Week 43: PT1 #33

Airline Prep

The end of week 43 brought an end to the VFR stage of flying (almost). I am very happy to announce that I passed my PT1 first time which makes the time off I've got now feel very rewarding and well earned.

PRE-FLIGHT
You are given one hour to prepare for the flight, the examiner gives you a short nav leg to plan and then you have to do the standard mass & balance, performance, flight log, and of course print off and assess the weather, as you do on any other flight. It was pretty relaxed, you're not monitored or isolated when you do this, it's just like preparing for any other flight. I was asked a few questions on these but I knew what I was talking about with those (as I should after the amount of times I've done them) so he didn't spend long on that.

Anyway, once I had done all the paper work and planning the examiner and I went into a briefing room where he asked me a series of questions about the aircraft, a few law questions and general questions which should be common knowledge to do with the map or questions about various places that need to be looked up in one of the AIP's. As far as preparation went for this, I spent a few days looking through the aircraft manual and AIP's (big books with lots of information in such as weather met minima, aerodrome plates, daylight tables etc). It is impossible to memorise all of this so you just need to know where to look. All of this was good until we came to the technical questions. He asked me a few tricky questions which I didn't know and couldn't remember where to look in the manual. It was a little embarrassing that he had to show me where to look in the manual on two occasions, especially since I thought I was well prepared for that. But thankfully the examiner was very nice and didn't mind too much. We then had a look at the weather which we went through in a bit of detail and came to the conclusion that it was more than good enough to go flying.

We then walked out to the aircraft where he observed my pre-flight inspection whilst asking me a few more technical questions on the way round. I was better here but there were still a few things he had to tell me about which I just hadn't heard before. He was happy with the inspection though. Some examiners pretend to be a passenger that's never flown before so you have to give them a proper brief and actually treat them like a clueless passenger which can be quite awkward. Thankfully my examiner didn't do this.

DEPARTURE & NAV
I did all the start up checks, radio calls and taxiing then started with the nav leg that I'd been given. I was given quite a generous leg, I've flown it many times, there are some excellent event cycle features to use to make sure you're on track and the airfield itself is easy to find. The conditions were excellent for flying which made navigating accurately much easier than it has been over the last few weeks. About 3/4's of the way down the leg he simulated a battery failure, which meant having to use my emergency check list. This was a problem because I only then realised that I'd forgotten it! I'd brought it on every single flight up until this one, why would I forget it this time? IDIOT! There wasn't one in the aircraft either like there usually is so I was very cross with myself. The examiner, relaxed as always, just reached back and found a section in one of the manuals we carry which contains the checks for the scenario which I read and concluded that we would have to divert, whilst turning off all the lights, the fuel pump and one of the radios, so as to make the battery last a bit longer. I said in reality I would divert to Thames which was about 3 minutes ahead of us but he wanted me to divert to Matamata. So I planned the diversion and after flying the diversion leg for about 30 seconds he said he was happy and that's the end of the nav section.

GENERAL HANDLING
The next part was the general handling. I was tested on all three different stalls which were spot on apart from one, which he then demonstrated and I repeated it just how he showed me, which he was absolutely fine with. I just didn't pull the nose up after the recovery quick enough first time. He then asked me to do a few steep turns which I did nicely. He was happy with all of that so then asked me to join at Matamata for a few circuits.

CIRCUITS
Being a sunny Sunday, there were a few gliders operating at Matamata which I hadn't experienced before so I was very cautious. He first asked me to do a normal landing, which I did well, then he asked for a flapless landing. Late into the downwind leg he told me to tighten up the turn a bit and when I applied a bit of power he told me off. I was a bit confused and confirmed that he wanted a flapless landing. He looked back equally confused and said he thought he'd asked for a glide.... By this point we were on a short final coming from an unusual angle. I asked if I could just continue with the flapless anyway which was fine and again a nice landing, then finally I did the glide approach and thanks to the calm conditions, did another nice landing just past my aiming point. I felt quite chuffed as that was probably the part of the test I had been most concerned about.

INSTRUMENT FLYING
The last section was half an hour of instrument flying, where he asked me to do a few turns and a bit of climbing and descending. He then covered up a few instruments and asked for a few more turns, but just using the compass which is harder than using the DI. He then took control and asked me to close my eyes and take my hands and feet off the controls whilst he manipulated the aircraft into a few unusual positions. He then said open your eyes and recover (bare in mind I'm still under the hood and can't see out). Judging by what the instruments were doing I recovered and got the plane back into straight and level flight. On one of the recoveries I rolled and pitched at the same time to recover, rather than rolling first then pitching. Nothing major but just not the precise technique that we are taught. All the others were good though.

ARRIVAL
He then asked me to take him back to Hamilton and do a flapless landing. The arrival was standard, except we had to hold short of the airport which I hadn't done before so I had to ask for a bit of help, which he didn't mind. We were then cleared to join the circuit and land. I did a very nice flapless landing and taxied us back to CTC.

Once we stopped at the fuel pumps he got out and told me straight away that I'd passed and will debrief me once I'd refuelled. YES!

DEBRIEF
The areas that needed a bit more work, or that he'd noticed a mistake were the technical knowledge mainly, but also one of the stalls and one of the unusual attitude recoveries. When we initially took off I wrote down our departure time on my knee board so I could give an ETA and log how long the flight was. He said I should have waited longer to do this and kept my hand on the throttle in case there was an engine failure. Another minor point was to just verbalise everything I was doing so that he knew my thought process. Other than that it was all good and I left the centre feeling very happy indeed.

I must say I was lucky with the weather. We really have had some poor weather recently, making flying a bit more challenging but I was lucky enough to have a beautifully still, clear day which made things so much easier. I just have 2 night flights to do now before I'm totally finished on the Katana and with VFR flying. Exciting!

WEEK 42, 43: FINAL NAVS, GH's, X COUNTRY QUALIFIER & PT1 PREPARATION #32

Airline Prep

I've been pretty busy over the last few days. Since my last update I've had 6 flights, including my last few solo navs and general handling lessons, my PT1 profile (mock) and finally, my CPL cross country qualifier.

The conditions haven't been great for flying at all this month really and I've been battling the weather. To be honest it's given me much more confidence flying in fairly average weather and I'm sure has made me a better pilot than I would be if I just flew in still, clear air the whole time. There's been lots of cloud and rain around which means having to fly lower than planned and in the process dodging around showers or in some cases flying through them. It's been quite windy which creates turbulence in certain areas, especially the lee side of hills and mountain ranges.

CTC & NZHN from the air. Courtesy of.... _ _ _aliice_ _ on instagram

One flight I had was particularly bad! There was about a half hour stretch where I was in the lee side of the Coromandel mountain range and it's the one time since I've been here where I genuinely felt uncomfortable. I was being chucked around all over the place, constantly having to level the wings, the nose and adjust the power. Maintaining an accurate heading was near impossible. I even hit my head on the ceiling once. I was so relieved to get through a gap at the top of the peninsular and onto the upwind side where it was much smoother. However on the leg back from there I had to go to about 1500 feet to avoid going into cloud as well as having to fly through a few light showers and deal with pretty poor vis. It was without a doubt the most challenging flight I've had to date but there was a great deal of satisfaction once the wheels touched the ground back at Hamilton.

Mt Ruapehu from 8000'

I had my last two general handling lessons which I was very happy with. I really used my time efficiently to get all the PT1 stuff that I could be tested on as perfect as possible. Recently my flapless landings haven't been as good as I would like so I spent most of my circuit time practising those and in my last flight I finally went away feeling I had them down. Because the Katana is a very streamline aircraft, if you don't put the flaps down to increase the drag it just floats like a glider and is difficult to slow down. If you flare slightly early then it'll balloon and float, meaning you use up a lot of runway trying to land it. This is fine on Hamilton's big runway but if you were trying to land it on something smaller then this would be a big problem. So I really tried to touch it down as close to my aiming point as possible, which I think I did quite well in the last lesson so hopefully I can repeat that on PT1.

I've had my last flight with my instructor, MJ now which is very sad. He's been absolutely brilliant to me and I'm so lucky to have had such a good instructor and such a top bloke. We've got on really well since the first flight and he's made all my dual lessons very enjoyable. Anyone who has him is very lucky indeed.

Last flight with the legend that is MJ Kim

That last flight was my PT1 profile, which is basically a mock flight of the real thing with your primary instructor. I had to give him a brief as if he was a passenger who's never flown before which was weird. Telling him not to touch any of the controls, stay well clear of propellers, don't smoke in the aircraft or on the apron etc. It felt very silly saying that stuff to a much more experience pilot than myself!

Enjoying a well trimmed Katana in perfectly still air for once

He tested me on my general handling, instrument flying, navigation and circuits. I had to divert to a small airfield I hadn't been to before, do an overhead join and a few circuits (including a glide approach and a flapless). I wasn't very happy with my circuits, even though MJ said they were fine. I just felt like they weren't very smooth and was annoyed with myself because I knew I could do so much better. That's why I was so determined to get them right in my next GH & circuits lesson. Hopefully I'll get them spot on in the test.

Mt Taranaki popping its head above the cloud

Yesterday I finally got my CPL cross country qualifier done. I flew over 300 nautical miles and landed at New Plymouth (NP), Wanganui (WU) and Hamilton (HN). The vis was pretty poor and cloud fairly low from HN to NP and from NP to WU but it was good enough. It's a pretty easy route to navigate because all you have to do is follow the coast. It was the first time I'd been to NP and WU so I'm glad they weren't very hard to find. There was about a 30 kt headwind at both airports which made my ground speed extremely slow and it felt like I was landing a helicopter rather than a plane. It just sank down beautifully and almost stopped dead! You have to stop for at least half an hour at your two stops to refuel and get some lunch. It felt so cool pulling into NP next to a couple of Air New Zealand Dash-8's and walking in and out of the terminal freely and looking like a pilot. I can't wait to be doing that as a proper commercial pilot with a few stripes on my shoulders.

Anyway, I had some lunch and refuelled at NP whilst catching up with a couple of other cadets who where doing the same route as me. I then set off for the next leg of my flight and took a slight detour to avoid the lee side of the massive Mt Taranaki (a wise move). There was a layer of cloud covering the top so I found a gap in the cloud and just got up on top of it for a bit to get a few good pics. Finding WU wasn't an issue either and again there was a very strong headwind, making landing an easy task. The three of us met up again in the terminal there for a drink and a chat before departing for the final leg.

Refuelling at New Plymouth

3 CTC planes parked up at Wanganui

This leg was awsome for me. Initially I'd planned a diversion for a lower level route due to the cloud but when I set off it looked pretty clear to where I originally planned (Taupo - AP) so I changed my course back to that. Again, easy to navigate because you just fly at the two big volcanoes sticking out of the landscape. I managed to get to 8000' going past the volcanoes and it was a superb sight! Once I got to AP I practised a diversion to Tokoroa and then to Matamata before heading for home because I had to get a certain amount of hours done in that flight. Landing at Hamilton was very difficult because it was straight into the sun and the glare from the canopy made it impossible to see anything. Thankfully I know the ground features on the approach so I was kind of looking down to assess my position but judging whether I was on profile was difficult. Luckily a cloud came along when I was at about 400 feet and I could finally see the runway perfectly. I was on profile and made a nice landing back at Hamilton. It was an immense sense of accomplishment and it's needless to say I was absolutely shattered. I arrived at the airport at 09:00 and didn't leave until 19:00. I flew for just under 4.5 hours.

Lunch in the canteen at New Plymouth

Check in desk at Wanganui

My X Country route

I now just have my PT1 and two night flights left before my VFR stage of training is complete. I've just been given 11 days off where I intend to go to Australia to visit some friends and family. I'm just about to go and book the tickets, I'm very excited! 

WEEK 40, 41: NAVS, IF & NIGHT #31

Airline Prep

The last couple of weeks have been busy and great fun. I've done a fair few flights, consisting of navs, general handling, instrument flights and my first ever night flight which was so much fun!

One of my planned navs ended up being an entire flight of diversions due to patches of low cloud so rather than turning around and going back to Hamilton, I used the time to practice mid-air diversions. At first it's quite difficult because you need to know exactly where you are, pick a suitable place to go, draw a line from where you are to that place, estimate a heading, distance and ETA and then fly it. All this while still maintaining straight and level flight at 105 kts! In some of my earlier navs my attempted diversions have been very messy and to be honest quite poor, but after this lesson I improved vastly and feel really comfortable with doing it now. Like all things, it gets better with practice.

Lake Taupo 

The general handling and circuits flights were pretty bog standard; just going out to a suitable area to practice all the manoeuvres and then into the circuit to practice normal, flapless and glide landings. When you get these lessons later on you really start focusing hard on the proper techniques and making it as perfect as possible since there is a test looming.

My instrument lessons were good too, again just practising what has been learnt so far (compass turns, climbing and descending under the hood etc). My compass turns have improved vastly and I seem to be able to fly quite accurately on instruments now. I've got out of the habit of chasing the dials which is easy to do at first but makes flying seem much harder than it really is. We also navigated to airfields I hadn't been to in those lessons and practised the overhead join procedure with a few circuits which I really enjoyed and it was good practice. IF 6 (the last IF lesson) was basically treated as a PT1 mock, so you do a bit of everything. It was a busy but very fun lesson. (PT1 is the internal CTC flight test at the end of the VFR stage).

Mt Doom

On the 7th of November I had the most amazing day! The weather was perfect and I had a late afternoon nav to Taupo where I did a touch and go. I then tracked right along the big volcanoes in the centre of the North Island, one of them a very famous one (Mt Doom from lord of the rings). The views I got were absolutely sensational! I'd been wanting to do that route for ages and I finally got the perfect weather for it.

The volcanoes

The kind of terrain you DO NOT want an engine failure over

As soon as I got back from that flight I had to plan for my first ever night flight whilst scoffing down a pot of noodles. The weather was so calm and the tower had gone off watch so you aren't being told what to do. Obviously there are a lot less flights and not very much radio contact at all. It was so peaceful and so different to what I'm used to. We flew around the area identifying various towns and landmarks to go off which looked beautiful with all the lights lit up. There were also loads of fireworks going off below us which just added to the enjoyment. We then joined the circuit and practised a few landings and take off's using the runway lights. I found it a lot easier than I was anticipating. You do seem to get massive tunnel vision when on finals at night though. I just seemed to be fixated on the lights but all my landings were pretty decent. I can't wait for my next night flight!

Flying towards Hamilton

Circling Seddon Park on match night

Taxiing outside the main terminal

Amongst all these flights I've managed to play a cricket match which went well. I made a valuable 44 runs on a wicket that seemed to have a mind of its own. We won the game too which was good! A few of us went kayaking on lake Karipiro (30 minutes from Hamilton) yesterday as well which was good fun and relaxing. I didn't get anywhere near as wet as I was expecting, I guess that shows the maturity of some of us.... or just the fear that if we got someone else wet, we would get twice as wet. I think the temptation was always there.

I haven't got many flights now until my PT1 test so I'm really trying to make the most of my lessons. I've still got to get my long cross country qualifier done. I have an awsome route planned so I just need the weather for it. With any luck I should be done with VFR flying by the end of the month and on to IFR by the beginning of December.

Myself and DJ queuing at the fuel pumps