My Recreation Aviation Flight Training Diary

[Eric McCandless]

Latest Update

 

Flight Lesson 53 - Dual Navigation Exercise – Goulburn – Wollongong – Mittagong - Goulburn – 22 Dec 2012 - (1.7 hours – Total 68.5 hours)

 

Last week’s navigation lesson was cancelled due to high wind and showers of rain. This week’s lesson looked more promising the evening before when I got the weather forecast from the Airservices NAIPS web site. Originally my lesson was to be at 1630, but my instructor emailed me the day before and asked if I wanted to do a 1030 slot instead. I jumped at the chance because the weather forecast was looking better in the morning than in the afternoon, when low cloud and showers were forecast for the coast and Wollongong area. My nav for this lesson was to be a dual nav ex with my instructor from Goulburn to Wollongong to Mittagong and back to Goulburn., although I fully suspected Teraya to throw in a diversion.

 

Edited - Rev 1 - 29 Dec 12.

 

read more at https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B-4Rw0WdHM2JMlBlaEJTM05PUlk

 

+++++++++++++

 

02 May 2012 - I thought I would share my recreation aviation flight training diary.

 

 

[Louis Moore]

Eric great job. Well documented too, I wish I had done something like this when I was learning to fly!

 

I am sure it will be a useful resource for others wanting to learn who want to know a little about what it involves. Keep up the good work!

 

 

[ayavner]

Thanks for this Eric, and welcome to the forum too! Any chance you'd be able to concatenate all of those into a single pdf doco? Would be alot easier to download 1 doc rather than 22 of them. If not, let me know and I'll give it a go.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Fantastic Eric, thanks for posting!

 

 

[68volksy]

Brilliant Eric! There's nothing in those notes that I haven't experienced in some way myself - it's great to hear someone else's experience in such good detail. You're in good hands with Teraya.

 

 

[Compulsion]

Great reading. i take it you had to do glide approaches in some of those circuits? Also did you do stall training? I remember my first solo in a glider. I was terrified but did ok. My second solo was a heavy landing and not so good. Now i have just started trying to land a 160 Jabiru and I am back to scratch again.

 

 

[corvairkr]

Thats excellent Eric top idea

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

Thanks for this Eric, and welcome to the forum too! Any chance you'd be able to concatenate all of those into a single pdf doco? Would be alot easier to download 1 doc rather than 22 of them. If not, let me know and I'll give it a go.

Yes, I wanted to post as a single file, but this site seems to have a maximum upload size of 256 KB per file which is not much. My diary is 78 A4 pages and 8Mb in size, so I had to split the file up into individual lessons to keep under the individual file size. A bit of a pain I know. I could not find any other way to do it. If anyone knows a better way?

I have another 10 lessons to post up to the current date, but was not sure how they would be received and I was not sure where I should post it or if it broke site rule etc as this was my first post (well 2nd actually if you count the ferry flight request). I also hoped it wouldn't be seen as narcissistic. I posted the diary because I thought it might help potential students to see what what a joy learning to fly is and what is involved, noting that every student has different progression rates and each school probably has different instructional techniques and pacing.

 

I kept a diary for myself because I have a poor memory and wanted to capture my feelings and memories, as well as use it as a review tool to critique each lesson performance and to remember what I am supposed to do for future lessons. I actually do go back and read what my instructor told me to do in a previous lesson e.g check lists (as I said, I have a poor memory). However it can also be a little embarrassing exposing my failings to the world, but if it helps someone ....

 

It seems there may be some interest in the diary, so I will post the rest later.

 

 

[robinsm]

Eric, this sort of flight diary is a valuable resource for this site as a latge number of new and prospective pilots read the posts and it may help someone out that is haveing a problem or is in a similar situation to yourself. Keep them coming mate.

 

Cheers

 

Maynard

 

 

[Piet Fil]

Eric,

 

Good stuff, I wouldn't worry about the narcissism, when you think about it, we fly because of the feelings it inspires in us, the sense of freedom, the excitement, the joy, the satisfaction. As soon as you try and describe these feelings to anyone else, they either: a) understand entirely (they are a fellow aviator) or b) they'll have no idea what you're on about (non-pilots). Those that understand will read anything to do with flying, hence ........ thanks for sharing your diary.

 

Keep up the good stuff

 

Phil

 

 

[djpacro]

Very well written, Eric, I'm sure that they would be useful for other students.

 

My only thought is that having to download a pdf file for individual lessons may put lazy people (like me) off. We used to have blogs here but not any more. One well known member here was prominent with her blog a while back.

 

I'm interested in stalls (some my say that I am only interested in stalls) and saw that your instructor demonstrated a couple for your first time at Lesson 13. Any other stall stories here?

 

 

[eightyknots]

Yes, I wanted to post as a single file, but this site seems to have a maximum upload size of 256 KB per file which is not much. My diary is 78 A4 pages and 8Mb in size, so I had to split the file up into individual lessons to keep under the individual file size. A bit of a pain I know. I could not find any other way to do it. If anyone knows a better way?I have another 10 lessons to post up to the current date, but was not sure how they would be received and I was not sure where I should post it or if it broke site rule etc as this was my first post (well 2nd actually if you count the ferry flight request). I also hoped it wouldn't be seen as narcissistic. I posted the diary because I thought it might help potential students to see what what a joy learning to fly is and what is involved, noting that every student has different progression rates and each school probably has different instructional techniques and pacing.

 

I kept a diary for myself because I have a poor memory and wanted to capture my feelings and memories, as well as use it as a review tool to critique each lesson performance and to remember what I am supposed to do for future lessons. I actually do go back and read what my instructor told me to do in a previous lesson e.g check lists (as I said, I have a poor memory). However it can also be a little embarrassing exposing my failings to the world, but if it helps someone ....

 

It seems there may be some interest in the diary, so I will post the rest later.

This is precisely the stuff that makes this forum so interesting and valuable! Thanks mate.

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

Updated training diary now on google docs.

 

 

[ayavner]

You've really got a knack there Eric for making the reader feel as if he/she's along for the ride, great description and nice little anecdotes that we can all recognise in our own experiences (however limited in my case). I reckon you could write for the magazine or something. Keep em coming! How long till you get your ticket, or do you already have it? what's next?

 

Oh here's a thought on the file size thing - do you have a public disk or ftp site you could pop it on, and just provide the link?

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Great stuff Eric. You obviously had some training in GA or something before starting at YGLB with terraya?

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

You know Eric reading through this has made me realise how I take the good weather here for granted. It really is quite rare to have weather such that you can't fly on the day you would like to. In fact I have somewhat the opposite situation, currently I am waiting for a windy / gusty day to do more crosswind landing practise, too much of easy conditions lately.

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

13 May 12 - Updated current diary on Google docs. Added ferry flight Coominya - Wyreema - Goulburn 12 & 13 May 12.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Very good read Eric, enjoyed the update.

 

"Damn those spreadsheets that prove that owning an aircraft is like throwing away $100 notes into the breeze..."

 

Ah yes, the euphoric Wayne Swan feeling!

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

updated diary of 9 June

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Looks good Eric. Couldnt help but notice theres no restart in the engine failure checklist. ;) Jabs and rotax's both stop windmilling at glide speed, so if your find the problem, your still gunna need to hit the start button..

 

Looks like your having fun...cheers

 

 

[robinsm]

Keep them coming Eric, very informative diary. I have shown this to a couple of prospective pilots and they are interested as well, you never know, we might get a couple more in the clan.

 

Goods work.

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

Looks good Eric. Couldnt help but notice theres no restart in the engine failure checklist. ;) Jabs and rotax's both stop windmilling at glide speed, so if your find the problem, your still gunna need to hit the start button..Looks like your having fun...cheers

Thanks Motzartmerv. Your right, the FMOST checklist I use does not specifically address whether the propeller is turning (windmilling) or not. This is a generic checklist given to me by my instructor. If the propeller is still spinning, I would go through this checklist with the spinning propeller. If the prop is stopped, then I would run through the FMOST using the starter button appropriately e.g. fuel pump on, hit starter, and work throttle back and forth, etc.

The J170 POH says "6.2.2 Airstart & Limitations. In the event that the engine is stopped during flight, it may be restarted by application of fuel & ignition, provided that the propeller is still windmilling. The propeller may stop windmilling below 50 KIAS". But it then goes on the say :

 

"3. Airspeed……REDUCE UNTIL PROPELLER STOPS TURNING,,,,,,,,,

 

9. Starter Button…………………………………… Depress......

 

11. Repeat as necessary, ensuring propeller has stopped before each restart attempt.".

 

So I am a bit confused. One part seems to indicate that the engine can can be restarted if the propeller is still turning, but another part says to stop the propeller first before attempting to restart. Have I misinterpreted it incorrectly, or is this just badly written? Why would anyone purposely stop the propeller for a restart and then rely on the starter motor? Surely it would be better to keep the propeller spinning for a restart attempt. Obviously if all attempts to restart fail and you want to get best glide, then stopping the propeller reduces drag.

 

Yes I am having a whole bunch of fun and can't wait until I do some navs.

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

Keep them coming Eric, very informative diary. I have shown this to a couple of prospective pilots and they are interested as well, you never know, we might get a couple more in the clan.Goods work.

Hi Robinsm, That was one of the reasons why I decided to post my diary (potentially embarrassing myself), so that potential students would get a sense of what was involved in the journey and what a joy it is. Also for new students so as to not get discouraged or frustrated by knowing that at least some of us are not perfect students either and don't go solo in 6-8 hours, mess up their radio calls, or get their pilot certificate in the minimum 20 hours.

 

 

[motzartmerv]

Eric. your right, its poorly written. What they are getting at is that you dont attempt to restart using the starter while the prop is windmilling. I can tell you from experience that at best Glide speed the prop does indeed stop windmilling. I have experimented with 'airstarting' by diving off height and trying to get the airflow to turn the prop fast enough to start it. But unfortunately this doesn't work with Jabiru or rotax engines. The VNE comes up too quickly with very little effect on the prop.

 

Anyway, in a real life situation, focus your energy's and attention on getting it down safely. A restart attempt would be quite distracting and IMHO should only be attempted once you are sure you have aviated, navigated and communicated.

 

cheers

 

 

[Eric McCandless]

Updated diary for 23 June 12