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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