Clear of Cloud

Finally. I am a pilot.

I did it. Finally.

It was a perfect day for it. Clear skies, with scattered fluffiness and a moderate wind from the north-west. The ground work went well and the examiner's inspection of the flight-plan put him in a good mood. On the last test he commented that mine was one of the better flightplans he'd seen (they're frequently incorrect) but today he noticed that I made ammendments that he'd recommended on the last test. Listening to what they say is always a perfect way to put the examiner in a good mood.

It was an uneventful take-off and a regular visual departure towards Kilcock. I picked up a routing to Enfield as my first leg. I then turned onto 220 degrees heading for Rathangan. I put a call in to Baldonnel to advise them what we were doing. Flip me, the controller in Bal was talking way faster than you usually get even from Dublin Approach. I don't usually have to get a controller to repeat what they say but he was just way too fast for me.

Rathangan appeared on time and on course and that was the end of the plan which was to bring me to Kilkenny. From Rathangan, I was diverted to Kilbeggan. Immediately, I picked up on the fact that the route takes us right over Clonbullogue (EICL), a very active parachuting airfield. I called them but there was no response. As a precaution, I routed to the north side of the 'field. This was taking the wind into account; allowing for a stray canopy to drift to the south of the field. This sort of reasoning definitely impressed the man in the right-hand seat.

We got to Kilbeggan on time and on course. Interestingly, the examiner said to me after the flight that he was happy not to see a whizz-wheel in use for the diversion. He prefers to see candidates be able to use rough navigation techniques to achieve the diversion.

Next up was the upper-air work, which is almost never a problem. Up to three and a half thousand feet. Steep turns left and right - I flew into my own wake so that's always a good sign. Okay, Okay, I know the wake drops a little so that means I lost a few feet but it's still a good indication - certainly well within the 50 feet limits required for the commercial flight test.

The stalls were a non-event and there wasn't much to report on the practise forced landing either. It wasn't great but I'd have gotten into the field. It's amazing how few suitable fields there are. I guess that's the Irish landscape for you- defintely more patchwork than rolling plains. You really do need climb to a decent altitude to give you some options if the engine fails.

After that there was the usual VOR fixing and tracking and a 360 degree turn under the hood. Again, all that stuff went well. To be honest, I was well able for it all and have been for a while, which is why failing it the first time was quite blow. Today was much more indicative of my capabilities. While it wasn't perfect flying, it was safe and clearly up to the examiners expectation. Perhaps I have too high an expectation of myself.

The last thing for the examiner to check was my flapless landing. Weston cleared me back into the zone to join right base for 25. The examiner offered the choice of either the flapless or a standard approach. I felt relaxed, on top of everything so I elected to go for the flapless. There were two items of traffic ahead of us so we had to slow down a bit more. It added a little to the workload but i figured it gave me a little room to fudge the circuit a little if I had to and the extra spacing I was leaving for the traffic gave me space to slow down the Grob. I called "final for touch and go" and the tower cleared me to continue. On short finals the examiner said to make it a full stop. I requested the landing and the tower cleared me to land. I knew the change to a full-stop landing was a good sign but I dismissed that thought rapidly, focussing instead on a good landing. I flared a little high, but recovered nicely. The touch-down was no greaser but it was certainly nothing to be embarrassed about.

It was all looking good but I was conscious of getting complacent so I parked carefully and paid particular attention to the shutdown checks. It would have been a shame to get sloppy at the end. I didn't and it all went smoothly. I was a much happier aviator at the end of this flight than the last time. In fact once I landed, I wanted to go flying. That's a lie - when I landed I wanted a mug of tea and then to go flying.

We went through the debrief where he told me I'd passed and we both acknowledged how much better a day today had been. It certainly was - today I am a pilot.

Thank-you to all of you that helped, taught, encouraged and supported. You do the test on your own but you can't get there without a lot of help. Thank you.

No I hadn't given up

I hadn't given up.  A bad dose of sinusitus and badly needed holiday to Rome explains my lack of activity recently.

So what's new?  Well, I went flying today - just a few circuits to by way of a refresher.  As it happened I was flying off runway '07, which was good practice.  In addition to the fact that Weston's circuit patterns are non-standard, there is a stopway/clearway at the 07 end.  It's not often that I get to fly off 07 and is shows as my circuits a rarely as tidy when the winds are easterly.  They certainly weren't on the day of my flight test. Thinking back though; my first solo was off 07 and apart from over-enthusiastic braking on the roll-out it was really good circuit.  Ah well.

Enough of my runway rambling.  The flying today was respectable so over the coming days, I'm going to do some diversions and position fixes using the VORs.

On the paperwork side of things, I got an email today from the IAA telling me my application has been processed and that I should be hearing from the examiner shortly.  Thanks Lorraine.

So, all systems are go.

Not This Time

Well two hours fifteen minutes of flying and I'm still a student. I failed the test and I'm wrecked.

I'm not going into a blow by blow here but stuff was likely to go wrong was fine and stuff that normally goes very smoothly went horrible. Could I do a flapless landing - no. Have I ever had problems before - no.

Really frustrating.

Anyway, too tired tonight to write more.

Flight Test Update

I went for another checkflight today to review some upper airwork - stalls, steep turns and the like.  It went well so flight test is-a-go as scheduled for Thursday- if I can raise the examiner on the phone to confirm.

...... just got him.  I'm to ring tomorrow to confirm that the weather's good for Thursday.  Here goes.

Another Cancelled Test

I was meant to fly again with the CFI before doing the flight test tomorrow. Unfortunately the CFI sent me a text today to tell me that he was too unwell to fly. I really didn't want to cancel on the examiner again but I had to make a decision quickly.

I didn't want to inconvenience my "passenger" but I knew there was a risk of failure if I didn't take another check-flight with the CFI first. The decision became clearer when I wore my pilot hat - there was a plan to achieve a successful result and that plan required another check-flight before the actual test; I was sticking to the plan.

As one instructor said to me about decisions to go flying "if there's a doubt, there is no doubt".

Flight Test Update

I'm tentatively booked to do the flight test on Friday.  I'm swotting away as best I can to prepare myself but I could do with another flight to settle things.

The weather is looking favourable but I'd like to see that forecast wind drop from 10 to 7-8 knots.  Every little thing will help.  The examiner and I aren't the lightest blokes around so I need to make sure no one fills the fuel tank on Thursday evening. A quick calculation says that any more than about 60 litres means we'd be over MTOW, which would be a no-go.  It wouldn't reflect well on my preparedness either.

One of these days I'll get around to writing about the craic at the Luscombe Rally at Oaksey park a couple of weeks ago.  For now though, it's back to my mind maps and checklists.

Not Bad, Just Not Ready

I had the check flight with the CFI last night.  I wish I'd had it some time ago.  Depsite everyone's protestations, it was as I expected- not bad, just not ready.  When I say not ready; it's a not ready in a; study up and do the test in my head level of preparation that's required.  There's no need for additional training, I just need to take more control.

I suffer a bit from a second-in-command syndrome.  Left to my own devices, I'm fully competent - put someone more senior with me and I tend to expect direction.  It's a funny thing.

A decent weekend of study and visualisation and I should be okay.  I've booked another flying slot next Tuesday to test what I do this weekend.

Jitters Setting In.

The jitters are now truly setting in. They're worse at work, where I can't do anything about them.

The funny thing is that I want to go flying. Thinking about flying is actually calming my jitters about the flight test.  I'm sure that says something.

Flight Test Update

I rang the examiner yesterday and we agreed that Thursday looked like it had the most promising weather.  I'm to call him tomorrow evening to confirm.  The weather is quite changeable at the moment and is likely to have altered before then.

I was meant to have a test flight with the CFI today, which was to give me tomorrow to polish out the burrs in my performance.  Of course the weather had other ideas.  Today the wind was forecast for 10 knots across the runway this evening.  10 knots is the operating limit for students in our school and 2 to 3 knot more than I was personally comfortable with.

Easy decision then?  No.  I made the decision not to fly based on the forecast available and the CFI agreed.  If those were conditions I'd have stayed on the ground.  But those weren't the conditions when our slot time rolled around and not only that, I knew wen I was talking to the CFI that the wind was going to die down.  But this is meant to be a sample test so test decision-making is required. 

What would I have done with a newly minted PPL, if I had one?  I wouldn't have made the decision until after tea-time when I figured the weather conditions would have changed.  If the winds were above my limit then, I'd have stayed on the ground.

So what now.  Well, I'm now scheduled to fly tomorrow with the CFI, which doesn't give me much time with tentative test date of Thursday.  Having said that, it's now looking likely that Friday will be better day to do the test.  I may have to reschedule.... again.

Three Sorties Later.

Three sorties later and I'm feeling better about the flight test.

Saturday 28th.
I had the aeroplane booked out to do some upper air work, which should have consisted of stalls and steep turns. I really need about three to three and a half thousand feet as a good safety margin and the weather obliged.  There was a thin scattering of fluffy cumulus at about 2000 feet so that wasn't going to be a problem.

The actual problem was that I found myself doubting my knowledge of the airspace that I was flying in.  I had the both the current, but tremendously obsolete, Irish chart and a copy of the AIC outlining the revised Dublin control zone.  Unfortunately, I spent too much time double checking myself, trying to mentally overlay one over the other to unsure I wasn't going to infringe Dublin's airspace by going to 3000 feet.  I put the vast majority of that doubt down to confidence - I am well able to read and interpret maps and charts but I haven't flown all that much on my own in the training area.

When I satisfied myself that I was indeed clear to go up to 3000 feet I decided that in the interest of safety, from a human factors perspective, I'd stay away from stalls.  I was just a little flustered and it seemed to me that that time wasn't a good time to try stalls on my own not having done many of them. I restricted myself to steep turns instead. Better to do one of the exercises in comfort rather than try too much and not be comfortable enough to derive benefit from it.

The steep turns went well.  Actually, I quite enjoy them.  When I first encountered them in my training I was a reluctant to go to 45 degrees of bank let alone bring the the plane over another 12 degrees.  The last time I did them with an instructor I felt so much more comfortable with them and they came rather easily.  It's particularly satisfying to complete a 360 turn and fly into your own turbulence.  That's pretty much what happened for all of them on Saturday.  It got a bit tedious though, I mean, there I am wheeling around the sky in smooth air, then bump (little bump, future passengers, little bump), I pass through my wake, disturbing my play.  I could have stayed up there all day but the plane was needed so I headed back to the 'field and called it a day.

Sunday 29th.
Another 8am start at the airport and another perfect day.  I'd spent some time studying the charts Saturday evening to reassure myself that I had been right about the airspace and to remove that doubt from this morning's flight.  This day I was going to navigate a little, not with a huge amount of planning, just enough to get me comfortable with the idea that rough navigation works.  So I drew a line on a chart from Kilcock to Athboy; there was very little wind so a heading and speed was just measured off the chart.  I'd take up the heading and in about 11 minutes I should be at Athboy.

So it came to pass - I arrived at Athboy.  The next exercise was a diversion.  I surprised myself and Athboy I said, "David, fly to Killucan".  Remember now, we're in general calculation mode.  Drawing another line on the chart, Killucan appears to be at the 7 o'clock position from Athboy, so seven times three is 21 giving me a heading to steer of 210 degrees.  Using my fancy plotting ruler, I work out that 8 minutes should get me to Killucan and joy of joys, it did.

I moved a little east of Killucan over the quarries so as not to disturb the slumbering masses and off I went up to 3000 feet up to do my stalls. A couple in the clean configuration, a couple in the imaginary turn to base leg and a couple in the approach configuration and I was done.  Done and happy.  So done and happy that I went off and did another few steep turns, watching my shadow drift across some more fluffy cumulus below.  I made a mental note of lovely photo for me to set up sometime when my licence is in my pocket and I'm a free agent - I'm not telling you what it is, you'll have to wait and see.  It was nearly time to get back to base so I repositioned over Killucan and drew another line on the chart; this time to Enfield, then home.  Maybe these diversions won't be so bad after all.

Back on the ground, fresh air and satisfaction filed the cockpit as I slid the canopy open.  Today had been a big day.  I demonstrated to myself that you can navigate using rules of thumb; that I can divert on my own if I have to; that stalls are something I can practise on my own; that turning and diving and playing among the clouds on a Sunday morning is a wonderful way to start the day.  Most importantly though, I demonstrated to myself that passing my flight test is within reach.

Tuesday 31st.
Aeroplanes need attention.  The DI was dippy and along with an impending 150 hour check it meant Tuesday was the last opportunity for me to fly for the rest of the week.  The last big thing for me to do on my own was glide approaches.  No DI gave me one more incentive to stay in the circuit that evening.  It was a lovely evening with only a little cross wind;  seven knots 30 degrees off the nose. 30 minutes on a clock is half past; half of 7 is 3.5. Try it, it works well:

15 degrees-quarter of an hour= quarter of the windspeed is crosswind;
45 degrees-three-quarters of an hour= quarter of the windspeed is crosswind;
60 degrees- full hour=all of the windspeed is cross wind.
You have to love rules of thumb.

I started with a few normal configuration circuits to warm up.  They weren't my finest but they were respectable.  A couple of flap-less landings followed those.  I enjoy the non-standard configurations,they add interest and a little more of a challenge.  With the fine evening the circuit was getting busy and the tower asked if I intended to stay for much longer.  I had been waiting till there was just two of us in the circuit before trying a glide approach or two but since he asked, I told him that I was hoping to get a couple in but if he wanted me down I'd oblige.  He called back "First in, best dressed" and gave me the okay for glide approaches. There was no way out, I'd have to try them.

First one. "Carb heat, pull the power, 69 knot best speed. Am I going to make the field? Yes-half flap. Keep the turn going but gently,  no point in giving away altitude. Will I make the field? Yes - well into the field, final stage of flap is fine. And we're there.  Nice one!" Second one ran similarly but I was too eager with the second stage of flap and I was going to land short.  Retracting that second stage made little or no difference.  I was still safe so I put the flap back out and added power.  I could have gone around but I had enough height and time to pull it all together for a standard landing.  "Okay - so it could have been a better glide approach," I thought,  "but I know what I did wrong and I had enough brain capacity to land from it rather than going around in a panic". The messed -up glide approach and recovered landing gave me enough confidence to elect to try once more and put in a full stop.

The tower approved my last attempt and I hand learnt my lesson.  The second stage of flap went out, but this time it went out because I needed it, when I needed it,  not because I thought they should be out "because you land with full flap". I touched down nicely,  satisfied, but I didn't allow my guard down enough to allow a smile.  That came later when I was parked and safely shut down.

Back in the office my instructor asked how it went.  I asked was he not watching; waiting for the usual banter about breaking the aeroplane. His response couldn't have pleased me more;  "I was; I thought the glide approaches were particularly nice". Nice.

I still have to fly with the CFI and get his critique on my flying before the flight test but those three sorties have done my confidence no end of good.  I accept that I may not pass the test but I'm happy that my handling skills are ready to present myself to an examiner.