Hi all,
Well today I had my TIF with ACFT and was satisfied with pretty much all aspects of the operation. It was a bit of a mission to find but I think that was more my fault than anything. Nevertheless the receptionist was friendly and helpful with directions and was welcoming when I finally did figure out which I was pointing!
After a brief wait I was greeted by my instructor and we sat down together for a chat about my history and also his and how he had ended up at ACFT. We moved on to more specific info after that with the talk heading toward where I would like to take my flying and how I'd like to get there.
Once all that was out of the way it was onto the fun stuff!
The Deke was waiting and we had a pre-flight to do. My instructor happily showed me around the aircraft and explained what he was looking for aswell as getting me to do check the fuel. He also showed me what it should actually look like if there was water in the fuel which I thought was cool because I'd never seen it and probably would not really know what to look for otherwise. It's a small detail but an important one I think.
So in we get and being an aerobatic trainer getting into the seat belt was an epic in itself! A bit of fiddling and ratcheting saw us taxiing down to the runway. ACFT is a fair way from the run-up bays so don't be surprised to add 5-10 minutes (total) onto your time with taxiing. It didn't bother me so much as I like looking at all the planes and hangars along the way... but that's just me. I guess if you're in that much of a rush, go to RACWA.
No need to wait anyway as we were lucky enough to get straight onto the runway from the run-up bay with hardly any waiting. I was happy and a little nervous that the instructor got me to do the throttle and the stick during take-off. But there were no problems and we were soon in the air. We'd talked about what to do beforehand and the decision was to try some turns, and just a general fly around with me paying attention to the feel of the turns with the rudder and especially the attitude of the plane. Also we'd agreed that I would sit in the back seat as I didn't want to worry about CSU control today and just wanted to go for a fly and see how the instructor and the school acted. Anyway, if we had time at the end he promised to do some aerobatics too!
You might wonder why I didn't want the front seat so much. Well, truth be told, last time I started flying I realised that I spent a heap of time staring at the instruments rather than just flying and it showed with a lack of understanding in some areas. So this time I was wonderfully surprised that without any instruments my eyes and balance did the work easy. I had a great view for attitude and all I had to worry about was keeping my attitude, looking out for traffic and enjoy the experience. I found the Deke responded really quickly to rudder control and I could definitely feel the plane slipping and the need for rudder when making turns.
With time running short we headed for the sky and the ocean not far from Rockingham... I think! Up to altitude and away we went with just enough time to squeeze in a loop, a barrel roll, a stalling turn and lastly a little inverted flying....
Woah! That was awesome! Nice way to top off a great flight. Time to head back to Jandakot. Again we had some luck on the entrance into the circuit and got on the base leg and straight into final after a Cessna. And again the instructor let me help with the approach which I found nerve racking but also quite easy to hold the correct attitude and to keep the centreline. Musta been because I wasn't distracted with all the gizmos up front.
Problems I found were minimal, I guess the headset I'd been given had a boom that kept swinging out so I was constantly fiddling, trying to bring it back in. It buggered up my call to the tower after we landed... I felt like such a twit!
As mentioned earlier there was no attitude indicator or directional indicator which I quizzed my instructor about and he said that within the next 6 weeks both Decathlons should be getting kitted out with the two missing instruments. Something about laser prism gyros that aren't affected by unusual attitudes, etc. After which they will be able to run students through to the GFPL in the Deke if the student wishes.
The other problem of course is the cost of the Deke which can stack up over time. I believe you can choose to do your training in their C172 instead. I think they also have a Diamond if you like. Compared to the C172, if you wanted your tailwheel aswell, I think the cost is about equal with the Deke in the long run. I'm not sure about the Diamond but I reckon it'd be cheaper still.
The positives: I think the school is nicely run and the instructor certainly knows his stuff. The planes are well looked after. I could see myself being a student there most definitely. As to which plane I would train... I still can't figure that out! I'm erring towards the Deke simply because I think it's more my style and one of the reasons I picked ACFT in the first place was the chance to do my aerobatics rating in that plane. I still would like to continue to my CPL though so maybe I should just churn my way through with a C172 and then come back later for the fun stuff... I can't decide!
Thanks all for the tips and opinions so far. This thread has been very helpful to me and hopefully to others. It'd be good if anyone else going to do a TIF at a different school in the future could do a similar write up.
Cheers