Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

Moderator: AndyR

  • 1
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 37
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886147
Milty wrote:So, I now have a 'self' entry in my logbook with the singular Ex14 and a P1 entry.

Exactly 15 hours before I went solo. 14 lessons. 15h15m total now. Cheeks (facial) are hurting quite a lot now as I can't stop grinning like a gormless idiot :lol: :D

Awesome, very well done indeed. :thumleft: :thumleft:

Someone needs to switch those VASIs off for the next one, they'll do you no good at all ;)
Milty liked this
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886157
Thank you all for your messages. It was indeed a lovely day for it. Sun was a bit challenging at times but not too bad.

@TopCat It was interesting at Kemble last week without them. I thought that it would be difficult without the VASI but actually, I didn't particularly miss them. I'm not saying that I'm going to win any competitions for landing on the numbers but in my opinion at this stage, it's more about landing with the same number of parts on the aircraft that I took off with.

I have been reflecting this afternoon on my journey so far. At the start of those 15 hours, I couldn't comprehend how on earth you could...

1. Position the aircraft correctly to land
2. 'Just know what looks right' as explained by my instructor when I asked how do you know if you're too high or low without a VASI
3. Be able to hear, let alone fathom out something intelligible from ATC on a radio
4. Keep height, speed, direction, attitude, throttle, remember carb-heat when needed, make sure not to drop below 70kts in the lovingly name 'killer turn', do radio calls, FREDA checks, BUMFILCH etc.
5. Look outside for a small dot in the sky while keeping an eye on the instruments inside

The list goes on further. But in fact, it is possible it seems. I record this for posterity for other new students who may stumble across it - keep the faith.
By jcal
#1886183
Milty wrote:I have been reflecting this afternoon on my journey so far. At the start of those 15 hours, I couldn't comprehend how on earth you could...

1. Position the aircraft correctly to land
2. 'Just know what looks right' as explained by my instructor when I asked how do you know if you're too high or low without a VASI
3. Be able to hear, let alone fathom out something intelligible from ATC on a radio
4. Keep height, speed, direction, attitude, throttle, remember carb-heat when needed, make sure not to drop below 70kts in the lovingly name 'killer turn', do radio calls, FREDA checks, BUMFILCH etc.
5. Look outside for a small dot in the sky while keeping an eye on the instruments inside

The list goes on further. But in fact, it is possible it seems. I record this for posterity for other new students who may stumble across it - keep the faith.

This is so spot on! I still find it baffling at times! It's impossible for me to spot when, in the ~20h I've flown so far, any of these things "clicked", but somehow they eventually do and you really have to look back to appreciate the progress.

Great report btw, I'm impressed you remember the flight in so much detail, I kinda felt like it all went by in a blur and somehow I was back on the ground in one piece :lol:.
Last edited by jcal on Thu Dec 02, 2021 11:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
T6Harvard, Milty, Supercat liked this
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886235
Thank you @jcal. I’m not sure how I recall it so well. It was a bit weird - I seemed to have plenty of time but it went in a flash all too soon. Was tempted to pretend to need to do a go-around to stay up longer but that may have been tempting fate.

@T6Harvard it’s a good job it’s not a video so you can’t see me shaking. I was grabbing hold of the cowling for support :lol:
T6Harvard liked this
User avatar
By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886246
Milty wrote:Thank you @jcal. I’m not sure how I recall it so well. It was a bit weird - I seemed to have plenty of time but it went in a flash all too soon. Was tempted to pretend to need to do a go-around to stay up longer but that may have been tempting fate.

@T6Harvard it’s a good job it’s not a video so you can’t see me shaking. I was grabbing hold of the cowling for support :lol:


:lol:

I've just realised how immaculate the ac is! Mine was covered in mud splashes today, and that was before I had anything to do with it.
Milty liked this
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1886248
It was resprayed earlier this year, is hangared and if you’ve got mud splashes on it at Gloucester, something has gone terribly wrong :lol:

Inside is not quite so posh.

Quick question for the experienced among us - how often would you expect to have to reset the DI? Our aircraft seem to drift off quite dramatically in a short space of time. Sometimes I think it may be because I don’t pull the button out all the way but just curious if there are any other reasons.
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887392
No solo consolidation today as it was a bit breezy so I had my first (semi) proper introduction to Nav.

Gloucester to Wantage through Brize MATZ, Wantage to Chippenham then back to Gloucester.

Instructor was getting planes out when I got there so was told to draw the lines and fill in the PLOG. Only ever drawn a line and not filled in a PLOG before as just done very simple, very local flights so had no real idea what to do with the PLOG. I managed to get the tracks and distances on the sheet and looked up the wind but then was stumped.

He came back and thrust a whizz wheel in my hand. My face must have told him that he might as well have given me a brick. A very rushed instruction session later, and I've got the gist of what to do. I think I need to get hold of one and sit in a dark room with it for a while but it all seemed to make sense. By the way, has anyone recently qualified and selling a whizz wheel? Any tips on which one to get CRP1, 1W, 4 or ??? I'm guessing CRP1W as that was what I borrowed this morning and it seemed to do all I needed it to.

So, off we went. Wind fairly light on the ground but that changed at about 400 and we picked up a decent tailwind unfortunately on the first leg to Brize. This meant that all of the radio calls to request clearance was all quite rushed but I got it all right, changed squawk for the first time ever, and ticked another box of flying in controlled airspace. The first leg really was quite quick (32nm in 15mins) and the wind was almost directly behind so apart from picking up the correct heading after takeoff, directionally, all fairly easy. Leg 2 on the other hand was a great demonstration of heading vs track. Looked straight down at one point and we were moving very sideways. It seems like I have a habit of turning left every time I look at the map.

Overhead Chippenham, we turned back towards Gloucester and overflew bonny Prince Charlies pile before the last stint to Gloucester. Did all the calls for the SOHJ from the dead side with minimal instructor prompting which was good and getting to grips with being passed from approach to tower now. The turns to get set up for the join and in the circuit were quite challenging as blown all over the shop but we got in and the landing was OK - it had settled down a bit a ground level.

Reflecting on the flight, I think I did OK. Without the instructor, I'd have been clueless (fairly obviously I suppose) but all of the things he said made sense and picked up plenty of nav related tips to try out in the future. I thought I might be quite good at nav having done a chunk of orienteering in my yoof, but I hadn't accounted for how different it looks from 2500ft.

The route also took me over/past a number of airfields that I had visited or had summer camp at as an air cadet - Brize (great air to air refuelling flight in a VC10 iirc), Lyneham (Herc circuits and bumps + para drops), Hullavington (my first camp with Chipmunk flights). Sad to see 2/3's of them closed but brought back good memories all the same.

Back on the ground, and it was the inaugural sitting of Air Law and Ops Proc. Air Law passed with 87%. Ops Proc failed with 66%. Pleased with the first, bit annoyed with the last but in fairness, I probably should have studied for that one a lot more. The questions were not too friendly but hey, it's all learning and I wasn't that far away.

Lesson 15, 16h35m. Air Law passed. Still grinning
  • 1
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 37