From Zero to Forty Five - my PPL Diary

[Vee One...Rotate]

Wow. I feel like I'm lagging behind

I've got 11.10 hrs in my logbook...since September '04 so to say progress has been slow is stretching the truth

But no matter because today was the day of my first solo!

So, we're about four circuits into the circuit bashing routine, with a couple being introductions to go-arounds and glides when we touch down again and I start to apply full power in prep for another one. At this point the instructor shakes his head, cuts the power and gets me to slowly taxi towards the end of the runway. Time flies I thought - it must be the end of our slot. Nope. Turns out he wants me to do a quick one on my own.

Crikey. Immediately a feeling of self-doubt comes on. Sure, I'd done a couple of OK landings but they were still a bit untidy. Surely I wasn't ready!? Anyway, the feeling passes as I reason that the instructor knows what he's doing and I feel some (misplaced!?) self-confidence kick in. With words of encouragement along the lines of enjoy it and go-around if you're not happy, I was off.

The taxi was very leisurely - I wanted time to think everything through and stay ahead of the aircraft I think. Anyway, first call goes in "Golf golf whisky entering two-two for departure." and I'm off. Rotate at 55 knts with flaps 10, climb away, flaps come in at 300' and I start the turn to the crosswind leg at 500'. Don't think it's sunk in that I'm alone up here. I'm chatting away to myself the whole time - "Speed's a little high, sort it out, watch that heading..." etc.

Enter the downwind leg at about 1000' AGL. Wow. I'm probably a bit tight - the runway is veeery close out my left window. No bother - I make a mental note that the turn to base and turn to final may merge a little. Try and give plenty of room so fly a decent length downwind leg. R/T and BUMFICHH out of the way.

Start the turn to base above the small village of Houghton-On-The-Hill (how quaint!) - glance to catch sight of the runway and turn on to final. "Golf golf whisky, final two-two, full-stop." The picture looks good but the speed is a little low - nose down, little squeeze of power. Keep it on the centre-line. Wind is straight down the RWY at about 10 kts. Approaching a patch of trees - they gave me a rough ride earlier. Stay sharp in case they bite again, I tell myself. Pass the trees - no worries. Dropping down towards the threshold. Spy a small helicopter in the centre of the field to my right. Concentrate on the numbers. Power back, nose slowly beginning to rise and...a slight bump. I rise again and settle (with a bit of a bump!) on the ground. Throttle to full idle, start gradual braking (RWY 22 isn't the longest!). Wasn't the textbook greaser I'd have liked but I was down

Back in the club house, my first entry as "PIC" is completed in the logbook and I sign the aircraft log in the "Captain" section. A nice feeling

Quite a good day all round. Off to watch Star Wars tonight with some friends. An ale of two may be consumed beforehand as well

Keep up the hard work everyone. I need to start nailing some exams now

Signed,

Captain (for the day) V1R

P.S. Sorry for the length and rambling nature of this post - only just got back a minute ago!

[Blinkz]

congrats v1r!! Its been a while we've had a solo

Its a great feeling and you'll remember it forever.

solo AND starwars? sounds like a perfect day

Well done mate, maybe try and fly abit more? the more you fly the easier it is! You'll have the brown book before ya know it

[Vee One...Rotate]

Thanks Blinkz.

Yeah, post-uni finances combined with a very time-consuming job (with not the most amazing salary in the world) mean it's hard to keep up with the flying. You're right though - the less gaps, the better you tend to fly.

Let's hope I can fit in/finance more hours over the summer period!

V1R

[mazzy1026]

WUHOO !

Well don V1 - Thanks for sharing that, excellent feeling eh !

There are many good things happening at the moment, good to see such positiveness amongst us after the lack of flying a few of us seem to have had!

Brilliant

Lee

[Happyeater]

Fantastic V-1. Congratulations on the first solo. A month on since mine and it still makes me smile to think about it. What an experience.

GonTec; doing well. Just need to nail X wind landings and get a couple more hours solo consolidation in. Studying navigation now, so hope to start that quite soon. Hope you're doing well, matey?

[GonTek]

V -1 Congrats

Hi all

Fine thanks Happy,not flown for a while but intend to remedy that situation (PD get your finger out ) !

Not keen on x/wind landings had really bad experience twice in one day @ egnv,winds tend to be the same as egnt nasty and straight across the runway at 90 deg,lived to fly another day all part/fun of learning ????

Reding this thread from the begining I can see we all have the same things happen in the same parts of the training,you learn something and then have a bad day.

Anybody going through it don't give up, You will win in the end.

NAC thread is mentioned in FLYER , We are famous !!!!

Fly safe..

[Blinkz]

Well its now all offical. I am a PPL

It arrived about 15mins ago. Its bigger then I remember lol. Its all signed up, both the PPL and the RT licence. All i need to do now is go fly!!!!

Thanks to everyone in this thread that has helped me along the way, its really been a great source of information and just talking to people doing the same things is such a confidence booster. Thanks to mazzy for a great thread.

ATPL here I come!!!

[Chequeredflag]

I've been away quite a bit lately, (including an 8 day and night non stop sail from Gibraltar to Croatia) so here's a quick update on my progress chaps!

I've now completed my solo consolidation (3hr 20 mins), and have done 3 navigational exercises, all of which passed without drama. A couple of weeks ago, I asked if we could do a couple of circuits around our house, which the "boss" agreed to, as long as it was as part of a navigational exercise He also asked whether I would mind of another student (not yet having completed his first solo) came with us, 'cos he wanted to switch from the Cessnas to the Warrior. My first reaction was "Oh my Gawd, not in front of one of my peers!!" but I did agree in the end......

To be honest, it was pretty good having someone less experienced than my self on board; he was in the back, with the instructor alongside me as usual, with me feeling quite the Captain!!!!. I somehow felt much more "on it", I guess because I did not want to screw up with someone else in the plane.

We took off (EMA), Zoned out to the South, and tracked to my home town (Daventry). It was a beautifully clear day, and all my calculations worked - my house came up on the nose. We did three circuits, with my wife seen clearly in the back garden recording it all. Sadly, she forgot to zoom in so it all looks a bit far away.

The return journey was also spot on, and I called for rejoin - told I was No 1 (for once), and called on final to find a pretty nasty crosswind. The landing was actually fine, and the other student was complimentary about my flying and in particular that I had found my destination in both directions!! Don't know if he's a contributor here, in which case he'll probably tell you something entirely different!!

I'm now moving on to further navigation, and some solo runs outside the EMA zone, for solo PFL's, stalls, and steep turns. I have to say, reading some of the reports about the Skills Tests recently taken, I wonder whether I'll EVER be able to do all that to an examiners satisfaction - still I suppose it's something I'll grow into, though it does sound VERY daunting!! Many many congratulations to those recently receiving their PPL's - really good news.

Safe flying all.....

[Blinkz]

Sounds like you doing well CF, keep up the good work. I totally know what you mean about being worried about doing it all, but like you say it all becomes second nature and just clicks!

I found that it clicked in my QXC, I just felt like I was totally in control of the a/c and actually felt a pilot instead of a student. You'll soon have a PPL and then we'll all have to have a fly-in somewhere!

[mazzy1026]

Good to see you CF - great news on your progress too. I reckon taking a up another early student would have been a confidence/performance boost.

Blinkz - you have come up with the best idea mate - a diary fly-in when we are all cleared ! I look forward to that day

[Chequeredflag]

To get us back on the front page......!! Had a double lesson today, so did a nav over the Derbyshire Peak District to Ladybower Resovoir, then East to Ossington, and back to Hucknall. I messed up the first leg, having failed to align the HI with the compass once en route, and it was some 20 degrees out!! Realising my first checkpoint was not coming up as it should, the error was pointed out to me and I make the necessary course adjustments. The rest worked fine. Having arrived overhead Hucknall, we peeled off and did some stalling, steep turns (I'm "sort of" OK with those now as long as it's ME doing them!), and PFL practice. It was very busy, and I find that it is much easier to keep on top of all the ATC chatter when I'm solo. I think I lose concentration if the boss takes some of the radio work load - for example, having been receiving FIS from Waddington, he took the radio to try to assist the controllers make contact with another aircraft. Having done all that, I thought he had made contact with East Midlands approach already ('cos I wasn't listening properly), but no, he had not!! I therefore screwed up the initial call proceedure for zone rejoin. I should have checked the frequency of course, but I was a bit distracted by the huge amount of chatter to other aircraft. Hey ho, another lesson learned.......

We then had to orbit before rejoin. It's a bit chaotic at EMA at present, for they are resurfacing the main taxiway, so all the commercial traffic is having to backtrack, and cause some delays.

I'm at 37 hours now, solo consolidation is all done, and the nav seems to be coming on OK - however, I seem to stiill have some way to go. I often wonder how many students actually achieve their PPL in the minimum 45 hours required. If they do, they are obviously a lot brighter than me!! More nav tomorrow, and next week I'm evidently off out of the zone for solo stall, PFL, and steep turn practice. Hope I don't get lost!!

Safe flying all....

[benhurr]

Chequered Flag,

You seem to be making extremely good progress. Basically add your years of age above 21 to the 45 and that gives you a pointer on how many hours to expect for your PPL. Enjoy your solo north next week. Apologise to your boss for me - we were meant to be going to Nottingham but the weather was dire...

I successfully completed my MEP and IR renewal today, sp trips will be on again!

[Chequeredflag]

Benhurr,

Many thanks, good to hear from you - trust you are keeping well. I'm getting on OK, but the further I go, the more complex it gets!! All seems to happen at once....poor old brain. I didn't know about the formula - interesting - means about 86 hours.....I'll be bankrupt by then!

Cheers,

CF

PS,

Congrats on your passes by the way

[hekokimushi]

Passed my skills test today also. 8th June 2005 from NSF Sibson CAVOK all day. almost min hours. now have a total of 46.4 hours after ths skills test.... very lucky... and thrill... hahahaa...

will write up when i have calm myself down a little.

happy flying

nelson

[Happyeater]

Fantastic, Nelson. What a great acheivement that is. It's also a great target for us 'studes' who can see the PPL being completed on a regular basis by folks on here.

Looking forward to the write up once you've settled down.

[Vee One...Rotate]

Yes, well done Nelson

Give us a write-up as soon as you can!

V1R

[hekokimushi]

it went something like this:

skills test scheduled at 14:00 8th Jun 2005.

checked weather throughout the week... by Sunday forecasted 8th to be sunny. and the forecast was absolutely spot on and have confirmed by the weather report by BBC 24 hour forecast just before i went to bed.

nervous as anything, read up on procedures and knowledges with flipping all 5 books, checked on Met office for 214 and 215, WHAT?? not updated. so called the customer service. and have sent me copies of 214 and 215 via e-mail and acknowledging an online update problem. looking at the 214 and 215. i smiled as i could not ask for a better weather 2000ft and 5000ft VBR 5kts. Confirmed with various METAR CAVOK and many of them at the 0852 reports all over.

went to NSF Sibson early at 11:30 as i was supposed to be there at noon. spoke to my RT instructor, the most wonderful and helpful guy in the world. talking about how lucky i get such weather for a skills test. and i must agree, for my QXC and today, best weather i could have asked for. and at NSF Sibson, i was shown 6 evenlopes with 6 routes, and i had to pick one out of the six. i picked Route 1, LARS and MATZ. involving to plan depart from Sibson, climb to the Morbourne Mast (Local starting point for all our nav) to Wells (Northfolk Coast) to Ipswich. So i went away with all METARs, 214, 215 for the afternoon, and the NOTAM (which i didn't have enough time to read) to the quiet (er as parachutes training room next door, screeming FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE JUMP) room to plan my NAV.

CAVOK so i planned to fly at 3000' noting all MSA. FIS at Cottesmore, FIS at Marham and MATZ PEN for Sculthrope (but later critised by Marham ATC guy when airbourne: as notified by NOTAM Sculthrope is Cold) then overhead wash set southly heading towards Ipswich. I looked at Ipswich, there was only a strip... closest Class G airfield was Clacton... so i knew there will be a diversion (having read up the JAR-PPL requirements from the CAA) from the 2nd leg.

all planning sort of went well. did all calculation... weigh and T/O CofG and all that... Mr Examiner (not mention name), another nice guy, came in... talking about how the test will be conducted... structure, requirements, what he wants to see, and responsibility etc. all went as expected. checked Medical Cert., looked at my Logbook. ... em... looking for ages asked me if that was all the flights in the logbook. and took it away for 5 mins for examination i guess... i thought oh sh!t... what is not right? he then return explaining i have a few entries Remarks as REVISION, and no hard evidence on enough XC hours. so i clarified and of he went upstairs to book out and off i went to perform the external check.

I was put in a 152 that i had not flown for many times and the once i flew, and found the engine is rather... not so efficient... and the examiner knew and so we went on. external check complete. no questions. in the 2 seats. plugged in the headphones. he sat in, i went thru the emergency procedure. confirmed my planned altitude and joked lets see how loooooong it would take us to get to that height. and i thought... last time i flew this old bird, not tooooooooooo bad... but will see. Radio Checked. all items read out from the checklist. and there i was, Ready for departure, No WIND... have NEVER took off in ZERO WIND condition. there we go... rolling... 50 knts, rotated... 60 kts.... climbing... what THE... full power... showing 2400rpm... with a label adjacent over reads 100rpm. and took ages to get to 300ft climbed with the VSI telling me 300fpm... so eventually flaps up landing lites off. took AAAAAGGGGGEEEESSSSSS to get to 3000ft, 3 circles before setting off from the Mast and request FIS.. poor guy at Cottesmore but very helpful understoond my mumble jumble RT and approved my FIS and Squak. on track spot on... not deviated at all... all the way to the Wells, Wells looks quite a way in from the shore on the half mil but in fact not at all. set heading south... lots of FREDA checks now and then. and have been told to divert just passing East Derham at Shipdam towards March. Planning in the air is not the easiest thing to do... drawing the line while maintaining heading, height with your head down... is quite impossible but managed to crack it with an ETA, heading and distance. Examiner agreeed and we proceed. when overhead Marham, 2 Tornado were lining up for a formation take off... then over took me by my left hand and saluted... na... just looked good. the examiner starting to chat about things when the nav was going so smoothly... about fly by computers in those, speed, etc... and he then took control after a successful arriving March overhead with 2 mins late.

Froooooggle time... oh... demonstrate rate one turn left 180 degrees. he was happy that i had my Carb heat on (when debrief, he pointed out that was good, but it may not have been my intension)

slow flight, fly at 50kts turn to heading with no loss of height. fly at 45kts, 20degree flaps and manuver with no loss of height all seems fine

then stalls... i forgot to do HASELL, and examiner reminded me, any checks before commencing??? then immediately i thought sh!t i have failed. stall clean config, HELL check, stall with landing configuration and recovery. stall recovery at landing configuration simulating base to final relisation of stall and recover when the symptoms occurs. (debriefed he was happy with all those with min height loss but rectifying turns should be done with max 10DEG bank and slow flight)


next intercept VOR track and fly it, later find position fix with another VOR and have cracked that spot on with a fix (debrief normally people would use a ruler and i only used fingers and eyes hee... he said that was done rather cleverly.) what left PFL. he took control climbed to 3500 ft... took ages. yes. then pull the throttle and handed me the controls for a PFL. usual procedure... no problem. problem was finding A field. there were millions of fields. picked first one, approach could not go all the way round so nominated another field and then the third one. and proceeded. (i though i did really Sh!t but at debrief, examiner said it was ok and explained how i could have done with the first selection) then rejoin circuit, did pre landing checks at 1800 ft... then examiner asked me what is the circuit height. then i thought SH!T this time... must have failed. then we proceeded for normal approach, one Tiger Moth in Circuit very slow... gone around. for a flapless, nailed it but the examiner took control to give seperation to the Moth, and lastly for a glide approachnailed it touch and go went again for a low level bad weather circuit again moth in the way, examiner took control and right hand orbit twice, moth still RIGHT in front of us, saying we must work round this.... totally crap at low level, flying too fast, inconsistent height etc. and i thought must have failed and finally short field landing for full stop landing. landed ok. and examiner took control for taxying after all my checks. i thought unusal that i do not taxy. i must have failed.

at debrief with a cup of coffee, first of all without telling me result. he spoke for a while. then he said to help me concentrate my debrief, he told me i have passed. i was like WHAT REALLY???

he then debreif what i did right not quite what he wanted etc etc. and have suggested me what to do next. IMC and lots about flying. very nice talk. he has highlighted that i was swimming for the nav and must have got tired. so... tolerated some mistakes stressing everybody make mistakes.

i was then again amazed with the outcome. and he said with the number of hours, i did a gr8 job. grin on my face...


very good experience!!! now with 46.3 hours T/T i am now waiting for the CFI to examine my log book awaiting to sign a paper work to be then sent off to the CAA for me JAR-PPL licence.

cannot wait to see my licence.

happy flying all. hope you guys are still awake after reading such a boring log.

nelson

[kookabat]

CF:

means about 86 hours

For the record, it took me 80 or so - spread out over about three years.

hekokimushi - wow, 46 or so hours and a PPL, that's fantastic!!! nice effort

[hekokimushi]

For the record, it took me 80 or so - spread out over about three years.

hekokimushi - wow, 46 or so hours and a PPL, that's fantastic!!! nice effort

i did it just under a year. trial lesson on the July 5th i can still remember that day. passed on 8th June.

flying mostly weekends.

the Air League 15 hours scholarship has definately helped out the funding too.

happy landing

nelson

[DiscoChocolate]

Congratulations Nelson!!
Wat an achievement, and just in time for all the nice summer weather
Well Done!