Letter to my wife...

[Guest Gomer]

Just recently, I finally started to fulfil a lifetime's desire and learn to fly. After the first lesson, I sent an email to my wife describing the morning's activities, and again after the second. After the third, I realised that this was becoming both a habit, and also a form of training diary, so I decided to share it with you all as a source of amusement for the experienced and a shared experience for those currently going down the same path.

 

DISCLAIMER: This is all as written, straight after each lesson. It is most likely wrong in many places. Names and locations have been changed to protect the innocent!

 

Subject: Down in one piece and very pleased :)Sweetheart. I'm not ringing because I don't really want to discuss the flying in ear shot at work (we have a high-powered aerobatic pilot here - it'd be a bit like discussing your first triathlon at work when you worked with an Iron Man), but I had a ball. Fred is pretty much as I expected - an older bloke who's knocked around a bit I'd guess. He explained things clearly but didn't labour any point so I'll have to be sure to ask if I don't get something. A number of times I asked questions and he'd say 'well, we'll cover that in a few weeks time" but then he'd answer & demonstrate anyhow, so he's clearly flexible. He said afterwards that "it was nice to have someone who understood the basic controls". He flies models too, and he reckons that it's harder to fly a model than the real thing. I'm not so sure. :)

 

The flying at height was pretty much as I expected from both the models and the simulator, although I had willies a few times when he was demonstrating what happens when individual controls are moved without their secondary effects being counteracted - the plane is rolling over and nosing down and I'm thinking "just when is he going to pull out??". Lucky I was wearing my brown trousers today!

 

He took over for the landing (of course) and all I could think was that there was no way I'll ever be able to land the thing. I know in my mind that that's not true, but that's my gut reaction and I'd have to say that my gut has found no reason yet to change it's mind. There was a fresh westerly - coming over the hills to the west, so it was turbulent - and it's a north/south strip so it was a 90 deg cross wind. Hence, the plane comes in sideways like a crab but you have to land straight so just before the ground you have to bring it around while keeping it level. Things seemed to be happening all over the place. Still, driving a car around a corner seemed complex once...

 

Today was all about the effects of the controls. Next week is straight and level flight - being able to chose where to go and then going there . Easier said than done when you have three degrees of freedom. He said that we would also cover a bit of ground, up north and back. The following week is also at height, and then it's down to the much more repetitive circuits, where you just take off, go around and land, only to take off, go around and land, ad infinitum. 3 weeks to learn to steer, 20 weeks to learn to land :)

 

Anyhow, I hadn't intended this to be a sermon, but it just came out that way.

 

Love you (and thank you!)

That was week 1. Now to week 2...

 

Subject: Flight 2.

Hi sweet!

 

I arrived today and Fred said "I'll be out in a moment. You go and check the plane", so it seemed right from the word go I was in the driving seat. That's not to imply that he wasn't checking my checking, but the act of checking was my problem, not his, if you get what I mean. We talked through the in-cabin checks again because I told him straight up that I couldn't remember the sequence from last week. Too much in too short a time to take it all in. (I took the camera today and took some photos of the dashboard so that I could get a better handle on the controls. Every time he told me to "switch off XYZ", I had to read the label to make sure that I wasn't switching the wrong thing off. Wouldn't be a good look to switch the engine off mid-flight :) ).

 

Anyhow, that set the scene, so I taxied to the "run-up" area where the engine and control checks are done, then onto the runway, where he says "OK, throttle up full" with his hands in his lap. A couple of minutes later at 1500ft, I relaxed, prised my hands off the control stick and settled back into my seat. I really hadn't expected that. Scary.

 

Today was 'Straight & Level', ie learning to pick a point and get there without taking the long way around (or up and down) and correcting for the wind, etc. As you can imagine with all the showers around, it was fairly bumpy in places, but I've always enjoyed planes that jump around and it reminded me a bit of my mis-spent youth with Minis and corners (without the concern of running into an earthen wall...). We went up north and down a bit south.

 

I took my Garmin with me in my pocket. It'll be interesting to see if it got any satellite reception or not. The plane is all composite construction, so hopefully it lets the signals through. We'll see.

 

I brought it back to the strip, descended to 1000ft at bang on the right place (quite surprised, I must say) and turned into the circuit (cross-wind and then downwind legs). Thankfully, Fred took over for the turn onto base and then final (phew!). I still have a couple of weeks training at height before I have to start landing. Next week is climbing and descending, then turns, and then into the circuit, so I have two more weeks of calm before the storm. ;)

 

Love you.

...and bringing it up to date...

 

Subject: Landing (mostly... sort-of... )

Hi sweet.

 

Given the weather today (nice and calm), when I woke up this morning I thought that there was a chance that I'd be bringing the plane in, and that's exactly what happened. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the start.

 

Fred was refuelling when I arrived so I wandered over to watch. Every week, we just add onto the previous week's work, so of course I did the pre-flight check. Before we got in, I asked him a couple of questions that I'd been thinking about during the week, and then we got down to business. I needed less prompting for the whole start-up procedure which was good, but there were still the odd things that I forgot. Anyhow, pre-flight and run-up checks out of the way, I was taxiing to the runway when he said "now you need to tell everyone what you're doing". Up till now, he'd made all the radio calls and so I only had a vague idea of the format. Fred explained what to say, but about half way through I went blank and had to be prompted. :-( It's supposed to be something like "Uluru traffic, Jabiru 1234 taxiing two two, Uluru traffic", but it came out more like "Uluru traffic, one two four three... no.. one two ..um.. three four, {blank} {prompt} taxiing two two". As that is probably the easiest call of the lot, it didn't bode well. :)

 

Take off wasn't too ugly (and I wasn't bending the stick with my bare grip this week) and we climbed to 2500 ft to start the exercises (but not before once again stuffing up the next radio call - lucky that there was very little radio traffic, which implies that there was no one around to hear me). Today's subject was climbing and descending, and it went OK. There was some rain around which we flew into on occasions, but the beauty of not have a particular place to go meant that I could just turn away and fly back out of it.

 

There were three more radio calls to make (one to say that I was returning to the strip, and the others to say that I was joining the circuit and turning on to the base leg). I managed to forget to give one bit of info in each of the first two calls, but mostly I got them right. Thankfully, as the last call is given just as you're setting up for landing (and I'm freaking out), Fred did that one.

 

I flew the circuit and set up the landing, while Fred talked me through it (nose down a bit, carby heat off, that's fine, start to pull up, start to pull up, Pull Up, PULL UP!). Whilst I hadn't been looking at him, I now know that he must have had his hands in his lap, because I distinctly remember his hand appearing and grabbing the stick, just like we used to do with the kids when they were learning to drive. Still, as soon as he'd brought us level (about 1/2 a second) he just let go again and I touched down a couple of seconds later.

 

At low speeds (ie landing - approx 100km/h) the controls are not nearly as effective as they are at cruising speed (~180km/h) and I didn't realise just how hard I'd have to pull back to transition from the descent into the flare. I guess it's just the same as the difference between how much you turn the wheel when you're parking compared to the tiny little deflections when you're on the freeway. Still, I'll know next time. :)

 

Fred didn't seem at all fazed by it all and just kept talking me through the taxi, park and shutdown. I, on the other hand, was a bit shaken (if not stirred), but I settled quickly while I shut it all down. Fred's summary of the day was that

 

a) the radio becomes easy pretty quickly because it's really just a formalised way of saying "Hello everyone, here's who I am, here's what I'm doing, goodbye", and

 

b) I flew the whole landing circuit without assistance (well, almost without assistance!) which he said was good.

 

Can't complain about that I guess. Next week is climbing and descending turns. It'd be nice if the weather stayed like it was today. :)

 

Love you

[slartibartfast]

Good stuff Gomer.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

You English write good.

 

Ross

 

 

[Tomo]

Great read Gomer:thumb_up: It sounds like your coming along very well.

 

Welcome on board to, as you may have already found out, it's a great place!

 

Cheers,

 

Ps. Don't worry about O'l Slarti's encouraging words about your spelling, He's a bit like that! Though he does like my French!!

 

 

[slartibartfast]

Ps. Don't worry about O'l Slarti's encouraging words about your spelling, He's a bit like that! Though he does like my French!!

Actually, I was really complimenting his writing - using a Homerism.

 

As for your French, I have decided that given your English, you must be using Babelfish for the French

 

 

[Guest Brett Campany]

Hey Gomer, why not whack this in the Members Blogs"? Keep a good diary of your training online mate.

 

That was a good read, looking forward to more mate!

 

 

[bushpilot]

Yeh Homer, er Gomer, good stuff! And welcome to the Forum!

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Thanks for the welcome. I'm looking forward to being able to post the next instalment (but only because that means I'll have had another hour up there... :) )

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Next instalment! :thumb_up:

 

Subject: Up and down and round and about.I found out today that Fred is ex-Airforce, but he said that he realised pretty quickly that the people giving orders were too stupid to obey and that there was no way that he was going to fly some suicide mission just because they told him to! This was in the context of discussing the natural tendency to become more cautious as you get older, which in his view was why the Airforce only wants young people. Anyhow, I digress. Actually, I can't have digressed, because I haven't even started anything to digress from, unless this discussion of digression is, in itself, a digression... Sorry.

 

Having practised all week, I got my radio calls mostly right today. At least I didn't say "Subaru" instead of "Jabiru" as I did a number of time when practising in the car. :) I did manage to leave the occasional bit of info out, but nothing critical. One of the things that I'd noticed previously was that I couldn't understand a word I heard over the radio - it was too crackly and distorted - and Fred just said that it would become clearer when I know what to listen for. Sure enough, I managed to pick out a few details today, so whenever I heard a call, I'd try to interpret it back to Fred - or the bits that I could work out anyhow. One call seemed to comprise 10 seconds of pure static which even defied Fred's powers of interpretation. He just commented that "yeah, his radio's a bit noisy, isn't it".

 

I did most of the start up procedure without prompting today. I just verbalised what I was doing and he'd correct me if I left anything out. Hence, from the time I arrived until we were out over the training area, I was not just in control - ie flying the plane - but also choosing what to do as opposed to being told, step-by-step. I made a comment about not being able to read the compass with my sunnies on (it's suspended from the windscreen like a rear view mirror in a car so to me it's just a black blob against a bright sky), and Fred said "That's why I wear a peaked cap, so I don't have to wear sun glasses". Now I can't see myself being able to work without sunglasses, but the peaked cap is a great idea. I think that the ol' CR cap is going to get even more wear now. :)

 

Today's lesson was turns. Left turns on the level. Right turns on the level. And again. And again. Turns whilst climbing. Turns whilst descending. Starting a turn and a climb at the same time. The effect of turning (and accelerating and decelerating) on the compass. Basically, we spent the hour going up and down and round and round, and then round and round and up and down for good measure. The compass thing is odd. I don't know why it does (maybe I should look it up), but if you turn to the east or the west and pull out of the turn at that point, you'll be going east or west. however, if you turn to the north or south and you pull out when the compass says to, you'll end up pointing about 15 deg off the heading you wanted - the compass will swing further after you stop turning. Most odd. The mnemonic to learn is ONUS - Overshoot North, Undershoot South. However, given that most of the instrumentation in the plane is GPS-based, that doesn't seem to really be an issue. Today was actually the first time that I even looked at that compass, and I'm not sure that I'll need to look at it again.

 

The flight back was uneventful (except that I said "back to base" instead of "inbound" in my call, and that according to their call we had a helicopter crossing our path at the same height as us. We couldn't see it, but Fred was unworried. His view was that you often can't see helicopters, but we knew it was there and that was all that mattered. We just went down 500' so we'd fly under it). If I thought last week's attempt at landing was a bit agricultural, today's was positively stone-age. At least last week I managed to line it up on the runway reasonably well - the only problem then was that I tried to land under the surface instead of on top of it. Today I was dead-set on making sure that I flared properly, but lined up a bit off skew and got so tied up in correcting my direction that once again I attempted the subterranean route home. I know that I'll get better. After all, everything else I have done over the last 4 weeks is starting to feel more natural so there's no reason why this won't, but that ground kinda rushes up at you in a most alarming way...

 

Anyhow, we're still in one piece and I know a bit more than I knew yesterday, so that satisfies the two immediate goals. :)

 

Love you.

[Tomo]

Good onya Gomer:thumb_up: I like the way you write:big_grin: And yes! it takes a bit to get to know where the ground "Actually" is! I remember at first I was attempting to land about 10m in the air, and if it wasn't that, 10m under ground! but it does come to you eventually, and when it does, you wonder what was so hard about it in the first place:thumb_up:

 

Keep it up:thumb_up:

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Now this one was fun! It does get easier, doesn't it??

 

Hi Beautiful.The last of the fun lessons today, or so Fred tells me. The morning was absolutely gorgeous - cool (10C), but sunny and dead still. Each week between lessons I work not just on the written stuff, but I also spend time - often when lying awake in bed - just visualising the whole process from the time when I walk out to the plane until we're walking away again. It's such a good reinforcement routine, and it allows me to make some of the process "natural" instead of "thought through" - sort of like the difference between reading words and reading each letter at a time. What that means is that the things that come by practice come more quickly than they would if I only did them in my one hour per week. Anyhow, it means that the whole start up routine is much quicker, and I get into the air sooner. I reckon that I got 5 more minutes flying time today, and I should be able to cut it down a little further yet.

 

The planned lesson was stalls (getting the aircraft to go so slowly that it stops flying and starts dropping) and then circuits. The Jabiru is a very forgiving plane when it comes to stalls - probably why so many are used for training - and it tends to mush down rather than do anything too ugly. Some planes drop one wing when they stall, so that not only are you losing height rapidly, but you're doing it sideways. If left too long - it seems to me that any time is too long - then the plane will go into a flat spin which ain't good... The 'fun-est' thing about it is that if you get into one of these circumstances, you have to remember a whole different set of reactions. For instance, normally, if a wing drops, you just correct it with the ailerons (ie push the stick towards the high side and the plane comes back to level). However, if you stall and the wing drops, correcting with the aileron will only induce a spin. You have to get out of the stall first, and then correct the level. Likewise, if you are in a spiral dive, you correct the spiral with the ailerons first and then pull out of the dive. But, if you're in a flat spin (and the only difference from the point of view of the pilot is in the indicated air speed on the dial), you have to apply power while pushing the nose down (ie get out of the stall), and then correct the turn. The trouble with all that is that these situations that require 'abnormal' responses are, in themselves, abnormal so it is not a reactive response. You have to think it through, and when my poor little brain is already going a million miles an hour, there's not much processing time left for things like that. Of course, if you are up at 3500' above an open area - you aren't allowed to practice stalls over built up areas - then there's plenty of time to sort things out. When you're landing and making the last turn onto final at 500' and at not too far above stall speed, there's plenty of opportunity for things to go wrong and not much time to fix them. (When you land, your hand is on the throttle all the time, just in case :) ).

 

Stalls practice over, we headed back to the strip for my introduction to circuit practice. Up till now, I've done all the legs of the circuit, but always broken up by a flight to the training area. This was the first time that I've put it all together. I should mention, before starting to describe the circuit, that my landing back from the training area was, for the first time, mostly above ground. Not straight, not smooth, not classy, but at least mostly not underground!

 

The thing that surprised me most about circuits was how little time you have to relax. At most strips, you have to climb to at least 500' (and preferably 700') before turning cross-wind (90 deg to the strip). However, at Timbuktu, there is a built up area nearby and so it is a local requirement to turn before then. What that does is remove about 1/3rd of the distance out of the circuit, which just makes it that much harder to fit everything in. A circuit comprises:

 

- two calls on the ground, one when taxiing and the other when entering the runway,

 

- take off (logically enough), touch the brakes to stop the wheels spinning, then at 300' it's flaps up, fuel pump off and turn on to cross wind.

 

- About a mile from the strip, turn down wind, which because of the early turn to cross wind, generally coincides with reaching circuit height (1000'), so you're simultaneously turning and pulling out of the climb and lining up parallel to the strip.

 

- By the end of the turn, exhale one breath, and then realise that you're already reaching the other end of the strip so it's time to set up for landing.

 

- Confirm brakes off, fuel pump on, carby heat on, seatbelts secure, enough fuel for a go-around and reduce speed while maintaining altitude.

 

- Flaps to half on and make the 'turn to base' call while starting the turn and starting to descend. During this time Keep Your Speed Up! (You are permitted to guess that I was a little remiss on that front).

 

- Watch the rate of descent so that you're turning onto final at about 500' and (another point where I continually missed it) in line with the runway. Generally, depending on actual position, introducing full flaps around now too.

 

- Glide it in, keeping the runway in the right line and the wings level, carby heat off, modifying power as required to keep the descent right, start to pull the plane up out of its nose-down attitude - you have to land on the back wheels, not the front - and float along the runway until the speed drops sufficiently to land. Do try to be just a little above the ground when the plane ceases to fly!

 

- Touch the brakes to slow up, turn off at the first taxi point, fuel pump off, flaps back to half, make the taxiing call and start it all over again...

 

I made three circuits - so four landings including the one from the training area - and I won't say that each was better or worse than the one before, but I found new and novel ways to stuff up each time. :) One time I landed on the grass beside the strip, but as that is considered part of the runway, that's no disaster. Fred is starting to let me make mistakes and then pointing out the consequences as I suffer them rather than correcting them early as he did at first, so I guess that I must be progressing. My newly-minted goal is to get right through a circuit without him having to point out anything I've screwed up. Maybe later I can aim for the impossible and try to get right through a lesson in a similar fashion, but right now that's in the same league as a sub 3 hour marathon - not even on the books :)

 

Wow. That was as long one. If your brain is spinning then imagine what mine was like (and remember - there will be a test on this tonight... :) ).

 

Love you.

[bushpilot]

If I started writing to my wife like this she would think I had a new mistress... :hittinghead:

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Oh, I do! She's a lovely little white J160C...

 

I guess you're right. It's not a wildly romantic letter, is it? Still I reckon that if I started writing romantic letters, then she'd start to worry!

 

 

[facthunter]

New mistress.

 

BP. What's wrong with your old mistress? N.

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Subject: Kangaroo Hops (or One out of Five Ain't Bad)

 

Hi everyone. Thanks for your comments and encouragement. Here's the next one :)

 

Hi beautiful!I don't know what it was like when you woke this morning, but when I woke at 6am it was bucketing down, and it didn't sound like it was going to let up. Fred had said right at the beginning "always come, because the weather where you are is not the weather where the plane is", so come I did. On the way there, the rain stopped, probably because it couldn't work its way through the thick fog! Not looking good at all. However, true to Fred's aphorism, the weather there was not the weather along the way. At the strip, the wind was dead still and the clouds less threatening, so it looked ok after all.

 

Pre-flight is becoming routine now, and possibly because of the weather, there was absolutely no one else around - we had the place to ourselves. Today was the first full day of circuits; take-off, circle, land, taxi back, start again. When we entered the runway for the first time, Fred said "better taxi down past the Roo". There was a kangaroo on the verge of the strip and another 2 or 3 on the other side. By the ever-so-subtle approach of driving straight at it, it hopped away and we were free to begin.

 

Take-offs are getting better. By the end of today, I think that they were starting to feel a bit more like they're supposed to. Staying straight on the strip, getting the nose up early so that you're running on the main wheels only, then flying on the 'ground effect' (the cushion of air trapped between the plane and the runway) while it picks up speed, and finally climbing at the right speed, all the while remaining runway-aligned.

 

The circuits were another story. I said that it was dead still, but up at 1000', there was a very fresh northerly blowing, so my nice clean little circuits were all over the place. It'll be interesting to look at the GPS track tonight and see just how all over the place I was. All my circuit visualisations during the week came to naught. I was pretty sure that I had all the right activities at all the right times locked away in my head, but when it came to crunch time the sieve became a little leaky. It didn't seem to matter how many things I remembered, I always managed to find something else to forget. It isn't just the actions that must be done at certain times (turn on this, check that, etc), but that the plane has to be flown correctly at the same time. Straight and level is easy enough, but when you're starting the descent to land, you're running through all these checks and actions and making a final call at the same time as you're turning and completely changing the attitude of the plane. I'm tempted to wear my heart rate monitor one of these days to see which is running faster, my heart or the engine. I think it'd be a close run thing during landing.

 

During the base and final legs of the circuit today, we were being blown towards the strip at the same time as I'm trying to line things up, so I think that I have a reasonable excuse for a few messy approaches. Below about 500', the wind just died which is good, but it did give me plenty of practice at compensating for changes during the approach. I think, though I'll have to confirm by looking at the GPS track, that we did five circuits. I don't remember what went wrong with the first one, but I know it wasn't good. The second and third I rounded out correctly but then started to 'balloon' - ie start to climb but with no power. Subterranean landings aren't much good, but neither is landing on thin air 20' up. ;) Each time, Fred would make a last minute grab for the stick and get us on to terra-firma in one piece, albeit with a bit of a crunch. The fourth was probably the worst of the day. Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the previous attempts, I apparently brought it in "like a pile driver". Each time as we taxied back, we'd talk through what had happened and how I'd seen it and what had actually happened. It was clear that there is no lack of head knowledge; it's just that it hasn't filtered from my brain to my reactions yet. I'm still at that stage when you have to think through every action sequentially, and there just isn't enough time and enough brain power for that. We did manage to sort out one terminology problem. When Fred says "hold it off", he doesn't mean hold the controls are they are. He means keep pulling the stick back so that the plane stays in the same attitude as it slows down - ie his 'hold' refers to the plane, not the control. I wonder how many other little misunderstandings like that there are?

 

Anyhow, on the fifth circuit the take-off went smoothly (best yet), the climb and turns were good. I got everything lined up well on 'downwind' (which up at this height was actually into the wind, but that's beside the point), I remembered most of the actions in the right order at the right times and I actually got the call turning onto base word perfect for the first time today. The approach was passable, and for the first time ever, Fred didn't need to touch the stick when we (I!) landed. I actually 'got' it (in the sense of "don't you 'get' it"). Fred's only comment was "I think that'll do for the day. That's a good one to leave it on". Then, as we were taxiing back to park the plane, I heard a new student on the radio start a call, then stop, then repeat the start, and stop again and finally stumble out a message, and I thought - you've come a long way, baby... :)

 

Thanks for letting me do this.

 

Love you heaps

[Tomo]

Hey great read, as always!:thumb_up: You sound like your coming along nicely.

 

It's easier said, than done! That's what ends up happening to me... you know all they do's and don'ts and why's, but when it comes to actually doing it... all that go's out the window!

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Subject: Getting a bit more confident

 

Hi Sweet.Perfect weather this morning. Dead still a ground level and not much going on up top either. No idea how many circuits I did (I'll count 'em tonight when I review the GPS trace), but after the first one Fred said "your take-offs are fine, so we'll do touch-and-goes from now on", and thus it was.

 

The landing preceding first TnG was pretty ordinary - even by my less-than-stellar standards - and I completely forgot that I was supposed to be taking off again, so when Fred said "Ok, throttle up, go again" I was completely thrown and Fred had to pull the plane back into line. After that, of course I had it in mind and didn't have a problem (with the take-offs anyhow) from then on. In fact, I was really pleased at how some aspects of flight are starting to become automatic. When you change the engine speed, the plane will tend to yaw one way or the other, so you can imagine that the change from idle for landing to full power for take-off causes a significant reaction in the middle of a TnG, but I found myself automatically adjusting the rudder to counteract it as it happened rather than as a reaction to it happening. Give the boy a gold star! :star:

 

After the first couple of circuits, a helicopter gave a call that it was 3 miles out and overflying the strip at 2500', so we didn't pay it much more attention (it's supposed to make the call 10 miles out, but no worry). Next thing, there's a call that it is joining downwind (in other words, joining the circuit which means that it is at the same height as me) for landing on the grass verge just as I'm making my turn from downwind to base. Fred had a few choice things to say about the pilot's radio procedure, but he said that it was ok to land anyhow. I don't remember whether it was that landing or the next one (but I'll pretend that it was that one so that I can blame the helicopter pilot), but I repeated last week's trick of trying to land on an imaginary strip about 50' up in the air. Fred hit the power and we pulled out and went around. I don't know quite what I was thinking, but I remember that we seemed to be coming in too steep and so I started to pull up a bit - apparently, coming in too steep is preferable to stopping in mid air... :)

 

Anyhow, apart from that little episode, the rest of the lesson went quite well. The procedures (even the dreaded call on turn to base) are becoming fairly automatic. I still, without fail, manage to forget to turn off Carby heat as I'm approaching the threshold (basically, the edge of the landing ground), but one day I'll remember! The helicopter pilot stumbled his way around for a while longer before heading back from whence he came, with Fred grumbling epithets in his general direction with every screwed up call. Fred said that he would have been paying $750/hour for his lessons - makes mine pale into insignificance - and, he says with a smile, it goes slower than the Jab!

 

I have this horrible fear that giving you a warts and all picture of my training is going to make you forever fearful of my abilities. Fear not, my beloved! They won't let you near the little beastie until I'm well and truly capable of getting you, me and it both up and then down again, not only in one piece but in comfort and security. Besides, if I didn't tell you all about the bad things, I'd have nothing to tell you! :)

 

Love you.

[Tomo]

:thumb_up:

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Reality Check

 

I won't be getting near a plane for the next few weeks, so to those of you who for whom Monday just wouldn't be Monday without your weekly letter, I'll apologise and you'll just have to survive on this one for a bit...

 

Hi sweet.After last week's little successes, I approached today like it was going to be the day that everything came together. Not that I was being brash and over-confident or anything like that, but I'd got an inkling last week that maybe I could do this alright, and I wanted to consolidate everything and get it really bedded down in my head. Alas for great plans.. i_dunno

 

The forecast was for light rain and easterly winds, neither which is ideal, but it ended up mostly dry & calm, but with a low layer of wispy clouds and a solid bank above that. The high layer was no hassle as I am only doing circuits, but the wispy stuff was between me and the ground. What this meant was that instead of following a standard path down on base and final, I had to dodge around the clouds and pick a different path every time. What I had presumed last week to be emerging pilot skills were in fact just monkey-see-monkey-do rote learning. As soon as I had to come at things from a different angle, I didn't cope. The first few landings were abysmal, and things just went down hill from there.

 

Still, as I said to Fred afterwards, it's always a good lesson if you learn something new, and I haven't failed to learn something big each time so far. (It's a bit scary to think of how many big things remain to be learned!). The two things that I learned this week were;

 

a. I think that I finally have a picture in my head of what it means to hold the plane off the deck until it settles, and

 

b. I have a better feeling of what I have to do to put the plane onto the right approach, rather than just following a recipe.

 

After one particularly disgusting attempt to land anywhere in three-dimensional space other than on the strip, Fred said that next time around we should leave the flaps at the take-off setting and not actually touch down, but attempt to fly along the strip just above it. It's a clever drill because instead of each ten-second landing attempt terminating quickly with a bit of support and guidance from terra firma, I had to control the plane to a much finer degree than during normal flight for however long it took to get to the other end of the runway. It took two or three attempts before we got it to a level where we could go back to touch-and-goes (which were much better after that).

 

At the same time as all this was happening, I was coming in from every which way - sometimes flying over some cloud and then dropping in quickly, sometimes ducking in from one side or coming in underneath at a shallow angle - and all the while Fred sat with hands in lap, pretending that he wasn't terrified and quietly letting me choose my own path. If I asked, he'd tell me and once or twice when I was too high or low he'd offer a suggestion, but mostly it was up to me. I'm much happier about that aspect now.

 

The other thing that I noticed, though I can't claim to have 'learned' yet, is that I shouldn't be as tentative on the controls. I'm always trying to finesse the plane into whatever position it should be rather than being assertive about what I want it to do. I think that there's great value in driving smoothly and gently, but sometimes there's value in dragging a car around a corner with its tail hanging out too. On one particular landing attempt (the only one that was so awful that we had to abort and go around), Fred took the stick and said "for heavens sake (or words to that effect), fly the plane" and dragged the plane, kicking and screaming, back in line. I didn't know that you could manoeuvre it that quickly that close to the ground.

 

So, in the end it was a very good, if somewhat embarrassing, day. One of these days I'll get it. I know I will! (Oh, but I had another victory too. For the first time I remembered to turn off the Carby heat as we came over the threshold. Gold star time again :star: ).

 

Love you

[Tomo]

:thumb_up:

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Now THAT was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I have THAT day over and over?? :)

 

He's baaaaack! (and pretty excited about it too!)

 

Hi beautiful!It looks like the 3 weeks between drinks wasn't long enough for me to forget everything. The morning was still but cold, with the likelihood that it would deteriorate as the morning wore on. It got a bit bumpy around 100ft on both take-off and approach, but that's all just good practice. Someone had a Cessna out preparing to do circuits when I arrived, so I had some company in the air for a change. They provided a bit of practice in adjusting my approach to accommodate theirs, so it's all good.

 

After pre-flight checks (and fitting the extender blocks to the rudder pedals - wouldn't it be nice to have a seat that moved :hump: ), I hopped in and put my headset on only to find that it didn't fit. Fred's normal headset was playing up and this was a back-up pair, but unfortunately it didn't have enough adjustment range for my fat head. Given the choice between an intermittent headset and one that sat on, rather than around, my ears, I took the 'on' option. As a consequence, I made a discovery. It's very noisy in the cabin. Headsets cup right around your ears to block out as much noise as possible, and as these ones weren't, I was copping a fair bit more noise. Of course, that made it harder to hear both Fred talking to me and any radio calls, but I managed. Hope we get it sorted though, because headsets start at $250 and go up to thousands. I don't mind buying a new hat because I have a big head, but I'm not keen on dropping that kind of dosh on my own headset (yet! :) ).

 

Anyhow, the circuits themselves went remarkably well. I won't claim that I was consistent on my approaches, but when I was too high, I corrected and when I was too low, I corrected, and in general, things just worked. That's not to imply that Fred didn't have anything to challenge me on - I still kept him busy pointing out where things were less than perfect - but I felt like we were starting to get to finer points rather than being two steps away from disaster. I think I mentioned after the last session that I'd realised that I was trying to finesse the controls a bit too much, and that I need to be a bit more assertive, particularly on the pedals. That was one of my private focuses today, and I think it helped a lot. For instance, up 'til now if I found myself out of line with the runway on approach, I had a tendency to just drift it back towards the right point. Of course, if you do that, then you're not going to be pointed directly down the strip because you're coming in from an angle. Today, I started correcting more assertively so that I was back in line before I reached the strip. Much more successful. :thumb_up:

 

On the climb out after a few circuits, Fred said "You're definitely becoming more consistent. I think we'd better get the pre-solo exam out of the way". Least ways, that's what I think he said, because I couldn't hear perfectly, so I tucked that away in the back of my mind to discuss in the debrief later. Apart from one relapse to an old habit (rounding out a little too high, getting scared and driving the plane down instead of letting it sink of its own accord - it's just a nervous reaction that I'm getting better at unlearning), the rest went well and, sure enough, the debrief confirmed my hearing. I'm sitting the pre-solo exam next week after the lesson. I've never been so excited about sitting a test in my life! I've already done an example exam (and scored 100% :star: ), but I think I'd better hit the books again and revise all the stuff up to that point again.

 

I know that I'm making progress, but it'll be nice to pass one of the official milestones to confirm it. Next week's lesson will introduce glide approaches, because, as Fred says, if I'm going to be up there on my own one day, I've got to know when to do when things go wrong... How excitement!

 

Love you.

[Guest Gomer]

Solo!!! :)

 

Oops. I forgot to post last week. Not to worry. We'll just do a double dose...

 

Subject: Dances with Planes...

Beautiful,

 

The weather forecasts for the last couple of days have been on the worrying side - 15kn norwesters with 25kn gusts. The aviation forecasts for strips in this area (they don't have a specific one for our strip) also were throwing in "moderate to heavy turbulence below 5000ft", just to make things less comfortable. I turned on the phone early this morning, on the assumption that I'd get a call from Fred, but no call being forthcoming, off I went. Got to the strip to find the windsock hanging limp - just the way I like it! :)

 

I think that I gained a lot of confidence out of last week's lesson, because I had a feeling that everything was going to be in control today. Even the thought of a turbulent cross wind didn't keep me awake last night like it has on previous occasions. Sure enough, that's pretty much the way that things panned out. Confidence is a wonderful thing! I still managed to get a few things a bit skew whiff, but instead of having to process a million things at once, I was able to focus on whatever it was that I was getting wrong. Makes it so much easier to learn for next time when you're not overloaded. I commented to Fred during one climb-out that I was really enjoying being able to look around me as we flew - in other words, actually enjoying the act of flight - instead of having to be 100% focussed on whatever the hell it was that I was supposed to be doing next.

 

The lesson today was consolidation of the circuit skills, and then some glide approaches to start getting used to landing with no engine. As it was, I was picking up all sorts of new awareness (for want of a better word) about the attitude of the plane during landing, so we probably did more normal circuits than first intended. There were two other planes in the circuit (most I've ever had there) and when Fred went to demonstrate the glide approach, we realised that we were too close to the one in front so we didn't have room to cut the circuit short as we'd need to. Hence, I took over again, did another standard T&G, then a quick circuit at 500ft with a short final to overtake the other plane, and finally we were ready for the engine off. Fred demonstrated (which was educational in itself because it was the first time that I've seen him land since the early days when it was all so overwhelming) and finally it was my go. Sadly, with all the faffing around the other plane, we'd also run out of time so I only get one shot at it before we stopped. Went ok. Might be a bit different if we were further from the strip, but I guess you have to start somewhere.

 

Finally, I did the Pre-solo exam after the lesson. Got a bit of a shock when I couldn't answer 3 of the first 4 questions - it's not that I couldn't remember the answers; it's that there was nothing about them in the book I'm studying from. After a first pass, I had five or six questions that were new to me (the rest were easy because they were in the book). Some I worked out by a process of elimination (discard the two obviously wrong answers and choose the best from the remaining two), one I worked out by thinking through things that I'd seen in flight simulators and one I just took a wild stab at. The good news is that I passed (Yey!) and the even better news is that I learned something really important from one of the things that I got wrong. Even the 'wild stab' answer turned out to be right; proof positive that you can't loose 'em all.

 

It's really nice to think that I've now passed the first milestone, but it's also scary to think that the only thing between me and going solo is skill and weather... I don't want to spend week after week thinking 'is this going to be the day', but I don't want to rush it either. I think it's going to take all my accumulated patience to handle the time between now and whenever it is constructively. Sigh.

 

Anyhow, that's next week's concern. Love you!

...and then the big week...

 

Subject: Woo Hoo!!

Sweetheart,

 

Like I said on the phone - Solo! :) :) :)

 

After last week's confidence builders (and test out of the way), I figured that if the weather was good and things went OK today then Fred might hop out early and send me on my way. However. However. However... Rain & fog on the way up, and I'm thinking that I'll be lucky to get a run, let alone solo. Then, just before I reached the strip I drove into sunshine, looked up and there were vast swathes of blue. What's more, that's how it stayed for the entire hour.

 

Regardless of all this, I really wasn't thinking about going solo, but just focussing on the lesson at hand. A bit more focus would have been useful, because I completely screwed up the pre-landing preparation on the first circuit. As you approach the turn onto base, you run through a bunch of checks - harnesses tight, enough fuel for a go around, brakes off, etc - and then slow the plane down to a speed where you can begin to deploy the first stage of flaps. For some incomprehensible reason, I didn't slow down and I didn't deploy flaps so I'm roaring along at about 180kph on base. I had to laugh, 'cause it was just so DUMB, but it was somewhat embarrassing too. Anyhow, I got my head into gear and brought it in ok.

 

On about the second or third circuit I asked Fred to please check the squelch on the radio, because we hadn't heard a single call including from another learner in the circuit. It wasn't the squelch, it was just the volume turned right down. I can't imagine why someone would have turned it off, but I'm glad I asked because within 30 seconds there was an 'Inbound' call from a helicopter which proceeded to perform a very perfunctory circuit and land on the verge just as I was turning onto final. Might have got a bit of a shock if I hadn't known he was there.

 

One of the nice things about today was that, even though it was a bit bumpy as we were coming across the threshold, I felt much more in control. I've been working on actively putting the plane where I want it to be instead of following wherever it was taking itself, and it's made an enormous difference. I know that may seem odd to just 'follow along', but I've read so many horror stories about stalling on approach that I think I was scared of what might happen if I pushed too hard, with the result that I didn't push nearly hard enough. You know how on the bike in wet weather, you start off being really tentative in case the tires slip, but as you gain experience you start to understand not only when it really might slip, but also how to correct it when it does. Same deal.

 

Anyhow, half way around a circuit, Fred said "Next time, come to a full stop and let me out and you can do some on your own". Just before he hopped out, he gave me some last minute instructions & reminders (like, if in doubt, just put on the power and go around!). He said to do 3 circuits as touch & goes, and that normally he'd say to come to a full stop for each one but T&G's would be fine. Not sure why that was the case, but I'll take it as a vote of confidence for want of any better explanation. :)

 

The really remarkable difference between Dual and Solo (apart from having someone to catch you when you fall) is in the weight, and hence performance, of the plane. It just leapt up off the runway. Normally I'm reaching circuit height just as I'm turning downwind, but with 75kg less on board I was at 1000ft only half way along crosswind. Similarly, it is supposed to float longer on landing, but I can't say that I noticed that at all. It's not something that you can learn while dual unless you can find a zero weight instructor, and that ain't gunna happen! :)

 

First two circuits & landings were fine, and the third (and supposedly final) one was going very nicely, but I found myself a bit too high and a bit too slow so I hit the throttle and went around. Having never done that before (the only other time, Fred took control - it was reasonably early on), I can't say that I controlled it fantastically - the plane pointed itself skywards and mushed along for a moment - but I'm *really* pleased that everything just clicked into place. Stick forward to pick up speed while simultaneously bringing the flaps back to first stage and away we go. Not thought through, but instinctively done. Very happy. Happiness lasted until about circuit height, where frustration at screwing up the landing took over. As I turned downwind, I found myself pulling it around a little harder than normal which was all I needed to realise that I was letting emotions take over, and there's no place up there for that kind of dumb reaction. So I took a couple of deep breaths, settled into my seat and started the pre-landing checks once more...

 

Love you

 

p.s. I nailed the last one too.

[slartibartfast]

Awesome Gomer. Congratulations.

 

It's been a great read so far, now you really start learning it should be even better.

 

Cheers,

 

Ross

 

 

[Tomo]

Congratulation on your Solo mate.... an awesome experience!:thumb_up:

 

 

[shags_j]

big grats

 

 

[Guest Gomer]

Subject: The view from a Bouncy Castle

 

Hi beautiful.

This email is coming to you earlier than normal, because I arrived back at work earlier than normal.

 

All the predictions were for 10-15kt cross winds with the possibility of gusts of up to 25kt and "moderate to severe turbulence below 5000ft". Not at all promising. I turned the phone on first thing when I woke just in case, but in the absence of any message I headed off (though with few expectations). Fred wasn't particularly hopeful, but he said to "check her out and we'll see what it's like".

 

Well, "what it's like" was interesting to say the least. As soon as we got above the ground cover she was bouncing around all over the place. Of course, bouncing doesn't just mean going up and down like on a trampoline, but rolling and pitching strongly as well. You can't (or at least I can't) keep it perfectly straight and level - that'd be fighting a losing battle - so it's more a matter of keeping it straight and level on average! As we were turning onto the crosswind leg, a gust caught us and made the turn much steeper than it should be. At only 500', this is what is commonly known as Not A Good Thing. Fred dragged the stick over which really disappointed me; not because he did it - I'd prefer that he kept us safe - but because I wasn't awake enough to the situation to correct it quickly enough myself. You know how if you are driving hard on a winding dirt road, you have every sense tuned to the movement of the car and you're totally focussed on keeping it on the best line (hmmm... maybe that's not a major part of your driving experience, but I can't think of a better simile so I'll let it stand), well I should have been just as focussed and I wasn't.

 

From the difference between the Air Speed Indicator and the GPS (which shows ground speed), Fred estimated the wind speed at 1000' to be 35-40kt. As we bounced onto the downwind leg, I said "it's your call. What do you want to do?" and he decided it wasn't worth continuing. The crosswind at ground level was still (just) within the Jab's specs, but if it got stronger while we were up then it'd become a problem. It wasn't the best landing that I've ever done, but considering that it was my first ever in a strong cross wind, it was pretty good even if I do say so myself.

 

Safety first, second and third is the rule of the day so I wasn't upset at only getting one circuit into the log book, but I guess that it did leave me a bit disappointed just because I'd like to learn more about flying in those types of conditions. I've been incredibly lucky in the weather I've been dealt over the last 4 months, but it also means that I have no experience when things get a bit rougher. I'll just have to wait for some days that are like today, but just a little less so... :)

 

Love You!