The perfect end...

What a day yesterday... the cloud played its part and stayed up high enough that it was perfect for some solo revision.

I took JFY out to the training area to practice stalls, forced landings and precautionary landings... Stalling was fun. I still have no idea why it scares some people?!? Having said that I got a little surprise when doing one of the basic stalls and had a wingdrop! I was about 1/2 a second away from trying to roll the wings level when the training kicked in with power/elevator first, then roll level...

The ironic thing is that when I tried for a wingdrop stall JFY refused! ha ha ha...

FLWOP and my precautionary landing were OK, I reckon I would have been OK had they been for real...

Then back to NZAR for a cup of tea... All in all, a most pleasant way to end 2007.

This flight: 1.3 Solo
Total Hours: 78.6 (60.1 Dual, 18.5 Solo, 4.0 IFR)

Nothing but gray...

So it was a lovely blue sky day yesterday... maybe a little on the breezy side at 19 knots... but a really nice summer day...

and I got to spend my flight staring at a piece of gray plastic...

Almost an hours worth of simulated IFR... almost at the minimum required 5 hours worth of IFR... it was good fun, but a little bumpy which made holding headings and altitudes a bit of a mission...

He was nice and gave me a quick 10 second peek at the scenery about half way through... an absolutely glorious day out over the water about halfway to the coromandel peninsula... blue skies, blue water... lovely... then back to the gray plastic :(

It didnt help that he keep remarking every 10 minutes or so about how awesome the view was... bastard! ;)

The best part of the flight was when Trevor said "Ok, take off the hood" and I was at about 400' on final approach. "Ok, now fly the approach" he says :) I had managed to join and fly the circuit without being able to see anything!

Good fun, and hopefully, now that I have a couple of days of leave, I might even get some flying in over the Xmas break...

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

This flight: 1.0 Dual (0.8 IFR)
Total Hours: 77.3 (60.1 Dual, 17.2 Solo, 4.0 IFR)

Success and Failure

So i sat there soberly on friday night at the work xmas party (turning down all the free booze) as I was going flying on saturday morning...

so of course the weather was crap on saturday morning! but at least my head felt good! ;)

Sunday was looking OK... so I headed out to the field to check what was happening... cloud base was up over 3200', which was more than enough for some stalling practice so I booked JFY and headed up...

I also decided to test my new (homemade) toy:



I originally got the idea from Nick Ugolini... but didnt really think much about it until I stumbled across Drew Chaplin's site while trying to 're-find' Nicks site... and with extra ideas/inspiration from a couple of guys from here and here I thought "Why not?"...

Originally had some issues sourcing an old headset to scavenge parts from, but luckily got hold of an old Telex Airman 750 (the -100 model)... I borrowed the mic and boom, the circuitry from the earpiece and the cables/plugs...




Then I had to try and source the earphones... what a nightmare! No-one in NZ or AU seemed to stock what I wanted (I would have like the Shure e3c's but they're ridiculously expensive here)... so I settled on the Hearing Components NR-10's... aroun 35 to 40 dB's of noise reduction and an inline volume control... sweet!

the next mission was getting them to NZ... for some reason everyone in the US wants to ship international orders via Fedex or UPS... so a US$50 pair of earphones, that weigh about as much as a packet of gum, come with a US$75 shipping fee! crazy! Luckily a friend in the US was coming back to NZ for Xmas, so I shipped them to him (for like US$4) and he bought them back... really it should not be this hard!



I tried the earphones out while mowing the lawns and they worked really well... I plugged them into my phone and got to enjoy mp3's while getting dirty and sunburned :)

Then, I had some issues with the mic, as after making the headband and mic assembly I took it up for a test fly (i just plugged it into the spare sockets while flying solo) and it was constantly transmitting... regardless of the squelch setting... so after some investigation (ie. 'googling') I discovered that the little adjustable potentiometer on the circuitry actually controlled the mic gain. So I got out the multimeter and adjusted the 'pot'... testing last week proved that the mic was now working as it should (albeit with aircraft on the ground and engine off).



I could not test the whole unit, as I was flying dual, and I wanted to be able to have my 'real' headset plugged in as a backup incase it was a dismal failure. But as I was going solo yesterday, it was the perfect opportunity to test it out...

and it worked perfectly! So much lighter and way more comfortable than having a whopping great big headset clamped to your noggin... you dont have to worry about your sunglasses ruining the seal on the earcups (because there arent any!) and letting in noise... and you dont get all hot and sweaty from the bit headband etc...

Anyway, the flying was good... I nailed the medium, steep and compass turns and feel comfortable with stalls etc. but my forced landings were poor... I just felt really rushed and only got 1 semi-decent approach out of the 3 attempts... I will definitely need to practice some more...

Trevor should hopefully finish his MEIR (Multi-Engine Instrument Rating) this week, which will free up his time and hopefully mean we can get some midweek flying after work now that its light until around 9pm...

I am still missing some instrument flying, so I think the next lesson is going to be a good solid hour of instruments... with partial panel and unusual attitude recovery... good fun!


This flight: 1.4 Solo
Total Hours: 76.3 (59.1 Dual, 17.2 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Wild and Windy

was what Trevor was wanting so we could finish off the low flying part of the syllabus... and we got it!

Cloudbase was down around 1500', light showers passing through and the wind was up over 20 knots (the reported 2000' wind was 35 knots!)... thankfully almost straight down the runway, so not too trick for the take-off or landing...

We headed out to the low flying zone, and the strong headwind was quite obvious as despite the 75 knot (around 140-150 km/h)indicated airspeed on the climb, the cars on the roads below were crossing the ground faster than us!

First up, some Steep Turns... at 2500', this is almost fun... at 300' while setup in the bad weather config (20degrees flap, 70 kts) it is a little scarier! The optical illusion of sliding into the water is very dramatic and you really have to fight the urge to yank the yoke back.

After successfully completing a few of those, we started on Coastal Reversal Turns... basically used when we need to turn around and runaway (ie. thunderstorm ahead) but performing a standard 180 degree turn is impossible due to terrain etc... essentially you head away from your coast or line feature on a roughly 45 degree angle and (allowing for wind) roll back with a steep turn and roll out when you're confident of completing the turn within the space left...

The first one was OK... I managed to complete it fairly comfortably, the second one was a little closer... at 300', you really get to see the effects of a 20 to 30 knot wind!

After nailing the coastal reversal, we tried some constant radius turns... sounds easy flying round in circles, but with a strong wind your circle fast becomes an eggshape if you're not paying attention! Good fun!

All in all a good flight... the day would have perfect had I not hit a small patch of oil and performed some unintentional 'aerobatic maneuvers' in my car on the drive to the airfield and backed it into an embankment... thankfully it was a relatively low speed impact, as I had slowed right down for the corner due to the wet conditions, but my brand new bumper (only been on the car for about 3 or 4 weeks after getting rear-ended on the motorway) is a little messed up :( I know for a fact that its around $600 to $700 to replace, but I only have 3rd party insurance and the car is only worth around $2500, so I don't think i'll bother... besides, thats like 4 hours flying! ;)

This flight: 0.9 Dual
Total Hours: 74.9 (59.1 Dual, 15.8 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Karma?

So maybe I've upset the aviation gods... or maybe its the full moon... but flying this weekend was 'interesting'.

To begin with, the rostered B-Cat was going to be unavailable, so that ruled out flying with Trevor. However then I found he was available but only until 1100.

So I headed out for some solo work. Pre-flight was OK, except for a slight discrepancy with the paperwork as the previous hirer had recorded the previous flight hours incorrectly (warning sign #1) and I taxied out for 21.

I was observing proper behaviour and parked so I could observe base and finals before lining and was about to make the call and move when a charter flight cut in from the other side of the runway... (warning sign #2)

So I let him go, and luckily the circuit was empty so I was able to follow him out. A good max performance takeoff and I was away. Or so I thought! As I turned crosswind, a nice 20degree climbing turn, and out of nowhere the airspeed dropped from 70kts to around 55! Nose down, wings level... no stall warning or huge altitude loss, but definitely an anxious moment and expletive or three... (warning sign #3)

I vacated the circuit and headed along the Hunua Valley towards the training area trying to dodge the small pockets of clouds that were floating around 1800' to 2000'... (warning sign #4)

Once at the Training Area, I noticed that the visibility was maybe around 10 to 15km... it was very hazy and the cloud base was maybe around 2500'... so I tried to warm up with some steep turns, but with these annoying little pockets of cloud floating around in a relatively strong wind it was going to be difficult to get anything done... (warning sign #5)

So I decided to cut my losses and headed back for some circuits instead...

Made my radio call approaching the mandatory broadcast zone (MBZ)... and after releasing the push-to-talk button, heard the UNICOM operator confirming something from another aircraft... so I requested confirmation that he had heard my broadcast and was asked to repeat... (warning sign #6)

Did an overhead join into the circuit, called turning downwind... and began the approach... at which point one aircraft called lining up 21 seal and a second aircraft called rolling on 21 Grass. "No drama's", I am thinking to myself "I'm only on base, he has a lot of time to move"... at which point the guy on the seal announces that he is 'Holding on 21 Seal'.... Still not a big deal, I have time... at which point he decides that he is 'Continuing to Hold on 21 seal'... (warning sign #7)

Thanks buddy!.... "Ardmore traffic, Juliet Foxtrot Yankee turning finals for 21 GRASS, full stop".... I decided that after 7 warning signs I should take a hint!

But Karma was not finished with me... as I was coming over the fence I hear UNICOM telling a helo that "There is no reported traffic for 21 Grass".... eeeerrrrr what?!?!? "JFY, short finals for grasss!"...

I taxied back to the club, secured the plane and went and had a cuppa...

Just another day at NZAR! :)

This flight: 0.7 Solo
Total Hours: 74.0 (58.2 Dual, 15.8 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Preparing for the worst...

Yesterdays lesson was about precautionary landings... in simple terms, a landing made 'off-field' for safety reasons (ie. bad weather making it too dangerous to continue flying). Another one of those 'Proper planning and good decision making means you should never need to do this, but just in case...'-type lessons.

Not quite as stressful as a forced landing, as you still have power, so you can be a bit more choosy about where to land, and if things do not look good, you can always go-around.

It's still a little unsettling flying around at 500 feet though... but I am slowly getting more comfortable with it.

Learned some handy tricks, such as when flying past the chosen landing site on the 1st pass, to reset the Directional Indicator to north, so that when flying the 'circuit' around the field, you do not have to try to calculate unfamiliar headings on the fly, you can just reference the cardinal points (north, east, west & south)... not a huge deal, but it does reduce the workload a little in an already stressful situation.

I also found that I am not having to try so hard to keep my eyes outside... its becoming more of a natural instinct now... as Trevor said 'You want to be looking outside the majority of the time, and only use the instruments to confirm attitude and performance, not set it!'

Also, with daylight savings starting to kick in and ECT (evening civil twilight) getting close to 9pm, Trevor suggested the possibility of midweek evening flights. I am happy with that, as jade often works late, so I'm just sitting round the house waiting for her to come home anyway... may as well make use of the daylight!

This flight: 1.3 Dual
Total Hours: 73.3 (58.2 Dual, 15.1 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

One more milestone...

I knocked off another milestone today... I have passed the 15 hour minimum of solo time required for a PPL.

Trevor was away this weekend, and no other instructor was available so I decided to build up the solo hours... I had not planned to break the 15 hour minimum, it just turned out that way.

It was a simply fantastic day for flying today... blue skies, a light breeze (just enough to keep you on your toes when landing) and a cloud base high enough to enable forced landing (FLWOP) practice...

First flight of the day I took JFY and went to practice my compass turns some more. I am fairly confident with these now, having figured out that I was rolling out too soon and too hard. Like most things when flying, nice and smooth is the secret ;) Now I just need to work on the mental arithmetic required to work out the correction factors...

Then I nailed a couple of FLWOP's and headed back to the field for a couple of circuits. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind what I suspect was a relatively newly solo student doing circuits so large that a battleship would have been ashamed of them! After getting a little frustrated I called a full stop on the 3rd circuit. On the positive side, I got some good flapless practice due to the extended downwind legs ;)

After a bit of a pit stop I headed back out to the Training Area in ETZ... I was working on keeping my eyes outside and trying to fly by attitude instead of looking at the instruments... nice and challenging!

Did some Steep Turns and some more FLWOP practice... then decided to take a bit of a Tiki-tour about the Training Area. The training area was very busy with several aircraft practicing forced landings, a couple doing parachute drops and glider activity as well. However, everyone was making position reports so things went pretty smoothly.

After a lap of the TA, I headed back to Ardmore (dodging a tow-plane and glider), did an overhead join and slotted into the traffic for some circuits finishing with a nice shortfield landing on the grass.

A fantastic days flying...

This flight: 1.3 Solo + 1.5 Solo
Total Hours: 72.0 (56.9 Dual, 15.1 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

How low can you go?

Was not looking good when I drove out to NZAR this morning... weather was gray and was raining lightly... but there was not a lot of wind... and I figured I could do some groundwork if flying was a no-go...

However, the cloudbase was high enough (around 1200' AGL) to do some circuit work, so I had a "B-Cat Check" first up... an hour of circuits with Chief Instructor Rob... Basically a QA check to make sure I am learning what I am supposed to be learning... and that Trevor is teaching what he is supposed to be teaching... it had a little bit of everything thrown in... Glide Approach, Short Field Grass Landing, Max Performance Grass T/O, EFATO, Flapless, Go-Around...

busy but good fun, although I made some minor errors and was given some things to work on by Rob during the debrief... Most importantly, keeping my eyes outside... I think that in doing the basic IFR training, I have become a little bit addicted to the instruments... and have been finding it hard to get back to flying by reference (ie. attitude to horizon). Definitely something I will work on over the next few flights.

I have no idea why no-one else was flying... it was perfect weather for circuit work... not that I am complaining, with only the 3 AFC 152's in the circuit everything went like clockwork :)

Then an hour of low flying... no need to worry about the cloudbase when you are cruising around the low flying area at 250' :) some of the visual illusions (slip in) are a little disturbing, as it feels as though the aircraft is sliding down into the water!

The weather closed in about 10 minutes after we had landed and shutdown... so we were certainly the lucky ones to have got some flying done... something to be said for being the early bird I guess.

I am slowing ticking off the few boxes left (Precautionary Landings, Instrument Flying - Full and Partial Panel, Unusual attitudes) and only a few more solo hours before I have the minimum requirements...

If the weather plays ball (touch wood) I will hopefully have myself a PPL for christmas! :)

This flight: 0.8 Dual + 0.8 Dual
Total Hours: 69.2 (56.9 Dual, 12.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

More Practise

Sunday morning dawned somewhat gray... but fairly calm and the cloudbase looked OK, so I headed out to the field. I was a little concerned as I hit a light shower on the drive out, but it was nothing heavy and it seemed to pass...

Getting to the field, Trevor informed me that I should go and have a look at the Training Area, do some basic revision (stalls + turns etc) and then if it was looking good after that, we could go and do some more forced landing practise.

So I headed up, just as one of the other students was coming back in from his first solo... I imagine I had the same silly look on my face when I did mine too!

I asked his instructor what the cloudbase was looking like while they were doing circuits and was told 'at least 3000 feet'... and that it was 'a little bumpy in the circuit'...

So I fired up JBL and headed off... I'm not sure what work (if any) has been done on JBL, but it did not seem to have the plug fouling/rough running issues... as I throttled up for the Run-up and the Max Performance Take Off it was smooth as silk.

On climb out, I found the bumps as they had indicated at around 700' but passing through around 1500' it was smooth sailing...

Cloudbase was at least 4000' as I was in very clear air at 3500'... so I did a few basic stalls, some medium turns and then started the compass turns... Now I'm not sure if my maths was off or what, but it seemed like every one that I did, I ended up 10 degrees off! I think I may have been rolling out too early... so I will have to try those again on my next solo run...

I headed back to the field, and Trevor suggested we go and do some FLWOP practise as the cloudbase was good and the winds light... I jumped at the chance for more flying... he was still a little hesitant to use JBL given its rough running history so we took ETZ.

We went and did 2 FLWOPs and I nailed both of them... I have figured out what my issues were (spacing) and am now purposely choosing my 1000' and 1500' reference points that are a good distance away from the chosen field so that I do not get too close...

Next week a progress check flight with Chief Instructor Rob and a lesson on the glide approach.

This flight: 1.0 Solo + 1.0 Dual
Total Hours: 67.6 (55.3 Dual, 12.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Early bird...

Tried for an introduction to the glide approach today... not good... the circuit was not really busy, but when people are flying circuits about the same size used by 747's it makes it really hard to get your spacing correct...

We chucked it in after 3 attempts (including a Go-Around) and decided to try again next week...

I have purposely booked first thing to try to beat the crowds and get a nice empty circuit. If not, we make look at heading to Matamata and trying there.

The only positive outcome today, was that I figured out why I had issues with ETZ the other week... someone had raised the seat up! duh!

And in other news, the AB's (reduced to 14 men) were beaten by a blind referee, 2 equally blind linesman and the French this morning... Full credit to the french, we did not play smart rugby and the french took their opportunities (read: dodgy officiating) with both hand :P...

On the bright side, I might actually get some decent sleep, as I no longer have a reason to sit up till the wee hours watching the world cup! ;)

This flight: 0.5 Dual
Total Hours: 65.6 (54.3 Dual, 11.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Too close + Too High

Forced Landing practise... and lots of. And, I think I have finally figured out my problem...

I have been picking reference points (1500' AGL area and 1000' point) that are quite close to the landing zone. This is not necessarily a 'Bad Thing'(tm), but what is bad, is that I have then been flying overhead these points, rather than maintaining correct spacing. This results in me being too close and therefore too high...

But my last one (of 4 today) was really good, and I feel that I will just learn to pick points further out and watch the spacing.

On a side note, a Spitfire was doing some test flying today... simply awesome... and without doubt the most beautiful looking (and sounding) aircraft every...

Also on show was a P-51 Mustang, not the Kiwi Thunder scale replica, but the real mccoy...

This flight: 1.3 Dual (0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 65.1 (53.8 Dual, 11.3 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Spring Weather...

Mother Nature, like all women... is a very fickle creature :)

The weather today was marginal, certainly no good for the TA, but some solo circuit work looked possible...

So i jumped in JFY and headed up... wind was up a little 15, gusting 20knots... but only about 20 degrees off the runway, so the crosswind component was nothing too scary...

until it became 25knots, gusting 30 and veering all over the place...

I prudently decided to fullstop after 4 circuits (which only took 0.5hours due to the phenomenal tail wind on the downwind legs ;) as JFY was bouncing all over the place and the weather was starting to look nasty...

As I was tying the aircraft down, it started to shower and the wind really picked up... Heading in the clubrooms and one of the instructors informed me there was a 17hectopascal pressure gradient between Christchurch and Auckland... its usually probably closer to around 3 or 4! The bigger the pressure gradient, the higher the winds... not a day for light planes to be in the air!

Lessons learned? Be prepared to change your plans!

This flight: 0.5 Solo
Total Hours: 63.8 (52.5 Dual, 11.3 Solo, 3.0 IFR)

Take a hint...

Sometimes the world gives you subtle hints... sometimes its about as subtle as a brick wall across a motorway...

First up, a slight issue with one of the tyres looking like it had a flat spot... bit of canvas starting to show through, but getting the ok... as long as we go easy on the landing/brakes... we were planning on using the grass anyway... so not a big deal...

However, I really should have twigged when after taxiing down to the holding point for 03 and finding an AFS plane parked slap bang in the middle of it, that it was going to be an 'interesting' day...

So I just slotted in ahead, ran through my run-up and pre-takeoff checks and then looked around to discover that there were now six.. thats right SIX aircraft parked behind me and another taxiing out of AFS!

So after waiting for around 10-15 minutes for everyone to clear out in between the aircraft already in the circuit and others that were landing we finally got underway...

Lining up, no problems... full power... aircraft coughs a little (another subtle hint that I missed) and starts rumbling along and we climb into the blue... not that I could tell as Trevor handed me the 'Foggles' and said put these on...

And then I got another wicked case of the leans... man I swear that I was leaning left, but we were banking right... it really is the most surreal feeling...

Coupled with the turbulence running off the hills and relatively low cloudbase and I was working overtime...

We finally made it out to the TA, and found ourselves some clear air and attempted a FLWOP... spotted a nice ag-field strip, aligned into the wind and had myself setup nicely... although a touch close again... something I really need to watch...

Anyway, going for the engine warm, just to make sure this exercise stays as an exercise and not the real thing... engine starts coughing, shaking, vibrating.... Trevor and I are looking at each other and come to the same conclusion, we'll go around at 500' just to give ourselves some breathing room...

Last engine warm passing through the 1000' mark and then engine is really protesting... I decided to pull the pin as I'm just not confident the plane is going to play ball... so we head back home and decide a nice overhead join and shortfield grass is the ticket so we can at least get something out of the day...

Hah!

Come cruising into the field, call overhead and being descent to circuit altitude... another aircraft joining from the opposite end of the field calls "joining overhead, traffic (ie. me) in sight"... dont know why he bothered, as he then preceded to turn straight into me... clown... Trevor just said, climb and orbit... hahahahah! I just laughed as I pushed the throttle in and JBL started coughing like an 80 year old, pack a day smoker and I got a climb rate of around 100' minute...

Still, I put in an orbit, wishing I had machine guns or air to air missiles or something... counted to 10 and let it go...

Slotted into the circuit traffic and pulled off a really great shortfield landing.

Lessons learned? Shit Happens, remain calm, don't panic and deal with it...

This flight: 0.9 Dual
Total Hours: 63.3 (52.5 Dual, 10.8 Solo, 3.0 IFR)

Hour Building

So I am now at the stage were its practice, practice, practice... and I am trying to get the minimum hours...

I need 15 Solo, 5 IFR.

I had been intending on going and practicing stalls, turns and forced landings today, but the cloud base was around 1500 to 2000ft so I decided to bash the circuit for an hour instead.

Took ETZ for a change today (but mostly because JFY was already booked) and discovered that the seats are a little high, so while the view over the nose is great, I have some troubles getting my legs under the dash... so lifting my feet to use the toe breaks is a little tricky, and I find that when trying to turn the control column all the way to the left, it bangs into my knee...

A real shame, as ETZ is a little pocket rocket, and I love it... but I just do not think it is safe (or comfortable) for me to try to wedge myself in :(

So I practiced Max Performance Take off, Standard Approach (x4), Flapless Approach (x3) and Shortfield Grass Approach (x1) today... 8 circuits in 1.1 hours... sweet as!

Also, some really nice approaches (flying the the numbers) and some nice flare and touchdowns. I am very happy!

Next week, Forced landings and Glide Approaches.


This flight: 1.1 Solo
Total Hours: 62.4 (51.6 Dual, 10.8 Solo, 2.8 IFR)

Fine weather, Fine flying

Nice and sunny, if somewhat cloudy, which unfortunately meant that we were a little limited in what we could do today.

So we went for a flight out to the training area, not that I got to see any of it as I was using foggles (yay! much nicer than a hood) for a lot of it! :)

Standard simulated IFR, climb to X, Turn right to X, Hold your heading and altitude, turn left to X, turn right to X etc. I have to say that the instrument flying has finally 'clicked', and I am able to ignore my body and trust the instruments and complete the scan. Instead of being the brain burning concentration exercise that it started out as, I find that I am actually enjoying the challenge.

Then some compass turn practice, and I think I am fairly proficient at those... I have the Over North, Under South thing memorised, and can work the required corrections fairly quickly now.

Finally back to the field for a couple of quick circuits, with some real greaser landings, and then shutdown.

This flight: 0.9 Hours Dual, 0.3 IFR
Total Hours: 61.3 (51.6 Dual, 9.7 Solo, 2.8 IFR)

AR - HN - AR...

or How I spent almost $400 in 2.2 hours

My first Cross-Country today... A short hop down to NZHN (Hamilton) and back, mainly as a map reading exercise to learn some of the basic techniques and to get an idea of how we work from map-to-ground.

As it was such a short hop (53 nautical miles), I was fairly busy... Trevor did a lot of the flying and I concentrated on working the map.

It was also my first experience in a loooooong time, 7 years since starting out at NZPM (Palmerston North) dealing with controlled airspace and ATC (air traffic control). Trevor was saying that a lot of students who come from an uncontrolled aerodrome like NZAR (Ardmore) often have some problems having to interact with ATC and get a bit nervous that they'll screw something up... having had previous experience, I knew what to expect and what the basics were, so it was not so bad.

Departure was interesting, as lately, I've been doing a lot of solo work, with relatively light fuel loads... given an instructor and completely full tanks the 152 flies like a bus... even with the good conditions, high pressure, relatively low pressure which should give good performace, we were only getting about 200-300 feet per minute climb! Solo, I can easily get around 500-600!

The trip down was busy, and I learnt that things that look big on the map, can be damn tricky to find when you're flying along at 2500ft at 100kts! I don't know what those waikato farmers are moaning about... you can barely see those big power pylons! ;)

The arrival was fairly easy as traffic was pretty sparse, and we were assigned the seal runway... it can handle 737's so its fairly long and wide... and once again having PAPI's to judge my descent profile was nice.

After taxiing to the Waikato Aeroclub, I took 5 minutes, said hi to a mate who had come out to grab some photo's of the airport for a 3D modelling project, and then jumped back in solo for some circuits. Was given 36-Grass, and it was good fun interacting with ATC again... my only complaint was that the circuit some of the aircraft were flying seemed to be about twice the size of NZAR, the students at NZHN must pay a fortune to get the same number of circuits as I do, as following them I only managed 3 in just under 40 minutes!

Then back to the aeroclub to pickup Trevor and an interesting departure (with the lacklustre performance we struggled to get off Grass 25L, the flock of birds didnt help my blood pressure any!) we headed for home...

Overall, Trevor was impressed with my efforts and I'm feeling a lot more confident...

This flight: 1.6 Hours Dual, 0.6 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 60.4 (50.7 Dual, 9.7 Solo, 2.5 IFR)

Book worm...

so no luck on the flying front today... but I still had an enjoyable BDay... the AB's kicked arse... I got to sleep in until 1pm... and I still went out to the flying club to do some groundwork...

covered the flight manual and the various info in it with regards to weight and balance, P-Charts, NOTAM's and Weather Briefings...

learnt some interesting bits of info and where they are contained in the AIP's...

then did some practice weight/balance and P-chart scenarios for the C-152... and discovered that they do not have a very useful load!

Also went over NOTAM's and weather briefing info..

Then I got to go for a yummy steak dinner (although I ate a bit much)

All in all, a great day...

Getting closer...

So the warriors lost :( but I got to go flying today... so I'm happy again!

And for some extra good news, Trevor is back from the Sudan, so hopefully he will be around for a while and I wont have to battle the hordes to get an instructor...

Quick jaunt out to the TA for some stalling and FLWOP practice... feeling more confident about my FLWOP now, as I was able to make a nice stable approach both times... 1st one was a little high, but the 2nd was really good...

back to the field for an overhead join and a couple of circuits (3 very nice landings too!) and taxiing back into the apron at the club, I saw Trevor walking out to one of the planes... his first question was 'When is your flight test?'... I am closer, and I believe I have covered all the PPL syllabus material, it is now basically a matter of practice, practice, practice... and getting the required minimums (Solo hours, IFR etc)...

anyway, It's almost my B'Day (Go the All Blacks!), so hopefully I will get to fly tomorrow as a small present to myself...

This flight: 1.1 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 58.2 (49.1 Dual, 9.1 Solo, 2.5 IFR)

Let there be (f)light...

So yesterday was a right-off... but this morning dawning nice and bright... and SUNNY! Bit of a breeze blowing, but 20kts straight down the strip is no real problem...

Dan was away today, and one of the other instructors, Ian, offered to go up with me today, but I decided to go for another solo and see if I could get the stalling and FLWOP practice I was going to do last week but decided against given the bumpy ride.

I pre-flighted JFY, then headed out to the run-up area for 21. Got to follow, then watch the Kiwi Thunder Mustang doing run-ups.. it may only be a 'scaled' version of the original P-51d, but it actually outperforms the original in a lot of respects!

So I headed south to the TA, and tuned into the Mercer (NZME) frequency to see what was happening and to announce my intentions... unfortunately, aside from the normal parachute drop zone operations, the mustang had decided to do some aerobatics out to the east of the field, an AFS aircraft was operating in the area as were 2 or 3 others.

As I had enough to worry about without having to dodge 3 or 4 other aircraft, I put in a call and cut across the edge of the Mercer area and headed out towards the Firth of Thames and the paddocks out by Miranda. So I learnt another good lesson today, when everyone is taking the 'short' way to the training area by departing via Drury, it might be worth doing a half circuit and departing via the Hunua Valley, as I effectively had to fly past it to get where I was going anyway!

While watching the mustang doing all sorts of 'interesting' maneuvers (I definitely want to try out aerobatics!) out to the south of my position... I got setup and climbed up to 3000' to commence practice...

Put in some Steep Turns, left and right and then setup for some 'Basic' Stalls. Was good revision, but not as 'fun' as wingdrops! ;)

Finally, I decided to try some Forced Landing practice. Unfortunately, this did not go so well... At first I thought I was too high, so I was trying to bleed off altitude to get to my 1500' area, but then completely missed my 1000' mark. As the wind was a lot stronger than I had anticipated, I drifted too far downwind and ended up going around at the (minimum for students) 500' before I had even turned on finals.

So I climbed back up to 2500' and tried again. This time I was making allowances for the wind, but still ended up drifting a little far from the field. I had only just got to turning to finals and was already at 500' so had to go around. I will definitely need to spend some more time practicing forced landings! But as Ian mentioned when I got back, FLWOP's are probably one of the hardest exercises as the conditions play a big part and are usually different every time.

So I headed back up the Hunua Valley, did an overhead join and then 2 quick circuits before stopping for the day. I could have stayed in the circuit a little longer, but there were about 3 or 4 aircraft at the holding point and after the 2nd landing there were another 5 heading out down the taxiway... through in a few more joining overhead and a couple of AFS planes simulating EFATO's, I decided to call it quits.

I have to say that a 17kt (gusting 25-30kt) wind straight down the strip makes for great landings... I really concentrated on my speeds today and my first landing was a total greaser! I flew down finals at 65kts and came over the fence bang on 60kts... I touched down so softly, I did not actually realise I had landed!

All round, a great day... I'm grinning like an idiot again :D

This flight: 1.2 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 57.1 (49.1 Dual, 8.0 Solo, 2.5 IFR)

Another first

First time solo out of the circuit today... I went for a solo down to the Training Area. Put in some medium/steep turn practise and then headed back to field as the weather started to turn nasty...

It was getting quite bumpy with a fairly strong crosswind (18kts gusting 23) and I screwed up my first approach (very high/very fast) so I went around and set up again. While I was going around, there were discussions amongst UNICOM and several of the aircraft in the area about changing the runway direction. It really made no difference to be honest as the wind was basically at 90 degrees to the runway!

I made another approach that was much better than the first, as I extended downwind to allow for the lack of flaps and was concentrating more on 'flying the numbers' and managed to get down... although the actual touchdown was a little poor and several expletives passed my lips as I bobbled up and down in the flare in the crappy conditions.

Still... as they say, "Any landing you walk away from" + bonus points if the plane is still airworthy ;)

Unfortunately, this crappy weather looks likely to hold for the rest of the weekend, so tomorrow will probably be a washout.

This flight: 0.9 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 55.9 (49.1 Dual, 6.8 Solo, 2.5 IFR)

The scenic route...

Managed to squeeze in a flight today... and was quite enjoyable. Especially after I woke up around 1000 with a weather front racing across the sky, the wind howling, the rain pouring and the missus gloating that my 'arse was hers for the day', complete with evil cackle (see scares me sometimes)...

Thankfully, by 1130, the sun was shining and the wind had dropped, so I jumped in the car and cruised out to NZAR to see what was happening.

I figured it could not be too bad as there was a constant stream of aircraft departing as I drove towards the airfield.

Dan had been up with another student and said it was not too bad. So I pre-flighted JFY and we taxied out towards runway 21. So we headed out with the intention that if I could demonstrate a good knowledge of the training area, and how to get back to the airfield, Dan would sign me off for solo work in the TA.

A half-circuit and departure via the waterworks later, and Dan was handing me the Hood. So we started with some simulated IFR and the usual (boring) hold this heading, climb to 3000 feet, turn right to 150 etc. Then I 'suffered a vacuum system failure' as Dan covered up the AI and DI and put me through some Partial Panel work and Compass Turns. Then, because he is such a nice guy, he decided it would be a good time to learn "Unusual Attitude Recovery."

Basically, you look at the floor and close your eyes. Then your instructors starts throwing the plane all over the sky, which totally disorientates you, and then leaves the plane in some weird attitude (usually spiral dive or climbing turn) and you have to recover based on what the instruments are showing. All while wearing the hood and in simulated IFR conditions.

It is a really good example of the tricks the inner ear plays on you and you really have no idea which way is up, down, left or right. And is not helped when your instructor says recover and you look at the instruments and all your senses are screaming different things and you're thinking "we must be upside down after the way he was throwing it round", but the instruments are indicating straight and level flight. It's REALLY bizarre.

After that little roller coaster ride, I removed the hood and Dan says, right take us home. It took me about 4 or 5 seconds to actually figure out where I was and what options we had. As I had been up the Hunua Valley so many times, I decided to take a 'Tiki Tour' up the coast and enjoy the scenery. Its the long way home, but I had never done it before and the view out across the water to the Coromandel peninsula was good. It was a little bumpy with fairly strong crosswind and the turbulence coming off the ranges but was still enjoyable.

Luckily we managed to slot right between 2 rain showers coming across Kawakawa Bay before flying up the valley back to NZAR, while getting UNICOM a little anxious by being at 1800' with a helicopter at 800' ;) before an overhead join and a crosswind landing (gusting to 18knots, with the windsock swinging 90 degress as I came over the fence!)

Dan was happy with my performance and said he would be willing to sign me out for solo for the training area. Woohoo!

Time to sit down and sort out exactly what I need to do from here to get to sit my PPL Flight Test.

This flight: 1.1 Hours Dual (0.6 IFR)
Total Hours: 55.0 (49.1 Dual, 5.9 Solo, 2.5 IFR)

No flying luke..

'nuff said...

"Good Flying Luke"

A quote from an old Star Wars video game, where your instructor complimented your flying... its a bit of an in-joke with me and my wife, as this is what she got when she tried to play and she flew through the canyon crashing her ship from one side to the other (she had the invinicibility cheat turned on, so got a perfect 0% damage run!)

Anyway, I actually did pretty well today... It was fairly benign weather with just a moderate crosswind, and some wicked thermals coming off the Hunua Ranges.

Went and practised some Wingdrop stalls... actually quite good fun... the view goes something like sky->sky->more sky+stall warning->GROUND! :)

HASELL/HELL check, carb heat hot, throttle 1500RPM, in the white arc take full flap, carb heat off going through 60kts, hold back pressure, stall warning, keep holding back and eventually the stall will fully develop (due to gyroscopic forces from the engine/prop, the plane tends to drop the port wing), then controls forward (NO AILERON!) and full power and right rudder all at the same time, then roll plane level, nose up above horizon, once we have a positive rate of climb we slowly bleed off the flaps 1 stage at a time.

I mentioned no aileron and its important, otherwise it will exacerbate the wingdrop and put the plane into a spin = bad! The natural reflex when you roll over is to try to roll it back... and I almost did it on the first one...

After that, a quick PFWLOP (which I kind of stuffed up as I was a little high... I think I was too close to the field on downwind)... and then home for a perfect grass landing.

All in all, another fantastic day in the air!

This flight: 1.0 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 53.9 (48.0 Dual, 5.9 Solo, 1.9 IFR)

Why is it...

that the weather people only seem to get it right when they say its going rain?


I am sure the satellite imagery from the weekend would have looked something like this...




because when I woke up on saturday (and sunday for that matter) it looked like this...






By saturday night, it looked like this:

And my ADSL router died...







And, as I mentioned before, sunday morning was a lot like this...

The ugly...

After such a great day yesterday, I was very disappointed today :(

Was grey when I got up... the wind picked up a little during the morning and by the time I headed out to NZAR (around 11.30am) it had turned decidedly ugly.

Dan had not actually got back from a cross country flight with another student, so I just pre-flighted the plane so we would not be delayed when he got back... but while waiting, the wind got stronger and the rain came and went.

When he finally made it back, I asked about the weather and he said, oh its not too bad... a little bumpy but nothing too horrible.

So we jumped into JFY and headed up to go and do some wing drop stalls and forced landings. He was right about it being a little bumpy, and the plane was rocking and rolling... good fun, although I was beginning to regret my large brunch ;) Unfortunately, halfway up the Hunua Valley, we were greeted by a wall of cloud and rain showers... so we cut over the hills to Drury to find some 'clear' air. Put in some steep turn practice and then some basic and power+flap stalls and then headed back for some circuits. Went for flapless landings and with the high winds (and rather large crosswind), it was definitely good practice. The first landing was actually pretty dreadful... the result of carrying too much speed (80kts coming over the fence).

The second (and final due to the weather closing in) was much much nicer. Had good speed control and the landing, while not feather-lite was definitely one of my better ones. Dan even commented that my control was good and that I did well considering the conditions.

I am hoping that we can get to the wing drop stalls (and forced landing practice) next week, so I can finally get sign-off for solo flights to the training area. I am slowly edging closer to my PPL and weather permitting, I will hopefully have it some time around Sept/Oct... what a birthday present that would be!

This flight: 0.8 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 52.9 (47.0 Dual, 5.9 Solo, 1.9 IFR)

As good as it gets...

It's flights like the one today that just keep you coming back for more... much like that elusive 'perfect' shot during a round of golf (which eventually ends up at 38 over par), today's flight had me grinning like an idiot for hours...

After weeks of ratty, grey, wet weather, I woke up to perfect blue skies and no wind. Rolled out to NZAR and pre-flight JFY and then headed up for some simulated IFR and compass turn and short field (aka. Grass) landing practice.

After such a long period without flying and my last couple of IFR lessons had been a bit wobbly, I had thought my flying today would be a bit average. But I actually did really well. I think I have finally figured out how to ignore my senses and believe the instruments. Also, I think I am starting to get 'The Feel'(tm) for the instrument scan, so I can keep an eye on everything and keep the plane under control.

I was actually starting to enjoy it, when Dan decided to throw me a curveball and simulate a vacuum system failure. This basically involves covering up the Attitude Indicator (Artifical Horizon) and the Direction Indicator. This is definitely a lot harder... especially when you then have to pull off compass turns at the same time!

I surprised myself and managed to fly relatively well... got the compass turns almost perfectly and managed to hold headings and altitude well.

So he decided I could take the hood off and we would head over to the grass strip at Mercer to practice some short field landings. Unfortunately, upon switching to the Mercer frequency, we got a radio call from a guy meat-bombing (dropping parachuters), so landing there was out of the question. So we headed back to NZAR, put in an overhead join and then a fullstop landing onto the grass.

This flight: 1.1 Hours Dual (0.6 IFR)
Total Hours: 52.1 (46.2 Dual, 5.9 Solo, 1.9 IFR)

As real as it gets?

Ok, so I'm a computer geek... and after getting back into my flying, I have also started 'Flight Simming'. I remember the days when a flight sim was just a bunch of vector graphics in white on black (or green on black if you're really old school) running at something ludicrous like 5 frames per second.

Boy did I get a shock when I got Microsoft FlightSim 2004... lots of pretty pictures and fairly accurate planes and flight dynamics and running nice and smooth.

I figured it would be a good way to 'practice' my flying on bad weather days etc, and when trying to run through drills and checklists.

So I 'geeked out' and went and bought a flight yoke:



and some rudder pedals:



And doing some online flying, its nice to be able to communicate with other pilots without having to stop everything and type in the chat box... so voice comms is a must.

I already had a PC headset (with a mic) that I used to use for talking smack while playing counterstrike etc. but I found that after several hours of flying, my ears would get a little sore, due to their 'on-ear' design. In a flash on genius, I thought "Hmmmm, I wonder if I can use my nice comfy aviation headset instead?"

So for those out there that use a flightsim and also fly in the real world and/or actually have 'real' aviation headsets... I have figured out how to use an aviation headset with the PC...

Now, I have a Pilot Avionics PA 11-60...






Not the worlds greatest aviation headset... but I'm going to treat myself to a nice noise canceling one when I get my license. Anyway... I figured I could either buy an adapter (something like this), but they seem to average around US$50!! or I could make one!! So I had a hunt around online.. and came up with this page and this page which showed me what i needed to know...

• Headphone can probably be connected directly to PC (assuming stereo headset)
• Microphone will need special sized jack
• Microphone probably needs amp power

So, first up I tried the headphone connection. As the headphone plug is just a standard 6.5mm (1/4" inch) plug and mine is a stereo headset, I got a simple 6.5mm stereo to 3.5mm stereo converter for just a couple of $$ from from Dick Smith. Worked like a charm, and the added noise reduction of the headset means I can actually run at a lower volume and still hear things perfectly... BONUS!

Next was the microphone. Unfortunately, as mentioned on those websites, the microphone plug was an 'odd' size... in this case 5.3mm or .210" inch. Working off the part numbers from the websites, I found some online mail order places in the US that had them for like US$2... not too bad I thought, but they wanted like US$30 to ship them! WTF?!!

So i tried some of the avionics companies in NZ (a couple out at Ardmore etc.) and they wanted some ridiculous prices like NZ$20+GST.... pfft

Luckily I then found this New Zealand based site, RS Components... they have the Switchcraft S12B for like NZ$8+GST... and if you are in AKL, you can go pick it up at the trade counter in Penrose and dont have to worry about shipping costs! It took them about a week to ship it in but was definitely better than paying US$30!

So then it was down to Dick Smith to collect the other bits and pieces I would need:

• 2x 22uF Electrolytic Capacitors (# R4086 @ $0.20/each)
• 1x 470 Ohm resistor (# R0171 @$0.28/pack of 5)
• 1x Switch (# P7699 @$1.74/each)
• 1x 3.5mm Panel mount Jack (# P1231 @$1.54/each)
• 1x Circuit Board (# H5614 @$4.94/each)
• 1x Project Box (# H2840 @$5.99/each)

For the wiring, I figured i would not need anything too hefty, as the currents/voltages would be relatively small... I had some old ethernet cables lying around, so I hacked one up and used some short lengths of the wires inside.

Bit of soldering here... bit of soldering there... some drilling/hacking on the project box and voila... one Aviation Headset to PC Adapter for less than NZ$25!









Now, to use my headset with the PC, I plug the headphone plug directly into the PC (using the 6.5mm to 3.5mm adapter) and I then put the microphone plug from the headset into the box, and use a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable to connect the box to the PC.

Testing show far, indicates that other uses on Teamspeak can hear me OK (One person reckons I sound like a pilot making announcements over the intercom on an airliner) and when I connected to an FSX multiplayer server, a radio check had me reading at 5.

Notes:

If I had to do it again, I would probably used a different switch. The one I chose had to be mounted before you could solder it, due to its mounting design. Not a big thing, but made it a little more challenging.

Electrolytic Capacitors are required, as other types are not polarised. This is apparently, quite important, although I am not entirely sure why. I believe it has something to do with isolating the power from the PC sound card, so it does not interfere with the power supplied by the 9V battery.

I had to trim the circuit board down to fit it in the box, as I only required a small section of it for this really simple circuit and it didnt come in smaller sizes. Using a Stanley knife, I simply scored the board several times, between 2 of the circuit strips, and then snapped it. In hindsight, I probably should have done this BEFORE i actually soldered it all together, in case the board snapped badly, breaking the circuit.

Project boxes are a real P.I.T.A. to cut holes in... however, a drill with good bits, a sharp pair of scissors, a Stanley knife and a lot of patience will work. Take your time and measure often, as if you make the hole too big for your socket/switch, you're screwed!

Pros:

• The 24db NRR of the headset means I cannot hear the wife yelling at me that I need to get off the computer and cook dinner/mow the lawns/wash the car/come to bed
• Don't get sore ears from the 'on ear'-type headsets pushing against my ears on long flights
• Good quality headphones and microphone
• Added realism
• Fun! Yay, I get to use my multi-meter and soldering iron

Cons:

• The 24db NRR of the headset means I cannot hear the wife yelling at me that I need to get off the computer and cook dinner/mow the lawns/wash the car/come to bed = T.R.O.U.B.L.E.
• Requires some electronics know how (and the ability to solder)
• Availability of parts. Unfortunately, the mic jack is quite difficult to get.
• Cost, you can probably get a USB headset for the cost of the parts (NZ$25). Not to mention the headset itself which was well over $150 when I got it about 3-4 years ago

Lots and lots...

of nothing :(

The weather has just been crap for weeks. And in typical fashion, the first nice day and everything is fully booked. I had been planning on sneaking in a flight this morning, but it looks like the bookings have been re-arranged to make that impossible :(

So I have now booked up for next weekend... fingers crossed.

More of the same...

OWWW!!

So i decided to go for some more circuits... what a big mistake... I gave up after I smashed my head into the roof of the cockpit for the 3rd circuit in a row and almost said 'bad words'(tm) over the air as I was in the middle of doing my downwind call.

Turbulence = BAD

I think I will no longer do circuit practice if the winds are coming from 090 thru 150! Hopefully the mechanics will be able to get the headshaped ding out of the cockpit roof!

On the plus side, I got some good crosswind circuit practice ;)

This flight: 0.7 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 51.0 (45.1 Dual, 5.9 Solo, 1.3 IFR)

Concrete mixers... Friend or Foe?

That was the question I was asking myself about 2 minutes into my flight. Let me explain...

After a week of really shite weather, I rolled out of bed to be greated with completely clear blue skies and a gentle breeze... awesome i think, getting my stuff together and heading out to NZAR. Pre-flighted JFY and talked bollocks with a couple of the instructors and other students while waiting for the tanker to fill up the aircraft, then headed out to the active for and hours worth of solo circuits.

And that's when the fun began! Adjacent to the airfield, running parallel to the strip is a range of low-lying hills, around 1000 to 1200 feet or so... nothing to scary. However, as I found out, when you put a wind over them at around 10 to 15 knots, they generate a fair amount of turbulence

Just so you know, C-152's do not like turbulence!

Anyway, I stuck it out for 4 circuits before calling it quits... and it was good to get some proper crosswind landing practise. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

This flight: 0.5 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 50.3 (45.1 Dual, 5.2 Solo, 1.3 IFR)

Back on the horse...

Finally made it back into the air this morning. Despite the dodgy looking weather reports all week, the weather this morning was good. Perhaps a little windy but definitely flyable. So Idrove out to NZAR and sure enough the wind was almost straight down the strip and was only around 11 knots.

Pre-flighted JFY, the only problems being an overdue compass swing which had been granted an extension... phew! and some dirt in the fuel, which turned out to just be some crap sitting in the bottom of the collection tube... double phew!

So I jumped in, went through my checks, started up and taxied out towards the run-up area for the active runway, 21. Luckily the pattern wasn't too busy so I did not have to wait long after completing the run-up before I could line up and roll.

Unfortunately about 15 feet into the air was when I discovered that while it was a fairly gentle wind on the surface, the wind aloft was a bit stronger! Made the downwind leg fast with a 20 to 25 knot tailwind! Still it made for a fun, if somewhat challenging session and I got in some really sweet landings on the seal with some flapless landings for good measure and a passable shortfield one to finish on the grass.

If the weather holds, I might get some more tomorrow.

This flight: 0.9 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 49.8 (45.1 Dual, 4.7 Solo, 1.3 IFR)

When the wind blows...

not such a great week in hindsight. Liverpool lost to AC Milan... and no flying for me. 25 knots gusting to around 30 made today a bit of a write-off. On the plus side, I have saved quite a bit of money by not flying!

Also, got news that Trevor is still alive and kicking, so the Sudan hasn't claimed him yet...

Will hopefully get some flying next week... I'm getting anxious

Liver transplants...

I'm probably going to need one before I turn 40! but dont tell my aviation doc! :)

Went to a friend's housewarming party on saturday night... followed up with the FA Cup final at 2am on sunday morning...

needless to say I am a little worse for wear, but generally coping OK... must have been the expired Jim Beam and Cola RTD's that I had been drinking, but I didnt have the usual gut-wrenching illness or pounding headache... just a general feeling of needing some sleep...

Thankfully, I did not need to worry about flying, as 'Captain Dan' (heh, I cant wait to show him my Forrest Gump impersonation next weekend) had gone to WLG this weekend and the weather was kinda dodgy anyway.

In other news, I got a new car!! woohoo... and it has an alarm/immobiliser so should be a tad bit harder to steal! Its a black 1994 Nissan Primera eGT hatchback... has slightly more street cred than my old pink "barcelona beige" lancer! the only thing that annoys me a little is that it is an auto... would have preferred a manual but beggers cant be choosers... and it only cost $2500! sweet!

now i just need to wait for my insurance cheque to arrive so my bank balance doesnt look as bad...

fingers crossed for some fine weather next weekend... and a win for Liverpool in thursday champions league final... YNWA

Magnets and Circles...

more commonly known as Compass Turns...

So I was sitting in the pre-flight briefing (after having promised myself that I would read up on compass turns during the week... and not) doing the "Nod and Smile"(tm) routine as my new instructor[1], Dan, went through the basics of Compass Turns...

I didnt quite grasp some of the reasonings[2] for why the compass does wierd stuff when you're turning, but was given the old "it'll become clear when we are actually doing it" line... [cue Tui ad]...

BUT, sure enough, once airbourne (and with some more simulated IFR under my belt) and Dan demostrated the various effects of flight on the compass. It is quite interesting how the Direction Indicator (DI) turns at a completely different speed to the compass and hence why you need to make allowances for the compass error... and also how the compass turns differently depending on the aircrafts alignment to the Earth's north/south magnetic fields...

Still good fun, and some more valuable lessons learned... Unfortunately, Dan is away next sunday[3], so I am planning on using the time to brush up on some groundwork like P-Charts, weight and balance and maybe some nav and weather if I can find another instructor at the club on saturday who is bored :)

This flight: 0.9 Hours Dual (0.4 IFR)
Total Hours: 48.9 (45.1 Dual, 3.8 Solo, 1.3 IFR)

[1] Trevor has gone to the Sudan for a couple of months to get some Twin Turboprop time... good on him, i just hope he comes back... and not in a box!
[2] Another reason for reading things BEFORE i get to the airfield!
[3] kind of works out for me coz i'll probably be up late watching the FA Cup Final on saturday night anyway ;)

Dont believe your ears!

Got a first hand demonstration of the importance of trusting your instruments today...

I went up with the CFI, so he could check my progress and make sure that I am learning what i should be.

He seemed a little surprised that with the amount of hours that I had, that I was not up to where I should be in the syllabus... until I explained my history and 5 year gap between hours 32 and 33 of my flight training :)

He was also concerned my IFR flight was not as good as it should be with 3 or 4 hours of IFR... until I explained I only had 0.7 hours!

I'm going to put it down to a couple of things... firstly, my car was stolen on friday... I got back to the train station after work and after staring at the empty parking spot for about 2 or 3 seconds realised it was gone... grrrrrr

Secondly, I think I was a touch nervous flying with the 'Big Cheese'... silly I know, but there is always going to be a little performance anxiety when demonstrating in front of a senior aviator.

Anyway, back to the topic... don't believe your (inner) ears! I got a bad case of the leans... it was really wierd... I could have sworn we were straight and level, but the plane was obviously banked to the right as we kept drifting and I could see the AI showing a slight bank. Whenever I tried to correct it, I thought I was banking left and instinctively corrected that! The result being that I found it very difficult to maintain straight and level flight.

Later, Trevor told me that it was good that I had experienced that, and even better that I had realised what was happening... I just wish I had been able to correct it better.

Following that, some FLWOP practise, did OK... I am fairly confident that I will be able to put the plane down safely if the worst does happen (touch wood)... and then back to NZAR for some circuits.

Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the airfield, as the weather was just perfect for flying, world+dog had decided to go flying and there were planes all over the place, so we cut it short and headed for the grass... I did ok for my 3rd grass landing ever, but was a little fast on the approach... I think I will ask Trevor for some grass/short landing practise... I might even just go up for some solo circuits to work on it.

Next week will be Compass Turns and following sign-off of competency at that, I will be able to fly solo outside the circuit. ie. I can go to the training area on my own :)

This flight: 1.1 Hours Dual (0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 48.0 (44.2 Dual, 3.8 Solo, 0.9 IFR)

Use the force Luke...

thats how I feel after the latest flight... that scene from Star Wars where Luke has the helmet on with the blast visor down and is trying to battle the little floating ball... only I was wearing these... they're called Foggles and work on the same sort of principle ie. you can't see.

So instead of looking out the window, it was scanning instruments and making turns and climbs as instructed... only today it was not "climb to 2500 feet"... "ok now, turn right to 040"... "now turn left to 250"... it was "turn right to 040 while climbing to 2500.... at 80kts"... "now, climb to 3000 while turning left to 020... at 70kts"... "now climb to 3500 at 90kts"...

I think the phrase is "Busier than a one-armed paper hanger"!!

And then a couple of FLWOP before back under the foggles and heading for home... Was making little 5 and 10 degree course changes and when I finally got the ok to remove the foggles I was about 15 seconds from making the overhead rejoin... its very disorientating :)

Managed to pull off a decent overhead join despite 2 others doing the same thing... at the same time... from different directions... NZAR is a busy place on a sunday afternoon!

Have been told that next week I will be flying with a B-Cat to get checked out for solo work in the training area! Sort of a mini-checkride... should be fun :)

This flight: 1.3 Hours Dual (0.5 IFR)
Total Hours: 46.9 (43.1 Dual, 3.8 Solo, 0.7 IFR)

Forget everything I've said...

and don't look out the window.

Those were the instructions as I started my instrument training to cover the required 5 hours of IFR flight necessary for my PPL. Having spent 40 something hours enjoying the view out the window and using the horizon as my reference point, it was quite disturbing to be robbed of all my visual queues, from 300' AGL.

Having said that, I think I did quite well for my first 0.2 hours of (simulated) instrument flying. Just some basic stuff like climbing and descending, and making "Rate One" turns (ie. 3 degrees per second, but i have been told by several people that these 5 hours of training are the ones that are most likely to save my life. Apparently, VFR-only pilots often get caught out in IFR conditions quite a lot and, without the visual references, get disoriented and crash and burn. Something similar to what many think happened to JFK Jr.

So after around 10 minutes my instructor let me look outside and I was amazed to see pretty much everything south of the bombay's and the hunua ranges (pretty much the entire Waikato region) blanketed in fog. This meant that we were unable to head down to the training area, so back to the airfield for some circuits and then shutdown.

On the plus side, as I got back early, I got to go for a joyride in a Cessna 182. Unfortunately, I was not flying (nor in the other front seat)... I was just along as a passenger so one of the other club members could classify his type-rating flight as a full load. The 182 is to the 152 as the Titanic is to a 10ft dinghy :) It was like sitting in the back of a Lincoln Towncar. So comfortable and with all the legroom a 6'3" guy could want... And I got a bit of a view of the V8 racing at Pukekohe :)

This flight: 0.9 Hours Dual (0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 45.6 (41.8 Dual, 3.8 Solo, 0.2 IFR)

Mayday, Mayday, Mayday...

Not really... just more FLWOP practise... only this time, flying the complete procedure... down to around 100 feet!!! :)

Weather was a little rough, had a real rollercoaster ride heading over the small range of hills to the training area... a couple of light showers (if you can see through it, you can fly through it)... an engine that was 'occasionally' running a little rough (maybe carb icing?)... and about a 20kt westerly wind made for a challenging lesson today.

Good fun though...

The highlight being the circuit fun and games on return to the airfield. Made an almost perfect overhead join (only thing wrong was I made a minor error on one of the radio calls)... was cruising downwind, made my call... then heard '[callsign], Overhead Karaka, joining downwind'... meanwhile, some nonce in a grumman decided to make a straight-in approach for the runway... so I was left with no option but to extend downwind to be number 3 behind the guy trundling in on long finals.

My instructor then heard the downwind call over the craft that had joined downwind and realised that it was a twin-engined plane on a commercial charter and we were going to get squeezed... so we made a direct approach to the runway threshold, effectively making base and final legs into one... as I made my finals call we hear "Where did ETZ come from?"...

My instructor jumps in with "We joined overhead"... after landing, shutting down and securing the aircraft we were back inside the clubrooms and the phone rang... apparently the pilot in the twin was non too impressed with us... whatever, we're not the ones making straight in approaches!

so the CFI from the club went for a word with the other operator... nothing too dramatic, just a quick chat to clarify some things... apparently the twin didnt hear our calls, so figured he could steam downwind as fast as he liked ;)

'Advanced' stalling next lesson... the dreaded 'wing-drop' stall ;)

This flight: 1.2 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 44.7 (40.9 Dual, 3.8 Solo)

What goes up...

...must come down. At least, thats the theory. And funnily enough, if you put a Cessna 152 to idle power at 3000', it starts to come down :)

An introduction to Forced Landings WithOut Power (FLWOP) today. Just covering some of the basics like "immediate actions", site selection, the pattern to fly to ensure a 'positive' outcome should it ever happen for real etc.

Personally, I was just happy to be out of the circuit. And with all the circling and field spotting, I really felt like I was flying. I must have had the stupiest looking grin on my face today. It was great, a slight breeze, but visibility was almost unlimited, the sun was shining and I'm really starting to get 'The Feel'(tm) back.

Almost had the opportunity to start racking up the mandatory 5 hours of instrument flying today, as the flying out to the training area and back is essentially wasted time as you cruise along straight and level not doing anything. Unfortunately, one of the necessary instruments for IFR flight (the Turn Co-Ordinator) is currently unserviceable in JFY, so no-go... which was a little disappointing, as Instrument Flying is something that I have never done. Next week I have ETZ booked, so we should be good to go.

Anyway, we cruised out to the training area (I understand what my instructor says about wasted time), climbing up to 3000' and had my instructor demo a FLWOP, then I practised a few. I learnt some important lessons today... the most important one being that a light aircraft like the C-152 glides really well... and you do NOT need to be so concerned with not making it to your chosen landing site that you end up getting too close, too soon. I need to have a little more faith in the aircraft and fly the pattern as the aircraft really can perform like they say it does.

More of the same next week, and hopefully some instrument flying :)

This flight: 1.1 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 43.5 (39.7 Dual, 3.8 Solo)

2nd 1st solo...

Woohoo... survived my 1st Solo... again! :)

Headed out to NZAR feeling a little nervous (this isnt an april fools day joke is it?) and excited at the same time. Pre-flighted the plane to find 39 litres in the starboard tank... and 0 in the port tank!!??! Then I noticed the plane was sitting on a bit of an angle and all the fuel had drained from one side to the other. So I had to sit around waiting for the tanker to show, while reading some information on Mag Checks that the B-Cat had prepared for me (which ironically turned out to be quite fitting)...

So we headed up for some circuits to demonstrate my proficiency... and noticed the airplane was really struggling. At first we put it down to full fuel tanks and 2 quite large passengers :)

However when it started running a little rough on the 2nd approach, I finally noticed that the mags were not set to Both, so only one set of spark plugs was firing. We had double checked the setting after doing the Run-up checks, so the only thing I can put it down to is that my knee must have bumped the key. See what I mean about the Mag Check info?

Well the plane performance picked up dramatically after that, and the next couple of circuits went well. So the B-Cat put in the 'Full-stop, not complete, student continuing solo' call and jumped out telling me 'Stay in the circuit as long as you like, Have fun!'

Honestly, I could have stayed there all day, but sadly the cloud base was starting to get very low so I had to call it quits after only 3 circuits... but boy I was so stoked. There is still nothing like your 1st solo... even the 2nd time around :)

This flight: 0.3 Hours Dual, 0.7 Hours Solo
Total Hours: 42.4 (38.6 Dual, 3.8 Solo)

Nearly there...

Another hour of circuits... but this time, in Echo Tango Zulu. Another C-152, but a completely different beast. My right leg is going to be v. sore after basically holding the rudder for an entire hour!

Still, some good flapless landings, a walkthru of EFATO again, and finished with some really good 'normal' landings.

Had the opportunity to have a solo check today, but unfortunately had lunch booked so will have to wait until next week :(

This flight: 1.1 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 41.4 (38.3 Dual, 3.1 Solo)

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

and while you're at it take the wind with you :(

So I got up this morning, after enjoying a little snoozing coz I remembered to put the clocks back and hour for the end of daylight savings last night. Headed into town for the Round the Bays, 8.4km "Fun" run.

I did OK, considering I have done no running training, and I've never been a good runner... as Gimli put it in the Lord of the Rings movies "I'm a natural sprinter, good over (very) short distances" ;)

According to the website, my preliminary time is 1hr 19mins. Marginally faster than last years effort of around 1hr 25mins.

But I digress, so after sucking down about 3 litres of water and going home, showering and heading out to the Airline Flying Club, I was somewhat annoyed to see the grey skies, spots of water on the windshield and the windsock at the end of 03 dancing like a white guy after too many lagers.

So, I sat around chewing the fat with some of the more experienced guys, and he's a tip for you younger (or maybe not-so-young-but-new-to-flying) guys, if your club has the facilities (and if not, then find a club that does!), take the time to sit down with some of the greybeards (no offense guys) and talk... they have probably forgotten more than you will ever know! And sometimes they'll even buy you a beer ;)

fingers crossed that the weather is a little nicer next weekend.

Fit and Proper Person

Neato, got my lovely little piece of laminated paper that says "New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority Medical Certificate"...

So I am officially a "Fit and Proper" Person, well at least according to the CAA ;)

Now all I need to do is prove to the instructors that I can fly in circles safely and they'll let me go up on my own :)

I believe the word is...

Bugger!

So I was feeling really positive this morning. My medical was signed off on friday, so I should have my certificate on monday, which means the only thing stopping me from going solo is signoff from my instructor and a B-cat. However, after todays episode, that may take another week :(

I got out to the aerodrome early, the weather was good, the wind moderate and was I looking forward to circuits and some EFATO practise.

I preflighted JFY, plenty of fuel and everything in order. Walked through the EFATO briefing and covered all the important aspects. I have done them before, albeit a long time ago, so the basics are still in my head:

- Lower the nose
- Close the throttle
- Land straight ahead
- NEVER turn back for the airfield

However, as soon as I strapped in, it started going wrong. I kinda messed up the startup checks. Oddly enough my taxiing was pretty good today, I think I finally have the 152 steering sussed, but I forgot to do the turn checks (ie. left turn compass/DI decreasing, ball out to the right etc). Run-up was OK, but Pre-TakeOff checks were not. Forgot pretty much everything.

TakeOff was OK, until I got about 100ft in the air and it turned to custard. The 10-15kt wind, was at 040 which is almost straight down the runway, but once you got some altitude it seemed to veer a lot as before I knew it I had wandered into the takeoff path for the grass strip. A BIG no-no. Around into the circuit and things were going OK, but the base and final approach was a mess... Too High, Too Low, Too Fast, Too Slow... you name it, I did it.

The next couple were not much better and with the EFATO's thrown in, it was screwing up my rhythm. At one point, I even executed a go-around my approach was that bad. On reflection I probably could have gotten it down, but I was fighting the aircraft rather than flying it and when a crosswind pushed me sideways about 200ft from the ground I 'pulled the pin' on the landing.

Then I figured out what the problem was. I wasn't 'Flying the numbers' ie. I was not maintaining correct speeds on base and finals, and I wasn't 'Staying ahead of the aircraft' ie. I was being reactive, not proactive.

Once I made a concious effort to stay ahead of the aircraft and started to anticipate the speed (nose attitude) and height (power) changes required, I started nailing the landings. My first flapless was almost perfect. I rolled onto final at 70kts and just greased it right onto the runway. We tried a glide approach and did that fairly well too. And the final one of the session, which was on the grass, was really good. Only my 2nd grass landing and my instructor even commented saying that I had 'the numbers' spot on and my approach was almost flawless.

And then to cap off an ordinary day at the controls I made a total hash of the shutdown checks and almost fried the radio by attempting to do a deadcut check before turning the radio off. Looks like I'll be spending this week memorising checklists on my morning and evening commutes on the train!

Despite the issues, I believe today was probably my most valuable lesson to date. I learnt a lot and there was certainly a lot to take from the lesson given the list of 6 or 7 things my instructor covered in the de-brief!!

This flight: 1.2 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 40.3 (37.2 Dual, 3.1 Solo)

Fit to fly...

I (finally) passed my medical. After 2 weeks of monitoring (along with diet & exercise) my BP is right down where it should be, around 120/80.

The doc was satisified that it wasnt going to be an issue, and that my blood tests were relatively clean. Just some minor 'Lipid Derangement' which in layman's terms means that my cholesterol is a little high. Apparently, the levels are actually lower than my last blood tests 2 years ago, so the doc says that as long as I continue with my (new) healthy lifestyle, I shouldnt have any issues.

WOOHOO!

Flying in circles

Circuits to be precise. So I rocked on out to NZAR yesterday, with the weather starting to look a little nasty out to the North East, but thankfully it stayed there.

Briefing and Pre-Flight of JFY completed and we were running through Start-Up checks for an hour or so of 'Circuit Bashing'. And then something happened that I never thought possible. I managed to run through the checks without using the checklist. Looks like there is still room in my 31 year old brain for more information.

Down to 03 for run-up checks and then lining up behind one of Auckland Aero Clubs Grummans. Quite speedy little beasts actually. So we run through a max performance take-off, basically stand on the brakes, shove the throttle to the firewall and then let her go... A 152 will almost lift off vertically when doing this, well not quite, but its quite amazing how fast it will get up.

Unfortunately, the AAC student was flying one of the longest circuits I have ever seen. He must have followed the extended runway centre line and been near the circuit altitude (1000' AGL) before turning crosswind! I usually turn around (500' AGL)... needless to say this meant I had to follow his lead to maintain separation.

The first couple of circuits were a little hectic, quite a bit of traffic around and incoming for the Pilot Expo on the field. But after 3 or 4 it quietened down and I had the circuit to myself with just the odd arriving aircraft. So around, down, up, around, down, up, around, down we went for a little over an hour practising standard, flapless and short-field landings. My instructor made the comment that he would have no issues sending me Solo, I just need to get the medical sorted and get a signoff from an A or B-Cat.

Speaking of medicals, the old BP is looking sweet like a sweet thing. It has been trending downwards all last week (Mon 140/100, Wed 135/95, Fri 130/85) and this morning it was 130/80. Who knew that eating healthy and exercising would be so good for you :P

Next week we're circuit bashing again and will be doing EFATO (Engine Failure After Take-Off) and Glide Approaches. Had been hoping to cover that yesterday, but with the circuit being so busy we decided to wait to next time.

After a debrief and a cup of tea, I headed over to the Pilot Expo with one of the other club members for a quick look. I had been hoping to get my hands on some ANR (Active Noise Reduction) Headsets to try out. Luckily, several of the exhibitors had them on display and I tried the Bose X and the David Clark X11. They were both fantastic. The low-end frequencies just disappear when you turn them on. I also could not believe how light they were. The X11's with their carbon-fibre headband and the Bose with its magnesium one, both weigh in at just 340grams (12oz). Unfortunately, they both have fantastic price tags to match... around $1300 for the DC's and $1500 for the Bose. But as a gift to myself for when I finally get my PPL, they are both near the top of the list ;)

This flight: 1.1 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 39.1 (36.0 Dual, 3.1 Solo)

Freefall...

Well not quite, but stalling practice today. So after the pre-flight, paperwork and briefing were completed, we climbed (or should I say 'origami-ed' myself) into JFY, one of the clubs C-152's. Checked the ATIS, made a radio check with UNICOM and headed towards the holding point for 03.

Not a whole lot of room here, and with a twin doing run-up checks there is even less! But we squeezed ourselves in, completed our checks and proceeded to wait for the aircraft on late finals before lining up for take-off on 03 seal. After take-off it was a climbing turn to head out via Waterworks, up the Hunia valley and out towards the Training Area near the Thames.

After climbing up to 3000', my instructor asked if I wanted a demostration first, and seeing as I hadn't done any stalling for years, thought it would be a good idea, so we ran through the HASELL checks:

• H - Height, enough to recover by 2500ft Above Ground Level (AGL)
• A - Airframe, declare airframe configuration (ie. no/full flaps, undercarriage retracted or down etc.)
• S - Security, hatches/harnesses secure, no loose objects floating about the cabin
• E - Engine, Temps & Pressures (T&P's) all in the green
• L - Location, not over a built-up area. The reason for this is not so that we're not going to crash into a house if it all goes wrong (as I originally thought), its because the dramatic changes in engine pitch from power to idle to power again can freak out people on the ground who make think the aircraft is in trouble!
• L - Lookup, first up a minimum of 180° to confirm no conflict with any other aircraft (then a minimum of 90° for subsequent HELL checks)
  

Then Carb-Heat On, Power to Idle and maintaining Height, Direction and Balance. Basically keep pulling back on the yoke to maintain altitude, and use rudder to maintain co-ordinated flight.

So, at 65Kts Carb-Heat cold (as we need full power for recovery), and notice the symptons of the stall eg. Low airspeed, high nose attitude, stall warning, buffet (as the turbulent air catches the elevator) and then the nose dropping at the onset.

Recovery is quite simple:

• Check the control column forward to unstall the wing
• Apply full power
• Balance with rudder
  

Now, I have done stalling before in a PA-28 Piper Cherokee, and it was a number of years ago, but I certainly don't remember that Angle of Attack (AoA) being so high. It felt like we were almost vertical before the onset of the stall!

We did a couple more, adding in some Power On/Flap Stalls (basically the same thing but with power at 1500 RPM and full flaps). Good fun! Although, as my instructor pointed out, the only time we should ever have a fully developed stall is when doing it on purpose. The idea being that you notice the symptons (stall warning, buffet etc.) and take corrective action before onset.

Then it was back to NZAR to try an overhead join. I've never actually done this before as most of my flying was at a controlled airfield (NZPM), so was quite interesting. We'll be covering this again next lesson.

And time for a couple of circuits. This week, got my landings. I have been visualing them at home and remembered the old 'Eyes to the end of the runway' advice one of my old instructors gave me. Much improved effort and made some sweet landings.

Next week, more circuit bashing, while I wait for my medical to get sorted before I start looking at going for my (second) first solo ;)

This flight: 1.1 Hours Dual
Total Hours: 38.0 (34.9 Dual, 3.1 Solo)

Houston... we have a problem

Went for my medical today... and the news was not good. Apparently my blood pressure is a little high, so the Doc wants to monitor it for the next 2 weeks before issuing my medical.

Crap.

Personally, I think its stress related as work has been a bit shitty lately. And probably a combination of me being about 10Kgs too heavy and having a somewhat poor diet.

Having said that, I have recently started exercising and eating right since I got back from a 4 week business trip in the middle of Feb, as living in hotels and taking taxi's everywhere for 4 weeks does not exactly do wonders for your diet and/or exercise regime!

In the meantime, I'm going to continue flying anyway, as I dont believe this little hiccup is going to prevent me getting a medical.

fingers crossed.

Houston, we have lift-off!

Gong Hai Fat Choi... and what a way to start the Chinese New Year! After a hiatus of around 3 1/2 years, I finally got back behind the controls of an aircraft today.

Drove out to NZAR around 0830, clear blue skies and hardly a breath of wind. Arrived at Airline Flying Club to find my instructor all good to go. So a pre-flight of JBL (a C-152 aerobat), a flight authorisation and a B-Cat signoff later, and we were in the cabin doing startup checks.

I have pretty much forgotten everything in terms of checklists and radio calls (it does not help that I am in a fairly unfamiliar aircraft, at a fairly unfamiliar airfield), so my instructor Trevor took care of all the finer details, leaving me to concentrate on "getting my groove back". Flying is not like riding a bike, its very easy to lose "The feel"(tm), as I found out later in my flight ;)

We taxiied out from the club apron towards the threshold for 21 seal. I'm not sure what the issue was, probably just out of practice, but I was having some trouble keeping the aircraft on the straight and narrow. We finally pulled up on the old, unused runway for some run-up checks, then lined up behind one of the AFS aircraft. Trevor put in the "Rolling on 21" call, I pushed the throttle all the way in and away we went.

I pretty much nailed the take-off roll and climb-out, right on the white line down the runway and a steady climb at 70kts, which considering my rather ordinary taxiing was quite surprising. Climbed to 500ft AGL and put in a nice climbing turn to get onto downwind at circuit altitude, before departing for the Training Area via WaterWorks.

After flying some lovely "S" turns up the Hunia Valley to avoid some incoming traffic we made it out to the training area, out by the Firth of Thames. Time for some medium turns, one to the left, one to the right. Then some steep turns, one to the left, one to the right. Nailed the second one, getting the tell-tale big bump at the end as I ran into my own wake turbulence.

Then we cruised up the southern side of the training area near Mercer, heading towards Pukekohe, with Trevor pointing out some handy landmarks like the Waikato river, the Mercer Airfield, the Comms Tower on top of one of the hills, Pukekohe etc.

Then a right hander to ensure we stayed outside of controlled airspace and headed up the right hand side of the southern motorway towards Drury to begin out approach back into the NZAR circuit.

Downwind was fine, base leg was fine, was hitting all my speeds. Finals I was a little slow, and a little high, but was under control... until I flared about 5ft to high and dumped it onto the runway. Remember what I said about flying not being like riding a bike? I shudder to think what the G-force meter was reading...

Anyway, as they say, any landing you walk away from is a good one, and it was my first landing in over 3 years so I'm not too worried. Some circuit practice next week will sort that out :)

All in all... a perfect start to the new year.

This flight: 1.0 hours Dual
Total Hours: 36.9 (33.8 Dual, 3.1 Solo)

The story so far

Ok, so it all started back in 1999, about when the government decided to fully fund certified aviation courses, I was in Palmerston North at Massey University finishing off a B.Tech (Computer Systems Engineering). Massey had a School of Aviation and I had originally wanted to do a B.Av, but due to the large price tag and my lack of funds I had to go with my second love (computers).

With the advent of fully funded aviation courses, the School of Aviation offered a 'Learn to Fly' 1/2 year course. 30 Hours and some credits for your degree. The fact that my final year only involved a couple of papers meant i had lots of spare time, so decided to put some of it to use.

Anyway, I did my 30 hours and seemingly typical of the ways things seem to work, the next semester they split the course into two half year papers take took you all the way up to PPL (50 hours).

So after I had passed the course, done my 30+ hours, and was looking at continuing up to my PPL, 2 thing happened. I got layed off from the job I had and I accidentally found another job... in Auckland. So I packed up my stuff and headed to Auckland and spent a couple of weeks living with my In-Laws while I got settled and found a flat for my wife and I to move into. Luckily, she was working for Work and Income at the time, and was able to get a transfer up to Auckland without too much bother.

Unfortunately, Auckland is a lot more expensive than Palmerston North. That combined with the fact that we were having to pay rent meant no spare money for flying :(

After about 3 months of working at the ISP helpdesk on a casual basis (actually worked out really well, cause I could take 3pm to midnight shifts and spend my days job hunting), I finally managed to secure a 'real' job. As a software developer with Peace Software. That was an awesome place to work... young workforce, good moral, excellent people.

So fast forward to 2003, and I finally had got myself to the point where I could continue flying, so I did a ground course at AFS and got all the theory out of the way and had taken 2 flights when I got the chance to go to Australia as part of an 'On-Site' team at work. Was a really good opportunity so off I went thinking its just for 3 months.

2 years later (!), after buying an apartment off plans, getting sick of the 4 month delays in completion and cancelling the contract, buying another apartment and getting sick of a company that was going downhill rapidly, I finally managed to get off my ass and find a job back in NZ. At which point we decided to buy a house out in the burbs, as the central city apartment my wife had been living in while I was in Oz wasnt really big enough for both of us.

House + Apartment = LARGE mortgage and no spare money... so the apartment went after a year and I got myself into a position to start flying again. At which point, work offered me the chance to work on a fairly sizeable project for one of our key clients. Good career choice, but unfortunate timing, as it meant an overseas trip for a few months, most probably over Xmas. Notice the pattern here?

Luckily, the trip was cut from 3 months down to 4 weeks, and so here I am, back in New Zealand after a trip to Copenhagen, New York and Los Angeles, booking flying lessons and determined to get that PPL that has been so elusive over the last 6 years.

Fingers crossed for some nice weather for the next couple of months!

Total Hours: 35.9 (32.8 Dual, 3.1 Solo)