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)