Lesson 8

Rectangles aka learning circuits.

Due to the cloudy conditions we weren't able to do advanced stalls again this week. I suppose me and incipient spins just aren't meant to be. As long as I can get in the air I'm happy, because before this I'd only been flying once in the past month due to weather.

Instead I was to be introduced to flying the circuit pattern. In case you dont know, the circuit is a 3D flight path around a runway that is used for keeping the traffic flow arriving and departing from an airport orderly and safe. It is essentially rectangular in shape, usually with turns to the left, and the downwind leg is usually flown at 1000ft above the surface.


For training purposes the circuit pattern is used to practice takeoffs and landings, and to stitch together the basic manouvers learned so far into a more realistic sequence of events. Although a challenging prospect, I've been keen to get into this process because it feels like a next-step of sorts, and will give me the opportunity to practice and practice my flying skills until I hopefully become very comfortable at the controls.

To get started we went out to the training area to fly an imaginary 'circuit'. My trusty instructor told me that this was his preferred way of introducing the circuits, as opposed to flying it around the actual airstrip the first time around. The reasons for this are many. Not only is the actual circuit busy with traffic, but radio calls will have to be made, as well as actual landing approaches and takeoffs, all of which will distract the student from the basic task of flying the correct headings and altitudes during climbs, turns and descents. Also, if you much up your circuit pattern and drift too far away from the runway (which I would have done for sure) you have to fly away from the aerodrome and come back via a reporting point.

So off we went to the training area. My 'ground level' was to be at 2000ft and my 'runway' on a North/South heading, so that my initial climb would be to the north, then 90 degrees left to West at 500ft, then 90 degrees left to head South for the downwind leg at 3000ft. Toward the end of the downwind leg I had to perform a pre-landing check, then slow the Skipper down by reducing throttle and lowering the flaps. Then as I descended I turned 90 Degrees to the East on the base leg, then turning North at 500ft above and in line with the 'runway' and hopefully ending the final leg at 2000ft and levelling out.

It was busy, and very challenging. I did feel like I got the hang of it, and it was helpful to be able to repeat the pattern a few times over to improve my co-ordination and practice getting the turns and altitudes accurate. It was also good to be able to do it away from the airstrip so that hopefully next week I won't make a total fool of myself when I practice in the real circuit.

Lesson 7

Doing circles in the sky


After being grounded for the last two weeks due to rough air I was busting to get up in the sky again. I'd been keenly watching the weather forecast all week, which had been saying 'patchy showers clearing in the morning, light winds'. I had my fingers crossed that I might just make it.

The first thing I did when I woke up was look out the window at the broken cumulus clouds. Driving to the airport I was guessing with myself about my chances of getting in the air. I was due to either go through advanced stalls, or revise my turns like I had requested due to not quite feeling proficient enough before I get into the circuit. Due to the safety requirement of recovering from stalls above 3000ft and the airspace ceiling of 4500ft in the training area, I didn't expect stalls to be a possibility because that part of the sky was occupied by all that cloud.

When I arrived at the school my instructor informed me we'd be practising turns, due to the cloud base preventing us stalling. I went out and did the preflight checks, which I can perform efficiently now. I even went through them twice for practise before my instructor arrived. I'm not accidentally skimming over parts of checklist instructions any more ('carb heat check and set cold for takeoff' being the usual culprit), however I remembered on the way home that I haven't been yelling 'clear prop!' out the door like I should be. Although my instructor hasn't pulled me up on it, and I know that there is nobody kneeling down there or anything, I still want to get into the habit.

After comfortably taxiing out we got into the air and I set us up first into a steady climb, then straight and level at 3500ft. It was bumpy from lots of updraughts as indicated by the puffy cumulus clouds, but man did they look beautiful! I always like looking at big clouds from the ground, but up close they're even more spectacular, and you get a sense of how fluid and alive they really are. I pretty quickly had to remind myself I wasn't up there to look at the clouds though.

We went through various types of turns - level, climbing, descending and gliding. Climbing and descending turns were fine, but I really wanted to get comfortable with my level turns. During my first turning lesson I couldnt hold them level, and kept losing heaps of altitude. I think this was a combination of looking at the instruments too much, and needing practise to get the feel of the back pressure required to keep the nose up and compensate for the tilted lift. After a few goes this time I feel much more comfortable, and I'm further etching the view of the horizon into my brain for each manoeuvre.

I'm excited to be getting into the circuit soon, and learning to operate the radio. I still have to get advanced stalls out of the way, which I'm told involves reading the signs of an incipient spin and preventing it from developing, but not actually getting into a spin. There is rain forecast for Sunday, but I really hope I'm not grounded again!

Lesson 6

Stalls

I'd been looking forward to stalls. Flying the aircraft to the point when the wings stop producing enough lift, and effectively falls from the sky sounds like great fun, and it was. Although it was as un-spectacular as I expected it to be, too. Training aircraft (and most modern light aircraft) are designed so that the stall is pretty benign, and easy to recover from. This is obviously for safety reasons, and due to the fact that during training what you want is stability, so you dont end up whizzing around all over the place. If you're doing serious aerobatics you want less stability in the aircraft, so that you can whizz about all over the place.

After the briefing I did the preflight check and we hopped in the Skipper and filled her up at the bowser, taxied over and did the runup before departing runway 06. The weather was great again, by the way.

After the initial climb I was in charge of getting us up to 4,000 feet, which took a little while owing to the warm air, which I didn't mind as it gave me a nice long chance to practice holding the climbing settings, which I'm feeling comfortable with now. After leveling off my trusty instructor demonstrated some of the stalls we'd been talking about in the briefing. The main symptom of a stall in the Skipper is a the 'buffeting' of the tail, which I'd read up on and turned out to be the primary indicator apart from the getting below the green arc on the airspeed indicator. When it does stall, the Skipper's tail bumps around a little bit (due to the turbulent off the back of the stalled wing hitting the tail) and then the nose lowers if you let it. All you have to do is let go of the controls and the damn thing un-stalls itself! Like I said, stability.

Although it was valuable to learn about it all, the two most fun versions for me were the full-power stall, and the recovery from a power-off stall. The full-power stall taught me that you'd have to be an absolute maniac to manage a stall with the throttle up all the way - the nose attitude was so high we were almost impersonating a helicopter.

Stalling with no power is much easier, and happens at a lower angle of attack, which more usefully simulates stall conditions in a power-off glide, or even a low-power descent. With this one the recovery was the fun part. Upon feeling the tail bump around, all you have to do is move open the throttle to full, and pull back gently once the airspeed picks up. This produces a pleasing g-force sensation that makes you feel like you're going really fast, which in the Skipper is around 60-70 knots, which isn't very fast at all.

The stalls themselves were mainly a non-event, which is exactly how I've read them described in every article about some new aeroplane. As my trusty instructor pointed out, many of these training maneuvers are based on older airframe designs that could potentially get you in a little bit more trouble. Whereas most modern light aircraft (post-1970?) are well-designed enough that it's not really an issue, although obviously it pays to know and practice.

Having said that, next week's lesson is entitled 'Stalls - Advanced', so we'll see how I feel about it after that.

We also decided that I need more work on my turns, because I just cant seem to get the elevator pressure right and hold my altitude. It'll be a good idea to get that sorted before I test my skills in the circuit.

Lesson 5

Turning

Conditions were great today, not a breath of wind when I got out of the car, not too hot, no clouds. I enjoyed the flight today because, among other reasons, it wasn't at all bumpy. So far although I've experienced only mild turbulence in a little aircraft like the skipper there is lots of minor adjustments needed just to keep the wings level, which is ok. But like I said today was smooth.

After the briefing my instructor sent me out to have a go at the full pre-flight inspection by myself. Following the checklist dutifully (and comfortably, mainly due to my in-sim familiarity with checklists, and plenty of book reading) I noticed one little problem. When he came out to see how I went I informed my instructor of the abnormality, which was obscure, fairly insignificant and easily remedied. To which he replied along the lines of 'I'm afraid that problem was un-natrual. Cheeky instructors tend to set these things up sometimes'. I'm not going to tell you what it was in case your instructor uses this trick on you, because it helped to reinforce in my mind the responsibility of following what at times seems an arbitrary list of words, that is actually very important.

I did plenty of taxiing, which I enjoyed. I'm getting a better feel for the pedals, and not breaking too hard, but still limiting the ground speed.

After takeoff we passed pretty close underneath a Cessna heading in the opposite direction. I asked my instructor if that was too close, ie less than 500ft vertical separation (Camden outbound altitude is 1300ft while inbound is 1800 ft = 500ft difference), and he said it was about right and explained the importance of maintaining the correct altitudes. As he said, if I was a bit too high and the Cessna was a bit too low things could get dangerous.

Then we built upon what I had already learned, and surprisingly I felt much more comfortable with some maneuvers which previously had been slightly confusing to coordinate, such as setting up a climb, which I put down to reviewing the notes from the previous lesson.

After demonstration, I went through climbing turns, medium level turns (30 degrees) and gliding turns, getting used to putting the horizon at the correct position outside the window. Also getting into the habit of checking for traffic before a turn is something that will have to become natural eventually.

Judging the angle of the horizon out the window is something that will take more practice, although I feel I'm improving bit by bit. I also have to stop looking out the side window at the ground. As my instructor said, like skiing, where you look is where you'll go. So during my descending turns to the left I was losing too much altitude, which he put down to the fact that I'm in the left-hand seat, whereas on the right I can't look out the side as much. Made sense to me.

After we landed we taxied the Skipper to the bowser for refueling. I learned how to earth the aircraft, put the card in and fill the tanks. Another step forward. Training so far has been very effective in allowing me slightly more freedom in the operation of the aircraft each time, like slowly opening up each aspect bit by bit.

Next level is stalls, which I'm looking forward to, although the weekly forecast isn't so good.

All in all a very positive day's flying, which only serves to motivate me.

DHC-4 Caribou

I really love the Caribou. Too bad it was recently retired from service with the RAAF. This thing can land on nothing but a patch of dirt. Checkout the profile of the wings and the STOL performance in this video. I seems like a hardy aircraft too, a real blokes machine.

Take that helicopters!

By the way, if you're looking at this blog, please leave some comments! I'd love to hear what you have to say. I'm looking especially at you, person from Russia.

Lesson 4

Climbing and descending

I was able to perform the full preflight inspection today, which I had been looking forward to learning. It involves walking around the aircraft checking various parts and confirming that it is airworthy. Checking the fuel situation was an important highlight, looking in the tanks to confirm fuel levels and draining a sample from each tank to check for water and sediment. My instructor told me that these procedures have their roots in times when aircraft would often be fueled from barrels and sediment and water contamination was more common, although obviously it sill pays to check, especially at the first flight of the day and after refueling. I also got avgas on my hand for the first time, checking the Skipper's funny little valve under the fuel sump. Silly valve design that one.

I had the chance to taxi a little bit more, and got used to the brakes pretty quickly while lining up behind a Warrior at the holding point! Didn't much feel like driving the prop through his/her tail.

After takeoff the air was a little bit bumpy, but I managed to hold pretty good straight and level, with my instructor giving me a little more liberty on the controls after last week. After a quick demonstration I practiced climbs, including lowering the nose every 500ft to check for traffic ('you can do it all your life and never see anyone in front, but the one time you don't check someone will be there' - instructor). After a few climbs and level-offs, we did powered descents and glide descents, leveling-off after each.

As I think I've mentioned before, you can read about it all you want, but in practice it's much trickier. Co-ordination between attitude, throttle and trim is difficult so far, and something I'm looking forward to getting used to. For example, when initiating a climb I check the sky for traffic, increase throttle to full, correct flightpath with rudder, adjust attitude to put the horizon where it should be, let the airspeed settle to (around) 68, and trim. On paper it is so simple, but getting it to happen physically takes getting used to. I feel much more practice will be needed before I have the hang of these simple maneuvers, but I look forward to being able to execute them natrually.

Main lesson from today: STOP LOOKING AT THE INSTRUMENTS! I need to use the horizon and outside view as primary reference, and only glance at the instruments as indicators of trends, and re-adjust accordingly.

STOL West Papua video

Like any other aviation nerd, I'm guilty of watching heaps of youtube videos of landings, takeoffs and (dorkiest of all) engine startups. Here is one of my favorites. Some serious piloting skills, and most of all incredible STOL (Short TakeOff and Landing) technique. Watch it in full screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjKEta8rYow

Watch out for the mountains.

Lesson 2

Straight and level.

In my sim at home I've challenged myself to fly straight and level many times with a variety of aircraft, using an exterior visual reference point and riding the throttle, elevators and trim. I've felt confident doing it and can achieve nice level flight this way. However I'm already starting to feel the huge differences between doing something in a home simulator and a real life flight environment.

Firstly, as I mentioned before, the feeling of a real aircraft is a substantial difference between the two. The feeling of the controls, the movement of the Skipper bouncing around and consequent little corrections with the yoke, and especially the view outside make it a whole different game.

I went into this lesson knowing that I needed to get used to looking outside rather than in. Various sources will tell you that a VFR (Visual Flight Rules) pilot should be looking outside the cockpit 80% or 90% of the time. In a simulator at home this isn't very useful, because although the environmental model can seem really real, its nothing compared to the visual cues afforded in real life flight. In X-Plane, its very easy and at times more reliable to focus on the instruments (vertical speed indicator, directional gyro, altimeter and airspeed indicator) to maintain straight and level flight than on a point in the outside world. This is contrary to what you need to learn in VFR training, and I plan on pushing myself to get out of this mindset. So far it's going ok, as the visual cues in the real sky, as well as the feelings from control imputs and the movement of the aircraft itself prove far more effective than sitting on a seat at home (obviously).

The main lesson learned from today was through the physical movement of my body needed to manipulate controls. You can read as many checklists and descriptions of control adjustments as you want, and I've become pretty good at starting and setting up sim craft for various aspects of flight, but in real life you also have to teach your arms and hands to move to and adjust things as needed.

As a side note, I don't want to end up writing to much about the comparisons between home simulation and real world flight, so to put things in another perspective I'll talk about the books I've been going through.

Firstly I read and re-read the Bob Tait BAK textbook, and have been re-reading it and testing myself on the little quizzes over and over. I've found this book to be a great way to learn about the basics of flight. Since then I've had my hands on the Aviation Theory Centre Student Pilot Kit. It contains a logbook, a detailed book about radio communication, a step-by-step flying manual in line with your training for each lesson that you can review, and a BAK theory book. I've been working through the BAK book for about a week, and I've found it a great second opinion on the theory covered in the Bob Tait edition, but it goes into a little more detail. I think it's been a good step from the Bob Tait, which is more to the point about basic knowledge, whereas the Aviation Theory Centre BAK book is much more detailed on what I've already read about. I think if I read the Aviation Theory Centre book first I would have been slightly overwhelmed.

Anyway, after a thorough briefing, during today's lesson I was able to flick a few switches and start the engine, as well as get more of a feel for taxiing ('a little more right pedal' ' perhaps not so much brake' from my trusty instructor). Once in the training area my instructor set up a climb, and nominated various altitudes at which I was to level off to straight and level flight. I think I did ok, in the process getting a feel for the pitch and trim, and also being able to have a go manipulating the throttle to achieve desired RPM and airspeed. After a few of these we did similar exercises on the descent, only it was a little trickier having to start the pitch and throttle adjustments 50ft before the nominated altitude due the downwards inertia, but I got it to settle well a couple of times. I also practiced leveling off after lowering and raising the flaps, which allowed me to get used to the control of the Skipper's electric flap system, which has a little switch that pops out when adjusted and subsequently has to be popped back in when the desired deflection is achieved.

As I said, the main thing I learned today was physically manipulating the controls, getting used to more than just the yoke. I'm looking forward to getting used to these movements, and eventually being able to manipulate the Skipper naturally.

Also, it was another beautiful day to be up in the air. As we walked back through the hangar my instructor said 'well, you've had your fix for the week', which made me all the more excited for next week.

Lesson 1

Although I'd flown with the school in the same aircraft before during a trial instructional flight  (TIF), I knew my first lesson would be a different experience. Today when I arrived I was greeted by the chief flying instructor (CIF) with whom I had been in email contact arraigning my booking, and he was very welcoming. I was pleased to find out that the instructor I would be working with was the same guy who I did my TIF with, and I had enjoyed that experience due to his great instructional manner and sense of humor.

To start off I was given the handling notes for the Beechcraft Skipper 77 and plonked in the briefing room to have a read. It was great to have this document in my hands, which describes the basics of all the systems, checklists and startup procedures, performance characteristics (VNE and climbing speeds etc), as well as containing loading and performance charts which I look forward to getting acquainted with. 

Eventually my instructor sat down and we went through the basics of aerodynamics, lift, aircraft controls and handling. I feel that I have benefited from studying the Bob Tait BAK book over the last couple of months as I had an understanding of the concepts, although it was beneficial to talk to someone and refresh and enhance the information. My instructor also offered plenty of helpful information on things I needed clarification on, as well alternative points of view that enhanced my understanding.

After the briefing we hopped in the Skipper and were promptly airborne. Takeoff was great, and I was able to monitor what he was doing with the rudder, which was a pretty hefty full right input to counter the slipstream effect.

After that I was able to get a feel for the aircraft in a broad range of attitude and power settings. We flew around the training area at about 3,300ft where I felt the controls at fast, slow, flaps down and up settings. It was a valuable learning experience feeling the difference in the inputs to the yoke between slow and fast maneuvers. Learning about trimming the aircraft was really interesting too. I feel I had a pretty good theoretical knowledge when going into it, but putting it into practice is another thing entirely.

Main lesson learned from the day; Pitch to desired attitude then trim and feel the resistance on the yoke. If attitude re-corrects and yoke resistance is strong, re-adjust attitude and re-trim. Repeat until desired attitude can be achieved through trim. Also, trim after each attitude change, and trim after each power change.

And also the training area, especially when hugging the mountains to the west, is incredibly beautiful. Good visibility today also meant I could see all the way over to the East coast, over Sydney CBD to the sea.

Post flight briefing my instructor was really helpful. There are a couple of additional books I'm going to get as well as a more practical pair of sunnies. He also advised me to hold out buying a David Clark headset just yet.... oh well.

Finally getting started

This is a blog about a normal person in Sydney, Australia who decided to learn to fly. I'm writing it because when I was considering flying training I looked up lots of information on the internet, and what I found to be most helpful was other people's blogs. (favourites include http://makingtimeforflying.blogspot.com.au/ and http://fl250.blogspot.com.au/)

The story so far:

My Dad and my uncle took me to airshows when I was younger. Earliest memory from this period (age 3 or 4) is of walking through a C-130 Hercules thinking 'this thing is huge'. I remember vividly how cavernous the space inside felt. The next thing I remember is a Spitfire landing and taxiing right up to the crowd, letting the huge V-12 engine run for a while before shut down. I can still remember the noise and feeling in my chest from that huge engine, and my uncle recently told me I was trembling and wide-eyed in awe at the time.

Since then I have grown up and completed a degree in visual arts (nothing to do with aviation, trust me). After my really useful degree I have been working in childcare full-time. Thanks to my wonderful, beautiful, amazing, and fantastic boss (she doesn't like to be called boss) I have managed to be in a position where I have a steady income, for some reason, which has allowed me to consider getting my PPL.

Since childhood, having not spent an ounce of energy thinking about aviation. I purchased a flight simulator about a year ago called X-Plane, which at the time I wanted because I've always played games, including sims, and I thought it would be a great challenge to master. But 'master' is the wrong word. The program is so detailed and the possibilities so diverse that I quickly found out landing a Piper is very different to landing a 747. I still can't get those big jets down comfortably. And I'll give you a million bucks if you can land the space shuttle from orbit.

Since then I have done a couple of trial instructional flights (TIF), which most flying schools offer. First at Bankstown in a Piper Warrior, then at Camden in a Beechcraft Skipper. In deciding which airport to train at I went against some advice I had received from contacts who know more than I do and chose Camden. My choice was based upon the fact that although Bankstown seems the most logical option (diverse choice of training and aircraft, busy airport environment closer to commercial ops etc) I found it to be congested, alienating and industrial. Taking off and flying around over warehouses and main roads in smoggy air was pretty deflating too.

In the end I followed my heart and chose Camden, because its bloody beautiful. The people I did my TIF with were friendly and personable, and I'd rather fly over trees than warehouses. Plus Camden airport still feels like one of those old places you read about.

By no means let my experience influence your choice of training. From my extremely limited advice go and do some TIFs with as many schools/clubs as you can and decide for yourself. I've taken quite a while to consider my options, but it's better in the long run if you just go and do it. Then at least your partner/family members/pets can get a break from hearing you talking about it in the abstract.

My first lesson is this Sunday. I can't wait to write more stuff here about how much fun I had. I'm especially looking forward to feeling the resistance on inputs from the control surfaces!