Lesson 2 - Straight and level.

29 May 2011 

(Photo : João Alcântara )

 

Forecast was for morning fog - luckily I woke up to clear day. Today we were taking out VH-TXH a 2009 Warrior III with a "Glass cockpit" for lesson number 2 - Straight and level flight.  I'd read all the theory and were keen to get back in the air again.

Out to the plane for the pre-flight inspection.  I'd gone through this in my head a number of times over the last week and was happy when I managed to do it without missing anything.  I hopped into the plane and run thought the pre-start checks and started it up.  After-start checks are all good and it's time for the dreaded taxing.    

Last week I'd snaked all over the place but after visualizing using my feet to steer over the week, today was a lot better - I only managed a couple of major "S" turns.   Run-up/ pre take-off checks go well and after Jason deals with the radio calls we taxi and hold at taxiway alpha 35R for the line-up checks

Once cleared, the take-off seems a bit smoother.  I'm holding the centreline better and rotate just after 60kts.  We climb to 500ft, turn of to crosswind up to 1000ft, turn on to down wind and continue to climb to just under 2000ft.  While we are within the Moorabbin class D airspace (3NMiles) we have to stay below 2500ft.  Once clear f class D airspace we switch to Melbourne Radar and climb to 4000ft in the training area.

Now the fun begins.  First we start with "Normal cruise" 2500rpm, 4 fingers between the top of the dash and the horizon, 105-110knots IAS.  Jason shows my and explains PAST - Power, Attitude, Speed, Trim.  Now it's my turn 

1. Set the power to 2500rpm - This seems to take forever and requires much more throttle  movement than I thought would be required.
2. Adjust my attitude to "4 fingers".  - Now the power seems to have change ?  so fiddle with that again.
3. Check airspeed (target 105-110kts) - this is were I started to come unstuck.  I tried to adjust the attitude to get my 105 -110kts and found myself see-sawing between 90-120.  Jason helpful tells me to look outside and get the "picture" right and stop chasing the airspeed indicator.   When I do this it finally settles down to 105kts
4. Lastly trim - Trimming the aircraft seemed to take Jason about 2 seconds.  It seemed to take me 2 minutes!!  I was using small movements, Jason was using "handfuls"

Next "Slow cruise". 2000rpm, 2 fingers and 80 knots.   So once again a demo by Jason followed by me trying it.  Once again I start to chase the airspeed until I remembered to look outside and focus on the picture again.  Once again trimming takes forever.

Third is the "Fast cruise" 2600rpm 5 fingers and 120knots.  Used if we are in a hurry   Each new throttle setting and attitude picture is taking a while to get right - I can only hope this is going to get easier.

Lastly the "Precautionary Cruise" 2200rpm + 2 stages of flaps, 4 fingers (same as normal cruise) and 80kts. (same as slow cruise).  Used when following a slower plane in the circuit while maintaining better visibility.

Once I've had a go at each one, Jason gets me to transition from one to another.  By now power and attitude setting are becoming a jumbled mess in my head.  I'm also consistently trimming for a slow climb.  Coming from paragliders, where climbing was good, this wasn't bothering me but Jason tells me it's not good and I need to be able to stay with +-100ft of a given altitude in Straight and level flight.

All to soon the lesson is over again.  Back to Moorabbin, land and taxi back to MFS.  A lot to think about - PAST, and the different power and attitude setting for the 4 different S&L configurations.  But on the plus side my taxing was better than last week, I remembered all the pre-flight inspection and I was getting quicker at setting up each configuration by the end.  

All in all another fun days flying.

Piper Warrior III VH-TXH,  Flight Time 1.1hr (Total 2.1hrs)

Lesson 1 - Effects of controls.

22 May 2011 

One word - Fantastic!!
Woke up and jumped out of bed and had a quick look out the window to check the weather.  All was looking good for my first flying lesson.  I'd decided early Sunday mornings were the best time for me, so showered, dressed, grabbed breakfast and was out the door before anyone else was up. 

Photo MFS

It's only a 15 minute drive to the airport, so I was soon parked at Moorabbin Flying Services and meeting my new instructor, Jason.  After a bit of paper work we sat down for a quick briefing about the plane I'd be flying and an outline of the "effects of controls" lesson.

My first flight was to be in VH-TAE a 2004 Piper Warrior III with an analog cockpit. Jason takes me out to the aircraft and walks me through the Pre-flight checks - can see I'm going to need to study up on this over the next week.

Then it was time to hop into the aircraft.  At this point I'm still half thinking "Ok, sat back while he runs through all the checks, taxis, takes off and flies as out to the training area for my lesson" - WRONG! He hands me the checklist and gets me to start running through them,  pointing out the various instruments, switches, etc I need to be looking at. 

Time to start the plane and to taxi out to the run-up bay.  OK, who's idea was it to use your feet to steer a plane on the ground?  I'm sure the controllers sitting in the tower can easily spot the brand new pilots by the amount the planes snakes along the taxiways.  Lets just say there was plenty of room for improvement.

Run-up checks then off to holding point Alpha 35R for the Pre-takeoff checks.  All I can say is thank god for checklists.  In Paragliding there was only a few basic checks (Check your lines, glider, and harness and undamaged, your helmet, chest strap, leg straps, glider correctly attached to harness, speedbar, reserve, altimeter, and as you start to launch check the glider has come up clean and looks right), there seems to be 10 times as may for a plane.

Jason gets clearance from the tower for takeoff and we are ready to go.  I "snake" the plane out on to runway and turn for takeoff.  Full power and we start charging down the runway.  60kts Jason tells me to pull back and we are airborne.  By now my brain is going at a million miles an hour, heading, nose on the horizon, airspeed, keep the wings level...How am I suppose to do all this and all the things I can see Jason doing for me!

We turn crosswind, then on to downwind and off to the training area.  Once we are there Jason runs me through the primary and secondary effects of all the control inputs; turn the yoke left - bank left & yaw left; Left rudder - yaw left & roll left: Pull pack on the yoke - pitch up: Power on - pitch up and yaw to the left.

 After what seemed like a very few minutes we started heading back to Moorabbin to land.  Once on the ground I did some more snaking back to the school and ran through the shut down checklist.

What a day!!!  I'm buzzing with excitement and already can't wait until next week.  However there plenty for to think about before then - Pre-flight inspections, Relaxing while I'm taxiing and smoother inputs, The effects of all the controls and pre-reading for my next lesson - "Straight and Level".





Piper Warrior III VH-TAE,  Flight Time 1.0hr (Total 1.0hrs)

Getting Started

So after 12 years of paragliding why did I decide to start learning to fly a plane?

1. Kids! Paragliding is a very time intensive and very weather dependent sport.  To go flying I'd normal drive 4 hours to Bright for the weekend on the off chance it was flyable. If I did fly I'd maybe fly for an hour or two.  With 3 young kids in the back, it didn't seem worth it any more.
2. I've always wanted to fly a light plane. Ever since I was a kid of loved planes. I made model planes, I joined the Air Cadets, and went Gliding in a sailplane a couple of times and also claimed I was going to be Pilot when I grew up.
3. Moorabbin Airport is only 15 minutes for home. So for 15mins travel I could get a guaranteed hours flying vs 4 hrs travel for maybe an hour.  

So maybe it was time to start training for my PPL.

I started talking to a few people about the idea, starting with a paragliding friend who has his PPL and a share in a plane at Moorabbin.  He gave me 2 good pieces of advise

1.  go for a flight with him (I was sold on the idea after that) and 
2. book at least a lesson a week as after family and weather is taken into account you'll probably average a lesson a fortnight.  (If you book a lesson every 2 weeks and one gets cancelled then it will be a month between lessons and you'll spend the first half of the lesson remember what you did last time)

I also discovered another paragliding friend, Owen,  was also thinking I've getting his PPL.  There is nothing better than learning with like minded friends to share the experience with.

Now the only issue was picking a school and money (when isn't it).

Right from the start I was leaning towards Moorabbin Flying Services for a few reasons

1. They have newer planes.  While a bit more expensive, the idea of learning in a new plane gave me the perception of greater safety and few problems.  
2.  Owen had started his lesson and recommended his instructor. (This has turned out to be a great recommendation)
3. Another one of my paragliding friends brother is the CEO. Like to keep it in the family if I can :-)

After putting it off for another few months my wife and kids got me a voucher for my first lesson and my student license for Xmas/birthday, so no excuses. I gave MFS a call and booked in my first lesson.  Let the adventure begin.

Welcome

Ever since I was a kid I've wanted to fly!  While I managed a couple of flights in a sailplane and even a flight in a CT4 Airtrainer it wasn't until 1998 I started doing any flying on a regular basis.  While I couldn't afford GA flying at the time, I took up paragliding.   However after 12 years, over 400 logged hours and the birth of 3 kids it was time to move on to fulfill my dream of getting my Private Pilot's License.

I've decided to blog about my flying for 2 reasons 1) It helps cement what I've learnt in my 40 year old brain and 2) I feel a lot can be learnt from sharing experience.  I know I've loved reading/hearing about everyone else flying stories.

While I'm currently just finished my 8th lesson, I'm going to start this blog back at lesson one and take you on the whole journey (I may even throw it a few post about my past flying experiences.)  

So stay tuned for lesson 1 - coming soon.