Diary of a Frustrated Wannabe Microlight Pilot

[Whirlybird]

1st June 2002 (I'm putting the year as this could turn out to be a long thread :D )

I drive to the PPRuNe fly-in at Popham, not flying because I'm totally knackered after flying a C172 all day the day before for the Dawn to Dusk competition. I run into Genghis the Engineer, and remind him that he promised me a ride in his aerial motorbike...er...sorry, I mean Raven flexwing microlight, about three years ago. I have a long memory for anything concerning free flying. He asks me if I'd like to navigate for him in next year's 3-day Round Britain Rally: "I need someone who's lightweight, can navigate, and is game for anything, and you qualify on all three counts". Well, I never turn down free flying! Somewhere along the line I mention I'd once thought of having a trial lesson, as flexwings are about the only thing I've never flown. Genghis says if I'm thinking that way, why not do a few more hours and go along as co-pilot. Say it quickly and it sounds easy, doesn't it? Read on.

OK, I'll post this before my PC crashes or something.

[Whirlybird]

8th June 2002
I've found a local microlight school, and the instructor sounds like a nice guy. He reckons it'll take me 6-8 flying hours. I mentally add 50% for the fact that (a) I'm a slow learner, and (b) flying instructors lie. It still doesn't sound too bad, and is only £70/hr. Next summer is a long way off, but it makes sense to do it while the weather is warm, the days long, and I'm not doing a lot of helicopter flying. I'd wanted to fly this weekend, but Tim (the instructor) can't fit me in for some reason now lost in the mists of time (ie my memory).

15th June 2002
I'm about to have my trial lesson! I've phoned and the weather is OK, I get down there and meet everyone. I get zipped into flying suit, helmet, gloves etc, and we climb aboard Tim's aerial motorbike. 30 seconds later it starts to rain, and the wind picks up. We sit there and think about it for a bit, then go back in, unzip flying suit, etc etc etc. I grin and say I'm used to it, I learned to be patient when doing my PPL(A) some years ago. Famous last words...

[Whirlybird]

19th June 2002

The weather isn't bad, and being self-employed I've managed to take the afternoon off. The fact that I'm supposed to be working fulltime and then some to save for my helicopter instructors' course has momentarily escaped my mind. Finally I get to go flying! I have to sit in the back for the first lesson, as Tim says he needs to make sure I don't freeze on the controls or anything similar, as the person in the front can always over-ride the one in the back. I think this is ridiculous as I have 460 flying hours and have even made feeble attempts to fly Genghis' aerial...er...Raven... from the back, but I suppose microlight instructors have a right to try to carry on living. Anyway, Tim takes off, and I have a go, and this is HARD! No, it's bloody impossible!!! The controls all move in the opposite direction from both f/w and rotary aircraft. :eek: Anyway, we come back in, have a break, and then I get to sit in the front. This time turning left by moving the bar to the right and vice versa isn't too bad - I look at the wing, and do whatever makes it move the right way. But pushing the bar forward to go up and pulling it to go down....argggh, my survival instincts won't let me. It's OK when I think about it, but once I relax.... Tim, like all flying instructors, is telling me I need to relax. Who writes their script I wonder! We come in and I ask him how long he honestly thinks it will take me. He says if I carry on like I am, five hours or so. I'm elated, till I remember that flying instructors lie. :(

[Whirlybird]

20th June 2002
I can't take any more time off, but have booked the 8 pm slot, the last one, and drive over after work. Turns are now OK, so we seem to spend most of the time trying to reverse my natural instincts to pull or push the bar in the f/w direction - Tim adjusts the throttle, while I have to keep us straight and level. It's still difficult. On top of this, as an R22 pilot I'm used to fingertip movements, while this requires huge control inputs. But it's fun. Mind you, do I ever find flying anything not to be fun? Tim still tells me I'm doing fine; I now ignore this as any indication of how much time and money it'll cost me. I guess I'm sort of committed now anyway. I've done a total of 2.3 hours.

21st June 2002
I fly to the PFA Rally in an R22 - and it's so wonderfully easy to fly! I have things to do on Saturday; I'm hoping to try microlighting again on Sunday.

Sunday 23rd June - Wednesday 10th July
I've been booked in to fly most evenings and quite a bit of the weekends. I haven't managed it yet. It's been too bumpy or too wet or the cloudbase has been too low or something. I seriously wonder how anyone ever learns to fly these things. Lessons have been cancelled by phone usually, but I've driven down there a few times, as one does. And I've discovered I'm not quite as patient as I thought I was. This was supposed to be done quickly if not easily - it wasn't supposed to take over my life!

Well, that's it so far. I hope it's cheered up some of you waiting to do first solos, QXCs etc. You are not alone. At least I can go and fly something else, but this is definitely frustrating.

Well, I'll keep you all up to date if you want; if not I'll go quietly back to Rotorheads and let you know if/when I ever learn to fly one of these frustrating little machines.

[Penguina]

Yeah, keep us up to date please. It's interesting.

[Who has control?]

DON'T YOU DARE STOP!!! :) :) :) :)

[treadigraph]

Whirly, I've just been reading a Brian Lecomber piece on trying to fly Microbes, dated 1984 - I'll try and send you the text, you'll love it! He also had a go in R22s later...

Looking forward to next instalment!

Lotsaluck,

Treadders...

[Evo7]

Good thread Whirly - you even make a w/x cancellation interesting. Don't you stop, y'hear... :)

[sennadog]

Whirlybird. Can I make a suggestion? NEVER NEVER EVER go near a fast jet or anything else the RAF may have. You'll probably want to fly it too!:p

Interestin post BTW.:)

[Whirlybird]

sennadaog,

I know. I think I should keep well away from things that fly in future. :D

Treadigraph,

Yes please let me see Brian Lecomber's thoughts on microlights. Bet he didn't find it this difficult.

OK, I'll continue this thread if/when anything happens. You don't really want details of every wx cancellation, do you?

[Send Clowns]

Whirly - I recommend a book called "Propellerhead" by Antony Woodward. Autobiographical, he flies a three-axis but doesn't even have a PPL before he starts, and is a much slower learner even than you claim to be! Very funny and true-to-life.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Why is I know, just know, that I'm going to get the blame for all this.

Genghis

(3½ hrs microlight flying today, but only for work).

[paulo]

Agree with everyone... (Aviation is desperately short of good of writers who actually fly.)

Keep it coming whirly... :)

[distaff_beancounter]

Whirly ... do keep up the posts. There are lots of us out there who are tempted to try something different, so long as it flys. :)

Does anyone know anything about autogyros? I've been thinking about them ever since I met Wing Commander Wallis, some year ago, but I have never had the chance to fly one. ;)

[Whirlybird]

Genghis,

How could you possibly get the blame? You only suggested it, took me flying in your microlight, told me I could do it easily and cheaply in a very few hours. Now how could you possibly imagine you might be held in any way responsible. :rolleyes: ;)

distaff_beancounter,

I've done a couple of hours autogyro flying on two different types. It's a long story, maybe I should start another thread...but not now, I do have to work occasionally! Briefly though, I too was fascinated by them, especially as they were rotary but cheap, and I was looking for an affordable helicopter substitute. So I went up to visit Roger Savage in Carlisle, who is one of only 7 gyro instrutors in the country (or was back then), and is reputed to be a very good instructor. I'm sure he is, if you're male! If you happen to be female....well, he didn't quite ask me if my husband knew if I was out alone, but close. :eek: I daresay it might be different now; I've got more flying qualifications than he has, and I can casually let people know that if I feel the need to ensure I get taken seriously. But back to the point, before this becomes another long rambling post - they are lovely little machines, nice to fly, take off vertically in almost any sort of wind, hardly need a runway to land. BUT they are extremely noisy, have had enough accidents that my local airfield won't let you keep one there, and I don't fancy trusting anything with that many moving parts to either my own or anyone else's self-build skills. That's why I decided to stick with helicopters and hopefully eventually get paid to fly them.

I have another microlight lesson booked for this evening. I'd say watch this space, but I think I really mean don't hold your breath.

[criticalmass]

Whirlybird,

Great stuff! Keep it coming.

FWIW, some comparatively recent extracts from my microlight diary:-

May 1st: CFI asked me how many hours I had. I told him and he amazed me by saying "Good, I'm going to put you through an assistant instructor's rating". Quiet calmly. Got me thinking. P'raps I should put something back into flying for the fun I've taken out of it.

May 3rd: Did a couple of hours of circuits, thinking hard about how I'd teach this to a student pilot. What landmarks would I use for the turning points? How do you teach them the delicate art of that turn from base onto final so you're exactly lined up on the centreline? How do you teach then to disregard the runway axis in a crosswind and land obliquely across the runway, directly into the wind? Tried to remember back to when I was a student...just a couple of years ago. Concluded my short-term memory is shot!

May 9th: Half an hour of circuits before the westerly winds came down. Totally unflyable until today. Westerly winds 25-40 Knots, occasionally stronger. Even the tin-wing pilots complained about the turbulence on approach. Hung around the hangar a lot. Decided we better do something about the birds nesting in the eaves and cr@pping all over the wings.

May 26th: Weeks of unflyable weather! Ths is getting frustrating We aren't supposed to have this weather until August! Zero progress on the assistant destructor's rating. When the going gets tough, the tough do maintenance.

June 2nd: An hour in the circuit, touch and go landings and very low passes. Westerly winds above 1000 feet. Conditions got worse as time went on. I landed when I barely had control of the trike on the base leg. Sobering.

June 3rd: Launched at dawn, berluddy cold. Circuits and low passes for an hour, cup of tea, re-fuel, more circuits and low passes. The CFI didn't bother flying at all today. Found out he knew something I didn't when the westerly wind finally arrived as I was having second cuppa. Only just got the trike back in the hangar before the wind made closing the doors nearly impossible without help. The Cessnas flew all day. Their CFI said conditions were "character-building". Consoled myself with the silent observation that my character is already built.

June 21st: First flyable day for some time. Left the circuit for a change and flew over the coast spotting whales...didn't see any. GPS said there was a strong westerly at 3000 feet. About 20 knots. Returned to airport and did more circuits. Still no progress on that rating but all this practice must be doing something. Circuits sure burn a lot of fuel though, even solo with a 582.

June 23rd: Glorious day. CFI didn't show up but I got over four hours of good flying. By the time I get the assistant destructor's rating I'll have nearly doubled the hours in the logbook since he first mooted the idea. Gave out pamphlets etc to interested spectators who came over for a chat whilst I was refuelling. No sugar for my cup of tea...yuck!

June 30th: CFI has entire day booked out with trial instructional flights so no instructor training today. Flew anyway. Couple of hours of circuits, then out to the coast again. Great day! Will have to do a 100-hourly on the trike soon at this rate.

July 10th: Westerly winds for the last ten days, totally unflyable. The fish were at anchor and the birds were walking. I am getting very sick of this weather. The trike has been maintained to within an inch of its life; every nut and bolt torqued to spec, plugs cleaned, strobes installed, washed, polished, tyres inflated, new starting-battery installed, fuel-filter disassembled, cleaned and all the electrical wiring checked...but the damn thing hasn't gone so much as an inch off the ground. Am I bored or what?

July 11th: Work reared its ugly head and I had to abandon all thoughts of flying. Apparently it was an almost ideal day. If I ever find that sod Murphy, I'm gonna shoot him...with blunt bullets!

[treadigraph]

Whirlybird, I now have the Lecomber article as a Word file - if you would like to email me, I'll forward it to you - or I can convert to Acrobat PDF if you'd prefer...

And, no, he didn't find it easy!

Good luck this evening, I'm looking forward to reading all about it!

Treadders

[Whirlybird]

criticalmass,

Makes me feel marginally better to know I'm not alone. But only marginally.

Treadders,

OK; I'll send you an e-mail now; thanks.

[Whirlybird]

15th July 2002

I finally got airborne again!!!! After missing the best weekend flying weather of the summer, as I'd arranged to be away this weekend before I even considered flying microlights, I spent the whole weekend fretting about missing flying. So I arranged to take time off work and fly today instead. I'm self-employed, so I can do it; I shouldn't, as I need the money to pay for the flying etc etc etc. But I have a deadline I never got around to mentioning in all the discussion of backwards control systems and so on. Some time after I agreed to this 3-day flight next year, Genghis decided he wanted to fly round Wales for a few days this summer. Did I want to come? Well of course I do; it's free flying; what a silly question. I'm not sure if I'm being asked for my superior navigation skills or to make sure I actually like being in one of these aerial....OK, I know, the joke is wearing thin. Anyway, this little jaunt is next week. And I decided I'd try and learn to fly it by then. It seemed sensible at the time, but now I only have a week left. It felt like flying to the moon next week would be easier, but I decided to give it a go. Anyway, to continue...

I'd decided that since old habits seemed to be the problem, maybe if I just forgot I knew how to fly anything and moved the controls any old how and had fun, I'd learn faster. Well, as a philosophy it doesn't sound very convincing, I know. But amazingly it seemed to work. Quite suddenly, I could sort of nearly a little bit fly the thing, if you follow that. Well, at least I moved the controls the right way. So much so, that one time I reacted instinctively to a gust, and panicked, thinking if it was instinctive it must be the wrong way! But it wasn't. Anyway, Tim said whatever I'd decided to do to keep on doing it, cos it was working. And we flew in circles around clouds to practise turns and so on, and then landed at a very short strip by a pub for a coke. Er...let's not get carried away; Tim landed; I followed through and pretended I was. Anyway, these little machines really are fun. We started looking for thermals and generally playing around, and it's rather nice flying something where you really feel what's going on and have to put in a bit of physical effort to fly. Yes, I know that completely contradicts all I've ever said about why I like flying helicopters; well, tough, I never claimed to be completely logical. Anyway, after a break we did some takeoffs and circuits, though the thermals were really picking up by then so it was quite...er...exciting. But in 1.8 hours total today I've gone from thinking I'll never ever succeed in learning to fly a microlight to feeling as though it really is possible, and will be great fun. Wx permitting, I'm back tomorrow - earning a living can wait. I think I get to try landings next, so the next post could be...er...interesting.

[FlyingForFun]

Whirly,

Yes, I know that completely contradicts all I've ever said about why I like flying helicopters; well, tough, I never claimed to be completely logical
Well, of course not - you're a woman! :D Sounds like you're having a load of fun though! Not that I'm jealous or anything...

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

[Whirlybird]

FFF,

I was going to say that - but decided it was an obvious deduction anyway. :D

So, on to today...

16th July 2002
I give up; I do not understand how flying training works! After doing both a PPL(A) and PPL(H) you'd think the whole process would make a little sense, that I'd understand what to do to learn, how the process worked, not get upset when things go badly for no apparent reason. But I don't. Aviation seems to be totally different from anything else, and makes no sense at all.

So what brought this on, you may ask. Well, yesterday was a Good Day, as I'm sure you all gathered. I spent most of it with a huge silly grin on my face, and the microlight seeming to do what I wanted it to. Today I arrived early, expecting things to continue the same way. Maybe that was the problem. Whatever it was, I couldn't seem to do anything right. Maybe Tim expected more of me - yesterday was flying around and having fun, today was trying to keep straight along the runway in a crosswind. You have to keep the wing straight even though the bit you sit in (should know what it's called, but it momentarily escapes me - still brain dead) points every which way. Anyway we had a break and coffee, then I eventually managed a couple of decent crosswind takeoffs after what seemed like ages and nearly stalling it on one attempt :eek:. Tim sighed with relief (maybe at still being alive) and said I'd learned more in the last five minutes than the hour before, and maybe he should give me lots of caffeine! So then we did slow flight and would have done stalls (deliberate ones that is), except that the thermals were so strong by then that it was impossible; just too much lift. So we flew back, and Tim landed it beautifully in conditions that convinced me I'll never ever be able to handle one of these machines in a million years, and I was so tired I collapsed on the grass as soon as I tried to stand up!

So...too tired for any conclusions. I have to work tomorrow, booked to fly in the evening. More later.

[Pandora]

Whirly,
Good luck in the Round Britain Rally. I was going to navigate for a microlight pilot in this about 5 years ago but BA came knocking at my door. However if anyone out there can fly but can't find their way, let me know.

[Whirlybird]

18th July 2002

Couldn't fly yesterday; wx too bad. Yes, I know it looked good - but it's flexwings we're talking about here, and they ain't like anything else. :eek:

Anyway, phoned Tim this morning, wx OK, and I could take the afternoon off work and did. Takeoffs are now fine and no problem. We start doing circuits, and after a shaky start, all is OK - except I can't land the damn thing. The problem is, again, that you have to fly the wing; that is, you line up the bar with the runway, and never mind that the trike is pointing every which way. Well, I can do that on takeoff now, but for some reason not when I'm trying to land it; I keep reverting to f/w habits. Dunno if it's being near the ground or what. Anyway, then you make a kamikaze-type dive at the ground to build up speed, then fly extremely low along the runway, eventually pushing the bar as far forward as it will go. All very weird, and quite scary, especially for a helicopter pilot who's used to slowing down and then landing.

Well, Tim gives me the usual learning-to-land rigmarole of look here, do this here, dive there, do whatever - and I can't do any of it. He also tells me I'm to talk to him to stop me thinking. I hate to say it, cos he's a nice guy and a good instructor, and he might read this, but this sounds like utter insanity to me. Do people actually think while they're trying to land? I don't. I can't; there's too much to do anyway. He tells me to trust him, and I'm too confused and overloaded to say that I really really know that this isn't going to work. I don't even let my passengers talk when I'm landing - and that's in helicopters, on which I have 265 hours!!! Well, we make several futile attempts at this landing business, with me mumbling vaguely and Tim telling me to talk more and accusing me of thinking, and I begin to see shades of my f/w attempts nearly five years ago. And believe me, I probably hold close to the world record for hours spent learning to land tomahawks. So when Tim tells me I'm flying it beautifully, and he doesn't understand what the problem is with landing, and I remember my f/w instructor making the same comment, I decide drastic action is called for. Dammit, I think, I can fly the bloody thing; why do I have to do all this talking and looking at some house until it disappears and all that crap? I tell Tim I have a possible solution, but he won't like it. He says whatever it is, he's willing to give it a go. This is an improvement on most instructors, who think they know everything. Or maybe he's desperate and wants to stop me looking as though I'm about to burst into tears. Or maybe he's run out of other ideas. Anyway, I tell him I want to fly the circuit and land the aircraft, just that, not talk to him and try and do a million things and look where he tells me to and all that stuff. I reckon I can. To be fair, his telling me I fly it beautifully most of the time has probably given me just enough confidence to say that and believe it. So I don't quite say shut up and let me fly the damn thing, but close. Anyway, we try it and it works. Well, sort of anyway. No miracles - a go-around, then I don't push the bar far enough forward, and the next two aren't the best landings in the history of microlight aviation, but sort of OK. I land it anyway, and it does wonders for my confidence. I had been considering giving up completely and maybe shooting Genghis for suggesting the whole crazy idea. :D And maybe deleting this whole thread so that a potential 50,000+ people didn't know how badly I was doing. Now... it's turned into fun again, I think.

I suspect I have all sorts of questions about different people learning in different ways, possibly men and women learning in different ways, possibly...but I'm too damned tired to think about any of that right now.

I'm booked in for tomorrow. Flying High weather says "A very slack, but complex weather situation over the UK for Friday. Don't be surprised if this situation changes significantly." In other words, they don't have a bloody clue! That's really helpful, that is. Since I only have to perfect my landings, do PFLs, stalls, and emergency procedures (I think), I wanna fly tomorrow. I mean, say that quickly and it sounds easy. Oh no, this is how I got caught in the first place!!!

I think I need a drink and sleep. More sometime.

[LowNSlow]

Isn't learning fun!!!! Keep the diary going Whirl, you have everybody's attention and sympathy ;)

PS Have you thought about how flying with major arm movements is going to affect your finger & thumb R22 flying :confused: :D :confused: :eek:

[Whirlybird]

LownSlow,

I discovered when learning to fly a helicopter that it's only DURING the learning process that you mix things up. I was scared to fly f/w alone at the time, as I once ended up halfway down the runway before realising: Oh, it's not a helicopter; I'd better go around. :eek: :eek: :eek: Once I had my PPL(H) things were fine (apart from the occasional radio call, when in a C152, of "helicopter G-....). Having talked to people who fly aircraft with different control systems, I think this will be the same; I hope so anyway.

19th July 2002
The wx looks OK; I've even acquired some new met skills and have a bit of an idea how to predict if we'll get thermals! But Tim's microlight's exhaust has a crack. He says to call at 12 to see about flying in the afternoon; I do, and it won't be fixed till late afternoon. And he's booked up all evening.

In a way it's good, as I'm totally, utterly and completely knackered. I really feel like I never want to go near any aircraft again, most especially a flexwing microlight! I also never want to go near a flying instructor again. Part of me realises this is an extreme over-reaction, as I am learning, albeit slowly, and Tim is a nice guy (gotta say that; he knows this thread exists!). Probably this is fatigue talking, and I just need a rest.

I have only done 8 hours flexwing flying too. It's really not a huge amount, if I attempt to get things in perspective. Now OK, maybe most people with my flying experience would have learned to fly it by now, but I'm not most people, and never have been where aviation's concerned. Did I really think that would change? Well, I hoped so. But after yesterday, and a night to think on it, I'm having serious thoughts about how people learn to fly. I really really find it easier if as little as possible is said to me, if explanations are in as few words as possible, and if I don't have to talk. As far as I'm concerned, talking is for on the ground and experienced pilots. At the moment, in a flexwing, anything beyond just flying feels like it represents serious overload for me. I never realise that in the air, and certainly don't manage to say anything, but overload by definition means you can't think or say any more. And I also react very badly to being yelled at, even being yelled at only a little bit or quietly, if you follow that. It sends me into a panic. Now, yelling is necessary if you're about to kill yourself, but otherwise it may get the appropriate reaction at the time, but after that it seems to leave me in a state where....dunno exactly, but I certainly can't fly. I proved it yesterday too. Then I went up and all was quiet and calm, so my head was too, and I could sort of fly the damn thing. Seems to prove something, doesn't it?

I'd really like some feedback on this stuff. Especially as I want to be a instructor myself (only on whirly things; you can KEEP aircraft with ANY kind of wing!!!!) Is this just me? Do men and women learn differently? Have I got it wrong? What do you lot think? How do you learn best/worst? Or maybe someone should start a new thread about this.

Anyway, I'm now booked in for two slots tomorrow and one on Sunday, all Tim had left. I think my chances of being co-pilot on next week's little jaunt are exceedingly slim, but I'm still going to give it a shot. If not I'll carry on anyway; be silly to give up now I suppose, and at one point I did think I rather liked the infernal little machines. My latest plan is to tell Tim to shut up and let me fly, and to believe I know how to. You can take bets as to whether it will work if you like. I'd say the odds are about 50/50.

And of course I'll keep you all informed of my progress...or lack of it.

I'm off to meet a non-aviation friend for lunch and retail therapy. I'm not even going to think about flying any more today!!!!!

[White Shadow]

I reckon there's simply a limit to logic, Whirly...

Logic's nice, useful, when you're trying to work out how things work.
Reading the instructions for using some new bit of cleverness you've decided you need for something-or-other.
Or flying. Or navigating. Or doing eight hours cliff-soaring in a sailplane.

You read the books; listen to what people say (including instructors).
Listen a lot. Read a lot. Then you think "OK; I see; I'll go and try that". And think only about important things like going around if things don't seem right.

Simply stop thinking too much for a while, just do it.
And then when it works, you wonder what all the fuss was about.

Doesn't work for everyone, of course.

Ducking below the parapet, now.

Enjoy. Hope the weather's OK this weekend.

WS

ps edit:

Just had a thought -

You're not flying that thing you're sitting in.
You're flying that sail thing over your head, and you're just dangling underneath it, going along for the ride.

WS





WS

[Whirlybird]

White Shadow,

That's exactly what I'm trying to do. And I feel like my efforts are being systematically sabotaged. So I'm using a day off flying to try to understand why. That's all.

[Whirlybird]

20th July 2002
No flying today, crap wx and thunderstorms expected. I'm gonna do some work for a change. All rumours of my giving up have been greatly exaggerated (by me!). A good night's sleep works wonders for exhaustion, frustration, hurt feelings from being yelled at (I'm a sensitive soul really), and a bruised ego. And I have a New Plan! Er...I'll tell you all what it is if it works.

Why didn't I stick to whirly things?

More on the next good wx day.

[LowNSlow]

Whirl, isn't it amazing what a bit of retail therapy and a good night's sleep can do to the confidence levels. :D

Through all my training I've always found that I reach a point where I can't absorb any more information / instruction and I need the instructor to keep quiet and let me get on with it. Until I make a major error of course. :rolleyes: Fortunately I've been luckier with my instructors than you have in the past and have reached that understanding with them. Seems like your current instructor has reached that point with you now so here's hoping that progress follows. Good luck with the next session (in the flexwing that is :D).

Don't forget that Genghis may have another challenge up his sleeve. He's got this semi-stable single seater canard that he terrifies himself with on sunny calm days (see ancient post here somewhere). Fancy a go in that? :eek: :eek:

[Whirlybird]

LowNSlow,

Please please please don't even suggest that I ever learn to fly anything new again!!!! And if I ever even think about it, will someone please remind me that I while flying is wonderful, flying training is painful, miserable, frustrating, expensive, and means everyone finds out all over again just how little natural ability I have and how much I over-react to being even mildly yelled at.

I'll carry on with flexwings cos I've started and...well, cos I'm a masochist; I must be. But after that...I'm definitely sticking to whirly things in the future. And I'm relying on you lot to remind me that I said that, should I ever get some insane idea that learning to fly something else might be either easy or fun.

[Microgirl]

Whirlybird,

I am really enjoying your posts!

you're not learning in Shropshire by any chance??

Some one posted this on another site once and I thought you might like it -



How to fly a trike:

Get Some Training

Push the bar thingy foreward, and the cows get get smaller.
Unless you keep pushing it out, then they get bigger again.
Pull it in, and they get bigger
Keep pulling the bar in, and they get bigger faster
That's about all there is to it.

;)

[Whirlybird]

Microgirl,

Yes, it's in Shropshire I'm doing battle with Tim's flexwing, which has so far won rounds 1, 2, 3....losing count here.

Well, glad this thread's providing entertainment for people at least. :D

[Microgirl]

Ah, I wondered,

I did my first 10 hours with Tim (I fly a 462 Blade). He is an absolutely fantastic pilot. To see him fly is just wonderful.

And yes, I do think that men and women learn differently. In the past I have taught both and they do seem to process information differently. Men are far more analytical (in general), whereas women, in my expereince, seem to be more instinctual.

[Whirlybird]

Thanks Microgirl. That explains a lot, like why instructors keep telling me not to do things it would never occur to me to do, like think when I'm flying. :confused: I fly when I'm flying and think when I'm thinking - unless I need to navigate or work out the runway direction or something. Seems obvious to me. One of these days maybe I'll find a female instructor; I think it might help. Oh, I forgot, I'm never ever going to learn to fly anything new again am I. :D

And yes, I agree that Tim is a fantastic pilot. At the moment, however, I am...er...shall we say...reserving judgement as to my opinion of some of his instructional techniques. But then, what I know of microlight flying could probably be written on a very small postage stamp, and my state of mind is...well, not especially positive right now. So perhaps that comment should be ignored. :D

[Whirlybird]

21st July 2002
I'm booked in for 11 am; I get up early and check the weather, including the likelihood of thermals - a new skill I've learned since trying to fly microlights. It looks OK, and I drive down to the field. Unfortunately the Shropshire weather hasn't read the TAFs and there's a nasty gusty wind. Tim says we may as well wait a bit and see if it improves at all, and I take the opportunity to chat to him about life, the universe, everything, and the fact that I can't land an aircraft and talk about it at the same time. He says I have to, as otherwise he doesn't know what I'm doing or thinking, and it could stall in gusts and similar. I say how am I supposed to talk about gusts and reposnd to them at the same time. He says when I stop talking he knows I've tensed up!!! :confused: :confused: :confused: Well, all I know is the very idea of trying to land in a gusty wind AND TALK ABOUT IT AT THE SAME TIME makes me feel tense before I even get airborne!!!!! He says he's willing to try it my way, but only on a very calm day; I say fine, let's leave it for a calm day. He says he's taught everyone this way, except for one other chap who couldn't talk AND fly, and he never got to go solo anyway. So I realise that even if he accepts I'm different from his average student, he'll never manage to change his whole style of instructing just for me. I ask if everyone teaches this way, emphasising I'm not criticising, just thinking I might be better learning from someone else. Tim doesn't know, but I find out later it's not the standard method of instructing, so I'm going to go elsewhere, at some point in the future.

After all that I feel the need to get airborne in something I can fly, so I carry on to Halfpenny Green and borrow a helicopter for an hour, feeling ever so ever so ever so much better and more relaxed at the end of it.

So, I'll fly with Genghis as a passenger/navigator next week, and put flexwing flying on hold. Either (a) I can't do it - well, I daresay some people just can't, or (b) I can, but it'll take more time and money and effort than I'm prepared to put in, or (c) I'll do better with another instructor. Having got this far - no more control reversals, and I actually like the infernal machines - I'll have another go in case it's just (c).

However, I have other things to do, so this thread is now in hibernation for an indefinite period. Well, I said at the beginning it might be a good idea to put the year at the end of the date. :D

[Microgirl]

I am sorry you are having this expereince. I do know what it feels like.
I think you should try another instructor (if you want a name I can give you one). Tim is a fantastic pilot, but not a structured and methodical instructor. I think he finds it difficult to get across what is in his head and I think this then results in him not being as good an instructor as he could be.

Please don't give up, there's too much fun to be had....:)

[Romeo Romeo]

Keep your chin up, Whirls. Learning to fly anything is difficult. I remember learning to fly fixedwing a few years ago, and I was useless when it came to cross-wind landings. The problem was that I didn’t instinctively know which rudder-pedal to press to turn which way, and the only way to learn (as with any motor-skill) is to practice it and practice it. After a while I got the hang of what to do, and did it without having to consciously think about it. Yes, I don’t think about it now, but the problem wasn’t that previously I was thinking about it and now I’ve stopped – the problem was that I hadn’t practiced it enough for it to be an instinctive response (I still don’t talk and I ask my passengers to be quiet on final approach because I’m concentrating on what the aeroplane’s doing!)

Don’t be too hard on yourself about taking your time to learn. Just because you’ve learnt one set of motor skills doesn’t mean you’ll pick up another set without practice. In fact, it may be harder because the controls are reversed, so not only do you have to learn these new skills, you also have to unlearn the old ones.

It is easy to become overloaded when you’re learning things. If you’re told 15 different things you’ve got to do at the same time, then you’re going to struggle! It’s a bit like juggling – if you try to do lots of balls at once (and try to carry on a conversation at the same time :)), you’ll have a harder time than if you start off with 1 or 2 then add more balls later.

As for whether men are different from women at learning; I think that people are different. Some people prefer to be taught one way and others another. In order to teach, I think you need to keep your student’s confidence up, you should do your best to keep it fun and you should make sure that you have given your advice in a clear and consistent way and that the student has understood it. Women and men perhaps have different characteristics, but I don’t think you should think ‘Woman – so I’m going to teach her this way’, you should think ‘Person – I’m going to find out which teaching method works for him/her’. It may be worth while trying a different instructor - not because your current instructor is a poor instructor but because another instructor may teach you in a way that you prefer to be taught.

Good luck with the flying Whirls and keep posting – it’s a very interesting thread!

[Whirlybird]

Microgirl,

Thanks, and I'm not giving up; only for the moment as I'm pretty busy. BTW, check your e-mail.

Romeo,

I agree with all of that; nice to know I'm not alone though. The trouble is, I've had problems with my first instructor on everything I've learned to fly so far :eek: Which is why I do occasionally wonder if it's me!!! Anyway, I am planning to carry on, both flying microlights and posting about it. Just not for a week or two.

[Tinstaafl]

Hiya Whirly,

WRT to your future instructing you're going to have to learn to fly & talk - including the landing! :p

I used to smile when I was teaching people to instruct. Nearly all thought it would be easy to describe what they do in real time.

I've never had one yet who didn't initially stop talking on mid/late final. They all learnt eventually, of course.

Then the problem was getting them to shut up! :D

[Who has control?]

Whirly,
Next time you are driving, try to do a running commentary aloud, it might help as you are doing something unfamiliar (commentary) against something familiar (driving).

(Mind you, everytime I've tried it, I've got so engrossed in the commentary that the driving has got worse!!)

[pulse1]

Whirly,

In my view you have joined the select and gifted ranks of those who can fly AND write about it in a very readable way. Please keep it up.

The ranks of those who can fly AND simultaneously talk about it is much bigger but, for most, it is a skill which must be learned through practice. It seems to me totally unreasonable to expect someone to learn to fly and talk at the same time.

I trained as a gliding instructor many years ago and, with about 90 hours gliding and a PPL, I found it almost as hard to talk and fly at the same time as it was to fly in the first place. I had to start by just talking about anything, like the view or what I did last night (or perhaps not) etc.

I was reminded of this during my last (ever?) jump seat ride in a BA 757 when the captain was chatting to me about the sailing on the reservoirs near 08L at LHR immediately prior to taking over for the landing. How :cool: is that?

[Whirlybird]

Tinny,

I realise I'll have to talk and fly if I'm going to instruct. I well remember a young woman who was doing a helicopter instructors course as I was doing my PPL(H). Normally totally confident, she came in looking thoroughly bewildered: "I can't fly AND talk about it!!!" I was discussing this at Heliflight on Sunday, and another instructor says everyone finds it hard at first. BUT the difference is I know how to fly a helicopter, which means landing (or takeoff, auto-rotation etc) are ONE action, not a lot of apparently disconnected ones. In a flexwing, I still feel like it's a number of actions. There's a term for this when learning a skill - several disconnected actions becoming one learned skill I mean - which as a Psychology graduate I ought to know, but I've forgotten it. Once you have, adding talking to it is easier.
When flying helos, I regularly talk to interested passengers, even when I'm landing, unless it's a particularly difficult landing. I quite often end up talking on the radio too, since ATC never seem to realise that coming to a hover takes concentration! :eek: Though having said that, I've been known recently to use the commercial method - ask for taxi to wherever you're going before you come to a hover - then you don't actually have to stop. I'm not sure yet about demonstrating an auto and talking, but first things first. Which is the point here. I think it's unreasonable to expect me to try to land a thoroughly unfamiliar aircraft, and talk too. Well, reasonable or not, I can't do it. The weird thing is, I have a feeling that talking makes me more likely to break it down into a lot of different actions; I wanted to try just landing, as it were, because landing is something I know how to do. But Tim wasn't keen on the idea, and to be honest, I've now lost enough confidence in both my own abilities and in him as an instructor, and I need to go elsewhere.

Who has control,

Talking and driving is not a problem. I did try what you said, before you suggested it. But I know how to drive. I can talk on my mobile, look at signposts, put on a CD etc, all without feeling remotely overloaded. I do it all the time. But I doubt if I could if I was learning.

pulse,

I agree entirely, as you've probably gathered. And thanks for the nice comments about my writing. :)

Anyway, many thanks to Microgirl who's recommended an instructor. Genghis and I went flying yesterday in his Raven in fairly marginal conditions - lowish cloudbase over hills - so we only did an hour locally. I had a little go at flying from the back, holding on to wires I can barely reach as he doesn't have duel controls. :eek: I spent the rest of the time looking at the scenery, pretending to navigate (I learned to fly f/w at Welshpool, so I know the area well), and dangling my hands and feet out of the aircraft with my eyes closed, pretending to be a bird. It was lots of fun. :) :) :) I'll have another real go at learning to fly one when I have some time and can drag myself away from helicopters.

OK, I guess it won't be too long really - you can watch this space.

[Whirlybird]

24th July 2002
We fly in the Raven from Welshpool to Shobden, then Otherton, and back to Welshpool. I can't believe that this is well over three hours flying!!! In anything else I've flown it's just a little jaunt. I thoroughly enjoyed it though, and did a bit of flying from the back seat holding on to the wires, which is difficult, especially if you've got short arms! :eek: Anyway, I talked to the instructor at Otherton, and told him my problems, and he sounds very different, and I generally got a good feeling from him. It's relatively easy for me to get there, easier than Barton anyway. So I may try an hour or two with him; after all, what do I have to lose.

I've definitely decided microlights are fun - but cold!!!!

[Rob_L]

If you want to do something useful instead of tearing your hair out while you wait to go flying, it's called couch flying, or 'visualisation'. In this case its particularly appropriate since you have to become thoroughly familiar with how the controls work (i.e. back to front!).

If you haven't heard of it, it's just a question of closing your eyes, imagining you're in the microbe and flying it "in your mind's eye", going through all the manoeuvres.

It worked for me, but I guess you need to remember to get off that particular couch when you next fly the helo.

Incidentally, not sure which way the rotors turn in Russia, but have you tried a back to front helicopter yet? When I first flew a Squirrel my mind switched over automatically, just from the "feel". It was like a mirror image.

[Whirlybird]

Rob,

Tried that, and now firmly convinced I can fly a flexwing absolutely perfectly in all conditions. You should have seen my fantastic imaginary crosswind landings! :D Well, we'll see...

Not much to report; I tried convincing myself that I didn't want to waste any more time and money on aerial motorbikes - I failed dismally. So I phoned the instructor at Otherton, and I'm booked for next Monday, weather permitting. He spent ages telling me I'd been taught everything wrong so far. :eek: A friend asked me how I always manage to unerringly pick the wrong instructor - I said thanks for telling me I'm good at something!

If I get airborne I'll let you all know.

[Whirlybird]

5th August 2002

Airborne again!!! A new airfield, different instructor, different machine (though still an F2 Alpha). And here I am, ready to do battle yet again with an aerial motorbike.

But to bring you up to date, I hadn't really done all I thought I had - which wasn't much anyway. When I started, Tim was using the throttle for me. I presumed this was till I stopped battling with control reversals, and never questioned it. He's also been doing all the taxi-ing. When later on I mentioned it, he said he thought I couldn't reach the pedals. Well, I have a huge collection of cushions for the different aircraft I fly, so I found one that fitted fine, and lo and beyold - I could reach the pedals and throttle. But this was at the point that Tim and I parted company anyway. But I do find myself wondering at what point he would have suggested a cushion - or was I never to taxi or use the throttle? :confused: :eek: Anyway, I'd mentioned all this to Mick in advance, and he wasn't impressed, to say the least.

So today, with the weather looking OK, but the TAFS suggesting we might get rain, low cloud, thunderstorms, and anything else possible - longest TAF I'm seen outside a CPL met exam - we decided not to believe them and I set out on the hour and a half drive to Otherton.

More next post...

[Whirlybird]

5th August 2002 (continued)
We took off to go through the upper air work, with me on the throttle - hooray! Mick said I should have had it from the beginning. For those of you unfamiliar with aerial motorbikes, there's a throttle you operate with your right foot, and a hand throttle that you grope around to find for use in the cruise. I was only using the foot throttle, and it wasn't a big deal, except it was unfamiliar. But this was made up for by the familiarity of Mick's teaching technique. It was wonderful, by comparison with before! Gone was the non-stop talking, the expecting ME to talk :eek: , the strange exercises that made a microlight seem so different from anything I'd ever flown before. Mick taught in the conventional manner - straight and level, then turns, then climbing and descending, then climbing and descending turns, then steep turns (new to me in a microlight, but no big deal). Having done all this in a traumahawk and then an R22, the similarities were greater than the differences, it was familiar and expected, and I was reminded that I knew how to fly; it was just that a few things were different. Mick was incredibly relaxed himself, which made a world of difference - I've often said that good instructors are ones who do and say very little - the trouble is I've sometimes said that to instructors and made myself unpopular. I felt that it went well - and Mick's not here to argue! Anyway, we came in after an hour, and I felt far happier than for ages.

More in a minute.

[Whirlybird]

5th August 2002 (even more!)
A break, a wait for the weather to calm down a bit, and a long circuit briefing. A briefing!!! This too was a new experience for me in microlight training. Mick said he didn't know what I knew and what Tim had missed out, so he'd do it all - and I was happy with that. OK, so I know essentially how to fly a circuit, but extra information never did any harm. He also explained WHY you do what you do. For example, the kamikaze dive at the ground before landing is not to terrify new students; it's to gain airspeed - OK, I understand that. Landing was not: "Look at that house till it disappears then start to round out etc"; it was to start to round out at around 20 feet. OK; I'm a pilot; this is beginning to sound like stuff I've heard before. Putting it into practice wasn't quite so easy - but it felt possible, and it hadn't before. Throttle control was lagging behind everything else, as was my taxi-ing - but considering I've never done it before even I won't be too hard on myself. And wonder of wonders; I was allowed to fly a whole circuit in silence, concentrating 110% on what I was doing, which meant I had a good chance of doing it right. It all went OK. I need a bit more practice, but that's not a problem. It was all stuff I was familiar with, but just in a different machine. And it was fun!

I drove home with that wonderful "have flown" feeling, of fatigue but satisfaction. And I can't wait to do it again. But I have to wait 10 days; Mick is very booked up. Ah well, I'm flying an R22 next weekend, so I'm not too bothered. I suppose doing some work once in a while might make a few people happy too - got home to e-mails and phone messages wondering where I was on a Monday.

I'm reminded again of two things I should have learned by now, but as I've said before, I'm a slow learner:

1) The airfield closest to home and/or the cheapest airfield may not necessarily be the best.
2) Rule Number One of aviation - everything will take twice as long, cost three times as much, and be ten times as difficult, as you ever would have believed possible.

All worth it though. :) :) :)

More next week.

[ianhogg]

I've followed your posts with interest as I started on cloth bombers in 83 and it was bringing it all back keep it up!
As a microlight instructor I am acutely aware that our task is to impart knowledge and enable the student to enjoy the learning process. It is possible to do both so if any other prune'ers have had similar experiences firstly tell your instructor if your not happy with how its going to give him or her an oppotunity to adjust their teaching technique to suit you
and if they then turn out to be a one trick pony, its your cheque book and there are plenty of instructors out there who will make it fun for you .
Any way as i said keep it up , you have countless joys ahead of you like landing on a cold frosty morning with a bright red nose like rudolf and your visors inside coated with s##t , ah the memories.
Pip Pip ian.


DONT TELL MY MOTHER IM A FLYING INSTRUCTOR, SHE THINKS I PLAY PIANO IN A BROTHEL.....:

[Ravenflyer]

Whirlybird,

I learned in a Raven (like your friend Ghengis) starting in 1999. at the time my flying experience was limited to solo standard in a 150/152.

I took me AT LEAST 10 frustrating hours to get the 'feel' of the little beastie. All the hours stretched out by - too windy, rain, gusty, cloud, etc. etc.

Sounds like you're making excelent progress to me!

It took a year, all told, before I had the ticket but since then I've flown and flown.

Flexwing flying is great FUN!

Please, keep up the wonderful posts.

[Genghis the Engineer]

RF, interestingly I was the same, twice.

I'd learned on Shadows, then took 10 hours to do a flexwing conversion on a Quantum. Then when I bought the Raven, I scared myself silly and ended up paying an instructor for another half dozen hours or so to teach me how to fly it.

I don't think you'd get the same problem going the other way (Raven to Quantum) mind you - the Raven is lighter in handling than most things. I certainly jump into other flexwings regularly, and apart from nearly pulling a muscle trying to back a Blade 60°, find they're all very easy.

G

[Ravenflyer]

Ghengis,

I'de agree with you about the light handling!

I never seem to have any aches or pains even after a long bumpy day :-)

I've found that the wing needs constant flying though. By that I mean hands of it's inclined to start a turn one way or another that just gets worse and worse if left alone.

Is yours the same?

Paul

[Genghis the Engineer]

I won't say it's never given me sore arms, but the conditions have to be pretty awful.

To the best of my knowledge, all Ravens have slightly divergent spiral stability, which gets slightly worse with increased power. Fine in day-VMC, but I'd not wish to get caught in cloud in one - you'd end up inverted quite quickly.

G

[criticalmass]

Ravenflyer,

Apologies if I am repeating old ideas, but inbuilt turns can sometimes be trimmed out by judicious tightening (or loosening) of bungees holding your battens in...the idea being to very slightly alter the in-flight wing camber on one side to eliminate the turn.

For example, If the inbuilt turn is to the left, slacken off a couple of bungees on your right wing, which should slightly reduce the camber, rather like taking off some downgoing aileron in fact. Alternatively, slightly increase tension on a couple of bungees on the left wing...sort of like adding a tiny bit of downgoing aileron to counteract the inbuilt turn. I think you'll get the idea.

My microlight wing (Airborne Wizard) has a very, very slow left turn, but it takes nearly a minute in dead smooth conditions to manifest itself. I'm not going to adjust bungees for a turn that minor.

Keep at it Whirlybird, sounds like you are progressing well.

[Genghis the Engineer]

ravenflyer is talking about something else criticalmass.

Most wings have a mechanism for adjusting a developed turn, in the Raven it happens to be a screw mechanism in the tips.

Spiral instability, a known Raven characteristic, means that when disturbed (either way) it continues to increase in bank angle. Most flexwings don't do this except at higher power settings - a heavy wing like the Blade doesn't do it at-all, in-fact it should always drift back to wings level. I'm afraid I've never flown any of the Airborne wings (which aren't certified in the UK) so can't compare to yours.

G

[Whirlybird]

Thanks for keeping my thread on the first page with all these complicated discussions, chaps; it saves me looking for it after two weeks without flying. ;)

Thursday 15th August
Checked weather, phoned Mick. It looked as though it would be overcast with light winds, so NO THERMALS!!!! Drove to the airfield, to find a beautiful hot sunny day, wonderful for lots of things, but not learning to fly a flexwing, as perfect thermal conditions. :( But it looked like the cloud was building up, and sure enough, after lots of coffee and chat, we had a nice overcast sky. Yes, microlighting is like nothing else in aviation - you want winds of less than 10 kts, overcast skies so no thermals, no rain cos you get wet, no...I could go on but you get the picture. I tell you, it's a miracle anyone EVER learns to fly these things.

Anyway, it was back to the circuit of course. And it's getting better, at last. I can now do everything except land reliably. The main problem was the crosswind. In a flexwing, you point the wing at the runway, while the trike points into wind. You don't straighten it up; it does that itself when you land. :eek: :eek: :eek: Now, that sounds straightforward, and theoretically it should be. And I daresay it is, if you've never flown anything else before. But if you're used to pointing the nose at the runway, all your instincts for self-preservation kick in. New stuff and reversed control systems are OK in the air - because no-one ever collided with the sky. Close to the ground, I had to really fight to "just fly the wing", every microlight instructor's constant refrain, when we were rounding out with this damn motorbike thingy still pointing every which way. But it IS getting easier. Well, Mick awarded me 95% for one landing (dunno how I lost 5%; I thought it was perfect) but the next one was crap. Still, that's like learning to fly anything isn't it.

Anyway, we came in after an hour, and of course then the wind picked up. It dropped a bit later, but we'd started late due to the lovely weather, ie thermic conditions, so he had another student booked (sigh). So I'm taking yet more time off work, and going back Monday. So more soon, wx permitting of course. And I'm beginning to dare to believe that I might actually be able to fly one of these....er...before 2003 anyway. I've even stopped putting the year on my posts; I'm getting so confident. :)

More next week, I hope... And feel free to add comments to keep this thread on the front page where I can find it. Nice things about my flying and/or writing are especially appreciated. :D :D :D

[criticalmass]

Whirlybird,

Your comments re the conditions most favourable for learning to fly a trike (aussie preferred vernacular for a flexwing) are spot on! I wanted exactly the same when I was learning but after I soloed I began flying in conditions distinctly less than ideal, until I found my personal "comfort limit" for turbulence, snotty conditions etc, at which point I landed the trike and put it away for the rest of the day.

That "comfort limit" is a somewhat elastic point too, depending on how much flying I've done in the previous few days and how hungry I am for hours. Mere hours on their own are not very meaningful. Hours in which you have learned something or simply enjoyed yourself hugely are valuable.

I am sure once you solo you'll experience much the same phenomenon. You will probably find (as I did) when you begin solo flying in less-than-optumum flying condititions the movement of the bar becomes "background noise" which you tolerate until it reaches a threshhold, at which point you decide to let discretion be the better part of valour. (For me it is when my arms stop being mere dampers of the bar movement and I find myself fatiguing due to attempts to muscle the wing around. I land, log the flight and wait for better times.)

Landings...ah yes, landings...well, landings in a trike are very delicate, touchy-feely things. Even in ideal conditions I find every landing is an event entire of itself, divorced from the previous one and any following ones, even though they are just a few minutes apart when you are trundling around the circuit. There comes a point when "flying the wing" on the approach is automatic and your landings will be affairs of coordination and finesse. Like all achievements, it just takes time and constant practice. You did it with the R22 and you can do it with the trike too. Your proficiency is a real achievement in a world composed of ninety-nine percent non-aviators.

(FWIW, several years ago I had a trial instructional flight in an R22B and managed to get it off the ground, moving forwards and turning in a co-ordinated manner with minimal instructor input. All I learned on that first flight was "everything is connected to everything else" and if my hands and feet were symmetrical then the R22 was probably flying sideways!)

Ghengis:-

I understand now the point about the Raven wing being divergent in roll and the adjustment at the wingtips. For info, the Airborne Wizard is a single-surface wing with a 26KIAS stall and a 38KIAS cruise in trim (solo). Pitch and roll trim are positive and the wing is very forgiving whilst also rewarding precise handling. In short, a superb wing for training trike pilots. There was a Pegasus wing (I think it might have been the XL,) which is similar to the Wizard, but I am not very boffed-up on British trike designations.

[Ravenflyer]

Whirly,

Landing a trike in anything but perfect conditions requires constant vigilance and a willingness to 'go around'.

As you've discovered, ther's nothing subtle about the control inputs. Great armfulls are the order of the day, particularly in gusty etc. condition during landing.

If its any help, I felt exactly the same about the crosswind landings, wanting to kick the thing straight at the last minute. It IS best to keep the wheel straight though, the back wheels twitch the thing straight as soon as they touch. KEEP THE SPEED UP. It is possible to be at too acute an angle, that's when they roll over. Embarrasing.

I have found that a little extra speed is helpful in a crosswind approach as is keeps you pointing a little more down the strip. Also, just fly it down toward the ground, wait for the ground effect to kick in, and let the wheels touch when you are happy. You can always 'go around'.

In my early hours I approached every landing as if it was going to be a 'go around', It's surprising how few turned out to be!

With one noteable exception that is when I did it 6 times!

But thats another story :rolleyes:

Paul

Ghengis,

One a lovely calm evening this week I discovered I have a slight turn to the left.

As an experiment I left the power on cruise and let the thing carry on 'hands off'.

Slowly, but inevitably the turn tightened and the speed increased until a spiral dive developed.

As you say, not the machine for poor vis.

I'll tune the turn out next flight.

Paul

PS Where are you based?

[Albatros6]

Hi Whirly, keep on, flying is easiest if you get into the state of thinking you are the craft, so, as in your R22 you are a rotor, you are flying and pulling the tiny cabin with the pilot around, you are the wing on the microlight and to go left you have to bank left, and for that the guy below you has to move the bar to the right...

Flying different "things" is fun, you'll learn to look at aviation at different levels, and to make it easy, it's a question of not only change the suit for the kind of stuff, but to change also the thinking. For instance with rotorcraft, its always good to think about a small but important rotor some meters behind you, or if you see a bird approaching, let him do the evasive action, as he has more experience than you, just freeze your controls, if any action, then just very little, as you're in greater danger to get your craft destroyed by yourself with the controls, than by the bird.

Instructors might be a little bit optimistic, imagine the reversed state: "you'll never learn that, it'll take 20 hours at least..."

On the other hand, to me it's a common feeling, when learning any new thing (at the moment it's the opposite of a ultraligth) i always pass the state of "i never understand how to do this". I look at it almost as a must.

Keep us updated,

[Whirlybird]

Monday 19th August 2003

You'll note the year is back; I'll explain why in a minute. :D

I was booked in for two evening sessions, starting at 5 pm. The day before I'd got up at 6 am, driven for an hour and a half to Halfpenny Green, flown an R22 with Aerbabe as navigator to a fly-in at Old Sarum, and come back via Compton Abbas and lots of sightseeing and thunderstorm dodging - 4.2 hours flying in total, plus another long drive home. On the Monday I was up very early, and had virtually done a full days work by the time I left at 3 pm to drive the 65 miles to the microlight field. So although I didn't realise it, I was well on the way to being totally knackered. Which could explain...

Back to circuits, no wind, overcast sky, no thermals. So it should have gone well, and objectively it did. Mick kept telling me it was a million times better than the time before, and well over half my landings were reasonably good. The trouble was...I hated it. All of it!! Well, actually I enjoyed about the first ten minutes, then it just became a hard slog. I was so tired. I kept wishing I was in an R22, which feels like an extension of me, rather than this nasty unfamiliar aerial motorbike which I still find so hard to fly.

We came in after an hour, and I really just wanted to go home. But I had some coffee, thought I felt better, and off we went again. This time after half an hour I said I'd had enough. Mick told me again it was good and we'd soon be on to emergencies, but I was depressed, fed up, bored with circuits, and all I could see were the things I was doing wrong. I drove the hour and a half home in the dark, and crawled into bed feeling like I wanted to pack it all in. I had no intention of posting on this thread ever again, but by now, I'm just starting to feel better and get things in perspective. The problem was...I was far too tired to be learning to fly. I can keep going on adrenaline and sheer grit and determination, but I don't enjoy it.

So I'm trying to decide whether to pack in evening lessons, even though it's the best weather. Or just make sure I have an easy day beforehand. A closer school would be nice - this one's a 135 mile round trip - but I left the only closer one didn't I? Maybe I should take this more slowly, just fly on the few good weekend days we get (hence adding the year again at the beginning). I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, if I wasn't still fairly knackered I'd probably tell you it was going well. You can tell me if you like. And I'm booked in for Saturday week, in the morning!!!

A few hours ago I was ready to pack it in, but I know I won't because "give up" are not words in my vocabulary so...more next time.

[EI_Sparks]

Whirly,
Sounds like you were waaaaaay too tired :( *supportive hug*
Please don't give up and please please please don't stop writing about it - between you and Aerbabe I'm getting to log vicarious hours in interesting aircraft! :)

[charlie-india-mike]

Whirly

Any more progress on this??

:)

[Whirlybird]

charlie-india-mike,

Funny you should ask. Just back from a really fun evening's flying. Last Saturday got cancelled - too thermic - so it was the first time for a while. Just as well really, as my complete exhaustion last time was actually the start of a very nasty viral infection which it took me about a week to shake off. :( I'm so rarely ill that it had never occurred to me that I might be. But after three days of exhaustion, aching all over and feeling shivery, I asked around and found out it had been laying people low for weeks - I apparently had a mild version; I didn't even take a day off work. But it was no wonder I couldn't fly. Anyway, I'm far too tired to post in any detail now, but I'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

[Whirlybird]

Monday 2nd September 2002

After a two week gap, and Saturday's flying being cancelled due to being a lovely sunny day with too many thermals, it looks like this is on! I'm booked in for two slots, from 5 pm. I leave work early and drive the hour and a half to the airfield. Oh joy!!! No wind and no thermals. Can this be possible? Do such days exist? Can we fix this state of weather, suspend it like this for just a few more flying hours until I can finish this conversion?

However, I'm not really thinking like that. I've decided this is going to take a while, but that it doesn't matter. I can fly anyway, so what the hell. And since I'm not going to buy a microlight, and you can't hire them, I don't even know how I'm going to stay in practice for next year's Round Britain as it is.

I mention all this over coffee, and a microlight pilot I know vaguely says: "You can borrow mine". I look at him uncomprehendingly. He repeats that I can borrow his flexwing, so long as I put fuel in it; he has a share in a 3-axis microlight as well so he rarely flies it, so I might as well. Wow!!! This appears to be the laid back, friendly world of microlight aviation. I think I like it! :)

Well, we do an hour of circuit bashing, and despite the longish break it's not bad. My landings aren't perfect, but hey, the only time Mick touches the controls is when I have one of my now rare control reversals, and choose 10 ft above the runway on a rather dodgy approach to do so. :eek: :eek: :eek: I told him I'd have corrected it, but I can hardly blame him for (a) not being psychic, and (b) wanting to carry on living. Though as was pointed out to me by someone over coffee, although quite a few people bend microlights, they very rarely bend themselves; you're going too slowly. And repairs are cheap, so no-one worries that much. I'm not meaning to imply that accidents are two a penny in the aerial motorbike world; they're not. But when I compare it to the helicopter world, where repairs cost a fortune and a helicopter which turns over thrashes itself to bits - you get the point I'm sure.

Anyway, we come in, have coffee, and go off back out again for a briefing and emergencies in the circuit. I assure Mick I know all about not trying to make "the impossible turn" if you have engine failure after takeoff, and most of the rest of the briefing is reassuringly familiar. But Mick tells me this session is going to be Hard Work, and I can hear the capital letters!!!

Well, they're not half thorough, these guys. They take their emergencies seriously. Possibly because microlight engines do fail relatively often. And they expect not only to survive, but to take off again with an un-bent aircraft. You are expected to get it right.

Anyway, first thing is as I'm about to take off Mick yells: "Bang, Bang!" I pull back the bar and take my foot off the throttle, as instructed. He then complains that he had to yell twice! I say I responded to the first "Bang"; he deliberately yelled twice anyway. He says he didn't. We end up laughing about it and I say I'll try and respond quicker. Gotta keep my instructor happy.

We then do several simulated engine failures at different points in the circuit. Mick keeps me at it fairly non-stop, with constant instructions and steep turns and so on in between so as to avoid houses at low level. I suppose objectively it was hard. But I seem to have quite suddenly reached the point where I'm flying an aircraft that responds to what I do, not a strange and willful machine with reversed control systems. And responds quickly too. And it was really fun! And I even got most of it right. Well, I completely screwed up one approach to a cross runway, but hey, I'm not perfect yet. Anyway, unfortunately we can't fly after 8 pm, and we'd started late, so we had to pack it in after half an hour. But I'm really really really beginning to enjoy this. I want one of my very own! And this is more realistic than wanting an R22.

I'm booked in for Friday evening, so possibly more soon on this thread. But then I'm off to Russia to fly big military helicopters, and winter's soon on the way - so this still may take me to 2003 to finish. :(

[Whirlybird]

6th September 2002
I was supposed to fly this evening, but it's too windy. I'm off to Russia next week, helicopter flying, so nothing booked till I get back. After that I've booked several days, as we'll be into autumn and probably wind and rain. :( There's really not much left to do now, but it could still take me to 2003, at least. :( :( :(

[Whirlybird]

I bet you all thought I'd given up, eh? No, I've just been in Russia flying helicopters and one or two interesting fixed wing types too. So driving off to fly an aerial motorbike, after exciting low level flying and landing in confined areas with hardly room for the rotors, felt like a bit of an anti-climax. But I was determined to finish this conversion - I've started so I'll finish and all that. So here are the latest instalments...

Saturday 28th September 2002.
I really wondered if I'd have forgotten everything I ever knew. But it seemed to go the other way; I felt completely at home the moment we took off., This was possibly because conditions were perfect. Or maybe it was all the different flying I'd been doing over the last couple of weeks. Anyway, we carried on with emergencies in the circuit. Now. I thought we'd nearly finished them last time, but Mick didn't seem to agree. So he showed me what fields we'd land in, then he simulated engine failure for each one, each on a different circuit. Well, my landings got better with all the circuits, but I felt like this was too easy. We spent over an hour doing it, and I decided I was bored. In fact, I went home thoroughly fed up. I even thought about giving up flying aerial motorbikes. I began to wonder if Mick remembered this was a conversion, and that I'm not a beginner. I decided I'd carry on, but maybe talk to him about it.

Monday 30th September
I'm booked in for 4 pm onwards. I get to the airfield, but can't actually bring myself to say anything to Mick. However, we have a briefing for emergencies outside the circuit, and I remind him I've, like...done these before, maybe several hundred times. In fact, I keep dropping hints about all the flying I've done, and making hopefully intelligent comments during the briefing. He must have got the point, because he tells me no-one has done this exercise in an hour yet, but we'll go out for up to an hour and a half, and it's up to me. I begin to wonder if I' ve overdone the confident pilot bit. After all, I've never been much good at PFLs.

Anyway, we leave the circuit (at last, hooray!), and head for the countryside and fields. And Mick throws engine failures at me in literally every situation there is. And he expects me to actually prove I'd get the aerial motorbike into a field and walk away. We recover at 500 ft, but if I don't get it right, we do it again. I'm impressed with his thoroughness, but then, microlight engines DO fail, rather often from the sound of it. And microlight instructors take this exercise very very seriously. Anyway, we come back low level, simulating low cloud. I have to keep between 500 and 700 ft agl; Mick says if I go any higher he'll put his hand over my eyes to simulate entering cloud. He never does; I can keep my altitude, even in an R22 where it's a lot harder. But he does give me an engine filure any time I fly over woods or small fields, and it's actually quite tough. But I enjoy it; I finally feel really at home in these little machines. Till we get back to the airfield, and he gives me a PFL in the overhead. Easier than anything I've done in an hour and a half - and I can't get it right. I try twice, get thoroughly frustrated, and we have to pack it in as we're short of fuel. So Mick says I'll have to do that next time, and I say don't spin it out to an hour - I'm paranoid about wasting any time now. No, he says, we'll do something else and I can do it on the way back. That should be fine; I realise the problem was that I was totally knackered; though that's no excuse - you might have an engine failure when you're knackered. But probably not when you've just had about a hundred of them!!

Anyway, someone at the airfield had a wonderful little single seater flexwing called a Chaser; not expensive, and almost flies at a respectable speed. I sat in it, and I liked it, and I want one!!! So I'd better finish this conversion hadn't I.

Not much more to do though. I guess you can carry on watching this space. I'm booked in for next Monday.

[LowNSlow]

Nice one Whirly. I knew that you would find a flying machine that you liked and was affordable in the end. Beware though, here be dragons. After a while it won't be fast enough or you'd like an extra seat to take a pal flying and whoops, here comes the dragon eating your purse!

Then again, you must be used to that flying helos ;)

[Whirlybird]

LowNSlow,

The long term plan is...

Get paid to fly helos (which are still absolutely the best!)
Buy a flexwing to play.
Do just enough hours to keep my PPL(A), for going flying with friends or on affordable flying holidays etc.
And if I want to take a pal, I hire something. Or maybe buy a share in some cheap PFA type.

Any snags?

[Genghis the Engineer]

You surprise me on one point Whirly, PFLs to 500ft. Every microlight instructor I've ever flown with (at-least half a dozen) has never allowed power-on any higher than 100ft. Personally I practice microlight PFLs to the start of roundout - you just don't really know at 500 ft unless it's a truly HUGE field.

Always remember, 500ft is msd, not agl.

G

[Whirlybird]

Er...think I shouldn't post when I'm tired. You're quite right of course Genghis; it was much lower than that. In fact, I don't know where I got that 500 ft from. :confused: I don't remember even looking at the altimter at that point anyway. Maybe I'll re-read my post and see what else I got wrong!

[criticalmass]

Whirly,

I hope you do end up owning your very own microlight because they are the most fun flying machines going...truly an aerial motorcycle as you have so rightly pointed out.

I just logged my 300th hour in mine (I know it's not a lot of hours but they're all "stick-time" because there ain't no autopilot!) and I just keep gaining respect and admiration for the subtlety of the aircraft itself and the hours of sheer unadulterated fun the trike gives me. Hopefully you will end up as hooked as the rest of us flexwing-drivers.

If you can fly helos and flexwings then you can fly anything!:D

[Whirlybird]

No no criticalmass , HELICOPTERS are still the most fun flying machines going.

The trouble is, the price of flying them isn't fun at all. :( :( :( Flexwings do indeed come a fairly close second, and at a very affordable price. I'm fairly sure I'll end up buying one, though not just yet. The two are similar in that you have to fly them ALL the time, which is probably why I like them. I'm going to upset an awful lot of people now, but in a f/w aircraft I feel more like a manipulator of controls than an actual pilot. Which means they're nice for going places - you can trim them, get out the camera and the bar of chocolate and look at the view, which is great fun. But the only time you really do any flying is for takeoff and landing (Whirly ducks quickly behind the parapet!). To backtrack a little (survival instincts coming to the fore :D ), I do realise this probably isn't true in anything aerobatic, or most taildraggers. The few times I've flown something like that for short periods, I've realised that's the case. But somehow...can they ever be the same as landing in a confined area barely the size of the helicopter? Or flying in one low under bridges...oops, I wasn't supposed to talk about that! Or even playing in a flexwing on a summer evening? I don't think so.

And I think I'm probably about to be lynched by half the regular readers of this forum. :eek:

[Whirlybird]

7th October 2002
Monday evening is microlight evening for me these days. Except with the days getting shorter we're starting at 4pm, so I'm leaving at 2 pm - and taking the afternoon off work, which means this is costing me even more. :(

Anyway, it was into unusual attitudes. First slow flight, which was easy, then stalls, which are a bit of an anticlimax in a flexwing. Then various strange things in turns; still no big deal. Then spiral dives, and they were fun! Well, I didn't think so at first, in fact I felt thoroughly ill. But after a couple, I got the hang of the recovery, and started to enjoy it. I also relaxed - and immediately stopped feeling sick. So all you aerobatic types who told me I'd be fine doing aeros if I got some practice and relaxed...well, maybe you're right. Anyway, then Mick did a few surprise unusual attitudes and got me to recover, and it all went fine. I said to him: "Well, no matter what happens, you just make sure you're not heading for the ground at high speed, then get yourself into a sensible configuration and speed, don't you"...and it was then I realised that without knowing it I'd developed a feel for these little machines. I was just flying it, without thinking...well, nearly anyway. Why on earth did I find it so difficult before? Maybe I should mention, however, that it was another perfect learning day - no wind and no thermals.

Anyway, then we headed back to the airfield, and I had to do the engine failure in the overhead that I'd failed dismally last week. This time I wasn't tired, and it went OK, with a totally crap but safe landing. And I couldn't believe it, I'd done the whole exercise in 50 minutes, which Mick says is a record for his students. His previous shortest unusual attitudes lesson was an hour and a quarter. So after taking about 15 hours to get to this point, I finally learn something quickly! :confused: Well, I guess having close to 500 hours in various sorts of flying machines does become an advantage, in the end.

So we had time for another session, or we thought we did. Mick said it was back to the circuit, and he was going to pick me up on every little point I didn't do perfectly. I've been here before; I thought, he's gearing up to send me solo. He was, but he hadn't bargained on two things - my landings having reverted to utter and complete crap after a couple of weeks not doing circuits, and, more particularly, the short days. We got in half an hour, and actually I was getting back into landing it without scaring myself too much. But at that point I could hardly see the runway when I turned final, so we packed it in. I really wasn't bothered, as I'd had enough. And I'm in no rush; I have other things I can fly.

So, next Monday, perhaps. Although sod's law dictates that when I'm ready to go solo in any flying machine, we have high winds and/or heavy rain for weeks on end. You can watch this space if the weather holds out.

[LowNSlow]

I'm enjoying the diary so much it'll be a shame when you get your rating :D :D

Sounds like you've got the plan sorted Whirly ;)

[Whirlybird]

No, I hadn't given up. I'm way too stubborn, and I don't have that much sense. I haven't posted, because I thought all you'd get bored with innumerable posts about lessons cancelled due to bad weather, the time we went up but the wind was too strong and the turbulence convinced me I'd never ever be able to fly these damned things, followed by the day the conditions were fine but I inexplicably forgot how to land (probably due to extreme stress - a combination of rows at work, a sick cat, helicopter problems, a power cut, and a very nasty computer virus - yes, I know, I shouldn't have been flying :eek: ) Even I was bored with it all, so I didn't want to inflict it on you lot. And I figured I might come to my senses and give up the whole stupid idea of flying aerial motorbikes, so I thought I'd just quietly let this thread die.

Well, today the weather was good, and I got to the airfield feeling cautiously optimistic - only to discover that my instructor was running an hour late, and we would have barely an hour till it got dark. I resisted the urge to either kill him or tell him I was giving it up there and then, smiled sweetly (almost) and thought I'd see how it went - I could throw a tantrum later couldn't I? Well, it sort of went OK, and after about 45 minutes Mick says to do one more circuit, then asks me if I feel confident. "Sort of", I replied. He asked me what that meant. "Well", I said, "As confident as I ever will". Translation - "my landings terrify me, but I think they always will no matter what we do, because I know what it's like to be able to fly, I know I don't have enough hours to fly these properly, and I also know what can go wrong; I'm not in the ignorance is bliss stage of a true first solo." But I told him if he was confident I wasn't going to bend the thing, then that was OK with me.

So he loaded me up with ballast and yet another cushion, and told me all about how differently it would fly when I was on my own. I took off, and everything felt just fine; it climbed quickly, responded beautifully. I turned on to final and for once had a reasonable approach. I think I was even enjoying it.

I have no idea what exactly happened next, although I think we discussed it afterwards, but I think I've repressed it all out of sheer terror. I seem to remember this huge bounce; I think maybe it would have been a little bounce with two people, but I'm so light... Anyway, I remember thinking that flexwings don't bounce, at the same time putting on full power for a go-around. So far, so good. I got on to downwind, realised it was going to be dark in twenty minutes, that I had no idea what I'd done wrong, and that I hated landing these damned things anyway. I decided it was all a totally stupid idea, and I wanted to give up flying flexwings, right now. Very sensible - except that downwind at 400 ft is not a good time to decide that; it's a little bit late. I now had enough time and space to get scared, so I proceeded to do so. Scared enough that I wondered whether to extend downwind to give myself time to calm down - but I wanted to be on the ground sooner rather than later. I knew I'd better concentrate on flying if I was to land it, not thinking about what else could go wrong and why had it and why was I doing it all anyway.

So I pushed all the other stuff out of my mind, flew a normal circuit, and managed a halfway decent landing...except I unaccountably lost control on the ground and skidded all over the place - also something I've never done before. Anyway, I was down, and I didn't care about the rest of it. I taxied over and told Mick I hoped I hadn't scared him as much as I had myself. He proceeded to congratulate me, and I looked at him in utter disbelief. Firstly, I've never liked all the hype about first solo; secondly, a third first solo is a contradiction in terms (as Rufus Heald put it after my helicopter first solo, you can't lose your virginity twice!); thirdly, it had been a totally crap landing, to say the least. And don't anyone dare tell me the good landing is the one you walk away from - though I was feeling that right then actually...what I mean is, I was really genuinely relieved to have walked away! Anyway, then the CFI, turned up, took a photo which he's emailing me (yes, I'll post it here if I can manage it) and asked me if I'd enjoyed it. Actually by then the reaction was really setting in and I felt like bursting into tears. But I decided to play the game, since this was supposed to be the highpoint of my flying, if not my life, and I nodded halfheartedly. I staggered out of the infernal machine and made some coffee, and as the adrenaline wore off I realised my shoulder hurt like hell. As it got steadily worse I figured I must have pulled a muscle at the very least. I helped Mick put the b***** away, and I couldn't even lift anything with my right arm. I began to realise decisions as to future flexwing flying were unnecessary; I'd be lucky if I could fly again for a bit. God knows when or how I hurt my shoulder; you steer on the ground with your feet. :confused: Anyway, I took some painkillers since I had a 60 mile drive home, said I'd phone soon to book my GFT (translation - I'll phone when I've decided if I want to bother to do it, since I never ever want to fly one of these on my own again) and set off home. On the way I phoned Genghis, planning to tell him I was packing it in for good; he convinced me I might as well at least do my GFT; then I could legally fly 3-axis microlights etc - in my confused state this sounded like a logical argument. :confused: Anyway, I gradually calmed down and realised that even if flexwings are totally unpredictable unstable infernal horrible little machines that I still struggle to land and that terrify me....they probably aren't actually dangerous, are occasionally fun, and are cheap. I guess this is where it all started.

So that's about it. I suppose I might post about my GFT, if I decide to do it, when my shoulder recovers (it even hurts to type), and if the weather's ever good enough to do it before I forget how to land. But I demanded a bit of extra training first, whatever the CAA says I need, since I'd like to go on living.

Please do not under any circumstances whatsoever post hundreds of congratulations about my third first solo. I mean it! Suitable comments include commiserations about bad landings or pulled shoulder muscles or lack of aptitude or lack of common sense about what to fly. Telling me to quit moaning is also allowed. Ignoring this thread is quite acceptable too. Apart from that...well, I'll leave it up to you. I'm now off to get more Arnica, painkillers, a stiff drink, and a heating pad. And to book a sane sensible expensive helicopter for next weekend. :D

[Circuit Basher]

Whirly - As requested, no congratualtions on losing your virginity again ;) ;) but congratulations on keeping going so far and on the quality of your writing!

I've never had any personal desire for the wet and cold kind of flying - I just enjoy motorbikes on the ground!

Hope your shoulder gets better soon - was probably just that you were holding on tight when you hit a bump!!

So you're going to go for the GFT then??

[Who has control?]

I too would like NOT to congratulate you, I admire your persistance, writing style and hope your shoulder frees up soon.

[chrisN]

Sorry to hear about your shoulder, and hope it's soon better.

Landings were a problem for me (glider, not microlite but the principle is the same). Some of my friends say they still are, 2000 landings later. I think I was sent solo a bit too early, when consistent good landings were not there and I was too variable. Your posting reminded me of that.

I think stress is the root cause for me when a landing is less than ideal. The best cure, as I was told and in turn told my students when instructing, is a good, longish approach, with plenty of time to settle down to speed, drift correction if appropriate, and concentration on the task in hand.

And the landing isn't over, so don't stop concentrating, until you stop rolling.

Hope this helps. Maybe talk some more to your instructor before flying again, and do some mental "landings" the right way as an aid to training.

Best wishes.

[Genghis the Engineer]

I just know I'm going to get the blame for all this again.

Well done whirly, for anything that seems appropriate to accept congratulations for.

G

[Whirlybird]

Well Genghis, since you seem willing to accept the blame, who am I to argue? ;)

Thanks for the appropriate words of encouragement people, and praising my writing is always acceptable.

Am I going to go for my GFT? Although my shoulder is a bit better, I don't see it being able to put up with anything as strenuous as flexwing flying for a while, probably weeks rather than days. So a decision is unnecessary at the moment, and I really don't mind that in the least.

But my feeling at the moment is...no. I decided to do this as a quickie conversion so I could join in next year's Round Britain. But I under-estimated the difficulty and work involved. I don't have the time to keep current on three control systems, I can't afford to buy one, and if I ever decide to buy/fly any sort of microlight, then is the time to do the conversion and pass the GFT on the type I want to fly. I've enjoyed most of this, I've learned a lot, but enough is enough. After going solo is a good place to stop, and I think I stop here. I'm a helicopter pilot basically; I like to slow down before I land.

But I reserve the right to change my mind. ;)

[EI_Sparks]

Well in that case Whirly, Congradulations on an excellent first solo story! Well done! :D

Sorry about your shoulder though :( Long hot radox bath called for!

[FlyingForFun]

Am I going to go for my GFT? ... My feeling at the moment is...no
Whirly, I don't believe you! I know you won't be able to resist, and even though you're a heli person at heart, I reckon you'll get to that point where you're bordering on loosing flex-wing currency when you'll decide to "just fly for a couple of hours, to stay current... no point loosing the skills now, is there?"

You've done enough training by now to know that things don't always go smoothly - anyone who claims to get any license or rating without scaring themselves along the way once or twice is lying. Look forward to the next episode of the story, and the GFT! ;)

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

[Ravenflyer]

Whirly,

Just caught up with the thread after not looking for some time.

I think enough time has passed for congratulations on the (third) solo :)

I'm sad you've been so discouraged. Have another go when the evenings get longer and warmer. Go on!

Maybe having a go in a Raven could help, they are light to fly.

Roll on summer!

Paul

[Whirlybird]

Ravenflyer,

Enough time has passed for both my shoulder and my nerves to have recovered. But I'm off to Thruxton at the weekend to spend several weeks and a small fortume on a helicopter FI course, so I have no time for anything else right now. Trying to fly everything was never a sensible idea. But I still have my microlight flying suit, and maybe some day.....