Start PPL on the 28th
Discussion
CharlieCrocodile said:
Have you thought about going to the airfield and just sitting in the aircraft to practice the checks? They shouldn't charge you for it. I did it when converting to a 172 & PA28, made life easier as the layouts are different.
That's partly the reasoning behind videoing my flights from start to finish. I can play back the checks over and over and remember them that way. Good idea getting a poster made though.Something I found useful was to practice radio calls so that you don't have to think about them too much when you're doing them. I found practising them in the car was quite a good place, preferably on your own 
It's good to be able to anticipate the response for most of your standard calls so that you know what to remember/note down.
It's good to be able to anticipate the response for most of your standard calls so that you know what to remember/note down.
8am this morning, following a very disturbed night with my 5 month old son and I'm down at BFC for flight number 5 of my PPL. With only 4 hours sleep under my belt I wasn't in the best condition for today's lesson but with the weather so good I couldn't justify cancelling on the grounds of being a bit tired. The drill today was 'straight and level part 2, inc taxi'. The lesson was a follow on from part 1 but this time we'd be looking at maintaining level flight with increased speed and maintaining level flight with decreased speed. And then to end we'd be looking at maintaining height and speed in conjunction with various stages of flaps. Easy!
A quick brief followed by A checks / pre-flight checks and we were turning and burning ready to taxi out of holding point Juliet. I had a different instructor today and to be honest, along with the baggy head it kind of threw me from the start. The taxi was quick, easy and smooth and having an instructor who who more swayed toward pleasure flying it wasn't quite so strict on speed, procedure and the 'what if's'. We still did everything by the book but a lot of it was done on the hop rather than parked up. I guess that's how you'd be doing it once qualified anyway as you can't spend 45 minutes from climbing in to taking off every time.
We got lined up on runway 26:
Full power and we were off to the NW and on to Blandford........ again! I'm still yet to go to the IOW. Next time maybe!
We flew out over Longham lakes and Ferndown:
Over Badbury rings:
And a pig farm near Blandford:
The weather was excellent. 1knt winds and practically perfect vis, which is unusual for this time of year so early in the morning. We ran through the practical aspects of the days lesson whilst over and around Verwood. As i said earlier, my head wasn't 100% on the game today and i felt the lesson didn't fully sink in. My instructor was more than happy though and he gave me a good report nonetheless. Good thing with having the GoPro on my swede is that i can go back to the lesson any time i choose so i don't have to worry about forgetting what I've been taught.
The return leg was planned to fly over Ringwood again and today I managed to spot my baby-buddies house as we passed over Somerley, prior to hitting controlled airspace. I'd love to have had that air horn to wake young Viscount Somerton from his slumber.
With the weather being so good the landing was pretty straight forward. Nice and straight, nice and easy!
B'mth Airport to the 2'oclock:
And nearly home.
All being well i'll be up again next weekend. Fingers crossed flying with JB to keep things more consistent...... and fingers crossed my son gets some shut eye!
A quick brief followed by A checks / pre-flight checks and we were turning and burning ready to taxi out of holding point Juliet. I had a different instructor today and to be honest, along with the baggy head it kind of threw me from the start. The taxi was quick, easy and smooth and having an instructor who who more swayed toward pleasure flying it wasn't quite so strict on speed, procedure and the 'what if's'. We still did everything by the book but a lot of it was done on the hop rather than parked up. I guess that's how you'd be doing it once qualified anyway as you can't spend 45 minutes from climbing in to taking off every time.
We got lined up on runway 26:
Full power and we were off to the NW and on to Blandford........ again! I'm still yet to go to the IOW. Next time maybe!
We flew out over Longham lakes and Ferndown:
Over Badbury rings:
And a pig farm near Blandford:
The weather was excellent. 1knt winds and practically perfect vis, which is unusual for this time of year so early in the morning. We ran through the practical aspects of the days lesson whilst over and around Verwood. As i said earlier, my head wasn't 100% on the game today and i felt the lesson didn't fully sink in. My instructor was more than happy though and he gave me a good report nonetheless. Good thing with having the GoPro on my swede is that i can go back to the lesson any time i choose so i don't have to worry about forgetting what I've been taught.
The return leg was planned to fly over Ringwood again and today I managed to spot my baby-buddies house as we passed over Somerley, prior to hitting controlled airspace. I'd love to have had that air horn to wake young Viscount Somerton from his slumber.
With the weather being so good the landing was pretty straight forward. Nice and straight, nice and easy!
B'mth Airport to the 2'oclock:
And nearly home.
All being well i'll be up again next weekend. Fingers crossed flying with JB to keep things more consistent...... and fingers crossed my son gets some shut eye!
ecain63 said:
Back in the seat tomorrow after 4 weeks of crap weather. Hope I've not los my feel for it.
It's frustrating, isn't it... you'll be alright though - you'll get back into the swing of it again quickly enough. Maybe try and get two lessons in tomorrow if the weather allows?I'm down to fly tomorrow too for the first time in about 5 weeks, though winds aren't looking great at the moment.
Good luck.
ecain63 I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir but download aeroweather and check the TAF the night before that way it should limit your disappointment or at least prepare you for it! It's also handy for learning to read the coded met as is has a decode function. Feel free to tell me to sod off if you've already nailed the met stuff.
djc206 said:
ecain63 I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir but download aeroweather and check the TAF the night before that way it should limit your disappointment or at least prepare you for it! It's also handy for learning to read the coded met as is has a decode function. Feel free to tell me to sod off if you've already nailed the met stuff.
This.It's such a great app, I'm supposed to go night flying tonight but Aeroweather says otherwise.
ecain63 said:
Yeah, ive got a couple of METAR apps and you are right, it does save the disappointment factor. Still can't help be disappointed with or without it. Ive booked at least one flight a day for the whole of xmas so i should get some air time by rule of averages.
Fingers crossed for youdjc206 said:
ecain63 I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir but download aeroweather and check the TAF the night before that way it should limit your disappointment or at least prepare you for it! It's also handy for learning to read the coded met as is has a decode function. Feel free to tell me to sod off if you've already nailed the met stuff.
I don't know about ecain63, but from my own experience of learning out of EGHH, the TAF would only tell you so much and quite often what you would see in front of your face the following morning was quite different. Frequently in the colder months there would be mist, fog, low-lying cloud or just clag hanging over the field that you'd have to wait for a few hours to burn off, and this only occasionally came up on the TAF the night before. You get used to it though and plan accordingly.Bournemouth microclimate, or some such, I am told.
Bincenzo said:
Eddie, I have been a military pilot for 23 years and I'm loving your journey into aviation. Keep going, enjoy it and ask any questions you want, there's a wealth of experience on PH in many different spheres and aviation is certainly one of them. Good luck and keep us up to date.
Mark I didn't know you started flying so late in life at 35! Happy New Year to you.Hi guys,
Sorry I haven't updated the thread for a month or so, I've been uber busy with the Christmas work load, a 7 month old baby and trying to squeeze flights in where the weather allows. I'm 9 or 10 hours in now and just about to do my last lesson before I start circuits (slow flight and stalling). I've been advised to take a few weeks off the practical side of the job once the next flight is complete so I can concentrate on getting the first few theory exams out of the way. Can't all be fun and games.
So, what have I been doing since you last read my updates? Well, mainly getting the more mundane lessons out of the way. Straight and level 1 & 2, ascending and descending 1 & 2, tight turns (actually really good fun), gliding and some other bits and bobs. The lessons are going really well and I'm looking forward to spunking some more off my hard-earned as weather improves. I've changed instructor since last update as Jerome has gone over to full time commercial instructing. I now have Ian Hunt to entertain me and he seems quite happy with me. Actually, his last comment to me was, 'Ive never had a student like you. Keen, professional and you are taking it all in without being told twice. If you want to go commercial and need a reference then you'll get a good one from me!'. I was happy with that.
One thing I've been considering is buying my own plane. The reason being that I'm often frustrated by the lack of available airframes during busy periods and the irregular condition and airworthiness of those that are available. Normally the fleet at the club is in good enough nick but parts often go missing / get swapped between planes, break or just don't exist so I reckon it'd be a good investment to take part in a shared ownership scheme or maybe buy my own Robin, Bulldog or P-28. A P-28 would be ideal because of the extra seat but costs dictate that a Robin would suffice in the short term. Also, with my own plane i can literally just hire and instructor, fuel up and away we go. No hanging around waiting for people to get their lives in order.
Any pearls of wisdom on that one?
The weather looks trump this weekend so I'll most likely fly next week. I'll just have to make do with the Nardo grey RS6 that I've got on loan from my local dealer. Tough times!!
Ooh! I did also fancy giving this a shot:
My instructor told me about a previous student who got lucky one day. They had just finished a flight, probably about half way through the PPL syllabus and Ian and the young lad were in the office waiting to debrief or something other thing. The phone rings and Ian answers. The person on the other end of the phone is the chief flying instructor at another local aviation company. He asks, 'do you have anyone you can recommend as a future commercial pilot'? Ian says he's got a young lad with him now. The voice on the other end of the phone says, 'he's got an interview in half an hour if he's interested'. That young lad has just qualified on the falcon fleet at Cobham / FRA and is a also a recently qualified 747 instructor. I'm quite tempted to just walk over to Cobham and ask for a shot at being on the team. Can't hurt!
Sorry I haven't updated the thread for a month or so, I've been uber busy with the Christmas work load, a 7 month old baby and trying to squeeze flights in where the weather allows. I'm 9 or 10 hours in now and just about to do my last lesson before I start circuits (slow flight and stalling). I've been advised to take a few weeks off the practical side of the job once the next flight is complete so I can concentrate on getting the first few theory exams out of the way. Can't all be fun and games.
So, what have I been doing since you last read my updates? Well, mainly getting the more mundane lessons out of the way. Straight and level 1 & 2, ascending and descending 1 & 2, tight turns (actually really good fun), gliding and some other bits and bobs. The lessons are going really well and I'm looking forward to spunking some more off my hard-earned as weather improves. I've changed instructor since last update as Jerome has gone over to full time commercial instructing. I now have Ian Hunt to entertain me and he seems quite happy with me. Actually, his last comment to me was, 'Ive never had a student like you. Keen, professional and you are taking it all in without being told twice. If you want to go commercial and need a reference then you'll get a good one from me!'. I was happy with that.
One thing I've been considering is buying my own plane. The reason being that I'm often frustrated by the lack of available airframes during busy periods and the irregular condition and airworthiness of those that are available. Normally the fleet at the club is in good enough nick but parts often go missing / get swapped between planes, break or just don't exist so I reckon it'd be a good investment to take part in a shared ownership scheme or maybe buy my own Robin, Bulldog or P-28. A P-28 would be ideal because of the extra seat but costs dictate that a Robin would suffice in the short term. Also, with my own plane i can literally just hire and instructor, fuel up and away we go. No hanging around waiting for people to get their lives in order.
Any pearls of wisdom on that one?
The weather looks trump this weekend so I'll most likely fly next week. I'll just have to make do with the Nardo grey RS6 that I've got on loan from my local dealer. Tough times!!
Ooh! I did also fancy giving this a shot:
My instructor told me about a previous student who got lucky one day. They had just finished a flight, probably about half way through the PPL syllabus and Ian and the young lad were in the office waiting to debrief or something other thing. The phone rings and Ian answers. The person on the other end of the phone is the chief flying instructor at another local aviation company. He asks, 'do you have anyone you can recommend as a future commercial pilot'? Ian says he's got a young lad with him now. The voice on the other end of the phone says, 'he's got an interview in half an hour if he's interested'. That young lad has just qualified on the falcon fleet at Cobham / FRA and is a also a recently qualified 747 instructor. I'm quite tempted to just walk over to Cobham and ask for a shot at being on the team. Can't hurt!
Great thread and some great photos! I actually came across a decent youtube channel (actually the only other one I subscribe to apart from numberphile) of someone going through the same process - he's good at being very self critical of his mistakes and where he can improve. Anyway I found it interesting and informative and might be of interest to others that follow this thread.
https://www.youtube.com/user/FlightChops
https://www.youtube.com/user/FlightChops
Gassing Station | Boats, Planes & Trains | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff