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27/07/2009, 10:20 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi Chris Yeh sure his button was stuck...........or was that a way of getting you to do calls under pressure and without warning. I might just be reading into it to much because my instructor loves doing stuff like that to me. : )    Report

27/07/2009, 11:36 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning This time it was a real fault, I could tell because his attempts to contact the tower back at base kept coming back with reports of broken comms! It couldn't of happened at a busier time, we were decending to the pattern at 130 knots joining downwind whilst I completed a FREDA check! Flying has little ways of opening my eyes to things that a lot of people don't experience during their training! I'm eternally grateful for that, as I feel more ready each time. So far to date i've had... a stone in the brakes, a near mid-air with a microlight, PTT failure, TC frozen and the classic dirty jacks!    Report

29/07/2009, 10:01 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: PPL - The Beginning Enjoying reading through your posts on this! I have not been up for the past three weeks, due to what i thought was bad weather for flying, so did not even book... low cloud/raining (well, puring it down)/pretty windy, and also a holiday thrown in there too.  Actually a mate of mine i found out had a PPL, and always flys when he is on hoilday (or so it seems) in the USA, which makes for some very impressive pictures! It may be becuase I am a newbie, but what is a FREDA check... is this something you do in the air or on the ground? heard on the radio that the met office has said that for the next month the weatehr will be 'unpredictable' so hoping at some point i can get back in an aircraft this year...... :)    Report

29/07/2009, 10:31 AM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi Rolls, FREDA checks are enroute flight checks. F= Fuel checks R=Radio checks E= Engine check and carb heat D= Direction and compass A= Altitude You will be sure to cover these later in your training. Chris    Report

29/07/2009, 11:38 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: PPL - The Beginning Ah, Thanks for that!  I had not come across it in my reading yet!    Report

29/07/2009, 5:43 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning E - Engine Check - In certain aircraft Carb Heat isn't applicable. For instance I fly a Piper Warrior TDi (which runs on Jet-A1) and doesn't have a Carb Heat, only Alternate Air. Just to expand on Chris's informative reply, so you get the idea of whats actually going on in my head personally when I do a FREDA... F - Fuel - Checking your current Fuel Flow versus what you know is in the tank from dipping. Fuel Guages can't be trusted as they lag and float as the fuel sloshes around in the wing tanks. R - Radios - If you haven't heard anything for a while, check volumes, make sure you have correct frequencies set. E - Engines - Make sure everything is in the green and healthy, and it sounds ok. D - Directional Indicator - Re-Aligning the D.I. Gyro to the Compass. During flight there is an affect called "Gyro Drift" which occurs when the gyro inside the D.I. instrument gets disturbed / binds in its casing during manouvres. This causes the gyro to be knocked off alignment and needs to be re-set. A - Altimeter - Making sure you have the correct local pressure in Millibars set into the Altimeter. During your first call to the tower before taxy, the controller will give you the QNH (e.g. "QNH 1024") which you will set into the Altimeter, then check that the instrument reads the known elevation height of the aerodrome (e.g 245ft). If you are interested in a bit of reading on QNH and QFE, this article is quite good: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_pressure#Mean_sea_level_pressure Thats enough brain-bombarding for now, i'm an Engineer so I enjoy finding out how things work. When you start purchasing the books and have more lessons this will all be introduced to you. I have just bought two Trevor Thom books and they are fantastic, highly recommended. Just make sure you get the latest copies. Your flying club might be able to give you a discount on text books!    Report

29/07/2009, 7:05 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi Chris Do you know how the Trevor Thom books compare to the Jeremy Pratt books as i use the Jeremy Pratt books. Anyone know how they compare. I hear that the Trevor Thom books get into more detail? Thanks Chris    Report

29/07/2009, 8:47 PM Aviator|Chris Joined on 28/01/2009 EGBW Posts 378 Re: PPL - The Beginning Unfortunatly I haven't seen the Jeremy Pratt books, but all I can say is that these books are very detailed and there are quite a few excercises at the end for practice. The diagrams are perfect and even after my brief flick through i've picked up a lot because its presented in a nice way. Shame we aren't closer otherwise I would drop by and show you.    Report

29/07/2009, 10:05 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Chris, yeh it is a shame i would love to know which is best because i did find the airlaw an upwards struggle. Chris    Report

03/08/2009, 4:37 PM 4pilotooo Joined on 31/07/2009 Posts 4 Re: PPL - The Beginning could you tell me what club you are with you seem to be having a good time the staff seem ok  too    Report

03/08/2009, 5:05 PM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning 4pilotooo Hi welcome to the forum, "could you tell me what club you are with you seem to be having a good time the staff seem ok too" Who is that directed at? Chris    Report

03/08/2009, 5:45 PM 4pilotooo Joined on 31/07/2009 Posts 4 Re: PPL - The Beginning it was directed at rolls thanks    Report

12/08/2009, 8:58 AM CFrost Joined on 04/01/2009 EGLK Posts 157 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hey guys, Did my first solo nav yesterday which was amazing. I think this is the biggest achievement I have had so far in flying terms. Talking to Farnborough radar on my own was very daunting. How is everyone else getting along? Chris    Report

12/08/2009, 9:26 AM Rolls Joined on 24/06/2009 Posts 42 Re: PPL - The Beginning  4pilotooo wrote: it was directed at rolls thanks Hi 4pilotooo, I am flying with Brooklands flyuing club, out of Sywell in Northampton.   Well done on the Solo Nav Chris.  I think that is a big step, although maybe slightly smaller than going on your first solo!!!    Report

12/08/2009, 2:14 PM TimmyP Joined on 29/06/2009 Gloucester Posts 58 Re: PPL - The Beginning Hi Chris, That's great! Well done! Things seem to be going very fast for you! I've just completed my 5th lesson, a total of about 4.5hrs at the moment, including the trial lesson. I've finished the climbing & descending in various configurations and we're on to turns next week. Last week I did my first take-off, which I made a bit of a mess of...I blame it on it being the first thing you do in the lesson after being out of the seat for a week, if we'd done it at the end once I was 'in the groove' I think it would've been no problem at all. All in all it's going well though and the instructors very pleased (as am I!) How long before you think you'll take your GST?    Report

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