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.