Summertime

School's done for another year. Good grief that was quick. Next year, the stress of GCSE exams so better enjoy these last 2 months of freedom while I can...

I haven't been flying since my G1000 sim/fly session in April, for various reasons - mostly financial. 3 months later, I finally have new lessons booked for this Saturday (5th July) and Saturday fortnight (19th July, one day after my 16th birthday). Needless to say my hopes of a solo flight this summer are shot to pieces but I guess we don't always get what we want. At least I should have 2 more hours in the logbook by the end of the month.

The sun shone for weeks on end through May and June and I'm starting to think that Northern Ireland has had as much summer as it's going to get for this year. En ce moment, Metcheck is forecasting good weather for the coming Saturday - although weather forecasts can turn in an instant. It'll be nice to get some good weather whilst I regain a feel for the little Cessna.

My other goals for the summer? Mostly to do with getting a job. I've tried every aviation organisation in Belfast with no success. It'll be nice having a steady source of income if I do get one, no matter what I end up doing.

Normal service should be resumed this Saturday. If you're still reading this after the long lull, thank you. I mean that.


Dave

Ah, yes: the environment

Flying has been nonexistent lately due to a lack of funds. Anyone who lives in the UK will know that the economy is in trouble and that tax, electricity and fuel bills are all rising rapidly, the latter two by 30% per year. It's ridiculous. I have yet to find out if the rise in fuel costs will affect the price of flying lessons. The tax issue is what really annoys me though: without wanting to rant, how the government thinks that it is reasonable to send taxes on fuel and cars through to roof to encourage us to use public transport and yet still let NI's only bus company to charge me about £2.50 ($5) for a return journey to the City Centre (20 minutes away) and a truly disgraceful £9 ($18) for a return trip to Belfast International Airport (30 minutes away) is completely beyond me. Most likely they don't think it is reasonable but do it anyway for fear of upsetting Greenpeace.

I'm all for protecting the environment, the lengths some people will go to to make a profit are disturbing (for example various activities in the Amazon Rainforest), but arguably environmental pressure groups would be better off devoting their considerable resources to the research of alternative fuels, or picketing the head offices of Translink Northern Ireland to get the fares down, or something - anything but climbing on to the fuselages of planes at Heathrow Airport (which they seem to have done with relative impunity) or, and this is what really baffles me, protesting against the building of a third runway at Heathrow. I'm sure you have heard of Heathrow, one of the busiest airports in the world, which therefore has pretty long queues of planes waiting to take off. Hasn't it struck anyone that building a third runway would mean that there are less planes sitting on a taxiway with their engines on doing nothing but burning expensive fuel and emitting all kinds of nasties into the atmosphere instead of doing the useful and necessary work of transporting people from A to B in safety and comfort? But no, this sensible measure might destroy a field or two so Heathrow security must spend hours prising people off the tailfins of A320s...

This post was actually supposed to be about my ongoing search for a job to do with aviation to fund both my flying and life in general but that will have to wait because I seem to have gone on for a bit. Sorry. I'd like to hear your thoughts - from both sides of the fence - on the issues above.

Withdrawl Symptoms

I know I only really post when I've been flying, but I have some free time today so stand by for an update...

I'd love to go flying today (mind you I'd love to go flying any day) - the weather is beautiful with sun, few clouds and only the slightest hint of wind. Still, I knew I'd go a few weeks at least without flying so just have to sit it out.

My Duke of Edinburgh expedition in the beautiful Mourne Mountains is next weekend. I've been busy packing and worrying about missing something. I hope the weather is as nice as it has been this weekend, although rain is forecast. I will have another look over our route to check if there are any areas prone to becoming marshy on the 50km hike....if there are it'll give me something else to worry about. Still, whatever the weather spending a couple of days with close friends in the mountains will be good for me even if it is tremendously difficult. I can't wait.

Hopefully the weekend after that I will be flying, but if I can't book it soon I won't get a slot for that day, and it is doubtful if the money will be there to book it. Oh well, what's another week...

Right now though I am kicking back and enjoying having a relaxing weekend before next weekend which will be anything but. I'm reading some of my favourite aviation blogs too, Flight Level 390, FL250, Sulako's Blog, Aviatrix,... the legends of Blogspot that are a household name if you have a passion for flying or even just a passion for good reading. If I could work out how to put a blogroll on here they would be at the side, but for now the Links section will have to do. I'm also reading the student pilot's bible, pictured below, and the operating manual for the G1000 cockpit I'm using now which is even more complex than I thought. I love it.



Happy landings.

Dave

Straight and Level

I was flying again today. I met my instructor, Tony, who is a real comedian and a very talented teacher, at the flying club shortly after 10am. After a quick cup of tea we went out to the G1000 simulator which is really just 2 PC screens using the G1000 trainer software available from Garmin. He ran me through the basics, what knob does what and the normal startup procedure for about half an hour and then said he though I was ready to put what I'd learnt in the sim into practice on the real thing. Tony flies the Dornier 328 so he is no stranger to the glass-cockpit concept.

We taxiied out after a beautiful twin-engined Piper which was taking 4 business executives to Glasgow for the day. Interestingly enough it was being piloted by last week's instructor, Everett, and another guy who we'd seen in uniform earlier.

I taxiied out but will be the first to admit I made a mess of turning round at the end of the runway for a takeoff on 04, but oh well. I took off and lifted the Cessna into the cold but gusty air. I love taking off from runway 4 because it gives a really nice view of Newtownards. We turned and headed down the peninsula where I would do some straight and level training.

Like a lot of new pilots used to flight simulators, I suffer from "head in cockpit" syndrome - that is, spend too much time looking at the instruments and not enough looking out the window. Tony was good at stamping that out by covering the beautiful G1000 screens with his hand. The trick is to keep the dash the height of your fist under the horizon to fly straight-and-level, unless of course you have particularly big fists in which case you will eventually hit the ground and have a very bad day.

Next we practiced levelling out at selected altitudes which is a very important skill and one you keep for the rest of your aviation career. I made good progress on that but need a little more practice on using the trim effectively. I put the altitudes into the G1000 just for the practice to learn where the different knobs are.

It has to be said that it is an absolutely beautiful day here today. It's always such a pleasure to fly on a clear sunny day - we could see the shipwrecks under the sea in the Ards Peninsula. Someone told me there are 365 islands in it but I'm not sure if I believe them, although there are certainly a lot.

I flew in again for a rather exciting landing on runway 34. Like the takeoff we got an interesting view - this time of the sea wall which is right at the start of the runway. 34 is very short too so there was a fair old squeal from the tires. It was difficult to leave Charlie Juliet on the ramp as this is the last time I'll be flying for a couple of weeks at least due to a weekend in the mountains the weekend after next. Shame. Still, at least I'm ending on a high.

Thanks for reading.

The Glass Cockpit

After worrying about today's weather for a whole week, I got a bit of luck and when I went up the sun was shining and the clouds were few. The wind wasn't ideal but the weather can never be completely perfect here so I was happy.

The club was one flying instructor short so things were running somewhat behind schedule. 45 minutes later than planned my instructor, Everett, came out to meet me and explained what we'd be doing today. He said that instead of doing an excercise from my flying manual we'd go up in Charlie India, one of the new Garmin 1000-equipped "glass cockpit" planes. Now, if you have read my embarassingly technical post from a few weeks back you will have gathered that I am pretty excited about these. Basically it replaces our flight instruments and radios with two large screens which act as multi-function displays and control units for the various data we input during a flight. If you happen to be into technology AND aviation therefore, a G1000-equipped plane is quite a machine.

Aside from the instruments they are really the same plane that I have been flying for my previous lessons. The start-up procedure is almost the same with the only differences being extra preparation for the G1000 system and the different positions of various switches to make room for the MFDs. We're getting new, revised checklists printed to cater for the small differences.

We started the engine and got our airfield information and I began the short taxi to runway 22, and after pointing the nose into the wind, putting the brakes on, and revving her up to do the routine power/brake check, we lined up and advised other traffic in the area of our intentions. I gave the little Cessna some beans and up we went, climbing to 1500 feet for what was going to be a relaxing familiarisation flight, free of spiral dives, battles with out-of-trim aircraft, and simulated forced landings that are all part of PPL training. We'd just be getting to grips with the instruments and what we can do with them whilst we flew round the Ards Peninsula back to Newtownards airfield.

I levelled off at 1500 feet and soon took the Cessna up higher to 1700 feet. Everett set the heading bugs and gave the GPS a direct route to Portaferry (with the GPS we can make waypoints out of towns even though there is no actual navaid there, which surprised me) and when we reached that he gave it a direct path back to Newtownards, or EGAD as it is known in aviation circles. We had a play with the autopilot, which is very good, and then he showed me how to switch the display into OBS (omni bearing selector) mode to give me a path onto runway 22. I chased the heading and altitude bugs and GPS guide and before I knew it I was descending to be at 700 feet over the factory near the airfield, which is the standard procedure we use for arriving on this runway. Turning onto finals I flew the airplane down visually and made what I admit was a bit of a thumper of a landing. Landings are more difficult than they look because of the slow airspeed therefore the lack of airflow over the control surfaces, making the controls heavy and sluggish to move. No matter, it was as satisfying as ever to feel the tires hitting the tarmac and with a few more under my belt I will improve.

As I was taxiing in to the flying club apron it occured to me that I had had control of the plane for the whole flight, from taxi out to taxi in. It made me feel pretty good. I now have over 2 hours in my logbook which is not a big dent in the requirements for a PPL but a good start.

I'll be in next Saturday, weather permitting, for a simulator ride with the G1000 glass cockpit, to help me get to grips with the more advanced features without having to fly. After that I will fly it again if the weather holds up. It'll be fun.

Thanks for reading once again, comments/questions welcome as ever.

Well, this blows

What is wrong with this picture? It's a beautiful March day, the air is pleasantly cool and the sky is a crisp, clear blue. And yet I am down here mooching about with my feet on solid ground, rather than up in the air.

You see, although there are no trees bent sideways in this picture it really is quite windy today. And it's even more noticable on a flat airfield than it is in the built-up suburbs of Belfast. When we arrived at Newtownards just after 8:30am this morning, the Cessnas were still in their hangars and the flight instructors had grim looks on their faces. The thing about flight instructors is that they want to fly just as much as you do so when they think it's bad enough to stay on the ground it must really be bad. The winds were 20mph right across the runway when we got there, and they are getting worse by the hour. The Met Office says they will eventually be gusting to nearly 50mph today, so the logbook will stay untouched for another Saturday.

I guess light aircraft deserve a day off too. Especially after what I put one of them through on Wednesday. Oh well, this lesson has been moved to next Sunday, which is not ideal, but better than nothing. Hopefully I'll be able to fly by that time, as snow is forecast for the weekend which would look really nice from the air. Fingers crossed.

It's not all bad news though. I got my hair cut.

Happy Easter.


Dave

The Flying Bug

What would you say to someone who woke at the crack of dawn on the first day of their holiday, took a half-hour walk and then a half-hour bus ride to get into Belfast, waited, then took another half hour bus drive into Newtownards, walked for 45 minutes and then waited a further 1hr 15 minutes - all for a flight which lasted a little over 30 minutes, and then turned around and took the same 3-hour journey home?

Well, today I did just that. I know, it's crazy. But I've been bitten by the flying bug, and I'm afraid it's not something you can shake easily. When my ride, in the form of a car, broke down last night and showed no signs of being able to take me on the 45-minute drive to Newtownards Airfield everyone thought that Wednesday's lesson was a thing of the past. But people with The Flying Bug do crazy things, so I set 5 alarms for 6:30am, got up and left the house at 7:30am. I arrived back a little before 3:00pm.

It was more fun than it sounds. Today is one of those days that is not too cold or too hot and there is no wind. It hasn't rained all day. I know Belfast well and spent a good while last night looking at maps of Newtownards too so getting around was easy. Even the buses came on time. There were even people handing out 2 free bottles of Lucozade Alert, some sort of energy drink that is guaranteed to be bad for my health, on my way home. It was heaven.

My lesson was scheduled to start at 10:15am and I arrived about half an hour early. So I sat in the clubhouse and drank delicious coffee at a bargain 20p per cup (as long as you rinse it out) and read over my checklist and the various aviation magazines dotted about. I sat like this for 15 minutes then looked out the window as another 15 minutes passed by. 15 minutes later I looked at my watch and then, what do you know, another 15 minutes had come and gone. They were running late.

No matter. I talked to the pilots-come-mechanics-come-firemen-come-office workers who staff the airfield and watched as another Cessna pilot got his checkride on one of the new glass cockpit planes. There'd be no high-tech avionics for me today then, but that's OK as the analog panel isn't exactly unpleasant either.

At 10:45am my instructor arrived and we ran through what we'd be doing that day over more tea and coffee. That day we'd be doing more on the effects and further effects of controls and I was thrilled to learn that we'd be doing some spiral dives (which are seriously fun as long as you haven't eaten much in a while) and - I loved this - I'd fly the landing. Winds were light, runway 4 was in use, barometric pressure was 1028 millibars and it was bright despite the cloudy sky. Bring it on.

The aircraft had been flying just a few minutes before we took it (and Wednesdays are quiet, I'm told) so we didn't need to spend much time on the external inspection. Today's instructor, Paul, did the essentials of oil and fuel checks as I ran through the pre-start checklists inside the plane. Soon enough the engine was on and we were backtracking (going the opposite way down the runway) to runway 4, before we vacated and turned round at the end. Although the flying club is quiet during the week, there are plenty of other companies based at Newtownards and we had 2 microlights and 2 helicopters to watch out for. It's fun taxiing with Paul as he treats the plane more like a go-kart than a £150,000 flying machine. Anyway, the microlight pilot on final approach told us he was still 30 seconds away from landing so the throttle went in and we lifted the whole caboodle into the cool March air.

We rolled, pitched, yawed, and spiral dived for 30 minutes up there as we followed the Ards Peninsula and tried to keep away from any houses who might be upset by our airborne antics. Finally we turned her round and started hugging the coast of Strangford Lough (the rw4 approach is easier than rw22 as all you need to do is follow the coast) and said goodbye and thanks to the controllers on Belfast Approach's frequency. I took the reins for landing.

Now, I've done more landings than I care to admit on computer simulators but the real thing is a tad more difficult. This is because although very small control inputs are needed, the ailerons (hinged control surfaces on the wings which allow us to turn the airplane by rolling) are very ineffective at low speeds because of the reduced airflow and therefore reduced lift over them. Anyway, it took a lot of effort with the yoke to get lined up and do the necessary wind correction and it's hard to get the balance right so you don't overdo things. Still, I feel I made a pretty decent job of landing it and Paul seemed happy enough. We taxiied in again and on the way back inside passed another pilot who was taking the plane up. G-UFCG worked hard that day anyway.

I was grinning from ear to ear by the time we were debriefing. I got a copy of the flight records to put in my logbook. Then I was back on the road back to Belfast.

Next lesson is this Saturday, weather permitting, so it won't be as long a wait between posts this time. See you then.

Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading.