Start PPL on the 28th
Discussion
CharlieCrocodile said:
Don't post your write up on the Flyer forums, the pedants over there will rip your apart! 
I enjoyed it nonetheless.
The weather isn't looking too good for Saturday, fingers crossed though.
Thanks for the heads up. Im in this for the enjoyment factor so have no interest in people criticising me on forums. Ill keep this thread updated and that's it. Im a PHer, and hopefully a leisure pilot. The rest doesn't matter to me. I enjoyed it nonetheless.The weather isn't looking too good for Saturday, fingers crossed though.
Sat avo looks clear but breezy so we shall see what materialises.
Hi Eddie, great to see this thread.
Have you had any experience before or are you really saying that the first time you have been in the cockpit you took off and landed yourself?
If so, I had always assumed that did not happen for a while. Very impresses - almost makes me want to have a go!
Have you had any experience before or are you really saying that the first time you have been in the cockpit you took off and landed yourself?
If so, I had always assumed that did not happen for a while. Very impresses - almost makes me want to have a go!
garyhun said:
Hi Eddie, great to see this thread.
Have you had any experience before or are you really saying that the first time you have been in the cockpit you took off and landed yourself?
If so, I had always assumed that did not happen for a while. Very impresses - almost makes me want to have a go!
Never had any experience other than simulators on the pc. I have flown parachutes and paragliders in the past so I do have some appreciation of flight but no motorised pilotage. JB, my instructor wants me to start as I mean to go on so ill be in control as much as possible right from the off. Have you had any experience before or are you really saying that the first time you have been in the cockpit you took off and landed yourself?
If so, I had always assumed that did not happen for a while. Very impresses - almost makes me want to have a go!
Why not come down for a trial flight? You might like what you see.
garyhun said:
Hi Eddie, great to see this thread.
Have you had any experience before or are you really saying that the first time you have been in the cockpit you took off and landed yourself?
If so, I had always assumed that did not happen for a while. Very impresses - almost makes me want to have a go!
This! I'm staggered to the point of disbelief that you landed it on your first lesson. Take-off yes, as that's easy, but landing Have you had any experience before or are you really saying that the first time you have been in the cockpit you took off and landed yourself?
If so, I had always assumed that did not happen for a while. Very impresses - almost makes me want to have a go!
Ignore the comments above about Flyer Forum - sounds like someone might be getting it mixed up with Pprune. You won't meet a nicer friendlier bunch of forumites than on the Flyer Students Forum. Bags of help and advice, offers of fly outs, meet ups, the odd beer, very nice bunch.
ecain63 said:
Never had any experience other than simulators on the pc. I have flown parachutes and paragliders in the past so I do have some appreciation of flight but no motorised pilotage. JB, my instructor wants me to start as I mean to go on so ill be in control as much as possible right from the off.
Why not come down for a trial flight? You might like what you see.
I like that approach!Why not come down for a trial flight? You might like what you see.
I was tinkering with the idea of a trial flight last year but never got round to it - I may very well have a go.
All the best with the PPL - I think you deserve it after all your health issues. Onwards and upwards for you, literally
mattdaniels said:
This! I'm staggered to the point of disbelief that you landed it on your first lesson. Take-off yes, as that's easy, but landing
Ignore the comments above about Flyer Forum - sounds like someone might be getting it mixed up with Pprune. You won't meet a nicer friendlier bunch of forumites than on the Flyer Students Forum. Bags of help and advice, offers of fly outs, meet ups, the odd beer, very nice bunch.
I'll hand on heart swear to it that I piloted 95% of the flight. I did the take off and landing using hand controls, flaps and throttle (JB did the rudder). The other 5% was JB trimming the aircraft and me taking a pic or two. Ignore the comments above about Flyer Forum - sounds like someone might be getting it mixed up with Pprune. You won't meet a nicer friendlier bunch of forumites than on the Flyer Students Forum. Bags of help and advice, offers of fly outs, meet ups, the odd beer, very nice bunch.
ecs said:
Great thread
I did my PPL in an HR200 - they're fantastic fun and feel quite sporty with the clear dome on top. What's the reg of the aircraft you're flying? The school I learned with sold off a lot of their fleet a while back (and that sticker in the cockpit looks familiar!).
G-CBLE. Enjoyable little flyer if a little low on mod cons. I did my PPL in an HR200 - they're fantastic fun and feel quite sporty with the clear dome on top. What's the reg of the aircraft you're flying? The school I learned with sold off a lot of their fleet a while back (and that sticker in the cockpit looks familiar!).
mattdaniels said:
This! I'm staggered to the point of disbelief that you landed it on your first lesson. Take-off yes, as that's easy, but landing
Ignore the comments above about Flyer Forum - sounds like someone might be getting it mixed up with Pprune. You won't meet a nicer friendlier bunch of forumites than on the Flyer Students Forum. Bags of help and advice, offers of fly outs, meet ups, the odd beer, very nice bunch.
I asked a question about the night rating and got slammed for it saying it was a rating rather than a qualification. I had to post a link to the CAA form where it clearly states it's a rating. On the whole they're a good bunch, but like anywhere there's good and bad.Ignore the comments above about Flyer Forum - sounds like someone might be getting it mixed up with Pprune. You won't meet a nicer friendlier bunch of forumites than on the Flyer Students Forum. Bags of help and advice, offers of fly outs, meet ups, the odd beer, very nice bunch.
It's better than pprune, but there's elements creeping across into Flyer.
The one problem about PPL in the UK is the weather! I did mine in the USA and then came back to the UK to do the rest of the CPL/ IR / ATPL stuff.
It is different flying in the USA (Florida) so if you get really sick of not flying for weeks and thinking 1 step forward, 2 steps back and the expense. The USA is the way to go, and then come back to the UK for a few lessons on airspaces, MATZ, local area and RT etc.
It is different flying in the USA (Florida) so if you get really sick of not flying for weeks and thinking 1 step forward, 2 steps back and the expense. The USA is the way to go, and then come back to the UK for a few lessons on airspaces, MATZ, local area and RT etc.
jinkster said:
The one problem about PPL in the UK is the weather! I did mine in the USA and then came back to the UK to do the rest of the CPL/ IR / ATPL stuff.
It is different flying in the USA (Florida) so if you get really sick of not flying for weeks and thinking 1 step forward, 2 steps back and the expense. The USA is the way to go, and then come back to the UK for a few lessons on airspaces, MATZ, local area and RT etc.
Good advice, and advice that i'd love to follow up on. However, i run my own business so i couldn't really afford the time to do that. I've known guys go to Oz to do the whole commercial course as it's so much cheaper there. Great if you can do it!It is different flying in the USA (Florida) so if you get really sick of not flying for weeks and thinking 1 step forward, 2 steps back and the expense. The USA is the way to go, and then come back to the UK for a few lessons on airspaces, MATZ, local area and RT etc.
Just started reading 'The Aeroplane-Technical' book. Probably the longest book i'll have read....... ever! 9 to read during my training!
ecain63 said:
mattdaniels said:
This! I'm staggered to the point of disbelief that you landed it on your first lesson. Take-off yes, as that's easy, but landing
Ignore the comments above about Flyer Forum - sounds like someone might be getting it mixed up with Pprune. You won't meet a nicer friendlier bunch of forumites than on the Flyer Students Forum. Bags of help and advice, offers of fly outs, meet ups, the odd beer, very nice bunch.
I'll hand on heart swear to it that I piloted 95% of the flight. I did the take off and landing using hand controls, flaps and throttle (JB did the rudder). The other 5% was JB trimming the aircraft and me taking a pic or two. Ignore the comments above about Flyer Forum - sounds like someone might be getting it mixed up with Pprune. You won't meet a nicer friendlier bunch of forumites than on the Flyer Students Forum. Bags of help and advice, offers of fly outs, meet ups, the odd beer, very nice bunch.
Well done.
My first flight was probably 15 years ago now. I didn't take off but was given the chance to land. Started getting very out of shape quite early and my instructor took over before we got too near the ground! Think it was fairly windy in my defence, sounds like you're off to a great start.
I've got way too many bills ahead to be thinking about this too much, looking forward to living vicariously through this thread though.
My first flight was probably 15 years ago now. I didn't take off but was given the chance to land. Started getting very out of shape quite early and my instructor took over before we got too near the ground! Think it was fairly windy in my defence, sounds like you're off to a great start.
I've got way too many bills ahead to be thinking about this too much, looking forward to living vicariously through this thread though.
^^^ Thanks for the support and kind words guys.
So, yesterday I cracked lesson number 2 (exercise 4.1) of the PPL. The weather was awful in the morning and early afternoon, lots of rain and winds up to 19knts. I was actually at the point of writing the lesson off when at 1pm the skies cleared and visibility opened up to over 10km. We did a half hour session of ground school covering the primary and secondary effects of the control surfaces (flaps, rudder etc). Boxes ticked I booked out and collected the ATIS info.
My course allocated aircraft is LE, but due to servicing requirements i was given XK, an older and slightly dilapidated example of the same airframe. It flies the same so I booked it out and checked it over.
I ran through aircraft checks and pre-flight checks myself but with JB's supervision. It's a bloody long list and at my pace it took nearly 30 minutes to get through. Only issue along the way was the engine not firing up due to a niggle with the carburetor. Once correctly primed it was purring away nicely.
With all that done I got the chance to do my first taxi to the departure point. I did a couple of power checks to test the brakes and we made our way round to the runway. I must say, taxi-ing is much harder than flying. It's much harder than it looks. Keeping the balance between rudder angle and power will take me some practice im sure but i did make it to the runway without losing my wings or anything else.
As per the weather brief there was a crosswind to consider during take off. The flying club operate PPL up to 19knts so a gusting wind of up to 17knts was pushing the limits of a student at the very beginnings of his training. We had planned an exit on runway 26 with the intention of turning right at 70ft toward Tarrant Rushton and Wimborne. So, full power down and we whipped along the runway until we gained enough speed to take off. As soon as we were airnborne I could feel the wind. So much so that i was carried off to the left and almost out the airport complex. Luckily i managed to catch it and we edged our way back to the centre line. JB told me after that he was almost at the point of taking control at that point but left me to it once i'd caught the drift. Fun and games and a great experience to add to the list of experiences so far.
We flew out over Wimborne and on to Tarrant Rushton in order to conduct some ground lesson practical confirmation. Firstly we carried out exercises to demonstrate the primary effects of the control surfaces. ie. demonstrate roll, pitch and yaw. Simple stuff. Then I demonstrated my understanding of the secondary effects of each of the control surfaces. More fun this bit as we got to pull some tight turns which developed into spiraling descents and near stalls.
Exercises completed we moved on to trimming the aircraft and the use of trim in varying situations.
We flew around the local area for a further 15 minutes or so before requesting to resign and return to EGHH. We had some traffic to negotiate which gave me a chance to experience and practice radio procedure and the sheer volume of it on a day where the weather had brought out lots of last minute flyers.
With the crosswind I had to make sure my approach was more accurate than on my previous flight. I wasn't sure if JB was going to allow me to do it on this occasion but sure as eggs is eggs he was keen to keep me in control. Rather than write it up i thought i'd post this video and quell the naysayers who don't believe it can be done at day 1 / day 2.
http://vid251.photobucket.com/albums/gg306/niacuk/...
So, a successful flight, and to boot i was graded all 1's and 2's (1 is excellent, 2 is good, 3 satisfactory and 4 is not so good but at least we made it back in one piece) on my criteria which puts me in JB's good books. With the weather looking so poor for the next 2 weeks i don't think i'll get any flying done, which is a bummer. I hope i don't lose what experience and skill i have attained over the last 1.8hrs of flying. I'll keep an eye on the weather and if i see a slot i'll grab it. I can go down and do some ground school which will help but theres nothing like the real thing.
I'll post up more when i have it.
Eddie
So, yesterday I cracked lesson number 2 (exercise 4.1) of the PPL. The weather was awful in the morning and early afternoon, lots of rain and winds up to 19knts. I was actually at the point of writing the lesson off when at 1pm the skies cleared and visibility opened up to over 10km. We did a half hour session of ground school covering the primary and secondary effects of the control surfaces (flaps, rudder etc). Boxes ticked I booked out and collected the ATIS info.
My course allocated aircraft is LE, but due to servicing requirements i was given XK, an older and slightly dilapidated example of the same airframe. It flies the same so I booked it out and checked it over.
I ran through aircraft checks and pre-flight checks myself but with JB's supervision. It's a bloody long list and at my pace it took nearly 30 minutes to get through. Only issue along the way was the engine not firing up due to a niggle with the carburetor. Once correctly primed it was purring away nicely.
With all that done I got the chance to do my first taxi to the departure point. I did a couple of power checks to test the brakes and we made our way round to the runway. I must say, taxi-ing is much harder than flying. It's much harder than it looks. Keeping the balance between rudder angle and power will take me some practice im sure but i did make it to the runway without losing my wings or anything else.
As per the weather brief there was a crosswind to consider during take off. The flying club operate PPL up to 19knts so a gusting wind of up to 17knts was pushing the limits of a student at the very beginnings of his training. We had planned an exit on runway 26 with the intention of turning right at 70ft toward Tarrant Rushton and Wimborne. So, full power down and we whipped along the runway until we gained enough speed to take off. As soon as we were airnborne I could feel the wind. So much so that i was carried off to the left and almost out the airport complex. Luckily i managed to catch it and we edged our way back to the centre line. JB told me after that he was almost at the point of taking control at that point but left me to it once i'd caught the drift. Fun and games and a great experience to add to the list of experiences so far.
We flew out over Wimborne and on to Tarrant Rushton in order to conduct some ground lesson practical confirmation. Firstly we carried out exercises to demonstrate the primary effects of the control surfaces. ie. demonstrate roll, pitch and yaw. Simple stuff. Then I demonstrated my understanding of the secondary effects of each of the control surfaces. More fun this bit as we got to pull some tight turns which developed into spiraling descents and near stalls.
Exercises completed we moved on to trimming the aircraft and the use of trim in varying situations.
We flew around the local area for a further 15 minutes or so before requesting to resign and return to EGHH. We had some traffic to negotiate which gave me a chance to experience and practice radio procedure and the sheer volume of it on a day where the weather had brought out lots of last minute flyers.
With the crosswind I had to make sure my approach was more accurate than on my previous flight. I wasn't sure if JB was going to allow me to do it on this occasion but sure as eggs is eggs he was keen to keep me in control. Rather than write it up i thought i'd post this video and quell the naysayers who don't believe it can be done at day 1 / day 2.
http://vid251.photobucket.com/albums/gg306/niacuk/...
So, a successful flight, and to boot i was graded all 1's and 2's (1 is excellent, 2 is good, 3 satisfactory and 4 is not so good but at least we made it back in one piece) on my criteria which puts me in JB's good books. With the weather looking so poor for the next 2 weeks i don't think i'll get any flying done, which is a bummer. I hope i don't lose what experience and skill i have attained over the last 1.8hrs of flying. I'll keep an eye on the weather and if i see a slot i'll grab it. I can go down and do some ground school which will help but theres nothing like the real thing.
I'll post up more when i have it.
Eddie
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