Go Back  PPRuNe Forums > Non-Airline Forums > Private Flying
Reload this Page >

From Zero to Forty Five - my PPL Diary

Wikiposts
Search
Private Flying LAA/BMAA/BGA/BPA The sheer pleasure of flight.

From Zero to Forty Five - my PPL Diary

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 12th Feb 2007, 16:27
  #1701 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: chichester uk
Age: 40
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
i havent read the whole thread yet. working my way through it slowely. Im about to do my second lesson and I was shocked to hear that people are landing on their second hour? landing is one of the most difficult aspects of flying and I cant forsee my instructor giving me the opportunity for a fair few hours yet. oh well i have my second lesson coming up very shortly so il wait and see...but i doubt it.
stevoneil is offline  
Old 12th Feb 2007, 16:58
  #1702 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Preston, England
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hi Steve,
It might surprise you, but certainly in my limited real-world flying experience, and from other people's experiences, I've found that landing, especially in light aircraft, is not really that difficult at all. Certainly lining up and getting the descent right is really quite simple as long as there's not a horrendous crosswind or something, although it does depend on which airfield you're flying from. If you fly from a grass airstrip, it will be a lot more difficult landing there than if you fly at a large airfield with a concrete/asphalt runway.
Of course, the full technique of landing, especially the final parts where you're reducing power, flaring (but not too much, otherwise you'll float), kicking off any crab that you may have because of a crosswind, making sure your descent rate is low enough so as not to give everyone a headache, judging your height etc, all within 3 or 4 seconds, takes a lot of getting used to, and even experienced light aircraft pilots don't get it right every time.
Personally speaking, if I remember rightly, I did my first landing on my 3rd lesson, with my insructor assisting. My first few sessions were when I was very young, and were spaced out a long way, so I probably didn't do my first fully unassisted landing until just before I started proper training about 2 years ago. Of course, my landings at the moment are still very hit-and-miss (if you'll excuse the pun ) with only just over 40 hours' experience, but I tend to be able to pull off fairly smooth ones now. Landing a light aircraft is very much about co-ordination and balance.
It's surprising how simple it is to at least get the basics - normal light training aircraft are built to be hurt and thrown around quite a lot, so they can take hard landings very well (especially the robust Pipers), and it's quite difficult to scrape the tail or hit a wing or anything like that. Remember, for your first load of landings, your instructor will be very alert, and he'll be able to tell if anything's going wrong at an early stage, and take over the aircraft.
I wouldn't be surprised, if the conditions are right and you've handled the aircraft well for the rest of the flight, if your instructor lets you control the aircraft during the landing
Have fun!
woottsbj25 is offline  
Old 14th Feb 2007, 19:19
  #1703 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Preston, England
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Have any luck with the landing Steve?

I did another solo nav today, and it went much better than my first one. Had a fantastic hour first with my regular instructor, went up to Settle and Clitheroe. For my solo I went up to a bridge near Cark and then along to High Bentham. That leg I was planning to continue on to Settle, but the cloud was fairly thick at my level and the ground was rising so I routed back towards Fleetwood and rejoined from there.

Turns out that radio problem I had over Warton was fairly common with the aircraft. It was just Warton that didn't like our radio for some reason, but everything seemed to work fine today.

Really enjoyed it today, it's given me a bit of a confidence boost. I'm booked in for tomorrow too, although it's looking as though it's going to be a bit windy.
woottsbj25 is offline  
Old 18th Feb 2007, 09:25
  #1704 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: chichester uk
Age: 40
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
heya. 2nd lesson under my belt and I feel as if i really learnt so much today. the first lesson I had a bit of a foggy memory of what happened etc because there was so much to take in but with this second lesson I had a few personal goals to understand and master trim and rudder.

I started by taxiing to the runway. unfortunatly I kept trying to turn with the yoke and resulted in me snaking left and right the whole way to the start point, over compensating with the rudder. when aligned on the runway I aided the instructor by pulling up at 55kt and maintaining 10 degrees. After levelling at 2k i asked about yaw effect on turning as I wanted to master the rudder on turning left and right and know what to feel for. Still need to remember to add a little rudder next time so thats a personal target for then.

After that I mastered trim which I knew I would fathom pretty quickly and feel confident to use now.

We then looked at some other basic effects of slow/fast flying. all of which seemed pretty obvious to me. then I spent a while following simple instructions ie climb 500 ft level off trim and maintain speed and height then turn west down 500 ft and stright and level.

At this point I felt that I was really able to be in control of the aircraft instead of it being in control of me. i had gone from timid movements of the yoke to purposeful and planned movements.

we entered a busy circuit at shoreham and came into land. I aided with aligning up to the runway until about 50ft before the instructor quickly took over.. lol

I taxieed back to the parking space much more accuratly this time although I received feedback to use the brakes next time.

booked another lesson for this morning but has just been canx due to cloud at 900 so i think im going to have to do a sicky on a fine day during the week! hehe

on another note my instructor told me hes leaving so ive got the chief instructor from now on rather than a student one. I imagine this will be much better for me in terms of instruction but I do worry about being less relaxed possibly?

stevo
stevoneil is offline  
Old 18th Feb 2007, 10:00
  #1705 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Preston, England
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Congrats on that lesson! Sounds like you had a great time.

Shame about the weather this morning, though it surprises me, it's nice up here. Unfortunately aviation seems to be like that - even with my few hours I've been set back so many times due to poor weather, and it makes training so much slower. However, if you hit a nice spell, it's amazing how quickly you can get on with the course.
woottsbj25 is offline  
Old 19th Feb 2007, 08:20
  #1706 (permalink)  

Spicy Meatball
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Liverpool UK
Age: 41
Posts: 1,115
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I cant forsee my instructor giving me the opportunity for a fair few hours yet
I promise, you will say that about everything in the training, especially the QXC - it is then that you will be glad to be able to land after you've found the airfield

It's really strange - I can't believe it's been a year since I got my ticket. I am reading these posts now and it brings back the memories

Keep it up
Maz
mazzy1026 is offline  
Old 19th Feb 2007, 11:44
  #1707 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Wide Brown Land
Age: 39
Posts: 516
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Still alive!! Nice work.
My update - currently in the thick of a taildragger endorsement. Top fun!!! I'll figure out what I'm supposed to be doing one of these days, I hope...
kookabat is offline  
Old 20th Feb 2007, 03:55
  #1708 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Sydney
Posts: 157
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
My update:-

I originally applied for my student license in October - it arrived in January whilst I was in Europe, so now I am trying to get the medical certificate processed. After 4 weeks of deliberations, I've been informed that I need to get a couple more tests done and that I should allow a further 3 weeks once the results of those have been submitted....which should see me through to mid-March before I can go solo. This is proving to be extremely tedious.

I've been doing a lot of travelling since my last update, so have not had much time to fly - I'm really holding on the paperwork before moving forwards again.

I went up for another round of circuit emergencies over the weekend in fairly challenging conditions - late afternoon, 32 deg, 12-15kts of x-wind.

My instructor and I are both of fairly stout construction, and the combination of our weights and the high temps did not make for great performance. Our Warrior was chasing a 152 around the circuit for most of the lesson, but not really catching it in the way that you might expect.

My judgement of different approaches seems to be gradually improving. I was caught short on one approach by the head wind on the base leg, and over-compensated on the next couple of glide approaches that more closely resembled stuka-stylee dive-bombing runs than landings - but the flare and touch downs were pretty consistent. Although on a couple of occasions I found myself being so relieved after touchdown that I prematurely released the backpressure on the stick and caused the nose wheel to judder fairly violently - but even with the engine randomly "failing" around the circuit I am reasonably confident of a good landing.

I am finding the mental side of it very interesting - I am repeatedly surprised at how easy it is let yourself become overloaded, focus on a single task and allow other tasks to slip. I have a number of other hobbies that require broad situational awareness, whilst multi-tasking but none of them manages to turn my brain to custard in quite the same way.

Hey-ho - onwards and upwards...
Miraz is offline  
Old 26th Feb 2007, 19:38
  #1709 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Europe
Posts: 673
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hello

Thought I should show my face and introduce myself after spending most of my adult life reading the whole thread (very interesting!).
In a way it's a shame I'm about 2/3 years behind you lot (namely Lee), but I suppose you have huge chunks of advice /wisdom to pass on.

I had my first lesson on Saturday.. It's now Monday and I still have restless 'need to fly, need to fly' legs. Flew from Barton in a lovely PA-28. It felt fantastic, after playing that bloody flight simulator, to actually do it. I even managed to get a little sqeak out of the stall warning on 'effects of controls' rudder inputs!

I work for a large financial Institution, and the amount of times I think 'that pensioner doesnt need £50k, thats daft, spread the wealth you bint!' whilst considering 'would she miss it if it dissappeared?' is dangerous!

Hope all you flourishing PPLs are enjoying it. Living the dream baby, living the dream .

Dave

Last edited by Kerosine; 27th Feb 2007 at 11:13. Reason: Spelling
Kerosine is offline  
Old 26th Feb 2007, 19:44
  #1710 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Preston, England
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hey Dave!

Great stuff! I hope you enjoy the PPL course as much I as I'm doing at the moment.

I'm booked in for tomorrow, but the forecast is appaling. High winds, low cloud and rain don't mix very well to give good weather for a solo nav

Just to let you guys know, I did my QXC route dual last Tuesday - Blackpool --> Hawarden --> Caernarfon --> Blackpool. Enjoyed it SO much, I can't wait to do it solo (no offense to the instructor ), I'll hopefully be doing that within the next 4 or 5 weeks.

Hope everyone else is getting on well!
woottsbj25 is offline  
Old 27th Feb 2007, 19:48
  #1711 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Northants
Age: 80
Posts: 227
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Well done guys, keep posting to keep this thread alive - it's a good un!. I had an IMC lesson canned today from East Midlands (wx) (but spent 2 hours in the classroom on NDB/VOR/DME approaches). It was more tiring than actually flying the same thing!! I'm supposed to be doing the some tomorrow, but winds are forecast to be 30 gusting 47kts, so I can't see it happening.
Chequeredflag is offline  
Old 6th Mar 2007, 15:30
  #1712 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Preston, England
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hey guys,
Some news from me. I didn't get up last Tuesday, but I managed to squeeze one in on Saturday, enjoying clear blue skies at EGNH. However, I knew pretty quickly that I wasn't going to get where I wanted to, my instructor had planned me to go up to the south Lakes, and there was thick low cloud right from Carnforth up, at around 800 feet. I got pretty close, and descended a little, but I knew it was a no-go and had to turn back. Still, I got 45 minutes of solo time in, which is always good.

Today my instructor and I went down the low-level corridor between Manchester and Liverpool's airspace. I'm sure most of you are familiar with it, but it's a 4nm wide, 20nm long stretch of uncontrolled airspace not above 1250 feet. Landmarks are few and far between as it is, before you factor in the very low altitude. It was bumpy today too. However, it was very rewarding, and good fun too. Apparently the school's examiner often takes us down there on the test.

Booked my QXC for next week! Can't wait, I really hope it comes off. Coincidentally, I've got Wednesday off college too, so I've got double the chance.

On a slightly duller note, my instructor told me today that he's leaving on Friday for good, he's off to do a type rating. At least I've got very little of the course left now, so I'll just have a couple of different instructors over the next few weeks.

Ah well, that's my rant over for a while

EDIT - Actually, one more thing. I'm just about to call up an R/T examiner. My R/T is the only exam I've got left to do (save for my HPL, which I'm ready for and shouldn't cause too many problems). Anyone get any experiences of the exam they'd like to share? How is it? I've still got to read the book.
woottsbj25 is offline  
Old 6th Mar 2007, 17:10
  #1713 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Scotland
Age: 44
Posts: 142
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
hi

was reading about the sex on first date... I mean, landing on second lesson scenario.
In fact, I see it quite often on the forums an dit makes me wonder if I am retarded, or an alien.... or a bit of both !

I went solo on my 14th hour of training, and up to my 10th/11th hour I felt wanting to get out of the bloody thing for not being able to get it right. Then all of a sudden it kicked in and all became easier. You know the score.

On my second hour I was probably still struggling to comprehend that the 2 pedals in front of me are not for braking and accelerating, and that while taxiing on the ground there's no need to move the control yoke to steer left and right !

Yet someone with no experience at all on their second flying hour can line up, glide down at the correct airspeed and gently touch down safely just a few yards past the numbers !

Of course I must have been hanging out with the wrong crowd !
high-hopes is offline  
Old 6th Mar 2007, 17:31
  #1714 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Norfolk UK
Age: 80
Posts: 1,200
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
It's sometimes a lot of fun hanging out with the wrong crowd!
I think it was in the 60's!
Lister Noble is offline  
Old 6th Mar 2007, 18:02
  #1715 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Preston, England
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
high-hopes I'm not sure I see your point - could you clarify please?
woottsbj25 is offline  
Old 7th Mar 2007, 11:43
  #1716 (permalink)  

Spicy Meatball
Thread Starter
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Liverpool UK
Age: 41
Posts: 1,115
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Woot - I know the feeling about having your instructor leave. Strange at first, but you'll be just fine when you settle in with the next chap!

See if you can find Ashcroft Farm the next time you leave the low level southbound - it's a small grass strip which we used for my QXC. I landed there also with another pruner last summer - quite a nice place...

Cheers
Lee
mazzy1026 is offline  
Old 7th Mar 2007, 15:52
  #1717 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Preston, England
Posts: 25
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Lee,

Funnily enough, that's the waypoint we used to turn back to head northbound again - it looks like the best one down there to confirm you're out of the corridor.

I actually thought when I was overflying it that it looks a very nice place to land at - is it private or can anyone land there? I've not got a Pooley's handy.

Regarding the Pooley's flight guide actually - do you know of a free place online with that info on? Or is the AIP Aerodromes section the only place like that. It just seems a bit much to have to buy one and keep updating it, when I'd only be using it maybe once a month at most.
woottsbj25 is offline  
Old 9th Mar 2007, 17:01
  #1718 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: chichester uk
Age: 40
Posts: 30
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
hey lads and ladettes i thought I would keep you posted with my exciting 3rd lesson.

After 6 yes 6 cancelled flights over 4 weeks due to weather it was just about flyable today so i seized the opportunity to get up there. There was a strong crosswind just within the aircraft limits of 15kts.

After being introduced to my new instructor I told him what I had learnt etc and off we went. taxiing was fairly difficult getting to the runway as It takes me about 5 minutes to get used to each time. after snaking to the runway startpoint I pulled up at 60knts and we climbed bumpily to 3k ft and levelled out. this lesson was all about straight and level flight and what a difficult task it was with the wind bumping us about all over the place. I managed to master it but it was very hard to know if we were rising or falling as the 'picture' was moving up and down and left and right by about 30 degrees constantly. the instruments were swinging around all over the place and the altimiter needle jumped over 100ft up and down. maintaining a specific aaltitude was very difficult but im glad i had the experience in these kind of conditions because it will be a better test in the long run.

To my surprise the instructor suggested that we could still cope with a bit more turbulence! I had a firm grip on the controls at first trying to over compensate the sharp gusts of wind but later learnt that its easier to use just one hand to fly and hold the yoke loosely rather than with white knuckles.

Time to enter the left hand circuit and upon making the final turn we realised that the wind had pushed us way past the runway so we crabbed our way back and had to make a rapid descent so as not to miss it. I had a go at keeping level on the way down but left the rudder to the instructor. it was really strange to be flying towards the runway facing 30 degrees out of alignment and just on Q the instructor took full control at 30ft and whipped off the rudder to bring us in alignment a mere second before touching down.

I enjoyed the lesson and found the added wind made things a lot more tricky. every time i feel like I didnt do enough though. maybe others feel the same at the early stages and its just typical trigger happy newbie syndrome???

After landing I taxied much more accuratly back to the parking spot and ran through final checks.

Then I took a chance at my met exam. feeling I had nothing to loose and I PASSED!! all those cancelled lessons kept my head in the books/CD rom over the past few weeks and it paid off.

finally I settled the bill of £264 for 1hr flight, exam, kneeboard, logbook, checklist, and membership...Then I cancelled sundays lesson through lack of funds
stevoneil is offline  
Old 11th Mar 2007, 14:21
  #1719 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Dorset
Posts: 8
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Hey there, posted a while back to introduce myself - (currently on straight and level flight exercises- 4 hours in-don't get to do much flying as I'm still trundling along at uni + the recent weather) -bit bumpy this morning but a gorgeous day to fly...my take-off was a little dodgy today-strong winds pushed me off my course as I took off- causing me to drift

My instructor tell me if I tackle straight and level then my life will become much easier! doesnt seem too bad at the mo, but I guess practice makes perfect....

Had the privilege of co-piloting (uninstructed) to Birmingham Int for a school trip, which was brilliant experience -would definitely recommend school trips to those who have the opportunity! especially us baby pilots! you get the time to feel comfortable with the aircraft and learn so much, as well as the excitement of landing at another airport and getting to know other pilots and the instructors...

off to the flyer exhib on sat with some other wanabe pilots to poke people for more information. Iv still got a lot to learn!

FG
Flygirl_ is offline  
Old 12th Mar 2007, 02:12
  #1720 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Wide Brown Land
Age: 39
Posts: 516
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
***First taildragger solo for me this morning!!! Woohoo!!!!***


kookabat is offline  


Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.