Magic Plastic Part II

So I wandered out to check the mail today... imagine my surprise when I found a little white and blue envelope with the CAA logo emblazoned on the front...

I skipped back up the front path ripping the envelope open... Could it be?? YES! It could... wooooohoooo!!!!



They were even nice enough to add all my Type Ratings and the English Language Proficiency to the licence as well...



I still wish they'd make 'proper' cards, with photoID etc... so much for aviation security... on the other hand, they'd probably charge more than $60 for that ;)

Pilot for Hire...

If you need a nice fresh CPL, look no further :)

After the minor setback at the end of January... and a "no-show" last week due to a mix-up at ASL, yesterday saw me once again in the crisp white shirt, tie and pants nervously pacing up and down at the flying club awaiting the flight examiner.

As is usually the case, the thing I was most concerned about was the weather. After weeks of glorious weather, I awoke to find ARFORs (Area Forecasts) and TAFs (Terminal Aerodrome Forecasts) predicting heavy rain showers and thunderstorms across the Auckland area in the afternoon... from 4pm. My test was booked to start at 3:30pm.

As is usually the case, I awoke nice and "late" at 7am... after a "restful" night of tossing and turning... and after having some breakfast and triple checking I had everything I needed (and almost forgetting my tie) I headed out to the club.

I spent some time prepping the briefing room, making sure I had everything ready and at hand... Up-to-date AIP Vol's 1&4, Logbook, License, PhotoID, Exam results + signed off KDR's, current charts, Calculator, Nav Computer, Pens/Pencils, note paper, custom Take-Off and Landing calculation sheets to make sure I didn't forget AC91-3 and Part 135 requirements, Aircraft Flight Manual, a big folder containing all the relevant Parts (91 & 135) and Advisory Circulars so I could look up anything I needed if required.

Then I made sure the aircraft was good to go... by going for a nice relaxing solo flight (remembering to take the Flight Manual with me!). No instructors to pester me, just me and JFY and a lovely clear morning with variable winds.

0.7 hours and several max-rate turns, basic stall, approach stall, wingdrop stall and steep gliding turns later I was back on the ground and ready for some lunch.

And then the waiting really began. The clouds were starting to look dark and ominous... the temperature and pressure started to drop like a PA28 on a glide approach and there was that "It's going to rain" feeling in the air...

I tried very hard (and failed) not to check the weather reports and rain radar every 5 minutes...

I even tried taking my mind off it by sitting in the back of an aircraft to act as ballast for one of the other club members doing an all up weight check in LMA... but all I could do was look at the clouds around the area while we were flying around the circuit :)

Just after 3pm... I put on my shirt and tie and waited for the examiner to show up. He arrived exactly at 3:30pm and we got started on the groundwork. Making sure all the relevant bits of paper were in order (Logbook, ID, exams etc) and then into the flight planning.

A "short hop to Thames" and some careful calculations later... and some (very) random questions later, I had ticked all the groundwork boxes and it was time for the flying.

Pre-flight completed, aircraft fueled, we hopped in and I started running through my checks. I was really starting to feel nervous, right up until the engine kicked into life... and then I was in my comfort zone.

We taxied out, run-ups, max performance take-off and then headed south towards the training area. Then we started running through the syllabus...

I was feeling good and flying well (not perfect, but well within limits) and then came the words I had been quietly dreading... "Demonstrate a Max-Rate Turn to the right"...

Deep breaths... prominent reference point + heading, reference altitude... deep breath... Good lookup... airspeed below Va, lead with power... roll into the turn... increase back pressure... hitting 60degrees angle of bank... stall warning chirping away... maintaining altitude with ailerons... anticipate roll out... check forward and reduce power to prevent ballooning...

"Ok... now demonstrate one to the left"...

Repeat procedure... I thought it was a little messy at the end, and I could have used a little bit more rudder when rolling out to maintain balance and I commented as much to the examiner and asked if he would like me to demonstrate again...

"No, that's fine... when you're ready, demonstrate a basic stall"...

WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

We ran through the stalls, forced landing, precautionary landing, low flying, coastal reversal turn, constant radius turn...

"Ok, let's head back and you can demonstrate a flapless landing"

Back into the circuit following a near perfect overhead join... and slotting myself into a 3 aircraft train of Ardmore flying school aircraft, we started the circuits and finished with a shortfield landing onto the grass... I landed about 2 metres from my target aiming point and we pulled up with moderate braking about 1/3 of the way along the grass runway...

"Very nice landing"...

I taxied back to the club, shutdown and secured the aircraft... and we went inside for the debrief.

He held me in suspense for all of about 10 seconds before flashing me a big grin and offering me his hand to say congratulations...

We then covered the flight and he made a couple of comments, just some minor things to be aware of... nothing major and everything well within limits. We completed some paperwork and he congratulated me again and I went and opened my tab at the bar ;)



I'm still smiling, despite the minor hangover, and I don't expect this silly grin to wear off for at least another couple of days...

Next on the list: Multi-Engine Instrument Rating, Instructor Rating, Basic Gas Turbine Rating...


These Flights: 0.7 + 1.7 PinC (0.3 IFR)
Total Hours: 263.8 (136.5/103.0 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 11.9 IFR)

ps. If you know of anyone looking to hire a pilot... I'd appreciate it if you could point them in my direction ;)

2 months of Ups and Downs

Wow... so much has happened since November... and unfortunately, the most recent event was not as pleasant as I had hoped. More on that in a minute.

Back in late November/Early December, I had been hard out prepping for the CPL Flight test. Running through the CPL syllabus, practising the ground work exercises, reading the aircraft flight manual from cover to cover and back again, AIP's, AC's and Part's 61, 91 & 135.

I had booked my flight test with ASL, hoping to get it in before Xmas. Unfortunately, it would appear that everyone else wanted to do the same. I suspect the inclement weather we had didn't help either.

The upshot being that I couldn't get a flight test date. :(

Then "real life" got in the way, with my sister's wedding the weekend before christmas (awesome day btw... congrats Keryn+Dave ;), Christmas, New Year, my wife actually getting some annual leave so I thought it best to spend time with her ;). Before I knew it, a month had gone by and I hadn't been near an aircraft :(

And then I got a flight test date of the afternoon of January 25th.

Awesome, something to work towards... unfortunately, and I must take some of the "credit" for this for not pushing harder, the lead up just wasn't there. Weather and lack of aircraft didn't help my cause and I went into the flight test ready, but probably not as ready as I should have been.

The day itself was a nervous wait... just making sure the aircraft, me, the paper-work, the aircraft, me, the paper-work, me, the aircraft etc. etc. were ready.

As is usually the case, most of my nerves were unfounded, the examiner was friendly and cheerful and we got down to the business of the paperwork and the ground theory.

This went well enough, and he seemed impressed by my obviously thorough preparation and sound knowledge. I pre-flighted the aircraft under his watchful gaze and after strapping him in and running through a safety briefing we taxiied out.

The flight started smoothly enough, Max-performance Take Off, Engine Failure After Take-Off and then into the instrument flying. Fairly simple stuff that I did well and he commented as much during the post-flight debrief.

We ran through some turns, stalls and other basic manueveurs and then we got to Max-Rate Turns... and I came unstuck :(

I had had some issues with these during my training, and I was a little nervous as we started the exercise and my first turns were very tentative and not up to the required standard. I had another go and the result was pretty much the same.

At this point, we decided to come back to those, as he wanted me to demonstrate some stalls in the steep turns, which were a bit rough, but passable... then the slow flight exercises and then some steep gliding turns and then, without warning, straight into a forced landing without power. I was a little high, but some aggressive S-Turns got me into a good position to make the chosen field. He commented later that it was a little untidy, but passable.

On the go-around, he originally instructed me to head for 500' and I figured we would then do the low-flying exercises. However on the climb he changed his mind, instructed me to head for 1000' and we would have another go at the Max-Rates...

I think I started to panic a little, knowing that my entire flight test basically rested on the next 5 minutes. Unfortunately, I blew it. My turns were even worse and the examiner suggested that I would need further training, and that we should head back to base for a de-brief. Flight examiner speak for "You have failed" :(

We flew back, I made a fairly awful approach but a nice enough landing, taxiied back in and shut down. CFI Rob got some of the others to secure the aircraft while we went inside to de-brief with the flight examiner.

We covered all the good points and things I had done well, made some general observations about things that while "passable" I should definitely consider thinking about for the next flight test... and then the issue of the max-rate turns.

To be completely honest, I don't really recall a lot of the discussion... as I was pretty bummed... and kinda tuned everything out at that point. I was mostly upset at me for letting myself down :(

I headed home, had a few drinks, felt sorry for myself and went to bed. The next day, I woke up, built a bridge, got over it and was determined that I would not fail next time. I set about rebooking a new flight test date, and getting the preparations started as I will now need to redo the full CAA Fit and Proper Person process as it will be more than 24 months since my last one.

Today was my first flight since the flight test. It felt good to be back in the air. With a fresh perspective from a different instructor, I went and practised Max-Rate Turns and Stalls in Steep Turns for just over an hour and a half.

Certainly some things to work on, but things are coming along nicely ;)

Committed

So I have finished up at work... FREEEEEEEEEEDOMMMMM!

And I have dealt with other things that required my attention, such as being best man at my friends wedding. And my bank balance is looking healthy thanks to my severance package and the weather, while less than brilliant has been very flyable.

All of which means I went and got my Class 1 Medical renewed on Monday (no major issues, yay!) and I've spent the last two days being assessed by CFI Rob as to where I currently am flying-wise, and what we'll need to do to get me to CPL Flight Test Standard.

Yesterday was just over an hour of cloud and shower dodging, while trying to demonstrate compass turns, steep turns, stalling in the turn, Forced Landings, Low Flying in the bad weather config, Coastal Reversal Turns and a nice Overhead Join with a shortfield grass landing to finish.

Today looked like it was going to be a washout, but I could almost have got sunburnt this afternoon, as the drizzle and low cloud gave way to blue skies and sunshine! So it was more steep turns, Max Rate Turns, Forced Landings, more low flying and coastal reversal turns, Steep Gliding Turns, a flapless landing and another shortfield landing onto the grass.

The upshot of all this (aside from being about $600 poorer) is that Rob thinks I am around 10 to 15 hours away from a CPL Flight Test. Which is better than I thought, bearing in mind that I had not been in an aircraft for about 2 months and had certainly not done any "proper" flight training for almost 3, I figured I was probably going to be a little underdone.

As expected my forced landings were a little rusty... the flying is not a problem, it is the rest of the procedure (initial actions, trouble checks, mayday call, passenger brief etc) that I get mixed up with. But this is really just a practice thing.

Most other things I am relatively competent at, I just need to polish them up a little to get them to a CPL standard. As Rob is fond of saying "Attention to Detail".

I am under no illusions that the next few weeks/months are going to be a lot of hardwork, but I'm up for it. So, I have more flights booked up for the rest of this week. Fingers crossed the weather holds ;)


These Flights: 1.1 Dual + 1.3 Dual
Total Hours: 219.2 (101.3/93.6 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.7 IFR)

When you least expect it...

Saturday morning saw me drag my butt out of bed at ridiculous o'clock to drive down to Hamilton for a sim session with Trevor (and the promise of a ride in the back of the Twin Comanche, DOK)...

In typical fashion, the only thing that occurred according to plan was that we drove to Hamilton and back :P

It turned out that the twin was booked most of the day by someone else. So John, Trevor's Instructor, decided we would do a quick session in the Sim and then we would take the nice "new" Archer III, WIT, for a ride so Trevor could familiarise himself with the cockpit instruments as it has the same "glass" instruments as the Twin Comanche.

While we were at it, John decided Trevor would fly us Matamata and they'd play with all the fancy pants equipment like the 3-axis autopilot, dual Garmin 430's and the Aspen Avionics EFD1000, then we'd swap over and I could take him for some circuits and do some stalls and a forced landing etc. on the way back to Hamilton and thus get "checked to line" for Waikato Aero Club purposes.

So my cruisy day of sitting in the sim and the backseat watching proceedings quickly turned into a $200+ mini-checkride :-/

So while Trevor and John finished up in the sim, I went out and pre-flighted WIT.
There are more excellent photo's that Chris has taken over on his blog here and here. Note that these pics were taken before the avionics upgrade. You can see a demo of the Aspen EFD1000 here.

The aircraft is still in pretty good nick... it even has that nice "new car leather" smell... Ooooo Shiny! ;) My only complaints are that there isn't enough room in the back (I couldn't wear my normal headset as I simply didn't have enough headroom!! So I had to resort to my homemade headset that wraps around the back) and because of the auto-pilot, the controls are quite "heavy" as the controls are all run through servo's. Other than that, the machine is a real dream!

The "check-ride" actually went pretty well... although due to an impromptu airshow being conducted at Matamata by a homebuilt scaled-down Fockewolfe FW-190, ZK-FWI our plan for circuits ended up being the stalling and forced landing component of the ride which went pretty well, although I got a little wide on the forced landing due to the longer wing on WIT compared with LMA, so my visual references using the wing-tip to judge spacing was a bit out. To my credit I did pick up on it and corrected it as best I could.

We came back and landed at Matamata to pick up Trevor and then headed back to Hamilton to finish up for the day and head back to Auckland.

So, not quite the day we had planned, but I think it turned out pretty well... and I have finally flown an aircraft that is actually younger than I am! It's a 2004 model with around 420hours TT ;)

Sunday, I came crashing back down to "reality" as I went and did some simulated IFR and forced landing practise in one of Airline Flying Club's C-152's :( Actually, to be fair, they're pretty tidy, and fun, little aircraft... and cheaper too ;)

The IFR was OK and I did a fairly decent job with the Partial Panel work. The forced landings were a little poor, I keep getting fixated on finding a field to land in before actually running through the procedures and checks, the end result being that I get everything mixed up and it just makes things really messy.

I thought I was doing pretty well with the glide approach onto the grass until Trevor suggested I use more flaps than I thought was necessary... the end result being that we came up "a little short", and I got a first-hand lesson on just how much you can steepen an approach using flaps... and why you should never extend downwind when doing glide approaches/forced landings!


These Flights: 0.9 Dual + 1.1 Dual (0.3 IFR)
Total Hours: 216.0 (98.9/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.7 IFR)

Glide time...

Glide Approaches that is.

The purpose of the glide approach is to practice the last part of the forced landing. ie. everything that happens after you hit your 1000' point abeam your 1/3 aiming point in your paddock/field/road/clearing/beach etc. Basically, as you come abeam the aiming point, you pull the power back to idle and glide the aircraft down onto the ground as if you were carrying out a forced landing. It's just that in this instance, instead of pretending to land in Farmer Joe's paddock, you land it on the runway :)

This is excellent practice, because when doing forced landing practice out in the training area, aiming for a paddock, you usually get to 500' (if solo) and say "yeah, I would get that in from here"... but you never really know for sure. Doing glide approaches, you definitely find out.

Sunday was looking a bit iffy weather-wise, but as we were planning on remaining in the circuit I was pretty confident we would be OK.

As it turns out, the iffy weather was just what I needed, as it kept everyone else on the ground meaning I had the entire circuit pretty much all to myself, making it relatively easy to get some decent glide approach practise without having to slot in amongst guys flying battleship sized circuits.

Along with the light showers and relatively low cloud base, we also had 25kt winds at circuit altitude. It was "only" 14kts gusting 20-ish on the ground, and being 20 to 30 degrees off centre meant a nice 5 to 10kt crosswind component to deal with.

Things happen quite quickly when a 25kt tailwind is increasing your normal ground speed by a 1/4! Turn downwind, make radio call, do downwind checks, initiate glide approach. Doesn't sound like it would be too difficult, until you only get about 5 seconds to do all of it!! :-/

Was quite challenging, but good fun... and unfortunately cut a little short due to approaching "bad" weather. Still, I got a good look at the effects of various techniques used to ensure you make your field... ie. making allowances for strong headwinds and turning a little tighter so as not to get blown too far downwind, carrying extra speed to get better forward penetration, losing altitude faster initially to get out of higher winds sooner, not using flaps until completely sure you're going to make the field etc.

The good news is that I "made" every approach and I think I have a much better appreciation for the approach profile that I should be aiming for when doing practice forced landings.


This Flight: 0.6 Dual
Total Hours: 214.0 (96.9/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.4 IFR)

Going around in circles...

Saturday was meant to be a Sim session in the 'Tron, watching Trevor get put through the multi-engine emergency procedures wringer... However, due to some confusion over dates, we got all the way there to find no instructor!

So we decided to do a BIG circle and headed over to Matamata for a look-see... great 'little' airfield with quite a bit happening... at least on the gliding front.

Sunday, was 'revision' day for me. Trevor and I headed out to the Training Area for the first time in months to see if I could remember how to actually handle an aircraft. Medium Turns, Steep Turns, Basic Stalls, Approach Stalls and a couple of Forced Landings. Not too shabby, but definitely not perfect my any means.

Then we tried some of the CPL level manoeuvres... Steep Gliding Turns and Max-rate Turns.

After getting a good bicep workout trying to hold the aircraft level while whizzing about in circles as fast as possible, we went through the basics of the CAA's new favourite topic 'slow flight'. As the name suggests, you fly slow... maintain straight and level and then try a couple of turns. Not exactly rocket science, but is now part of the flight tests... yay! :-/

Was a good blowout... and really emphasised how different the aircraft handling is compared with flying 1 hour legs from A to B!


This Flight: 1.4 Dual
Total Hours: 213.4 (96.3/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.4 IFR)

One step closer...

and another sticker in the log book.

The latest one declares that I have successfully completed the CPL Cross Country Syllabus and passed the cross country flight test. :)

After not being anywhere near an aircraft for almost a month due to weather and prior commitments, I got a call from CFI Rob last wednesday... "Long range forecast looks good for the weekend, let's go flying!"

Saturday was just too good a day not to go flying. Light winds, and visibility forever.

I flight planned Ardmore (NZAR) - Hamilton (NZHN) - Taumarunui (NZTM) - Taupo (NZAP) - Ardmore (NZAR).

Being a cross-country flight test, I knew that out of all of those, I was likely to only visit Hamilton (and Ardmore :P) and everything else would be a combination of lost procedures and diversions!

We started with a simulated engine failure after take-off (yay... lots of sports fields and paddocks off the end of runway 21!) and then headed for Hamilton. We made it in and out of NZHN relatively unscathed... and then we started the various "fun activities" that Rob had planned.

First of all we had the forced landing, cunningly disguised as "a ground speed check". Obviously I was caught a little off-guard, but I did OK. It was not great and I got a little low, but I made my field. Climbing out, Rob handed me the instrument hood. This is where the lack of currency really showed. I got the leans about 3 seconds after putting the hood on and it took me a minute or two to really get on top of the aircraft :(

We flew around for 10 or 12 minutes at which point Rob told me to take the hood off. My first reaction was "How the !@#$@# did I get into this valley?" We were at 1700' and had been holding a steady altitude the entire time I was under the hood, as I was in this bowl shaped valley, completed surround by hills that were higher than we were flying!!

My next reaction was "Where the $##@$^ is this valley?" when Rob said to me "Ok, remain at 1700' and tell me where we are and what that town over there is called."

We circled over the top of the town, while I put my "Lost Procedures" into practise... "Ok, about 10 minutes flying at roughly 90kts, should put us around 15nm from where I put on the hood... we were mainly flying headings from 090 to 130 magnetic... so that should put us in this general area on the map..."

"How can you confirm that?" asked Rob.

"Ok, we have a railway line over there... some transmission lines... and the road following the railway line and then curving away through the valley while the railway goes through a tunnel. That would match up with these features on the map... so we are here and that town is XXXXXXXX." (removed to keep it secret for future victims... errr I mean students -ed.)

"Excellent" said Rob, "Spot on!"

I must at this point give a big shout out to Trevor for giving me the low down on lost procedures. Despite knowing where this spot is, he had refused to tell me... no matter how much bourbon I offered! ;)

But his advice of noting the time when entering IFR, so I could calculate the time spent in IFR conditions, plus keeping tabs on the general direction of flight so as to be able to narrow down the area on the map was spot on.

Rob then instructed me to set course for Tokoroa, work out how far it was and how long it was going to take to get there. So out came the map, a rough course hand drawn and heading worked out. Distance calculated using fingers (2 of my fingers = 10nm ;) 30 nautical miles at roughly 90kts will take us around 20 minutes. I called up Christchurch Information to amend our flight plan, give them our rough ETA at Tokoroa[1] and amend my SARTIME.

After Tokoroa, it was VFR nav back to Ardmore, doing ground speed checks and amending my ETA at Ardmore[2] all while avoiding controlled airspace around Hamilton and trying really hard to ignore the cramp that was developing in my bum from being stuck in a 152 for 3 hours!!!

After landing, we debriefed over a cup of tea at which point Rob said somewhat matter of factly "oh.. by the way... you passed" and shook my hand ;)


This Flight: 3.0 Dual (0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 212.0 (94.9/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.4 IFR)

[1] - My mental arithmetic was actually not too bad... I was only off by about 1 minute ;)
[2] - You get +/- 2 minutes for your ETA's at CPL level... I was bang on ;)

Things that DO suck

1. Sadistic Flight Instructors


2. Flat batteries in your Camera

Trevor managed to get yesterday off work, and the fine weather was still hanging in there, so we decided to finish the dual flight that we had aborted on Sunday due to the vacuum pump failure.

AR-(AP)-(MA)-TG, Divert (TH)-AR
The "plan" was to fly Ardmore (NZAR) - Taupo (NZAP) - Matamata (NZMA) - Tauranga (NZTG) - Ardmore (NZAR). But as I have discovered with dual CPL cross countries, what you plan and what you fly are two very different things :P

The trip to Taupo was pretty good. The winds were 'lightish' so the flying conditions were relatively smooth and the visibility was excellent. We could actually see Mt. Ruapehu while overhead Drury, which is a distance of about 250km!!!

I was really looking forward to getting some good photos of the mountains and Lake Taupo, until I handed my camera to Trevor and asked him to take some photos and he discovered that the batteries in the camera, which had been working perfectly in the morning, were now completely flat :( As I was too busy flying the aircraft and trying to do ground speed checks, plan my top of decent, look out for other aircraft and make radio calls, I couldn't be bothered trying to dig my cellphone out of my flight bag to try to get some pics on that...

I think I know what I want for my BDay/Christmas now... a nice little 'point and shoot' digital camera with a battery life longer than about 3 minutes :P

Anyway, we stopped in Taupo, gassed up, I had a bite to eat and visited the little boys room while Trevor checked out a car he is thinking of buying. Then we headed off into the clear blue skies and bade farewell to the snowy capped mountains and silky smooth lake and headed for Matamata.

After deciding I was a little bit off course, Trevor decided I should do a "1 in 60" to get to Matamata. Effectively you work out "Distance Off course divided by Distance Flown" and "Distance Off Course divided by Distance to Go". The first gives you the track error so far (usually a result of the wind not being what was forecast), and if you correct by that much you will end up paralleling your original track, but you will still be off course. In my case 2 nm miles off course after 25 miles flying or ~4 degrees. The 2nd calculation gives you the closing angle to arrive at your intended destination, so I needed to correct 2nm over the remaing 37 miles to Matamata (~3 degrees), resulting in a total correction of 4+3 or 7 degrees.

Now if it all sounds a bit like hard work trying to divide all sorts of random numbers in your head... you are right! That's why we use an "E-6B Flight Computer"... basically a fancy circular slide rule that makes a lot of aviation related calculations really easy ;)

The E-6B "Whizzwheel"
The "1 in 60" worked out pretty good, and I ended up pretty close (less than 1 mile) from Matamata. We dodged our way around the gliders, tanked up with gas and made ready to depart. At which point I learned that a 152, with 2 people on board and full tanks doesn't really depart that well from a runway consisting of relatively long grass! Even with shortfield technique we burned an awful lot of runway, but made it into the air eventually and with plenty of room to spare.

I was just commenting to Trevor that it was an awfully long take-off roll when he pulled the throttle 1/2 closed and called simulating. Lower the nose, Carb Heat On, Throttle Closed, Pick a paddock, Fuel/Mixture/Ignition Off. I hadn't seen the Engine Failure after take-off coming!!

He was satisified with my choice of paddock and we would have made it quite comfortably, so he called go-around and we climbed away on track to Tauranga. I had just got up to 2500' feet and managed to get Christchurch Info on the radio and pushed my SARTIME out when Trevor looked at me with a big grin and "Did I say Tauranga?? Oh, I meant Thames... oh and look at all that crappy weather (Clear Blue skies, visibility of around 60km :-/), ceiling is now 1500'"... So I started my diversion to Thames.

Due to the "crappy weather", I ended up with a ceiling of 800', so I was low (and slow) flying at 700' at 70knots. I called up CH Info and amended my flight plan and started heading for Thames. Eventually, "the weather" cleared and I was allowed to climb back up to 2500'. Just as I got there, and had everything sorted out and was planning my approach into Thames, Trevor pulled the throttle and said simulating.... AARRGGGHHH!!!

I was a bit rusty on the procedure for the forced landing, but I picked my paddock, planned an approach and would have put it in without too much trouble.

The nice long runway (14/32) at Thames is currently closed for maintenance, so I had the really short 500m runway (05/23) with a lovely approach for runway 23 that takes you quite close to some seriously high ground. I flew a really nice shortfield approach, touching down right on the threshold at minimal speed and blasted off again with plenty of room to spare. :D

I set heading for Ardmore and as usually seems to be the case, ended up arriving at the same time as everyone else :( I was just coming up to Hunua at 2000' and was about to report my position and intentions, when no less than 3 other aircraft all reported claiming to be exactly where I was! :-O I could only see one other aircraft and he was about 5 miles away!!!

I decided to stay out of the mix and gave everyone plenty of room and I slotted myself into a gap in the circuit traffic and landed without too much bother.

I was quite happy to be back on the ground after such an 'eventful' flight... and I definitely need to go and do some forced landing procedure revision before my cross-country flight test!


This Flight: 3.7 Dual (242 nm)
Total Hours: 209.0 (91.9/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.2 IFR)

Things that don't suck...

1. Broken Vacuum Pumps


2. Getting released from Jury Service on the first morning


3. Large High Pressure weather systems covering the country in blue skies and sunshine

On Sunday, I had been planning a dual cross country with Trevor. Everything was looking good until about 1/2 an hour into the flight. We were overhead Lake Waikere, about 5 miles east of Huntly and noticed that the AH had fallen over. Thats when I noticed the Suction Gauge was reading right off the top end of the meter. Just as I said to Trevor "I wonder how long until the DI plays up?", The DI started doing it's best impression of a roulette wheel. Technically, an AH and a DI are not required for VFR flight, but seeing as we were so close to home, I decided to abort the flight and returned to Ardmore.

Monday, was the beginning of Jury Service... I was actually kind of keen (read as: curious) to go along and see what it was all about. So I headed down to the courthouse on Monday and sat in a room with about 100 or so others (most of whom were just interested in when they could go home).

After an hour or so, they did the 'lottery' and called up a whole bunch of people and sent them off to the various courtrooms... The rest of us sat around for another hour or so at which point they did another lottery for a trial that was due to start on Wednesday and then told everyone else they could go...

Seeing as how I had already arranged for most of the week off and the weather for the next couple of days was looking pretty good, I called my boss and asked if I could have Tuesday and Wednesday as annual leave.

So instead of debating guilt or innocence, I spent the week flying :)

Trevor was unable to get Tuesday off work, so I headed off for another Solo cross country. This time, I headed up North, hoping it might be a little warmer up there... I was wrong :(

Cold, frosty start
AR - WR - KK - KT - o/h WP - AR
I had planned for Ardmore (NZAR) - Whangarei (NZWR) - Kerikeri (NZKK) - Kaitaia (NZKT) - Ardmore (NZAR). The winds were a bit shifty at Whangarei, and even with full flap and power at idle, I was only descending at about 100' per minute! The end result was that I ended up high and executed a go-around. The next approach was much better and I got in with no trouble. I taxied back to the holding point and departed for Kerikeri. It was as quiet as always at Kerikeri, so I filled up with avgas, paid my landing fee in the Honesty Box and headed for Kaitaia.

Welcome to the Bay of Islands!
Tiger Country!
I noted on arrival in Kaitaia that the aircraft seemed to be burning a lot more fuel that it should be... I filled up again and made a mental note to check this with Chris when I got back to Ardmore. As it turns out, the dipstick was calibrated incorrectly (it was under-reading by about 5 litres), so I actually had more fuel than I thought.

Kaitaia Airport
Kaipara Harbour at 4500', Nice and smooth but hazy
Following a suggestion that Chris had made before I left, after departing Kaitaia, I amended my flightplan to fly down the Kaipara Harbour and overhead the airforce base at Whenuapai (NZWP) and cut across their control zone back to the city. Some new airspace for me, and a slightly different perspective of the Harbour Bridge and CBD :)

Cleared to overfly the tower, 2500' VFR, Juliet Foxtrot Yankee
Approaching the Harbour Bridge from the west
Overhead the Harbour Bridge - Awesome weather
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. Ardmore was actually pretty quiet for a change. Usually about 10 aircraft all arrive at the same time that I do! I secured the aircraft and went to have a well earned beer ;)

The trusty steed - JFY

Flights: 1.0 Dual + 4.3 Solo (295 nm)
Total Hours: 205.3 (88.2/92.8 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.2 IFR)

Upstairs, Downstairs

The atmosphere is truly a strange and bizarre place...

Take today for instance, downstairs on the ground it was light and variable winds, while upstairs at 2000' it was 30+ knots!!

I was somewhat apprehensive, given some of the forecasts were for 45 to 50knots, and some of the terrain on my planned route was "less than flat" ;) But given that the skies were clear and this is CPL level you cannot let a little bit of wind stop you!

I had flight planned for Ardmore (NZAR) - Tauranga (NZTG) - Taumarunui (NZTM) - Raglan (NZRA) - Ardmore (NZAR), a nice little 265 nautical mile route that was a bit of a mix of new and old.

The flight out to Tauranga was fairly uneventful and relatively smooth until crossing the Coromandel Ranges where, as expected, the southerly winds were generating some turbulence. I met a student from CTC, also on a solo cross country, at the fuel pumps and we traded some small talk about the cold weather and how annoying leaky cabin air vents are when you're trying to keep warm at 3500'! ;)

Clear and smooth
I tanked up just in case there was no fuel at Taumarunui and made ready for departure. Despite there being a quite a few arrivals and departures, everything was flowing pretty well so I didn't have much of a wait and was cleared ontrack to Taumarunui (yay, no complicated departure procedure).

The leg to Taumarunui was a little more interesting than the first one to Tauranga. At one point I swear JFY was moving left, up, right and down all at the same time! The lenticular cloud forming over the central mountains was a fairly good indication that the forecast winds had indeed arrived... as was the concrete mixer like flying conditions! :-/

The terrain was also more 'interesting'... a series of deep gullies with very steep sides and large sections of almost perfectly flat land between. As opposed to the normal 'rough' terrain that appears to be sharp ridges rising up, this looked like large areas of earth had been scooped out.

A great shot, ruined by turbulence dropping a wing
NZ's answer to the Grand Canyon?
After topping off the tanks again, I finally had a chance to pickup a tail wind as I set course for Raglan. While it made the groundspeed faster, it didn't help all that much with the turbulence ;) Still, the views were kinda cool...

There was a small airforce at Raglan... several Cessna 185 tail draggers, a Cherokee 140, a Fletcher, a Cessna 206 Stationair and a Hughes Helicopter. An RV 'homebuilt' and another Cherokee arrived shortly after I landed. I just hoping everyone wandered over to the camp ground office and paid their $5 landing fee like I did!

Busy busy at Raglan
And then back home... in somewhat record time. I had flightplanned 21 minutes flying at something like 135 knots groundspeed. I had landed, taxiied back to the Airline Flying Club apron and shutdown in 20!!! :-o

In other news, I have reached (exactly) 200 hours total time! :D

CPL here I come...


This Flight: 3.8 Dual (265 nm)
Total Hours: 200.0 (87.2/88.5 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.2 IFR)

An expensive week...

I think that must be the most money I have spent on aviation in one week that didn't involve international air travel!!

After the first 2 CPL cross countries, I decided that a 3rd seemed like a good idea :-/

Originally, the intent had been to have CFI Rob as PinC again, with Trevor in the back getting a bit of a "live" refresher on CPL Cross Countries, so I could finish off the syllabus with him. We had a spare seat, so invited one of Trevor's PPL students along so she could get some practise at map-reading, navigating and the use of AIP aerodrome charts etc.

Unfortunately, about 15 minutes prior to our planned departure, Rob decided he was not feeling to flash (turns out he had an ear infection), so decided that Trevor would conduct the flight. They disappeared into a briefing room to plot all manner of evil schemes for the flight, while I filed the flightplan.

The planned flight was Ardmore (NZAR) - Kaikohe (NZKO) - Kerikeri (NZKK) - Whangarei (NZWR) - Ardmore (NZAR), but being a CPL cross-country, I was expecting diversions, so I made sure I had the AIP plates for the surrounding airfields like Dargaville, Kaitaia & North Shore handy. As it turned out, the 'surprise' exercise for the day was instrument flying... I had not done any IFR flying for a looooong time, October 2008, so I was a little alarmed when flying the first leg Trevor turned around and retrieved the instrument hood from the back seat and handed it to me :( I had not even seen him put the hood in the aircraft, so it was something of a shock.

Anyway, I managed to keep the aircraft the right way (shiny side) up, and pointing in the general direction that I was instructed to, and managed to hold my altitude fairly well despite the lumpy conditions. After about 10 to 15 minutes, Trevor told me to take the hood off, which I was really thankful for... until he asked me where we were!!

I had figured we were flying for a little of 10 minutes, and roughly knew the direction we had been heading in, so had a vague idea... but trying to pinpoint your location is a real exercise. Thankfully, the 'Far North' is a relatively 'thin' piece of land, so there is not too many places to go... there is also the enormous Kaipara Harbour to help pinpoint your position. I was trying to using railroads, transmission lines and tunnels to help pinpoint where I was. As it turns out, we were a long way off track and it actually took me a couple of goes to figure out exactly where I was... but I soon had it nailed down and we proceeded to Kaikohe without any further problems... until all the wind disappeared as I was crossing the threshold and the cherokee decided it didn't want to fly anymore :-/ Exciting stuff... not!

We tanked up with gas, triple-checking the fuel drains as I don't trust the watertightness of these 'out of the way' airfields that don't get a lot of fuel turnover. I dropped some coins in the honesty box to cover the landing fees and with everything in order we headed to Kerikeri and I got a lesson in time management. The leg is quite short... only about 10 or 12 miles and we had a 20 to 25knot tail wind... making it a planned leg of around 7 minutes! Pro-tip: Listen out on the destination frequency and see if you can get an idea of traffic and runway in use before you depart!

I joined overhead, established wind direction and best runway to use, landed, back-tracked and departed for Whangarei. After dodging a Beech 1900D and a much better approach and landing, we headed to the Terminal Building to enjoy a bite to eat... only to discover the cafe was closed while the owner had gone to pick up her son! We waited around for about half an hour or so and they returned and I finally got to enjoy the 'Double Happy' (double sized sausage roll) that I had been looking forward to all day!

Fed and watered, we all climbed back in and departed for home. The final leg becoming a lesson in weather avoidance as we "dodged, ducked, dipped, dived and dodged" rain showers on the trip south. As I had discovered on my trip to hamilton a few weeks ago... making sure you have an escape route is a really good idea. Thankfully, I didn't need to use any of them, as most of the large patches of weather were just that, patches... so we were able to fly around, between and under them.

There were lots of backup plans, like Omaha Flats airstrip, Spring Hill, Kaipara Flats and North Shore available should anything really bad come our way, but soon enough the Whangaparoa Peninsular and Auckland City came into view and we could see the weather was, not necessarily nice but clear...

So we ducked down to 1000' to use the VFR transit lane through Whenuapai's airspace and VFR'd our way back through the harbour area to Ardmore.

Plenty to talk about in the debrief, with lots of really useful tips from Trevor which I have filed away for future reference.

So I am now about 1/2 way through the CPL Cross Country Syllabus... and about 3/4 way through the available credit on my credit card!!! :-O


This Flight: 3.7 Dual (241 nm, 0.2 IFR)
Total Hours: 196.2 (87.2/84.7 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.2 IFR)

On the clock...

I've taken the plunge and commenced my CPL Cross Country training... I have 12 months to finish it off. Tick Tock... Tick Tock.

Rather than wait for the good weather and a weekend to arrive at the same time, I caught myself a bad case of 'Midweek Altitude Sickness'... Twice! ;) 9 hours over 2 days...

Wednesday and Thursday were ideal VFR flying conditions. A big fat high sitting over the country (Pressure was 1033 over the entire country on Wed!), with clear blue skies and temperatures in single digits.

I went flying with CFI Rob on Wednesday, with the route Ardmore (NZAR) - New Plymouth (NZNP) - Taumarunui (NZTM) - Ardmore (NZAR). I was told to expect a diversion in there somewhere. This turned out to be between New Plymouth and Taumarunui... where I was instructed to fly to Ohakune. It is shown on the charts, but not in the AIP. Turns out it is a private strip, owned by CFI Rob's 2nd Cousin, who owns one of the Ski shops in Ohakune.

A very interesting little one-way strip with a curved approach, sitting at 2000' AMSL. Good fun!

I was concentrating on height and heading holding, and over all I think I did a good job. During the debrief Rob said flying-wise there was not too much to be concerned about, but I needed to improve the efficiency of my ground work, as you only get 1 hour once given the route to flight plan and pre-flight. I took about probably about 1hour 10mins... No real drama's, just a little out of practise.

During the flight itself, Rob emphasised the things they were looking for in 'professional' pilots... constantly assessing the situation and always planning ahead. The necessity for this became apparent during the diversion when we flew over some real 'tiger' country. Very rugged with large expanses of forest that would just swallow a light aircraft. Being constantly on the lookout for likely landing spots should an emergency arise, while accurately flying, map-reading, being aware of controlled airspace etc... makes for a very busy pilot ;)

Quite a long day at 4.6 hours of flight time, over 300+nm's distance and a shade over 6 hours of 'real' time (7 if you include the groundwork).

During the debrief, he asked when I would be interested in doing a solo flight. I told him I already had the aircraft booked for the following day!

So on Thursday, I got up and did it all over again... only on my own and without the diversion. I decided on another 300+nm flight, as it is a requirement for a C-Cat, so will help out later on. Rob (and Trevor) suggested Gisborne, and while it sounded like fun, I didn't fancy spending 2+ hrs flying back on a westerly heading directly into the sun. So, I flight planned for Ardmore (NZAR) - Whakatane (NZWK) - Opotiki (NZOP) - Taupo (NZAP) - Raglan (NZRA) - Ardmore (NZAR), which is just over 320nms. I checked the weather, and it looked like I was going to fly a large circle around a huge patch of fog covering most of the Waikato and north of the Central Plateau. Which, as you can see from the pics below, I did!

I ended up delayed a little, due to the severe ice buildup on the aircraft overnight and a minor "technical difficulty" (read as: Engineers taking aircraft for a compass swing), but other than that it was a great day.

Please excuse the photo-quality, I was sure I'd be too busy flying the aircraft to be fluffing about taking photos, so I didn't bother taking a camera. However, the views were just too good not too, so they're off my cellphone. They really don't do do justice to the stunning sights to be had around our country!

Overhead the southern end of the Hunua Valley, looking south towards Lake Waikare and Huntly.

Tauranga and the Mount... looking pleasant as always

Whakatane was it's usual deserted self... and despite the "Variable 5knots" winds, it still managed a nice crosswind :). I soon, after about 5 minutes of looking, discovered that they've moved the landing fee honesty box. It's now tucked away in the airside entrance to the terminal building.

Opotiki was much nicer than my previous visit. And my approach and landing was about a million times better!

The 'Cloud Factories' north of Taupo

Taupo was busy with helicopters in the circuit, about 3 different sky-diving operations running and various transient aircraft. I thought about stopping here for lunch, but parking space was at a bit of a premium, so I decided to head off after a quick snack (mmmm One Square Meal).

Not going anywhere in a hurry

Notice the fog to the left, clear to the right

Picture Postcard Perfect

Raglan was quiet. REALLY quiet. But the locals are very friendly and after paying my landing fee at the camp office, I asked if there was anywhere close by that I could get a bite to eat and a drink as I needed a break after being couped up in a 152 for 4 hours. The office lady suggested the camp store. So I called the National Briefing Office and added an hour to my SARTIME and went for a look.

Pro-tip of the Day: The camp store at Raglan makes great fish and chips ;)

It was perfect afternoon... blue sky, sunshine, great food and a cold drink...

I thanked the ladies at the store and headed back to the airfield before departing for home, once the people walking their dog across the airstrip were safely out of the way! :-/

Glad I decided against that return trip directly into the sun...

All up, 4.4 Hours flight time and 320+nm's... Much better than sitting at my desk :P Must remember to thank my (very understanding) boss!


Flights: 4.6 Dual (334 nm) + 4.4 PinC Night (326 nm)
Total Hours: 192.5 (83.5/84.7 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Wet and/or windy...

So after finishing all my CPL exams, I have been busting to get stuck into the CPL flying... a large component of which is the CPL Cross Country Syllabus.

Unfortunately, the weather gods are once again tormenting me by hurling large amounts of wind and rain at me on weekends... and making Mondays and Tuesdays lovely and sunny :(

And of course, the day after my mate's "Stag Day" (when I was no where near passing the "I'M SAFE" check) it was blue sky and sunshine... *sigh*

However, as my wife will no doubt attest, I am very very VERY stubborn... so I shall continue to defy the weather gods and continue booking aircraft on weekends until I get these flights done... or it becomes summer again ;)

I am once again thinking that, as this winter is looking a bit nasty, I might push the IR up the schedule... that way I will get to spend the crappy days in the simulator... rather than sitting on the couch at the aeroclub drinking tea and talking bollocks...

In the meantime, I will continue to read the Instrument Rating study guides and prepare for the exams, do the odd flight when I can (I have done a couple of scenic flights and some night flying) to help keep my hand in...

And keep prepping for my cross-country flights ;)


Flights: 0.8 PinC + 0.8 PinC Night
Total Hours: 180.6 (78.9/77.4 Day, 8.6/15.7 Night, 7.0 IFR)

Deadlines...

Nothing provides motivation like a deadline ;)

1 more week to figure out how "The Weather"(tm) works... Not sure how I am supposed to understand it all, given that the MetService, who get PAID to understand this stuff, still can't seem to figure it out! :P

Proper Preparation...

prevents piss-poor performance... or so the saying goes.

After passing my Principles of Flight exam a couple of weeks ago, I had been studying for my CPL Nav, hoping to squeeze it in before Christmas. Things had been going fairly well so on the closing date for applications, I had booked my exam. According to the timetable, it would be next Tuesday (16th December), or so I thought!

The exam acceptance slip and practice paper duly arrived, via CourierPost, about a week after booking (like it always does). After checking the bag to make sure everything was there (but not actually reading any of it), I put it all to one side, intending on doing the practice exam over the weekend (most probably the night before the exam!)

Thankfully, I went to check the practice exam on Wednesday afternoon this week, as I wanted to see what 'area' the planned flight was in, to see if I had the appropriate chart(s). That is when I just happened to notice that the exam date was listed as 12/12/2008.

Me: "WTF?!!?!? The 12th?? That's this Friday... not next Tuesday... something must be wrong, I'd better call ASL to double check."

Then I noticed the little box that said in somewhat small writing, 'Dear Mr Yates, please note change in date due to heavy bookings'

Me: "OH SH*T!"

That only gave me 1 day to finish all my study... instead of the 5 that I had budgeted for! Thankfully my boss was very understanding and let me take the day off at short notice, so yesterday was filled with revision and practice exams... I finally went to bed around 1am, satisfied that if anything CPL Nav related was not already in my head, it:

A. Wouldn't get it in, in my half awake state
and
B. Wouldn't fit anyway


Woke up late this morning as my alarm didn't go off, despite the fact I checked it twice before I went to bed! Got ready and headed off to find the exam venue which was different from the usual location. Was a bit of a mission trying to find it... somehow I missed the building with 'Taha Wahia Woodside' emblasoned in big letters on the front... twice! :)

Apparently, several other people seem to have fallen into the same trap. There were supposed to be around 18 people sitting various exams this morning, but only 5 of us showed up! I imagine there are going to be some unhappy campers making phone calls to ASL...

Despite everything, the actual exam went surprisingly well!! There were only 1 or 2 questions that caused me to pause and scratch my head, so I am fairly confident that I have passed (famous last words ;). This, of course, means one of two things... I have either passed comfortably or failed spectacularly.

I always considered Nav to be one of the easier subjects. As it is essentially learning processes, and then applying them to the situation given... which I find relatively easy. It is the exams that rely on you remembering obscure 'facts' (ie. Air Law and P of F) that cause me the most problems.

Now I get to play the excruciating 'Wait for your Results' game... However, we were told today that ASL are shutting down for the holidays next Friday (19th December), which is why they have moved everything around, so it should be marked before then. Yay!


Fingers Crossed...

P of F and level 6 Engrish...

After stressing out about what I thought was a pretty poor 'Principles of Flight and Performance' exam on Monday... it turns out that I got 89%!

Don't tell ASL, but I think they may have mixed my answer sheet up with someone elses :-/

Oh, and apparently after 33 years of being born in and living in and attending school and university in an English speaking country... I can, officially, speak English! Wow... amazing! Who would have thought?!?!!

Apparently not the aviation overlords... hence my heading along to Heliflight on Tuesday morning to do a "Level 6 English Language Proficiency Demonstration" (aka. the 'Engrish' test, aka. how to 'tax' pilots another $99)

Basically, you talk to an automated recording on the phone for 10 minutes and then a couple of days later they tell you that you can speak english. As you have probably figured out, I am not exactly a fan of this ridiculous system... and had to bite my tongue when one of the questions during the test was:

"People in Aviation have differing views on the need for English Language Proficiency Testing. What are your views on this subject?"

Talk about red rag to a bull!

Somehow, I resisted the (very strong) urge to tell them what a complete waste of time and money this whole process was! Instead, I gave them an answer that expressed my disagreement with methods and costs but viewed it as a necessary evil for safety reasons, citing historical incidents involving break downs in communication.

Anyway, I have Level 6 which is valid for life (or until they decide to change the system!)... now I just need to pay another $50 to get it endorsed on my license! I reckon I should just get my pay direct credited to the 'Campaign Against Aviation' (CAA)...

meh.

Online Results

are not necessarily a good thing... because you end up spending all day constantly pressing F5 to reload the webpage to see if your marks have been posted! :-/

It does not help that, for the last couple of days, I have been in bed with the 'Man Flu'(tm) as the missus likes to call it... so have had nothing better to do that watch daytime tv and refresh the results page.

Thankfully mine finally have been posted... and even more thankfully, I need not have been so concerned about my results for Air Law...

ASL Exam Results for
[ZK-JPY]

Date      Subject            Result  Mark
29/07/08  CPL Air Law        Pass    90
28/07/08  CPL Human Factors  Pass    100

I am not sure how, but I got 90% for Air Law... wtf!?!!? Still, I'm not complaining, that is $108 I definitely did not want to have to spend again!

And I guess I was right to feel confident about Human Factors... 100%! woohoo!

On to Air Tech now... not exactly my strong suit :-( I do electronics and computers... not internal combustion engines, carburettors and fuel systems... I thought that was why we had LAME's? ;-)

(Hopefully) Two down...

CPL Air Law... *ugh*

Yesterday was not a pleasant experience... needless to say I am not as confident about that exam as I was about Human Factors :(

It was 30 questions... and you need 70% (or 21 questions for those who aren't good at maths)...

I think I knew about 22 or 23... and after the exam, I checked a couple that I had guessed and found I had got them right.

There was also one question that appeared to not have any correct answers!?!?!! It was asking about GAA areas (specifically G277, Lake Waikare) and what the Frequency and ATC requirements were. I think the reason why it was wrong, may have somthing to with the fact that the entry for G277 in the AIP had been updated on 10th April 2008... I am guessing that the exam question had not been updated to match. So, I wrote a critique at the end of the exam explaining why I thought there was no correct answer and why I picked the answer I did.

So, hopefully, I have passed... but it will definitely be a nervous "7 working days" waiting for my results to be posted.

One down...

Five to go!

Had my first CPL exam this morning... at 8am!!!?!!?

But now I know why people say you should start off with Human Factors. It is only 40 multi-guess questions and they give you 1 1/2 hours... I took 25 minutes ;)

I think I did OK, as there were only 3 or 4 that I was unsure of and of those, I checked the study guide after the exam and I know I got 2 of them right! So I am expecting a mark somewhere around 90% (you need 70% to pass). 7 working days until the results are posted...

I have Air Law tomorrow morning... at 8am!!???! Unfortunately, I am not feeling quite as confident about this one, but I have been studying hard which was made a little easier by my decision to start taking the train to/from work again, which 'gifts' me study time that would normally be wasted on road rage! ;) And, I have completed a couple of practice exams and did OK, so hopefully I can keep all this info in my head for 1 more day!