Good to be back

The view that greeted me when I got up. I'd be flying today!

After hardly being able to sleep I was up at 0630 this morning for my first lesson since April. My lesson booked for 9am, we were the first people at the flying club when we arrived shortly after 0830, apart from one maintenance guy. I could see him pulling the club Cessna 172s out of their hangar and giving them a quick wash. Which one of them would I be flying?

I met my instructor, Sam, shortly after 9am. I told him that I hadn't had a lesson since April but my last couple had been in the G1000 equipped planes. He told me he would take me up in one of them and we'd just go over some general handling in case I had forgotten anything. He tossed me the keys and I went out on my own to preflight the aircraft (this was the first flight of the day for G-UFCJ so it got the full walkaround with fuel and oil checks) whilst Sam took care of the paperwork that comes with any flight.

I took my time on the walkaround. I'd done it before but without the fuel and oil checks so I waited for the instructor to arrive before doing those. With clambering over the wing complete, I got settled into my seat. Oops - no headset. I raced back to the clubhouse to pick one up. First and last time I'll make that mistake!

With the external checks complete and all essential pieces of equipment now on my person, we went through the checklists leading to an uneventful startup. I couldn't get over how nice the weather was in comparison to the rest of the summer - it has been an absolute washout with serious flooding just last weekend. We taxiied to the runway and did the normal power checks. Not a breath of wind. By 0930 we were rolling down the runway and for the first time in what seemed like years I was airborne.

Assuming I would be a bit rusty after such a long time without flying we agreed to do some general handling excercises and go over anything I seemed to be having trouble with. To both of our surprise I was very proficient - perhaps the enthusiasm did me good. Around half an hour later we had gone over everything I did in my first few lessons - climbing, turning, trimming, straight and level, keeping balance in turns, climbing/descending at a certain speed, and the effect of power changes and flaps - and we were descending from 3000ft to 1000ft in order to join the approach pattern from Newtownards. The view throughout the flight had been brilliant - from the swanky houses in the Portaferry area to community fun days with brightly coloured bouncy castles. One thing I love about where I fly is the astounding amount of visual references that not only make VFR flying easier but also a lot more enjoyable - from tiny islands to shipwrecks to forests to fields to disused airstrips to medieval castles - the Ards Peninsula has it all.

We landed then waited for what seemed like an eternity as all sorts of aircraft used the runway - some were really well-kept private planes with really lucky owners! The weather has been so bad all summer, so when the good weather finally came round (if only for a morning, it's about to rain now) neither me or Sam were surprised to see the airfield exceptionally busy.

With the post-flight checklists completed we got back to the clubhouse where the rest of the paperwork - ie the bill - was completed. I gave back the keys and was complimented on my flying. I said I'd be back sooner rather than later! I walked out of that clubhouse with another 0.7 hours under my belt and a big grin on my face.

Next lesson is on September 13th. Thanks for reading! Questions and comments welcome.

Back again...sorry.

I know I haven't posted in a while despite promises of flying. Truth is, I still haven't been up since April! The gods of weather and money have been conspiring against me for 4 months now to keep me rooted firmly on the ground.

Without wishing to jinx things, I do have a lesson booked for 9am tomorrow morning, and the weather does seem to be holding up. With a bit of luck in 24 hours I should have another hour in my (by now dusty) logbook and a big smile on my face, with my latest fix feeding my flying addiction.

It's hard to get back into the blogging now but if I have any readers left (which I seriously doubt) the flying is starting up once again and unless the weather has other ideas I should have 2 more lessons in September.

Once again, sorry for not posting in a while and for anyone who's stuck with the blog this long without a decent post, thank you!

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.