31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
I love flying! But I hate talking about money. It’s hard to talk about flying without talking about money, therefore talking about flying can lead to talking about money….got it? So a positive can become a negative quickly.
This can be distracting and disappointing to many pilots (not just student pilots). We could clearly justify spending lots of money to get out license (officially known as a Private Pilot Certificate). It’s like graduating from college (because of the cost) and the time you put into it through thick and thin makes it all worthwhile when you pass your check ride (like a drivers test for pilots) and you fly away a private pilot!
After coming down from the “high” and taking a few friends and family up, you start asking yourself…What’s next?
Ok. You are now a pilot. Do I want to make money at it? Do I want to fly through clouds and learn “the system” like the big guys? Maybe, but the reality is that these tiers or levels of piloting are pursued by few because of time, cost and NEED. Fewer than 25% of private pilots ever earn an Instrument Rating.
These extra layers (Commercial Rating and Instrument Ratings) are worth pursuing because they help you become a Professional Pilot. Yes, I know…these guys still run out of fuel and hit mountains, but they get paid to do it…you don’t! They can talk the talk and walk the walk (usually) and then there is you…the Private Pilot.
The Private Pilot is the weekend warrior. You look for a break in the weather or a comfortable enough day to go out and kick off the rust. You do your three take offs and landing to stay current enough to take your friends or family up and you might go to an airport with a restaurant, or a trip to another state. That’s about it.
It’s not a bad existence really…so many people will never do that. The same can be said for growing up poor. Until you see how the other half lives, you don’t realize how poor you really were back in the day. It was fine when you were young, but now it’s not something you would recommend to your kids.
So how can you have a RICH aviation experience without a RICH man (or woman’s) bank account? By joining a club (or several) and flying various aircraft.
For my high-performance endorsement I flew this Civil Air Patrol Cessna 182. Yes, I joined the Civil Air Patrol to do it, but flying an over 200 horse power plane is what’s required for the endorsement.
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
So far my summer reading as revolved around two books about IFR flight and the ASA Instrument Oral Exam Guide, which has about a quarter left for me to read.
As for flying, I have kept my commitment of flying at least once a month in the Piper Cherokee. The reason for that is because it’s a low wing like the Cirrus, its speed is similar to the Cirrus in the pattern and it has a fuel pump, along with left and right fuel tank management responsibilities. A Cessna 172 is just too easy…like flying a kite, almost boring by comparison.
Now with my head floating, the interactive training software called CATS is here and installed on my computer. So at this time I have started working on learning all about the Cirrus SR-20 and plan to complete the workbook that I started with my instructor and continue on with my transition training.
I am hoping that an opportunity that presented itself to me this week might mean that by mid-August, funds will be available now and on an ongoing basis for training. I am hoping for the best!
CATS lets you explore and learn your Cirrus aircraft like never before. Practice checklist procedures, calculate performance, and explore aircraft systems all at the click of a mouse.
Configuration options include:
Aircraft Type: SR20 or SR22
Engine System: Normally aspirated or turbonormalized
Environmental System: G2/G3/air conditioning with selectable optional equipment
It’s Interactive…
- Practice normal and emergency procedures anytime, anywhere, using interactive cockpit controls and checklists.
- Learn the systems of these technologically advanced aircraft (TAA) with animated, interactive schematics and simulations.
- Navigate through the software using a familiar Pilot’s Operating Handbook format.
- Explore and learn at your own pace using “free play” simulations and an unrestrictive menu system.
- Test your knowledge with over 40 multiple-choice quizzes.
- Monitor your progression through the content and quizzes with integrated progress tracking.
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
The arrival of new technology to general aviation aircraft has generated noticeable changes in three areas: information, automation, and options.
Pilots now have an unprecedented amount of information available at their fingertips. Electronic flight instruments use innovative techniques to determine aircraft attitude, speed, and altitude, presenting a wealth of information in one or more integrated presentations. A suite of cockpit information systems provides pilots with data about aircraft position, planned route, engine health and performance, as well as surrounding weather, traffic, and terrain.
Unless you started training with a Technologically Advanced Aircraft, these modern avionics systems may present three important learning challenges as you develop proficiency:
- How to operate advanced avionics systems
- Which advanced avionics systems to use and when
- How advanced avionics systems affect the pilot and the way the pilot flies
Assuming Risk
Glass cockpits don’t make us invincible, however they seem to allow us to assume more risk than either the plane or our experience is ready for when it comes to weather. Seeing weather on a display is not a license to fly closer than 20 NM to it or a reason to consider flying a sucker hole between two storms. Remember, we are flying single engine GA aircraft, not a Boeing or an Airbus with much more power and performance. Yes, modern avionics can allow you to fly closer, thread the needle and some GA pilots may consider that common practice. Is it safe? That depends on the conditions, the aircraft in use and the pilot’s experience, and one other thing called luck.
Weather showed the largest negative difference when comparing a TAA like a Cirrus to the overall GA fleet, with nearly one-third (31 percent) of all Cirrus accidents involving weather, compared to 4.7 percent for GA overall. Weather proved to be uncommonly deadly in the Cirrus, accounting for nearly two-thirds (61.5 percent) of fatal accidents. In the overall GA fleet, weather was identified as the cause in 16.4 percent of fatal accidents.
I’m not picking on Cirrus. And we are pretty sure that storms don’t seek out and attack Cirrus aircraft. Could it be that a radar screen doesn’t do justice to the actual flight conditions near a storm? Could it be that a TAA like the Cirrus is more likely to fly a business flight fully loaded with get-there-itis? Could it be that all this technology gives us a false sense of security? My guess is…all of the above…and few we didn’t mention. Is this bad? Yes, if we ignore how we can be lulled into a false sense of security and leave it up to the plane to use its discretion instead of our own to fly the plane.
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
Recently I saw an article that I thought had a lot of value to anyone who is training for any type of certificate or rating regardless of experience. It falls under the “Things I wish I had known before I spent all of that money on flight training” category.
This article written by Jeremy Jankowski that outlines what might be considered “Best Practices” in our approach to learning and becoming a true student of Aviation. – Enjoy!
Ten Things Your Flight Instructor Wishes You Knew
We all want to get through training as quickly and efficiently as possible. Yet some student pilots fly through training (no pun intended), and others end up spending a great deal more effort, money, and time to reach the same levels as our peers. What’s the difference?
Though frequency of training and personal learning styles can have an impact, removing only a few common roadblocks from your training can reduce the hurdles encountered in the process. Here are ten things that will undoubtedly make you stand out as one of your flight instructor’s favorite students.
1. Look Outside!
With the proliferation of “gizmos” in general aviation aircraft — tied so closely to the rapid expansion of the computer and electronics industries in the past few years — every pilot has had to grapple with the temptation to fixate all of his or her energy on the latest technology. Student pilots in particular have a great deal of difficulty keeping their attention outside of the cockpit, since all of the instrumentation in the cockpit (even the relatively simplistic stuff) is new to them. However, any pilot who has just trampled through the instrument rating will confirm that it’s a lot easier to precisely control the aircraft by looking outside, and most of the things that will hurt you in an airplane aren’t found inside the cockpit. If you feel like you’re having trouble, ask your flight instructor to cover up some instruments for a few lessons to force your attention outside the cockpit. Remember: A lot of airplanes don’t have attitude indicators, radios, or GPS, and their pilots do just fine.
2. Be on time
In fact, be early if you can. Getting ready for the flight (pre-flighting the aircraft, getting the weather briefing, etc.) before your scheduled time with your flight instructor allows him to concentrate the bulk of his attention on teaching new things or working on the areas that need the greatest amount of review. As it turns out, though, students often show up on the scheduled minute of arrival, spend half an hour getting ready to fly, and then have to hurry through a particular lesson to ensure that the aircraft and the flight instructor make it back on time for the next student. Sometimes the aircraft may not be available if you arrive early, but at the very least you can spend 20 minutes looking over the maneuvers you were supposed to know when you arrived.
3. One hour of studying at home can save two hours of training in the airplane
Most people fly for fun and studying hasn’t generally been regarded as the most enjoyable of all activities. Particularly for those with busy schedules or who haven’t been in a classroom for a while, study habits may be downright poor. However, students who progress most quickly through training (and folks, the most fun stuff comes after you get the Private Pilot Certificate) are generally those who spend at least an hour intimately close to the books between flight lessons. In particular, knowing the procedures for the next lesson’s maneuvers and radio phraseology saves a tremendous amount of training time. Ask yourself if you could do any of the maneuvers you’ve done with your instructor on at least three occasions from memory and without help; if you can’t, you’re probably spending a lot of time with your instructor in the airplane going over the procedure step-by-step, when you should be working on the execution of the maneuver itself.
4. The checklist is required
The Practical Test Standards, the “cheat sheet” for check rides, couldn’t possibly be more clear when it comes to the subject of checklists. Nearly every Area of Operation listed requires that the applicant “completes the appropriate checklist.” Yet with many student pilots, proper checklist discipline falls short, and it typically results in things consistently getting missed. Is your landing light on when it should be? Forget to turn on the transponder again? Mixture not rich for landing? If you’re using the checklist, that should never be a problem.
5. Asking questions makes a CFI’s job easier
Anyone whose tried to teach anything to a person who refuses to participate in the process knows how frustrating it can be to determine the degree of understanding gleaned from the lecture. Yet many students, even those who are normally active and outgoing, act like a tree whenever the instructor asks, “Does that make sense?” If it doesn’t, say so. Say it again if you have to. If you make learning an interactive process, you will pick up the material more thoroughly and more quickly than someone who take notes that only somewhat make sense to them. Often flight instructors find new ways of looking at things themselves through the questions that you ask!
6. A weather briefing is a necessity — even on nice days
It’s a clear blue sky outside, visibility unlimited, and the winds are calm. Who needs a weather briefing? You do! It’s not only a legal requirement (see FAR 91.103), but in this day and age of temporary flight restrictions (TFRs), airports across the country constantly under construction, communication frequency outages, and aging navigation facilities, it’s an absolute requirement that you get the full standard briefing. Either call the Flight Service Station or connect to DUATs. (If you don’t know how these work, this would be a great question to ask at your next lesson. See #5).
7. Safety, precision, smoothness
In that order. Students often try to be the next ace when they’re learning a new maneuver, and smoothness is a requirement for being considered ready to take the practical test. However, at some times, there are things more important that being soft on the controls for the sake of the hypothetical people in the back. Concentrate first on doing a maneuver safely (which means looking outside for other traffic!), then within the altitude, heading, and speed requirements, then work on doing both gently. You’re expected to be a little rough at it first, but with experience, you’ll find your corrections will get smaller and the “smooth hands” will follow.
8. Fly it like you own it
At first, every one of us needs to be walked through a new procedure, maneuver, or operation, because, quite frankly, we haven’t ever done it before. Loosening the leash after that can be a difficult task for the instructor, and most students aren’t sure what they’re allowed to do on their own — they wait until they’re told to put out the flaps, or reduce the power, or run the checklist, or call the tower. Take the initiative and ask your flight instructor if you can try doing a maneuver without his help, and have him critique you after you’ve completed it. The more responsibility you take on, the more comfortable an instructor will be letting you tackle the aircraft by yourself.
9. Keep your instructor in the loop
One thing that every flight instructor hates to hear after giving an instruction to a student is, “I was just about to do that.” It can be difficult for an instructor to predict what a student will do next, and sometimes a flight instructor has to assume that the student has forgotten a step or needs to be prompted for a particular action. When you tell your flight instructor what you plan to do and when, he can tell if you’ve forgotten, because you haven’t done what you said you would do. This allows him to give you more responsibility to make decisions on you own, and short circuit a plan that may not work for one reason or another before you are in the midst of executing it.
10. Keep your eyes on the big picture
The most important thing that any flight instructor wants to see in a student is safety. Most student pilots tend to evaluate their performance on how softly they land, how precisely they execute a maneuver, how accurately they memorize procedures. In the real world of flying, though, poor decisions about weather, equipment, or pilot skill are generally what cause accidents — not a bad steep turn or a firm landing. Make your goal to be a conservative, current, and well-informed pilot, and the rest will fall into place!
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
No, its not that I mean the mock exams are like being stung by wasps as you first might think, although we had Flight Planning today which is a subject I have been pretty consistent at so far – consistently bad that is, I totally suck at it and always miss an important bit of information in the question for some reason.
So the idea of the Mock exams is that you have to prove you are able to take the JAR exams and then you apply to take them. However, we are already entered into the JAR exams and the Mock exams are not far enough ahead for the school to withdraw us from the JAR exams, so normally they have the feeling of a box-ticking exercise. However I do feel that the Flight Planning and the Aircraft Performance mocks will be of good use to us, why? Well the papers are half-full of badly copied graphs that require a set of vernier calipers to accurately use and even then the answers can be a bit iffy , so you end up doing each question 3x and the rest is getting information from maps in the Jespersen, neither of which are terribly inspiring to practice at, so it is forcing us to practice and not procrastinate.
Our flight planning exam was set by Colin. Colin is a fantastic teacher at the school who some might say takes pleasure in setting obscure questions for his papers – I think this has something to do with his innate ability to do everything in his head in 5 seconds, but it takes us 5 minutes using the CRAP5 ; I think this ability stemmed from him spending most of his life in an RAF Tornado GR1 where everything happens a bit quicker than the sheds we are flying. We don’t yet have our results back; to use my consultancy speak I would say we “found it a challenge”, although to be more accurate I believe at least a few people thought about chucking their maps on the floor and walking out of the exam with frustration – well done Colin!
Instruments had a few tricky questions in it, and Air Law had some questions on stuff that I didn’t even know existed – stuff that you can’t even guess at because you really haven’t a clue what to guess.
So anyway, the wasp stings bit. I have decided to ride the Tour of Kent in a couple of weeks and so I went out on a ride yesterday to really stretch the legs – I rode 47 hilly miles in 2h15m, this was also my way of testing the bike out as I had stripped and refitted the bottom bracket, cleaned out all the groupset and re-tuned it, as well as fitting a new chain (see my rant on SRAM chains) as the last one had done its 3000miles of me ruining it. I was about 45mins into my ride when I got stung twice on my shin by something, I stopped and could see the stings in my leg so pulled them out before carrying on riding. It actually stung quite a lot and I had stopped taking antihistamine for hayfever a few weeks back, so I basically had two mini-donuts swelling up on my leg where I had been stung. This, coupled with the ominous looking weather, made me ride just a bit faster than I intended to get home and start applying lashings of sting cream and popping a few citirizine tablets. My leg is now just all swollen and feels hot to the touch, the problem is that I know it is going to be like this for at least the next 5 days because a few weeks back I got stung on my ear and my neck which caused me all manner of grief.
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about the poor financial health of general aviation in North-America. Basically, aviation is now the sole domain of the super-rich and there is no aviation middle class. These days, the price of an airplane is way beyond the mean of the middle class. Airplanes are too expensive (150,000$ to 600,000$ for a new Cessna, Cirrus or Diamond) and pilot license acquisition (15,000$ for a private pilot license with instrument rating) requires multiple years of personal investment.
The industry is pinning its hope on the growth and popularity of a new type of airplane called Light-sport aircraft (LSA). These airplanes are more affordable but limited in takeoff weight (1,320 pounds) and speed (120 knots). They are basically glorified ultralights, with all the limited safety and comfort that one can expect from lesser aircraft. Unfortunately, those that look like real airplanes cost between 150,000$ and 200,000. Still not cheap.
Cheaper Airplanes
Unfortunately, as long as there’s only 600,000 pilot license holders in a nation of 300 million, there’s no way Cessna, Piper, Diamond or Cirrus can charge less than 100,000$ for an airplane. There is simply no economy of scale. Unlike the automotive industry, airplanes have to be made by hand one at a time.
One way to reduce cost would be for manufacturers to move to mold-based composite airplanes and share the facilities amongst themselves. In computers, there’s a concept of “foundry“: a facility that only manufactures computer chips. Companies like Apple, IBM and nVidia do their designs by computer and send them to the foundry for manufacturing. This way, they only pay for hat they need and this results in lower-cost electronic devices because the design company didn’t have to own its own chip fabrication plant. The same could be done with composite airplanes and would provide a way to uniformly improve build quality.
Cheaper Training
Saving on training cost is a bit more difficult because it has a lot to do with practicing on real airplanes with a real experienced person. The only place we see is in the automation of ground schools using technology.
Luckily we live in a time where it is technologically possible to do most of the training virtually using desktop flight simulators. Glass cockpits are in fact computers and companies like Garmin are wise to provide software for people to train at home. Right now, it is possible to learn very technically difficult subjects such as mathematics, physics and video editing using online videos (see Khan Academy and Lynda.com). If one can learn second derivatives and sparse matrix solving from videos, there’s no reason someone could not learn how to fly too.
Conclusions
These are only two ideas, but GA has to move beyond older guys flying older avgas airplanes. Things started this way because many young people got into airplanes during WWII. We have to find a way to do the same today somehow.
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
In the weeks and months leading up to the imminent closure of RAF Lyneham, several plans for relocating the Club to another airfield were suggested. We were obviously keen to remain at a military airfield (we are an RAF Flying Club after all!), but sadly the proposed new base fell through at the last minute.
A week or so ago, an email went round to all the Club that I’d been expecting for a while. The Club’s last action at RAF Lyneham was to be a formation flight for all of the Club’s aircraft (3 Warriors, an Arrow, a Robin and a Firefly). I’d mentioned to the aircraft owners my desire to be part of whatever the last flight turned out to be (even if it were a simple ferry flight from Lyneham to the new base) and this was the invitation I’d been waiting for.
I immediately fired off a reply expressing my interest to be part of the flight. The intention was to have two ‘qualified’ formation pilots in each aircraft, along with passengers depending on the number of seats available in the aircraft.
A few days before I was told that I’d been allocated a seat, so I had an eye on the weather in the days leading up to day. The weather didn’t look particularly great to me, but at 7:30 this morning I received a call from Roger informing me that the flight was likely to go ahead.
Headed over to Lyneham in good time for the proposed 16:00 (local) departure (aren’t I always early!) and sat in the Club as various Sky Gods arrived, and then attended the briefing with everyone else. As the briefing sheets were passed out, I was ‘nominated’ to listen to the briefing in lieu of the pilot of G-ELUE who hadn’t yet arrived. As I looked at the briefing sheet, I saw that there were to be only two people travelling in GLUE, with me in the right hand seat!
Briefing complete, Martin asked me to check the aircraft out while he went over a few last minute things with Roger. Once completed we all came together for some photographs, before mounting up and getting ready to go.
Roger was ‘lead’, so handled all of the radio calls to Lyneham. I tried to be as helpful as possible to Martin by taking down all the details given over the radio, allowing him to concentrate on the flying. Once the engine was running, we were all given taxy clearance and headed out towards the threshold of 24. 7 aircraft all turned into wind for power checks and pre-departure checks, before thumbs ups were passed along the line indicating to Roger that we were all ready.
Roger received our departure clearance (again, dutifully copied by me) and then we were all cleared for takeoff. We headed out onto the runway, with Roger in the lead and us slightly behind and to the right. I hadn’t fully realised that this was to be a full ‘stream’ takeoff, with all aircraft departing simultaneously. As we waited for the final aircraft (the extra Chipmunk that was to act as a camera ship) to announce that it was in position, Martin explained the signals that Roger would make to synchronise the departure of the first three aircraft.
All aircraft were soon in position, and the stream takeoff began. We all accelerated down the runway, waiting for Roger to reach flying speed. We all rotated together, and began the climbout towards Chippenham. My next surprise came almost immediately, when I realised that the formation would be maintaining this spacing for the flight. I think I’d expected it to be a pretty ‘loose’ formation, but in actual fact it looked like it would almost be possible to jump from one aircraft to the other!
Roger began a turn to the left, and again Martin explained the procedures for maintaining the formation in the turn. We headed down towards Calne to allow all the other aircraft to join the formation (the Robin for example is pretty underpowered in comparison to the others) and we then carried out a number of turns to allow the camera ship to get some good shots. At one point the camera ship got a little close to the formation, and the Archer had to drop out briefly before the Chipmunk cleared the position and allowed him to rejoin a few seconds later.
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
My next two lessons (AP2&AP3) covered effects of controls and straight and level as the title of this post suggests. I was a little nervous about the second flight because of the nausea thing but it wasn’t an issue. Both lessons were very smooth because they were the first of the day. A favourite part of both of these lessons was taking off. Even though the wee warrior doesn’t have the same acceleration as a passenger jet it is still really satisfying to push the throttle forwards and accelerate towards rotation speed (the speed where you lift the nose off the ground) which is 65kts in the Warrior.
My lessons are usually back to back with my two flying buddies so our instructor will do one flight after the other. If the first two pilots go together on the first flight, we can land away at another airport, switch, and have the second pilot fly back to Goodyear and then the third pilot gets his flight. I hope you followed that! On AP3, we landed at Mobile which is about 20nm south/south-east of Goodyear. It is insanely quiet out there, the airport is un-manned and the only other thing nearby is a landfill and I couldn’t even hear that. I haven’t landed yet but I look forward to it. It looks like quite the challenge! Taking off isn’t terribly difficult, keep the nose on the centre line with the rudder (requires right rudder due to various forces acting on the plane) and rotate at 65kts. Hold a slight nose up attitude to climb away but not too steeply. Keep your hand on the throttle until 1000ft above the ground – that isn’t strictly essential in a single engine aeroplane, it’s more preparation for flying a twin. If you have an engine failure on takeoff in a twin, you want to throttle back the live engine straight away. You can’t do that unless your hand is on the throttle. It’s fun and I’m looking forward to the challenge of landing. Unfortunately it isn’t as simple as taking off – but then it wouldn’t be a challenge. AP4 will be tomorrow morning – climb, descend and medium turns.
Straight and level was a good lesson for getting to know the area better. There’s not much else you can do going straight and level for over an hour! We did turn, just not very often. The aim of the lesson was to be able to hold altitudes (using trim) and hold headings using references on the ground.
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
It comes to the end of another week of 60 and once again it could have potentially been one of the most stressful of the course thus far. Amid the beckoning JAA’s came 3 mock exams on thursday Flight Planning, Ops and Instruments. I think its far to say that the majority of us were pretty weary about all 3 and when they came round they certainly tested us to the required standard-all being well next week far above! Realistically I’m unsure it was actually possible to prepare fully for the ops paper we were set: 65 questions spun from every angle based on the smallest corners of a 1500+ page book yet that is the nature of the subject and all being well the final exam should be much easier. In the week to come we’ve got the final mocks involving both COMMs, AP, Air Law and Human Performance all being well they should be alright and then to clear the way for the FINAL written exams next week. The morbid depression that results from the revision is in clear evidence looking at the various faces from both courses 92 as well as 96 going through the phase 1?s (which I so much enjoyed back in June), with the ‘Bristol beards’ and the square eyes it is most amusing. Still though it really isn’t long now and it will all be over- how I’ll miss it! I was listening to one of my good mates Tom Ryan on Nottingham Uni Radio the other day and after texting in explaining my depression and lack of motivation for life- he then chose to so wonderfully announce my situation to Nottingham University before somehow managing to cheer me up with ‘A Beautiful Day’ by U2. Sure the weather was pretty good here but in room 28111 that didn’t really make much difference! haha but cheers Tom it did actually perk me up a lot!!
I think that this week its appropriate to give a proper send off to a course, particularly relevant to 92 and one that has played a big part in our lives here at FTE since we started. Back in January walking through arrivals for the first time at Jerez airport to be greeted by Mr Craig Wilson as a mentor it is incredibly strange now to see him and Carlos together with two bars and bidding farewell to Jerez. The grad on friday night was one of the biggest I’ve seen here in a long time since various people from 89 chose to graduate also, resulting in a large influx of people descending on the bar on friday night. I’m sure both Craig and Carlos together will miss their regular shoutouts on here and it has been awesome having you both as our mentors- all the best as you strive towards the job centre when you get home- (incidentally Craig your grad video was brilliant- how did you ever get that rc helicopter in front of Vic!). For Eric, it has been a great laugh getting to know you around and for Gary I can guarantee that your name will live on here for a long, long time haha! Spain had a large input into course 88, with President Marcos and Luis- but for me Sol deserves outright stardom for recognising pre JAA depression and new absolutely how to deal with it. As she was packing her car yesterday to go home I offered to help her input a case of rather expensive spanish beers, liquers and wines into the car before she realised that it wouldn’t fit- and offered me the lot! I couldn’t believe it & my views of Spain rocketed sky high from the miners compartment in Chile to the International Space Station- thankyou so very much!! I can now tell you that they are all safe and will not be opened until the end of comms on thursday week with the course- will be very much appreciated so thanks again! I won’t forget about Jasmine and Keith-thought I’d appropriately pair them up together on here but again its been a really good laugh getting to know you both.. I hope that the Irish jokes weren’t too horrific (which they probably were actually…) and it really will be a shame not to be able to celebrate my birthday every day! Not forgetting Wael, Wassim and Ali all moving on to MEA for the type and we all wish you all the best with that.
Otherwise I’m sure you’ll all get a job in no time- to any potential employer who might be reading this they’re a great bunch of people who would do a fabulous job at flying your aeroplanes!
The week progresses onwards again moving towards the final push towards the JAA’s- I can now say that my flights for christmas are booked this time I’ve decided to do it properly with Iberia through Madrid coming home on the 20th until the 3rd of Jan and I WILL catch up with as many of you as possible!
Take care all and will see you soon
31
Aug
Posted by Aviation Expert Guidance in Aviation Schools
Finally we’re outside and looking at the plane. First thing to get done was the walk-around inspection. Starting with a general overview and walking around the plane to check everything is in order happens to every plane no matter what the size. I started with the wing flaps on the left side and moved around checking the position lights, the leading edge and landing light, propeller, nose gear etc. Being as it was in FSX, there’s nothing much more to do than admire the attention to detail on the aircraft before opening the doors and jumping into the cockpit.
The next exercise was to start the engine. That includes further checks on all systems inside the cockpit – checking throttle is closed, electronic equipment, master switches. It’s a small cockpit so it didn’t take long and now some of the fun began.
It wasn’t a very long process following the start up check list and I was cranking the engine. The propeller started spinning, and a little smoke was blown into the wind. It was exhilarating!
1. Mixture — RICH
2. Carburetor Heat — COLD
3. Prime — AS REQUIRED
4. Throttle — OPEN ½ INCH
5. Master Switch — ON
6. Ignition Switch — START (release when engine starts)
The check list had a few more steps such as making sure the propeller area was clear – and that was also mentioned in the Air Pilots Manual. Next came the shutting down of the engine.
I repeated this process a few times to get the feel for it. The next exercise will be taking the aircraft into the air. I can’t wait. Before that, I’ll go into a little more detail with what to do should there be a problem on engine start.