yet another ppl blog

[greggj]

I can't steal other threads to post my stuff any longer.
So here's my own one. My blog entries are rather long at times, so I will just post a link here, sometimes including a short summary.

This one will be short, After two months break, I was back in the air Yesterday, and so I've added another entry in my blog: http://yetanotherpplblog.wordpress.com/ ... n-a-while/

thanks for reading .

[gixerkarl]

just been reading that,dont worry about the lenghty posts,it makes great reading!

[greggj]

Lesson 18 - Back to the basics. Basic handling, at the Trim aerodrome

28/VIII/2010

Lesson time: 0.5h
Total time: 14.0h
Location: EITM ( Trim aerodrome http://www.trimflyingclub.ie/ for more info )
Aircraft: EI-DCC (C172)
Instructor: William Treacy
I got a newsleter from Flyer Magazine on the other day, and finally - it says, that there's a flyin nearby (ie, on the patch of land I live on currently). Decided to go, and have a look.

So, got my breakfast, and jumped in the car. 97 miles later, we got to a very nice rural area of the rep of Ireland, co Meath. I saw one aircraft on its finals, but couldn't really find an entrance to the aerodrome. Of course, my trusty iPhone came to the rescue, as always in that sort of situation

We parked in, and went to have a look around. In general, it is a farm strip, with a two little buildings one used as instructor's hq, and the other one as general clubhouse. From the start, you could tell, that they are not used to visitors. I didn't felt out of place, or unwelcome, but you could see, that everyone knew each other, and you didn't knew anyone


Nonetheless, I decided to ask someone if it is possible to have a ride with instructor. I was pointed at a very nice chap name William, as it turns out he is the CFI. We got there around 15:30, and he said it might be a while later before I could actually go and have a go. Well. It would be a wasted day otherwise.

We spent a bit of time with Kate, looking around the aircraft on the apron. She was quickly bored with all that, as since we knew no one, and I only had breakfast, we decided to have something to eat at the nearby town of Trim. Plus, the club doesn't take cards ,so cash and fly is the name of the game. I needed some paper.

Trim is a small town, with a very nice castle. And quite few places to eat. We went there to have something to eat, got some cash out (as it turned out, the diner was taking cash only too, what a place..), and went off to see the castle. The entrance was 3 euro, just to see a patch of 3 acres, so imo wasn't worth it. We just went around the castle to see the place. It is a very nice place indeed. Very quiet for Saturday, and all in all very nice.


Went back to the aerodrome, I got ahold of William, and told him that I am still very keen on getting up. I guess the guy was either staggered, or couldn't believe that I am still willing to stick around. There was some chap having his PPL exams taken, and he was waiting for an instructor. There as an aircraft waiting and prepared for him, so William didn't wanted to use it. Meanwhile, the aircraft I wanted to go in, EI-DDC, has been away with another student. So had to wait for them to comeback.

At around 18:00, I saw the aircraft coming back, for touch and go. And than after a circuit, they landed for full stop.

Few minutes later William said, that it is the time I couldn't be happier. Altho, after them few hours of waiting, it probably didn't show. Mind you it was windy, and we were waiting outside all the time.

Went to the aircraft, for a preflight. As with every CFI , William was very through in his preflight checks. And I also learned few new things.

For instance, they use wooden spoons (serious) instead of dip sticks, to check fuel levels. This is because, they don't want them to drop into the tank. Very wise. But seemed to me very odd indeed. We then went on to take some fuel samples, and they were all great.

Went around the aircraft as well, and William pointed me at few things that I've never checked. For instance, he checked stall warner with his lips. Serious, you just have to put your mouth around it, and suck in a bit of air. Never seen anyone doing it to be honest. I shared couple things that I would do. Every single guy would do checks more or less differently (and I am talking about extra things outside of the checklist). So you learn every single time, you talk to some other pilot. I like it about that profession. People are not shy in sharing things. They know, every single thing you share, could save someone else's life one day.



It was also understandable, that William - never seeing me before in his life - was going through things with me, as if I never flew an aircraft before. Quite strange feeling, as so far I've been flying with people who at least had access to my records. So could see that I've been doing things.

I jumped in, and very first thing I noticed, was that instruments were in different spots from what I normally would see in Ards on 172.

One of the first things on the checklist, even before you start an engine, is to extend flaps. And there's the first foobar that I encountered. Where the hell is the flaps thingie. Needless to say, there was nothing like it on the panel. I was slightly puzzled. It turned out, that on the older 172s you get 3 way switch, and a gauge. So you need to operate the flaps, and check the gauge to see where they are at.

Another new thing I learned, was to check the ailerons, first to the left, and count one-two, moving yoke to sides. And than same thing for right. They obviously need to move in different direction.

Started the engine, and there's another gotcha. Where the heck did all engine monitoring stuff go. It turned out to be on the other side, Again William had to point me to it.

We went off. Never ever before did I had a chance to taxi on a grass. So first word of advice was, sloooow. Much slower than would I would do in Ards. Another thing, he showed me, was to test some of the instruments whilst taxing. Just do few turns on the runway backtrack, to see how things are moving. Nice. I did a bit of mess when turning for the power checks. So my instructor took over again.

I lined up, started to push the power slowly in. As always, was told to do it quicker. Rotated, and it turned out again, that I pulled too much. As it turned out, the ASI is in mph not knots.

William than asked me to level off at 2000 ft, probably due to the dublin airport zone above us. Obviously, I did a mess of that. Pulled the power too early.

Than was a procession of failures. But that's my point in getting a go with someone else, somewhere else. Originally I wanted to do this back at home, but my cash buckets were running out.

He than proceed to ask me to get slightly higher up, make few turns. Than a bit of approach configuration training, trimming, etc. I did a bit of mess of everything, but was much better than last time I was doing all that to be honest.

We went a bit to the north, than turned west. All I could see were collection points on , what I thought was M1, but it was M3. It was time to head back. To be honest, nothing on the ground looked familiar. I of course, never been up in the air in the area before. And there's another thing, if you look down, and search for a farm strips, there's a surprise. There's farms wherever you look, with exception of some small towns.

I was guided as to how to set it for an approach. So far, my past quite few lessons were in 152, so I had to be told what to set to what. And as always, I was too low on the approach. (btw, I tend to do same errors in X-Plane, when I tried my skills on approach there).

William took over the landing, as again, we flew together for the first time, and of course he couldn't trust me that I would do it right.

I did a bit of taxing back to the apron in front of the club, but William parked the aircraft on a nice little concrete patch where it will be parked.

During the debrief, William explained to me why and what we did, which only agreed with my suspicions. That he was trying to see what can I do. He was very aware, that most things I did wrong were due to differences in the aircraft. One biggest criticism he had, was that I wasn't able to keep headings too well. It is something that have happened to me many times in 172s before. The more powerful engine, makes the yaw much more noticeable than in 152. In 152 I pretty much don't have to use much of the rudder to correct it, whilst 172 is very demanding in this regard. Of course, bank being secondary effect of the yaw, uncorrected, caused us to deviate of the course. And obviously, since I did a lot of power changes in the air, required rudder would be different depending on the power set at a particular moment.

I paid my fee, got back to my car. We headed back, but I needed a bit of rest on the way, I was so knackered. We stopped at a random petrol station, to fill it up. Since I had some euros left, I wanted to spend them. Plus I always like to fill it up, when it is under half full (or over half empty). Of course had to encounter some of my compatriots, showing off not so good attitude. No wonder locals than look down on me, because of my origins. Well...

On my way home, literally 2 streets away from the house, I got stopped by nice folks from PSNI. The PC that stopped me, told me that he can smell alcohol from me . Funny, cos I wasn't drinking since the beginning of July. I think he smelled my windscreen wash, as it was raining, and I just sprayed my windscreen massively before turning into that particular street. So 5 minutes later I was free to go home, and finally crash on my bed after a very exhausting day indeed. (it is a 2h drive each way, to/from dublin area from where I live).

Route: Departed to the north, for general handling, than went to the west, and back to the aerodrome.
Milestones: First flight outside of EGAD, and first one on a grass strip.
Exercises covered: General Handling
Weather: scattered low clouds, quite windy, and some rain.

[stevelup]

Great report - thanks for posting!

[Keef]

One tip: when you suck the stallwarner in a Cessna to check it, put a handkerchief over it and suck through that.

You wouldn't want to know all that collects inside stall warners, but wasps are on the list.

[greggj]

One tip: when you suck the stallwarner in a Cessna to check it, put a handkerchief over it and suck through that.

You wouldn't want to know all that collects inside stall warners, but wasps are on the list.

yeah, that was one of my 'what ifs', when he did that. He was brave enough, but the amount of bugs squashed on the edge of the wing give me enough reasons to think that you do indeed need to cover it with some cloth first.

I don't carry a handkerchief, as gentlemen don't do this these days, or should they ?


thanks for the tip

[Jim Jones]

[quote="greggj"][

I don't carry a handkerchief, as gentlemen don't do this these days, or should they ?


quote]

I was crucial here.

[greggj]

Maybe there should be a device to allow you to test it ? My engineering mind always gets that sort of ideas, but I wonder if anyone would buy such a testing device ? It would be quite simple to design and make, something around 40-50 quid ?

Btw, one peculiarity I forgot to mention about that Irish 172 I flew last time, is that it had a rear view mirror. Serious. Something I always thought would be a good idea, but never saw it. Maybe it was fitted into older aircraft, cos I haven't seen it in any at the UFC.

Thought I am going to fly this weekend, but not only the weather is miserable, but I haven't cured my throat infection :/

[Skyhawk-N]

Maybe there should be a device to allow you to test it ? My engineering mind always gets that sort of ideas, but I wonder if anyone would buy such a testing device ? It would be quite simple to design and make, something around 40-50 quid ?

You've got an expensive engineering mind, try this for less than $10

[greggj]

had no idea someone already made it The one I was thinking about was slightly less plastic-ish , and more rubber-ish tho. And I was thinking about made in uk, rather than made in china

[greggj]

Another well spent XX quid, and another 0.6 in the log book.

Very long write up, but to summarise up:
- new instructor. Very good guy, very patient and made for this sort of job
- 3 (or was it 4?) circuits in C152
- Regained a lot lost confidence in my flying, and overall very good lesson
- task for the fortnight, until next one. Learn the airlaw, and give it a go. And sort out medical.

[stevelup]

Just read your blog - sounds like good progress!

Your new instructor sounds great - hopefully you'll get more lessons with him

Steve

[greggj]

Thanks Steve.
I hope that will be the case in the future. I will definitely stick to that guy whenever possible. There's few other instructors in the club that are good too, but they are either not working on weekends, or booked well in advance.

I got new checklists from pooleys (and disappointed that it wasn't in the 'critical for air safety' envelope ), cos the ones I bought from the club are huge, inconvenient.
I went through it, and just realised. In all the glory, I forgot completely about carb heat on base/finals.. Monkey... (at least I'll remember it now). Remembered about it on the ground, when doing the checks tho.

[greggj]

2nd class medical passed. Valid for 5 years.
Only remark from the doctor was that I should really loose some weight, as it would get harder and harder over years. Apparently, your weight stays pretty much the same once you hit 35. At least that's the statistic.

[greggj]

Lesson: 20 - finally nailing the landings.

16/X/2010

Lesson time: 0.8h
Total time: 15.4h
Location: EGAD
Aircraft: G-BNKR (C152)
Instructor: David Hodgkinson
My plan to fly more often is going well so far, the weather was approaching CAVOK Today. Pretty much the best you can get around here.

Started my Saturday as usual, with bit of physical, 20 miles on bicycle, including couple of steep hills to go onto. Afterwards, I was so buzzed with energy that I could not sit at home. Decided to jump in the car, and drive to the club, and learn a bit more of the airlaw in the car.

30 min before the flight, I asked for the key. I never had a chance to actually fly with David before. One of my first lessons, before I even flew for the first time that I booked with him ended up with quite extensive preflight. He was an engineer himself, so I have some common language with him. And share the love for details and technicalities.

Did my preflight. Noticing that trim tab only 'works' on one of the stabilisers. As it turned out, it is only on one of them ! it makes perfect sense, but I have no clue why haven't I noticed it before. Also port wheel was rather in poor condition in comparison with the starboard one. But it was ok according to CFI. Apparently you don't need to replace them in pairs like on an automobile, so the starboard one was brand new, and hence the contrast. Nose wheel looked a bit deflated too, but that is also on purpose. It makes the nose-wheel shim a little less. If you ever flown in C15X you know what I'm talking about.

Today was also the day I was using my Pooley's checklist, rather than the club one. It is much smaller, but I never used it in the aircraft. It does some checks in different order, and is worded differently from the one I used to use. But it is also much easier to handle in rather cramped space that C152 provides. I was quite taken over by the fact that I flew with the CFI. So I must have forgot couple things. But he is very patient, and he always gives reasons to his remarks. Which I very like. I like to know why that way, not only that I did something wrong.

Radio work went rather smooth. No probs with that anymore. I also felt much more engaged in the whole experience. Probably because again, no one was trying to grab the controls from me. Or perhaps I am getting grasp of the whole thing more and more. Dunno. I also had my 8 quid 'pilot' sunglasses on my nose, which helped to keep cool and I was able to fly into the sun for a change. I still aim to get proper ones, but can't cough up 80 quid for specs just yet. (that's nearly 40 minutes in the c152, why waste it for some top end glasses).

Took off nicely, turns were ok, but made monkey off myself during bumpfich again. David said, just to check all vitals, like instruments, fuel, breaks, carb heat, and not worry about other things.

First approach was complete rubbish. I turned on too early, mixed up things. I was very nervous, flying with David for the first time, trying to give good impression probably. Dunno.

Second one, David asked me to fly away a bit further from the runway, bumpfich suddenly decided to let me get it right. Approach was still rubbish, we had to go around, because of some guy closing in behind us.

Third one, we had aircaddet in moto-glider flying before us. Even in 152 we catch up rather quickly. I had to fly parallel to it, and had to slow down to about 65 knots, extend my downwind. This approach was much better. I got reminded again that carb heat goes out first before I pull the power. Otherwise it is pointless to do it with less hot air that goes out when you pull the power.

I was spot on on that approach, and was announced to have landed (and than took off) completely by myself, with David sitting relaxed and with hands crossed.

On fourth one I forgot about flaps, which David kindly retracted for me.

And others were just fine Maybe too high on the last one. But,boy other traffic can distract you.

(here comes a map with the circuits tracks, that you can only see on my blog)

One note, microlights. What's the point in having a radio, if from 200 ft I cannot hear you clear on mine ? Seriously. I don't know how these people are still alive.

All in all. Couple lessons learned. Carb heat goes out before power is pulled. Comes back around 200ft before landing. Lookout is very important, and so is speed on approach. It turned out that I was extremely high on approaches before, because I always felt that I am too low. So note to self, this is a landing you are getting lower, that's the point of it!

What else ? I got CFI to tell me (and my instructor for the next day), that my landings are finally coming together. That was a very high complement.

I have to say, for an ex engineer, he has a very typical sense of humour. Kind of like all of us. Good to see that some things don't change over the years. I tried to even complement him, saying that these days one would say that he has a nerd type of sense of humour. He was surprised, but I hope he didn't took that wrong.

And initially I told him, that I would do rather something else Today than circuits. But he insisted on doing one or two before doing overhead joins. I'm glad I did stay in circuit Today (sounds funny, I know).

There was also a lot of traffic Today, so I learned a good deal about listening. And also that when there's two guys in the thing, four eyes and four ears hear and see things better and quicker. Altho I believe that David heard and saw everything just fine, but elected to see if I could

One things makes me sad. If I had my airlaw done now, I would go solo Tomorrow most probably. Oh well, I will have again two weeks to sort that out.


:=]

Route: circuits, RWY04
Milestones: landed without much help 3 times ! yay.
Exercises covered: ex12 and 13
Weather: very clear, little bit of wind.