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02/05/2009, 4:04 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning Well today was the day guys... It was full of fun and "eye-opening reality" moments. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and my instructor was impressed, saying that I achieved a lot during my first hour. Most happy that my head was on a swivel. We did start/shutdown procedures, taxying, pre-take off engine checks, climb, decent and banking, engine failure incl. picking a field, flying in cloud, orbiting on arrival back at the aerodrome and landing. The fun moments included my instructor joking about not holding my breath during the decent, as my nose would explode and he would have to clean it up. Reality moments involved a stone getting caught in the brakes during initial taxy, causing a grinding sound and making us pull over to an inactive runway to check it out, and a near collision with a MicroLight on depature, whose pilot wasn't looking where he/she was going. My instructor was very calm in the situation and did the standard right evasive turn, but it really did make me realise how hard these small "light-aircraft" looking microlights are to spot. We flew over Bridgenorth, along the Severn Gorge, around the infamous Radar Dome, up to 7,000ft for some cloud chasing and then back to base. Was amazing and can't wait to hop in there again. The sun was roasting today, but luckily the ventilation in the good old Warrior kept me nice and cool. I had so much fun I didn't get chance to take a single picture while I was up there.    Report

02/05/2009, 4:28 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi, Wow sounds like you got loads done and it sounds like it was pretty eventful too.   Looks like you had a bit of everything.     Glad to here you enjoyed it, I’m sure you will never forget it!   When’s the next one then?   Chris    Report

02/05/2009, 5:50 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi Chris, Indeed, I am very satisfied with my first lesson as you can tell. The aircraft I flew (PA28 Warrior G-CEJV) has a Diesel engine which made climb performance excellent and the panel mounted test button / annuciator made things simple. Next one is probably in a few weeks or start of next month, depending on how money is looking. I'll keep updating my post. Cheers for reading. Chris.    Report

06/06/2009, 4:01 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning Poured down again today on the date of my lesson. Luckily my instructor is a young, "lets just do something" kinda chap. So he said to come down anyway so we can get stuck into some Ground School. Was very interesting and learnt a lot, I guess it means he is a good teacher if the things he taught me like procedures are sticking in my mind. Took plenty of notes and asked lots of questions, can't wait to put the lesson into practice in a few weeks time! Fingers crossed for the sunshine!    Report

06/06/2009, 5:30 PM Nicky Joined on 01/02/2006 Nottingham Posts 265 Re: PPL - The Beginning Yeah i'm supposed to be flying tomorrow and it's looking like it's going to be called off.. Ah well save the money for a better day! :) Also got my self a DC 10.40 headset from ebay, bit of a bargain it's in mint condition to say how old the model is! Just want to test it out to make sure it actually works!    Report

07/06/2009, 9:38 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hey Nicky! Did you manage to fly today? Was a bit rough morning through to mid-day then started to clear up. I noticed on my Instructors weather sheet yesterday, a nice big swirl of low pressure and poor weather spear-heading the midlands  Glad you managed to get a good price on a headset from eBay. With the way things are these days, any way you can save money helps out!      Report

08/06/2009, 10:32 AM Nicky Joined on 01/02/2006 Nottingham Posts 265 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi,  No called the flight off yesterday, checked out the aircraft and got ready to go but decided to cancel with reports of the cloud base at 1200ft above the airfield and CBs at 1000ft to the south where we was heading. It's a shame because it was one of the rare occassions we get a strong wind straight down the downhill runway! Usually if the winds strong it's across everything.. Sods law. At least I got the chance to check the headset out and it seemed to be working fine. :)      Report

08/06/2009, 6:30 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning I thought that would be the case. Its been dodgy for the past few days. Hope weather is good for the next one! Good to hear you are happy with your new purchase! David Clarks are tough as old boots.    Report

08/06/2009, 7:58 PM Nicky Joined on 01/02/2006 Nottingham Posts 265 Re: PPL - The Beginning Yeah sounded alot crisper on the intercom than the ones I have been using! Fingers crossed for this weekend. :)    Report

20/06/2009, 11:18 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning Had another lesson again today, spent a lot of time messing about under the over-cast group of cumulus, creating some very tricky turbulance at times. It was very exhausting though! Covered the topics from previous ground school lesson (rained out lesson) on effects of controls, slipstream, trimming, setting power by ear and flap operation. I found myself dropping the right wing often, don't know why. Also as most of you guys know, the Piper Warrior has the "handbrake" style flap lever. Everytime i reached for the lever, I was struggling to see our attitude out of the window and the aircraft was pushed out of straight and level. My instructor soon thrashed it out of me though! Then showed me the effects of applying and release full flaps too quickly, very weird experience! One thing that got me bothered today, the throttle has another handle below it that tightens the setting to stop the power being changed easily during manouvres. I kept accidentally loosening this during power changes and it was always falling down to lower settings! I climbed out feeling totally shattered, but wrote down my notes and points to remember and improve for next time!    Report

21/06/2009, 11:38 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi there, glad to hear that everything is going well and that you are enjoying the flying. I am probably where you are in training. I’m 16 nearly 17 and am trying to get a lot of my PPL done this summer before I turn 17 in October. Should be doing my solo this week maybe next week. Quite nervous about it but it should all go ok. How far in with the PPL are you? Chris    Report

22/06/2009, 8:24 AM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning 2 Hours Flying and 1 Ground School Lesson in so far. Things just got very busy all of a sudden, on Saturday. I don't think I was prepared at my second lesson, to cover so much and even recover from the start of a spiral dive. But this added pressure ensured I fixed a few things there and then. I would say you are ahead of me, are you around the 10hr mark and a few exams down? All the best for the solo!    Report

22/06/2009, 1:12 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Yeh about there but have no exams, going to do my Air Law very soon (as you have to before the solo). You will be doing stalling soon which is fun and then you will soon be on to circuits which are really good fun. Keep me posted on your progress! All the best Chris    Report

22/06/2009, 11:03 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi Chris, Is it just Air Law exam required to go solo? We have touched on the point of stall during other manouvres. My instructor said we will be focussing on straight and level flight next time, so I imagine he will throw in the clean and dirty stall within that. I find at the moment, that we suddenly arrive back at the airfield like magic. I dont currently have a chart for the area so I find it hard to understand where we are in relation to the aerodrome. I guess it will all come with time. Where do you fly out of? On what type? Chris.      Report

23/06/2009, 12:38 AM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Yeh it’s just the air law you have to do for solo. It was only a few lessons ago that I was the same as you, not knowing where I was at all. But it soon comes. Try to remember land marks near you airfield or a main road that you can follow to get back. Obviously these are not ideal as later you will do the navigation parts of the course where im sure it will all become clear. But for now try to make sure what distinctive landmarks are around and what your airfield looks like from a distance. I fly out Blackbushe Airport which is a relatively large airfield with good facilities. (We have Cessna Citation jets coming all the time.) As a busy airspace it can make radio communications quite complicated being handed off the Farnborough Radar. But my radio work is getting more confident which I am pleased about. I have had a lesson in a piper warrior ii and my trail lesson was in a Grumman AA-5 however the aircraft I fly for training now is a Robin HR200 which is I nice nippy plane with a stick instead of a yoke. How about you, where you flying out of and what’s your aircraft type? Chris    Report

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