I have now been in Florida for a week. It has been cold today but it will be back to the normal sunny and warm soon. After my early morning experience as mentioned in my earlier post, I was up again at 5:45 so that I could get showered, dressed, fed and flight bag prepared in time to leave at 6:40. It was really cold (just above freezing) so I was well wrapped up with fleece sweat-top and fleece lined jacket. My hands got chilled on the quiet-ish route I take to the airport. I arrived just before 7am and immediately went out to the ramp and checked over N946AC. The weather report said that the temperature was 10 C although the wind chill made it feel much colder. We were off to fly in the pattern using runway 32 and the wind was light. I did ten circuits and 7 landings were good and the last 3 were a bit bumpy. I am getting used to the RT now. You get weather from ATIS, use Naples Ground for taxi to the runway and later taxi to the ramp, and Naples tower in the circuit. You get clearance for take off, touch and go, landings, etc. On the taxi back we had to divert through the jet parking area and I was able to admire all the expensive hardware about the place. At 9am after my de-brief I cycled back to the hotel. I caught up on some paperwork and email and then decided to make another visit to Walmart. I was back on the bike again. My backside has still not adjusted to the saddle on the bike. I have some tips on how to cross the road. Here is a road crossing with special lights for pedestrians. When it shows the white man as in my picture in theory you can cross.
In practice, drivers can turn right over a red light if the road is clear. Often they do not notice you on a bike. So my recommended procedure is :-
Watch the red hand stop signal
When the white man (not very PC) signal is lit
1) Have a good lookout all round and try to catch the eye of anyone who might run you over.
2) Call out 'Clear prop'
3) Run or cycle like fury across to the relative safety of the opposite pavement.
The following picture is a Pelican Crossing (US style)
On arrival at Walmart I bought some cycling gloves, bike brake pads, a digital stopwatch (for navigation timing) and some microwave meals. I then pedalled back to the hotel. This must be getting me fit. Had some lunch consisting of ham and cheese rolls (items in my fridge) and fruit and then straight off again to NAC for my 1am lesson. The plan was for more circuits and on the first one we were given landing clearance for one touch and go and then would have to leave as they were getting very busy. On the approach we experienced some wake turbulence and it was a new sensation for me. In fact I would definitely not being getting this kind of busy airfield experience back at Blackbushe in the UK. My landing was OK and after take off we diverted away to a nearby airport that had no tower. It was my first experience of circuits at such an airport and making blind calls on the radio and listening carefully for others in that bit of airspace. The wind was quite gusty and the aircraft was getting tossed about on occasions. I learnt a whole new set of visual turning references and we did a number of circuits. I also learnt that you could switch on the runway PAPI lights by clicking the PTT switch 5 times rapidly using the Unicom frequency. When it was time to return to Naples we climbed to 1500ft and headed to the toll booths on Alligator Alley. En-route the strong gusty headwind was making the aircraft difficult to handle and the trick was to reduce power and fly a bit slower. Nikki was asking me what type of joining instruction were we likely to receive and also to listen to the ATIS and to slow the aircraft down and maintain the right altitude. I subsequently found out that this was to see how I coped with all these tasks coming in at the same time. I know that I was not keeping the correct altitude and struggled with the workload but apparently did some things correctly. At the toll booths I called Naples Tower having got the weather from the ATIS frequency. We were given permission to continue and asked to call at 3 NM east. I knew where this was from a previous lesson. We got our instructions and joined on a long base leg for a full stop (bumpy) landing on 32. At the de-brief we discussed the areas I need to improve but I was make good progress in a lot of areas. I am to be back at 7am for more circuits.
At NAC there are always a lot of other students and instructors around and I found them all very approachable and helpful. This excellent combination of good weather, professional and friendly staff at a busy airfield, I find is a great environment for learning all that I suspect will be needed to be a Private Pilot. A lot of the instructors who carry out the flight tests are English.
I headed home (my hotel)in full sun now but still a chill in the air.
My evening was to include the following :-
Eat, homework on flapless landing, glide approaches, go arounds, sending a virtual valentine day card to my wife, emails, a phone call from my brother who lives in San Diego and lastly this blog.
Phil
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