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 ;)

Intro to type

First flight since my flight test and it was awesome... I've started my 172 type rating and it was the perfect end to the weekend.

With all the crazy weather, I honestly did not think that I would get in the air, but by around 4pm on Sunday, large chunks of blue were showing, the cloudbase was up over 2000' and the wind had died down to around 5 to 10 knots...

I had already spent Saturday doing all the groundwork (learning reference speeds, weight and balance, p-charts etc) so all that was needed was to cover basic handling, stalls, EFATO, FLWOP and some circuits... then an 'All up weight check' and some solo circuits and I am away laughing.

As the weather had fined up, I headed out to Ardmore and started pre-flighting DXJ. It is a 1970's (1976?) Cessna 172M. Visually, it is a little rough around the edges (the owner is apparently getting it repainted and the interior done this winter), but it has just had a new (not reconditioned, but brand new!) engine put in... and it just purrs...

Thought I had a problem with my homemade headset during startup, as it was crackling and lots of static etc, but it did the same thing with my 'proper' headset, so I guess the intercom has some gremlins in it.

Headed out, and while I should have expected the Engine Failure after TakeOff, I was too busy enjoying the different (and very spacious compared to the 152) aircraft... I handled it OK, and actually found some good paddocks to use...

Then down to the Training Area for some standard stuff, medium turns, steep turns, stalls and a FLWOP... which I totally nailed!

The biggest difference (aside from costing more ;) is just how smooth the aircraft is... even with the odd shower passing through and the breeze coming over the Hunua Ranges, the aircraft just seemed to glide through the air... whereas the 152 is best described as 'squirrely' :)

Back to the circuit for an overhead join, then a couple of normal approaches, a flapless and a shortfield... You really notice the difference in attitude here... the nose of the 172 slopes away, whereas the 152 is quite flat... and with 40 degrees of flap vs. 30 in the 152, you get to see an awful lot of ground on approach... its somewhat disconcerting as you get the impression you are nosing into the ground!

Now all I need is the 'All Up Weight Check', which is some circuits with a couple of passengers so the aircraft is fully loaded + some solo circuits and I will be rated for the 172.

This flight: 1.3 Dual
Total Hours: 90.1 (69.3 Dual, 20.8 PinC, 5.1 IFR)

The longest day...

Waiting... waiting... waiting...

8 years, 5 months, 24 days to be precise. That was the time from my first logged flight (August 11th 1999) to my PPL flight test (3rd February 2008) and in that time I racked up:

• 90 flights...


• in 15 different aircraft...


• totalling 88.8 hours...


• and 284 landings[1]

and what do I have to show for it? A handshake and a 'Congratulations' from the flight examiner :)

Yesterday was quite possibly one of the longest days of my life. After spending most of saturday evening doing my last minute prep and making sure I had all my documents in order, I found I was so excited I could barely sleep. In fact, I did not dose off until after midnight and I awoke around 6:30am.

After tossing and turning for an hour or so, I finally gave up and had a shower, triple-checked that I had everything and then headed out to the airfield.

Of course, no other idiot was stupid enough to be at the flying club at 9am, so it was all locked up. I just sat at one of the outdoor tables watching the early morning circuit bashers and doing some last minute study of the flight manual.

A couple of other people showed up, so I started ringing people to find someone with a key. A keyholder finally arrived around 10am, which meant I got to sit inside and be anxious instead of sitting outside and being anxious ;)

The flight examiner, John, arrived soon after, but had a lot of paperwork and some other business to attend to first. So I waited.

Around 11:15, I commenced the ground work portion (doing flight plan, weight & balance etc.) and thanks to a practice run on Saturday and my paper work prep the night before I had finished in about 25-30 minutes... you get 1 hour. I went to tell John, but he was busy doing an Instructor Renewal so he told me to go and get a coffee. So I waited.

During this time, the cloud turned nasty, it rained... it started to fine up... it started to shower again... you know, typical Auckland "4 seasons in one day" weather.

A couple of flights came back saying "cloud base and weather down to minimums"... so I thought it was over, but John said "we'll wait and see". So I waited.

He went and did the instructor renewal flight and came back and said the weather was not too bad so if we leave it a little bit and work through the paperwork it should be good to go. So I waited.

It rained.

So John decides he'll head back into town to go pick up his father and come back and drop him off at the Warbirds association for a beer... he'll be back in 30 minutes. So I waited.

He arrived back and said "Ready to go?" so I preflighted the aircraft (I had already done this earlier, but he wanted to watch how I did it) and we strapped ourselves and went. I made sure I verbalised everything that I was doing and worked through my checks thoroughly.

We taxied out at 5:30pm... and I was still feeling excited, nervous and amped despite being up for nearly 12 hours.

The next 1.1 hours were a bit of a blur... climb out, head down towards the training area via Drury, steep turn left, steep turn right, basic stall, fully developed stall, power-on stall, compass turns, forced landing, EFATO, bad weather/low flying, medium turn left, medium turn right, steep turn left, steep turn right, head back to the field for some circuits.

Rain showers sweeping across the field made it interesting, as did the light twin behind me doing asymmetric circuits, but it's his responsibility to get his spacing right so I was not too concerned with what he was doing.

So we did a normal circuit (I did a go-around because I was high and not happy with the approach), a flapless (demonstrating crosswind technique for John, not easy when the wind is calm!), another normal (with a go-around at about 10 feet!) and then a shortfield approach to finish (55kts all the way down final and totally nailed it!)

Taxied back to the club, parked up and ran through the shutdown checks at which point John smiled at me, then offered his hand and said 'Congratulations'. I thanked him and we chatted for a minute about a couple of things (my first go-around and my apparent reluctance to use full flaps) and then he asked if I minded securing the aircraft on my own. It was still raining and he obviously didn't want to get soaking wet, but I could have cared less...

Being the "professional" pilot that I am, I waited until he had climbed out and disappeared back into the clubhouse before celebrating my success... but I'm sure everyone inside heard me ;)

So I worked through the paperwork, then got out and secured the aircraft (the rain was actually quite refreshing) and headed inside to a dead quiet clubhouse before everyone burst in applause and congratulations.

My wallet ended up a little lighter after the bar shout and a nice cold Monteiths Summer Ale (in honour of the lovely summery weather), but the nothing could get the stupid grin off my face... It's still there today and probably will be for the next week or three :)

Then I had dinner with the in-laws (which became an impromptu celebratory dinner) and headed home. I had been planning on cracking open a bottle of Wild Turkey that a friend gave me for xmas, but by 10:30pm, I had been up for around 16 hours with about 4 hours of sleep before that... so as you can imagine I crashed pretty hard! ;)

And then irony of irony's... today is beautiful blue skies and bright sunshine... much like the 3 weeks of perfect weather before my flight test... Typical!

Anyway, I still have some paperwork to tidy up (Fit and Proper Person) before CAA will issue my license... and I cannot exercise my PPL privileges before I am in possession of the plastic license, but for all intents and purposes, I am a qualified Private Pilot (Aeroplane).

Now I just need to do my cross countries to lift the restriction... and get a 172 rating... and get a cherokee rating... and get a night rating... and get an aerobatics rating... and get a taildragger rating... and......... ;)


This flight: 1.1 PinC (Pilot in Command)
Total Hours: 88.8 (68.0 Dual, 20.8 PinC, 5.1 IFR)

[1] in case you're wondering how 90 flights ended in 284 landings, when you're doing circuits you do several landings per flight ;)

The perfect start...

Happy New Year!

I had a great break... went over to Whiritoa on the eastern side of the Coromandel Peninsula... and spent New Years at a friends beach house... lovely spot... lovely weather...

All capped off with a great weekends flying...

I went out on sunday morning not really expecting much, as the cloud base looked a little low, but the wind was fairly light. I went up in JFY with Trevor to go over some of my weaker points and rack up some more Simulated IFR time to get up to the minimum 5 hours.

Luckily the cloudbase played ball and we managed to find a nice ring of clear air to do some stalling practice... again, JFY refused to drop a wing, but Trevor commented he was happy with that..javascript:void(0)
Publish Post. He thought I was crazy when I told him I was a little disappointed ;)

I totally screwed up my precautionary landing... Instead of getting the plane configured properly (low flying config - 70kts & 20degress flap) first and then following the procedure, I tried to do both... it didnt work :( But I did learn a valuable lesson!

Some more IFR on the way back and then a picture perfect shortfield approach and landing!

While Trevor went up with another student, I got my KDR's (Knowledge Deficiency Reports) signed off by Chief Flight Instructor Rob... these are basically the bits I got wrong on my theory exams... and he just wanted to make sure I now understood and knew the things I had got wrong.

He then suggested we go back up and finish off the IFR so Trevor could sign off the exercises in my log book and then I would be ready for a mock flight test with Rob next week!

So after Trevor got back and debriefed his student, we went up for another flight... by this time the wind had picked up and was blowing pretty much straight across the runway... so I got to demonstrate proper crosswind take-off technique...

Once airborne (and bouncing around) we did some more IFR work... this time concentrating on Partial Panel and Unusual Attitude Recovery... good fun! and I actually found partial panel work easier than full panel, despite the turbulence... I think I was feeling a little tired and so only having 4 gauges to look at instead of 6 made for less work?!???

I also nailed the precautionary landing... this time I took the time to get the aircraft configured properly before attempting the procedure and it was so much easier than the previous one... like I said... a lesson learned! Also, the really strong wind assisted by making for low groundspeeds on the upwind legs...

Back to NZAR and by there was the nice 10 to 12 knot crosswind to contend with, so I was able to demonstrate proper crosswind landing technique... did quite well considering we have not had much in the way of decent crosswinds to practice with... at least I put the into-wind wheel down first this time!

A great way to start 2008... and if everything goes well I will have my flight test before the end of January!

Now I can start on the paper work... grrrr you have to fill out a 'Fit and Proper Person' questionnaire, send off for criminal and traffic offence history and get a referee to vouch for you... lots of hoops just to be able to hold an aviation license!

This flight: 1.1 Dual (0.5 IFR) + 1.2 Dual (0.6 IFR)
Total Hours: 80.9 (62.4 Dual, 18.5 Solo, 5.1 IFR)

Book worm...

so no luck on the flying front today... but I still had an enjoyable BDay... the AB's kicked arse... I got to sleep in until 1pm... and I still went out to the flying club to do some groundwork...

covered the flight manual and the various info in it with regards to weight and balance, P-Charts, NOTAM's and Weather Briefings...

learnt some interesting bits of info and where they are contained in the AIP's...

then did some practice weight/balance and P-chart scenarios for the C-152... and discovered that they do not have a very useful load!

Also went over NOTAM's and weather briefing info..

Then I got to go for a yummy steak dinner (although I ate a bit much)

All in all, a great day...

Fit and Proper Person

Neato, got my lovely little piece of laminated paper that says "New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority Medical Certificate"...

So I am officially a "Fit and Proper" Person, well at least according to the CAA ;)

Now all I need to do is prove to the instructors that I can fly in circles safely and they'll let me go up on my own :)

Fit to fly...

I (finally) passed my medical. After 2 weeks of monitoring (along with diet & exercise) my BP is right down where it should be, around 120/80.

The doc was satisified that it wasnt going to be an issue, and that my blood tests were relatively clean. Just some minor 'Lipid Derangement' which in layman's terms means that my cholesterol is a little high. Apparently, the levels are actually lower than my last blood tests 2 years ago, so the doc says that as long as I continue with my (new) healthy lifestyle, I shouldnt have any issues.

WOOHOO!

Houston... we have a problem

Went for my medical today... and the news was not good. Apparently my blood pressure is a little high, so the Doc wants to monitor it for the next 2 weeks before issuing my medical.

Crap.

Personally, I think its stress related as work has been a bit shitty lately. And probably a combination of me being about 10Kgs too heavy and having a somewhat poor diet.

Having said that, I have recently started exercising and eating right since I got back from a 4 week business trip in the middle of Feb, as living in hotels and taking taxi's everywhere for 4 weeks does not exactly do wonders for your diet and/or exercise regime!

In the meantime, I'm going to continue flying anyway, as I dont believe this little hiccup is going to prevent me getting a medical.

fingers crossed.