The perfect end...

What a day yesterday... the cloud played its part and stayed up high enough that it was perfect for some solo revision.

I took JFY out to the training area to practice stalls, forced landings and precautionary landings... Stalling was fun. I still have no idea why it scares some people?!? Having said that I got a little surprise when doing one of the basic stalls and had a wingdrop! I was about 1/2 a second away from trying to roll the wings level when the training kicked in with power/elevator first, then roll level...

The ironic thing is that when I tried for a wingdrop stall JFY refused! ha ha ha...

FLWOP and my precautionary landing were OK, I reckon I would have been OK had they been for real...

Then back to NZAR for a cup of tea... All in all, a most pleasant way to end 2007.

This flight: 1.3 Solo
Total Hours: 78.6 (60.1 Dual, 18.5 Solo, 4.0 IFR)

Nothing but gray...

So it was a lovely blue sky day yesterday... maybe a little on the breezy side at 19 knots... but a really nice summer day...

and I got to spend my flight staring at a piece of gray plastic...

Almost an hours worth of simulated IFR... almost at the minimum required 5 hours worth of IFR... it was good fun, but a little bumpy which made holding headings and altitudes a bit of a mission...

He was nice and gave me a quick 10 second peek at the scenery about half way through... an absolutely glorious day out over the water about halfway to the coromandel peninsula... blue skies, blue water... lovely... then back to the gray plastic :(

It didnt help that he keep remarking every 10 minutes or so about how awesome the view was... bastard! ;)

The best part of the flight was when Trevor said "Ok, take off the hood" and I was at about 400' on final approach. "Ok, now fly the approach" he says :) I had managed to join and fly the circuit without being able to see anything!

Good fun, and hopefully, now that I have a couple of days of leave, I might even get some flying in over the Xmas break...

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year!

This flight: 1.0 Dual (0.8 IFR)
Total Hours: 77.3 (60.1 Dual, 17.2 Solo, 4.0 IFR)

Success and Failure

So i sat there soberly on friday night at the work xmas party (turning down all the free booze) as I was going flying on saturday morning...

so of course the weather was crap on saturday morning! but at least my head felt good! ;)

Sunday was looking OK... so I headed out to the field to check what was happening... cloud base was up over 3200', which was more than enough for some stalling practice so I booked JFY and headed up...

I also decided to test my new (homemade) toy:



I originally got the idea from Nick Ugolini... but didnt really think much about it until I stumbled across Drew Chaplin's site while trying to 're-find' Nicks site... and with extra ideas/inspiration from a couple of guys from here and here I thought "Why not?"...

Originally had some issues sourcing an old headset to scavenge parts from, but luckily got hold of an old Telex Airman 750 (the -100 model)... I borrowed the mic and boom, the circuitry from the earpiece and the cables/plugs...




Then I had to try and source the earphones... what a nightmare! No-one in NZ or AU seemed to stock what I wanted (I would have like the Shure e3c's but they're ridiculously expensive here)... so I settled on the Hearing Components NR-10's... aroun 35 to 40 dB's of noise reduction and an inline volume control... sweet!

the next mission was getting them to NZ... for some reason everyone in the US wants to ship international orders via Fedex or UPS... so a US$50 pair of earphones, that weigh about as much as a packet of gum, come with a US$75 shipping fee! crazy! Luckily a friend in the US was coming back to NZ for Xmas, so I shipped them to him (for like US$4) and he bought them back... really it should not be this hard!



I tried the earphones out while mowing the lawns and they worked really well... I plugged them into my phone and got to enjoy mp3's while getting dirty and sunburned :)

Then, I had some issues with the mic, as after making the headband and mic assembly I took it up for a test fly (i just plugged it into the spare sockets while flying solo) and it was constantly transmitting... regardless of the squelch setting... so after some investigation (ie. 'googling') I discovered that the little adjustable potentiometer on the circuitry actually controlled the mic gain. So I got out the multimeter and adjusted the 'pot'... testing last week proved that the mic was now working as it should (albeit with aircraft on the ground and engine off).



I could not test the whole unit, as I was flying dual, and I wanted to be able to have my 'real' headset plugged in as a backup incase it was a dismal failure. But as I was going solo yesterday, it was the perfect opportunity to test it out...

and it worked perfectly! So much lighter and way more comfortable than having a whopping great big headset clamped to your noggin... you dont have to worry about your sunglasses ruining the seal on the earcups (because there arent any!) and letting in noise... and you dont get all hot and sweaty from the bit headband etc...

Anyway, the flying was good... I nailed the medium, steep and compass turns and feel comfortable with stalls etc. but my forced landings were poor... I just felt really rushed and only got 1 semi-decent approach out of the 3 attempts... I will definitely need to practice some more...

Trevor should hopefully finish his MEIR (Multi-Engine Instrument Rating) this week, which will free up his time and hopefully mean we can get some midweek flying after work now that its light until around 9pm...

I am still missing some instrument flying, so I think the next lesson is going to be a good solid hour of instruments... with partial panel and unusual attitude recovery... good fun!


This flight: 1.4 Solo
Total Hours: 76.3 (59.1 Dual, 17.2 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Wild and Windy

was what Trevor was wanting so we could finish off the low flying part of the syllabus... and we got it!

Cloudbase was down around 1500', light showers passing through and the wind was up over 20 knots (the reported 2000' wind was 35 knots!)... thankfully almost straight down the runway, so not too trick for the take-off or landing...

We headed out to the low flying zone, and the strong headwind was quite obvious as despite the 75 knot (around 140-150 km/h)indicated airspeed on the climb, the cars on the roads below were crossing the ground faster than us!

First up, some Steep Turns... at 2500', this is almost fun... at 300' while setup in the bad weather config (20degrees flap, 70 kts) it is a little scarier! The optical illusion of sliding into the water is very dramatic and you really have to fight the urge to yank the yoke back.

After successfully completing a few of those, we started on Coastal Reversal Turns... basically used when we need to turn around and runaway (ie. thunderstorm ahead) but performing a standard 180 degree turn is impossible due to terrain etc... essentially you head away from your coast or line feature on a roughly 45 degree angle and (allowing for wind) roll back with a steep turn and roll out when you're confident of completing the turn within the space left...

The first one was OK... I managed to complete it fairly comfortably, the second one was a little closer... at 300', you really get to see the effects of a 20 to 30 knot wind!

After nailing the coastal reversal, we tried some constant radius turns... sounds easy flying round in circles, but with a strong wind your circle fast becomes an eggshape if you're not paying attention! Good fun!

All in all a good flight... the day would have perfect had I not hit a small patch of oil and performed some unintentional 'aerobatic maneuvers' in my car on the drive to the airfield and backed it into an embankment... thankfully it was a relatively low speed impact, as I had slowed right down for the corner due to the wet conditions, but my brand new bumper (only been on the car for about 3 or 4 weeks after getting rear-ended on the motorway) is a little messed up :( I know for a fact that its around $600 to $700 to replace, but I only have 3rd party insurance and the car is only worth around $2500, so I don't think i'll bother... besides, thats like 4 hours flying! ;)

This flight: 0.9 Dual
Total Hours: 74.9 (59.1 Dual, 15.8 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Karma?

So maybe I've upset the aviation gods... or maybe its the full moon... but flying this weekend was 'interesting'.

To begin with, the rostered B-Cat was going to be unavailable, so that ruled out flying with Trevor. However then I found he was available but only until 1100.

So I headed out for some solo work. Pre-flight was OK, except for a slight discrepancy with the paperwork as the previous hirer had recorded the previous flight hours incorrectly (warning sign #1) and I taxied out for 21.

I was observing proper behaviour and parked so I could observe base and finals before lining and was about to make the call and move when a charter flight cut in from the other side of the runway... (warning sign #2)

So I let him go, and luckily the circuit was empty so I was able to follow him out. A good max performance takeoff and I was away. Or so I thought! As I turned crosswind, a nice 20degree climbing turn, and out of nowhere the airspeed dropped from 70kts to around 55! Nose down, wings level... no stall warning or huge altitude loss, but definitely an anxious moment and expletive or three... (warning sign #3)

I vacated the circuit and headed along the Hunua Valley towards the training area trying to dodge the small pockets of clouds that were floating around 1800' to 2000'... (warning sign #4)

Once at the Training Area, I noticed that the visibility was maybe around 10 to 15km... it was very hazy and the cloud base was maybe around 2500'... so I tried to warm up with some steep turns, but with these annoying little pockets of cloud floating around in a relatively strong wind it was going to be difficult to get anything done... (warning sign #5)

So I decided to cut my losses and headed back for some circuits instead...

Made my radio call approaching the mandatory broadcast zone (MBZ)... and after releasing the push-to-talk button, heard the UNICOM operator confirming something from another aircraft... so I requested confirmation that he had heard my broadcast and was asked to repeat... (warning sign #6)

Did an overhead join into the circuit, called turning downwind... and began the approach... at which point one aircraft called lining up 21 seal and a second aircraft called rolling on 21 Grass. "No drama's", I am thinking to myself "I'm only on base, he has a lot of time to move"... at which point the guy on the seal announces that he is 'Holding on 21 Seal'.... Still not a big deal, I have time... at which point he decides that he is 'Continuing to Hold on 21 seal'... (warning sign #7)

Thanks buddy!.... "Ardmore traffic, Juliet Foxtrot Yankee turning finals for 21 GRASS, full stop".... I decided that after 7 warning signs I should take a hint!

But Karma was not finished with me... as I was coming over the fence I hear UNICOM telling a helo that "There is no reported traffic for 21 Grass".... eeeerrrrr what?!?!? "JFY, short finals for grasss!"...

I taxied back to the club, secured the plane and went and had a cuppa...

Just another day at NZAR! :)

This flight: 0.7 Solo
Total Hours: 74.0 (58.2 Dual, 15.8 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

Preparing for the worst...

Yesterdays lesson was about precautionary landings... in simple terms, a landing made 'off-field' for safety reasons (ie. bad weather making it too dangerous to continue flying). Another one of those 'Proper planning and good decision making means you should never need to do this, but just in case...'-type lessons.

Not quite as stressful as a forced landing, as you still have power, so you can be a bit more choosy about where to land, and if things do not look good, you can always go-around.

It's still a little unsettling flying around at 500 feet though... but I am slowly getting more comfortable with it.

Learned some handy tricks, such as when flying past the chosen landing site on the 1st pass, to reset the Directional Indicator to north, so that when flying the 'circuit' around the field, you do not have to try to calculate unfamiliar headings on the fly, you can just reference the cardinal points (north, east, west & south)... not a huge deal, but it does reduce the workload a little in an already stressful situation.

I also found that I am not having to try so hard to keep my eyes outside... its becoming more of a natural instinct now... as Trevor said 'You want to be looking outside the majority of the time, and only use the instruments to confirm attitude and performance, not set it!'

Also, with daylight savings starting to kick in and ECT (evening civil twilight) getting close to 9pm, Trevor suggested the possibility of midweek evening flights. I am happy with that, as jade often works late, so I'm just sitting round the house waiting for her to come home anyway... may as well make use of the daylight!

This flight: 1.3 Dual
Total Hours: 73.3 (58.2 Dual, 15.1 Solo, 3.2 IFR)

One more milestone...

I knocked off another milestone today... I have passed the 15 hour minimum of solo time required for a PPL.

Trevor was away this weekend, and no other instructor was available so I decided to build up the solo hours... I had not planned to break the 15 hour minimum, it just turned out that way.

It was a simply fantastic day for flying today... blue skies, a light breeze (just enough to keep you on your toes when landing) and a cloud base high enough to enable forced landing (FLWOP) practice...

First flight of the day I took JFY and went to practice my compass turns some more. I am fairly confident with these now, having figured out that I was rolling out too soon and too hard. Like most things when flying, nice and smooth is the secret ;) Now I just need to work on the mental arithmetic required to work out the correction factors...

Then I nailed a couple of FLWOP's and headed back to the field for a couple of circuits. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind what I suspect was a relatively newly solo student doing circuits so large that a battleship would have been ashamed of them! After getting a little frustrated I called a full stop on the 3rd circuit. On the positive side, I got some good flapless practice due to the extended downwind legs ;)

After a bit of a pit stop I headed back out to the Training Area in ETZ... I was working on keeping my eyes outside and trying to fly by attitude instead of looking at the instruments... nice and challenging!

Did some Steep Turns and some more FLWOP practice... then decided to take a bit of a Tiki-tour about the Training Area. The training area was very busy with several aircraft practicing forced landings, a couple doing parachute drops and glider activity as well. However, everyone was making position reports so things went pretty smoothly.

After a lap of the TA, I headed back to Ardmore (dodging a tow-plane and glider), did an overhead join and slotted into the traffic for some circuits finishing with a nice shortfield landing on the grass.

A fantastic days flying...

This flight: 1.3 Solo + 1.5 Solo
Total Hours: 72.0 (56.9 Dual, 15.1 Solo, 3.2 IFR)