Animated Sandbag

Got the chance to go along for a ride with Nick (the guy in the picture) while he was doing the first of his solo CPL cross countries. Yes, you can fly 'solo' with passengers :) I though it would be a useful opportunity to get a preview of what a CPL cross country entails while inflight (timing, ground speed checks, ETA's etc.) And I think Nick was happy to have some company... even if I was just an 'Animated Sandbag' as he put it. Rob the CFI was clear that I was not to aid Nick in any way.

As the weather people had been wrong about the weather, the weekend was actually not too bad, so I headed out to Ardmore and got my crap sorted while Nick was working on the flight planning. The plan was to head up to Keri Keri, Kaitaia and Kaikohe. As an exercise you get 1 hour to complete it all, which is not too difficult as long as you follow the 'more speed, less haste' philosophy.


Planning complete and Flight Plan filed, we strapped into JBL and headed out. The engine is still being run in at high power settings, so Nick had planned for slightly faster speeds. It was nice to just observe see how other people do things, but I soon discovered it is a little uncomfortable trying to remain free of the controls in a 152 when you're 6'3" :)


Nick had done most of his planning to/from Musik Point, so after climbing out of Ardmore we headed towards the city getting ready for Nick to start his timings and navigation etc. Nick decided to keep a nice low 1000' and use the Transit lane to get past the Whenuapai Airspace and then climb up to cruising altitude. It was at this point that we could all the weather towards the north, and to be honest it did not look very nice.

As you can see in this pic approaching the Whangaparoa Peninsula, some of the areas up north looked a bit grey. We continued on and I clowned around with my phone (A Blackberry Curve 8310), trying out the GPS on it and taking crappy pictures like the 2nd one above, showing the effects of 'strobing' where the shutter speed of the camera and the prop RPM aren't in sync :)


I also snapped this great pic of yours truly, trying out my homemade, lightweight headset that I built from an old headset and a coat hanger (seriously!) I really love this headset, as it means I can wear sunglasses easily and I don't get a hot sweaty head from the big ear cups and headband of a conventional headset.


Unfortunately, the weather really started to close in as we started to approach Whangarei... the cloudbase was down to around 1700 or 1800' and the MSA for the area was around 2600'!! The rain was starting and the visibility was getting a bit crap. The view to the north was just a big dark gray wall. Nick asked me what I thought and remembering Rob's words, I replied "I'm just sitting here, you're PinC"... To his credit (and my relief) he decided that it was time to turn back.


So we headed back to AR and discovered the airfield had become very very busy. The most annoying thing was, that as we were heading south, we could see how good the weather that way was :( Oh well, as Nick said, it is all PinC time and useful experience. I am hoping to get started on my CPL cross countries at some point, but am still busy studying for the exams... so far I have read the Human Factors book and the first couple of chapters of Air Law. I am getting to know the CAR's, AIPs and AC's pretty well...

Tidying up loose ends

So after my careful calculations (and misreading the requirements!), I had ended up 0.1 short of Night Dual and 0.4 short of the 10 hours total required for a CPL Night endorsement.

I had spoken with Trevor and he said we would wait for a dark night (aren't they all?) and go and do some 'revision' on turns etc. Well tonight was looking good, fine with a high layer of cloud which would hopefully:

a. Block the full moon (thus making it somewhat dark)
b. Help keep the fog away by helping maintain some of the warmth

Turns out it was not so good at part a, but worked well at keeping the fog at bay :)

We started with some circuits to guarantee I would be 152 night current (and to avoid the night circuit fees charged after 8pm NZST. Climbing out, Trevor says "You can make the first one flapless and lightless"...

Was not too bad, perhaps a shade high, but was down comfortably in the end. Next one was a shortfield. I had it configured nice and early, but thought that I may have perhaps been a shade high. I continued the approach and in the end when ended up touching down right by the APAPI lights like we were aiming for. And then, to finish, we did a glide approach. In hindsight, I felt I took the last 10 degrees of flap about 3 or 4 seconds to early and consequently landed a little short of the APAPI lights, but it was still a good landing and I learnt a valuable lesson in the process.

We then departed from the downwind and headed out towards Drury and Pukekohe, climbing up to 2000', for some 'fun'. A rate one turn to the right. A medium turn to the right. A rate one turn to the left, A medium turn to the left. Followed by some steep turns... these are quite tricky at night, as you really have no decent horizon to work with and it really does throw your senses out. But I managed to hold my nomiated altitude really well, which is fairly unusual for me in steep turns, to be honest!

Then back to the field for an overhead join... which I almost messed up, by forgetting that you need to add 200' to all circuit altitudes at night... including overhead join altitudes. Trevor casually asked me what altitude I should be at as we were approaching the field. "DOH!"... luckily I was only 100' short so a quick zoom climb back to 1810' and we were fine.

Trevor decided to make it a flapless, lightless landing to finish which went without too much drama, although in the still air we floated a fair way along the runway.

Another great nights flying... I rediscovered the joys of the 152, I got a great demonstration of how flaps bring the landing point closer on final approach and I got to enjoy some of the great night views again.

I am kinda hoping the weather will hold for the weekend, so I can do some cross country flying up North with Nick (another CPL student), but the forecast is looking a little grim :(


This flight: 1.0 Dual Night
Total Hours: 123.5 (78.1/34.8 Day, 4.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Playing it safe

Decided to try for some more night flying last night. I made an effort to get out to the field early, so I could get up before the temperature dropped too much and the fog rolled in.

As it turned out, I probably could have done a city scenic, as what little fog there was, was fairly localised north of the field... better safe than sorry though, so I just bashed the circuit, trying to get close to the 10 hours of night flying required for the CPL. I need another 0.4 and I'm a little short of dual (0.1!), so I'll have to take Trevor up for some dual flying... perhaps some 'proper' night flying out over the training area one night.

It was still a great night to fly... an almost full moon, very few clouds and the visibility was at least 30 to 40kms. Even from the NZAR Circuit, Auckland City looks fantastic at night.

For this flight, as an exercise, Trevor suggested I try a few different things like landing deeper into the runway (ie. overflying the threshold at 50' and touching down in the 'landing zone')... the idea was really to just mix it up and make me think about what I was doing, rather than flying the same old approach.

Muffed the first one up... it was a good landing, but I landed pretty much on the threshold as normal, highlighting exactly what Trevor had been talking about. However, I managed to land the rest fairly well. I'm also getting better at finding and staying on the centreline in the dark with no landing lights and the flapless landings were not too bad.

I am still really impressed with LMA. It is an absolute pleasure to fly. Nice and stable, it does not bounce around and is not quite as 'twitchy' as the 152. Makes it easy to hold the speed, descent rate and direction that you're after... If only it was a little cheaper to fly :(


This flight: 1.2 PinC Night
Total Hours: 122.5 (78.1/34.8 Day, 3.9/5.7 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Pulling the pin...

One of my shortest flights ever last night :( Not quite as dramatic as Euan's shortest flight, but some valuable lessons learned.

I had been planning on taking a friend night flying, unfortunately the temperature and dew point were a little too close together for my liking... like 1 degree!

This increases the likelihood of fog and with a very still night meant it was almost a certainty. Indeed driving out to the airfield, there were already wisps of fog about.

We decided to play it safe, and just fly in the circuit, but even that would prove to be a lost cause. I checked the ATIS that indicated that we should be using runway 21 (wind was only a couple of knots from 180), however another aircraft was already in the circuit using 03... they had set the runway direction, so we had to follow.

On the the 1st circuit, aside from being ridiculously high (more on this below) there was already a fairly heavy fog rolling up the valley and across the field. So I decided to make the next one a full stop and call it quits. As the saying goes:

There are old pilots... and bold pilots... but no old, bold pilots!

As I mentioned before, I was really high on the first approach. I didn't think the 1 or 2 knots of tailwind would make that much difference and could not figure out why the 172 with full flaps at idle power was refusing to come down. Not having a good view of the illuminated windsock (it's on the wrong side of the aircraft when you're using 03), I figured the wind was stronger than 1 or 2 knots. So I executed a go-around rather than forcing it in and decided to extend the downwind to give myself more time to setup.

Turns out I was correct in my assumption about the wind. Indeed, the other aircraft in the circuit obviously had a GPS, as he called up as I was doing my downwind checks to let me know that it was showing an 8 to 10 knot tailwind!!

I setup a nice long approach and was able to put it down relatively easily. Landed a little deeper than usual of course because of the tailwind, but no real drama's. It was actually a really good landing (flare, stall warning, 2 dogs barking)...

Given the fog that was around after we landed, I am very glad I called it quits when I did. After all, as the instructors have told me several times, it's a long walk back from Auckland International... and then you have to go back to get the aircraft!


This flight: 0.3 PinC Night
Total Hours: 121.3 (78.1/34.8 Day, 3.9/4.5 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Spontaneity

The great thing about having your licence is the ability to just go and fly...

I headed out to the club today, not really intending on flying as the weather looked atrocious. Lots of showers, gray/black clouds floating around everywhere and it was blowing fairly strong, gusting 22 knots. But Auckland being Auckland... well as they say, if you don't like the weather, just wait 10 minutes :)

Around 4:30pm, the sun had come out, the wind had dropped down to around 10knots and I decided it was time to take DXP for a run before the owner takes her offline later this week.

I managed to find some company in the form of another club member who was keen to come along for the ride, and after a quick pre-flight we taxied out to do our run-ups. For an aircraft that had not moved in around 3 weeks, DXP was an absolute dream. Started without any fuss, no hiccups during run-ups and she flew as straight as an arrow.

So we decided to go for a quick city scenic and headed over the city, enjoying the view around the port, Harbour Bridge, Sky Tower, One Tree Hill, Rangitoto etc. before heading back. A most enjoyable flight, and Tony even bought me a beer afterwards!

The only issue I had was that it was really heavy on the elevator... requiring a lot of force to get the nose up on the take-off roll, and a lot to prevent the nose wheel 'shimmy' on landing... other than that, an absolute dream to fly.


This flight: 1.0 PinC
Total Hours: 121.0 (78.1/34.8 Day, 3.9/4.2 Night, 5.1 IFR)

Mince pies and aerobatics...

Was out at the club sitting in on an IFR study group that I had been attending all week, not really necessary at present, but I figure it can't hurt to get a heads-up on what is involved with IFR... actually learnt quite a bit and even understood some of it!

The guys decided to go over to the cafe at the auckland aero club for lunch as the cupboard was bare... Unfortunately by 2pm the cafe was running a little light on stock and I had the choice of mince or mince and cheese... So a mince and cheese pie (and a florentine slice :) it was. This would prove to be an interesting choice.

After the study group finished, Simon decided the cloudbase had lifted enough to go and try his new aerobatics routine and offered a ride along Trevor, who said I should go instead... Did I want to come for a ride in a CT-4 airtrainer? Hell yeah!

Turns out that DGY is actually the original CT-4 prototype... S/N 001.

So, strapped in, run-ups complete and off we went (airsick bag at the ready ;)... Climbing out over Papakura, Simon says "You have control"... All I can say is that aircraft with push-rod controls are quite sensitive ;) The little electric trim switch on the stick was nice though.

Simon then gave me a bit of a crash course in CSU's (Constant Speed Units) and the relationships between manifold pressure, RPM and ambient air pressure. Most of which I forget, but the QNH of 995 was not helping.

By now we were over the training area and Simon walked me through an aileron roll. Dive to increase speed to 140 knots, pull nose up to about 10 degrees above the horizon, check positively forward and then push the stick hard over and into the roll and then back to straight and level.

Then it was my turn... Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

Following my roll we were still carrying about 140 knots so Simon said "May as well do another". Double Weeeeeeeeeeeee!

Then it was a loop. Dive to 150 KIAS, pull back and hold, keeping straight with ailerons, releasing the pressure to let the aircraft float over the top and then pulling back out of the dive to straight and level.

And again it was my turn... Wooooooohooooooooo!

Following that I sat back and enjoyed being turned inside out while Simon started on his routine... Not sure of the exact maneuvers involved, but the view went something like blue, green, green, blue/green, green/blue, blue, blue, green, green, green/blue, green/blue, blue, blue/green, green, blue, green... straight and level.

After completing the first half and deciding it was not going well (I'm sure the 105kgs of ballast, nearly full tanks and low air pressure were not helping), Simon called it quits and we headed back to airfield.

If you ever get the chance to do aero's... Just do it!

For the record, the airsick bag was unused... And I don't recommend mince and cheese pies as pre-aerobatic food :)


This flight: 0.6 Dual
Total Hours: 120.0 (78.1/33.8 Day, 3.9/4.2 Night, 5.1 IFR)