It doesn't matter if you do use carb heat more often than you need to. Much better than not using it enough! Flying a C150 that's extremely prone to carb icing, I've sometimes been using full carb heat all the time, and it's done no harm. Look back at my fairly recent thread on this topic if you like.

Thanks Whirlybird!
Guess I've got some catching up to do...

I'll have to second that one, but agree with Whirly - better to use it too much than not at all. Whirly, I did read your mentioned post, very interesting indeed.

Hope you manage to untwist them knickers in time for your exam :E I Would'nt worry too much about a high level of detail in quasi or stationary fronts, you will probably find there will only be one question on them, perhaps 2. As long as you understand the fundamentals - I am sorry but I dont have my MET book with me or I would help out, I am sat in uni (yes I know it's late) and I should be doing work - but here I am!

Best of luck,

Lee :)

mazzy1026 are you flying in a Traumahawk? Is that what most people here are training in? I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but i don't have the patience to go through all the pages!

Steve - yes its the Tomahawk. As for others......

Lee

PA28-161/160/140's here.

PA-28 161 here. Only a couple of years younger than me. :(

most of my training has been on a pa38-112, but that went away for its annual in mid november so am currently flying a pa28-161 till my tommy returns. I have to say tho the pa28 is much nicer to fly then the 38. The 38 needs constant attention and it rarely will trim exactly how you want it (comes from having a crappy spring trimmer). The 28 is much more relaxing to fly.

I'm looking forward to touring in the clubs archer when I get my PPL :ok:

Hurray, hurray, unravelled knickers and passed Met! :D :D
However, no amount of pouting or eyelash fluttering got me a flight, so back to work…:(
Phew, all exams completed and now I can focus on flying.:cool:
I’m in a C150-152, it’s cheap & very forgiving! Hope to convert when qualified. Looked at a share in a Piper Cub but think it's perhaps too soon; perhaps I should get qualified and do a few trips first!
Have a fun flying weekend...

Partenavia P 68
Piper PA28 range
Piper PA38

PA28-161 at EGTB too. Stop showing off Cbert, ours are at least 10 years younger than me, even though they're probably about the same age as yours!

Excellent lesson the other day. Instructor would have let me go solo, but the vis was too poor. Even he lost his visual references in the circuit, so not much hope for me. Very hazy with the low setting sun, but beautiful colours just above the haze layer as well. Take offs and landings now just about sorted (although Thursday was so calm it felt like flying a glideslope with the autopilot engaged! I'll wait to see whether I can still pull off a reasonable landing on a gusty day)

Paul

The camel went through the eye of the needle - I passed!

I learned a lot on the test and I think I might do some more instructional work as well.

Two things I learned :

Don't be afraid to pull the power right back to idle if necessary, 1500-1700 rpm on approach is a guide only.

You CAN do steep turns at 500 feet with two notches of flaps at 80 knots, although its a good idea to have the fuel pump on just in case.

While we are trained to be gentle, coordinated and precise, don't be afraid to be rough if necessary to get the required performance.

Now a three week wait for the licence to arrive.

Went for a flightseeing trip in Alaska, over Glacier Bay.

At one point my film ran out, whilst we were over a glacier, between two rock walls. "No problem" said the kid who was flying, "you change your film and I'll just stay here".

He proceeded to do a steep turn on the spot until I'd changed the film. But the rock walls were sufficiently close that to get the turn tight enough he had to close the throttle somewhat, not quite how you're taught to do steep turns on the PPL course! (This was at nowhere near 500' above the ice, and nowhere near 500' from the cliffs either side.)

Hey, nice work Sunfish!! :ok:

-me? FINALLY got back into an aeroplane this morning... just 1.9 hrs out and back, short nav since I hadn't flown since mid October... wasn't too bad, a bit of fun dodging cloud over the escarpment on the way back in - climbing over and coming back down the other side - then a PFL from 4000' overhead the field. Pleasant morning's work all up. Now to see if I can get the time off work for another try at that Canberra one next week!

Adam

congratulations Sunfish! Ready for some spinning then?

Well done Sunfish - I am envyous of you! Bet you cant wait for it to arrive in the post eh ;)

GTW - scary stuff, did you actually manage to change the film? :}

Me is booked in tomorrow at 1200 - I really hope the weather is ok, it should be sunny alright but I am worried whether the wind will stay at bay. Adam, now you can let go of the flight sim, you no longer need that fix (until next week) hehe :*

Cheers

Lee :ok:

Sunfish,

Congratulations! It seems like you've completed your PPL incredibly quickly (compared to someone like me - taking the slow road with the help of the UK weather!).

Keep posting - it would be really interesting to know how those first few hours post-qualification feel. Fly safe!

HH

Its been a long time since i read this board (the last time it was only at page 8 (i think ):\

Anyways - Mazzy nice to see your still at it - and good luck for your test.

I finally had mine a couple of weeks ago (after nearly 5 years of trying!!) and passed also - that feeling is incredible when the examiner tells you.

But be prepared to be very very tired if you do it all in the one day.

The weather for my test wasn't all that great but the vis beneath the stratus was about 8km+. nice little route around oxfordshire and even had time to admire Silverston (not much but to somebody from north of Hadrians wall still a nice view!)

Had to share it with somebody sorry for butting in!

Cheers all

:ok:

Hello flyboy and welcome back - great news on your test, well done :ok:

I have had 4 solo's now, and each time they drain energy out of me due to high levels of concentration, so I understand what you mean about being tired, however, I cannot imagine what the skills tets must do to you :E

Cheers

Lee :)

Speaking of 4 solo's, I havent written the last one up yet.

Havent really got much to report to be honest, apart from the fact that I only got 2 landings done in 35 mins due to the amount of orbiting I had to do. Loads of traffic this time round, EasyJet's all over the place, and yet another Citation!

One thing is, the controller asked me to remain at the start of the downind leg (I was coming towards the end of xwind). So I was wondering, which way to turn? Bearing in mind I was in a left hand circuit, I chose to turn left, as this seemed natural at the time........should I have turned right perhaps? Not too serious I presume, but worthy of a discussion hehe :ok:

Safe flying all - NAV TRAINING SOON :D :D :D

Lee

Maz,

It gets less tiring as your skills develop. But it can still be totally exhausting, at any stage, if you're close to your own limits. It's one reason to be reasonably careful, once you've got your PPL, and make haste slowly, as it were.

But we can talk more about that when you're a little nearer to that point, as you soon will be. :ok:

Sounds good maz, I've not flown for a week. With ur obit direction I think I prob would have turned right at the beginning of downwind, with a left turn you end up flying the wrong way down downwind for abit. Just my opinion.

Nav is cool, but my experience so far is that you fly far less because the weather generally needs to be better :{

I hate the british weather!!! :\

Mazzy, Blinkz,

Quote from GASIL2001/4:

Rgds,

TPK:ok:

Excellent point, this ties in well with the "Quitting Flying" thread. If anyone hasn't seen it, it may be worth a read :ok:

Looks like I made the right decision :O An example where a turn would be in the other direction could possibly be at the end of the downwind, i.e. to the right, as if it were left, then you'd be on base....:confused:

Thanking you's

Lee

Hey guys,
Took my air gen and pof today, got 92% :D

My next flight will be my first solo from edinburgh, all i need is some decent weather :{ maybe tomorrow if the mist doesn't stay long (but it will :E )

Nice one Blinkz! Best of luck leaving the zone ;)

Mazzy are you going friday night to the flying club evening I will be there with my pal martin.

Nick.

Hey I didn't realise you would be going magpie! Yes I will be there, I will PM you my details now :ok:

Hey guys,
This will be the last update before xmas since tomorrow I'm off home down south until january.

Today was a great day, woke up and saw gorgeous clear weather :D So I managed to finally get my first solo from edinburgh! It was sooooo good. A proper flight out into the lothians and just flying about. I also did 2 PFLs and some steep turns. Am still buzzing :D

After I got back I took my Human Performance & Limitations exam, got 100% (tho I don't think it counts since its possibly the easiest thing I've ever done :} )

Hope you all have a great xmas!!!

Great news Blinkz - sounds fantastic :cool:

I have cancelled a 0900 flight today as we are expecting 40kt gusts - twice in a row I have cancelled now, looks like the flight sim will be getting loaded up soon :rolleyes:

Have a great Christmas people, hope all goes well and you dont put too much weight on (like I will) :{

Best wishes,

Lee :ok:

Circuit? WHAT CIRCUIT !
 

I never knew I would make such good progress today, as I was thinking I would need at least another circuit session before I am on nav, but I was wrong! I was a little cheeky though, I agreed to get back to the office for 1330, but as my last landing (or supposed last landing) was bang on 1330, I just couldn’t resist one more. And it paid off. The weather was totally superb, CAVOK and not a cloud in sight. There was about 7 knots of wind which made it interesting, as it was changing direction quite quickly and was, at times, a little bumpy.

The first circuit we done (to get checked out) was a left hand one on rw09. This was new to me, in terms of runway and circuit direction. My first solo was a right hand circuit on 09, so we done two left hand circuits, then I dropped my instructor off.

Now was sat on the apron, ready to go. Mistake number one………

“GLF## at kilo, with delta, ready for departure, QFE………”
GLF## this is approach, contact tower 12…………..”
“Sorry about that, will contact tower on …..”

Ah well, first time I had done that, and hopefully it will be the last! I did feel a bit stupid, but I reckon everyone must have done something like that at some point! We were having a discussion about mistakes back at the office, and I came to the conclusion that everyone has made even the silliest mistake, and the good thing is, every mistake that I have made I have remembered, and I make a conscious decision to check that I don’t do it again, for example, after leaving the harness out the door during power checks a few months ago, it made a really loud rattle as you may recall from a previous post, so every time I close the door now, I check that it aint out the door!

On one of the downwind legs I was given number two to an easyjet which was on 4 mile final, I could see it coming in and was aware of the vortex spacing, so I slowed down to 80 knots to allow more time – was I wrong in doing this? There was nobody else behind me or in front otherwise I wouldn’t have done it. I had a great time, and clocked 55 minutes, which is exactly what I needed to hit the 3 hour mark, I am now exactly on 3 hours solo and can begin navigation! I have one lesson in January with another chap, as my regular instructor is on leave. We are going over PFL’s and precautionary landings, and maybe the odd sideslip too, as I wanted to revise them.

I am amazed at how much I have progressed. I was reading the first few pages of my diary the other day and couldn’t believe the stuff I was saying, i.e. “how the hell will I ever fly that thing by myself”? Now I will say the same thing about nav – how the hell do I get to Wolverhampton, to Blackpool and then back to Liverpool without getting lost?!!

Regards all – and have a nice Christmas,

Lee

Ahh the old 'wrong frequency' chesnut... done that a few times, though it was spotted by my instructor rather than any controllers - made a CTAF entry call on area frequency :oops:
--best one was heard rather than made by me though: call went out "Sydney Radar, ABC, request..." - reply: "I'd love to approve you, but this isn't Radar - try 12x.x", followed by "oh... BOTHER!!!".
(well, we laughed...) :D

Meanwhile no flying for me until instructor gets back from holidays :{ , I'm gunna take a full week off work early in the new year and spend as much time as I can at the airport - I figure I've got to get at least ONE day of decent flying weather in seven!!!

Anyhoos... all the compliments of the season and all that to all...
Adam

hehe, yea most people make that kinda mistake. I've never broadcast on the wrong freq but after my first solo when I stoped to pick up my instructor for 2 more dual cirtcuits I managed to not turn the radio on. I realised just before I taxied onto the active lol. Like you say lesson learned and now I always check :)

Glad things are going well tho maz, good effort! I'm just stuck in hampshire being depressed because the weather yesturday was so nice and I couldn't go flying!!!!!

Merry Christmas/holidays to all. Hope for some good flying in the New Year (its been a while now :( )

Mark

You get used to THAT pretty quickly, let me tell you!!:{

Merry Christmas to everyone on here. Best wishes for the New Year and, I'm sure, we'll all be sharing the same wish for some better weather in 2005!

HH

Greetings all!

It's been a while since my last post, as obviously over the xmas period, I aint got any flying done!

I was booked in today, but it was too windy, and as I am now officially on NAV, it was to be my first groundschool lecture for this subject. We went through the syllabus and summarised what I had done and what I had left to do etc. Then we basically brushed up on everything so far, looking at RT, circuit detail, PFL's etc and then went on to talk a little about the aviation charts and the AIP (thee Bible!!)

I got all my equipment out that I received in the AFE pack, and we went through some bits and bobs, then looked at the charts and what some of the symbols meant. Then, we went onto what would be my first solo out of the zone, and went through it step by step. I learned a great way of remembering the emergency transponder codes - see what you think of this:

7500 (seventy five - taken alive) - HIJACK
7600 (seventy six - need a fix) - Radio broken

You can guess the last one right?

7700 (seventy seven - gone to heaven) Mayday

I also learned a fantastic way to work out the crosswind component. At first look, I thought "what the hell?" then it sunk in pretty quick. It's hard for me to explain but you basically take the angle between the runway and the wind (so for runway 27, wind of 230 degrees, the difference is 40 degrees). (Lets say the wind speed is 30kts) Then you count backwards from 40 using the 4 i.e. 3....2 - and this reversed gives you 2 over 3 (or two thirds). Then, two thirds of 30 is 20, so the xwind component is 20kts. I reckon that had to be the worlds worst explanation, so if someone knows what the hell I am on about, please feel free to come and expand a little!

Very much looking forward to my next flight, and once again (that same old feeling) I am wondering:

"How am I going to be able to fly the thing by myself away form the airport?"

And once again, I am hoping to be looking back in a few months time, wondering why I asked that question.

Happy new year everyone, and enjoy the flying,

Lee
:ok:

I don't know about anyone else but I have trouble adding 4 mins to 29 mins when I'm flying, let alone subtracting 170 degrees from 240 degrees!

I guess it will get better but still not a lot of spare capacity during complex manoeuvres. :(

Hi Mazzy,

very interesting read:D . Alot of the issues / experiences you have had, I've also had. I trained in the Tommy and now have 80 hrs, I gained my PPL last March.

Re the crosswind I tend to think of it as if it's 30deg off of the Runway then you get roughly half of wind component, if it's 45deg off you get roughly 3/4 off the wind component, at 60deg off I just call it full crosswind

i.e. Runway 23 wx 260/12, your cross wind would be 6kts,

Wish you all the best with your NAV work.

Apriana

Hi Mazzy, c-bert and all. Happy New Year!

Well, my last lesson before Christmas was far from good. I went back to flaring too early or too late and generally scaring the life out of my instructor. After a very good previous lesson, I'd expected to go solo, but instead ended up frustrated and cross at my apparent regression. At nearly 20 hours, I am beginning to feel bad about my lack of progress and I think it's frustrating my instructor too.

Booked to fly again tomorrow, but the weather looks questionable.

HH