From Zero to Forty Five - my PPL Diary
Spicy Meatball
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landing fine but forgetting to concentrate after you've touched down you're so relieved...
Cheers
Lee
I know exactly what you mean Mazzy - concentrating on one thing and forgetting another. I do that almost all the time, must focus more on engine management and altitude control.
I went out yesterday and did a "Pre GFPT" test for one and a half hours. For the record it goes something like this:
Your examiner askes you to do a weight and balance calculation, checks your knowledge of licence conditions, what constitutes VMC, VFR rules and so on, plus air law, etc.
From then on you treat him exactly as you would a passenger although he flips from "passenger mode" to "examiner mode" at will.
You take off and are asked to climb to 3,500 feet and demonstrate stalls in clean and landing configuration, then a forced landing, then a precautionary search and landing, steep turns and so on. There are competency standards like +- 10 degrees on headings, +- 100-150 feet on altitude, +5, - 0 on approach and climb speeds and so on.
Then its back to the circuit to demonstrate STOL stuff, gliding approaches, flapless approaches, crosswind takeoff and landings and so on.
At some point he will throw in one or two emergency procedures and all the time he is listening to your radio calls and watching everything else.
I was absolutely stuffed by the time I was finished. Practice by myself tomorrow and the test on Friday I hope.
I went out yesterday and did a "Pre GFPT" test for one and a half hours. For the record it goes something like this:
Your examiner askes you to do a weight and balance calculation, checks your knowledge of licence conditions, what constitutes VMC, VFR rules and so on, plus air law, etc.
From then on you treat him exactly as you would a passenger although he flips from "passenger mode" to "examiner mode" at will.
You take off and are asked to climb to 3,500 feet and demonstrate stalls in clean and landing configuration, then a forced landing, then a precautionary search and landing, steep turns and so on. There are competency standards like +- 10 degrees on headings, +- 100-150 feet on altitude, +5, - 0 on approach and climb speeds and so on.
Then its back to the circuit to demonstrate STOL stuff, gliding approaches, flapless approaches, crosswind takeoff and landings and so on.
At some point he will throw in one or two emergency procedures and all the time he is listening to your radio calls and watching everything else.
I was absolutely stuffed by the time I was finished. Practice by myself tomorrow and the test on Friday I hope.
Spicy Meatball
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Its seems like a hell of a lot of work, something which I know will get the old nerves twitching quite a bit. What were the pre flight questions? I have passed air law but it looks like a revision will be necessary for the flight test! 
Join Date: Jul 2002
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I only hope that with practice I can get used to the right attitude and make safe, smooth landings. Instructor did say that after a while I will be able to judge it better myself.
... and I can probably tell you when your first "best-ever" landing will take place. It will be the day when you will be fully concentrated... because noone will be sitting next to you 
I have the feeling that this day lies really close in the future 
Take care and greetings from EDGS 290650Z 26015KT 230V290 1900 -RA BR SCT002 BKN003 10/10 Q1014
Cheers,
Nikos
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Good point about landings, it's almost like instead of deliberately landing it, you merely set the conditions in which the plane will land i.e. throttled back, flared, gently settling on the runway.
My frequent mistake in the early hours was to make a nice smooth touchdown on the main wheels but be so pleased that I would then forget to continue with back control pressure and the nosewheel would plonk down ungracefully!
- Michael
My frequent mistake in the early hours was to make a nice smooth touchdown on the main wheels but be so pleased that I would then forget to continue with back control pressure and the nosewheel would plonk down ungracefully!
- Michael
Join Date: Apr 2003
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I was once told that a Cessna 172 is an aircraft that lands best when you try not to land it....!! (Wouldn't know myself as have only done four of five in it...!)
Sky
(itching to be back in the air...! )
Sky
(itching to be back in the air...! )
Michael and Skysista, you are both right. I keep forgetting that we are not landed till the nosewheel has been gracefully placed on the runway. I landed so hard this afternoon that i checked to make sure nothing was bent.
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Hi everyone,
Well, Mazzy, it sounds like you've reached the mind numbing stage that I was at a few weeks ago, trying to remember everything in the circuit and becoming increasingly frustrated at every bad landing. I flew with a different instructor for one lesson and he told me to stop beating myself up about forgetting things or messing something up. He made it clear that even the most experienced pilots mess-up sometimes (sit and watch those airliners coming in for a few hours and see how many bounce!)and it is better to relax than to worry about the last mistake.
Sunfish, sounds like you're doing well - good luck!
Having had to wait several weeks to get back to flying, I got weathered off yesterday. Fortunately, I had a second lesson booked for Monday - so ... if anyone can blow some good weather in my direction!
HH
Well, Mazzy, it sounds like you've reached the mind numbing stage that I was at a few weeks ago, trying to remember everything in the circuit and becoming increasingly frustrated at every bad landing. I flew with a different instructor for one lesson and he told me to stop beating myself up about forgetting things or messing something up. He made it clear that even the most experienced pilots mess-up sometimes (sit and watch those airliners coming in for a few hours and see how many bounce!)and it is better to relax than to worry about the last mistake.
Sunfish, sounds like you're doing well - good luck!
Having had to wait several weeks to get back to flying, I got weathered off yesterday. Fortunately, I had a second lesson booked for Monday - so ... if anyone can blow some good weather in my direction!
HH
I convinced the examiner that I am not a danger to the general public yesterday and passed the GFPT! God knows how because my flying is very rough.
Got to work on lowering the nosewheel instead of letting it drop on landing, more work on crosswind landings and try and do everything about ten knots slower.
Looks like next week I will work on a warrior endorsement, then start Nav training.
Cheers
Got to work on lowering the nosewheel instead of letting it drop on landing, more work on crosswind landings and try and do everything about ten knots slower.
Looks like next week I will work on a warrior endorsement, then start Nav training.
Cheers
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Sunfish,
You'll enjoy flying the Warrior - it's an easy and pleasant thing to fly after Cessnas, but keep that backpressure on after landing! Also, it has to be flown in trim - it's too heavy to just use pressure on the Yoke.
And good luck with the nav. Can't wait to start that myself - if the weather ever clears up enough for me to do any more lessons
HH
You'll enjoy flying the Warrior - it's an easy and pleasant thing to fly after Cessnas, but keep that backpressure on after landing! Also, it has to be flown in trim - it's too heavy to just use pressure on the Yoke.
And good luck with the nav. Can't wait to start that myself - if the weather ever clears up enough for me to do any more lessons
HH
I'm sure the weather will clear up by April or so...
Had my R/T practical on Sunday. Passed with flying colours (excuse the rather poor pun). If anyone is having theirs soon I recommend doing a search on this forum. The CAA have released a safety sense leaflet on it and there is a link here somewhere. Most useful.
Just flight planning to go....oh and the cross country, a few hours solo and the skills test. Should be done by next summer
Had my R/T practical on Sunday. Passed with flying colours (excuse the rather poor pun). If anyone is having theirs soon I recommend doing a search on this forum. The CAA have released a safety sense leaflet on it and there is a link here somewhere. Most useful.
Just flight planning to go....oh and the cross country, a few hours solo and the skills test. Should be done by next summer
Spicy Meatball
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Hour 15 – Crosswind? What crosswind?
Now today was an interesting day if I have ever seen one! Before I start, just to let you know I left the airfield with a massive grin that would not come off my face for a while (no I haven’t gone solo yet!) I was in for a very interesting circuit session. As you may know the weather on Sunday was dire – gale force winds, horrible rain and low cloud – I was so sure that the 1330 flight would be cancelled, but as it turned out, the weather perked up a bit and we were off. Took off on rw 27 and started the left hand circuit, with a tail wind. I was absolutely shocked as to how much runway we used to get airborne, the thing just wouldn’t get off the ground, and when it did, it just wouldn’t climb like normal, quite a bizarre feeling. So when we got round from base, onto 1 mile final, in full landing configuration, we hear this from Tower:
“G-## Immediate turn right, orbit Jaguar, incoming fast jet”
Bo**ocks! Full power, raise nose, reduce to one stage of flap, right turn straight over to the Jaguar mushroom (you’ll know what I mean if you have flown there) to start orbiting. Bearing in mind we were in a left hand circuit, and the jaguar mushroom is on the right, so we have now transited to a right hand circuit, downwind for base on rw 09. Ok so this is all new to me, but no rocket science here, I understood what was going on. So now at least we were going to land with a bit of headwind. By now the wind was up to about 11 kts from the right.
The first approach was going sweet all the way until touchdown – because I had not trim the aircraft properly and kept the back pressure on, when I released a bit of back pressure to let her touch down, the yoke shot forward and we were gonna eat tarmac, hadn’t it been for some lightning speed reactions! I don’t know about you people, but when I don’t get something right it makes me so determined to do it right the next time round, frustration isn’t the right word, just a sheer need to succeed. So on the next take-off no in a right hand circuit. The first difficulty I was coming across is that I could hardly see the runway because of my instructor who is on the right and in the turn, you cant see it at all, you have to remember points on the horizon, roll level then check and make corrections as necessary. This time the wind was up to 15-16kts which is the Tommy’s limit, I’m not sure on the crosswind component as I haven’t worked on that yet but it was bloody strong – certainly the most effective crosswind I have experienced so far, and there was some serious crabbing going on to keep center line with an early turn onto final as the wind was behind us. My approaches were going so nicely and I was so pleased at getting them right – even the crosswind landings were better than what I thought I was capable of doing – plenty of crab, use the rudder to keep the nose straight and the ailerons to keep center line. After 5 more of these getting it right I was on top of the world – but I had learned another valuable lesson today, GET IN TRIM!
As I have said a few times, crosswind landings were my original big fear. Don’t get me wrong, I find them tough and they need a lot of attention and it will take me millions of years (if you know what I mean) to ever get comfortable with them, but now they are not a FEAR, just a bigger challenge!
Happy (xwind) landings and keep up the fine posting!
Lee
“G-## Immediate turn right, orbit Jaguar, incoming fast jet”
Bo**ocks! Full power, raise nose, reduce to one stage of flap, right turn straight over to the Jaguar mushroom (you’ll know what I mean if you have flown there) to start orbiting. Bearing in mind we were in a left hand circuit, and the jaguar mushroom is on the right, so we have now transited to a right hand circuit, downwind for base on rw 09. Ok so this is all new to me, but no rocket science here, I understood what was going on. So now at least we were going to land with a bit of headwind. By now the wind was up to about 11 kts from the right.
The first approach was going sweet all the way until touchdown – because I had not trim the aircraft properly and kept the back pressure on, when I released a bit of back pressure to let her touch down, the yoke shot forward and we were gonna eat tarmac, hadn’t it been for some lightning speed reactions! I don’t know about you people, but when I don’t get something right it makes me so determined to do it right the next time round, frustration isn’t the right word, just a sheer need to succeed. So on the next take-off no in a right hand circuit. The first difficulty I was coming across is that I could hardly see the runway because of my instructor who is on the right and in the turn, you cant see it at all, you have to remember points on the horizon, roll level then check and make corrections as necessary. This time the wind was up to 15-16kts which is the Tommy’s limit, I’m not sure on the crosswind component as I haven’t worked on that yet but it was bloody strong – certainly the most effective crosswind I have experienced so far, and there was some serious crabbing going on to keep center line with an early turn onto final as the wind was behind us. My approaches were going so nicely and I was so pleased at getting them right – even the crosswind landings were better than what I thought I was capable of doing – plenty of crab, use the rudder to keep the nose straight and the ailerons to keep center line. After 5 more of these getting it right I was on top of the world – but I had learned another valuable lesson today, GET IN TRIM!
As I have said a few times, crosswind landings were my original big fear. Don’t get me wrong, I find them tough and they need a lot of attention and it will take me millions of years (if you know what I mean) to ever get comfortable with them, but now they are not a FEAR, just a bigger challenge!
Happy (xwind) landings and keep up the fine posting!
Lee
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I'm sure the weather will clear up by April or so...
Then again, once in a while you get very nice conditions - and then you REALLY enjoy the flying!!
And Sunfish - after 45-odd hours on the 152 (up to GFPT) I also upgraded to a Warrior for my navs - tell ya what, took me a little while to get used to it but I'm loving it now. Actually took it solo (just in the circuit) for the first time this morning - apart from one dodgy, bouncy land-bounce-goaround thing it was pretty sweet...
Adam
Spicy Meatball
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Just bought myself the Maycom AR-108 airband scanner - it's awesome. Thing is though, what can I listen to on the UHF frequency range? It says you can listen in to weather channels, this is something I aint a clue about as this is my first scanner - can anyone help me out?
Cheers
Lee (also with my own CB cloud over me all the time)
Cheers
Lee (also with my own CB cloud over me all the time)
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Lee
I have the same receiver - great coverage but rather poor audio quality I thought. Great for for listening to all the go-arounds at EGLL whilst not aviating myself.
I did a search for UHF airband frequencies on Google and found a few sites with lists of (exclusively military) frequencies.
As to the legality of tuning in to these broadcasts...
EDIT: I found the built-in antenna pretty rubbish for reception (too short!) so purchased a replacement telescopic antenna online. Much better reception now!
Regards
Adam
I have the same receiver - great coverage but rather poor audio quality I thought. Great for for listening to all the go-arounds at EGLL
whilst not aviating myself.I did a search for UHF airband frequencies on Google and found a few sites with lists of (exclusively military) frequencies.
As to the legality of tuning in to these broadcasts...
EDIT: I found the built-in antenna pretty rubbish for reception (too short!) so purchased a replacement telescopic antenna online. Much better reception now!
Regards
Adam
Last edited by SQUAWKIDENT; 6th Oct 2004 at 14:49.
Something I've been wondering for a while, why is it that motivates us all to go for our PPLs?
Personally I was thinking of doing the whole CPL, ATPL route although I have since changed my mind. I'm still looking forward to pottering around the UK though.
Personally I was thinking of doing the whole CPL, ATPL route although I have since changed my mind. I'm still looking forward to pottering around the UK though.