Gee, everyone's going solo. Must be the season for it... good on ya's!!:ok:

Well, 'my' aircraft's back... but then the wx turns to cr@p again, doesn't it!! :rolleyes: I was supposed to go to Canberra again today... Showers of rain forecast all day :{ . I just can't win.

Ahh well, we'll get there one day...

ADam

Never mind Kooka. It will happen when it will happen.

Great stuff blinkz - keep us well posted ;)

Just wanted to let you guys know that I have joined the "bandwagon"! I went solo 2 weekends ago and last weekend did a further 4 circuits by myself- Awesome feeling! My first solo's circuit itself went well, however the landing was a little "firm" shall we say...:D :) Second time out the landings were better (just hope i have not jinxed this weekend now!) Anyone else noticed the difference in performance when the right hand seat is vacant? My 152 leaps off the runway! Roll on learning to navigate and landing on grass!

Cheers

Fingers

CONGRATS!!!!!!

All you guys!!! (girls?)

have been watching this thread with much interest the last week or so.... am insaaaaaaaanely jealous!!!! :)

The closest I am to solo flying is a can of soft drink..... Solo..... err.... never mind :D

:ok:

Sky

Nice one Fingers, well done. Absolutely amazing isn't it - the buzz just doesnt go away!

Sista - hang in there kidda, it will happen! And when it does, make sure you post it here!

Lee :cool:

Thanks Mazzy! u 2! How u getting on with ground school?

Wont be long for you either hey Sky???

Congrats to everyone who has recently gone solo. I'm still waiting even to fly. Aaaargh, this weather!!! It's been really nice the last couple of days (while I've been at work), but earlier in the week, when I had lessons booked ...

I've now decided, if I can't fly, to do my met exam tomorrow. Maybe I will then be able to make better predictions than our forecasters:D

HH

You get used to it eventually... :(

Adam

Ground School
 

The weather is now firmly on my list of "things that p*ss you off" - but you just have to accept it (or move to another country) :E

I supposed ground school isn't something which I have really talked about, mainly because I havent had any yet! The way I done it was to buy the kit from AFE, which is a great investment and contains everything you need. Luckily, as I am anviation buff (arent we all) I enjoy reading the books and studying the material (PPL Confuser - a MUST HAVE). This means I can be well prepared for the exam and pass them on self study.

So far I have done:

Air Law
Meteorology
Human Performance
RT Oral

I understand that in order to pass Nav (or at least pass it with the best interests in mind) you need to practice it within your flying - call it 'skyschool' if you like :} I reckon it will be the last one I do!

If anyone does have any exam questions they need help on or any info at all, then stick it in here - it would be interesting to share.

Happy flying and dont get too down about the weather :{

Lee :ok:

Cool. I have done Airlaw and Human Factors so far. Busy studying Met as we speak. I've not had any formal "classroom" sessions and am self teaching using the Jermey Pratt books (personally prefer the style to Thom) and also am using the Transair / Oxfoird Avaition CBT for Met - which I'd throughly recommend. All good fun :D

Ditto! I am also using Jeremy Pratt - I have read tonnes of opinions on here about which books to use, but you just have to pick the ones that are best suited to you - and to be honest, I think you would do just as good whichever you choose. Saying that, I have never seen the Thom ones so I cant really say :confused:

I'm also using the pratt books, and am currently studying met! We should all meet up on msn and have a met discussion lol :E

I've only done airlaw so far. Met seems ok, afew things need reading twice :)

sounds good blinkz! Ill PM u my msn account name!

WOW...that took longer than i thought!! Discovered this thread at about 19:55 and just finished now!!

Good stuff and great foresight to see that this would be a valuable idea lee/mazza (i'll stick with the user name for now!!)

I'm way back with a couple of hours under my belt deciding the next step I wish to take. I've have found this thread extremely entertaining (must have been to keep me entertained for two hours!!). Just wanted to say thanks and good luck with the rest mazza et al, I'm sure i'll keep checking up on it from now on!!

CB1

Hi CB1 Welcome aboard! Your captain for this flight is Mazzy (ably;) ) assisted by many a co pilot!

Fingers

Hello
 

im 15 and I have just had my confidence boost after realising I can land the bloody thing! (properly!):O i was getting a little worried that I was just wasting hours but im 20.92 logged with another 24 remaing so all looks good! Any advice/tips for flapless landings, glide landings etc?

CB1,

Don't feel bad, I've only got 4 and a bit hours so far...which will hopefully become 5 and bit by tomorrow evening...weather permitting :confused:

V1R

Scheduled to do my QXC tomorrow. !!!!!ting bricks!

Hi all,

C-bert - best of luck for that QXC! Let me know how it goes.

Well, at last I made it into the air today. Warm front coming down from the North and not looking too good when I left home but, by the time I made it to Wycombe, the end of the cloud was in site and my instructor thought it would be worth waiting to see if we got some flyable weather before the forecast cold front materialised.

I occupied the waiting time by sitting my Met exam, which I'm relieved to say I passed. One of the questions I got wrong, my instructor thought should have been right, which (bearing in mind his many years of experience as an airline captain, followed by some 15 years as an instructor/examiner) really calls the CAA questions and marking scheme into question.

Imagine my joy when he told me I'd passed the exam AND we could go flying!

So, 1 hour 10 of circuits and I think I'm getting there. Good approaches, still a bit rough on the rudder when landing, but then it was quite bumpy and windy.

I can see Lee's point about nav experience in the air, but my instructor suggested that I do nav next. Anyone any suggestions for how best to study this?

HH

Hi Paul.
Well done on getting some flying in. Its been about 7 weeks for me....:(

Congrats on the Met as well. To be honest the Nav is far easier once you have done one or two lessons on it. That said, my school 'recommended' you do the exam before starting the practical.
My advice would be to study the whole syllabus before you start the flying, but leave the exam until later.

Back to the met I had a marginal question as well. It wasn't about ocluded fronts was it?

Hey Captainkarl

best way to land flapless.

Dont know how uve been taught to land but use the box method which always works for me on anytype of landing u just have to get used to the diffrent nose attitudes.
IE flapless is a flater approch and glide is a stepper approch.
But just listen to ur instructor it will come with time.
The box method is where u draw a box on the windshield ( Imaginary) and keep the touch down point in tht box at all times. Use throttle to control speed and pitch to control rate of decent. Simple some pepole use different methods all depends on which works for u.
Another method which is manly used for instrument flying is where speed is controled by nose attitude and rate of descent by using the throttle both work but the box method is better.

adwjenk

Depends on the power of your aeroplane. If it's something like a 152, there is a possibility that it won't have sufficient thrust to overcome the drag, although as you're flapless, there's obviously less of this. Doesn't work particularly well with flaps down though. This technique is more often used in the big jets and more powerful props.

I find it works really well in the PA38 ive never had a problem landing using that method.
Yet i find it works espically well in the PA34- Seneca due to as u say the extra power to over come the drag.
Yet it works with flaps down in the Tommy never flown the cessna 152 before so cant comment.

So what method would you use or what method where u taught to land. Normal landings not glide or flapless?
Im very intressted to hear other pepoles techniques and opinions.
Cheers

ADWJENK

What a day!

Weather looked dodgy until my lesson time approached and it cleared up a treat :O

Today was a follow-up lesson on stall/spin awareness and recovery. Ended up letting 3 full spins develop and recovered from each - bloody fantastic stuff :ok: Makes it that much harder to concentrate on what you should be doing when you're diving toward the ground and being pushed down in your seat! As if the whole houses-getting-bigger thing wasn't enough!

Had a 40 kt (gusting 55) headwind on approach - on a C152 witha 60-65 kt approach, we basically ended up doing a good impression of a helicopter :p

Been told we're going to start some circuit work next week...only 5 hours in so still a loooooong way to go...

V1R

P.S. Experiencing a fully-developed spin isn't a REQUIREMENT of the syllabus anymore but I'd highly recommend doing it if you've not had the pleasure yet - I feel a lot more confident in general handling, knowing that a spin is about the worst (handling-wise) situation you can get into...it's good fun as well :)

It's not difficult to fly a C152 backwards; I wouldn't do it on the approach though. (Tried it the other day in a C172, but either I was out of practice or the aircraft just wouldn't do it or it wasn't windy enough or something.)

?I've always done it the other way around... pitch for speed and throttle for rate of descent...?


Oh! Me! Pick Me! I've done that too!!!;) Takeoffs in that sort of wind are fun too..:}

My flying? There's a front coming up the coast today, my one day off work/uni this week... guess who's not flying today either!!:{
Now I'm REALLY suffering withdrawals... Think Mazzy said it earlier, "get used to the wx or move to another country"... methinks I'm in the country that's supposed to have close to the best weather for flying. This may be so, but never where I am, if there's an aeroplane involved!! :D :rolleyes: :confused:

Ahh well, you guys keep me interested... at least SOMEONE's doing something!

Cheers,
Adam

I didn't fly today, again because of the wind. Careful instructors lol. Hopefully tomorrow!

:ok: :ok: :ok: I've finally got my QXC out of the way!!!

The weather on Sat was gorgeous and after a few circuits with the CFI ( I hadn't flown for 2 months :uhoh: ) I was off to Bristol. Arrived there with no issues, then off to Exeter. Had trouble leaving Exeter as the during the engine power checks the righthand magnito was failing - cue 5 minutes taxiing back to the parking wondering how the hell I was going to get home. Thankfully I managed to clear it in the engine run up area and after much checking and re-check I was back on my way to Southampton.

All in all a great day but not one I would rush to repeat in the near future! :ok:

I haven't time to read the whole thread, but I assume you're talking about on final. If so, you'll find out in due course that this is a hotly debated topic among pilots and instructors. I'd say use whichever way round you're being taught, and worry about whether it's best later on. And you may find later on, like many of us, that you're not sure what you use for what; you just point at the runway and land the plane, somehow. :confused:

Whirlybird -
Yeah that... you're right about the 'point it at the runway' bit!!!

Absolutely Gutted
 

I rang up today to confirm the flight, and was told that my instructor has left the flying school. I was well gutted because not only was he a great instructor, but he was a great laugh and we got on well. I wont go into the reasons why he left as they were personal, but I wish him the best of luck. He got me to my first solo phase and then departed, and I am lucky in a way because I may have had to wait longer to solo if he left earlier.

Anyway, onwards and upwards I must go.

My new instructor, I think is relatively new to the school. He is a top bloke and a very good instructor. I have spoken to him a few times before and always known him as a nice person. He is a full time instructor and works days that suit me quite well actually.

There was a BA aircraft doing circuits for most of the day at Liverpool and there was no chance of anyone else getting circuits done. We were originally contemplating going to Hawarden to do some solo there, but the thing is, if you land, they charge a handling fee, as well as the landing fee's so we decided against it as I would hopefully get the chance to do them on Sunday.

I gave a brief as to what I had done previously and to how it was going, and it was decided that we do some advanced/steep turns. He asked me whether I would like to go North or South out of the zone, and as I live to the North, and have done 90% of the flying there, I chose it. Having thought about it though, now that I am building the big picture of the area and getting to know it (the North) I may suggest that we do a few lessons to the South, so that I have the confidence to fly there on my own as well.

Steep turns are good fun, and I think so far, they require the most practice over anything else (maybe apart from landings). We started with a few 45 degree turns, to the left and the right - these weren't too difficult. However, then we got onto the 60 degree turns. The hardest thing about these was not entereing a spiral descent. Keepig the nose high enough when turning requires a hell of a lot of back pressure. The biggest problem I cam accross was getting used to the different nose attitudes (or perceived attitudes) due to offset seating. When turning to the left, the nose looks very high, and when turning to the right, it looks very low.

When going through one of the turns, there was quite a significant shudder. This is a good sign, as it indicates that you are flying through your own vortexes, and indicates that you have not climbed or descended. Felt these a few times and it did put a smile on ones face :cool:

I like his style of teaching, he basically 'left me to it'. I would be practising away doing all kinds of turns, whilst he would get the ATIS. He trusts me a lot and gives me good responsibility - which I am pleased about.

I want to refer back to a few things I have mentioned about the checklist, and how I sometimes miss things out. Today I did it again, and missed the pre-takeoff checks. Stupid I know, but according to my instructor, a great number of students, who use the AFE checklists, do exactley the same. It is the layout of the checks that can cause confusion, as they do not follow in a logical order, for example 'starting the engine when flooded' is thrown in the middle. I am not blaming them at all, it is entirely my own mistake to miss such an important check, but I have been advised to consider buying a different checklist and bin the one I have already got. Has anyone else come accross this problem?

I am 110% happy with my new situation, and I reckon that because I will be taught in the end by two different people, then I may learn two different approaches to flying, and different styles etc. Good to see that a few people have managed to get flying also by making the most of Saturday's wx. Well done on the QXC also - keep up the good work!

All the best,

Lee :)

Sorry to hear that mazzy :( altho hopefully your new guy is just as good.

Steep turns sound fun, I'm still workin on doing more solo consolidation, did 20mins on saturday, was very bumpy and the instructor wanted to make sure I was ok (I was :cool: )

Weather looks crap for the next couple of days:{ back to meteorology!!!

Oh and I always thought that if you felt your own wake in turns it meant that you had descended, since your wake obvoiusly descends......anyone know which is correct :confused:

Cheers Blinkz - I think your quite right about the descending wake's. Perhaps some wishful thinking from me :{

Sorry for bursting your bubble maz :suspect: :E :ok:

Your wake vortices do descend, at about 300 to 500 feet per minute.

However, unless you're travelling at blackbird speeds you should be re-entering your wake within about 2 minutes (rate one), and much sooner if you're doing steep turns -- so meeting your own wake is still a "good thing" at high turn rates :)

For what it's worth, I looked back through the logbook one day and counted no less than NINE instructors in my first 35 hours!! :} Admittedly those hours were spread out over about a year though.

Rustle

I was thinking that after I had made the post. I have learned about wake vortices in a couple of the modules, but most of them talk about high speed ones, like those created by heavy airliners etc. So the ones created by a Tomahawk would obviously descend much much slower, therefore, like you say, it is still a good thing (i'll leave it at that :E )

Kook

How did you find having so many different instructors? Personally, so long as this new one doesnt leave. then I will complete the PPL only having 2 intstructors.

Regards

Lee :8

c-bert,

Congratulations on the QXC! Sounds like fun at Exeter. I had a similar experience one day at Wycombe - very rough running on one mag. Seems like a common problem on the Warrior and my instructor burned off the clag by increasing the revs and leaning the mixture.

Yes, my marginal MET question was on occluded fronts!

Lovely weather over the weekend. I'd hoped to get solo yesterday, but I had about the second worst lesson I've ever had. I made a complete b*lls up of my first take-off. So bad, my instructor made me do a full stop landing after a couple of circuits and try again (I applied too much back-pressure, too early, and then let the thing drift off to the left side of the runway!). Things didn't get much better. My next take-off was ok, but I couldn't get my landings right at all. All over the place with the rudders again and kept getting too low on approach.

Never mind, try again next time!

Mazzy, best of luck with the new instructor.

Paul

Mazzy...
It was good in that I was exposed to a lot of different styles of flying - sort of picked up different things from each one... but then it wasn't so good in that at that level I had not yet (and still haven't:hmm: ) figured out my own style. So as soon as I got used to one instructor I went flying with another... and they usually had other 'pet hates' or whatever. That many instructors spread out over many more hours wouldn't be an issue, but at that stage in my flying it probably wasn't the best thing.
Having said that, I've done all my navs so far with the one instructor, so it's all good now...

Adam