Category Archives: Flying

Aviation, Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Fourteen (The mad controller)

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Based on my experiences yesterday, I did a very thorough job planning the next cross-country. We would fly out of Winter Haven to Melbourne (Florida, not Australia). From Melbourne we would fly to Bartow and from Bartow back to Winter Haven. I made sure that all my visual references points were to the side of the aircraft so I could check when we were abeam. I used the big interstates and only the biggest and most characteristically shaped lakes. After a chat with the weather briefer who today was much more forthcoming than yesterday, I put in the winds aloft, calculated flight time and headings and we were off.  I was nervous but quite happy with how the first leg progressed. The right stuff appeared about where and when they were supposed to and suddenly we were about 12 miles from Melbourne. I had looked up all the frequencies and had noticed something strange with Melbourne: It had two tower frequencies with no explanation why. Sometimes, with big international airports, there are frequencies for traffic inbound from the east and another for the west and/or north and south. In those cases, it normally says in the directory which is which, but there was no such annotations. Well, I listened to my chosen frequency and it was very busy. I waited until it sounded like there was a pause and “Melbourne Tower, Warrior 32990”. He came back immediately: “Aircraft calling: Don’t!”  Woops.  I waited a little while and he came back: “Aircraft calling, repeat”.  “Warrior 32990, 10 miles west of Melbourne, altitude 2,500ft inbound for touch and go”.  He came angrily back: “Warrior-990, turn immediate left onto 010. You are using the wrong freq, call tower on 124.05”. I coolly replied: “Heading 010, frequency change to 124.05, Warrior-990”. Did I hell. I completely panicked. All my practice and careful planning was out the window, my Danish accent is never worse than when I feel under severe stress and man, did I feel stressed. Gerry picked up the conversation and made the calls. However, I needed to get back “on the horse” and called the tower back on 124.05. IT WAS THE SAME F……. GUY! This time he cleared me to enter downwind right for runway 27R report crossing interstate. We were now back on my practiced track and I actually managed to say: “Cleared for right downwind, runway 27 right, wilco”. I made the call crossing the interstate and he requested I reported when midfield downwind. Before I reached midfield, I got: “Warrior-990, you are cleared to land runway 27R”. I did not pick up his mistake (aha!) and instead replied: “Cleared to land, 27 right, Warrior-990”. Besides being my first venture into controlled airspace, it was also my first venture into a right hand pattern. It was not as hard as I had feared and I found myself a little high but on track for 27R. I landed (It was hard not to, the runway is huge), raised flaps, set my carburettor heat to cool, turned power off and within 10 seconds, I was airborne again. That is when the “fun” started: “WARRIOR-990 STATE YOUR INTENTIONS!”. “Departing to the west, Warrior-990” Why was I in trouble?  “WARRIOR-990, IT MIGHT BE HELPFUL NEXT TIME YOU DO A TOUCH AND GO, YOU TELL ME IN ADVANCE!” Now, I knew I had originally told him, but you NEVER argue on air with a controller, so I meekly apologised. In retrospect I spotted where it went wrong. When he cleared me to “land”, I should have corrected him and reminded him that my request had been for a touch and go. Instead, I was so eager to do “the right thing” and correctly read back the clearance, as I am required, that I forgot to actually take the whole clearance on board.  Gerry didn’t catch it either, until we were told off”. Heh, I am going back to Melbourne tomorrow for my first solo cross-country. Out of Melbourne, it was onto Bartow where the controller is very friendly. And then it came from Gerry: “Bartow is closed, divert to Wauchula.” My simulated diversion. I guestimated a heading of 210 and noted the time. I then drew a line from my present position to Wauchula, read off the correct true heading, adjusted for magnetic variance (4°W) and wind. Correct heading was actually 230 and I changed my present heading to that. I then measured the distance, 43 miles and with a ground speed of 88 knots, we would reach destination 30 minutes after I started the diversion. I calculated the expected arrival time handed the figures off to Gerry and assumed that would be it. We would return to our original flight plan to Bartow. The one that I had spent hours sweating over the night before. I had flown for nearly 1½ hour and I was tired. He had to be joking that we were actually going to Wauchula… but he was not.  I read some of the visual references from the ground to the map and I was happy with the progress. 1 minute before I had estimated, we were overhead Wauchula airport. Another diversion, this time to Miami!  “Come on, you must be joking this time!”  He was. I did, however, have to do another diversion back to Bartow from Wauchula. I found Bartow, contacted the controller, did my touch and go and was off again.  This time I could take off on a planned heading back to Winter Haven. Was I happy when I saw Winter Haven airport appear? You bet! I joined downwind and landed. Completely exhausted. At night, we were going to do patterns night flying, but the landing light on 990 is really bad so after one circuit Gerry suggested we switched to 401. I suggested we called it a day. This is very hard work.

Summary after 14 days:
Flown: 2 hour and 30 minutes.
Total flying time: 39 hours and 33 minutes.
Solo: 5 hours.
Day 1 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 15 – Day 16 – Day 23

Aviation, Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Thirteen (Thunder and lightening, very frightening)

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We had planned to push off on an early cross-country after yesterday’s late night solos. I had done the preliminary flight planning the evening before; all I needed was to call “my friend” at the weather briefing office to get the winds aloft so I could calculate our headings and flight times.  Before I did this, I did two very scientific meteorological investigations: First, I pulled back the curtains and looked outside.  Whoa, that did not look good. Fog. I then called the airfield’s automatic weather reporter. It’s an automatic weather station linked up to a speech computer.  Winds were 4 knots, sky overcast with cloud layer starting at 100ft!  I was not too concerned though, as that sort of weather typically clears up quickly when the sun gets to it.  It was then on to my weather-briefer for a personal forecast. They ask for your aircraft ID, your routing and your planned altitudes and off they go.  More bad news:  Thunderstorms forecast for whole area, heavy rain, visibility down to 2 miles etc. He ended on the dreaded phrase: VFR not recommended.  It is a bit of a “funny” thing this.  You think that air traffic controllers, tower personnel, Flight Center people, Clearance Delivery people and aviation weather forecasters could tell someone: “You can’t fly”.  However, none of them can.  An air traffic controller controls a piece of airspace and can tell you if s/he will let you fly in that particular space. There is in the end one, and only one person deciding on whether to take off or not: The pilot in command.  So when a weather briefer tells you “VFR not recommended” it is a euphemism for “You are a bloody maniac if you fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules as opposed to instruments) in this weather”. Before leaving for the school, back in England I read an interesting book going through about 40 case studies on light aircraft crashes most of them fatal. The books title was: “They called it Pilot Error” and it referred to the conclusion on the investigation.  Almost all accidents are in the end down to pilot error. Even when the aircraft mechanically fails, the pre-flight checks if performed properly would typically have identified the issue.  Another typical “pilot error” is flying when a weather briefer states “VFR not recommended”.   So I spent the morning and lunchtime studying for my written and oral FAA exam and in the afternoon, I went over to the school where we could follow the weather on the internet. There were radar images and forecasts etc.  We could see at that point that the squall line (line of thunderstorms) had moved (and was moving) away from us and our route and we set sail. It was again a very educating experience. I think it is a public secret that my navigational abilities at the best of times leave a bit to be desired. Well, it does not get any easier at 3,000ft where there are no town signs, no road signs etc. On a 1½ flight between four airports I managed to get us really lost only once. I also learned not to fly straight over my visual reference points (you cannot se them – it is not a glass bottom aircraft!). One issue is, I am really having problems visualising headings of ground objects such as roads or runways.  Conceptually I understand what needs to be done but I just do not seem to be able to do it in practice. I sure hope that will come.  I felt tired, but not too bad when we returned home early evening. Tomorrow will be the second dual cross-country, this one into controlled airspace and on Friday it will be my first solo cross-country, which will also be into controlled airspace. Saturday is set up for my qualifying cross-country where I have to fly at least 150 miles, visit 2 airports I have not been to before and get signatures from an official at each airport to document that I was there. All without crashing, annoying the FAA or worst (and most likely) of all: Getting lost!

Summary after 13 days:

Flown: 1 hour and 48 minutes.

Total flying time: 37 hours and 3 minutes.

Solo: 5 hours.

Day 1– Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 15 – Day 23

Aviation, Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Twelve (Sunset and rain)

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Today was the day I was going to crack through the 5 hours mandatory pattern/landings training so we could push on with the cross country/navigational training.  In the morning, we flew dual for ¾ of an hour in mist or near fog to go through some of the different approaches and landings and I then flew solo for a further ¾ of an hour. I was due a 2 hours break before completing my solo time with a 2-hour session. However, the engine on the aircraft we are mainly flying, 990, had twice conked out on us as we were braking hard on the runway. All though that is obviously not such a serious place for an engine to die it does make you a little uneasy flying it at 900ft above trees, roads and houses as you approach the runway. An instructor who took the plane for a spin while I had my break was not at all happy with the sound and it was turned over to our magician mechanic.  So I was out of an airplane and could instead use all afternoon planning and plotting tomorrow’s cross-country. As it happened, 990 was made ready just before sunset but 401 returned home at 17:30 and I quickly pre-checked it, had one ride with Gerry and off it was to the circuit. It was raining lightly but still with 10km visibility. Not a lot to report except for one interesting thing I took away: Checklists are good. I had never flown solo for more than one whole hour before and the evening session lasted 1:42. Towards the end, I obviously started to get tired and I lost concentration. The landings themselves did not suffer, they are pretty much there now, but the approach and the small things slipped. Once I found myself on base without flaps extended and ended up way too high and made my first decided go-around. I was actually straight over the middle line and the runway is very long so I would have made it somewhere long down half of the runway, but it would have been ugly and it gave me a chance to practice go-arounds. For the last 20 minutes, it was getting darker and the runway lights was turned on. I knew I had to do at least two more circuits to make the whole 5 hours in total. The penultimate pattern was OK, and it was off to the last. I tried to remember everything while keeping an eye out for another Warrior that was just one leg ahead of me in the pattern. I was downwind, having done my checks, extended 10° of flaps and the other warrior had called final so at my turning point I started my turn and called left base. Two things suddenly struck me: 1) I had no idea where the other Warrior was and 2) on the previous patterns they had a tendency to do very long downwinds and thus very long finals. In other words, they could at this very moment be zooming towards me from the right doing more than 100mph and I did not know.  Rule 1: Always have aircrafts before in the pattern in sight before making turns. I was feeling very uncomfortable for at least 10 seconds while trying not to panic. I gave full throttle to climb above final altitude so at the very least they would creep under me, when I finally saw them about 100ft and 20 seconds away from the runway. Panic over, I headed towards the last rays of the sun over runway 22 and enjoyed the pretty view of runway lights and approach path guide lights. I landed, taxied to the parking area and wrote down the numbers. I had, right on the exact minute, achieved my 5 hours solo flight.

Summary after 12 days:
Flown: 3 hours and 18 minutes.
Total flying time: 35 hours and 15 minutes.
Solo: 5 hours.
Day 1 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 14 – Day 23

Aviation, Florida, Flying, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Eleven (Into the Pattern)

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Today was one of the best days I have had here so far. We had breakfast with Jackie & Co. at St. Pete’s and went to the airport.  It is sort of a buzz when you tell the concierge you need a taxi for Albert Whitted airport and when he asks if you are leaving in your own aircraft, you can reply in the affirmative. We pre-checked the aircraft and were soon on our way.  Before leaving for Winter Haven, we flew to the west side of the peninsula to do two fly-bys along the beach in the honour of Jackie & Co. We flew at an altitude of about 1,000ft and rocked our wings but when I called them later that day, they still claimed not to be sure it was us.  I took a few pictures of the beach as we flew by; it will be interesting how that turns out.  Back on track, I flew most of the trip back. We had worse weather than the day before and my friendly meteorologist had sounded a little concerned about us flying at all, but with scattered clouds at 3,000-3,500ft we were OK flying at 2,500 except flying easterly we should be 3,500 and there was a lot of turbulence under the clouds.  Back home it was into the patterns for landings. ½ hour with Gerry before he was comfortable. I was in the groove and then more than 1 hour for myself. I was beginning to get it, and I was feeling much more comfortable.  That 1 hour was a real confidence builder.  With wind varying, I cross wind corrected and as my patterns are still not sharp enough, I some time came in final a little overshot. Most time I came in undershot and most time a little high, but still, I always ended up not far off the threshold and if not bang on the middle then certainly with more than just a wingtip over the middle.  I felt my flaring changing for the better too.  After the session, I was drenched. This was hard albeit very rewarding work. I went to the flat, showered, changed, and returned to do more.  This time Gerry just sat in for one circuit before I was off on my own.  The first landing was the best I have done yet.  When there was no comment on the radio, I knew Gerry had not seen it; no way could he have seen that landing and not commented.  On the numbers, i.e. right after the threshold and straight on the middle, and really smooth. I was fine with him not having seen it. It demonstrated to me he was now so confident, that all though he was on the radio he did not have to watch me all the time. After ½ hour the sun was getting quite low and straight in my eyes on final approach (and that is not just an excuse) and I thought I would finish on a high. The last landing of the day was only matched by the first of that session.

There is an instrument in an aircraft called a transponder. It transmits a 4-digit identification code so Radar Operators can associate the aircraft ID with the bleep on their screen. It is octal, so there are 4,096 combinations and you are assigned a code whenever you contact a radar.  Modern transponders (and most are) have Mode “C” capabilities, which means they also transmit the altitude. There are a couple of special codes: 7700, for example, for an aircraft in distress (Mayday). 7600 if you lose your radio and 7500 if you are hi-jacked.  A captain from a nearby army base was returning home to Arkansas in a borrowed light aircraft straight off duty. Still wearing his uniform, he was looking forward to spending a weekend with his family. He entered Orlando controlled airspace and was asked to “squawk your altitude”. This means setting the transponder to mode “C” or “Alt”.  However, the guy flying at 7,500 feet sets the transponder to this. The Radar controller obviously does a double take and to make sure, before initiating a major alert, asks the pilot “Is there a gun on board?”.  The captain, slightly puzzled still looks down on his right hip where indeed his service revolver resides, and answers “Affirm”.  Ooops. Major hi-jacking alert. One red-faced captain on the ground in Arkansas suddenly finds out why he got so easy and fast he clearances through every controlled airspace or zone he attempted to enter.

Tomorrow, yet more landings, but now I will have to re-focus on my patterns. Ensuring they are as constant as possible, turning at the maximum (same) angle at the same point every time and trying to get my turn in on final to be on the right track from the beginning. As soon as I have finished the solo patterns, we move on to cross-country, night and instrument flying. I have 4 hours blocked out in tomorrow’s schedule for pattern flying.

Summary after 11 days:
Flown: 3 hours and 18 minutes.
Total flying time: 31 hours and 57 minutes.
Solo: 2 hours and 36 minutes.
Day 1 – Day 8 – Day 9 – Day 10– Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 13 – Day 23

Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Ten (A trip away)

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So there were many good reasons I did not do any more solo flying yesterday.  However, I am not really fooling anyone – not even myself.  All the good reasons were mainly excuses and I was trying to get in behind my own psychology. Let me try to explain: You fly patterns and landings with your instructor next to you for hours.  At some point, all of your landings are pretty safe and you are reasonably in control all the time. You do your first solo and walk away from it.  Then the doubts begin… Was it luck?  Do I really know what I’m doing?  What if I really drop too fast or smash the nose wheel or something?  What if I miss the runway?  Intellectually you have it inside you that you know you can fly and land.  Nevertheless, in your gut feeling you have a primal fear that you will crash trying.  After flying 42 minutes dual with Gerry on Sunday, it was time to get back in the solos. I have to do 5 hours before we start on the real cross-country and instrument flying. We were in 990 and I was all out of excuses.  Gerry was again standing next to the crash point… erh… I mean runway threshold. All he needed was those big numbers to hold up after each landing.  The first was not fantastic.  The second I was happy with, on the middle line and pretty smooth. “Nice landing” came over the radio.  Just short of one hour of patterns and stop and go landings and I was really tired.  It was a good morning, though I was still thinking each successful landing was to some degree down to luck. I went back to my apartment to pack a little bag as we were going on a trip. I had fun planning a cross-country trip to St. Pete’s Beach (Albert Whitted Airfield) where Jackie and the family was staying. We had booked rooms for 1 night. So I took of from Winter Haven, flew our planned track right between two controlled airspaces, waited for the interception of two VORs (Radio Navigational aids) and headed straight for the beach. Contacted Tampa Approach to enter their controlled airspace, and touched down at the airfield about 50 minutes after we took off. A taxi to the hotel and soon we had joined Jackie & Co. on the beach.  The rest of the day had no flying just relaxing and a dinner with Jackie and Gerry at the rotating restaurant at the top of the Holiday Inn. Great view, but pretty poor food considering you get really good food almost everywhere here.

Summary after 10 days:

Flown: 2 hours and 44 minutes.

Total flying time: 28 hours and 39 minutes.

Solo: 1 hour.

Day 1 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 12 – Day 23

Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Nine – (Forcing it)

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I knew that we would not do patterns Saturday morning, well not at Winter Haven anyways.  Winter Haven is what the American’s call a Municipal Airport. That means the community, run by the community mainly for the community, owns it. The flight school is by far the biggest user of the airport during the week but on Saturday mornings everyone with micros, light and not-so-light aircrafts come out to give ‘em a spin.  Most of these guys have licenses to fly and most of those that do, have it current. Of those that are equipped with radio, few of them make calls in the pattern (It is my country, my airport, my pattern. Why should I make calls?). So the school has decided just to stay away to reduce the risk of collisions in the pattern. I appreciated that. We could go to another airport to fly patterns but it is a bit of waste of time so it was off to the training grounds for a couple of steep turns. We were flying a heap of junk called N444HA. Another Warrior PA-28-151 it had an inop (Faulty) turn indicator, a very suspect HI (Heading Indicator) that needed re-adjustment every 2-3 minutes and after every non-shallow turn, which was difficult because the compass was loose too. I am in Hotel-Alpha today but should be back into 990 tomorrow. We were then working on some more forced landings.  Getting the whole check list right and in order, get wind in back, look for a site, decide quickly, fly the approach and land (or get within 500ft) is tough.  On the second one, we were at 4,500ft.  I found a huge field with no trees and a few haystacks.  Ideal… I got most of the checks ok, with full flaps, turns and slipping I got rid of most of my height and I was on final with 1,500ft to go… the haystacks started to move.  Oh S***, they were cows!  Hitting a cow going about 85mph is not good, neither for the cow nor the airplane or indeed the occupants in it.  Quick re-decision, ah, that field there to the left now looks distinctly more attractive.  I know we will be doing more of these and they are actually harder than they sound.  You need to coolly execute all your checks and actions while within range finding the most suitable site for the landing. You then have to fly as good an approach to that site as possible. However, though not planning to ever need it, it is a distinct life-safer to be able to execute a good forced landing. No doubt, you can survive most if not all total engine failures in a Piper as long as you do the right things.

On the way back from the plane, we saw a guy in a home made ultra-light gyrocopter. That thing looked really cool; right out of a James Bond movie.  It was sort of a garden chair with a very big propeller on a broomstick coming up vertically from his back.  He took off and flew a couple of circuits.  Fun contraption.  As we are getting closer to the fun’n’sun events we have all sort of interesting aircrafts landing. WW1 bi-wing planes, private jets, micro-lights etc.  I am taking photos and could find myself turned into a plane spotter… ahhhhhhh!!

In the afternoon we practised unusual take-offs and landings. Flapless landings, short-field landings, soft-field take-offs etc.  We did not have to do anything special for crosswind as we did all this with a 9-knot crosswind from the south.

In the afternoon we did a couple of touch and goes but as I hated the aircraft (Still Hotel-Alpha) and wasn’t too keen on the runway (11 – I definitely prefer 04) and it was getting a bit dusky I felt I might as well hold off to Sunday morning before doing more solo patterns. When I am solo, I am not allowed touch and goes. They all have to be full stop, taxi off and taxi back on for another run. Again, this is a school rule because the added stress of doing both landing and take-offs and the accumulation of inaccuracy and the fact that a 1 minute breather between each pattern is probably good for a student.

Summary after 9 days:
Flown: 3 hours and 42 minutes.
Total flying time: 25 hours and 55 minute.
Solo: 0 hours and 6 minutes.
Day 1 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 11 – Day 23

Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Eight – Alone?

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It was Friday. It was exactly one week since I started at the school, and we were flying at eight in the morning.  I got up at the usual 6:00 to read, relax, shower etc. I got my stuff ready for today’s flying before making and eating breakfast.  My Italian flat mates, who are over here for hour building, come in at 03:30 every morning after having been out partying all night.  This morning, however, they had 401 all day from 8:00 and for the first time ever I saw and heard life from their rooms as early as 7:30. I hope they remember the pilot rule: 8 hours from bottle to throttle! They remind me distinctly about someone from work (Yeah, you know who you are!).  Anyways, having to wait for the guys vacating the bathroom I was a little late for my 8:00 appointment at the school, but I was sent on my way straight away to check the plane out.  I had bought a bottle of champagne for my first solo but I did not bring it that morning. A couple of reasons: One, I always assumed that your first solo should be your last flight of the day for various reasons.  You are on a high and might not be as concentrated as normal for any further flying and also, if you make a nice first solo flight (and landing!) you have nothing to gain by getting a second chance to screw up your record.  Also, though I felt improved, I still wanted to see for my self that I could make every landing and not just 4/5. We did 90 minutes of landings.  At a standard rate of about one landing per 5 minutes that is 18 take-offs and landings.  They were improving and we would have walked away from all of them. One was a go-around as I was ballooning. However, I initiated it myself, so that was OK.  Another was a wind shear cross wind landing where I managed to slip down the runway by turning into the wind with the wing while at the same time applying reverse rudder… without my instructor telling me. He was suitably impressed. At the end of the morning session, I knew within myself a couple of things: I was ready to go solo and I could do it safely. I spent the break from 10:00 to 14:00 relaxing, reading up on the FAA written test, cooking lunch and just all sorts of things trying to calm myself down. At 13:40, I started to pack my bag and check my equipment and at 14:00, I was ready at the flight school. I had brought the bottle of champagne and without anyone noticing put it in the school’s fridge. Off we went for another session of patterns and landings.  Almost every pattern was good, occasionally I would drop the speed at downwind a bit but everything, including the landings, was OK.  There was a fair amount of wind-sheer from bushes just before the threshold of the runway and there were significant thermals on the last parts of downwind to blow you 1-200 feet up just as you got ready do descent.  The wind was from 110 so we should have used runway 11 and Gerry asked me if I wanted to change from 04 that we had been using.  Less crosswind etc. I wanted to stay on 04 as the wind was only 6 knots and I was getting used to the crosswind landings. After about 13 touch and goes, Gerry made the call for final before I got to it and called a full stop.  I just knew this would be it. I took her for landing, slipped down the middle and placed her right down the middle in one of my best landings yet.  “My controls” Gerry said, and braked hard to make the first turn off runway 04. As we turned into the taxiway… the engine stopped.  Fancy that, eh?  If it had to do something like that, I could have thought of worse times to do it. Like on base, or at any point while I was flying solo.  Gerry was very perplexed. “I have never seen it do that before… in a Piper”.  Great. Very re-assuring.  He got it running again after a few restarts and none of the checks threw up anything. Carb heat was off, primer locked, fuel sufficient, mixture rich, throttle ¼ open… I was thinking, that if he told me to fly solo now I would tell him to stuff it. Well, he did not. We taxied back to the runway for a test pattern which he flew except for final, where he “your controls” me and I landed though not as nicely as the one before.  He did the 2nd turn in and said we needed another test ride but I could do it myself; he was getting off. So this was to be it. Gerry out of the plane, doors closed. I called “Winter Haven Traffic, Warrior 32990, taxiing runway 04, Winter Haven” and was on my way. I didn’t need to do the power-up checks so switching the xponder back on to mode C, I called departure and was zooming down the runway at about 80 miles/hour before pulling back on the column and I was airborne.  I was actually alone in an aircraft. I was PIC (Pilot in Command). Without Gerry’s weight, I got to the pattern altitude very quickly on cross wind, I turned relatively sharply into downwind making the calls for both. I knew Gerry was on the ground with his radio and if he thought I was out of line or in trouble, I would hear from him. Downwind checks completed, flaps extended one notch at threshold, watch out for the thermals and it was time turning to base. Power down, flaps 2nd stage, speed at 80knots, and look for the runway as an indication to turn into final. Oops forgot to call base. Ah well, as they say: The order of priority is Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. Turned into final a bit too soon so I had to correct quite a lot as the wind was coming in cross from the right.  Glide path looked good, speed 70knots, descend rate 500ft per minute… yeah, I might just make it.  Oops, forgot to call final too, guess I was concentrating heavily on the aviating bit right now. Over the f…… bushes with their wind-sheer, cut power completely, keep nose down… down… closer… closer… now, level off flying over the runway and just as I was flaring I heard “pitch, pitch, pitch” over the radio.  Gerry just could not risk it and had to remind me.  Never mind, I did a good landing, turned at the last exit (I hate hard braking, as I am always afraid the propeller will come down to the ground and they cost $3,000 to replace) and picked Gerry up on the way. “Do you want to do another one?” he asked. I declined quoting the reasons listed above. From my point of view, the most interesting thing about that first solo pattern was that it felt much less stressful than when I was with Gerry. I felt relaxed and comfortable knowing that I could turn in when I thought it was right instead of anticipating Gerry telling me “turn in” which always felt like a failure. I now have to do 5 hours solo patterns before moving on to solo cross-country. That is 60 take offs and landings. Everyone tells me I am going to be sick of it and I hope I am. Being bored doing circuits will mean that there is nothing to challenge me which means I am in control of the whole thing. And hey! That’s exactly where I want to be. We had our bottle of champagne (I had ½) and together with Erwin, the mad Dutchman who passed his final skills test today, we are off to celebrate at our local Japanese restaurant with good food, sake and (more) beer. Erwin is such a crazy beast that for those who read this diary for the non-flying bits I should be able to have some good stuff for tomorrow. Tomorrow it will be back to the patterns for me and pick up at the training grounds for our exercises and cross-country stuff. How does it feel to be a pilot solely at the controls of an airplane? Indescribable. It was the main motivator for this whole venture and it is just such a fantastic feeling to have achieved it. I have studied and passed seven written and one practical exam. I have flown concentrated for over 20 hours in one week and the first level has been achieved.  Now it seems, the rest will be easy.

It was a Good Friday for me and summary after 8 days:
Flown: 3 hours and 12 minutes.
Total flying time: 22 hours and 13 minute.
Solo: 0 hours and 6 minutes.
Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 9 – Day 10 – Day 23

Aviation, Florida, Flying, Training, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Seven – Close

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I know that Gerry signed off the official forms allowing me to fly solo and I did have the distinct feeling that we would do an hour and a half of landings in the morning and assuming I was stable, we would do more in the evening until he felt I was on a roll and could go solo.  I knew I was close.  Morning session was not as good as I would have wanted.  My round-outs, where, when you are above the runway, you fly level very low to get rid of some speed, were good. Well timed and well pitched.  The final bit – the flare – where you point the aircraft back up in order to land on the main undercarriage (The two wheels under the wings) were not consistently good.  Either too early or too late or too jerky or not enough. On the way back Gerry taxied the aircraft and the old guys sitting in front of the FBO (Straight out of a film these guys are; they are just missing a real rocking chair and a straw to chew) called the school to complain we were going too fast.  Well “we” were. Gerry got a mild ticking off. At ground school, we were rehearsing all the speeds (VS0, VA, VX, VY, VNE, VFE, VS1, VNO, VG) I asked him what VT is for a Piper PA-28 Warrior.  I loved his quizzical look (There is no VT) and particularly his expression when I elaborated: Taxiing speed. Well, I would exchange the ability to criticise back for a consistently good flare any time, but as a substitute, it was better than nothing.

The afternoon continued but I did not think I was safe enough to go solo and would not have been comfortable if he had asked me to.  Could I land?  Sure, and probably without wrecking the aircraft; but I would not feel in control all the time.  It was still improving though.  My patterns are sharper and tighter. Where before I was stressed on the downwind levelling out at 1,000ft, reducing power, going through all the checks, lowering flaps, check airspeed, be ready for turn in etc. I am now done with all checks before we pass ½ way downwind and can concentrate on steering a good sharp course. Turning base where you again reduce power, lower another notch of flaps is coming along too as is turning into final with last level of flaps. I am not so desperately focused on when I will go solo, as I just know it will happen considering I am improving all the time. I am comfortable with the fact that I am learning all the time.

One week down, two to go.
Summary after 7 days
Flown: 3 hours and 18 minutes.
Total flying time: 19 hours and 1 minute.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1 – Day 4 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 9 – Day 23

Aviation, Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Six (What goes up…)

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Yesterday had been a good day with respect to getting up this steep learning curve and today was a bit of a let down.  I had, for the first time, dreamt about flying during the night. Specifically landings.  In my dreams, they were going really well.  With all that practice, you would think I would pick up in the morning and just do it.  Well, up she went, around and down again… and not very well. Typically either too high, or too much to the right etc etc.  Not my day.  After an hour and 30 minutes in the pattern, that is about 15 take-offs and landings – but using the word “landings” in the widest possible sense – we called it quits for the morning session. My sunglasses had broken too so I was flying without sunglasses.  Besides the fact, it makes you look distinctly un-cool without, sunglasses are actually really necessary because you fly a rectangle and at one point or another, you will be flying and looking into the sun. I had forgotten to wear my baseball cap as well so I was sweating into my eyes and when I walked away from the aircraft, I was feeling a bit miserable.  I knew, however, that I had learned something (albeit just a little) up there, that I was getting even a little better and (though it sounds funny) I took some comfort from the fact that all though my landings were poor they were consistent(ly poor).  At least I had a few specific points I had to work on; I was not all over the place.

I was moving residence from a student’s house about 10 miles away to some student flats virtually next to the flight school.  My clothes etc. took about double the space compared to when Jackie packed it… ah well. The reason for the move was the departure of a number of students. There was the Welsh housemate Allan. After passing the FFA skills test, where he said he did terribly and the FAA examiner phoned the school up afterwards to congratulate them on such a perfect student(!), he did a cross country on his new license and was today flying back to Gatwick to drive Thomas the Tank Engine somewhere in Wales over the Easter Holidays. It appears he was also a steam engine locomotive driver.  Yesterday while driving back to the house we had to wait at a railroad crossing.  He got out his camera to photograph the engine pulling the 1-mile long monster.  I asked him if he wanted me to note down the number for him and he declined with the comment: “I’m not sad!” Right. However, I hope he will write me next time he drives Thomas so I can fly out there with Hans. An English guy who had come for his IMC (and gotten it) went back as did another Brit who was “hour-building”. Many of the guys flying from the school have their certificate but are building up hour so they can get enough experience to go for the next level up towards a commercial air-traffic license.

When I passed one of the otherwise always shut private hangars on the way to the plane, for the first time it was open!  In this huge hangar, about the same size as the one at Fairoaks holding all their aircrafts was one Citation Jet. It was beautiful. I walked in and there was a guy standing with his head in one of the jet engines. Gerry informed me discretely that it was the pilot/owner!  I asked the guy very politely if I could take a look and surprisingly enough, I was merrily permitted.  It was unbelievable.  It was so polished on the outside that it was only matched by the inside.  Seating for about 10-12 passengers in first class leather seats with mahogany tables etc etc.  It was obvious from looking at it, he never flew it, just nursed it, but man was it nice.

In the afternoon, we took off and flew north to Lakeland. Next week will be a nightmare there, as they are expecting ½ million visitors to “Sun’n’Fun”. On the runway in front of us was… the citation jet from earlier! It flew all right, with the same guy who had been messing with the jet engine earlier, at the controls.  If he flew that aircraft AND had it in an inside/outside pristine condition as the one we were looking at, he must spend his whole live in that hangar. Before dream went into overdrive: A normal lottery win would not help here; we are talking double if not triple roll over!  After the citation, we scurried down runway 04 towards Lakeland. Lakeland is a Class Delta airport with some pretty big machines and we called the tower to announce our intention to land.  A very cheerful voice came back on the radio instructing us we should report back 5 miles south of the runway. We did and were given clearance for long final landing. On the ground, changing to the ground frequency, we requested taxi to the shop, this was cleared, and we parked the airplane in the shop’s airplane parking area. Hop out, walk in, and I found myself in a very big showroom with all the gadgets and gizmos you could possibly imagine.  I did my shopping; we looked around the new terminal building and hopped back in to fly back to Winter Haven. When we called the ground to request taxi with the intention to return to Winter Haven we had a cheerful: “Fancy that, Warrior 990 returning to Winter Haven”.  990 is the aircraft used for instrument training and Lakeland is the closest airport with full ILS and VOR instrument approach utilities so they probably see more of 990 than anyone else. Back at Winter Haven we did a few pattern for good measure, I had not improved significantly and that was it for the day’s flying.

Gerry had offered to drive me out to Tampa to meet Jackie and the family as they arrived. He would have flown but it takes a little preparation as Tampa is Class Bravo airspace and it is faster to land instruments and that requires various documentation etc. So we drove, met everyone as they arrived, helped collect their luggage and saw them off on their way to their hotel. On the way back we stopped at a redneck bar for a great burger and two pitchers of beer.  I had 1.5 glass of beer, Gerry the rest. I drove him back to his place and took myself back to mine.  I promised myself not to dream about landings and I went as easily and quickly to sleep as I had the other nights.

Summary after 6 days
Flown: 2 hours and 29 minutes.
Total flying time: 15 hours and 43 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 8 – Day 23

Aviation, Florida, Flying, Training, Travel, USA

Learning to Fly – Day Five (Cheer up)

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So after an evening of all you can eat Chinese with Tsin-Tao’s paid for by Alan (The Welsh guy who passed his test yesterday) it was back with Gerry and more training. Oh, before we get to the flying: six guys eating all you can eat Chinese food – and good it was too! –  2-3 beers per person: $65 before tips… It is not just the flying that is cheap over here.

So we started in the pattern and Gerry was pretty impressed. I was now doing the whole thing by myself just having Gerry step in with a little rudder when I needed it, which was not every time.  After six touch and goes, it was off to the training grounds and steep turns, stalls etc.  This was coming along nicely.  I did 2×45 degree angle turns with 0 drop of altitude both to the left and to the right.  Clean and landing stalls ok too. So now, I just have to get the whole ting down routinely to ensure it will be right every time. On the way back to the airport, we were cruising at 3,500ft. Gerry put on Carb heat, pulled throttle back and informed me that I have had an engine failure and what would I do about it?  There is a checklist for this (There is a checklist for everything, you should know by now) and I could not remember anything. I went on by common sense… which just is not good enough when you are under extreme stress.  Adjust speed to best glide speed and trim (logical, eh?)  Get downwind so you can cover as much ground as possible looking for suitable forced landing.  Check for cause of engine failure (Well, I knew that already – I saw Gerry turn off the power!) but still; one has to go through the checks.  Look for suitable site.  “I’m going to land at that airfield over there”.  “You spotted it, well done. Can you reach it?”  “Yeah”.  “Yes, I think you can too… go for it.  I need to get to it downwind at 1,000ft altitude, turn base and final and make a nice forced but controlled landing.  I am converging to the downwind leg and I feel really nice.  “Eh, you’re a bit left”.  I am not!  “Er, it looks OK from here”.  “Nope, you’re definitely missing it”.  “I’m going for that one” I say pointing out the windscreen.  “I wouldn’t, it’s a driveway with a ditch at one side and lamp-posts at the other. I thought you had seen the grass airfield over there!”  “Oh, s***.. I forgot airstrips could be made out of grass as well.  Quick change of plans and the field there looked pretty inviting.  I was allowed to go to 300ft (and for you non-pilots out there, 300ft when you have been zooming around at 3,000ft is bloody close) before I was instructed to “go-around”.  Full power and I was so happy when I saw the VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator) go positive.  Two more of those, getting a bit better but still some work to do.  Later that day on our second flight it was back to the pattern.  I did a total of five landings.  The first was near perfect. Obviously, a fluke but it could not have been much better. On the centre line with the aircraft pointing that way too at touchdown, smooth in spite of cross winds etc. I saw Gerry do a double take, wanting to know if I had practiced during lunch.  The second landing wasn’t bad but a bit off centre. Third was on centre with a bit too early flare but not by much. Fourth was ..erm.. interesting. The worse ever, actually.  I had come in a bit too much to the right. Just before the threshold there are bushes and you get a lift (thermal) screwing you up with respect to your path. So there I was, a bit too much to the right and a bit too high but not enough for Gerry to interfere.  I was trying to get us more towards the centre while pitching down. Gerry was trying to help on the rudder to get us to the middle and I was flaring to early. Oh f***.  This is definitely a situation where I should have applied full power and gone around… unsalvageable. We ended on the runway at a bang so hard I am really happy we did not leave bits of the undercarriage behind us.  Full power and take off for final pattern and full stop. The fifth and final landing was pretty good though I was a bit shaken from the hard landing. We had to tell Chuck, our wonderful resident mechanic, that he had to look the aircraft over.  He came over to the flight centre and saw Gerry and myself in conversation.  “Who was the pilot?”  “He was!” Gerry was quick to point out, albeit with a sly grin.  I was estimating in my mind what a new undercarriage could possibly cost.  “Well” Chuck said, if you walk away from a landing it’s supposed to have been a good one.  “Did you walk away, sir?”  I confirmed that I did indeed make it from aircraft to centre under my own bi-pedal power.  “Well, it must then have been a good one” Chuck comforted me while explaining to the instructor that replacing some fluid in the oleo and brakes would leave the aircraft more or less as we found it.

Hey, this is fun. I am feeling more cheerful today.  If I do reasonable well on landings all day tomorrow and Thursday I’m pretty sure I’ll be soloing at the end of Thursday or first thing Friday.

I also had to do my FAA medical today. “Can you hear me” “Yep”.  “Can you see me?”  “Yep”.  “Close your eyes and stay vertical.” That’s about it. What really outrages me is that on an FAA license I can fly at night. In addition, he never checked if I was colour-blind.  Fantastic….

Summary after 4 days
Flown: 2 hours and 54 minutes.
Total flying time: 13 hours and 14 minutes.
Solo: 0 hours and 0 minutes.
Day 1 – Day 2 – Day 3 – Day 4 – Day 5 – Day 6 – Day 7 – Day 23