From Zero to Forty Five - my PPL Diary
Join Date: May 2003
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woooooo. had my retest to day and passed with flying colours 
Am really tired having only just got back home now so am off to eat and then sleep. Will post a write up tomorrow.
its still not sunk in.......
Am really tired having only just got back home now so am off to eat and then sleep. Will post a write up tomorrow.
its still not sunk in.......
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cheers guys. Its a good feeling to have it done, altho its gonna be ages till I can fly. damn the CAA!! 
Right well heres the write up that I promised mazzy.
Test came as abit of a surprise actaully. I decided on wednesday that I was ready to do my retest, I had flown 3 times since my first test 2 months ago, 2 in the past 2 days and my PFLs were all good, as were efatos etc. So my CFI tried to call up the examiner that evening. He was out tho and so he just left a message. One problem was that the a/c that I've been flying was due its 50hr check. It only had 1.5hrs left on it so it had to be flown over to prestwick to get it done. Since the examiner had been out the CFI said that unfrotualy it will have to go over tomorrow and get its check, tho it should be back after the week and I can do my test then. So I kind of relaxed abit knowing that I had abit more time to mentally prepare mself. The next day (thursday) I was just relaxing, I went into town in the morning to get a few odd jobs done, when at around midday I got a call from my CFI, 'right, the a/c is still going to prestiwck, but the examiner is going to be there in the evening so get over here quick'
Right so I leg it back to my flat and grab my gear and head over the the airport. Get there around 2pm and sit down with CFI to make sure that we've got all the right paperwork. We leave EDI at around 3.30pm, and one thing that I realise is that I've not done any navigation for 2 months and so am pretty rusty, luckily thats not being tested! Altho I soon get back into the stride of things and we make steady progress, threading down south inbetween the edinburgh and glasgow zones. The weathers not too bad, altho was very hazy over edinburgh, but as we got over to the west coast it cleared nicely. One thing what was playing silly buggers was the wind. EDI had a 090, PIK had a 270 and in the middle it was a 130 lol. So I made a mental note to double check the wind in my test before I do my PFL as that could catch me out.
Arrive at PIK no problem, gorgeous greaser of a landing too, which always helps the confidence. taxied up to the flight centre and shut down. Its around 4.15pm and the examiner said that hes not gonna be arriving till 5.30 so I should have a chance to have a breather. So I sit down and try to relax (totaly fail of course since I get really nervous) then bang on 4.30 (15mins after arriving) the examiner walks in, so much for my hour break!
We quickly go thorugh all the paperwork, since it had all been checked before it was no more then a quick glance. Then me and the examiner went into one of the briefing rooms for a quick chat. He basically stated that obviously most of the test was already done and all I had to do was a departure, a PFL with either failure or fire, a efato and another minor emergency. He said its fine to not do the W&B since we were obviously fine. He also said that because I wasn't at my home field he'd help me out with the navigation, which took quite a load off my mind since I wasn't 100% about the E/E lanes for prestwick. Off to the plane!
A quick walk around, check the oil and fuel and in we jump. Start up no problem and taxi to the active. Power checks all done and I get immediate clearance and departure, look up to the checl finals and see a 747 on final
he was quite far out so I just expedited t/o and we were away. At 300ft the examiner called ATC for a fanstop and so this gave me a cpl of seconds before he pulled the plug on me. Prestwick runway is 3km long and as such there was ample space left below, so I put the nose down, 75kts, full flaps, quick shutdown checks and a mayday and bobs your mothers brother. Carried on climbing up into the E/E lane, the examiner then got clearance to remain in the zone and got it, he then told me to head 180 and head for a nice big space of fields, was just about to turn onto the heading when ATC told me about another a/c arriving in the same lane as me and so I decided to stay in the lane until he passed me (i had him visual) I think this prob got me a cpl of brownie points too. We got over to the fields and climbed up to 3000ft, and then he pulls the plug. trim to 75knots, check the wind, since we are pretty much on the coast it is still 270 at about 7-8 knots so that was ok. pick a field and go into the pattern. do my restart checks and mayday, then committed. am abit to high for my chosen field so I go futher to another, then decided I was too high for this and choose a third. The 3rd really wasn't a good choice, I mean it was ok, we'd have survived but it wouldn't have been nice. So we go-around. examiner says yea thats ok, we'd have survived but lets have another go. So we go up to 2500ft and do it again. This time I chose a nice area of fields with lots of choices. Again miss my first choice but easily make my second, which is fine and we go around. He then says congrats I've passed, but he'd like to show me how he'd do it. He then peforms the best PFL that I've ever seen int a field. Thats what comes with expereince! We then head back to the airport. On the way back he asks me what I'd do if I smelled fumes entering the cockpit, which obviously you close the heater and defroster and open all the vents. We then head back and land.
Rest of was just paperwork. It was a gorgeous evening for it, it really cleared up and it was such a good feeling to finally get it done. I've now got to work out what I'm going to do for my commercial trainning!
Right well heres the write up that I promised mazzy.
Test came as abit of a surprise actaully. I decided on wednesday that I was ready to do my retest, I had flown 3 times since my first test 2 months ago, 2 in the past 2 days and my PFLs were all good, as were efatos etc. So my CFI tried to call up the examiner that evening. He was out tho and so he just left a message. One problem was that the a/c that I've been flying was due its 50hr check. It only had 1.5hrs left on it so it had to be flown over to prestwick to get it done. Since the examiner had been out the CFI said that unfrotualy it will have to go over tomorrow and get its check, tho it should be back after the week and I can do my test then. So I kind of relaxed abit knowing that I had abit more time to mentally prepare mself. The next day (thursday) I was just relaxing, I went into town in the morning to get a few odd jobs done, when at around midday I got a call from my CFI, 'right, the a/c is still going to prestiwck, but the examiner is going to be there in the evening so get over here quick'
Right so I leg it back to my flat and grab my gear and head over the the airport. Get there around 2pm and sit down with CFI to make sure that we've got all the right paperwork. We leave EDI at around 3.30pm, and one thing that I realise is that I've not done any navigation for 2 months and so am pretty rusty, luckily thats not being tested! Altho I soon get back into the stride of things and we make steady progress, threading down south inbetween the edinburgh and glasgow zones. The weathers not too bad, altho was very hazy over edinburgh, but as we got over to the west coast it cleared nicely. One thing what was playing silly buggers was the wind. EDI had a 090, PIK had a 270 and in the middle it was a 130 lol. So I made a mental note to double check the wind in my test before I do my PFL as that could catch me out.
Arrive at PIK no problem, gorgeous greaser of a landing too, which always helps the confidence. taxied up to the flight centre and shut down. Its around 4.15pm and the examiner said that hes not gonna be arriving till 5.30 so I should have a chance to have a breather. So I sit down and try to relax (totaly fail of course since I get really nervous) then bang on 4.30 (15mins after arriving) the examiner walks in, so much for my hour break!
We quickly go thorugh all the paperwork, since it had all been checked before it was no more then a quick glance. Then me and the examiner went into one of the briefing rooms for a quick chat. He basically stated that obviously most of the test was already done and all I had to do was a departure, a PFL with either failure or fire, a efato and another minor emergency. He said its fine to not do the W&B since we were obviously fine. He also said that because I wasn't at my home field he'd help me out with the navigation, which took quite a load off my mind since I wasn't 100% about the E/E lanes for prestwick. Off to the plane!
A quick walk around, check the oil and fuel and in we jump. Start up no problem and taxi to the active. Power checks all done and I get immediate clearance and departure, look up to the checl finals and see a 747 on final
he was quite far out so I just expedited t/o and we were away. At 300ft the examiner called ATC for a fanstop and so this gave me a cpl of seconds before he pulled the plug on me. Prestwick runway is 3km long and as such there was ample space left below, so I put the nose down, 75kts, full flaps, quick shutdown checks and a mayday and bobs your mothers brother. Carried on climbing up into the E/E lane, the examiner then got clearance to remain in the zone and got it, he then told me to head 180 and head for a nice big space of fields, was just about to turn onto the heading when ATC told me about another a/c arriving in the same lane as me and so I decided to stay in the lane until he passed me (i had him visual) I think this prob got me a cpl of brownie points too. We got over to the fields and climbed up to 3000ft, and then he pulls the plug. trim to 75knots, check the wind, since we are pretty much on the coast it is still 270 at about 7-8 knots so that was ok. pick a field and go into the pattern. do my restart checks and mayday, then committed. am abit to high for my chosen field so I go futher to another, then decided I was too high for this and choose a third. The 3rd really wasn't a good choice, I mean it was ok, we'd have survived but it wouldn't have been nice. So we go-around. examiner says yea thats ok, we'd have survived but lets have another go. So we go up to 2500ft and do it again. This time I chose a nice area of fields with lots of choices. Again miss my first choice but easily make my second, which is fine and we go around. He then says congrats I've passed, but he'd like to show me how he'd do it. He then peforms the best PFL that I've ever seen int a field. Thats what comes with expereince! We then head back to the airport. On the way back he asks me what I'd do if I smelled fumes entering the cockpit, which obviously you close the heater and defroster and open all the vents. We then head back and land. Rest of was just paperwork. It was a gorgeous evening for it, it really cleared up and it was such a good feeling to finally get it done. I've now got to work out what I'm going to do for my commercial trainning!
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Cheers, one thing the examiner did mention was that on my first mayday call after my EFATO I actaully made it to edinburgh tower lol, but he didn't care as a mayday is a mayday 
Spicy Meatball
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Blinkz - brilliant stuff mate, and excellent writeup! You must be on such a high - it feels like I have LOADS to do until I get my ticket. A great achievement - enjoy it 
So when are you flying south to come and visit
First Southern Nav Writeup
Sorry for the plain title, however it best describes my latest adventures. I was fearful (not that type of fear if you know what I mean) of flying south from Liverpool (out at Oulton Park or Chester) because in all the hours I have done, only 2 of those had been to the south - one of these was my first flight with another school, and one was with original instructor who left the school. So, as you may understand, the first nav I was about to do came with nerves, and a hope that it would go well. I had planned 2 routes, one being the reciprocal of the other.
The norm at Liverpool at this stage, is to leave via runway 27, out at Chester to Poulton (disused airfield), then to Sleap (through the Shawbury zone), north to Whitchurch, further north to Crewe (southern tip) then back in at Oulton Park. Doesn't appear too complex, but taking the above into consideration, it seemed so for me. At this point, DiscoChocolate is reading this and thinking; "Yeah, EASY" hehe (I will let him explain why).
So, I had two blogs, however we were to be using runway 09 so the course would be the other way round, not exactly how Liverpool fly it, but it isn't rocket science to fly it that way. Took off on 09 and set course for the first point, Oulton Park. Now, I don't know what it looks like too well, so I just followed heading with a little advice from instructor (I was with a different instructor today, my other one was on leave and I have flown with this chap lots of times before, he is very very good). The heading I flew made us exactly half a mile to the left of track, this is because I started the line from the centre of the runway (or the middle of the airfield circle on the chart). So from now on, I am going to start the initial line, just off the circle (I know you are thinking that I should just use the VRP and start the headings from there, but I feel this is good practice, especially to test if your calculations are correct and the wind is behaving like it should).
SO, we were on the way to the southern tip of Crewe, there is a huge motorway bridge that goes over a railway, and I was happy to be able to see this no problem, and to confirm that my heading was spot on. I recorded the time and it was bang on too, it was all going very well so far. So, time, turn, talk. I had already put the "CATDPAFN" call into Shawbury and this went without a glitch (brownie points to the first person to spell that out)
Found Whitchurch without a problem, could relate everything on the ground to that on the chart, including a nice A road and railway which tool us straight in (still following calculated heading of course) - things were going well, and map reading seemed somewhat easier than to the North. Again, the timings were spot on, so we turned and headed for Sleap. I had been told that spotting Sleap from the air is quite difficult, so I kept a good lookout. I looked at features which should lead up to Sleap and used them to "guess" where it should be, and low and behold, there it was - I have to be honest and say that I didn't have much of a problem in seeing it, lets see if that's the same next time round (probably not)
Another good timing, turned round and headed for Poulton. At this point, I read the wrong number on my knee-board, and turned the wring heading - a little "ahem" from the instructor soon sorted that, but if I was solo, I may well have screwed it up (from now on, my headings to fly get highlighted and crossed off when I have flown that leg). Northwards to Poulton was ok - could again follow headings no problem and use features to see it ok. Here is where I had the dreaded "PTT freeze". I hit the button to call for rejoin:
"Liverpool Approach, G-LF##, request standard rejoin to.........................................................
.........................
.........................................
............................................
.........................................................."
Very long pause, with the button down COULD I THINK OF THE WORD "CHESTER"? - NO !
I just couldn't think of the word - I am used to Kirkby or Seaforth so I just let go and handed it over to my instructor. I felt such a
Anyhow, apart from that everything was great, landing ok too. To conclude, I was chuffed with my headings and especially my timings. A very successful flight which went a million times better than I thought it would. I'm doing the same route again on Wednesday dual (but the other way round) and if that goes ok, I should solo it next time round. Then the dreaded QXC !
Cheers all, and again, congratulations to Blinkz - hope you can still make the odd post
Lee
So when are you flying south to come and visit First Southern Nav Writeup
Sorry for the plain title, however it best describes my latest adventures. I was fearful (not that type of fear if you know what I mean) of flying south from Liverpool (out at Oulton Park or Chester) because in all the hours I have done, only 2 of those had been to the south - one of these was my first flight with another school, and one was with original instructor who left the school. So, as you may understand, the first nav I was about to do came with nerves, and a hope that it would go well. I had planned 2 routes, one being the reciprocal of the other.
The norm at Liverpool at this stage, is to leave via runway 27, out at Chester to Poulton (disused airfield), then to Sleap (through the Shawbury zone), north to Whitchurch, further north to Crewe (southern tip) then back in at Oulton Park. Doesn't appear too complex, but taking the above into consideration, it seemed so for me. At this point, DiscoChocolate is reading this and thinking; "Yeah, EASY" hehe (I will let him explain why).
So, I had two blogs, however we were to be using runway 09 so the course would be the other way round, not exactly how Liverpool fly it, but it isn't rocket science to fly it that way. Took off on 09 and set course for the first point, Oulton Park. Now, I don't know what it looks like too well, so I just followed heading with a little advice from instructor (I was with a different instructor today, my other one was on leave and I have flown with this chap lots of times before, he is very very good). The heading I flew made us exactly half a mile to the left of track, this is because I started the line from the centre of the runway (or the middle of the airfield circle on the chart). So from now on, I am going to start the initial line, just off the circle (I know you are thinking that I should just use the VRP and start the headings from there, but I feel this is good practice, especially to test if your calculations are correct and the wind is behaving like it should).
SO, we were on the way to the southern tip of Crewe, there is a huge motorway bridge that goes over a railway, and I was happy to be able to see this no problem, and to confirm that my heading was spot on. I recorded the time and it was bang on too, it was all going very well so far. So, time, turn, talk. I had already put the "CATDPAFN" call into Shawbury and this went without a glitch (brownie points to the first person to spell that out)
Found Whitchurch without a problem, could relate everything on the ground to that on the chart, including a nice A road and railway which tool us straight in (still following calculated heading of course) - things were going well, and map reading seemed somewhat easier than to the North. Again, the timings were spot on, so we turned and headed for Sleap. I had been told that spotting Sleap from the air is quite difficult, so I kept a good lookout. I looked at features which should lead up to Sleap and used them to "guess" where it should be, and low and behold, there it was - I have to be honest and say that I didn't have much of a problem in seeing it, lets see if that's the same next time round (probably not)
Another good timing, turned round and headed for Poulton. At this point, I read the wrong number on my knee-board, and turned the wring heading - a little "ahem" from the instructor soon sorted that, but if I was solo, I may well have screwed it up (from now on, my headings to fly get highlighted and crossed off when I have flown that leg). Northwards to Poulton was ok - could again follow headings no problem and use features to see it ok. Here is where I had the dreaded "PTT freeze". I hit the button to call for rejoin:
"Liverpool Approach, G-LF##, request standard rejoin to.........................................................
.........................
.........................................
............................................
.........................................................."
Very long pause, with the button down COULD I THINK OF THE WORD "CHESTER"? - NO !
I just couldn't think of the word - I am used to Kirkby or Seaforth so I just let go and handed it over to my instructor. I felt such a
Anyhow, apart from that everything was great, landing ok too. To conclude, I was chuffed with my headings and especially my timings. A very successful flight which went a million times better than I thought it would. I'm doing the same route again on Wednesday dual (but the other way round) and if that goes ok, I should solo it next time round. Then the dreaded QXC !
Cheers all, and again, congratulations to Blinkz - hope you can still make the odd post
Lee
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Thanks mazzy, of course I'll keep posting and let you all know what I get up too.
Sounds like you had a good flight. Don't worry about the RT freeze, it happens to everyone! Best bet is to just say standby as soon as u lose the plot, get your thoughts together and then remake the call. No harm no foul.
As for that mnemonic, it looks like a very complex version of what i use, CAPACER. So at a guess yours is 'Callsign, Aircraft, track?, departure/destination, position, altitude. Altho am not sure what the last two are, you need to tell them a request and your intentions/rules at some point so summit to do with that lol.
Sounds like you had a good flight. Don't worry about the RT freeze, it happens to everyone! Best bet is to just say standby as soon as u lose the plot, get your thoughts together and then remake the call. No harm no foul.
As for that mnemonic, it looks like a very complex version of what i use, CAPACER. So at a guess yours is 'Callsign, Aircraft, track?, departure/destination, position, altitude. Altho am not sure what the last two are, you need to tell them a request and your intentions/rules at some point so summit to do with that lol.
Last edited by Blinkz; 16th May 2005 at 12:36.
Spicy Meatball
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hehe
You are close, but the CAT is simply callsign and type
PFN - well I take that as position, flying rules and next checkpoint including times etc. Apparently, there have been some recent changes in the RT procedures when calling other stations. The main one was to have departure and destination at the start of the call, to help the controller more.
CATPACER is one I used previously (there are loads and loads of them)
PFN - well I take that as position, flying rules and next checkpoint including times etc. Apparently, there have been some recent changes in the RT procedures when calling other stations. The main one was to have departure and destination at the start of the call, to help the controller more.
CATPACER is one I used previously (there are loads and loads of them)
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Well done Mazzy. Great write up!
Sounds like you did well on your first trip south. Its good flying in that general area isn't it, not quite as frightening as going north of the zone!! Well done on finding Sleap as well, the first few times i went there i got it confused with RAF Shawbury
Sounds like you did well on your first trip south. Its good flying in that general area isn't it, not quite as frightening as going north of the zone!! Well done on finding Sleap as well, the first few times i went there i got it confused with RAF Shawbury
Spicy Meatball
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Cheers Neil
Yeah, on first look at the flight plan, I thought I may have had that problem, but generally if you remain east of the main road which runs north/south by Shawbury, you should be OK (you know more than me, you've done your QXC!) Also, there is a massive bog area, which can be seen from a good distance, not to mention a few large green hangar type buildings north of Shawbury. I actually like the south - lets see if I say the same thing soon........
Lee
Yeah, on first look at the flight plan, I thought I may have had that problem, but generally if you remain east of the main road which runs north/south by Shawbury, you should be OK (you know more than me, you've done your QXC!) Also, there is a massive bog area, which can be seen from a good distance, not to mention a few large green hangar type buildings north of Shawbury. I actually like the south - lets see if I say the same thing soon........
Lee
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Ah yes, Whirly, I forgot about that - I should be due to land there soon, so when I do I will let you know so I can say hello!
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Right here goes.
My GFT had been put of a few times due to wx and the examiner being unavailable, so we managed to get a different examiner, an aerobatics one !
Turned up to have a go and the viz was awful, so we put it off until the following day. Arrived and yep you guessed it the viz was once again bad.
We had a chat and made the decision to go up do what we could and come back if need be.
Did all my checks, everything ok, was holding A2 for runway 10 my examiner had turned the rt down, so I gave the usual G-RJ ready for departure, nothing no reply thenrealised what he had done, so I put the volume back up and put the call in again, the reply was a bit curt, G-RJ STILL HOLD POSITION, ah well that one wasn’t down to me. Took off and set course towards Sedbergh, he has said to tell him when if I was on my own would I have turned back, my answer was now, viz was very poor.
I continued climbing out and levelled out 3000’, I just couldn’t fly it level everywhere you looked it was very hazy, there was no definition and viz was approx. 6-7km.
I was rattled and it was showing I was off track 100' to high then 100' to low just calmed myself down a bitand carried on I kept slipping from my heading, I was track crawling looking for features in the gloom and flying from them to the next one I could see on the map. Well I duly arrived overhead Sedbergh pretty much on time. My next point was Sellafield, but he told me to divert to Ulverston, this I did I stayed wide a bit to avoid Cark who were parachuting, I told him why, he had requested that if you wanted to change height or heading etc just let him know. Afterwards he suggested that really we should have left Blackpool Radar and gone to Cark for a few mins just to tell them where we were.
From Ulverston he wanted me to fly to Stalmine, this was straight out across Morecambe bay, off we went straight into a white out, I just couldn’t see anything, now he said was a good time to do the instrument bit, I got my scan going it was hard work, sweat was running down my head, I felt knackered almost nauseous, after a while I could make out Heysham which helped and the at last there was Fleetwood I felt relieved, he suggested that we get the flapless landing out of the wayand call it a day , I was in total agreement.
Came in on 10 and it was a greaser, which cheered me up a bit, taxied in a bit of a chat and home.
I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, I wasn’t happy with the way I flew, had I become over confidant?
I resolved that the second part of the test would be better.
About four days later I got the chance to prove it.
We took off 28 I trimmed it out and climbed to 3000’ weaving the nose every 500’. I am a bit guilty of not using the trimmer as often as I should but was glad that I used it as it gives you more time to manage the cockpit. He had stated that during the general handling hewould do the r/t, well the wire at the back had snapped and he couldn’t, I was happy to carry on it was just going to be one more thing that I would have to do. Set up over Knott End for the steep turns did one and it wasn’t what he called a steep turn so he did one WOW, I then did one left and one right. Stalls next, clean, clean no power, flaps and power and flaps on the turn, it was perhaps a good job that his r/t button wasn’t working as the fella working Blackpool radar must have been bored, he wanted to talk to us all the time, my examiner said to tell him we were on a FIS not RIS/RAS, he also told me tell him a few other things which I omitted!!
Spiral descent was ok 45 degrees to the left and down then “srew it round” (his favourite words) to the right.
PFL next near Weeton army camp, he picked the field the one with the three ponds by the farmhouse, yep got it, would you believe there was two fields that matched that description by the same farmhouse, I picked the wrong one so when we arrived at his field, we were at 600’ he took over stuck allthe flap on pulled two steepish turns and there we were right over it, go around he said get me up to 2000’ and do it again, he could see there were two such fields so I got another chance. Up we went and did it we both agreed we would have made it although we would have had to use the hedge at the end to stop. Of the go around he gave me an EFATO, I did ok, he said he would show me one in the real world, he pulled the revs and stuffed the nose down so hard our heads hit the roof!Back for circuits, started with an overhead join, normal, glide and then he wanted a 500’ bad weather circuit with flap for 25 and a glide approach at the end, boy what an eye opener that C152 can do things you never even thought about.
We landed and that was that a bit of chat, handshakes all round and a silly grin on my face.
Sent off my paperwork, very efficient at the CAA by return of post had a letter telling me they had taken my money, but as yet nothing else.
Flew on my own the week after just 30 mins but it was good.
Has a check ride on a C172 Thursday just gone, it was good stalls, steepturns etc, he did however ask me why I made my steep turns so steep, in his eyes 45 degrees was enough!
At first struggled adapting to the extra speed on landing but after couple of circuits everything was ok.
Last night got a phone call (cheers mate), would o like to go up in a Seneca 5 (almost new) whilst he practised his ILS approaches would I!!
Spent a very enjoyable hour up over Blackpool.
So what now? Well I hope my paperwork turns up, ive got 49 hours and now through work belong to a flying school where £66per hour wet includes landing fee and vat and this on four aircraft!!!
This makes for an exciting summer see you in the sky somewhere and good luck to all of you.
My GFT had been put of a few times due to wx and the examiner being unavailable, so we managed to get a different examiner, an aerobatics one !
Turned up to have a go and the viz was awful, so we put it off until the following day. Arrived and yep you guessed it the viz was once again bad.
We had a chat and made the decision to go up do what we could and come back if need be.
Did all my checks, everything ok, was holding A2 for runway 10 my examiner had turned the rt down, so I gave the usual G-RJ ready for departure, nothing no reply thenrealised what he had done, so I put the volume back up and put the call in again, the reply was a bit curt, G-RJ STILL HOLD POSITION, ah well that one wasn’t down to me. Took off and set course towards Sedbergh, he has said to tell him when if I was on my own would I have turned back, my answer was now, viz was very poor.
I continued climbing out and levelled out 3000’, I just couldn’t fly it level everywhere you looked it was very hazy, there was no definition and viz was approx. 6-7km.
I was rattled and it was showing I was off track 100' to high then 100' to low just calmed myself down a bitand carried on I kept slipping from my heading, I was track crawling looking for features in the gloom and flying from them to the next one I could see on the map. Well I duly arrived overhead Sedbergh pretty much on time. My next point was Sellafield, but he told me to divert to Ulverston, this I did I stayed wide a bit to avoid Cark who were parachuting, I told him why, he had requested that if you wanted to change height or heading etc just let him know. Afterwards he suggested that really we should have left Blackpool Radar and gone to Cark for a few mins just to tell them where we were.
From Ulverston he wanted me to fly to Stalmine, this was straight out across Morecambe bay, off we went straight into a white out, I just couldn’t see anything, now he said was a good time to do the instrument bit, I got my scan going it was hard work, sweat was running down my head, I felt knackered almost nauseous, after a while I could make out Heysham which helped and the at last there was Fleetwood I felt relieved, he suggested that we get the flapless landing out of the wayand call it a day , I was in total agreement.
Came in on 10 and it was a greaser, which cheered me up a bit, taxied in a bit of a chat and home.
I just couldn’t stop thinking about it, I wasn’t happy with the way I flew, had I become over confidant?
I resolved that the second part of the test would be better.
About four days later I got the chance to prove it.
We took off 28 I trimmed it out and climbed to 3000’ weaving the nose every 500’. I am a bit guilty of not using the trimmer as often as I should but was glad that I used it as it gives you more time to manage the cockpit. He had stated that during the general handling hewould do the r/t, well the wire at the back had snapped and he couldn’t, I was happy to carry on it was just going to be one more thing that I would have to do. Set up over Knott End for the steep turns did one and it wasn’t what he called a steep turn so he did one WOW, I then did one left and one right. Stalls next, clean, clean no power, flaps and power and flaps on the turn, it was perhaps a good job that his r/t button wasn’t working as the fella working Blackpool radar must have been bored, he wanted to talk to us all the time, my examiner said to tell him we were on a FIS not RIS/RAS, he also told me tell him a few other things which I omitted!!
Spiral descent was ok 45 degrees to the left and down then “srew it round” (his favourite words) to the right.
PFL next near Weeton army camp, he picked the field the one with the three ponds by the farmhouse, yep got it, would you believe there was two fields that matched that description by the same farmhouse, I picked the wrong one so when we arrived at his field, we were at 600’ he took over stuck allthe flap on pulled two steepish turns and there we were right over it, go around he said get me up to 2000’ and do it again, he could see there were two such fields so I got another chance. Up we went and did it we both agreed we would have made it although we would have had to use the hedge at the end to stop. Of the go around he gave me an EFATO, I did ok, he said he would show me one in the real world, he pulled the revs and stuffed the nose down so hard our heads hit the roof!Back for circuits, started with an overhead join, normal, glide and then he wanted a 500’ bad weather circuit with flap for 25 and a glide approach at the end, boy what an eye opener that C152 can do things you never even thought about.
We landed and that was that a bit of chat, handshakes all round and a silly grin on my face.
Sent off my paperwork, very efficient at the CAA by return of post had a letter telling me they had taken my money, but as yet nothing else.
Flew on my own the week after just 30 mins but it was good.
Has a check ride on a C172 Thursday just gone, it was good stalls, steepturns etc, he did however ask me why I made my steep turns so steep, in his eyes 45 degrees was enough!
At first struggled adapting to the extra speed on landing but after couple of circuits everything was ok.
Last night got a phone call (cheers mate), would o like to go up in a Seneca 5 (almost new) whilst he practised his ILS approaches would I!!
Spent a very enjoyable hour up over Blackpool.
So what now? Well I hope my paperwork turns up, ive got 49 hours and now through work belong to a flying school where £66per hour wet includes landing fee and vat and this on four aircraft!!!
This makes for an exciting summer see you in the sky somewhere and good luck to all of you.
Last edited by Bob Stinger; 21st May 2005 at 09:57.
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Cold...
Posted here as part of my PPL learning experience... I'll be the first to make comment on flight safety etc. and how we should always defer a flight if not feeling 100%...
Yesterday I arrived at FS and was asked, in the usual way, how I was. I stated that I wasn't too bad, but had had slight hay fever during the week and had been a bit bunged up but felt OK. The FI asked if my nose, ears and sinuses were OK - which they were, just a little 'sniffly' - for want of a better word.
We went out and did precautionary landings, PFLs and steep level turns as a consolidation exercise. Towards the end I was feeling a little queasy so we headed home. I put it down to feeling a little bung up and less than perfect ear / eye / stomach coordination.
Approaching the home field, got ATC clearance to enter the zone, joining left base leg, switched to the tower and confirmed as No. 2 to land, we had come down from 3000ft to circuit height then it hit me like a smack in the face.
I had to hand control immediately to the FI. I immediately felt nauseous like I've not felt for years and years. The weather was good, no turbulance etc. just a normal base leg with a single turn to go. My ears didn't hurt but I lost the ability to hear at all well - the R/T sounded distant and muted. The FI made a standard approach and landing. As we got out of the aircraft I found that my hearing was almost zero. It would appear that my ears had bunged up as we had lost altitute and then my balance was badly affected and so the usual stomach / ear-canal / visual messages weren't all in synch.
It took about 15 minutes before full hearing came back in one ear - with a pop, and then an hour or so for the other ear.
I said to the FI that if that had happened on my own I'd have told ATC I was aborting the landing and would request to expedite exit the zone then gain altitude (zone ceiling 2000ft). I would then have had to sort out my options and make another approach - probably by gradually reducing altitude more slowly and then entering the zone at a lower altitude.
I'll accept any flames here but wanted to post as a lesson for all and a clear example of what can / may happen if even slightly bung up with a slightly sniffly nose!
Yesterday I arrived at FS and was asked, in the usual way, how I was. I stated that I wasn't too bad, but had had slight hay fever during the week and had been a bit bunged up but felt OK. The FI asked if my nose, ears and sinuses were OK - which they were, just a little 'sniffly' - for want of a better word.
We went out and did precautionary landings, PFLs and steep level turns as a consolidation exercise. Towards the end I was feeling a little queasy so we headed home. I put it down to feeling a little bung up and less than perfect ear / eye / stomach coordination.
Approaching the home field, got ATC clearance to enter the zone, joining left base leg, switched to the tower and confirmed as No. 2 to land, we had come down from 3000ft to circuit height then it hit me like a smack in the face.
I had to hand control immediately to the FI. I immediately felt nauseous like I've not felt for years and years. The weather was good, no turbulance etc. just a normal base leg with a single turn to go. My ears didn't hurt but I lost the ability to hear at all well - the R/T sounded distant and muted. The FI made a standard approach and landing. As we got out of the aircraft I found that my hearing was almost zero. It would appear that my ears had bunged up as we had lost altitute and then my balance was badly affected and so the usual stomach / ear-canal / visual messages weren't all in synch.
It took about 15 minutes before full hearing came back in one ear - with a pop, and then an hour or so for the other ear.
I said to the FI that if that had happened on my own I'd have told ATC I was aborting the landing and would request to expedite exit the zone then gain altitude (zone ceiling 2000ft). I would then have had to sort out my options and make another approach - probably by gradually reducing altitude more slowly and then entering the zone at a lower altitude.
I'll accept any flames here but wanted to post as a lesson for all and a clear example of what can / may happen if even slightly bung up with a slightly sniffly nose!
The Original Whirly
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MyData,
Thanks for posting that, and I'm sure no-one with any sense at all will flame you. You're not the first person it's happened to - I heard of one flying instructor getting more or less stuck at 2000 ft due to ear pain when going any lower. People usually never believe it till it happens to them, so hopefully some of them will learn from your experience.
Safe Flying.
Thanks for posting that, and I'm sure no-one with any sense at all will flame you. You're not the first person it's happened to - I heard of one flying instructor getting more or less stuck at 2000 ft due to ear pain when going any lower. People usually never believe it till it happens to them, so hopefully some of them will learn from your experience.
Safe Flying.
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Bob,
Congrats on the pass, I too am waiting on the CAA to get the paperwork sorted....who knows when that will be. Altho I didn't get anything from them saying that they have taken the cash (which they have) so am not sure whats going on there)
Mydata,
Sorry to hear about your incident. I've always been very careful about flying with dodgy ears, since I've heard horror stories . Sounds like you expereinced one of em
Altho at least you've learnt the lesson! hehe.
Congrats on the pass, I too am waiting on the CAA to get the paperwork sorted....who knows when that will be. Altho I didn't get anything from them saying that they have taken the cash (which they have) so am not sure whats going on there)
Mydata,
Sorry to hear about your incident. I've always been very careful about flying with dodgy ears, since I've heard horror stories . Sounds like you expereinced one of em
Altho at least you've learnt the lesson! hehe.
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I posted a similar story a while back. I'd even gone flying with an instructor first and had no problem so assumed I'd be OK on my own - but then I went up higher on my own.
So much for everybody reading every post here and learning from them! I suspect this one might be something that people don't really believe until it happens to them.
So much for everybody reading every post here and learning from them! I suspect this one might be something that people don't really believe until it happens to them.
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I too am waiting on the CAA to get the paperwork sorted....who knows when that will be. Altho I didn't get anything from them saying that they have taken the cash (which they have) so am not sure whats going on there)
Of course, without the licence we can't fly...
which really sucks.