WEEK 56: NO MORE SIMS #43

Airline prep

I had my final two sims in New Zealand this week - DME arcs and an En-route to Aukland and back. I also had the actual DME arcs and NDB approaches flight which was so much fun. I still get so excited when I'm about to go flying, especially in the twin star.

Excellent camera work from DJ

Early in the week the CP had to take a paper test, I think to get us a 'class rating'. It asked some specific questions about the DA42, such as, "The Vref with LDG flaps selected is:" and "The maximum permitted load in the nose baggage compartment is:". It also asked questions about twin aircraft in general, like, "After engine shut down, the aeroplane is trimmed to continue flight with wings level and balance ball/bar central:". The test was forty questions, all multiple choice and we had an hour to do it. It was a pretty easy test and I think everyone passed first time with a class average of well over 90%. One more box ticked.

The DME arcs sim was fairly standard, it just involves flying an arc around the airfield at a specified distance (12 nautical miles at Hamilton) until you reach the inbound track and then you are lined up for finals. You can join it from any angle and from the inside or outside. The technique is pretty easy to get the hang of and because it's quite far out things happen relatively slowly so you have time to think about what you're doing. Once you're established inbound it's a normal NDB or VOR approach (keeping the needles aligned and following the profile down to the runway).

The big circle around the edge is the 12 DME arc. 

The lesson in the air was almost exactly the same as the sim, only a bit more relaxed because rather than being dragged and dropped somewhere each time you have to do a missed approach then intercept from the inside and follow it all the way round. There was time for two approaches and the landing so three arcs in total. I think it went well although I forgot to call 'final fix' on the inbound which hopefully isn't too important but it's definitely a habit I don't want to get into and I struggled with the read back on the radio, it went something like - "Charlie Tango Hotel, passing 3000 feet cancel the SID and turn right on track to intercept the 090 radial to join the NDB DME 18 left 12 arc, maintain 5000 feet." I was just like, "errrr Mitch, you've got this one." I wasn't expecting a call that long and although I listened I found it so difficult to remember it all whilst trying to fly the plane properly as well! Something I do need some more work on is a technique called point to point. It's where you calculate an angle to fly to intercept a given track at a certain distance. I hadn't done these for a while until this lesson so it was a bit rusty so say the least.

A foggy start to the day

The final sim was an en-route flight to Aukland and back which I had to plan properly using some made up weather conditions and the actual airways etc. It was good practice and I seemed to be on top of things, keeping my fuel log up to date, doing my checks at the right time, planning ahead for the next stage and keeping a track of the time to make sure my ETA's were accurate.

I did the ILS approach into Aukland then had to do a missed approach due to the visibility being too low. Whilst on the missed approach I had an engine failure to cope with which by this point is more of a routine than a surprise. I then flew back to Hamilton via the route I had planned, just on one engine, joined the arc and did the NDB DME approach. It was going well but then when I went to put the gear down I didn't get three greens which meant it hadn't locked properly so I had to get my emergency check list out and carry out the procedure for the scenario. It's basically just pulling a lever which manually drops the gear. I didn't get too far off profile during this time which was good and I made reasonable landing considering it was asymmetric with a 20 kt cross wind (which I had requested).

Pancake day in Ashurst and Hamilton. Where did that year go!?

I had the weekend off so I was picked to play for the mighty Melville on Saturday. We had a lot of regular prems players missing so I was asked to open the batting and the bowling. I'm glad to say we won quite comfortably and I scored 62, got an important wicket, a run out and a catch so all round a good day. Although, after England's embarrassing defeat to New Zealand the previous day you can imagine the amount of abuse I copped... (mostly from my own team!)
Myself and a few others went out for a meal and a movie that night in Hamilton which was nice.

Sunday was a relaxed day with a lie in, some washing and more CPL revision with the cricket on in the background.

WEEK 55: BACK IN THE SIM #42

Airline Prep

I've had a very productive week. I back seated DJ's second asymmetric flight early in the week which was good fun and quite beneficial. It's good sitting in the back and observing when the pressure's not on, it allows you to focus on or pick up certain things that might not necessarily be so clear whilst you're doing the flying.

The back of the twinstar

Good shot of the twinstar cockpit

I then had my third asymmetric lesson which is just asymmetric circuits for an hour. This was one of the hardest lessons I've had so far. There was a 12 kt crosswind gusting up to 20 kts to start with then I had the instructor failing engines on me after every take off, where I would have to go through the memory checks that I mentioned in my last post (this time learnt well). Once the aircraft was under control I'd turn downwind and complete the circuit. Once the aircraft is trimmed out and the checks have been completed it's really not too bad flying on one engine. What really disappointed me about the lesson was my landings, they were pretty shocking apart from the last one. My cross wind technique definitely needs some work. Other than that though although the lesson was pretty hard work I thought I managed it okay. Everyone else on my course have said that is one of the hardest lessons they've done too so I'm not alone on that one.

                                               
                                                        an example of a left engine failure

On the same day we had our penultimate mass brief which covered the final instrument techniques for us to learn - NDB's, ILS and DME arcs. It was then into the sim the next day to put these into practice.

Excellent photography from DJ ( whattheflight on instagram) during my asymmetric circuits

There are another six sims to get through before going back in the air. I managed to do four this week which is a miracle considering it took over a month to do the last block of sims! So far I've done NDB tracking and holding, NDB holding and approaches, ILS approaches (into Aukland) and asymmetric flight in IMC conditions.

All of these were intense and draining, each about an hour and a half. With the sim you don't get any down time to recover really it's just one thing after the next. You need a great deal of concentration. I found the NDB stuff ok generally. It's very similar to the VOR but when you're turning you just need to account for the dip which can be a pain when you're trying to intercept precise tracks in the hold and on the approach.

At the end of one of my NDB lessons my instructor thought it would be funny to give me a double engine and electrical failure whilst I was on the missed approach which meant I had to try and glide it back in which to my surprise I actually did. To be honest it was probably one of my better landings in a twin which is slightly embarrassing but it was fun. I wouldn't want a situation like that in real life though, much better to happen in the sim I reckon!

Aukland ILS plate for 23L

Hamilton NDB DME plate for 18L

The ILS was good fun. It wasn't as easy as I was expecting though, I assumed that simply following the horizontal and vertical commands would make it a lot easier but it's very sensitive and it's important not to chase the instruments. Anticipating and making small corrections is vital! I think I got the hang of the ILS quite quickly but as always in the sim it took a lot of concentration. It reminded me of the initial aptitude tests I did for my selection by controlling the moving bars with the joystick whilst focusing on shapes and numbers etc. I can see why that test is relevant now.

Finally, asymmetric flying off the instruments was again a challenge but very good practice. My memory checks were so much better than my first asymmetric lesson and I managed to fly pretty accurately on the instrument departures and arrivals. It's very important to keep your scan up because not only do you need to control, identify and deal with the problem, you also need to fly the specific instrument tracks as accurately as possible and if you fixate for too long on one particular thing then you can almost guarantee that something else has broken down and gone horribly wrong.

I've been spending a fair amount of time with a few course mates going over twinstar and CPL theory. It's a lot more interesting and helpful working with other people I find. You bounce ideas off each other and things just seem to make more sense when you're discussing them rather than just reading it out of a manual. There's quite a lot of electrical knowledge in there and it's reminded me of how much I hate electrics. It would be so much simpler to agree that it's all just magic and move on with life.

I have just two more sims left and then I'm back in the twinstar. Only twelve or thirteen flights left until my CPL now! 

WEEK 54: ASYMMETRIC FLYING #41

Airline Prep

I only flew twice this week but it was still great fun. It was my first taste of asymmetric flying (flying a twin with one engine). We went out of the Hamilton control zone to the areas where I'd spent many hours during the single engine phase practising turns, stalls, PFL's etc.

The first lesson was basically seeing the effects of an engine failure and seeing what happens if it's not controlled properly, as well as a few different ways of controlling it. The instructor would demonstrate a failure and recovery then I would replicate. To simulate the engine failure he would cover up the throttles so I couldn't see, then reduce one of them to idle. I would have to quickly identify which engine had 'failed' and then go about dealing with it. It's quite easy determining which engine has failed because as soon as the power's reduced the aircraft yaws massively towards the dead engine. You have to quickly counter that by applying opposite rudder and maybe a bit of aileron. Once you have the plane under control you go through a procedure to confirm which engine is dead, assess the situation and go through a shut down check. Once the instructor's happy, he puts the power back up and we go back to flying normally.

Mitch talking me through asymmetric stuff

He demonstrated the different ways the plane behaves at different speeds, attitudes and configurations too. The worst scenario to have an engine failure is when you have high power and low airspeed (Take off & Go around). It's possible that with full power and full rudder you would still yaw towards the dead engine which means you're not in control of the aircraft. So you'd need to lower the nose a bit to build the airspeed up to gain more control. You may need to reduce the power too on the live engine to reduce the slip stream effect.

DJ looking back at NZHN & Clearways on take off

We did one full engine shut down and re-start in the first lesson which was really cool. When we restarted, I didn't even have to turn the ignition, it started by itself by wind-milling.

The second lesson was simulating engine failure after take off (EFATO) out in the training area. This lesson was more intense than the first because there were memory checks I had to remember as well as flying the aircraft and dealing with the engine failure. There's a specific speed you should fly when you have an engine failure (82 kts) to get the best performance from the aircraft so you need to be pretty accurate at with that. I occasionally found myself a bit slow so need to improve my speed control in that situation. I was also a little shaky with my checks, I could remember the items just not all in the right order. I was controlling the aircraft well though which was good.

EFATO CHECK: 
CONTROL, IDENTIFY, FULL POWER, GEAR UP, FLAPS UP, RE-IDENTIFY, ENGINE MASTER OFF, VYSE & TRIM, PLAN, PAN PAN/MAYDAY. 

Me landing on runway 36R (allowing for the cross wind to drift me onto centre line)

Mitch demonstrated an asymmetric landing with a 15 kt cross wind and absolutely greased it on the centre line, I was extremely impressed! When we were landing there were fire trucks lining up by the runway preparing for a twinstar behind us that actually had an engine problem. Thankfully nothing went wrong and it was just a standard landing. It was a cadet doing an asymmetric lesson (with an instructor of course) and when they went to restart the engine it wasn't giving them the power it should have been so they returned to Hamilton. That's about as exciting as it gets which goes to show how safe it is.

I had another cricket match at the end of the week for Melville. We spent 60 overs in the field and did well to bowl out the opposition for just over 200. I took a catch and 2 wickets. I then went in to bat against a very average bowling attack on a pretty nice wicket and was shortly sat back in the club house with just 2 runs after playing a pathetic shot. I was so cross with myself and it reminded me exactly why I gave up my pursuit of playing professionally. As a pilot I walk away from every day smiling and happy, whereas with cricket I seem to walk away p***ed off more often than not. A very cruel game indeed and I'm very glad I'm going to be flying for a profession.

I'm spending some time over the weekend to learn the emergency memory checks and revise some theory for CPL. I will be doing this on a sofa outside in the sun - lovely!

I have one more asymmetric lesson before going back in the sim to do some more IFR stuff. CP115 have been doing there CPL's this week which is very scary because it means we are next!!! I have just 17 more flights (including 5 sims) until my CPL test. In just 40 days I'll be leaving New Zealand as a commercial pilot. aarrrghhhh!