Another step forward last week. After a few practice circuits with Peter, it was time for a solo local flight. No flight plan - just a few instructions as he got out of the plane. I was to take off, fly half a circuit and, at the point where I usually began my pre-landing sequence, I was to continue climbing to 2000' and fly twice around the city (Kilkenny), about 5 miles away. Left to their own devices, novice pilots tend to stay near the field when making local flights - a well-developed sense of survival makes this a wise move - so instructors often get students to fly away from it as soon as possible, known as cutting the umbilical.
Take off by myself was exhilarating and climbing around and away from the field for the first time was a proud moment. The city is encircled by a ring road (mostly) so I had lots of time to sit back and enjoy the flight - a change from the usual heavy workload of the circuit. From two thousand feet with little to do I was able to see below me people enjoying the sunny evening in different ways, walking, playing on sportsfields, and on the river.
About 10 minutes later I had completed my circuits of the city and it was time to head back to the field. As I approached, I "went downhill", losing height to reach the airfield standard circuit height of 1000'. Crossing over the end of the runway at 1000' I flew round the last half of the circuit and made a good landing.
It's been a long wait, but this flight represented an ambition I had when I first sat into the cockpit just over a year ago. I may or may not have much more flying in future (I could fail a medical any August and that would bring my hobby to a sudden halt!) but, even if I can't continue today makes it all worthwhile.
Saturday, 18 May 2013
Thursday, 2 May 2013
First solo - complete!
Finally. After two weeks of regular circuits and some pretty solid improvements in my landings I made my first solo flight. A calm evening. Six okay circuits and landings with Peter, the ever-so-patient instructor. Suddenly he said "Why don't you go up and do one on your own now?" Unlike last autumn when he made this offer, this time I felt I could do it safely.
With Peter in the control tower and on the radio (a virtual instructor!), I taxied out onto the runway and, with a glance at the empty seat beside me, concentrated on my pre-takeoff checks. My instruction manual says that one circuit and landing "will admit me to the family of pilots." I'd just done six. Now was the time.
Take-off a little earlier than usual (lighter now). Climb to 1000', turn and almost immediately, it seemed, make my pre-landing checks. Base leg looked good, the angle to the runway just where it had been each time before. Turn to final and the tense moments of getting it back down. Just the way I had been shown. Done. No need for radio advice. A acknowledging clap from another pilot just getting out of his machine as I swung the motor glider around and rolled to a stop.
It was after I shut down the engine and raised the canopy that I started to shake. A deep breath or two. It passed. Time for a photo.
I can fly!
With Peter in the control tower and on the radio (a virtual instructor!), I taxied out onto the runway and, with a glance at the empty seat beside me, concentrated on my pre-takeoff checks. My instruction manual says that one circuit and landing "will admit me to the family of pilots." I'd just done six. Now was the time.
Take-off a little earlier than usual (lighter now). Climb to 1000', turn and almost immediately, it seemed, make my pre-landing checks. Base leg looked good, the angle to the runway just where it had been each time before. Turn to final and the tense moments of getting it back down. Just the way I had been shown. Done. No need for radio advice. A acknowledging clap from another pilot just getting out of his machine as I swung the motor glider around and rolled to a stop.
It was after I shut down the engine and raised the canopy that I started to shake. A deep breath or two. It passed. Time for a photo.
Monday, 1 April 2013
Season 2
Back to routine flying in the motor glider on Saturday. Flying 101 is doing circuits, aiming for precision flying: a proper rectangular track, accurate flying speed (90kph) and accurate maintenance of height, ideally to +/- 150 feet of the intended altitude.
But could I do it on Saturday? No. Wobbly take-offs, circuits that must have looked more like a drunken albatross careering round the sky, ropey approaches that resulted in frequent go-arounds (that's when a pilot gives up on trying to land, realising that something is irreversibly wrong with his approach to the ground, and opens the throttle to fly away again), and bumpy skewed landings. It was about what I was able to do six months ago. Frankly, I was out of practice.
Next time, there's nowhere to go but up...
But could I do it on Saturday? No. Wobbly take-offs, circuits that must have looked more like a drunken albatross careering round the sky, ropey approaches that resulted in frequent go-arounds (that's when a pilot gives up on trying to land, realising that something is irreversibly wrong with his approach to the ground, and opens the throttle to fly away again), and bumpy skewed landings. It was about what I was able to do six months ago. Frankly, I was out of practice.
Next time, there's nowhere to go but up...
Monday, 25 March 2013
First flight of Spring
After a winter spent studying navigation, weather, flight theory and air law, the weather was finally good enough to fly last weekend. I was lucky enough to fly a 1947 Auster, bought by the airfield owner.
It's made from a steel tubular frame, covered with fabric. Tail wheel design means that the propeller is kept well clear of the ground (useful on grass fields) but the pilot can't see so well while taxying, and has to turn the plane from side to side to see where to go! 
Inside it's like sitting in a comfortable old leather armchair. The controls are simple and robust, although a modern GPS unit sits atop the instrument panel - a reminder that it had just been flown over the sea from Wales to Ireland. It flies at about 70m.p.h. and can land and take off in a short space. When flying the view out is excellent when level, as the high wing allows a view down in all directions. Turning does reduce view, as the wing dips into the turn, and you have to look carefully beforehand. Engine noise is low-pitched, as the engine runs relatively slowly compared to modern machines. A treat to fly! Wednesday, 19 December 2012
Something to aspire to...?
Just after I began my latest flying lesson, an unexpected visitor arrived into the circuit over Kilkenny. We were in the middle of our first circuit when we saw it approaching. We had heard nothing on the radio - it had no radio. It swept over twice then came in to land. Peter identified it straight off - a Luton Major. Designed in the 1930s and still produced today - beautiful:
It's a tandem two-seater (one person sits behind the other) and its USP (unique selling point) is that the wings swing back for storage. Pull a large retaining pin on each side and the wings you see, complete with strut support beneath, swing back on each side to the tail. It can fit in a standard garage! Fantastic or what?
Inside is simplicity itself. Basic mechanical controls & non-electric instruments.
No radio. It's not needed in the uncontrolled airspace around here; the person who owns it chiefly makes short flights around the area after work (much as other people might go for an evening stroll). Installing a radio would mean installing a battery to power it. And a magneto or alternator to charge the battery. And all the wiring.
Of course no battery means no electric start. Instead the engine is started the old-fashioned way - by hand-swinging the prop. Wonderful! There's a 20-second video of how to do it here.
If I ever get my pilot's licence and outgrow club aircraft, this is the way I want to go - though I think I'd have a radio!
Inside is simplicity itself. Basic mechanical controls & non-electric instruments.
No radio. It's not needed in the uncontrolled airspace around here; the person who owns it chiefly makes short flights around the area after work (much as other people might go for an evening stroll). Installing a radio would mean installing a battery to power it. And a magneto or alternator to charge the battery. And all the wiring.
Of course no battery means no electric start. Instead the engine is started the old-fashioned way - by hand-swinging the prop. Wonderful! There's a 20-second video of how to do it here.
If I ever get my pilot's licence and outgrow club aircraft, this is the way I want to go - though I think I'd have a radio!
Sunday, 16 December 2012
EFATO
An acronym for Engine Failure After Take Off (i.e. as you have just left the ground and are climbing away.) A pilot's worst nightmare, as this is one of the points in a flight where, for a few minutes, you are utterly dependent on the engine not to fail.
If it does, the plane is at great risk of stalling (flying too slowly to keep in the air) and so falling back to the ground before the pilot has had time to react. Just last month, the deaths of an instructor and pupil at a nearby airfield emphasise the dangers of EFATO.
The only solution is to practise the correct responses until it becomes instinctive; every so often, as the machine is climbing out just after take-off, Peter cuts the power. I then have about 10 seconds to point the nose down and select a suitable farmer's field for landing. The terrain around the Kilkenny airfield is a mixture of farmland (at this time of year newly ploughed), grazing pasture and scrub, with small woods dotted here and there. Many of the fields are very wet; some have standing water in them. We'll probably travel 10 metres on the ground before the undercarriage digs into the wet ground and we jerk to a stop, perhaps flipping over onto the nose as we do so. There isn't much choice - any field long enough to attempt a landing will have to do. Down we glide and, at about 15 feet off the ground I reapply power and we climb away. We can't actually land as it would inevitably damage the machine. But we've practised the approach and, more importantly, the instant response needed to survive.
If we've climbed a little higher, say 500 feet or so, before engine failure occurs, then we have more options. We could make it back to the airfield if we're lucky and react immediately. So we practise steep turns and downwind landings, and very tight circuits at low height, swooping back in a figure of 8 over the runway to land.
This is some of the most exciting flying I've done as, when you're low, the sensation of speed is much greater, the stakes a little higher. There's less time to spare so the need is for accurate flying. There's no second chance.
If it does, the plane is at great risk of stalling (flying too slowly to keep in the air) and so falling back to the ground before the pilot has had time to react. Just last month, the deaths of an instructor and pupil at a nearby airfield emphasise the dangers of EFATO.
The only solution is to practise the correct responses until it becomes instinctive; every so often, as the machine is climbing out just after take-off, Peter cuts the power. I then have about 10 seconds to point the nose down and select a suitable farmer's field for landing. The terrain around the Kilkenny airfield is a mixture of farmland (at this time of year newly ploughed), grazing pasture and scrub, with small woods dotted here and there. Many of the fields are very wet; some have standing water in them. We'll probably travel 10 metres on the ground before the undercarriage digs into the wet ground and we jerk to a stop, perhaps flipping over onto the nose as we do so. There isn't much choice - any field long enough to attempt a landing will have to do. Down we glide and, at about 15 feet off the ground I reapply power and we climb away. We can't actually land as it would inevitably damage the machine. But we've practised the approach and, more importantly, the instant response needed to survive.
If we've climbed a little higher, say 500 feet or so, before engine failure occurs, then we have more options. We could make it back to the airfield if we're lucky and react immediately. So we practise steep turns and downwind landings, and very tight circuits at low height, swooping back in a figure of 8 over the runway to land.
This is some of the most exciting flying I've done as, when you're low, the sensation of speed is much greater, the stakes a little higher. There's less time to spare so the need is for accurate flying. There's no second chance.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
First Solo - declined
Bright sunny Saturday afternoon. More circuits and landings. All without guidance or intervention from my oh-so-patient instructor. During our now-customary pit-stop Peter announced that I could go up and do a couple of circuits by myself! I was..... flattered, dumbfounded, unprepared even. He pointed out that I had just completed 5 textbook landings in a row.
I considered it briefly and then decided to stick to my plan of allowing a few more lessons after he determined that I was good enough, just to add a little safety margin of my own. After all, I don't want to be remembered as the guy who wrote off the machine on his first solo! A few more landings in challenging conditions, with Peter beside me, and then I'll do it. I haven't read others' blogs on this topic so I invite comment and opinion on this view from anyone with similar or greater experience.
Does anyone out there read this? Consider this request a message in a bottle....
I considered it briefly and then decided to stick to my plan of allowing a few more lessons after he determined that I was good enough, just to add a little safety margin of my own. After all, I don't want to be remembered as the guy who wrote off the machine on his first solo! A few more landings in challenging conditions, with Peter beside me, and then I'll do it. I haven't read others' blogs on this topic so I invite comment and opinion on this view from anyone with similar or greater experience.
Does anyone out there read this? Consider this request a message in a bottle....
Wednesday, 5 September 2012
Success at last!!!
Terrific evening's flying today. Sunny, calm weather over the grass strip at Kilkenny. No wind so time for reversals - take off in one direction, quick circle in the air and land again coming the other way. Up and round and land again. And so on.
Ask me how many landings I did. Go on. Ask me. Eleven. That's what. Eleven. Unassisted (Peter exercising great restraint and letting me bump down). But finally there were fewer bumps and even a few - dare I say it - quite good ones. Too many to be just luck or chance. Alas no one around to film it but , after a brief search on Youtube I found something similar using the same type of machine here.
The art, incidentally, lies in getting the tailwheel on the ground just before the single main wheel makes contact.
Good show, young Collins. What?
Ask me how many landings I did. Go on. Ask me. Eleven. That's what. Eleven. Unassisted (Peter exercising great restraint and letting me bump down). But finally there were fewer bumps and even a few - dare I say it - quite good ones. Too many to be just luck or chance. Alas no one around to film it but , after a brief search on Youtube I found something similar using the same type of machine here.
The art, incidentally, lies in getting the tailwheel on the ground just before the single main wheel makes contact.
Good show, young Collins. What?
Monday, 3 September 2012
Dive! Dive! Dive!
Interesting exercise today (01 Sept). Too windy to practice landings (phew!) so up we went to 3,500 feet to practice turning the engine off and then a mid-air restart. Two different methods used, each comparable to a car.
The first, and simplest, way is to press the starter button for the engine and let the battery turn it over. Apart from a few checks (that the radio is off, for example, so that it doesn't suffer a surge when restarting), it is safe and effective, just like turning the key in the ignition.
The second method is more exciting. Dive steeply towards the ground and the rush of air, rather than the battery, overcomes the resistance of the stopped engine and turns the propeller. Comparable to rolling the car down a hill then letting the clutch out and jump-starting it. If you're lucky the engine will restart before the plane exceeds its maximum speed (Vne) in the dive and tears the wings off! Exciting or wha'?
Peter did it first. The dive was scary but he started the engine before it became too dangerous to continue. Then it was my turn.
Entering the dive, watching the ground coming up, keeping an eye on the speed. The engine was primed and ready. The rush of air got faster and faster then..the prop began to turn. A little at first then a little more, then more....
Suddenly it wound over and hey presto it started - just before I had to pull out of the dive to avoid exceeding maximum speed. We lost two thousand feet in a few seconds but - the engine was running again!
Even managed a few halfway-decent landings at the end. So there.
The first, and simplest, way is to press the starter button for the engine and let the battery turn it over. Apart from a few checks (that the radio is off, for example, so that it doesn't suffer a surge when restarting), it is safe and effective, just like turning the key in the ignition.
The second method is more exciting. Dive steeply towards the ground and the rush of air, rather than the battery, overcomes the resistance of the stopped engine and turns the propeller. Comparable to rolling the car down a hill then letting the clutch out and jump-starting it. If you're lucky the engine will restart before the plane exceeds its maximum speed (Vne) in the dive and tears the wings off! Exciting or wha'?
Peter did it first. The dive was scary but he started the engine before it became too dangerous to continue. Then it was my turn.
Entering the dive, watching the ground coming up, keeping an eye on the speed. The engine was primed and ready. The rush of air got faster and faster then..the prop began to turn. A little at first then a little more, then more....
Suddenly it wound over and hey presto it started - just before I had to pull out of the dive to avoid exceeding maximum speed. We lost two thousand feet in a few seconds but - the engine was running again!
Even managed a few halfway-decent landings at the end. So there.
More landings...more landings....
11 Aug,
13 Aug,
22 Aug,
26 Aug,
More circuits and landings. A few independent landings each time. Slowly getting better at it.....
13 Aug,
22 Aug,
26 Aug,
More circuits and landings. A few independent landings each time. Slowly getting better at it.....
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Two planes in one sitting!
First flight in a nose-wheel plane today(9 August): the Socata TB9 Tampico. This type of low-wing tricycle-landing-gear machine is far more common in other fields than here in Kilkenny. Owned by one of the club members, it's leased to the club and is the machine most pilots in Kilkenny fly. This arrangement keeps the running and maintenance costs down for owner and club members alike. Here is Echo Mike (the last two letters of its registration).:
It's a comfortable four-seat plane (though weight limitations means it's far more often used by two (with perhaps a child in the back on occasion). Far more instruments that I'm used to, a control yoke rather than a joystick, mxture control, flaps etc etc. A bit disconcerting when you first get in, but a few minutes studying the panel reveals the key ones: airspeed, height, rev counter, engine temp and pressure and the extremely useful gyro-driven direction indicator - far more of a guide, especially in turns, than the wildly spinning compass of the motor glider.
Peter did the take off and handed over to me. I found it a comfortable, steady machine. The panel is eerily like the Microsoft Flight Simulator and I felt far more insulated from outside than in the motor glider. Making turns, climbing and descending, are all solid, steady manoeuvres - quite different from the seat-of-the-pants flying I have been used to thus far. An interesting experience - especially when, after landing, I had my usual motor glider training straight after. I guess I have gotten more used to the elemental nature of the glider!
It's a comfortable four-seat plane (though weight limitations means it's far more often used by two (with perhaps a child in the back on occasion). Far more instruments that I'm used to, a control yoke rather than a joystick, mxture control, flaps etc etc. A bit disconcerting when you first get in, but a few minutes studying the panel reveals the key ones: airspeed, height, rev counter, engine temp and pressure and the extremely useful gyro-driven direction indicator - far more of a guide, especially in turns, than the wildly spinning compass of the motor glider.
Peter did the take off and handed over to me. I found it a comfortable, steady machine. The panel is eerily like the Microsoft Flight Simulator and I felt far more insulated from outside than in the motor glider. Making turns, climbing and descending, are all solid, steady manoeuvres - quite different from the seat-of-the-pants flying I have been used to thus far. An interesting experience - especially when, after landing, I had my usual motor glider training straight after. I guess I have gotten more used to the elemental nature of the glider!
Sunday, 5 August 2012
The Medical
Last week I reached a watershed (of sorts) in my quest to become a pilot. To determine whether it was worth continuing on - in a more dedicated way - with my training it was necessary to take a medical exam. What I needed was to pass a Class 2 medical. Not as exacting as the Class 1 taken annually by commercial pilots, but anxiety-making enough all the same. While confident I would pass most aspects of it, my concerns lay with my hearing...
I wear hearing aids and, even though I take my hearing aids out in the cockpit - I find the radio is loud enough without them - the test must be taken and passed unaided i.e. no hearing aids allowed. I was so depressed about the possibility of failing this test, and having to end my flying (for I would never be allowed to fly alone or with anyone other than an instructor) that I hadn't the heart to take any further lessons in the week before my medical was scheduled.
On the appointed day I drove to Waterford (GP practices that do aviation medicals are few in number and scattered around the country) and having filled out the detailed med history form, it was time to begin. Height and weight check, blood pressure, ecg (heart monitoring), blood and urine samples, lung function tests, vision check, peripheral vision test and colour blindness test over, it was time to take the dreaded hearing test. Into the soundproof booth (like sitting inside a giant upright fridge), on with the headphones and five agonising minutes later I....................................................
passed!!! It was all downhill from there. Second blood pressure check, chest examination, abdominal examination, final blood pressure check and my medical clearance was being printed out and sent to the Irish Aviation Authority in Dublin before I knew where I was. Apparently I'm not likely to slump over the controls anytime soon. So, licensed to thrill (kill?), my aviation career continues....
I wear hearing aids and, even though I take my hearing aids out in the cockpit - I find the radio is loud enough without them - the test must be taken and passed unaided i.e. no hearing aids allowed. I was so depressed about the possibility of failing this test, and having to end my flying (for I would never be allowed to fly alone or with anyone other than an instructor) that I hadn't the heart to take any further lessons in the week before my medical was scheduled.
On the appointed day I drove to Waterford (GP practices that do aviation medicals are few in number and scattered around the country) and having filled out the detailed med history form, it was time to begin. Height and weight check, blood pressure, ecg (heart monitoring), blood and urine samples, lung function tests, vision check, peripheral vision test and colour blindness test over, it was time to take the dreaded hearing test. Into the soundproof booth (like sitting inside a giant upright fridge), on with the headphones and five agonising minutes later I....................................................
passed!!! It was all downhill from there. Second blood pressure check, chest examination, abdominal examination, final blood pressure check and my medical clearance was being printed out and sent to the Irish Aviation Authority in Dublin before I knew where I was. Apparently I'm not likely to slump over the controls anytime soon. So, licensed to thrill (kill?), my aviation career continues....
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