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...
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...
5 comments:
I've been doing some catchup reading and I note you are at the early stages of your CPL training. Can you elaborate on why you chose to pretty much go straight from PPL into CPL training, and what your ultimate flying goal is?
Hi Euan,
Why did I chose to go straight on to CPL? Several reasons, including the answer to your other question ie. ultimate flying goal...
1. My ultimate flying goal would be as a full time job ie. Airlines.
2. I am 32. So, I do not really have the time to waste.
3. I am in a position to be able to afford to do so (mostly due to an understanding spouse).
4. I am 'current'... so rather than continue on doing PPL flying (and possibly becoming a bit slack/complacent) and then trying to pull myself up to CPL standard, I figured it would be easier to continue on.
My plan at present, is to use the coming winter months to attack the CPL theory exams and fly when/if the weather allows. Then, hopefully, I will be in good shape to really attack the flying during the summer months when the weather will theoretically be a bit nicer.
Are you considering a CPL?
regards,
Jared
For me, the most I'd ever consider doing is a CPL and C Cat so I could instruct part time. As you are no doubt aware, the salary return in that aspect of aviation is far smaller than what I get working in IT now so flying would still remain a hobby and not a bread winner. I'm also 5 years older than you are so my career window is even smaller than yours, if I haven't missed it altogether.
I definitely agree with your point 4, I have noticed my flying has gotten a lot sloppier now that I don't fly as much as I used to. That is my only regret about not continuing with some sort of training.
To be honest, my goal was really to fly... anything from here on in is just gravy :)
So if I just end up with a CPL and a C-Cat I would still be happy.
Granted it would most probably be a part-time gig, as, like you say, full time instructing with a 'liveable' wage is the holy grail of aviation :)
Will be interesting to see how things like the credit crunch (recession?), oil prices, AirNZ Aviation Academy etc affect things over the next year or three.
But I am of the opinion that if you aim low you tend to hit your target... so I will aim for the top and see how far I get.
Fair call Jared.
For me the will is there, I have a stack of things I'd like to do/achieve in flying (aero rating, formation flying, seriously long cross countries), its a drastic lack of funds that means I've had to put most of them on the backburner and concentrate on paying for and passing my BFR.
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