulled the power on me.

We headed back for a couple of circuits, which were ok but not fantastic. On the last one, we were downwind for runway 9, when my instructor contacted ATC and asked for a short approach (i.e. glide approach) to runway 14. We were given permission to do that, cutting in front of the traffic on base for runway 9. I had one of those incidents where you hear what you expect to hear, rather than what is actually said, and when my instructor cut the power I began to position for the threshold of runway 9. Oops! Once my instructor realised what I was doing, and pointed out my mistake, I repositioned (and my instructor very kindly gave me a short burst of power, since I had been planning the descent for the wrong place!) and landed safely on 14. But there were two lessons. Number one - if the instructor or examiner asks ATC for something, listen to what he's saying! And number two - if you're downwind for runway 9, and you have a real engine failure, you're not commited to runway 9 - runway 14 may be the better option!

I felt pretty good about today's flight. I don't feel ready for the test, but I feel good. My instructor disagrees, though - he thinks I'm ready. Tomorrow morning, I'm doing the practice test. Keygrip will be my examiner for the real test (so I'll remember to bring my sunglasses!) and he's free to do that either on Wednesday, or, if I need to brush up on anything after the practice test, the real test will be on Thursday. That's weather-permitting, of course - there's a little bit of weather forecast for Wednesday - it looks like it won't be bad enough to cause me any trouble, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed!

FFF
--------------

Keygrip
25th Nov 2003, 08:18
...and he won't be a happy bunny if you call it "Runway 9".

Idle American-speak barsteward. JAA test = Runway 09. Three weeks in Florida and Cap413 is out of the window. Sigh.

PS - the MIA blackspot isn't there if you go over 3,000 feet amsl. - and then you don't need to talk to the mutants at Okeechobee (because you'll be way above their [by JAA definition] ATZ that would be....... what - with runways that length....2nm radius and 2,000 feet agl [because they have an R/T frequency]).

MJ - is there no end to this abuse?? :{ Will have to trawl the wardrobe for something extra colourful. Watch for Wednesday's post from FFF - hope he does it BEFORE the hitting the hotel bar. Thursday's post will likely be slurred.

S'funny - shiny shoes, black trousers, white shirt, black tie and four silly gold bars when I test for Oxford. Pile on the intimidation.

Tinstaafl
26th Nov 2003, 08:02
FFF, my 3 word plan to choosing forced landing fields:


BIG... the biggest one(s) in range

OPEN... Emptier the better

FLAT... If you can see a slope on it you're pretty much going to have to land uphill. If gullies then parallel to the gullies.

FlyingForFun
26th Nov 2003, 10:08
Ok - runway 09 it is then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I left my flashlight in the trunk of my car. And I may as well as well open the hood and check the oil, and put in some gas, while I'm there.... :D

Day 16 - Tuesday 25 November

My "passenger" for my practice test today was a photographer, working for The Sun (aka one of the school's managers). He'd heard that Fergie was sun-bathing topless on the runway at Tailwinds, which is a private airfield a few miles north of West Palm Beach, and he wanted me to take him there.

The flight to Tailwinds is fairly short, so I planned it with just a half-way point, no 1/4-way points. Today, I had to do more than just produce a plog. I had to produce a folder which contained all of the documentation for the flight - the plog, weather and Notam information, copies of my license and the aircraft's insurance documents, weight+balance and performance calculations, and so on. Most of this is just a photo-copy of a master copy which EFT keep for that purpose, but obviously the weather, perforance, route and so on will be specific to the flight.

After take-off, we set heading for Tailwinds. At the half-way point I made a small heading and ETA correction. Shortly after that, my passenger told me that he'd just received a phone-call - Fergie is not at Tailwinds any more, but she's been spotted at Okeechobee, so he'd like me to take him there instead.

This was a change from the previous diversions I've had. Until now, I've had to plan the diversion whilst completing the flight to the original destination. But today, we didn't need to carry on to Tailwinds - we just had to head directly for Okeechobee. I chose a nearby road junction as a set heading point, and began planning. Once the planning was done, I manoevred (not very elegantly, it has to be said!) to overhead the junction, and turned in roughly the right direction. Then I looked at the instrument panel to check the heading... but wait, something's not right. Why has the AI toppled??? I checked the vacuum guage, it was reading zero. I checked the annunciator lights, and the vacuum light was on.

I quickly scanned the entire aircraft to see what my instructor had done to disable the vacuum pump. But he hadn't done anything - we had experienced a genuine vacuum failure.

The attitude indicator was now useless, so we covered it up. The RMI and HSI are vacuum-driven, too, but they are electrically slaved off of the flux detectors in the wingtip. Given time, they will find the correct heading automatically - the gyro is only there to keep them reading correctly during a turn. So I was still able to use them, but only with extra caution, especially during turns.

I started heading for Okeechobee, and got some way before inadvertantly entering IMC. I was wondering if my instructor would do this to me, given the vacuum failure - but he did, and I had to work with it. I ran through all the standard checks, and continued the flight under the foggles, partial panel. I got several fixes, made appropriate heading corrections, and when I took the foggles off I could see Okeechobee a few miles ahead of me.

So far so good! We moved on to an engine fire (I forgot to check the heater/defroster was off, but it was ok apart from that), and then stalls, steep turns, unusual attitudes, VOR tracking and so on. Then I had another engine fire. This time, after running through the checks, my instructor started coughing, as if he was breathing in thick smoke! I got the hint then - once again I'd forgotten the heater/defroster. But he'd made his point, and I recovered from the emergency descent without having to do the PFL.

We headed home, and did a normal and a flapless landing, before taking the Arrow to maintenance to have the vacuum pump fixed.

During the de-brief, the instructor only had very minor points to make. His main comment was that he could see that I was in charge, which is exactly what he wanted to see. I only let my captaincy slip once, he said, and that was on the steep descending turns. He asked me to reduce the power to idle, set up a glide descent, and then turn at 30 degrees of bank. So I did exactly what he said. But he didn't say it needed to be done immediately - as captain, he wanted me to clear the area ahead and below me first by making a couple of small turns. Other than that, I did everything at my own speed, and did everything pretty much correctly.

I think I'm ready for the test tomorrow. It still seems only a very short while ago that I was really struggling. But today's flight, although not perfect, was very close. The vacuum pump should be fixed by tomorrow, and hopefully, as long as the weather holds out just a little longer (there's some crap to the north-west right now that I'm hoping doesn't come this way) tomorrow will also be the day that I peak.

FFF
------------

PS - In case anyone else was wondering what I did on my day off, I'll tell you that this afternoon, after the practice check-ride, I went to finish what I'd started. And, as of this afternoon, I now have an Airplane (sic) Single Engine Sea class rating on my FAA PPL :ok:

fonawah
26th Nov 2003, 16:49
Fingers crossed for tomorrow FFF! Lets hope the bad wx stays away!
Good luck and many thanks for your CPL diary. This has been a fantastic read. Well done
Fonawah

strafer
26th Nov 2003, 20:50
Good luck for your test (today?) FFF. You better do your IR soon so that we've got something else to read

pa28biggles
26th Nov 2003, 22:39
FFF,
I think this thread is absolutely brilliant! We all make mistakes sometimes - its all part of the learning curve, and you've been down to earth enough to tell us all that. I think sometimes I beat myself up too much when I do something wrong!

Tinstaafl
26th Nov 2003, 22:59
Good luck for tomorrow!

NinjaBill
27th Nov 2003, 00:21
I guess youre test will be starting about now.... so best of luck.

This is definately one of the more interesting threads, so i'm awaiting the FFF does IR with baited breath.

One question though, if you knew what you now know, before you started, what would you do differently in your preparation for this course?

NB

FlyingForFun
27th Nov 2003, 06:48
:) :D :ok: I PASSED!!! :ok: :D :)

Thanks to everyone who has either posted here or sent me PMs to wish me luck, or to say that this diary has been helpful. Although I've tried to answer all the questions, I haven't been able to reply to every message - but I did appreciate every single one of them.

A full report of the flight test will appear here within the next couple of days. Right now, though, I'm going to get drunk! :ok:

FFF
---------------

Tinstaafl
27th Nov 2003, 09:09
Well done!!! :ok:


Now you can go back to using the most appropriate nav. technique for the circumstances... ;)

My names Turkish
27th Nov 2003, 10:48
Flying for Fun, Perhaps a name change is in order now? May I make a suggestion "Flying For Cash"? And Personal title "Why do it if its not for a wheelbarrow load of dosh"

QNH 1013
27th Nov 2003, 14:23
Congratulations !! Well done, and thank you for finding the time during your course to give us such interesting (and useful) feedback. I'm also interested in what you would do differently in your preparation with hindsight; I start my course in two months time.
I look forward to hearing about the test, post-celebration.

capt_sparky
27th Nov 2003, 15:56
FFF

Many congratulations!

Sparky

p.savage
27th Nov 2003, 16:35
FFF,

Fantastic! Well done. Bring on the IR!

Savage

fonawah
27th Nov 2003, 17:33
Very many congrats FFF. Hope your head is not too sore after the celebrations!
Well done. Has it all sunk in?
When do you do your IR?
Im sure you know we will all be expecting an "IR Diary" now!!!

mad_jock
27th Nov 2003, 18:33
Well done m8 :D

What was the examiners shirt like :=

MJ

just teasing Keygrip

High Wing Drifter
27th Nov 2003, 19:24
Congrats and bloody good work FFF. Its been a roller-coaster for us too :D :D :D :D

I second the IR Diary!

:ok:

pa28biggles
27th Nov 2003, 19:52
Congratulations FFF, the feeling you got when you were told that you had passed must have been amazing!
I third the IR diary!

Northern Highflyer
27th Nov 2003, 20:00
Well done and many congratulations on such a fantastic achievement.

Excellent reading and the reports have been a great inspiration. I feel like I have been sat in the aircraft with you all the way.

Enjoy the celebrations.

:ok: :O

YYZ
27th Nov 2003, 20:16
Well done FFF,

I look forward to the exam write up...

Now you have completed the CPL what was the total cost for it?(do not have to answer if you feel its a bit intrusive?)

YYZ:ok:

Penguina
27th Nov 2003, 20:58
:D :cool:

Very well done! Hope you have the headache to match now!

KT

smurph
27th Nov 2003, 21:03
FFF,

Looks like everyone's posting their congratulations here because your mailbox is full of PMs (presumably saying the same thing!).

Well done!:ok:
--
Smurph

SimJock
27th Nov 2003, 21:08
Yes.. well done FFF a great read, my two questions are:

1) I though the CPL was largely VMC work yet you seem to have done quite a lot of IMC with foggles, why was that then ?

2) Did you do much in the way of fuel calculations en-route ? ie actual used versus amount remaining etc, if not i'll delete these columns from my PLOG.

It would be nice to see the PLOG you had to use, any chance of a scan or did you burn them all after you passed ?

Well Done again..

Voidhawk
27th Nov 2003, 21:25
Congrats FFF!

It's been a great read :ok:

CAT3C AUTOLAND
28th Nov 2003, 01:38
FFF,

You may want to update your user profile, and in the Licence field add CPL.

Well done, nice to hear your good news :D.

Enjoy the Florida sunshine and the cold beer :).

Keygrip
28th Nov 2003, 11:02
Want to share the discussion(s) we had before the flight.

There were two - a short one, and a much longer one.

None of this is going to give any trade secrets away - especially as it's all printed for you by the CAA.

Have a read of Notes for guidance of applicants taking the CPL skill test (Aeroplanes). (http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/175/srg_fcl_03_v4.pdf) on the CAA website.

Not surprisingly, the first part was the warm and friendly meet & greet .

"Mr. Flying for Fun?? Good morning - I'm Captain Keygrip. I believe we are scheduled to fly with each other today".

"Nervous?" <expects answer "Yes"> responds with "well, I'm not!!"

Then a quick check that we are actually going to continue with the planning and probably fly...

"Happy with your first impressions of the weather?? You'll be given plenty of time, shortly, to check the latest forecasts etc."

If he's happy to continue - we continue. If not, we abandon and go and drink coffee whilst trying to plan another day to meet.

"Can you just confirm that you are here to take your 1st attempt, of the 1st series, of the CPL skill test?"

This is our combined opportunity to make sure that we are both planning for the same thing - I hate surprises.

"What aircraft type will you be using today??" (Although we probably know the answer - maybe even the registration - but it's worth checking ).

"OK - you should have some documentation for me. I need you to leave me your pilots licence, radio telephony licence, medical, log book, a picture I.D., a receipt from the CAA for having paid the test fee, a Form 170A from your flying school, any relevant correspondence from the Civil Aviation Authority, the aircraft documents and, a copy of the aircraft checklist."

I also want a headset that matches (electronically, that is, not cosmetically) yours.

"Great - well for todays exercise, I would like you to consider that you are the Captain of a single pilot, public transport, passenger carrying operation, in a single engine aeroplane.

I would like you to treat me as a passenger that has come for a short flight - maybe as a birthday treat from my family, or a photographic session over my house.

The flight profile will include a departure from the airfield, a VFR navigation leg to a destination that I shall show you in a moment, followed by an unscheduled diversion to a point that I shall inform you about during the first leg of the journey. This diversion leg will include both VFR flying and some simulated IMC flying. During the first leg of the journey, you will not be allowed access to information from any electronic navigation aids - but during the diversion, I will expect you to navigate and/or plot our position using any, or all, of the aids installed in the aircraft - with the exception of the moving map portion of any GPS units that may be installed.

If you are able to glean any other information from the GPS receiver, you may use it - but not the moving map.

At the end of the navigation I will guide you through a sequence of upper air work exercises- such as stalls, steep turns etc., a few circuits and landings, and some simulated emergencies.

You can expect that the flight will take between 2 and 2½ hours duration.

For the flight today, your radio telephony callsign will be ***.

I would like you to plan a VFR navigation flight from [I]here to there (points at places on your half mill chart - this gives us oportunity to make sure it is a current chart [if it is out of date - and you don't come up with a REALLY good, pre-emptive, reason why - book another test]).

Do you have any questions?"

(Answers question - then says...)

"OK, Mr Flying for Fun, the flight planning facilities are...<indicates in general direction, if unknown to candidate>, go ahead and plan your flight. Please bring back with you, a photocopy of your plog, your mass & balance calculations, your runway length requirements and any other pertinent information. The time now is <agree>, shall we say.....erm....40 minutes?? Let's meet back here again at <time>.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

So - end of first briefing...now, what do we need to know???

Radio telephony callsign - in the UK you will use an "Exam" callsign. "Exam 01", "Exam 02" - whatever. Each individual professional examiner has his or her own allocated callsign.

In the USA - as per Mr. Flying for Fun - we haven't yet explained to ATC that the "Exam" callsign is a recognised ICAO RTF designator.......so we tend to use the aircraft registration. Have to keep it simple for some people.

Questions?? What did you ask yourself?? The obvious one is (NO - mad-jock, not "where the hell did you get that shirt") "Please, sir, could I ask you for your weight??" You will need that for the mass and balance calculations - and if you don't ask, you may not get it. If you guess, or go fly without it, then.......book another test.

Other questions should include all the bull**it air taxi stuff like "Do you plan to take any luggage with you?", "Can you confirm that you will be the only passenger on this flight?"

.........and they should include, "Captain Examiner, sir, naturally I would not expect a passenger to carry out a brake check or full and free movement of the controls check, but for the purposes of this flight, as you are a licensed and experienced pilot, would you expect me to offer you the opportunity to carry out brake check?"

"Also, for the same reasons, would you like me to give a Captains departure brief, including speeds and crosswind components, etc - which, of course, I would not give to a passenger"

"Sir, may I ask if we are planning to land back here, or at another airfield, at the end of this flight" (Think about leaving your car keys with somebody you trust to come and get you if the aircraft diverts for any genuine reason - or, should you take your coat, or your wallet....whatever).

That's about it - you trot off to the flight planning room. I get on with checking documents and log books etc, whilst writing out the first part of the "Form 172" - Application and report form for the CPL(A) skill test.

I've already checked the weather, the upper winds and the notams before meeting you - indeed, the navigation was planned taking that information directly into account.

See you in 40 minutes for the second briefing!!

Do you want the rest?? Press 1 for "yes, please" - 2 for "nah, don't care what you say".

Will cover the second brief - if you want it.

Howski
28th Nov 2003, 17:03
Let's be havin it then!!!!!!!

I think this thread, without doubt has been the best yet in Wannabees, furthermore having the actuall examiner add his bit makes it even better.

Keep goin pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese :) :ok:


Well done on passing and all the best for the future.


Howski :D

easyflyer
28th Nov 2003, 17:10
I absolutely second Howski...

This is by far and away the most interesting thread I've read on this site.

Looking forward to the next read..

ef

fonawah
28th Nov 2003, 19:22
Keygrip,
Please please continue. This is great reading.
F:ok:

skin'n'bones
29th Nov 2003, 00:36
Great Post :ok:

Congratulations FFF!!

Keygrip, please continue - 11111111111

yeboin
29th Nov 2003, 01:47
Well Done FFF :) and thanks again.

ps, now that you are famous, you should seriously think about hiring a PA to deal with all your fanmail etc.;)

All the best for the IR:ok:

Evo
29th Nov 2003, 01:58
Still no sign of FFF... must be a monster hangover ;)

and Well Done :ok:

p.savage
29th Nov 2003, 07:52
Come on FFF!

Finger out! Tell us about the test!

Paul

Epic_mg
29th Nov 2003, 10:07
What an insight, i've found your account quite compelling. Well done FFF for taking the time out to share your thrills and spills of the CPL course. Im sure wannabies including me will find this journal useful for months/years to come.

Epic_mg

Andy_R
29th Nov 2003, 10:12
I take great pleasure in joining everyone else in congratulating you on another milestone.

Thanks for taking the time to keep us all so well informed on your progress, it's an inspiration to us all....... let's hope the FFF Does IR is equally inspiring!!

CONGRATULATIONS :ok:

Dufwer
29th Nov 2003, 16:31
FFC, seems you had quite a celebration if you are keeping us waiting this long for the final chapter ;)

Congratulations!

D

PS May we call you FlyingForCash from now on?

Evo
29th Nov 2003, 17:39
PS May we call you FlyingForCash from now on?

I always figured FlyingForFood was better ;)

Penguina
29th Nov 2003, 19:00
I always figured FlyingForFood was better

'Why do it if you're not always at max take off weight?'

PS - my channels of communication with FfF have gone spookily quiet. Think he's galavanted off to somewhere or other to meet friends/admirers, so have patience; he's never quiet for long!:p

hasell
29th Nov 2003, 19:15
FFF,

Excellent account of your course mate. well done for a terrific write-up and getting the CPL -from a fellow White Waltham Flyer!

Regards,

Has.

FlyingForFun
29th Nov 2003, 23:38
Write-up is complete...

But I'm having a bit of a communication nightmare at the moment, and can't manage to get it from my laptop onto PPRuNe! Should be able to have it sorted as soon as I get home tomorrow... sorry. But I'm overwhelmed by the number of replies here!!!

Penguina said: "PS - my channels of communication with FfF have gone spookily quiet." If you're reading this, Penguina, please check your PMs - I tried to e-mail you some important stuff, but because I couldn't get to my e-mail I've had to PM it to you instead!

FFF
----------------

FlyingForFun
1st Dec 2003, 01:33
Sorry for the delay. The head has now recovered, and the communications problems seem to be resolves, so here's the report.

Before I start, though, I'd like to add my voice to those urging Keygrip to continue. I can write about (what I remember of) the most relevant points of my own experience, but that may or may not reflect a more general case, and Keygrip is far better placed to talk about the skills test in general than I am.

Anyway, here goes!

Skill Test - Wednesday 26 November

I arrived at Fort Pierce to find the Arrow parked in maintenance with its cowling removed. The vacuum pump had been replaced, as promised - but the tach cable had subsequently broken.

With promises that it would be fixed by the time I was ready to fly, Keygrip gave me a route to fly, I asked him his weight, and it was time to start planning. The route was to Escape, a grass farmstrip that I'd never been to before. The first half of the route was relatively tricky - there were a few roads which would be largely indistinguishable from each other, and a big canal that would make a good time-fix, but wouldn't tell me if I was left or right of track. After that, though, it became much easier. I would fly right over the middle of Blue Cyprus Lake which would give me a good fix for both my position and my time. Then I'd fly past the corner of a large reservoir. As I got close to the destination, there would be a couple of minor roads which I might not be able to spot - but if I did spot them, their shape would identify them and they'd lead me to the field. Otherwise, the field was roughly abeam the tip of Lake Marian, which should be easy to spot, with the Turnpike just past it, and a couple of roads which I could follow backwards from the Turnpike.

I finished the route planning, did the weight+balance calculations (had to shift my flight back from the back seat into the luggage compartment to keep the C of G within limits, with two fat gits sat up front!), got the weather and did the performance calculations. IFR conditions were reported along a line from north-east to south-west Florida. These conditions were expected to burn off as the morning progressed, and in any case I figured that our destination was probably just before the IFR weather so we'd probably be ok. But even if it did stop us getting there, it wouldn't block our route back, so I was happy to go.

Keygrip gave me a detailed brief on what we'd do during the flight (don't worry, he said, he'll remind me of everything in the flight so there's no need to remember anything now) and asked if I had any questions. Keygrip's expectations were pretty much what I'd been prepared for. During the navigation, he wanted to take his role of a passenger further than my instructors have done in the past. He didn't expect a take-off brief, for example, since the average passenger doesn't really care what runway we're on or where the cross-wind is from. But he did ask me, on the ground, what I'd say in the take-off brief - so although it wasn't required as part of the flight, I was still tested on it. But I would obviously be required to inform him of all heading, height and ETA changes, since he wouldn't be able to do his job as an examiner otherwise.

We were ready to go! Unfortunately, the Arrow still wasn't fixed. So we went for some brunch instead.

And when we came back from brunch, the Arrow still wasn't fixed.

Once the cowling was eventuall back on, we hoped there wouldn't be any more delays. But it seemed that whoever had planned to fly it before us in the morning (but hadn't been able to because of the tach cable) had filled the fuel tanks to the top. I got the calculator out, and found that the weight was now too high for our forward centre of gravity. No amount of balast would bring the C of G back to point where the extra weight was ok, so we'd have to de-fuel. Another delay!

We did eventually get going. It was early afternoon, the temperature was just starting to move from "hot" to "unbearable", and I was expecting to be de-briefing by now, not starting out. That, together with skills-test nerves, meant that I didn't fly as good a flight as I'd have liked - certainly not as good as the previous day. But I didn't really screw anything up either, and that's all that's expected on a skills-test.

The navigation was good. Miami were too busy to talk to us, but I got the marks for trying. The only mistake I'd made on the VFR leg was actually on the ground, and that was planning to fly over the top of Blue Cyprus Lake at 2000'. As we got closer and closer to the lake, I became more aware that the shore would be out of our gliding distance. It's nowhere near as big as Lake Okeechobee, but it's still a couple of miles across. I told Keygrip that I'd divert around the northern edge of the lake.

As we approached Escape, I managed to pick out all of the roads that I was hoping to pick out. I told Keygrip I was looking for a north-south runway just south of the road... and then I saw it. Tucked up next to the trees was a smooth grass strip. Keygrip asked how I knew the runway was north-south, and seemed pleased when I said I'd looked it up in the "private airports" section of my airfield guide. Apparently, many candidates don't know that section exists. But I did like the story he told of one past candidate who had phoned the owner of the field and explained what he was doing, and asked the owner to park a tractor on the runway with its lights on!

The diversion was to Sunset Strip, a private airfield a few miles from Okeechobee. I turned on track, put on the foggles, and began doing my checks and getting VOR/DME fixes. It was only when I plotted the first fix that I realised the line I'd drawn took me right through the Marian Military Operating Area. I was getting pretty close, so I said I'd turn away while I established whether the MOA was hot, but Keygrip told me, with his examiner hat on, that he was happy that we were safe to fly through there. He didn't think we'd be able to get an answer from Miami because they were too busy, but the fact that I'd noticed it and would have tried to contact Miami was enough to satisfy him.

We didn't have to go too far before I'd convinced Keygrip that I can fly straight and level on instruments and plot nav-aid fixes, so the foggles came off and I continued the leg visually. Immedately I had a good position fix from the Turnpike, which we were just passing abeam, and after that I saw Okeechobee town, then Okeechobee airport. The roads alongside Sunset Strip were soon visible, and the airfield itself turned out to be an aviation community with a runway down the middle of the houses. No problem.... except that Keygrip asked me later why I didn't carry on using navaids during this part of the flight. Well, I was confident of my position, flying visually, and the idea of using navaids in that situation didn't occur to me. I've never used navaids when I've known where I am (except maybe a DME to give ATC a more accurate distance than I could do get with my eyes)! Apparently, no one ever uses navaids once the foggles come off, although there is no reason not to - and as a commercial pilot we should, of course, use every means at our disposal to navigate accurately!

Next we moved on to circuits, and we flew to Okeechobee to do these - an airfield I've flown over many times, but never landed at. In fact, this was my first time at an uncontrolled US airfield with a Unicom frequency, and my first time doing a 45-degree join, for nearly 2 years. Someone was using runway 5 (if it was in the UK it would be 05, but in America it's 5!), so I joined for that runway (over the houses, which was a mistake - I should have joined from the other side where there were fewer houses). On final, I assessed the wind as being almost totally a crosswind, but so light as to barely be a factor. But by the time I was over the numbes, the wind had swung around and become a tailwind, and I drifted well down the runway. I decided I could land safely, but I would throw away the touch+go and turn it into a full-stop, before switching to 13, the into-wind runway. This runway was pretty short, and since I didn't know the airifled or the aircraft very well I decided to stick with the full-stop and taxi-back. The next approach was a glide-approach which I totally screwed up, and decided to go around when I was still at about 300' as I was approaching the numbers. The next glide approach was fine, though. The wind, by now, had swung round again, and we changed to runway 25 for the bad-weather circuit. I considered using runway 31, just so I could say that we'd used all four of the runways, but Keygrip was happy with the circuits and we moved onto other stuff!

General handling all went pretty well. During the stalls I moved all the levers in the right direction at the right time, so the chair-flying I'd done had worked out. We had a practice engine fire, during which I shut the engine down and then entered an emergency descent when the fire didn't go out. Once the fire was out and I'd picked a field, Keygrip told me to return to straight and level flight, but soon after that he gave me an engine failure and this time I had to take the Arrow right down to the ground. I'd have made the landing safely, but Keygrip would have preferred me to have spotted the farm-strip just behind the left wing! Steep turns went well (I gained a bit of height in one, but within limits) as did the instrument flying. While I was on instruments, partial panel, Keygrip took control of me, because he'd apparently heard a Learjet on the ILS at Fort Pierce. He started manoevering the Arrow quite aggressively - I wasn't quite sure if it was to get out of the Lear's way or to get a better view of it - and then gave control to me. This isn't right - the instruments are all over the place! My brain couldn't quite put everything together, but I knew I had to act! Airspeed is high, and rising, so close the throttle. We're turning, stop the turn, and then pull the nose up because we're still descending with high airspeed.... and then I realised that Keygrip had given me the unusual attitude recovery in the most sneaky way! The aircraft was now the right way up, though, and a moment later the power was set, everything was trimmed, and I was turning the air blue!

There wasn't very much left to do now, and before too long we were heading back to Fort Pierce. We got too close to the aircraft in front, and on short final my hand was on the throttle ready to go around, when ATC beat me to it and told us to go around. We landed off the second approach.

The mistakes that I made generally fell into the category of "oops - nearly forgot about that". Things like coarsening the prop during the engine failure, weaving or dipping the nose to look out during a Vx climb, retracting the gear immediately on the go-around at Fort Pierce. But I had satisfied Keygrip that I did really know how to do these things, and a bit of test-day nerves was the only reason that I was a little slow in getting them done. So the only thing left to do now was taxi back and shut down, then sort out the paperwork so that I can let the CAA relieve me of more money!

Conclusions

As I said at the start of the thread, I didn't really know what to expect from a course which I was told was "just a more precise PPL". If all that's needed is to be able to fly more accurately, I can go out by myself and practice that - I don't need 25 hours of dual instruction to learn to fly accurately. I knew that I was missing something, but I didn't know what.

I think the vital part of the course which no one told me about was the emphasis on captaincy. This extends from the pre-flight decisions about whether the weather or the badly-worn tyre or anything else are going to stop me from flying, through to the way the passenger is briefed and kept up to date with changes in ETA or told what it going on during an emergency, right through to coming across as being confident in navigation even when there are no features nearby that allow me to be confident.

I have talked, more than once, about the navigation methods which are taught. I will never use these methods again if I can help it. Drawing key features on your plog rather than looking at a chart is just stupid. Plotting accurate nav-aid fixes on a single-pilot flight is, IMHO, dangerous, whether in VMC or IMC. But what they have done is improved my flying. The VFR navigation has taught me to become more aware, both prior to and during the flight, of what features I might encounter. The nav-aid plotting has undoubtedly improved my handling skills. The attempts at modifying the tools I had have proved that a bit of lateral thinking can make the task easier - in fact, another student has asked to buy my tool from me since he's having the same problem as me.

I hope that this diary will help others understand what the course is all about, so that they don't have the same problem understsanding what they're getting themselves into as I did. The feedback I've had from you guys suggests that I've succeeded in doing that - but even if I haven't, I've helped myself by writing this diary, and enjoyed doing it too.

I want this thread to be a thread about the CPL course. I don't want it to be a thread about EFT. But there will inevitably be questions about EFT, so I'll say a few words about them. The instructors there are great - very professional, very good instructors, and they did everything to ensure that I got my course completed in time. The school itsself was a bit of a culture-shock to me. I'm a bit of a "club flyer", and EFT is a total contrast. The school is almost entirely geared towards commercial flying. There is no club atmosphere there - people go there to get a job done, not to socialise. That's not to say that it's not a friendly place - the people you will meet and talk to there are as friendly as you can get. But it's not somewhere that you'd ever go "just to hang out for a while" in the way that my home club is. They have a Piper Super Cub there, although I don't believe it's been flown for many months... why would it be flown, since it's no help at all in getting an fATPL? There is talk of them buying a C150 Aerobat to do some aerobatics training, so I don't know if that will change anything, but I doubt it, because this is the way they like it. I also don't like having to wear a uniform when I'm a paying customer. But their system works, and it works well. If you want to get any kind of commercial license or rating, then they will get the job done with minimal fuss and minimal distraction - and if EFT happened to be the most appropriate school for me to do any of my future ratings at, then I would have hesitation in using them again.

There has been some criticism over some aspects of the school on these forums - although never, as far as I'm aware, about the flying side of the school. I didn't personally experience any problems, nor see anyone else experiencing major problems while I was there, but it's clear from reports on the forums that this is not always the case, so be careful out there, check all the paperwork, and if you're relying on EFT to provide you with accomodation or transport it wouldn't hurt to have a backup plan. But the only issue that I had was one particular flight which I wasn't charged for but should have been.... mistakes can work both ways. They have now hired an admin assistant, and I'm sure that once she gets settled in there will be fewer mistakes made, and this will be reflected by future students' comments on PPRuNe.

Now then, as for everyone who wants me to write an IR diary... hmmmmm ;) If I were to do it, it would be for a different reason. Unlike the CPL, I think most of us understand exactly what is involved in an IR course before we start, so any diary I wrote would be mainly for my benefit, to gather my thoughts at the end of a day. But don't hold your breath, because I don't know when I'll have the time or the money to do the IR. I may well do an FIC first, or possibly an FAA IR followed by the JAR conversion - I just don't know yet.

There have been a couple of questions about what I'd have done differently during hour-building. The IMC was a big help, it made most of the IMC training for the CPL a non-event. (To answer Simjock's question, the course requirements for someone who doesn't hold an IR call for a minimum of 10 hours of IMC training.) Towards the end of the hour-building, it probably would have helped to have practiced steep turns, stalls and PFLs a little more (I practiced these on my last flight before heading off to EFT, but only succeeded in proving to myself that I'd forgotten how to do them, temporarilly at least!) The big problem, as I'm sure you're aware, was plotting nav-aid fixes in flight, and this is somethng which could have been usefully practiced during hour-building. However, I would only do this with a safety pilot - in VMC, I wouldn't want my head inside the cockpit for that long, and in IMC there's a real danger of an accidental unusual attitude if you haven't practiced it sufficiently.

YYZ - the total cost was about $700 more than I was quoted as the minimum. A small part of this was due to me having to redo part of one lesson, but mostly it was due to the pre-CPL - something which I think is a very good idea, but I'd have preferred to have been told about it, and given an estimate of how much it might cost me, beforehand.



And finally... some quotes for the day

Just to keep you amused!

Keygrip:

"It's me who should be nervous, not you. You know how well you can fly, I don't."

Me:

"Holding short runway niner, 87U"
"Lining up runway niner, 87U"
"Cleared take-off runway niner, 87U"
"Expect left base runway niner, 87U"
"Cleared land runway niner, 87U"

And several other single-digit runway numbers, just to amuse Keygrip!

ATC (Miami Centre):

"All aircraft, please avoid Stuart for the next 10 minutes, they're about to throw some people out of a perfectly good airplane."

Maintenanace at Fort Pierce:

When asked (at around 13.00) what time the Arrow was likely to be fixed, so that we could plan accordingly:

"I promise you It'll be fixed by 6pm tonight. It should be fixed before then, but if I give you a time something will go wrong."

(It was actually fixed at 13.30.)

FFF
-------------

Louis Euan
1st Dec 2003, 02:46
THE END

Sadly it is the end. I must say I have really enjoyed this thread, I have tuned in nearly everyday for the latest update of the saga. This thread has really inspired me and given me invaluable knowledge that I know will help me in my future cpl.
The last post was very interesting as I was following the Nav route on my Miami chart. I could see every road and lake, I was almost there.
It is a very helpful and thoughtful thread and I nominate it for the thread of the year award. Well done FFF!!

Miektila
1st Dec 2003, 04:12
Firstly, I would like to congratulate FFF for his first time CPL pass.
FFF has impressed me with this post, it is informative, well written and will be a valuable resource for other CPL candidates.
The diary has left you with no illusions about how much effort is required to obtain a first time pass. The ability to fly an aircraft well and accurately is not enough to pass this licence. By the time you start the CPL course you should be almost capable of performing all thats is required on the course. The skills learnt at PPL level should have been honed and refined during the required hour building and new skills learnt from the ATPL writtens and various other ratings should have also been incorperated into your resume of abilities as a pilot. However, as FFF grew to learn and has pointed out in his diary, all these skills need to be utilized, developed, performed to a high standard and placed under one hat, the Captains hat.
It was very satisfiying to see FFF change from the 'accomplished' private pilot, to the 'I need to get the hang of this!' student pilot and then eventually develop into the 'I am the Captain' Commercial Pilot.
However, unlike the rest of you who sat eagerly awaiting the next update of the diary, I already knew what was going to be in it, although it was only towards the mid/to end of his course that I actually started reading it. Yes, I am the spiteful sod who kept pulling the power on him. I was the annoying 'photographer' who always wanted to go somewhere else. I was the poor Instructor who had to put up with FFF's self induced unusual attitudes, his attempts to PFL into tennis court sized swamps and ignore the perfectly good fields/private strips that I conviently pulled the power over, his bizarre 'Bermuda Triangle' position fixes and the X-wind landings that will take me years to pay for the dental work I required after. ---Ha ha, he knows I am only joking!
Joking aside, FFF did very well on the course, this was mostly due to his attitude towards flying, his continued effort throughout, his ability to accept critique without sulking and his open self assessment of his mistakes.His candid self assesment allowed him to identify most of his mistakes and acertain why he made them. The other mistakes I pointed out and/or explained. There was only one lapse in this, when we did the initial IMC position fixing, when his fixes were inaccurate he thought it may have been the instrument or the navaid that was wrong. I took over the flying whilst he made a position fix, resulting in a perfect fix. So, Navaids work, Instruments work, FFF inop. The need to repeat part of a lesson only occured once, this was not due to a lack of learning or understanding, it was because he needed practice in multi-tasking whilst in a difficult situation- i.e. flying aircraft and maintaining instrument scan whilst tuning/identifiying navaids and accurately fixing his position. However, after an hour or so of practice we were fixing positions like we had a GPS! (hmmm- mental note to self-check students flight bags for hand-held GPS's).Importantly, he learned from his mistakes, analysed what I said to him, sat down and thought about it and came to the next lesson with a determined yet positive attitude.
I take my students performance in any Skills Test very personally, so after over two hours of pacing like an expectant father, no one except perhaps FFF was more pleased or proud when the very nice gentleman in the loud(ish) shirt, stepped out the aeroplane and gave me the thumbs up, closely followed by a beaming FFF.

So, once again, congratulations to a well deserved and well earned CPL, I shall raise a toast to you from the bottle of whiskey you kindly bought me, (all future students take note!! ; ) .
It was a pleasure flying with you and I wish you the best of luck .
Happy Landings,
PK

p.s. Keygrip, I never taught him runway 9, he picked up that bad habit on his own.

p.p.s. My last act as your instructor- What are the runways at KOBE???

Tinstaafl
1st Dec 2003, 05:13
Isn't nice to have a student like that! Never enough of them... :sad:

I'd still like to know what's behind the 'qtr/half/3qtr only' style of navigation? Not because I think there's something inherently wrong, but because there are so many more methods that should also be part of the pilot's toolkit.

Is it a JAR requirement to only use that method? Or is the school's JAR approval based on whatever the schools syllabus specifies- and it only mentions that one? :confused: :confused:

Keygrip
1st Dec 2003, 11:46
I'll get to Part 2 - promise.

Maybe around Tuesday - sorry for the delay.

It's now 23:40 - leave home at 3:30am for a 6:55am flight to Dallas - promise I'll get to it (gimme something to do in the hotel).

Glad you made it home, FFF - Disney next time you come, eh??

(Anybody else, for that?? CPL course, test, and DisneyWorld?)

FlyingForFun
1st Dec 2003, 17:41
Miektila - thanks for the kind (ish) words!

I had noticed my typo re the runway orientations in the final post. But the post is too long to edit now - the vagaries of PPRuNe seem to mean that you can make a long post by splitting it in two and posting both halves within 15 minutes of each other, but you can't then edit it!

Keygrip - definitely Disney next time!

FFF
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Fancy Navigator
2nd Dec 2003, 04:24
Well done, FFF, it is a great achievement ! :ok:
Very inspiring.....

I have a question for you and other CPL pilots (sorry if it sounds a bit silly or naive):
What are the prospects of finding work/being paid to fly now that you have a CPL? Is a CPL just another stage in the long road to getting a flying job (being the licence which theoritically entitles you to fly and be paid for it, but with which you can't really get any jobs - even the most basic flying job), or can you actually manage to get some kinda job (like taking a group of people, a businessman, a guy wanting to take photos,etc...) and be paid for it?
Thank you :)
PS: Once again, well done FFF :)

FlyingForFun
2nd Dec 2003, 16:08
FN,

There are very few jobs you can get with just a CPL, as you suspect. A few months ago I heard of a job doing aerial photography (the person who told me about this job thought I already had the CPL, and that I might be interested). But realistically you will need either an IR or a FIC as well before you can use the CPL.

(I keep telling my mates that I can now take them flying and legally ask them for the entire cost of the flight, but suddenly they all seem far less interested in flying with me than they were before!)

FFF
---------------

ROB-x38
4th Dec 2003, 10:01
G'day FFF

From a not-too-distant CPL student thanks a lot for that great read - very informative. :)

And apologies :ooh: but could anyone tell me what FREDA stands for? My PPL training used a CLEAR check.

And also HASELLL? Our pre-manoeuvre checklist is THHHELLL (to hell!) - trims, hatches, harnesses, height, engine, location, loose articles, lookout.

Thanks, Rob.

Miektila
4th Dec 2003, 11:43
Height Airframe Security Engine Location Landing (light) Lookout- basically a pre-manouvre check.

Fuel Radio Engine DI/Compass Altimeter- cruise checks.

Keygrip
4th Dec 2003, 12:22
More coming soon - promise....just a bit busy for such a long posting.

High Wing Drifter
4th Dec 2003, 14:48
I fink this thread should be a sticky :cool:

FlyingForFun
4th Dec 2003, 19:51
Tinstaafl,I'd still like to know what's behind the 'qtr/half/3qtr only' style of navigation? Is it a JAR requirement to only use that method? Or is the school's JAR approval based on whatever the schools syllabus specifies- and it only mentions that one?I've just had a phone-call from my old PPL instructor, and I mentioned this to him. He told me that when he did his PPL he was taught this method. He only learnt the 6-minute-mark method when he did his CPL - but he thought it enough of an improvement over the 1/2-way-marks that this is the method which he taught to all his PPL students.

It seems, from that, that it's not the CAA who specify the 1/2-way marks - so it must be EFT. Although he has a CAA CPL, so it's also possible that it's all changed under JAR. Not a definitive answer, I know.

FFF
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Tinstaafl
4th Dec 2003, 21:43
Ta, FFF. It's piqued my curiosity.

When I was instructing & subsequently designing syllabi & training courses for approval I made sure that students were given a range of navigational tools, not just a spanner.

I was originally taught/taught to others 10nm markers, then 20nm, 6min, 1/4-1/2-3/4 fractions, deliberate track error, 'lead in', line & funnel features, pilotage/track crawling from a last 'good' fix, visual & radio bearing plots etc. They ALL have their uses. Haven't used along track markers for 15 years. Instead I prefer to measure as I go, using whatever feature is most convenient at the time. Still use all the others though.

Keygrip
6th Dec 2003, 09:57
First off - note that this is MY brief, to MY candidates and that the flight is taking place in the USA. Rules here are slightly different and, as such, slightly amend the briefing that I would be giving for a flight test in European airspace. DON'T take this as the definitive briefing. LISTEN to exactly what your own examiner says - indeed, WHAT he says, may very well be in your favour......here goes......candidate returns, 40 minutes later. I've based this entirely on the flight that occured with FFF.

Ah, Mr. Flying for Fun. Welcome back, did you find everything you need? Are you ready to fly? <<I'm expecting a "Yes", but say otherwise, if not>>
Good, in that case, let's sit and go through the long briefing for the flight. Do you want a drink of anything before we start? This could be a long chat.

Don't bother taking any notes, mainly because we are going flying immediately afterwards - so you won't get time to read them. However, please do stop me, interrupt me, if I'm saying anything that you do not completely understand or if I'm suggesting something you don't believe you have done in training. If you have any questions, any questions at all, please ask.

First of all, I must ask you to sign this Form 172, the CPL Skill Test Report Form. <<Shows form to candidate and points to various bits of information that I've just written onto it>>

If you agree that this is your first attempt, of the first series (or whatever, as applicable) - that this is your correct name and CAA reference number - that in Piper Arrow, N2878U you are going to fly from Fort Pierce to the private airstrip called 'Escape', with me (my name and reference number on form), and that you are required to fly the indicated sections of the flight ....section 1 being the departure, section 2 being the upper air work, general handling, section 3 the navigation element, 4 the circuits and landings and 5 being the simulated emergencies, please sign the form here. There are four carbon copies of this form, so please press quite hard - but try not to dig holes in the paper. You have no requirement to fly any items from section 6 as this is for multi engine aircraft - and are difficult to fly in your Piper Arrow. The section down here, at the bottom, says that you have trained to fly at EFT, that <whoever> has signed your form 170A on <this date>. When we return from the flight, and complete the result, I will ask you to sign it again.

OK?? Right then, the profile, as I'm sure you are aware, will include a departure from here, followed by the visual navigation leg, and a simulated diversion. This diversion will include some simulated instrument flight. After the navigation you will be required to demonstrate some general handling exercise as well as a few circuits. There will also be some simulated emergencies to contend with.

So why are we doing all this?? Well, today is your golden opportunity to demonstrate your ability to operate as the Pilot in Command of a single pilot, public transport, passenger carrying operation, in a single engine aeroplane. Remember, although I will direct you through the sequence of events, you are to assume the responsibilities of the pilot in command - show me how you would carry out this flight as the Captain.

Fly the trip in accordance with all national legislations - now, there is the potential for conflict here as, having chosen to train in the United States for this flight test, you have two sets of rules to comply with. You are flying an FAA registered aircraft, in Federal airspace so must comply with Federal regulations - however, you are flying a JAA skill test for a JAA licence, so must also comply with JAA legislation. If the two sets of legislation contradict each other - then take the most restrictive. For example, what are the FAA regulations with regard to clearance from cloud for flight under VFR - and what are they under JAA? <Waits for answers>. So in that case, the Federal regulations are more restrictive.

On the other hand, if your flight takes you close to an airfield that has an air-to-ground radio facility then, under JAA, that airfiled would have an ATZ around it and, if your journey today takes you inside that area, I expect you to make the appropriate radio calls - which should also be in accordance with CAP413, not the atrocious American crap that you've been listening to for the last three or four weeks. What would be the dimensions of that ATZ at, say, these two airfields? <points at two airfields, on the candidates chart, with different length runways and waits for correct answers>.

The flight should also be flown in accordance with standard industry operating procedures - so no deliberate steep turns in the circuit, land at the start of the runway - not three quarters of the way down it, land with the wheels down etc. etc. Having said that, if you WISH to operate in a non-standard way, say landing with the gear up, or half way up the runway, then TELL ME, in advance, that you intend to do so. The flight must also be conducted in accordance with your flight schools training and operation manuals - do it the way you have been taught. The main thing to consider, however, is that the entire flight must be flown in VMC - do NOT enter cloud, on pain of death. If, for example, I ask you to climb from altitude 3,000 feet to altitude 4,000 - and there is a cloud in the way, then I do NOT expect you to go through that cloud, I expect you to find your way AROUND it. DO NOT enter cloud during this flight.

Whenever you are operating under simulated instrument conditions - or, more simply put, whenever you have the hood on - I will assume responsibility for lookout and collision avoidance.......which is only fair - because you can't see out of the window. Whenever you are operating visually, however, you are responsible for that collision avoidance and if you see any other aircraft, or obstructions, you should point them out to me - then I can tell what you have seen and, more importantly to my insurance company, I can tell what you haven't seen.

During the navigation exercise, you will also be responsible for both radio communication with whichever ground facility you deem to be the most appropriate at any given time and, not surprisingly,for navigation - for the safe and effecient conduct of the flight path. If there is some airspace in the way that may need a clearance - then organise one. If you get lost - take the appropriate actions to find yourself. Do what you would do as the pilot in command of a single pilot, public transport, passenger carrying aircraft.

During the general handling section of the flight - the airwork section - I will be responsible for both radio communication and navigation. You do not need to make any radio calls - but I would ask you not to talk over any radio reception. If the radio is talking - it may be somebody operating in our area - so listen to it!!

No matter whether you are flying visually, or under the hood, cockpit management will be your responsibility at all times. YOU decide if a switch should be on or off, if you want the wheels up or down, if you want the left tank or the right tank selected...whatever. If I ask you to carry out an exercise, but you want to do a check or whatever, then please tell me that you wish to do so, and we'll continue with the exercise when you are ready. Remember, cockpit management is your responsibility at all times.

On the subject of in-flight checks, all your checks should be done in accordance with your company check list, and should all be made out loud. Let me hear what you are doing. Following on from this would be the operating speeds - let's agree how you intend to handle this flight. <<My kneeboard has a sheet on it that has spaces to record your nominated speeds for rotate, cruise climb, best rate of climb, best angle of climb, cruise speed, cruise descent, downwind in the traffic pattern and final approach speeds for a normal approach, a flapless approach, a glide and a short field or performance landing - and, as you sing them out, I'll write them on the kneeboard and expect you to comply with them>> <<back to the script....>>

Tolerances. No doubt your instructor has beaten into you the tolerances that you are allowed from your nominated altitudes, headings and speeds. Well, don't concentrate too hard on these - they are more for my guidance than yours. Altitude for example, the written tolerance is plus, or minus, 100 feet - but I'm more concerned with WHY. If you enter a porpoising, sinusoidal wave form flight path that goes from 90 feet above to 90 feet below your nominated altitude, that would be a bad thing. If you cruised along for quite some time with an error or 80 feet and did nothing about it, that would be a bad thing, despite it being within the magical 100 feet figure. If, however, you drift off to, say, 150 feet high, which is technically outside the tolerance, but then make an immediate, deliberate, smooth, non aerobatic, non coffee spilling, non passenger scaring, recovery to your nominated altitude - that is not as bad a thing. If you get caught in one of our wonderful, homely, Floridian thermal updraughts - well then all bets are off. Do what you can to control it - but don't fret about it - you may not have the powers to overcome nature.

Conversation - it's unusual for me, but once you start the engine, I'm going to go quiet. I'll slide the seat back all the way and enjoy the ride. Remember your driving test?? Grumpy, frightening, examiner guy with his arms folded, listing all your faults on his kneeboard and sighing when you brake too heavy?? Well, I'm going to stay real quiet but only in an attempt to give you 100% opportunity to concentrate on whatever you are trying to do. I will not open conversation with you, other than to advise you of the diversion - if you wish to open conversation with me, I will, of course, reply - but I will not be able to advise you on the conduct of the flight. Please don't take this as unfriendly - I'm actually trying to help you. I'm trying to let you concentrate.

Talking of the driving examiner, I want you to know that I will be keeping a log of the flight. I'll be scribbling A LOT during the flight. If you make a mistake, I'll write it down. If you do something really well, I'll write it down. I may even write down something that has no direct bearing on our flight - maybe a note to advise the school of a fault with the aircraft, maybe a note about the weather or visibility. Maybe a note of some aircraft that I have heard on the radio. Maybe a note to remind me to pay the mortgage when we land...it could be anything. Please, don't assume that because I have just written something down, you have just made a bad mistake - it could be just the opposite <<that's all true, by the way>>.

Finally, before we discuss the flight excersises, let's discuss those mistakes. If, or should I say 'when', you realise that you have made a mistake, don't sit there hoping that I didn't spot it, it's my job, it's what you've paid the CAA for me to do. Please, just tell me that you know you did wrong and what you should have done differently. If your error has affected the flight - then take the appropriate actions to rectify the problem. Do what you would do if you were the pilot in command of a public transport, passenger carrying flight.

<<going for coffee - will finish off later. Please advise me of any typo's that you spot in any of the above>>

Keygrip
7th Dec 2003, 11:43
Right then - the flight!!

Departure. Start the aircraft and taxi out in accordance with public transport regulations. Lookout, Radio communication and navigation are all your responsibility. Leave the zone in accordance with any air traffic control clearance - but feel free to co-ordinate with ATC in an attempt to get the clearance that you require. Can you tell me what runway length we require for departure today, and what distance we will require for landing when we return in about 2 hours? How did you calculate these figures?

<<Discussion on runway lengths, todays weather conditions, and public transport operations - including runway length factoring. Good time to look at Mass & Balance, too>>

O.K. - any questions on the departure??

Navigation. Weather and obstacles permitting, off we go on a fairly straight line, visual, navigation flight. You are not to use any radio navigation aids during this portion of the flight. You may, if you wish, set up any radio aids that you envisage may be of use on the second leg - you may tune and identify any facilities of your choice. If, however, it appears that you may gain navigational assistance from these aids I will either detune then again or, more likely, offset the indicators on the instrument display. Tune in whatever you wish, but if you try to "accidentally" leave the CDI on the correct radial for the destination - then expect me to adjust it. Don't even dream of leaving the DME set on something helpful - it, too, will be altered. However, if I do need to detune any, or all, of these aids, I will make note of the frequencies and settings and I will reset them to EXACTLY the same configuration before you commence the diversion leg of the flight. If this involves retuning the frequency, I will re-identify those aids, and will return them to your use in exactly the same configuration as you had left them.

Once you set off on the navigation leg, please advise me of your initial heading, your planned altitude and - when you can - your estimated time of arrival at the destination. You may change any, or all, of these nominations as many times as you deem appropriate - but TELL ME, in advance, BEFORE you make the correction.

You should, of course, be keeping a running log of your actions. I will ask you for a copy <or the original> of your flight log at the end of the journey. Can you tell me why you should keep a log??

Before you arrive at the destination, I will advise you of my desired diversion. Feel free to plan your diversion during the remainder of the first leg. When you arrive at the destination you are required to positively identify the turning point and, if there is any possibility of confusion as to the exact location, then I may ask you to positively identify up to three ground features surrounding the destination point.

When you make the turn at the destination all the navigation aids become available to you. You may use any information that you can get out of any of the equipment installed in the aircraft other than the moving map section of the GPS. <<KNS 80 (RNAV) users may, or so I'm told, actually move a VOR to the diversion point and track direct to it. Loran users may use full functions of the box of tricks. Remember, however, that the individual examiner MAY, at his (or her) own discretion, simulate the failure of any item of navigational equipment - so you can't use it, if we don't want you to>>

Again, please advise me of your initial heading, your planned altitude and, when you can, an estimated time of arrival at the diversion point. After some moments of tracking in the general direction of the diversion, I will take control whilst you erect the screens (or put on your hood/foggles). When I give control back to you, assume that you have entered cloud and take the appropriate actions. Which would be.....?? <<waits for answer>>.

Continue navigating towards the diversion point whilst flying in accordance with IFR. You may take running fixes of your current location as you see fit. I will require to see at least one fix, which you are required to mark on your chart and record on your navigation log - if you've just done a fix which was suitable then I'll not do another one specifically, but if I haven't seen you do one for a while........I'll ask you to do one.

Continue the instrument navigation until I advise that you may remove the hood/foggles/screens. Orientate yourself visually and continue to navigate towards the diversion point. Depending on the progress of the flight, we may - or may not - continue all the way to the diversion point. If we do go to the diversion you will be required to positively identify the feature, or at least three other prominent features surrounding it.

You will also be required to carry out some radio aid tracking - this may be either towards or away from a navigation aid of my choosing and may involve an intercept of a particular track, or simply calculate the current QDM and turn on track direct to the facility.

If, during your "appropriate actions" when encountering the simulated instrument conditions earlier, you declare that you are going to climb to an altitude above the MSA, but this altitude would put you into real cloud - I will advise you that I will accept that you HAVE climbed to that altitude, but will ask you not to, due to our requirement to maintain VMC conditions. Although I am accepting that we have climbed, you must take into account that for airspace and obstacle purposes WE HAVE NOT, and that should your current track encounter any airspace that requires a clearance to enter at that lower altitude, or an obstacle that needs avoiding in order not to spoil our day, you are required to deal with the situation accordingly. Don't go bleating through somebody’s airspace announcing that we would have gone clear over the top if I hadn't kept you at a lower altitude, and that the subsequent airspace infringement is my fault. Nor will I accept that argument whilst we plummet towards the Earth whilst sliding down the side of a large radio or television mast that we have just hit.

Any questions on the navigation section??

Airwork. Two parts to this - you will be required to do some visual exercises and some simulated instrument exercises. Remember, I will take responsibility for navigation and for radio communication. Don't talk ON the radio - and don't talk OVER the radio. I guarantee to you that I will not try to take you into any airspace without a clearance. There are NO deliberate traps during this flight. Don't forget, however, that cockpit management is your responsibility at all times.

There is no need for you to try to remember any of these instructions, as I will remind you of each, and every, exercise at it occurs. This is just a "heads up" of what you can expect to have to do during the flight.

So, hood/foggles on, and I assume responsibility for lookout. You maintain straight and level flight. No matter what the heading, no matter what the level - you just keep 'em. Maintain that for a few moments and then I will ask you to carry out a level turn at a 30 degree angle of bank. Only this FIRST turn will be at 30 degrees - any subsequent maneuvers should be at the appropriate bank angles for climbing or descending - or, if it is a level turn, it should be done at rate one, and should be the shortest way round onto any nominated heading. The straight and level flight, followed by the 30 degree bank turn, is to give me the opportunity to position the aircraft in a usable chunk of airspace from which to commence the flight exercise profile.

I'll position the aircraft to avoid a town, or find a hole in the cloud that we can climb through.

The simulated instrument work will consist of both full panel instrument flying, and some limited panel operations. For the full panel all I will ask you to do is climbing, descending and turning - mainly because there is nothing else that we can do with an aircraft. I will nominate some altitudes to climb or descend to. I will nominate some headings to turn on to. I may get mean and nasty and ask for a climbing turn - and even nastier when I nominate a particular indicated airspeed for you to maintain whilst descending at a mandated rate of descent. Ooh - getting tricky now, huh?

Limited panel work consists of level turns. Easy stuff - level turns. Shortest way round, rate one. When you roll wings level, don't be surprised to find that the heading isn't what you wanted. Feel free to adjust your heading as required - roll back into the turn, or roll back again, as appropriate. It may take a couple of attempts to get it accurate with these scabby little compasses. Just tell me when you are satisfied that you have completed the turn to the best of your accuracy and ability.

Whilst in limited panel, I will also take control and disturb the aircraft into a few unusual attitudes. When I give control back to you, respond in the appropriate manner ("I have control") and recover the aircraft to straight and level flight with the minimum further loss of altitude.

Visual flight - you resume responsibility for lookout, I maintain the R/T and navigation. Don't forget, cockpit management is still yours.

I will direct a sequence of events that will include - but not necessarily in this order - stalling, steep turns and gliding turns. For the stalling, I will nominate an altitude which I will expect you to achieve and MAINTAIN during your pre-stall checks. Once you commence a stall recovery, each one should be with the minimum loss of altitude and each one should end in a clean - that's gear up and flap up - climb at the best rate of climb. Minimum loss of altitude, ending in a clean climb at Vy, best rate of climb - which you told me earlier would be at a speed of <<see above>>.

The first stall is likely to be a clean, fully developed stall, recovering on my command. After the checks, maintaining altitude remember, close the throttle, don't let the aircraft climb or descend, eventually it will fully stall. Wait for me to say the command "Recover", then carry out a standard stall recovery, with the minimum further loss of altitude, finishing in a clean climb at Vy, best rate of climb.

Recover to my nominated altitude - then prepare for the "approach configuration" stall. This is the simulated turn from base leg onto final - so will have gear down, two stages of flap, twenty degrees of bank and reduced power. A little bit over zealous with the back pressure - and recover, on your own initiative, at the first signs of the approach to the stall. Don't wait for me to say "Recover", because I'm not going to - this one is up to you. Again, finish this move with the aircraft in a clean, gear up, flap up, Vy climb. This climb may take you through my nominated altitude - don't worry about it, keep climbing until I ask you to level off.

The last stall will be in "landing configuration". Gear down, full flap, wings level, reduced power. 'Stretching the glide scenario' - recover, on your own initiative at the first signs of the approach to the stall, into a clean, gear up, flap up, Vy climb - which, again, may take you through my nominated altitude.

Steep turns. Feel free to adjust to any heading that will give you a good visual reference point ahead of the aircraft. After the appropriate checks <<not a clearing turn>> carry out a level turn, at 45 degrees angle of bank, all the way round through 360 degrees, rolling wings level on your own initiative, back onto your visual reference feature outside. One turn one way, settle down again, then turn the other way when ready. During each turn, maintain the altitude and the airspeed. The direction of the first turn is at your discretion - be prepared to tell me why you have chosen to go that way!!

Gliding turns: At one point during this flight, you will find the aircraft flying in a wings level glide, and trimmed for the best glide speed, which you have already told me is <see above>. This will be an ideal start to enter the steep gliding turns. I’ll ask you to maintain the wings level attitude for a few moments and then, when ready, to enter a gliding turn at 30 degrees angle of bank. Maintain this descending turn until I ask you to continue into a 40 degree angle of bank. Does anything strike you about this exercise? Can you tell me what actions you will need to carry out?? <<waits for answer>>. Can you now tell me why you should do this?? <<waits for answer>>.

At the end of this exercise I will ask you to recover to straight and level – and then, once established, to pitch into a climb at the best angle of climb, Vx. This climb, with the high nose attitude, will continue for quite some time, possibly a couple of thousand feet. Take the appropriate actions, which are?? <<waits for answers>>.

Any questions on the general handling?

Emergencies. During the flight there will be some simulated emergencies. These will include, but again not necessarily in this order, a practice forced landing, an engine failure after take-off and a simulated engine fire in flight. For each one of the exercises I will clearly announce ‘simulated…whatever’. Remember, whilst it would be nice to be able to use the aeroplane again, our singularly primary desire is to walk away from the burning wreckage. That’s what insurance is for.

For the PFL, this is meant to be that the engine has, for some reason, ceased to develop power. The engine is still running, there are no bits of piston punching holes through the side of the engine block, we don’t have a fountain of oil gushing through the top – the engine is still running, but is not developing power. To simulate this, I will reach across, close the throttle and announce “Ooh, simulated engine failure”. You should say, “Ooh, I’ll crash into that field there!”, work out a mental picture of how you will get there and then commence your engine failure drills. During the descent, if you realize that there is a better place to crash than the field that you initially chose, then you are welcome to change you mind and aim for the better site, but TELL ME. If you intend to land with the undercarriage up, tell me that too. If you have sufficient mental capacity left during this drill, try to consider what happens after the landing and aircraft evacuation. If you can find a long field with a pub at the end, or somewhere near a telephone and coffee machine, this would be far more welcoming than putting down in a random field. Remember this is Florida, the random fields here are often full of unfriendly, hungry, critters with very sharp teeth. Your passengers would not be happy to survive an engine failure and then be munched by an alligator.

Engine failure after take-off. At some point during the flight, whilst in the take-off configuration – fairly close to the ground, pitched for the climb, maybe with gear down, maybe with flap down, I will reach across and close the throttle whilst announcing “Simulated engine failure after take off”. Off you with the drills. Pitch down, look for somewhere to crash, then gear and flap as appropriate to crash as slowly as possible

For both the simulated engine failure and the engine failure after take-off I would ask you to continue the descent until I ask you to go-around. This may be below 500 feet agl, and will be my responsibility. We do, however, need to continue the approach until we both agree, without any doubt that we either would, or would not, make it into the landing site that you have chosen. If we disagree about the potential for reaching the site, then we must continue the approach until one of us is proven wrong.

Engine fire in flight. At some time, as we cruise along, I will say “Simulated smoke, simulated engine fire”. You will then sit still in a state of general confusion and eventually say “What?, Now?” “YES!!!!!! Run through the drills as “touch drills” with the exception of the throttle. Please DO close the throttle, but that is the only action you should actually do for real. It will really spoil our flight if you elect to shut down the engine. Believe me, it’s not the best way to make friends The fire will not extinguish with the routine drills, and you will be required to carry out the appropriate additional drills.

So, simulated emergencies. For each one I will clearly say “Simulated engine failure”, “Simulated engine failure after take-off” or, “Simulated smoke, simulated engine fire”. If, at any time during the flight, you encounter any symptoms of a problem and you have not heard me say “Simulated this, that or the other”, then the problem is genuine. It is a real emergency – deal with it. I promise you that I will not interfere with the aircraft systems, I will not pull any circuit breakers, I will not quietly turn off the fuel or mags – or whatever. If you don’t hear me say “Simulated something” then the problem is real.

Now, whilst I also promise you that these simulated emergencies will not happen during the instrument phases of flight, they may happen during the navigation leg or they may happen during the general handling – it all depends what mood I’m in and how nasty I feel like being.

If the simulation occurs during the navigation you should have some idea as to your position, because you are navigating, so if you do a simulated Mayday call – which should include a position report – then you ought to be able to give a fairly accurate position. However, if the simulation occurs during the general handling phase, I remind you that I am responsible for navigation and, as such, you may not be totally aware as to your accurate position – in which case you can say anything you wish….”intend forced landing in a field in Florida”, or “landing 4,000 miles south west of London”

If you encounter any problem, simulated or actual, take the appropriate action. This may be the aircraft, it may be a weather hazard or it may be you or I who, as crew, start to feel unwell and we elect to pause the flight test until we’ve had a walk around in the sunshine and drunk a can of Coke. If you encounter a problem – solve it!!

Any questions on the simulated emergencies??

O.K. Finally – circuits. Section 4 of the flight test profile includes various circuits and landings. I need to se you complete a normal landing, a glide approach and landing, a flapless landing, a low-level circuit – or ‘bad weather circuit’, call it what you will – and a short field, or performance landing. All of these landings should be to your nominated area of touchdown which, unless you specify otherwise, will be assumed to be the normal touchdown zone of the particular runway. I remind you that you have already nominated the speeds at which you intend to fly these approaches.

Can you tell me how you would carry out a short field landing. <<waits for answer>>. O.K., then please go ahead with that drill – but do not brake for real. Just tell me when you would apply the brakes, but do not rip the wheels or tires off the aircraft in your attempts to show me how quickly you can stop.

The circuits may be flown back here at the home airfield or, depending on traffic volume, we may elect to carry out the circuits at one of the airfields out there in the wild during the general handling section. Whether we do the circuits here, or not, before we return to base we will both agree on our current location – remember, at that point, I am responsible for radio and navigation. The two of us will identify some local landmarks and ensure that you are fully aware of your location and your orientation to the airfield, then I will hand over the radio and navigation to you, and ask you to make a commercially expeditious recovery to the runway. Call ATC and try to co-ordinate an expeditious rejoin, then fly us home.

That’s it!! Taxi in, tie the thing to the floor and we’ll go drink coffee and either fill out the paperwork or keep you away from sharp objects.

Any questions on the circuits and rejoin??

Do you understand the requirements for this flight?? Remember, I will repeat it to you, step by step, in flight. Have you any questions?? Then assume this to be the first flight of the day for this aircraft, complete the pre-flight paperwork and let’s be ready to start the engine in, say, 15 minutes from now.

Nervous?? <<expects to hear “Yes”>>. Well don’t be. Take into account that there is not one thing that I can do to fail you, nor is there one single thing that I can do to pass you. The result is not my doing, it’s yours. You are flying the plane and, as such, it’s all up to you. Having completed the course and having received a form 170, you are already starting with a pass. Just don’t do anything to screw it up. If you think about it, it is me who should be nervous. You know how well you fly, I have no idea – but as long as I’m sat there comfortably then you can assume that all is going reasonably well. If you are comfortable but you see me curling up into a ball under the front seat, or trying to get out in flight, then you may want to re-assess the situation.

MVE
7th Dec 2003, 12:09
FFF,
Well done on the pass! and thanks for your nav plotter, which by the way was Phil's idea not mine! But it certainly makes the nav work quicker and more accurate.

I have a few comments on your thread,

Firstly regarding the captaincy element you are dead right! The flying isn't much different to PPL but the Captaincy element is the real CPL course.

Secondly regarding the Nav phase of the course, I have to disagree completely with your views on the use of the chart and the VOR plotting, the extra workload which the VOR plotting, as far as I understand, is there to test/train your CRM skills and train you to cope with the multi tasking you will deal with in a normal commercial flight. A VOR nav plot takes a few seconds and gives you a reasonable position call in the event of a PFL (real or practise). Remember CRM is the real issue here, if you have Nav aids at your disposal/on board use them!

Thirdly, I too found the idea of just 1/4 1/2 etc positions strange at first, but as it was explained to me, you are flying a Commercial Flight and not PPL VFR ie your not trying to micro navigate by ground features!

Overall a great thread and you obviously made a great effort producing it, plenty of good gen' for my test next week! Cheers mate!

As you said earlier your thread was more about the CPL course than EFT but I believe it's worth a thread on EFT for others to get first hand comments. I based most of my decision on where to train on comments from PPRUNE and so far both PPL/hour building in SA and CPL/ME/IR here at EFT appear to have been good decisions. I'll confirm the last later!:ok:


Keygrip, an excellent read!
Lots of usefull information and helped calm the butterflys a little....cheers:ok: (PS He isn't my examiner next week!)

Keygrip
19th Dec 2003, 13:46
Anybody still reading this??

I've wondered, ever since typing it all in....has it actually helped anybody?

Has anybody had a briefing similar, or recognised things, or had something completely different?

pa28biggles
19th Dec 2003, 16:23
Keygrip,
I'm sure its helped lots of people :D
I really appreciate you taking your time to write what you did, I have found it really useful and interesting.
Thanks :ok:

NinjaBill
19th Dec 2003, 19:15
Great post,

I read all of this, and found it very helpful, although I wont be doing my CPL for quite a while.

Its just difficult to find something to add to such a comprehensive post.

NB

Hufty
20th Dec 2003, 00:20
Yes Keygrip, it was a real help. I sat my test last Saturday (at EFT) and managed to get through first time! I found your brief very interesting as it gave me a bit more of an idea exactly what I would face on the test. I felt well prepared going into it but it is great to know what is going to happen from another source.

Thanks again for sharing it with us all!!

Hufty.

YYZ
20th Dec 2003, 06:40
Im still reading, & im still enjoying!

Thanks for taking the time.

:ok:

NYCSavage
26th Jun 2004, 13:58
only 6 months late but just finished reading it!!!

wow, this has made me realise that there is more to commercial flying than MS2004!!!!!

Damn, Im going to have to read books now :(

good work keygrip and FFF

mordien
27th Jun 2004, 16:43
Just read this thread and I found it extremely interesting! Thanks for putting in the time to post your progress fff.

One thing I didn't understand was if you, FFF, actually do have an IR rating or not? Just got a little confused about that part.

Thanks!

FlyingForFun
28th Jun 2004, 08:08
Glad to see that my diary is still proving useful after 6 months.

Mordien, no I don't have an IR, but I do have an IMC rating which I did a few months before the CPL.

One thing which is worth pointing out is that the syllabus for the CPL has changed since I did mine. The diversion part of the navigation section is no longer done under the foggles, so there is far less emphasis on IMC work than there was when I did the course. Someone like Keygrip may be able to give more detail on this, but what it means is that although the IMC rating that I had was extremely useful to me, it's not going to be quite so useful for people doing the course now.

FFF
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Edit, because I now notice that Mordien is not from the UK, and so may not know what an IMC rating is. It's a UK-only rating, which allows flight in IMC under IFR, but only in Class D airspace and below. Since airways in the UK are all Class A, that basically means you can't fly on airways - so navigation will be done in Class G airspace. The minimum training for this rating is 15 hours, which is considerably less than the IR, and this is reflected by having much higher minima for approaches than an IR holder would have. Unlike the IR, having an IMC does not give you any dispensation towards the minimum time for the CPL. Hope that clears it up a bit!

mordien
28th Jun 2004, 09:00
Then I understand why you would do IMC practice without IR-rating :-)

Thanks for clearing it up!

Best regards,
//M

c-bert
30th Jun 2004, 09:40
FFF and Keygrip. A few months late but very interesting read. I'm jsut starting the whole (f)ATPL thing and I have found this thread very useful. Many thanks!

hotprop
15th Jul 2004, 08:36
This must be THE BEST thread I've read on a message board ever.

I am awaiting the time and weather for my CPL training, that should've been done already but the weather in Sweden this summer :mad: ...

My instructor says we will complete the course in 3-4 days (15 hrs due I have IR). However, reading your account makes me wonder if 150 hrs would be sufficient for par !

This has got me thinking. Now that there are a few weeks open before the training begins I plan to do a number of VFR-nav legs on my own, to see if I remember anything at all.
But foremost, it's the captaincy that struck me in the head. Having made my share of stupid decisions I feel this may be the higher "failure" risk ...

Got to get the act together ! Thanks again for a thrilling account, both from FFF and Keygrip !

mattd2k
11th Jan 2005, 23:51
FFF & Keygrip,

Just thought I would post to say that a year later this thread is still proving to be useful as I have had it book marked since I started my PPL last year.

Having passed my CPL last week I just wanted to thank you both for an excellent insight into both the course and the test. Reading it certainly helped me to prepare for and reflect on my lessons as well giving me a great heads up before the test.

My only disappointment was that didn't Keygrip turn up for my flight test in one of the legendry shirts!! Probably just as well though, from what I have heard I may have needed the foggles for the whole flight!!

A great read guys thanks. :ok:

Matt.

FlyingForFun
12th Jan 2005, 09:36
Matt - congrats!!!

I'm always pleased when people tell me how useful this diary was, and I'm glad it's still useful over a year later. Also nice to see people like you, who were new to all this flying business while I was writing the diary, coming up through the ranks of training - good luck with the rest of your training!

FFF
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