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29/07/2009, 6:24 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: New pilot... Fantastic! Not only have you beaten any concerns for yourself but you've caught the bug! What more could an aviation lover wish for? 8o) All the best and make sure you let us know how you are getting on!    Report

03/08/2009, 10:00 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: New pilot... Had my second proper lesson yesterday, so now I have about 2 hours in total of flight time... seems like hardly anything but at the same time, looks as though it is (no pun intended) flying by! I did my first takeoff yesterday, which went really smoothly, although had to apply full right rudder as the left brake is a little dodgy apparantly on the plane I was going up in... Did flying straight and level, and busted through the exercises in no time.  Started with my FREDA checks ( ;-) ) yesterday as well, which was good.  The flying was the smoothest I have had, despite after take off, little banked turn right, to be greeted with a wall of gray...  so did a 180 and flew away from it! Landing went without a hitch, although this time, I was in more control of the stick/brakes and rudder, while i could see my instructor lurching for the throttle a couple of times! :)  I f I had read what i read this morning, i would have realised that rate of descent is guided by throttle, and airspeed by the elevators for landing... next time i should be more prepared, and hopefully be a little more in control yet again! Next lesson will be the climing and descending, and I will be doing my first radio calls as well, which seems a little nerve racking, but not really bricking it... that much!  Hopefully will try to get in the sky in the next couple of weeks, weather and finance permitting!    Report

04/08/2009, 9:52 AM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: New pilot... Rolls That’s sounds great! Really pleased it went well and you managed to get up there. I bet you could tell your instructor what the FREDA checks were which would have been impressive: p . It’s tricky at first to understanding that your height is not controlled by the stick but more the throttle. But within a few lessons you will be really comfortable with this and be landing it on your own every time. I was really scared of doing my first radio call because everything seems so fast and you can’t understand what people are saying but after a while you just get used to hearing it and understand completely. The radio calls will become much more confident very quickly if you just think about what you are going to say in your head before you make the transmission instead of what I have heard some people do when learning which is to think of what they are going to say while transmitting. You will make calls instinctively after a while also. I messed up a radio call yesterday to Farnborough LARS which was very embarrassing, and have learnt from it and wont be making that mistake again( hopefully) :/. Well anyway glad to hear it went well, have you started your airlaw yet? Chris    Report

04/08/2009, 11:41 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: New pilot... I have started through the book, and reading through the flying training book as well (both Thom books).  I find that the 'air law' bit- with all the articles, a tad bit laborious, but finding the rest very much fun!  All the different beacon meanings... what to do if you get intercepted, quite fun to go through.  I will be reading it through a couple of times at least, second time taking notes, and really starting to study it, as my target is a solo as soon as possible, which would mean an exam before hand.  I did mention to my instructor that i had started reading through the two books, and she seemed genuinly surprised and happy about it, i think she now thinks that i am a little more serious about the whole thing.  I have another lesson booked on the 16th, so i am crossing my fingers that the weather is still fine.  For some reason i also prefer to do cold starts than hot starts, so i am booking my lessons as early as possible... It also means on hot days, i miss the oven baked cockpit! What exams have you taken so far, and how many do you need to take by the time you have your PPL? I have a friend of mine who is giving me plenty of support and advice, only he passed his license quite a while ago, so I am sure the curriculum has changed...    Report

04/08/2009, 12:57 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: New pilot... Well Rolls it’s good that you find the Airlaw fun, that’s definitely a good sign! In the Robin hr200 that I fly it’s get ridiculously hot on warm days due to the design although it means I get great visibility. Try to get used to hot starts though as you will need to use them one day :). I’ve taken just the one exam (Airlaw) and by the sounds of it by the end of your study you should have no problem with it. The trick in the exam is to think of the answer before you look down at the options which means you are less likely to get trapped by answers that “look” like the right answer. If you get what I mean. Don’t quote me on these but I think this is it: There are seven multi-choice exams and a radio telephony practical test to pass. •Air law and Operational Procedures- Often recommended to be taken first. In the Aviation Law exam there are normally 40 questions and it lasts 60 minutes. •Meteorology •Navigation •Communications- these can be expected to be passed before doing your solo cross-country flight. •Flight Performance and Planning •Aircraft General and Principles of Flight •Human performance and Limitations- These all have to be completed before you can take the skills test at the end of the course. All of the exams are multiple choice. •In the Aviation Law exam there are normally 40 questions and it lasts 60 minutes. •In the Aircraft General exam there are normally 50 questions and it lasts 120 minutes. •In the Flight Performance exam there are 20 questions and lasts 60 minutes. •In the Human Performance exam there are 20 questions and it lasts 30 minutes. •In the Meteorology exam there are 20 questions and lasts 60 minutes. •In the Navigation exam there are normally 25 questions and lasts 90 minutes. I think some of the times for the tests may be wrong but I think the numbers of questions are correct. Hope this helps Chris    Report

04/08/2009, 1:52 PM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: New pilot... Thanks for that, it is most helpful.  I was chatting to my instructor, and she says that the skills test took about 2.5 hours!! I suppose it is all good, as you can put that down as logged hours...?! :) I do have plenty of questions buzzing round my head, and slowly and surely they are beginning to be answered (both on here, other people and actually flying).  There does seem to be a phenomonel (sp???!!!) amount to take in-but hey at least it is fun! I am just trying to sit back and enjoy the ride for the time being!    Report

04/08/2009, 3:10 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: New pilot... Rolls Phenomenal :p ( thanks to word's spell checker).There is a lot to take in but the more you fly the more the things that you have learnt in theory come into practice which affirms your understanding. And you hit the nail on the head! It is to be enjoyed and sometimes I get the impression people forget that! Chris    Report

17/08/2009, 9:45 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: New pilot... I had my first lesson cancelled on me this weekend.  I thought it would be due to weather... but alas, that was not to be.   The Royal Aero club apparantly had booked the aerodrome for teh weekend, and somebody had failed to inform the flying schools... Anyway, it meant i missed my lesson, but id give me an opportunity to watching some amazing flying with the aerobatics.  Funny that everything i am being taught not to do... they were doing... flynig out of balance and everything. An amazing day, and would highly recomend any one to go and wtach some aerobatics if they can, it makes such a difference actually watching it life, compared to the little bits you see on TV.  Lesson to be booked for the coming weekend now anyway... Would have been lovely flying conditions as well (if not a little windy) :(    Report

17/08/2009, 10:01 AM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: New pilot... I hear that the weather should be very good this week so i hope it holds up for you! I might go and watch the red bull airace if i can somtime. It looks sooo good. Chris    Report

23/08/2009, 8:33 PM boofle Joined on 23/08/2009 North Yorkshire Posts 39 Re: New pilot... Welcome to the world of flying, you will find it great and rewarding, I wish you all the best Steve    Report

24/08/2009, 11:38 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: New pilot... Cheers Boofle, I am certainly have a good lark with it! Flew on Saturday morning, with the cloud base at about 2500 feet, was some of the best flying I have done.  Did my T/O and climbed to about 2400 foot, and flew directly under a very grey cloud, which had a perfectly flat bottom to it, was an incredible expierience.  It soon opened up to nice blue skies with the very occasional cloud.  I was doing climbing and descending (gliding- no descents with power) and felt really good.  I went over some of the straight and level from the last lesson, and the instructor was very very pleased with me.  My flying at different speeds was pretty much spot on, although my speed was increasing on some parts (which we later discovered was probbaly due to the throttle opening up on its own accord, despite the nut being at its tightest).  My instuctor did make the comment that she was really impressed about how quickly that i was picking it up, and that i was pretty much a natural.  I was certainly feeling pretty good through out the whole lesson (despite the inital sickness when we were levelling off on the ascent and descents as i was not expecting it!  It was soon overcome in anycase), and felt like it was some of the best flying I have done, and really feel as though I am picking it up.  All this from some one who from about 2 months ago had not even stepped on any sort of plane!!! Next time out, it will be steep turns, with the last bit of the descending, and then moving on to stalls and then onto circuits.  I really can't wait.... literally... if only financing the darn thing was not so prohibiting! I also did my first radio calls on Saturday which were quite funny.  having never been in the position of using the phonetic alphabet, I was a tad bit nervous.  I had my girlfriend in the Aviator hotel (which is onsite at Sywell Aerodrome, and they have the AT radio on in the lounge the whole time, so she could listen in as things were happening!) who has used Phonetics extensively which probably did not help!  The call sign Sierri whiskey echo lima pretty much announced to everyone i was a nwecomer... especially the pause after 'SierrI'... my usual call sign would be Sierra Whiskey Yankee Lima... so i think i had it in my head that alllll call signs should finish with the I!!! I also asked my instructor how much input she was putting in to the T/O's and landings, as I was quite interested (it seems like i am doing most of the work.... But she alayed that by saying that on T/O I pretty much do it all (with only minor adjustments) and on Landings she inputs a lot... for the obvious reason that I am not at the stage where i can land! lol. Overall I had a grat day... Oh, and forgot to mention that my g'f's dad was listening in on his transponder (he does a lot of emergency response work, which means that he can tune into the Sywell ATC.... nice to know everyone- it seems, was interested in what I had to say!!!    Report

26/08/2009, 8:05 PM boofle Joined on 23/08/2009 North Yorkshire Posts 39 Re: New pilot... I am glad you had a great day flying. you seem to be alot further on than I am, have yet to do take offs, taxi-ing is a great laugh, trying to keep the plane straight using the foot pedals, its not as easy as it looks. but I will get the hang of it. how are the books coming on. I find them hard going, have to read the sections over and over again for it to sink in. can be very confusing at times. like you I love the flying and cannot wait until i am up again. all the best Steve       Report

26/08/2009, 8:36 PM boofle Joined on 23/08/2009 North Yorkshire Posts 39 Re: New pilot... Is there anybody in the forum that uses the same airfield as me, Sherburn Aero Club,     Report

21/09/2009, 11:24 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: New pilot... Don't know if anyone went flying yesterday, but I did, and it was some of the best views I have ever seen! Hardly a cloud in the sky, and could see for miles upon miles upon miles. It was also not an unevenetful flight.... I was doing powered descents today, with a recap on gliding and ascending, which happily I could still remember. Did my take off (with acrobatics going on above the airfield) after taxiing on the finished taxi way at Sywell. Unfortunately i still had to t/o from the grass and not frm the concrete... i think they are still finsihing it off. I did my lesson of descents with power and 15 and 40 degree flaps, and go arounds which went very well.... and I do feel very prepared to start my landings when I have done a few more hours. I did the calls to the tower, position and distance, where my F/I said to do one more cheeky descent into a field for practice landing, and getting the right picture in the window. That was quite a hard one, as the field was very close, so it was all about getting the speed down, and the flaps down as soon as possible, where i entered into the descent the landing woudl have been superb. So we climbed back to 2500 ft. to get ready for a low level straight approach over a residential area (Northampton) turned onto final and started happily gliding towards the airfield... Where out of nowhere, some bloke in a piper passed us to the left and below by about 50 metres making HIS final approach. I sort of turned and said... shouldn't he be passing us on the left, where my FI started f'ing and blinding that he shoudl not be passing us AT ALL!!! By this time, we were about 3nm from the airfield, and the FI took over control to fly at stall speed to enable us to land fter the piper without the need for a go around. With about 1/2 nm to go, she handed control back to me so that I could take the plane into land, and get practicing the pwered descent to land. I knew from there that she took over quite a bit, as i was not pulling up on the stick to flare... but hey, i have not done any lessons on landings yet... So once down, the FI turned to me and said that she would not normally hand over the control after something like that, but she was quite sure that i was confident in my flying, and thought i could handle it... at the time i did not give it two thoughts, as i thought it was run of the mill, so no drama! Anyways, a beautiful days flying, which took me through checking the plane at the start of the lesson, and also emergency procedures in case of on the ground emergencys. Really enjoyed the flight, and should have something booked for a couple of weeks time to do medium turns. I also covered climbing turns, although have not done the lessons for that either, not that they seemed to hard...!! lol Happy flying!    Report

21/09/2009, 2:58 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: New pilot... Hi Rolls! I flew yesterday as well, doing exactly the same lesson funnily enough! Views were great and aerodrome was buzzing as there was a caterham kit car time trials event on as well, so it was proper summer fate feel. The air was full with crazy microlight/ultralight pilots though it seemed, as we had one guy in a weight-shift doing a 4 mile final so we had to delay our turn onto base. I did over-head joins as well yesterday, and my second take-off and landing. Feeling a lot more confident now as I did a take off and landing yesterday but needed the lesson on climbing and descending to feel more ready for what was going on. Can't wait to get onto turns which pretty much rounds off the preparation ready for the circuit. Glad we shared the same great weather yesterday, was the nicest weather i've flown in since I started.    Report

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