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

Moderator: AndyR

  • 1
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 37
User avatar
By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887406
Another great write up, @Milty , thank you!
Sounds like an excellent lesson!!
I'm taking notes on Nav :D . I already have a whizzwheel (was gifted to me ages ago). It's going to be a challenge at first but it all seems very logical.

Well done on Air Law. Pants to Ops. Funnily enough that was the one I only scraped through and yet it is not difficult and I was very confident. IIRC there were 2 wierd questions that I really thought could have gone either way. Hey ho, you'll get it next time.
Milty liked this
By jcal
#1887408
Milty wrote:My face must have told him that he might as well have given me a brick.

Haha, at least you know what to do with a brick!

Milty wrote:Any tips on which one to get CRP1, 1W, 4 or ???

My instructor showed me in a CRP4, which he claimed was for commercial and that I should get the CRP1, so that's the one I've ordered. No clue what the 1W does differently!

Good write-up! How far off were the timings with that initial tailwind? Did it still match up decently with your estimates? I found it pretty impressive how close the numbers actually got despite a pretty windy day on my first attempt.

Shame about Ops Proc, but congrats for getting Air Law over and done with! I studied a lot less for Ops than for Air Law and it actually caught me by surprise in the actual exam, I think I lulled myself into a false sense of security studying both at the same time.
Milty liked this
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887413
T6Harvard wrote:Another great write up, @Milty , thank you!
Sounds like an excellent lesson!!
I'm taking notes on Nav :D . I already have a whizzwheel (was gifted to me ages ago). It's going to be a challenge at first but it all seems very logical.

Well done on Air Law. Pants to Ops. Funnily enough that was the one I only scraped through and yet it is not difficult and I was very confident. IIRC there were 2 wierd questions that I really thought could have gone either way. Hey ho, you'll get it next time.


I thought Ops Proc would have been easier too. There seemed to be a lot of crossover with air law with the addition of a few topics like wind shear, ditching and wake turbulence but I thought I was OK with those.

My memory for detailed recall of theoretical stuff (more of a practical guy) is not great but there were two or three questions where I felt that there were multiple possible answers. I may have been an eejit and maybe you were supposed to give multiple answers because one of the questions specifically stated that there is only one answer to get this question right. It definitely seemed more ambiguous than airlaw anyway.

Not making excuses though - should have revised more and at least I got the important one out the way. I can pick up Ops Proc in the next batch of exams I think and it was a relatively near miss.
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887416
jcal wrote:
Milty wrote:My face must have told him that he might as well have given me a brick.

Haha, at least you know what to do with a brick!


I do, but not in the context of looking at a chart with and a PLOG - suppose I could have used it to stop them blowing away in a breeze.

jcal wrote:
Milty wrote:Any tips on which one to get CRP1, 1W, 4 or ???

My instructor showed me in a CRP4, which he claimed was for commercial and that I should get the CRP1, so that's the one I've ordered. No clue what the 1W does differently!


1W has a wind arm apparently and costs about a quid more. I suspect for a quid difference, it would be better to have a wind arm than not :lol:. That said, the cardboard one recommended above is about 20 drinking vouchers cheaper. I can't see me using it after I qualify to be honest so I might go for that one.

jcal wrote:Good write-up! How far off were the timings with that initial tailwind? Did it still match up decently with your estimates? I found it pretty impressive how close the numbers actually got despite a pretty windy day on my first attempt.


Not too bad. Was a minute or so late on the first leg with the tailwind but I think that was related to not picking up the actual heading correctly for a while after take-off. Sun was very bright again and I found it tricky to keep the heading as I couldn't see it. The DI also went out a bit but really struggled to see the compass for a while when doing the FREDA check. The second leg was about right. The third was again about right but I didn't accurately note down when we got to the overhead. This was the first time that I was noting times down and it's something I need to work on (sounds stupid writing that as such a simple task that I need to learn, but in the context of all the other stuff going on, it makes sense).

I pretty much didn't look at the PLOG throughout. Instructor taught me to write the heading and time alongside each line on the map so I was primarily only referring to the map. We also circled prominent reference points along the route - airfields, specific towns etc. Seemed like a good practice that worked well. A bit tedious that a lot of the landmarks were close on his side but I guess you can ask your passenger to confirm if there is a railway line on their side etc.

jcal wrote:Shame about Ops Proc, but congrats for getting Air Law over and done with! I studied a lot less for Ops than for Air Law and it actually caught me by surprise in the actual exam, I think I lulled myself into a false sense of security studying both at the same time.


Thanks. I'm not overly concerned as I sort of used it as a test of my longer term retention. Probable answer is that it's not as good as it needs to be :lol: I think with a bit more study, it should be OK. One thing I struggle with is the detail of the runway states, e.g. if it's flooded, what specifcally does that mean, e.g. a bit of water, significant standing water, large puddles of water, more than 3mm of standing water etc. Just need to look that up and learn it.

Having spent time doing some last minute revision on light sequences and airspace separations and interception, not one single question on those :cry: :roll:
T6Harvard liked this
By Harleyatrix
#1887418
Jcal

The CRP5 is only really required if you plan to go on & do the commercial exams.

You are able to do additional calculations on it, such as compressibility.

If you plan on PPL only, you may as well stick to the CRP1
Rob P, jcal liked this
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887426
Harleyatrix wrote:If you plan on PPL only, you may as well stick to the CRP1

True, of course, but being bigger, the 5 is easier to set accurately and read than the 1. When I got a 5, I never used the 1 again.

Also, I expect that in not too many years time, the whizz wheels will go the way of the slide rule, and they'll be a historical oddity that would actually be nice to keep.

I used to have a beautiful slide rule that my dad gave me (it had been his at school), and I'm still gutted that I lost it somehow, decades ago. I know the CRP isn't as nice, but in 30 years time, some of those that are students now might quite like to look back and see what they used in their early days of training.

Nostalgia is a sign of getting older, I know, but once they're gone, they're gone. I'd get a 5. You can't have mine :)
Milty liked this
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887458
My crp1 was given to a deserving student years ago :-) I have an old complex RAF issue one labelled MB4 from the 1950s that I was given aeons ago. It sits in a drawer in my desk along with my father's ebony and ivory slide rule.

They remind me that the world has better tools now :-)
Milty, Harleyatrix liked this
User avatar
By TrickyWoo
#1887485
TopCat wrote:
Harleyatrix wrote:If you plan on PPL only, you may as well stick to the CRP1

True, of course, but being bigger, the 5 is easier to set accurately and read than the 1. When I got a 5, I never used the 1 again.

Also, I expect that in not too many years time, the whizz wheels will go the way of the slide rule, and they'll be a historical oddity that would actually be nice to keep.


Already has if your FI is ok with it - I 'refused' the arcana of the CRP and used a US flight calculator. All good for FP&P and Nav. (The CRP was used for an hour or so to understand the triangle of velocs but after that it was on the shelf)

Ops was the second I took and the one exam I failed - thought it would be much like AL and it v much wasn't. 100% agree with questions with two possible answers once the two obv incorrect ones were removed. Lesson learnt and spent hoooooours on PPL Ground Skool thereafter.
Milty liked this
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887519
I briefly talked about a flight computer vs whizz wheel with my instructor. He’s not a fan but other than a few students where the batteries failed on a test, I’m not sure why.

My current feeling is that the whizz wheel seems ok to use for the PPL and when I qualify, I can only see me using skydemon so little point in going to the expense of a flight computer.
User avatar
By TrickyWoo
#1887522
I think the CRP was £40 and the CX-3 was £140 but I could get +/- £100 for the CX online whereas the CRP is worth maybe £20 so there's not much in it really? Plus I'm lending it out at the club anyway.

Ooh IMPORTANT - using the CX-3 is NOT necessarily quicker in the exam. On both Nav and P&P there were maybe 5 mins left on each. (Other exams took c. 15 mins for comparison but then the last two are naturally far more involved).

Someone on here posted 'bet you'll never use it again betcha betcha betcha' and it's true. I'll never use it again far as I can see and by the time I do the batteries will be dead.
Milty liked this
By jcal
#1887646
To be honest, aside from training purposes, the main reason I got my CRP is because I think it's super neat! Happy to keep it as a keepsake even if I never use it after the PPL.
User avatar
By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887657
I think they are amazing, the work of genius.
------
#weird ....
My favourite invention of all time is (are) gears :mrgreen: . I sit in wonder. Who came up with the concept???!
jcal liked this
User avatar
By Milty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1888640
First thing to report is I have acquired a CRP-5 whizz wheel. A nice guy on a PPL Friendface page was offering it for the cost of postage. Couldn't accept that so I'm happy with a virtually brand new looking CRP-5 and he can have a beer or two. I do like the flying community.

Now on to today's lesson.

I was sure up until about 9:30 last night that today would be canned. Cloud base forecast for Staverton was 300ft for this morning but in the end, it was OK - broken at around 2,400ft.

Wind this morning was a calm 3-4kts but from the east. Never flown from 09 so it was a nice, new experience.

Call to the instructor resulted in the request to hot-foot it to the airfield ASAP so we could get up for a circuit slot at 9am. On arrival, told me that he would be doing 2 with me and then I was off on my own for the rest of the hour or longer if the circuit stayed quiet enough.

So, off we went. First couple OK - little bit of height drift. No perfectly greased landings but good enough. Out he hops and I'm back on my own.

Less nerves than the first solo - just the feeling this time that I have to get the job done.

Generally, 5 T&G's and a landing were fairly uneventful. Time seems to go very quickly in solo circuits.

My patterns weren't perfect and I noticed that my base leg was quite short on some so tried to correct later on. My track image confirms that. Was too busy watching traffic and missed one turn onto downwind and a bit of variation on the turn onto base - need to tighten up on those but was happy that I managed to correct everything OK to be generally coming in with 2 whites and 2 reds by the time it really mattered.

I had quite a few times when there was radio traffic and I was waiting for that to clear before getting either my downwind or final call in. Just as I was about to press the PTT, tower would pre-empt and give me my downwind sequence or clearance. Maybe I need to speed up a bit but the instructor said he was listening on the radio and thought I had done OK and the controller may have been a bit quick to pre-empt my calls. All good learning anyway.

On the last circuit to land, there was another joining flight on a RH circuit on downwind at the same time as me. I was given No 2 but couldn't see them. Was quite pleased to stay calm and liaise with the controller to extend the downwind and wait for their call to turn my base. Comforting once I had turned to be able to see them thought. Happy overall with my radio work though. I think I've mentioned before that I used to sort of tune out the radio as it was distracting but now the flying is getting a bit more intuitive, I'm listening and understanding the radio calls better. Glos ATC are pretty forgiving too in fairness.

Landings I think were OK. One I barely felt and a little squeak from the stall warning, the others a bit lumpier. I think I'm flaring a little early - need to get better at holding level and letting the energy bleed off before flaring. Didn't hear anyone on the hold sniggering or gasping :lol:

So, that's 20m PUT, another 55m P1, 6 landings. 1h10m P1 total so one more set of solo's and I'm allowed to fly away from the circuit on my own... the next thing to put me out of my comfort zone :lol:

Image

Lesson 16. 17h50m.
  • 1
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 37