Skills test tomorrow
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On my PFL, I was fixated on a great field on my left side and carried out an acceptable PFL. However, if I'd looked past my instructor out of the right hand window I would have seen an airstrip which would have been the better choice!
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Passed!
First off, thanks everyone for all of your advice, and for all of you that said it, you were definately right, dont know what I was worrying about!
Nav went really well Headings, timings all worked and maintained accurate levels throughout.
Diversion was fine, though had to divert around weather on my diversion leg which strained the old grey matter a little. RT was also pretty much spot on.
General handling didnt go as well as planned, I thought the standard of my flying was awful, but my examiner didnt seem to think so.
All in all a fantastic result.
Once again, thanks all!
Nav went really well Headings, timings all worked and maintained accurate levels throughout.
Diversion was fine, though had to divert around weather on my diversion leg which strained the old grey matter a little. RT was also pretty much spot on.
General handling didnt go as well as planned, I thought the standard of my flying was awful, but my examiner didnt seem to think so.
All in all a fantastic result.
Once again, thanks all!
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Not sure whats next athe moment, do a bit of flying and go for a night rating I think. I am quite keen to fly a complex and my club has a couple of arrows so I will probably do that soon.
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I've found so far with my whole 2 months of having the brown wallet that the best thing to do is go visit places. There's nothing like pulling off a good landing at a strip you haven't been to before. Conversely there's nothing like doing a crap landing at a strip you haven't been to before either, especially when all the squillion hour pilots are sat with their coffees watching....
Not that it bothers me, I've paid for the crap landing not them so I'm going to enjoy it and savour every little bounce.
Not that it bothers me, I've paid for the crap landing not them so I'm going to enjoy it and savour every little bounce.
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I remember when the ink barely had dried on my PPL, I got this great idea to transition to a Piper Lancer for some reason. It was retractable, c/s prop and high power and I was hot on all that. Man, I was so far behind that plane I was still on the ground when it arrived at the new airport. I can't believe instructor let me solo it even. I was sweating mu n**s off and couldn't enjoy a minute!
That said, I still recommend trying a complex or high performance aircraft sooner rather than later - it's good practice and will tell you a lot about workload.
That said, I still recommend trying a complex or high performance aircraft sooner rather than later - it's good practice and will tell you a lot about workload.
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Interesting that Adam. Was it the complexity that made it difficult or the speed? I'm OK with a bit faster, I reckon I could cope with 140 knots or so, we have a 172 that cruises at around 110-115 knots and TBH I can't tell the difference between that and our 152 which plods along at about 85, but I'm not sure about all the extra knobs and stuff like cowl flaps, CS props, landing gear etc.
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Everything happens much faster and you need set speeds for everything. It's not the high speed in cruise, that's easy, but entering the circuits at 140kts, trying to lose speed and get below gear/flap retraction speeds, getting the CS prop and manifold right is a lot of work when you haven't done it before. Before you know it you've looked far too little outside the cockpit and just busted your base turn by a mile and you're still too fast and too high. That kind of thing.
Once you get a hang of it, it's easy. Won't take long. Do tight circuits and all the stuff will happen quickly, which is good practice. Before the gear is up, it's already time to turn crosswind, reduce rpm and manifold and do all your other checks. And as soon as you've turned downwind/midfield it's time to configure again.
I now fly my own "high performance" (I say that as she prefers to be in the shop, mostly) aircraft and it's dead simple once you get the hang of it. But it was only when I got her that I started to do properly planned descents. You have to - you can't arrive willy nilly like you can with a Cessna and just drop down like a brick. If I'm at 9000ft and plan to go to zero, then I plan on a cruise descent 35-40nm out, which roughly gives me 500ft/m descent. If I need to get to a circuit height, I reduce that from the altitude to lose. I never reduce the manifold (throttle), I just take the speed. Sometimes I even go below circuit height just before the airport so I can climb last feet to shed some speed and configure. Gear normally comes down on downwind as it helps me slow down, and from there on it's just like your regular Cessna. I even come over the threshold at roughly the same speed as a 172.
Once you get a hang of it, it's easy. Won't take long. Do tight circuits and all the stuff will happen quickly, which is good practice. Before the gear is up, it's already time to turn crosswind, reduce rpm and manifold and do all your other checks. And as soon as you've turned downwind/midfield it's time to configure again.
I now fly my own "high performance" (I say that as she prefers to be in the shop, mostly
) aircraft and it's dead simple once you get the hang of it. But it was only when I got her that I started to do properly planned descents. You have to - you can't arrive willy nilly like you can with a Cessna and just drop down like a brick. If I'm at 9000ft and plan to go to zero, then I plan on a cruise descent 35-40nm out, which roughly gives me 500ft/m descent. If I need to get to a circuit height, I reduce that from the altitude to lose. I never reduce the manifold (throttle), I just take the speed. Sometimes I even go below circuit height just before the airport so I can climb last feet to shed some speed and configure. Gear normally comes down on downwind as it helps me slow down, and from there on it's just like your regular Cessna. I even come over the threshold at roughly the same speed as a 172.
Last edited by AdamFrisch; 25th Sep 2011 at 20:14.
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Not sure whats next athe moment, do a bit of flying and go for a night rating I think. I am quite keen to fly a complex and my club has a couple of arrows so I will probably do that soon
can you do the night and complex right away after you pass or do you need some hours first ?
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I don't think there's any official reason you can't do a complex and a night conversion straight away. In fact as far as I know you can learn on a complex, and I've known someone do a night rating while waiting for their brown wallet to come. Why I don't know as you only have to send it off again...
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can you do the night and complex right away after you pass or do you need some hours first ?
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Good luck with yours benppl and Grob Queen.
On reflection I found my skills test to be much more demanding than my driving test (which was about 17 yrs ago now), however I definately agree with what a lot of people say on this forum in as much as a flight examiner ultimately does want you to pass. You cant say this about a driving examiner (in my humble opinion).
Therefore unless you drop a big clanger or forget something very important you will get 'prompts' from your flight examiner during the skills test if you mess a few things up and a chance to rectify them.
My examiner was a thoroughly decent guy, who I am sure would have failed me if he found I could not fly, navigate and communicate safely.
I suppose the other comfort you should take into your skills test is that your instructer does know your abilities (or lack of!) better than you do, so if he has put you forward then you are almost certainly good enough to pass.
So if you are about to do your skills test, remember your examiner wants you to pass and your instructer already knows your good enough, so so should you.
On a slighty different note, is it me being tight or do the CAA seem to want to extort money out of us at every turn? £180.00 just to issue a PPL, I cant imagine the cost of admin plus printing the license plus reasonable profit would be a fraction of that in reality.
On reflection I found my skills test to be much more demanding than my driving test (which was about 17 yrs ago now), however I definately agree with what a lot of people say on this forum in as much as a flight examiner ultimately does want you to pass. You cant say this about a driving examiner (in my humble opinion).
Therefore unless you drop a big clanger or forget something very important you will get 'prompts' from your flight examiner during the skills test if you mess a few things up and a chance to rectify them.
My examiner was a thoroughly decent guy, who I am sure would have failed me if he found I could not fly, navigate and communicate safely.
I suppose the other comfort you should take into your skills test is that your instructer does know your abilities (or lack of!) better than you do, so if he has put you forward then you are almost certainly good enough to pass.
So if you are about to do your skills test, remember your examiner wants you to pass and your instructer already knows your good enough, so so should you.
On a slighty different note, is it me being tight or do the CAA seem to want to extort money out of us at every turn? £180.00 just to issue a PPL, I cant imagine the cost of admin plus printing the license plus reasonable profit would be a fraction of that in reality.