More on the skills test

In brief.

Met the examiner John Petersen at 13:30 on 27th June. Had initial briefing session. Got keys for G-BNRK and went and checked the aircraft over. Taxied to the fuel pump and had tanks filled to 80% full. John met me at the fuel pumps. Taxied away from pumps after allowing fuel to settle and draining some off for checks, completed checklists and took of on runway 07 at 14:52.
Visual navigation to Devizes (with dogleg around glider airfield) and arrived overhead Devizes at estimated time of 15:21, turned onto heading of 055 for Grove. After 8 nm on correct route when overhead Avebury, John asked me to divert to Kingsclere. Got correct heading and after 24 nm was overhead Kingsclere. Handling and manoeuvres went pretty well. Getting tired now. Flew to Blackbushe but almost started heading on to Farnborough. Joined overhead at Blackbushe for a few different types of landing. They weren’t my best. Taxi back after glide approach and landing at 16:52. Once parked at 16:58 I answered some technical questions re the C152. I knew the answers.
Then back to the airschool offices for a de-brief. I completed the weight and balance + take-off and landing calculations. Then the nervously awaited verdict. Yippeee ! I had passed. We spent 45 minutes going through a detailed debrief of the whole flight. At about 18:15 I called my wife and then drove home in a very happy frame of mind and rather mentally exhausted. Will soon be a PPL(A) pilot but still have oral RT test to do in a few weeks time.

In detail.

Prior to the test

I had been waiting to carry out a mock skills test and because of poor weather and then when the weather suddenly improved a long waiting list for a slot, I did not fly for 5 weeks. Then on Monday 19th June I did a mock test with another Blackbushe instructor called Nakul. He was very pleasant and helpful. I had planned a route from Blackbushe to Devizes and then to Grove. My route to Devizes had three legs to avoid danger areas and the gliding site as I was flying at low level (2000 ft) due to cloud. Nakul said it would have been better to have planned a direct route with a couple of doglegs around obstacles, however we used my plotted route. I flew in a new member of the Blackbushe fleet. G-CDTX had recently been collected from Germany.
Here she is :-




As Devizes was a long way we diverted early and I had to get to a junction on the M4 a few miles north of Newbury. This went well. Then it was the test of handling and lastly back to Blackbushe for some landings in quite a blustery crosswind. At the debrief Nakul went through everything in a lot of detail and I wrote down 26 items that needed improvement. Nakul gave me a very helpful diagram showing the typical thinking and actions during the navigation section. I was a bit down as I still needed to improve. I booked a lesson for circuits and another mock skills test.

On Friday 23rd I spent an hour in the circuit with Andy in G-BZEA. I had not flown with Andy before and it turns out that he too had spent some time at Naples in Florida. For the first time in my UK flying there was no wind at all and now instead of flaring too early, I was flaring a bit late and making a few firm landings. Not a great way of boosting my confidence or the instructors.

On Sunday 25th (the day of the England v Ecuador match) I did another mock skills test with my original instructor Christian. I had plotted a route to Grove and then to Devizes. The cloud was lowish and the visibility poor but I decided to go. We were back in G-CDTX (the C152 that Christian had ferried back from Germany) and I flew to Grove at 2800 ft. The list of items I had made with Nakul were all going without a hitch on this trip. Over Grove and shortly after heading for Devizes, Christian asked me to divert to Popham. Again this went well despite lowering cloud and flying through showers. When Popham was just a few miles ahead we stopped the nav part of the exercise as we did not want to get into the Popham gliding area. The manoeuvres went pretty well. Back at Blackbushe we did just a couple of circuits and then landed as England were approaching half time in their match. Christian said that I was now able to take the real skills test. I booked a solo circuits session (my first solo session in the UK) for 10:30 on 27th with the actual skills test at 13:30 on the same day. I was feeling much happier with my flying skills now and felt that an hour of solo circuits should also help. I had previously been getting concerned at my rather slow progress. Christian said that I had been doing well and explained that for those of double (or more) the age of the younger student pilots, you tend to need double the dual instruction hours.

Skills test day

The weather did not look good. Low cloud, poor visibility but a forecast improvement for the afternoon.
I set off from home at 10:00 in my thirteen year old Porsche 911 determined to make the most of the day. I soon came to traffic jam on the link road to the M3 because they were cutting the grass verges. Despite this I still arrived at Blackbushe at the appointed hour of 10:30. Almost straight away I was off to check over G-BMTB having got sanction from Steve to fly solo. The radio aids are a bit tatty in this aircraft and there is no transducer but I guess this does not matter for circuits. I took off at 11:00 and spent almost an hour doing normal, short field, soft field and flapless landings. There was no wind at all and my landings were all very good, in fact the best they have been in the UK although there was no-one else in the aircraft to witness it. However it was doing my confidence a power of good. I ended the session with a glide approach which was also just as I would have wished.
Back at the school offices I was asked if I still wanted to take the test because the hoped for weather improvement was not happening. I logged onto the met. office website and checked everything out. It was no worse than my recent mock test conditions and so decided to proceed.
I managed to slowly eat an egg and bacon baguette and consume a mug of tea while revising my plog to fly at 3000 ft instead of my original 4000. I had to factor in a dogleg around the Rivar gliding site. I was to be flying in G-BNRK but right now that was already in the air with another instructor and student. A last chance to look through lists of technical details on the C152 and then the appointed time arrived. John Peterson (my examiner) put me at my ease during the briefing session where he went through all the aspects of the skills test. He wanted to know if I had any questions and also advised me to try not to worry if I knew I had made a mistake during the test. He said it is hard to ignore the mistake but worrying about it can cause other mistakes to take place. G-BNRK had just arrived back and I asked about fuel and was told it was half full. John and I checked over the tech log and then I went out to the aircraft and got it prepared to taxi round for fuel. This gave me the chance to check the radio aids and set up com and nav frequencies I would be needing. I started the engine and when at the refuelling pump asked for it not to be completely filled as I did not want a problem with the weight and balance chart. I checked the amounts in the tanks and was happy. John came over to the aircraft and we talked about the planned flight whilst we waited for the fuel to settle. A while later I drained fuel from the three drain points and all was OK. I started up the engine and we moved a short way from the pumps so that I could complete the checks and get taxi clearance. Again there was little wind today and runway 07 was in use as the windsock indicated a slight easterly wind. I was looking forward to flying over Devizes as I did live there for about three years and my first daughter was born there. It was circa 30 years ago then !!! I have been back once on a motorbike but had never seen the market town in the rolling Wiltshire hills from the air. I knew I would identify the town easily, especially with the ‘White Horse’ on the nearby hillside.
After the power checks we took off at 14:52. When turning onto downwind to get on to my planned 275 heading, Blackbushe Information were already giving me un-prompted permission to change frequency to Farnborough Radar. I was only at 900 ft and had planned to do this once at cruise altitude of 3000 ft. I made the early call and got the Flight Information Service. I flew over and clear of the restricted area at Aldermaston and was able to see the radio mast at Kingsclere and the disused runway at Greenham Common. I picked up the service station on the A road to Newbury. When overhead I set the watch running to accurately find the point at which I should start the dogleg around the gliding site. When the watch said 3 mins we were overhead the wood that had the expected shape for me to make my turn onto 330 for 1.5 minutes. During this time I was asked to change to Boscombe Radar which I did. I had only just completed the dogleg and was nearly overhead Pewsey when they asked me to change frequency to Lyneham. The cockpit workload was getting high and having got the radio sorted out I found that I was off my heading for Devizes. I made a correction and could soon see it ahead. A short while later I was actually admiring my previous home town from 2800 ft (I had to descend as the cloud was lower than forecast, it was also overcast and not scattered as forecast). My ETA was spot on. We could see the White Horse to the north of the town and I turned onto a 055 heading for Grove. A little while later I was flying alongside the main road out of Devizes and I knew that the first sign of civilisation that you come across is the town of Avebury. I was asked to change frequency to Brize Norton Radar and completed this. John said that he was surprised at how much I was getting handed over on the radio. I was struggling somewhat with keeping up with it and if I recall John assisted with required frequencies on one occasion. I identified Avebury and as John was happy that I was on the correct route for Grove, he asked me to divert to Kingsclere and give an ETA. A freehand line gave me a heading and measuring with the top of my thumb gave me a distance and thus an ETA both of which I declared. Soon after turning I double checked the heading with a protractor and altered the heading slightly. Yet again, after a short while I was asked to squawk 7000 and continue on route. This time I called Farnborough Radar knowing that this should be the last handover, apart from approach to rejoin at Blackbushe. This leg went well and I identified suitable landmarks along the way. I did slightly alter my ETA (wrongly) and arrived overhead the village of Kingsclere. We then did the handling tests and these went well but I specifically remember two things. One is that the spiral dive that I had to recover from was the deepest yet, and the G experienced as I recovered from it was more than ever before. I could almost feel my field of vision closing in. Secondly we did a precautionary landing (practise) and it was such a long time since I had done this in Florida that I could not quite remember that you were supposed to apply flap and slow down. After completing all the other things such as rate one turn, stalls, steep turns, PFL, engine failure on take off, slow flight, etc it was time to head back to Blackbushe. John helped me identify where we were and it was a question of flying east. John helped me set the frequency for the Blackbushe NDB. Farnborough Radar were very busy but I just managed to get a call in requesting a frequency change to Blackbushe. This accomplished I flew the heading given by the NDB. I was getting tired and paying too much attention to the instrument needle and almost overflew Blackbushe as I was heading for Farnborough. I really was annoyed with myself about this but tried to heed the advice about putting the error to one side and concentrating on the job. I’m not sure it worked as my landings were nothing like as good as those made in the morning. There were quite a few aircraft movement and others in the circuit adding pressure to achieving a flapless landing and lastly a glide approach. In fact I had to apply a bit of power as I would not have made the runway. I was cross with myself again over this. We touched down at 16:52 after exactly two hours in the air. Having got parked and completed all the shutdown procedures, John asked me a number of technical questions. I answered them all correctly (I am an engineer by profession). John left me to tidy up the aircraft and we would meet again in a briefing room. He asked me to complete a weight and balance chart. I did this together with the takeoff and landing distance calculations. The verdict was that I had passed !!!!!!!
I felt happy and relieved having done well on most of the test but knowing that a couple of things were not as I would have hoped. We went through a comprehensive de-brief on every aspect of the flight. Completed the paperwork and covered questions arriving out of the test.
I was pretty tired mentally so I hope I have accurately reported on the events of that busy afternoon.
I said my thanks to John and soon was being congratulated by the Blackbushe Aviation staff that were around. It was a good feeling.
Having left home at 10:00, I arrived back after a tiring but successful day at 18:45. A good meal and a bottle of wine left me in a suitably mellow mood to reflect upon an excellent day.

What next – well I have got some things planned already but I will post these another day. A trip to Switzerland is on the cards.

By for now

Peewit

Skills Test passed

Hi All

Having had yet more poor weather and delays hindering progress and causing a 5 week period of no flying, today I did my skills test. The weather was not ideal with cloud at 2800 to 3000 ft but at least no rain.
Anyway I passed and am currently weary, happy and have just enjoyed half a bottle of a special red wine.
I will post the detail of the test (not the wine)for those that wish to know it within a couple of days.

Peewit (private pilot designate)

Ladders

I have no problems flying in passenger aircraft and also feel very comfortable in small private aircraft. Yet, when it comes to going up a ladder, I find it really difficult to feel safe. The higher I go, the more my body tenses up and an un-rational fear sets in. This fear is starting to cost me money. I need a sealed double glazing unit replacing. I got a quote of 100 pounds to supply and fit a replacement. The cost of the sealed unit itself was £23.50 so I ordered one and today I thought I would remove the beading on the wooden frame holding the blown unit. When I go up a ladder I seem to become very susceptible to the slightest noise.
Why is that when I am up a ladder the following things happen :-

Some workmen at a neighbour’s house drop a toolbox with a loud crash, shortly followed by my dog barking.
The local council decide today is the day they will send a noisy street sweeper down our road.
Today seems to be the day that jet fighters decide to carry out some low level practice for that forthcoming air display.
My wife starts to play her favourite “Mrs Jones” track very loudly.
Wasps and flying insects seem to find me suddenly attractive.
Even though it is a hot day and I have my head back looking straight up at the thing I cannot quite reach, that my nose starts to run.
The army decide to run a Chinook low and slow right over my house.
Etc, etc.



The result is that I am getting the replacement unit fitted by others and just paying for the privilege.

Unfortunately that is not the end of the story as the paintwork on the window frames is in need of some patching up and no doubt after the new window is fitted, the frame will need new paint. I am sure that right now the local police helicopter has picked Bisley for some practice with its infra red cameras.

Oh by the way, I have another date for my mock skills test (the last one was cancelled through bad weather). This time when I came to book because the weather was good and I needed a double slot there was a two week wait and this ends next Monday afternoon.

Peewit

Deep depression in Southern England

And the weather is bad too. I was supposed to go for my dummy skills test flight today but strong winds, low cloud and rain put paid to that. This is all caused by an unusually strong depression for the time of year. Here is the weather map for today.



It seems as though this poor weather is going to hang around for some time.

Yesterday the new Airbus 380 landed at Heathrow for the first time. There was a strong crosswind as it touched down.



Here is a picture of the impressively large and new A380 with the old and rather small 747 in the background.



Here is another A380 and a 747 that may have taken a wrong turning ?



I went to Guildford with my wife last Monday. Whilst she was looking around the shops, I wandered off to Guildford Castle and took a couple of photos so here they are.







Peewit

My wife is back home, thunderstorms in the vicinity

No, the two are not connected. My wife returned home last week and she has got a really deep tan. She also had her hair braided with the result that she no longer looks as if she was brought up in an English climate. Next week she is due to have her hair cut so it will be back to normal soon (and that is how I prefer it).

Last Wednesday I was just able to get into the circuit for my lesson but the cloud base was 1000ft and the crosswinds were difficult again. However I did massively improve my landing technique with just a need to hold-off for longer as the only area left for improvement.

Today I was due to practice for the skills test but the weather forecast did not look encouraging. Cloud and rain were due to build up in the afternoon and my lesson was booked for 3pm. When I arrived at the clubhouse they were just writing up the thunderstorm warnings on the briefing board. Christian, my instructor said that the visibility was poor and so circuits were the only option. I checked over the aircraft and it was warm and sunny. The winds were light and variable and not at 90 degrees to the runway for a change. When I got into the cockpit I was actually just in a shirt without my usual two extra layers to keep warm. The air vents were opened to provide plenty of fresh air in the warm and muggy conditions. An hour of circuits followed having taken off from runway 07. I seem to have got the circuits completely sorted now. Maybe the additional visual feedback of shadows when landing in sunshine were helping.
Luckily the storms stayed away and it was great flying in sunny conditions once more. My next outing is in 10 days when I will do a dummy run of the skills test starting with a visual navigation exercise from Blackbushe to Devizes. It would be great if I could get my PPL in time for the all too short British summer.

Peewit

Tip – Do not cook kippers in the microwave

My wife is away on holiday (well I did go off to Florida for 3.5 weeks of flight training so now it is her turn) and I am looking after the dog. Being rather partial to fish of all varieties I bought some frozen kippers. On the cooking instructions it said you could either boil them in the bag for 20 minutes or for a more speedy meal you could microwave them. I chose the microwave method being in bachelor mode at the moment. The fish were overdone and the whole house smells of kippers and the microwave stinks of them. I should have closed the door of the utility room (where the microwave is located) while they were cooking. My wife is due back in a week so hopefully that should be time to get rid of the smell, although my wife does seem to have a very sensitive sniffer. I have thoroughly cleaned the microwave but it still smells. What with a rather large backlog of washing and house cleaning to do, I suspect I will be somewhat busy over the next couple of days.
I have been doing some flying. In fact I had a couple of lessons to polish up my technique for the skills test. The trouble is that on the second of these two lessons I was practising the various types of landings and had suddenly developed a problem where I started pulling back on the flying controls as the aircraft approached the ground. In effect I was flaring too early and losing airspeed too high above the runway. Having developed this problem I had a two week wait before my next lesson. I was quite demoralised about the problem and this made me feel fairly negative about my flying ability. Last Tuesday my two week wait was over but as I drove down to Blackbushe for my 9:00am lesson, low cloud was arriving from the south-west. Farnborough were reporting that the cloud was as 1200 ft but the Blackbushe tower were saying 800 ft. Who was right ? We decided to give it a try as circuits were what I needed to iron out the landing problem. I checked over G-BMTB and later we took off on runway 25. My instructor had said that if the cloud was low then we would do one bad weather circuit at 500ft and land. As I climbed away from the runway by the time I got to 500 ft we were almost in the cloud and on the crosswind leg we found that the cloudbase was 650 ft. So I descended below the cloud and did just the one circuit and kept the runway in sight with difficulty. Because the circuit was tight, I needed full flap for landing and the landing was very gentle. This raised my confidence immediately, but of course we had to taxi back and that was the end of my flight for that day. Maybe I had got so used to the tight circuits and full flap landings from 1000ft used at Naples, Fl that I had been struggling with the extended circuit pattern and 20 degree flap landing from 800 ft at Blackbushe. This just sounds like an excuse and as long as I concentrate on airspeed and glide slope on the approach and then moving my focus to the far end of the runway once over the numbers I should be OK. Time will tell but I feel a heck of a lot more positive about it now.
Back at the air-school classrooms we spend an hour going through in detail the radio telephony procedures as I have still to take the oral RT test. So now I have some things to study at home and feel back on track.
I have my next lesson booked for the coming Wednesday and on Thursday my wife returns from 3 weeks in Barbados.
Should be a good week.

Time to get back to studying CAP 413 and cleaning the microwave again.

Peewit

Crosswind component

My flying lesson was booked for 1:30pm today and it did take place.
On arrival at Blackbushe I had a look at the windsock and it was showing a significant crosswind from the north west on a day when I was due to practice different types of landings and takeoffs. When I checked in I was advised that I would be flying in G-BLWV but to wait as Christian as currently flying. I sat in the lounge area and watched the runway activity and the windsock. I was feeling quite nervous about the conditions.
After 15 minutes Christian was back at the club offices and I was given the keys and asked to check out Whiskey Victor.




My ferry for the day.

As I was leaning into the cockpit I could feel the cold wind blowing around my legs and hear it whistling through the partially open door. Oh well, let’s just get the external checks done. 5 minutes later I climbed into the cockpit, adjusted the seat and got strapped in. It was much warmer with the doors shut but the aircraft was shaking about in the gusting wind. I did as many of the internal checks as possible until I got to the point of starting the engine where it was sensible to wait for the instructor. Christian arrived and got strapped in. I soon got the engine started and taxi information. After taxi, power checks, etc we took off in the short field configuration on runway 25. This was with 10 degrees of flap and holding the brakes on whilst applying full power. As soon as we had three greens I released the brakes and after a short take off roll we were in the air. I was a bit surprised at how much the aircraft was getting affected by the gusting crosswind but this reduced once I took out the flap. There was only a maximum of one other aircraft in the circuit throughout the 55 minute flight so we were able to practice glide approaches, flapless landings, normal landings and a go-around. The crosswind was varying significantly and on a couple of occasions when calling final the wind was something like 350 at 17 knots. As the runway heading is approx. 250, Christian said that if I was taking the test I would need to go-around as the crosswind component exceeded the allowable maximum for the C152. I landed anyway and the wind was probably not as bad as reported. Christian did say that I should pay more attention to the reported wind and direction from the tower.
My last approach was to be a glide approach. I was put off a bit by an aircraft back taxiing down the runway just as I reduced the engine power. The aircraft turned at the runway threshold and took off, but I had extended my approach a bit and needed to apply some power to compensate and certainly did not need any flap. The resulting landing was rather poor as I flared too early. It just goes to show how one can be put off by unusual circumstances. Christian said that I should have continued on the correct glide and if I felt that there was going to be a problem with the departing aircraft to go-around.
Back at the apron we went through the list of things I had improved upon and also the inevitable list (getting shorter) of things to think about. These included thinking about the crosswind component and ensuring that I used the correct combination of aileron and rudder when landing in the crosswinds.

I had enjoyed the lesson, despite the tricky conditions and a dry mouth.

My next lesson is in a week.

Peewit

Weeding

I had three flying lessons booked this week. My Monday lesson was cancelled due to low cloud and rain. I was at work Tuesday. I did fly on Wednesday and more on this in a moment. I was due to fly today (Thursday) but ended up weeding in my garden. It was just too windy at Blackbushe today. The wind was at least warm and has moved away from the east and was from the south west. Any wind with some south in it is not great at Blackbushe because it blows over a large area of trees and causes a lot of low level crosswind turbulence.
I am trying to get my flying up to a standard to take the skills test. Despite the two cancelled lessons, yesterday was a very good day. My lesson was booked for 1:30 and I was expecting to practice all the various types of take offs and landings.

Blackbushe Aviation from the car park.

On arrival at Blackbushe Christian was still flying so I checked out my C152 for today (G-BLRK).


Photo taken from the aircraft apron.
After I had checked the aircraft and Christian was back at the school two things had happened. One was that the wind had moved considerably to the south and the other was that the aircraft that my instructor was due to fly after my lesson had a technical failure. So Christian asked me if I wanted to do a practice skills test and have a double slot. Yes, I did want to do this and so went to retrieve my flight bag from the aircraft so that I could do the navigation planning. I planned the visual navigation from Blackbushe to Buckingham after which there would be a diversion to somewhere ?. The winds aloft figures had changed from their earlier numbers and I used the new figures to calculate a heading and speed. My estimated groundspeed was 116 knots and it would only take 21 minutes to fly from just north of the field to Buckingham on a heading of 349. Soon after 3pm I started up the aircraft and soon we took off on runway 25. I turned to the north and gained altitude. As I levelled out to lookout for other aircraft in the vicinity I could see that although the sky was mainly grey and cloudy, there were a few breaks in the cloud. At my planned altitude of 2300 that was at the minimum safe altitude for the route but below the cloud and London TMA airspace, I set off on my planned heading. It just so happened that the one break in cloud ahead was causing sunshine to fall on a tower in the distance. This was my second visual reference point some 20 miles away. It is the Stokenchurch communications tower alongside the M40. It was almost as if someone up there was picking it out for me to guide me on my way. I could tell that my planned heading was correct and I could concentrate on other matters for a while such as changing to Benson Radar on the radio and carrying out FREDA checks, etc. I flew over the tower and found that my Walmart stopwatch had not been running and was unable to check my timing. This was the not the first time I had had a problem with this stopwatch so I made a mental note to buy a clockwork one that I could fit onto my kneeboard. I would hate to fail a skills test just because a watch was not working. I did not properly identify my next planned checkpoint, but a couple of adjacent lakes a few miles further on showed that I was on track. So, I was soon overhead Buckingham with no problem. As I had approached Buckingham, Christian told me that my diversion was to Goring (on Thames) and he showed me where it was on the chart. I suppose I should have worked out my planned heading before I got to Buckingham but in fact waited until I turned overhead as I knew the approx heading. I stated my planned heading of 200 and ETA for Goring. As I was flying on my heading I could see the two lakes again and convinced myself that I was not on the right track and altered my heading and reported this to Christian. He had to tell me that I was approaching a MATZ (I should have realised this myself) and to request a MATZ penetration. I did this and it was authorised. I was struggling to read the chart with my bifocals in the area that was shaded blue for the MATZ zone and Christian commented that I was spending too much time with my head down looking at the chart and not enough flying the aircraft straight and level. I could tell that the new heading was not working out and so I adjusted it back to my original 200 and Christian commented that he could not see why I had altered it in the first place. Subsequently I could work out where we were and got to Goring without too much difficulty and a only just after my ETA. Then we did some manoeuvres and once again some went well and others not quite so good. I was still making mistakes but Christian said they were not major. Next I needed to find Blackbushe and within a couple of minutes I had worked out where it was. I made another mistake on the joining and Christian had to prompt me to sort it out. We did a few touch and go’s but the crosswind was quite difficult and on one approach for a flapless landing, there was some windshear and the aircraft just dropped fifty feet and we both came out of our seats and Christian reported to the tower that his head had come into contact with the cockpit roof. The last landing was a glide approach and I landed it a bit hard and at an angle. I was mentally fatigued and we called it a day. Back at the apron Christian went through the good and bad. I had made big improvements in the areas where I had difficulty on the last flight but this was offset by some new mistakes such as failing to recognise that I was soon to make my first ever MATZ penetration. So I have a list of things to sort out and the plan was to return to Blackbushe on Thursday to get into the circuit and fine turn the take offs and landings.



I took a photo of the Blackbushe tower just before driving home.

As mentioned above, I ended up weeding today instead of flying. Tomorrow I have to drive to Boston in Lincs and back. That is 6 hours of driving. I can’t help but think that it would still be much quicker to go in a slow old C152.

Next lesson is booked for Monday 3rd April.

Peewit

Back in the air

Being back in the UK has made me realise how much I miss the Florida weather. I walk my dog every morning and I have suffered from that relentless bitingly cold east wind and the constant near zero temperatures. Almost as soon as I got back to the UK, I rang the school at Blackbushe to arrange to take some more lessons so that I could get up to the required standard to take my ‘Skills Test’ as this is the last hurdle to gaining a PPL. Getting available training slots is difficult as my chosen instructor is in demand.
However, at last the diary dates came around and on Monday I was at Blackbushe checking out G-BLWV in a howling cold wind. It was such a different experience to being on the ramp at sunrise on a warm day in Naples. There is a new regime at Blackbushe Aviation so that when using one of their aircraft you exchange your car keys for the aircraft keys and a netting bag containing a checklist, fuel tester, hi-vis waistcoat, and a headset. I guess the headset could be useful for a passenger. The fuel-tester is also useful if the aircraft has been refuelled. When I was at Naples Air Centre you always tested the fuel using a GATS jar before every flight. The idea is to collect the tested fuel in this jar and then pour it back into the tank (through the gauze filter). Dumping the fuel on the ramp was not allowed. Having said that, one of the fuellers used to fill the tanks until the fuel was running down the wings and there was no way you could empty the fuel into the tank.
Having carried out the external checks on WV, I did some of the internal checks before taxiing over to the fuel bay to top up the tanks. My instructor Christian came over to the aircraft as it was being filled. We then moved away from the pumps, completed the checks and took off on runway 07 that was almost straight into that wind. We departed the area to go through the various manoeuvres that are checked on the skills test. There was cloud at 2400 feet but this was just enough to allow the planned manoeuvres to proceed. In general I was OK but there were some areas where improvement is needed. My radio procedures were poor as I did not really know what I should be saying. My landing approach back at Blackbushe was not great either because my airspeed was rather low on a few occasions. It just goes to show how rusty I got in just over two weeks. So my homework was to read CAP413 (the 110 page document on radio procedures), get used to the UK charts, plan a visual nav. route and log from Blackbushe to overhead Marlborough, think about how I would handle the promised diversion, get my head back around the correct speeds for various flap settings on approach, etc. This first flight back in home territory was a bit of a wake up call to get re-focused on flying and my next lesson was planned for Wednesday the 22nd.
The main differences that I noticed between Florida flying and UK flying are :-

Warm and sunny in Fl, and cold and windy in UK

Florida is flat and the altimeter is set for xx.xx inches of mercury at sea level. There is no QFE or QNH. The highest place that I flew to was Punta Gorda that has an elevation of 25 ft above sea level whereas Naples is 8 ft.

The look of the charts is very different and a lot of detail is different such as they show the morse code ID on the VOR’s on a US chart.

The radio procedures and terminology are significantly different.

The US have a lot of local weather radio stations for getting the weather in the area you are flying, whereas in the UK this is limited.

The Florida terrain can be difficult for visual navigation (especially over the Everglades) whereas it is easier to pick up significant features in the UK.

The aircraft registrations are different. Most of the fleet at NAC had registrations in the format N***AC (where *** is a three digit number and the NAC is rather like Naples Air Center). So when flying amongst many other NAC aircraft, you got used to ignoring the AC part of radio calls and tuned one’s ear to pick up on the numeric part. Now back in the UK the abbreviated call sign uses Golf and the last two letters of the registration. So now I need to retune my ears and brain to pay special attention to the last letters that I was previously partially ignoring.

Having done my homework and regained my focus, I set off for my 1:30pm lesson at Blackbushe. Christian checked over my chart and log and was happy with them. Today was reasonably sunny for the first time in ages and so the cold east wind was slightly offset by some sunshine as I checked over G-CCHT. This is a C152 that I had not flown before. It also needed the fuel tanks topping up. After I had got the engine started, I could not get the brakes to release. After many attempts to free them I gave up, shut the engine down and went back to the school offices. Christian came out and found that one wheel had the brakes locked. Rocking the aircraft backwards and forwards whilst I sat in the cockpit and applied and released the brakes did the trick. I got everything re-started and taxied to the fuel pumps. Whilst the aircraft was being refuelled I was able to take my chart and log from the cockpit and put the last bit of input in which was the compass deviation for that aircraft.
We took off on runway 07 that was again almost straight into the east wind and I turned in the right hand circuit direction to start my nav exercise from overhead the airfield. I actually kept turning and went past my planned heading of 285 before realising and getting back on the correct heading. The visual navigation went well and my radio procedures were much better. Soon after I took off Christian did say that I should be talking to Farnborough Radar so I did this and missed my first visual checkpoint in the process. The rest went to plan and with the tailwind we reach Marlborough in under 20 minutes. Overhead Marlborough, Christian asked me to divert to Henley on Thames and I struggled to find this on the chart. This was my first ever diversion and I did make some mistakes. Firstly my maths let me down and I worked out the heading wrongly although I realised this within minutes and recovered from my mistake. I did start to use a VOR and did not identify it plus did not really use it at all having messed up my original heading. I did not hear some of the radio calls intended for me. As I approached Henley on Thames, Christian had to tell me to descend because the chart detailed some height restrictions as we neared Heathrow. So quite a catalogue of errors but hopefully I shall not repeat them. Once near Henley I was asked to route for Blackbushe and this time I was at 90 degrees to the wind and Christian asked me what my maximum track error due to wind could be. I did not know but do now. Typically the max error in degrees is 60% of the wind speed in knots. I soon had visual contact with Blackbushe and requested a frequency change. Blackbushe information virtually gave me straight in clearance and soon we were back on the ground after I flared a bit too early this time. I was amazed that we had been to Marlborough and Henley on Thames and back in just about and hour. It would have taken 3 or 4 times as long in a car.
At the end of the lesson Christian reported on the areas where I had improved and also the new mistakes. Overall I did feel a big benefit from this flight and flying over UK airspace seemed less daunting. I just need to learn from my mistakes.
I will be doing more diversion work in my next lessons that are after the weekend.

I have no pictures in this post. Next time I hope to include a few if the weather allows.

I’m glad to be flying again.

Peewit

ppl Postscript

I have recently returned from spending three and a half weeks at Naples Air Center in Naples Florida.
My blog has charted my time with them in Florida.
For those that have already been to NAC it should help with your memories of the place. For those considering going then you will know much more about the place than I did when I arrived. If I had to do it all over again, I would and not change a thing. It was a great experience in an excellent climate and location.
Nothing is guaranteed in life (except that it will end eventually) and as long as you accept this then you should have a similarly good experience.

I flew on 19 days and during those days added 43.2 hours to my logbook. Of those hours 14.1 were solo.

Since my return to the UK and the reality of the weather that is either cold and windy, or wet and windy, I have been in touch with Blackbushe Aviation and booked up some lessons. They are a couple of weeks away and of course subject to the British weather.

Yesterday I decided to fell a tree in my garden. This proved to be the most dangerous thing I have done this year. It was rather awkward to get at the trunk and I was up a ladder. I am afraid of heights. As I cut through the trunk I left a bit intact so I could go and get a wedge and hammer to make it fall in the desired direction. As I stepped off the ladder I heard a splitting sound and ran as fast as I could. I felt the branches of the falling tree brush through my hair. Looking back the tree had fallen into the space I had just been occupying. Phewww that was close.

The good news is that my dog Angus has decided to take up flying. Here he is in his headset.



This is him on his first flight round Bisley Green.


I have noticed that his R/T is not very good as it consists mainly of woofs and the occasional growl when he sees that darn Jack Russell. Luckily I am confining him to Bisley Green Dog airspace and as this is from surface to 50 ft you are unlikely to come across him.

I returned to work today and that really was a reality check. It has been raining hard all day.

This is my last post for a while, but will be back when I have more to tell re my PPL training.

Peewit

Stop press

ALDERSHOT 1-4 ACCRINGTON
Griffiths 71
Accrington scorers - Craney 48, Roberts 61, 79, Mangan 67

Accystan march on.

That is now 10 wins in a row and 18 games undefeated.
I don't think I will bother applying for HoT.

Peewit

Normal service resumed

Events of 3rd March 2006

Having made a




of my skills test yesterday my spirits were at a low ebb. Little did I know as I was packing my cases early on Friday morning that my enthusiasm and mood would soon be fully restored to their former high.
I did feel a bit queasy after rather too much alcohol the night before, but I had not been ill as I seemed to have developed an iron constitution over the last 3 weeks. I’m sure that the Big Az Bubba Twins Chili Cheese Dogs mentioned in an earlier post were part of this process. So a couple anti-acid tablets and loads of water seemed to settle things down. Having got the bags more or less sorted I went out to the back of the hotel to cycle to NAC for the last time. I really had enjoyed the cycling in Naples and as I subsequently found out I lost 7 pounds in weight as well as getting some muscle tone and improving my cv system. So I was in reflective mood on this last ride to the airschool. On arrival I saw Richard, Nikki and some of my fellow students. It is easy to make friends in this learning environment and so I was sad to be going. I checked in my bike with Richard and then he asked me if I had my headset with me. I didn’t. A spare was located and I was soon checking over a C172 for a consolation flight with Richard. Bending over to take the fuel samples from under the nose area of N953AC soon reminded me that I was not in the best of health. After Richard had doubled checked everything he invited me to take the left hand seat and said where would I like to fly to. I thought that Marco Island and Cape Romano sounded good so a few minutes later I taxied out to runway 23 and took off. I flew south along the coastline. The interior of the C172R is a big improvement over the 152. It is roomy, comfortable and there is no carb heat to worry about. Being a heavier aircraft it also seemed more stable in the air although it was a lovely calm clear day. At Marco Island I descended to 500ft and Richard took control so I could get some photos of the area. This is a selection :-

Cape Romano

The sky wars house on Cape Romano. It is sinking in the sand.
Did you know that the tidal range here is only a couple of feet. When I go to the Channel Islands in the summer, the tidal range is a massive 30 feet +. On some beaches the tide comes in at running pace.

Marco Island in the distance.

The start of “The Thousand Islands”

Me at the controls of the C172

Lots of new property being built in Naples. Apparently it has the highest number of golf courses per head of population of any-where in the world. Must be 10 golf courses per head by my estimation ? They make good emergency landing sites apparently.

This is Wing South very close to Naples. Here you can buy a property and have your own hanger and airstrip in the back yard.

Richard was making a short approach back onto 23.

Taxiing back to the NAC ramp
Thanks so much Richard and Nikki, I am now determined to complete my PPL training and looking forward to getting in the air again.
I asked about my account and this was printed off and some money refunded to my credit card. It really was time to say goodbye now and then Richard gave me a lift back to my hotel in his fifteen year old, but really nice BMW M5. A final farewell and when Richard had driven off I decided to call home.
If you recall I was visiting Dale last night and what I did not say was that he was going to drive me to Miami Airport (a 4 hour round trip for him). Why ? Because he liked my blog and my apparently unusual enthusiasm for flying at my age (61 this month). I was so grateful for this and it removed the possibility of me getting lost in Miami again.
I got my bags and checked out. In my view the Wellesley Inn had served my purpose very well. I sat on one of the benches at the front of the hotel. Feeling a bit hungry I used up some of my US coinage in the vending machines giving me one more opportunity to sample the weird selection of items contained within. I also got some bottled water to aid my re-hydration process.
I took a photo from the bench.

I tucked into my calorific snacks and the water and gave Dale a call. He said he would be round at midday as promised.
Once I had consumed my lunch and my stomach was obviously undecided on how to deal with it, a couple of “cool dudes” came out of the hotel. They were only in their late teens and were wearing incredibly baggy trousers. One had his bottom jaw entirely replaced with metal. It really did look like ‘Jaws’ in the Bond movie. To complete the picture he had a python around his neck. He started talking to me. Their speech implied that they were under the influence of something. I did feel a bit nervous but did not show it. In fact they had just been thrown out of the Wellesley for having a snake in the hotel and they were a bit upset. I have to say that they were very polite to me and asked if I wanted to touch the snake. I didn’t really as I did not want to build any further relationship with these two. The holiday rep. in Marjorca would have described them as ‘Colourful characters’. I did ask if I could take a picture and Jaws handed the snake to his friend. For some reason he did not want his picture taken and I did not enquire why. Here is his friend + 5 year old Burmese python. Jaws also had the pythons mother and she was 12 feet long but not visiting Naples today.

As the colourful characters walked off to a neighbouring hotel where their snake policy was less strict, Dale arrived. We got the bags loaded and were on our way. Dale said that we would take the Tamiami trail as this was likely to be less busy. This road is long and straight and goes right through the Everglades. It differs from the Interstate 75 in that it is not dual carriageway and it does not have wire fences to keep the alligators away. I found the drive much more enjoyable and the scenery and amount of variation of wildlife almost overwhelming. Photos do not do it justice.

There were many different types of birds in the trees at the side of the canal that accompanied the tarmac.

This is Dale at the wheel.

This is the smallest post office in the USA

and this is the sign describing it.
We passed through an Indian reservation and villages. The strange thing is that at the Miami end of the reservation there is a huge casino complex that is owned by the Indians.
I also saw a lot of places doing those airboat tours into the Everglades.
Eventually we left the countryside and arrived at the Miami outskirts. There was some traffic but apparently it would really build up later. At 2:15 pm we pulled up outside the airport terminal and by the entrance to where the BA desks are. The bags were unloaded and I said bye to Dale. I did press him to take the money that I would have spent on a hire car. Dale, many, many thanks and I hope the trip back to Naples was untroubled.

My flight home was on schedule and every seat on the 747-400 was taken in cattle class. I left Miami with the temperature in the high 20’s at 17:15 and arrived at Heathrow at 06:02 where the temperature was –5 on a sunny day.
My wife met me at T3 and after the 30 minute drive I was soon home and back to reality.

See my postscript in my next post.

I want to thank everyone who has helped to make my Naples adventure so enjoyable and unforgettable. I feel more confident in myself, and given the opportunity to return to Naples and my friends at NAC, I would not hesitate to go.

Peewit

Skills test

Events on 2nd March

Up early and another of those pleasant cycling at sunrise journeys via Brookside Drive and Estey Avenue. These surburban roads are quiet and the only obstacles on the path are the occasional wheelie bin that has been put right in the way. The school buses are always active at this time of day so I guess the schools start early over here. I arrive at NAC by 7am and go and check the weather so that I can complete my planning for my route from Sebastion KX26 to Indiantown KX58 to River Ranch K2RR. For the last few days the skills tests have been conducted from Sebastion as the resident examiner has been missing. As he was not available, alternatives were put in place to fill the gap. The only affect as far as I was concerned was the rather long trip of 120 nm to get to the start airfield. One of the instructors named Brett (a very pleasant American) was to fly me over there and back. I got the winds aloft and they were 210/05 and I completed my planning. I knew these winds aloft figures could change and so I intended to check them again at Sebastion. I also did a weight and balance form for N946AC. Once all the paperwork had been checked over, I did the pre-flight check on the aircraft.

A nice day for flying.
Soon after 9am we took off for Sebastion and I took some photos along the way.

Departing the Naples area.

The La Belle VOR. Brett used VOR’s as his prime means of navigating and we both used visual reference points to check our progress.

Approaching Sebastion

Brett refuelling the aircraft at Sebastion.
I met the examiner Ray Williams and he checked over my paperwork, medical and ID. He then went through the procedure that he would use on the test. He gave me his weight and I had to re-do the weight and balance paperwork. We were only just within the allowable envelope. A few more pounds and we would have been taking fuel back out. Luckily I must have lost 7 pounds in weight after 3 weeks of cycling. It was now midday and we were to meet at the aircraft at 12:30. I just had time to have a bite to eat and drink and mull over what he had told me. I thought I had better go and pre-flight check the aircraft. Just as I finished this, Ray arrived. Damn I didn’t recheck the winds. Ray strapped in and the C152 cockpit was well and truly filled. He was double the weight of my instructor so I do not know how this will affect aircraft performance. I do the internal checks and passenger brief and soon we take off on runway 26. Climb performance is poor and I need to contact the Vero Beach tower whilst still climbing to 3500ft on my planned 177 heading. The route skirts the Vero Beach airspace and they do not ask me to alter my route. I find it difficult to spot my visual check points and it soon becomes clear that the winds are not as planned and I am drifting significantly port of the intended track. I decide to alter my heading from 177 to 190 and report this to Ray and provide a new ETA as requested. Even with this corrected heading I was struggling to pick exactly where I was. I felt that I was close to Indiantown and called on the unicom frequency and started descending. Indiantown is a grass strip and there was no radio activity. I was still left of track and as soon as I saw a canal I knew to fly no further and turn to the west. I soon spotted Indiantown and continued my descent. I had made two mistakes by now. One was not making a sufficient course correction and secondly I assumed that I need to descend to the circuit height of 1000ft. In fact Ray said that as I had said that the next leg was to be at 2500ft, I should have not gone lower than that. I do not think that he was too happy about the fact that there are some tall masts (1549ft) left of track and of course I was left of track and descending. My next leg started at the nearby power station overhead the stack. He advised me to stay south of the stack to avoid the turbulence it produces. I picked up on my course and the visual references were easier to spot and so this leg was going well. As per normal we started on the manoeuvres. My rate 1 turn was good. I struggled with the steep turns and in the left direction had to try really hard to get the required 45 degree bank. In the process of trying to achieve that angle I lost some height and I knew that was bad. My right steep turn was only a bit better. I cannot remember exactly what we did next but the slow flight was bad as I had been practising it at 55 kts and Ray wanted 75 kts and it took too long to get stabilised. We did a practice forced landing and it went really well and the following simulated engine failure on takeoff also went well. The way in which we commenced the stalls threw me. He asked me to fly at Vs0 +10 and I completely forgot the HASELL checks. Ray was exhibiting a fidgety body language and I could tell it was going pear shaped. A little while later the test was terminated. I was feeling really disheartened and then somehow just weary. I flew the aircraft back to Sebastion. Ray went through my mistakes. It was nobody’s fault but mine, and Nikki always said that I rationalise things, so here it comes. Maybe I was not quite ready for the test and perhaps my stamina after 3.5 weeks of intense learning activity is not what it is for the youngsters. In hindsight, I could have done with 4 weeks here but like others we all have family and work commitments back home. I knew quite a few students that had not allowed long enough for the training and left without even taking the skills test. At least I got a chance at it and I will learn from the experience.
After the de-brief I met up with a sympathetic Brett who had refuelled the aircraft again. I paid for the fuel and we set off back to Naples. The wind was definitely a headwind on the way back and the journey took 2 hours. The visual navigation was difficult as we were flying into the sun and there was a lot of haze. Even though Brett was flying I found the trip difficult. At that moment I felt that this flying was all too complicated for me. Back at Naples I had a sympathetic reception from those still there as it was getting late in the day. I went through the test in detail with Nikki and she did her best to cheer me up. After sorting out the paperwork I left for the hotel knowing that I would be back in the morning to return my bike and say my goodbyes.
At the hotel I had a shower and got changed as I was meeting up with Dale (known to some as DownIn3Greens), his wife Ilsa (originally from Latvia) and Eugene (a fellow student, also from Latvia). At Dale’s house, I met a friend of his called Rob and he had a Harley Davidson.

Rob is a fireman for Miami-Dade county and the Harley is a special 911 edition only made available to firemen.
We drank quite a lot of beer whilst waiting for a lost taxi driver to arrive with Eugene. Then we sat by the pool and all had more beer, nibbles, etc whilst talking over many subjects such as air passenger transport, Florida, Latvia, shared acquaintances, etc. It was very relaxing and enjoyable after a disappointing day for me. Dale offered me some wine and then came up with an enormous glass of a soft fruity Merlot. I did not drink all of it. Later a taxi was organised to take Eugene and myself back to our homes in Naples. It had been a good evening but I was aware that I was not in the best state to be flying home the next day.

I slept well though.

Peewit

Come back and read my next post if you want to hear about my pleasure flight in a C172, an unexpected encounter with a python, the Tamiamia trail, the smallest government building in the USA and my flight home.