From Zero to Forty Five - my PPL Diary

[adwjenk]

Hey

Well done Lee on ur secound solo flight!!
Yeah i know the feeling in the circuit did a sortie where in 1 hour i did 2 touch and gos got so sick of orbiting i just requested a full stop on the next landing.
Been signed of again after not flying for 4 weeks so im up up and away on my own on Saturday whether depending
Could have gone last Saturday yet i had to get back to work.
Congratulations to everyone whos completed there first solo or qualifying cross country whilst this post has been up.
And to those who have just embarked on the joys of aviation i hope ur bank account can stretch lol just kidding

Enjoy ur flying guys and tresure every Minute

ADWJENK

[mazzy1026]

Confab - what a nice comment - cheers for that, glad you like it

Blinkz - sorry about the old MSN thingy, I will be online soon I promise

ADW: Saturday aint usually my day at the school, but I will book one soon for that day so we can meet up for a beer (after flying of course)

Lovin it,

Lee

[Blinkz]

Had another lesson today. Weather was.....interesting lol. quite rought below 2'500 but smooth above that. The plan was for a navex but the weather around edinburgh wasn't really good enough so we decided to do my first IR lesson

It was such hard work! lol. With the hood on you gotta concentrate so hard on keeping your scan going and making all the little corrections to keep the heading/alt correct. Its a great feeling when you get it all sorted tho. I flew back into the zone under the hood all the way to 3 mile final. Off came the hood and there was 24 in front for a nice landing

Really enjoyed it, am looking forward to doin it more. However I really want to start my nav so fingures crossed for tomorrow.

[DiscoChocolate]

Mazzy- Sadly I didn't manage to go flying on Tuesday, life is being dictated by work at the moment cant whinge too much tho as it pays for the flying.
I'm hoping that I can get booked in on Sunday and finally get my QXC done. Fingers crossed.
Well done on your second solo flight !sounds like you learnt a lot from it and got some challenging moments in there too, doing a practice go-around with an instructor requires a lot of thought, but doing it on your second solo must have got the ol' brain working! Well Done!

Blinkz - aren't the IR lessons fanatastic? Isn't it the best feeling when the hood comes off on final and there is the runway, exactly where it should be? I dont think i'll ever forget that experience it is possibly the best (dual) flying I've done, so far...

[c-bert]

I had an excellent flight on Sunday. Managed to go early in the morning whilst the wx was still good.
Went for a solo 'bimble' round the Isle of Wight (where I used to live). There is nothing quite so satisfying as give a rude hand gesture to your old school from 2000ft!

1 hour down, 2.5 left and I can take the skills test

[Hampshire Hog]

Hi Mark,

Around the Isle of Wight, now I haven't flown down there for ages - how I love the view of the circuit at Wycombe, compared to the Solent and the Island on a nice crisp winter day!

I'll buy you a pint when you pass that skills test!

Paul

[mazzy1026]

I'll buy you a pint when you pass that skills test!

(ahem) CHEERS

So annoyed - of all the nice wx we have had over the last day or 2, tomorrow is going ot be nice but I am betting that it will be too windy

Dam Air

[Blinkz]

Aye the weather sucks.

I had my first navex yesturday, which was brill. Went down to the borders and back to edinburgh. Went on another navex today up north but there was low cloud in the valley east of dunblane so had to turn back and return to edinburgh. oh well.

Damn air

[c-bert]

Aww the air isn't that bad. It's the sun you have to blame. And not the popular tabloid either, heating up places at different rates - damned inconsiderate if you ask me.

Thanks Paul, I might just take you up on that. Got the landings/take-offs sorted yet?

[Milt]

Hey Mazzy 1026

Remember the weather is all part of the medium in which you fly. It will always be there for you to comprehend and cause you to make decisions.

Think of the weather as you would the priciples of flight. There are heaps of fascinating things to learn about weather. Try to do your own forecasting from the weather patterns and embrace it with all the other challenges you are enjoying.

Where are the areas of the world's coldest upper air temperatures ? - for instance.

What causes air to go rushing up in a cumulus cloud? So many things of interest up there for you to get to know about.

How does ectoplasm form?

[Sunfish]

Good to hear about everyone's progress. Mazzy, after a while it gets easier to deal with ATC and the odd instruction. I wonder when you did your go around did you apply full power before touching the flaps or vice versa?


Did the Navex satisfactorily. I've also passed the PPL theory exam.

Today a short revision session, then on Thursday a "pre test" flight to see if its worth letting me near an examiner. If so, then three to four hours of air work preceded by a few hours ground work, to see if I am a danger to the community or not if I'm let loose.

The biggest concern I have at the moment is how much I DON'T know about aviation.

[1pudding1]

Finally did my QXC yesterday! Glocester-Swansea-Wellesborne-Glos. Viz was so bad coming south-west from Wellesborne to Glocester at 3pm, sun low and right in my face, illuminating everything in front of me so I could harldy see the ground through the haze, apart from laterally and behind me! Luckily was only an easy 20min leg so managed to just about find the airfield again. Great feeling getting this done after 7/8 cancellations over the past month due to poor wx.

[kookabat]

...aeroplane booked for tomorrow morning... hopefully we'll beat the forecast front back to the airfield... reckon I have much chance??

And Sunfish -

The biggest concern I have at the moment is how much I DON'T know about aviation.

-me too... you never stop learning...

Adam

[Hampshire Hog]

C-bert

Yep. Much better lesson last time. I sat at the end of the Runway and remembered what you said about relaxing more during the take-off. Worked a treat.

My instructor suggested a steeper approach to landing which also helped a lot - so, booked on Thursday. Who knows what the weather's going to do. My instructor said he just wanted to see me do a couple more landings before he gets out. Here's hoping - so long as I don't regress again!

Paul

[c-bert]

Paul - Glad to hear it. I'm sure it won't be long now.

1Pudding1 - Congrats mate. It's a pain the proverbial trying to get the QXC done at this time of year isn't it? Still, not much left to do now.

The CFI has suggested I visit Thruxton for my next trip. Shame I can't go and see the touring cars while I'm there!

Cheers all!

Mark

[steve181]

Sunfish good luck with your upcoming PPL flight test, and to everyone else with solos etc etc. I passed my C.P.L flight test last week, and a month before that my MEIR flight test. I was relaxed about my cpl flight test, because now i'm used to the testing environment, but when i sat my PPL i was a complete and utter mess, i couldent physically hold my food down so i had to sit the test without lunch. But once the test was underway all my nerves went away, and i focused on the job in hand.

Just after takeoff in my MEIR flight test, due to the high workload at this time and the impending simulated engine failure i failed to notice the aircraft was cronically out of balance, and the examiner literally yelled at me to sort it out. Instead of going "oh i've failed", and fixating on my mistake i went 110% throughout the test, forgeting about the incident, and it turned out my test was almost faultless apart from that incident. So the moral is no matter what you do in the test go 110% throughout regardless, you've always past the test untill the examiner says otherwise!

[mazzy1026]

Circuit Session Numero 3

Only an hour or so to go before I can join you lucky people doing your Nav! Glad to see you are all doing well and enjoying the flying. With regards to the weather, I do think that winter has brought along some beautiful flying conditions. The wind has dramatically reduced and there is more sunshine around. All that rain and wind from autumn didn’t half get on my t1ts – I am sure you will all agree!

Today was another borderline flying day, with regards to solo. One of the other instructors had said he was going to leave the zone and not let the student go solo, but we thought it would be worth doing one circuit just to see how I got on – so that we did. Today reminded me of my first solo day – the haze/fog was amazingly similar, in that you could make out the local features ok and see the airport, but there was no clear horizon to define. As well as the haze, we had a 9 knot crosswind, from the south, so today was certainly to be challenging. The idea of the crosswind increased the amount of adrenaline in the bloodstream but I was glad it was there, I wanted to defeat it (today), as to understand it a bit better and to move on. So on the first approach, I touched down ok, but was told that I could have perhaps used a little more right rudder (using crab technique). So next time around, on about 2 or 3 mile final, I put the rudder in first, as to use it all the way to touchdown, rather than after the flare. This was to demonstrate the use of the rudder in the crosswind and how it can be used all the way to keep the nose pointing down the centreline. This proved successful and I completed quite a good landing. So off we went one more time, I was being asked whether I felt ok about soloing and basically whether I would like to or not. It’s worth mentioning that the traffic was really busy when we departed, with quite a few aircraft waiting at the holding point etc. but by the time we had done 3 circuits, it had settled down a little.

So we went back to kilo and he jumped out. A little more (what’s the word? Nervous? Scared? Excited?) lets just say “adrenalin filled” than the last time, due to the traffic and the visibility, but off I went. First one went fine, nothing to report really, apart form the fact that I keep noticing things about the engine noise. Now I don’t know what it is, but I seem a lot more aware of what the engine is doing, I am probably imagining it, but as I am on my own, I am sure you can understand where I am coming from? If it makes a noise, or vibrates or anything, I start wondering? It is just my mind running away with me. Will I REALLY know if there is a problem with the engine? Are these noises just normal? It is probably the sun visor vibrating or something similar. Moving on.

I seemed to be too high on my approaches today, perhaps I am turning base to early, I will extend for a few seconds or so next time. On the final circuit, just after turning downwind, I was informed of a helicopter joining right base. I confirmed it and carried on as normal, then came the request to orbit. No problem, right hand orbit, remembering the wind velocity and adjusting the orbit as necessary as not to get too close to the runway. Then, a few easyjets later, I was told to continue on downind until told to turn base. So I did, carried on, and on and on. I went well past the industrial towers, just creeping past the Runcorn bridge, and I was wondering, “has he forgot?”. So I put the call in for late downwind, then he told me I could turn base/final. Ok so I was quite a way out by this time, and the runway was a fair way off. This was the first time that I would have to judge the approach and descent for myself, rather than do it as a matter of course at a fixed point (in the standard circuit). So I kept on going for a few seconds until I arrived just before the lighthouse, then began to bring her down. Again, I was a little too high, so put full flap in to get down easier. I remember approaching the runway and looking too ‘down’ on it if you know what I mean – I would have to judge the flare just right or I would end up either breaking the nose wheel, or floating for ages with a nice balloon! As it turns out, it was a nice landing. Very satisfying indeed to be able to correct my own mistakes and handle the circuit the way it was today. All good confidence building (I know, “don’t get too confident”! ) and experience. Just cant wait to leave the zone!

Sunfish, I wish you the very best of luck with your test - remember me when your flying around the Liverpool zone

Safe flying,

Lee

[Margo]

Nice one Lee!
Hope your Nav went ok? I've just got Met to go...
I can't wait to get back in the seat having not flown since my death defying cross country qualifier; I was definitely on a different continent to my comfort zone!
At a particularly gut renching 'I'M LOST!' moment my shopping skills came into play and Boundary Mills @ Grantham confirmed I was on track... Retail outlets are the way forward; it's a girl thing!
& thanks for this thread, it's great knowing I'm not the only one on this steep (but not stalling!) learning curve.
Lovin it,
Margot

[mazzy1026]

Hi Margo! Welcome aboard! I havent done Nav yet - I understand it is the more difficult exam, I will do it after the Nav training as to be more au'fais on the subject I will read the syllabus though!

Where do you fly from?

Lee

[Margo]

Flying from Henlow, Beds - I just love flying from a grass airfield.
Yep, training on Nav'd be a good thing!
It's a toughie but the sense of satisfaction when it all works out is great. Not that I'm a 'glass half empty' type of person but I'm always sure I'm not gonna make my next waypoint and equally amazed when I do.
Met tomorrow, gulp! Got my knickers in twist over the difference between semi-occluded and quasi-stationery fronts but think I've got to the bottom of it, just hope I know it well enough for the exam!
I can really relate to your engine noises bit. I'm sure I carb heat more than I need to, just in case! Then I worry I'm doing it too much…
Hey-ho, all good fun!