July 13th 2004. Circuits practice - 1.0H - TT18.8H - The day was cold and wet so the engine started icing up as we were taxiing to the runway. Carburettor icing is weird - the revs just very gradually fall away and you have to keep adding throttle to maintain the same RPM. The run up took a while due to the need to clear the carburettor icing and clear some fouled plugs.
I should have been ready to go for my second solo today but for some reason my head wasn't in the right place. I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing consistently and making errors that I hadn't made before. The conditions weren't perfect but they weren't bad by any means. Matt couldn't let me go up alone showing the form I was showing and I totally agreed. I've slid back slightly from yesterday.
"I'm holding on too tight. I've lost the edge."
July 14th 2004 Circuits practice and second solo - 1.0H - TT19.8H - Bright and early at Bankstown again, get moving, taxi out and a warning on the radio - "report ready from the run-up bay." This indicated a delay was likely before takeoff would be approved. We sat and waited for 15 minutes in the run up bay before being approved to take off. I did ok but was conscious that time was running short. Circuit good, approach good, landing soft but a little sideways. Three touch and goes then Matt tells me to make the next one a full stop so he can get out and allow me to go for my second solo.
Alrighty. One normal landing then back up for a flapless approach. Here's where it gets interesting. I'm lined up nicely on final, good approach, a little high because there is only one aboard and the aircraft is performing better. I haven't got clearance to land yet. Now, I've been told that if I'm on final and I don't get approval to land but the runway is clear, I should probably land the thing anyway. About 100 feet off the ground I hear "Uhhh...Bankstown tower...Uhhh...Callsign...uhhh...shit I forgot what I was going to say." Halfway through this I haven't been cleared to land, I'm 50 feet off the ground and I'm not happy so my hand is moving the throttle forward to go around. As soon as the throttle is full and the nose is up I get clearance to touch and go. Too late, I call I'm going around. Problem. The guy in front of me is taking off and looks awful close. In retrospect he was actually a fair way away but at the time it looked too close for me. So I request and receive approval to make an early turn onto crosswind.
The phrase "too clever for his own good" comes to mind at this point. I'm not happy that I did the right thing. I should have slowed down, kept the guy in front in sight, let him get some distance on me and continued as normal. But no. I decide to do something I've seen and been told to do a few times but haven't been properly taught how to do.
So I'm turning onto crosswind, then onto downwind to get ahead of the guy in front. I'm too close to the runway on downwind. Tight, too tight and it looks too high as a result. That's ok, just move out and keep going. Now I compound my error by turning onto base too early. Now it gets interesting. I'm on base, too high, too fast and trying to slow down as much as I can so I'm in the right place for my final turn when I spy ahead of me and to my right another aircraft on final. This is not good, why is this guy there? Shouldn't I be first in the sequence now? Maybe I missed a radio call or misunderstood the controller. If I turn final at the right place I'm going to be right on top of this guy. Then I realise - this guy is on final for the parallel runway, runway right. I'm heading for runway left. Or I should be but because of this momentary crisis I have overshot runway left. So I crank it hard left and notice that my efforts to slow down have been a little too successful. As it turns out this is not a bad thing, as I need to lose height in a hurry, I push the nose over to pick up speed and slide nicely onto final then straighten up, full flaps and carburettor heat cold, kick the rudder to straighten the nose and plonk it down for a fairly soft but kinda wonky , one point landing.
Matt didn't seem too concerned when he got in, he just asked me how it was, and I explained briefly what happened. No harm done.
So far I've only managed to scare instructors, this time I scared myself.
July 16th 2004 - Circuits practice third solo - 1.2H TT21H - Rod congratulated me on my solo earlier on this week and we sauntered out to WSS for another session of circuits. I verified with Rod whether or not it was correct to feel nervous as hell on your first few solos and he confirmed it was entirely natural. I wanted to make sure. The three instructors I have flown with so far have all, to differing degrees, been extremely relaxed. A couple of times I had to check that Matt was still awake.
I've discovered the reason why pilots wear navy trousers - it's to cover the grease stains that I inevitably have to preen out of my chinos. Why do I spend so much time working out what I should wear to go flying? I'm not a supermodel, no one gives a monkeys if I turn up in a fairy godmother outfit as long as my money's good and my medical certificate is up to date.
A DC-3 was cranking up its massive Pratt and Whitney radials and blowing clouds and gouts of grey smoke as we taxied past. Three good circuits and three good landings and it was time for me to do it on my own. The last landing was an absolute greaser, straight down the centreline, one of my best yet.
The first circuit was pretty inauspicious - circuit too high, turned base too early, a big bounce, so a handful of throttle and round we go. Took me a couple of circuits to get used to the improved performance with a lightened load. A couple of good landings and a couple of very dodgy ones and round for a full stop this time. I could be well wrong but I think the changed weight makes the Cessna 152 a little harder to land - with one aboard it seems a but less stable, a bit more eager to balloon and bounce on landing.
For my last circuit I was following another Cessna and nicely lined up on final when I flew right through its prop wash and jumped sideways - it was beyond my skill to salvage the landing so go around it was. I thought I was close to the preceding aircraft yesterday but today I was much closer and starting to overtake. The tower was awake though and offered to pull my chestnuts out of the fire, offering me an early turn to crosswind. A quick flash of my previous solo flashed through my mind. But only for a nanosecond - this time it was definitely my best option.
"Whiskey Sierra Sierra turning crosswind now."
I was careful not to turn onto downwind or base too early this time and the circuit picture looked a lot nicer. The tower informed me that the aircraft ahead was for another runway, which I had already heard but kept him in sight regardless. I felt a lot better knowing exactly what he was up to. Turning onto final I was a bit low but added some power and held 65 knots like the needle was stuck. Good round out, good flare and a gentle touch onto the runway, held the nose up and taxied off. Not my best approach but probably my best solo landing yet.
Your last landing is the one that matters.
July 18th 2004 - Training area familiarisation - 0.9H TT21.9H - The day previous it was raining heavily and on the day it was literally blowing a gale. I half expected Rod to knock this flight on the head as the wind was 170 degrees at 35 knots - 60 degrees off runway heading, there would have been a 30 knot crosswind on runway 11. Too strong for a Cessna 152. To my mixed joy and dismay Rod suggested we use runway 18, wind only 10 degrees off to the left. After doing the pre-flight inspection I sat in the plane which rocked like it was in a rough sea - I was afraid to remove the tie downs in case it decided to fly away by itself. Off we went down runway 18 like it was an aircraft carrier and lifted off in no distance at all. The idea today was to fly around the edges of the training area to the west of Bankstown airport so that when I get approval to go there on my own I don't get lost. The wind was so strong and the buffeting so severe that it was taking all my concentration to fly the plane, which defeated the purpose of flying out here in the first place, so Rod took over the controls while I dutifully noted landmarks and compared them to the map. Looking down at the ground it looked like we were going sideways and sometimes backwards.
As we descended on the base leg for runway 18 I realised that the landing would be beyond me. I suggested Rod take over for the landing. Some might suggest I piked out - good for them. I simply recognised that the task at hand was too difficult for my limited skill and experience. If I didn't have an instructor on board there is no way I would have taken off at all and the purpose of the flight was to navigate the borders of the training area and to this end, mission accomplished. Learning your personal limits is a vital skill for an aviator - vital in the sense that your life depends on it. I reached mine.
Taxiing back was almost as interesting as flying - full rudder deflection and still going sideways, wearing a black mark across the taxiway in between the hangars where there wasn't any wind break.
That night on the news there was a report of a 172 driver who flipped upside down on take off at an unlicensed air strip due to the strong crosswind. Mind you, he was up in the mountains near Katoomba.
July 28th 2004 - Steep turns - 1.1H TT23H - A strange day. Whilst doing my pre-flight on XGB a NSW Police helicopter studded with surveillance gear passes low overhead and hovers then lands on the crazy little pallet/trailer things they use. The Police helipad is immediately behind the flight line for Basair and they are often taking off or landing when I'm there. This one gave me a good view of the downwash created by their rotors, dust swirling out a good distance around the helicopter. Further over there's a turbine whine and the sweet waft of kerosene as an ex-Horizon HS748 spools up and makes a hell of a racket. While I walked round and inspected the Cessna I could see Rod out of the corner of my eye with a wistful look on his face. Clearly he fancies himself behind the controls of some heavy metal. He tells me he's just going to sit quietly while I taxi us out and depart to the training area. I can't even get out of sight of the tie down before I have to ask him a question. The HS748 has taxied over to the apron and is doing a full engine run up.
If you were confronted with this monster running its engines near full power and straining at the brakes would you be keen to pass behind it? We did and skidded across the tarmac in its wake, controls hard over to stop it from flipping us over. Off we went to the training area, feeling rusty but the skills still there for the most part.
Steep turns, 45 degrees and 60 degrees. These are great fun but I wasn't prepared for the load factor or G-forces involved. In a 60 degree turn you will experience 2.0 G or twice the force of gravity. Now, I always figured I'd make a pretty hot fighter pilot, I've scored a few kills on Combat Flight Simulator, I can't count the number of times I've seen Top Gun but I wasn't quite prepared for the sensation of weighing twice as much as normal. My head pressed down on my spinal column, it got harder to breathe as my chest tightened, it was harder to hold my arms up, my guts sagged and tried to force their way out my...you get the idea. This was only 2 G! The sensation was so new, strange and unique to me that I found it difficult to concentrate on the task at hand, i.e. flying the aircraft in a tight circle. My 60 degree left turn was acceptable, exiting the turn with a jolt as we passed through the prop wash we had created when we entered the turn, but I kept losing too much height in the right hand turns. This is something I will enjoy practicing.
Back to Bankstown where the regular circuit runway is closed because someone has busted their nose gear. There are three runways so we can still land, but we both felt sorry for the poor bugger who bent a very expensive twin engine beech duchess while learning touch and goes. I've followed this guy around the circuit myself. In this situation it seems most pilots have a saying - there but for the grace of God...
July 29th 2004 0.5H TT23.5H - 4th solo circuits - Ahem...I have to set the scene first.
"Did you hear about <name deleted>?"
"No, what?"
"He's flying too. In fact he won a year's free flying lessons from Basair for being their top student."
"You're kidding me. What the hell does he know about flying? Hells bells, how can he be a better pilot than me?"
That really annoys me. Here I've been, busting a gut, studying, working hard, putting the hours in and that poncy twerp gets free flying lessons?
*Buzzzzzzz* The alarm goes off. I'm still ticked off that <name deleted> won free flying lessons. That creep always tries to do me one better.
Hang on, that was a dream. What time was I flying again? 0930? Check diary. Bugger, it was supposed to be 0800. I'm 15 minutes late already. I ring Rod to let him know I've gotten the times confused, get myself sorted out and head off to Bankstown airport. I keep getting annoyed that <name deleted> got free flying lessons, trying to work out what I'm doing wrong before realising I dreamt the whole thing. Rod hands me the keys to IVX and I head out to pre flight the aircraft.
Taxi out, the microphone doesn't work. I fiddle around with the knobs which make no difference then park in the run up bay, switch input plugs and the microphone fires up fine. I continue on to the southern side of the runways to the circuit runway.
Run up the engine to 1700RPM, left magneto running rough, power up to 2000RPM, lean the engine then let it burn off the lead deposits for 30 secs, retest and all is fine. The windsock is dead.
Ready runway 29 left, line up, take off and off we go. For some reason I don't feel confident. Upwind fine, turn to crosswind fine and hit downwind at 1000 feet exactly. The spacing is good, I straighten up. I have a piper in sight ahead of me. Number two for landing.
Good turn for base, angled slightly out, bank back in to straighten up. Turn to final, slight overshoot. Maybe that forecast wind is picking up. I'm getting behind the aircraft. Cleared to land.
Information delta is current, maximum crosswind now 8 knots. Check windsock, now lifting up. I'm having trouble holding the aircraft straight. Now I'm feeling rattled. Power off, I round out late and balloon up, I flare and a small bounce then down again. Not my worst landing but far from my best. I change my call to a full stop and taxi back. The front wheel starts oscillating on the way back. I brake the aircraft, check the engine then start back again. The oscillation doesn't come back. I shut down and check the front wheel which seems lower on its strut than when I took it out.
This was my first circuit in two weeks and I felt rusty. I didn't feel confident and the crosswind rubbed out what confidence I had left. 8 knots crosswind is bugger all, it was a lovely day, beautiful and sunny and unlimited visibility. Some days the rooster and some the feather duster.
August 4th 2004 0.9H TT24.4H - Circuits practice - Trying to regain some confidence Matt graciously agreed to accompany me around the circuit again. After talking over the top of several aircraft, including Polair, I obtained clearance to take-off. I've been developing more of a feel for takeoff, there's less of a pronounced rotation and climb, more of an easy back pressure and let the aircraft fly itself off the deck. Matt quite rightly pointed out how lazy my footwork was, although I've been making a conscious effort to improve my rudder work, it obviously isn't quite there yet. The landings were good, a couple (including the last one) were very good indeed and I was pretty proud of a practice glide approach from downwind abeam the threshold all the way onto the deck.
August 7th 2004 0.9H TT25.3H - Night flight - My first flight at night. I took my camera along but the quality of the photos is not high - the reason is that due to the low light conditions the exposure time is longer so that you have to keep the camera steadier for longer. This is very difficult to do in a small plane. This is my best shot, enhanced using new fangled com-poot-ter technology.
Ya. Might need to fiddle around with the settings next time I do that.
Rod and I took a Cessna 172 up for this flight. It felt exactly like a scaled up 152, everything looked the same, just 1/3 bigger. The difficulty in flying at night is the normal visual cues are gone - you're just looking at a bunch of lights that don't mean very much. This makes it more difficult to navigate as one bunch of lights look very much like another, and also more difficult to maintain your attitude as you can no longer see a normal horizon, so you are much more dependent on instruments. It's also more difficult to judge distance which makes it trickier to land.
We flew north-east from Bankstown over Parramatta, requested orbits over the Harbour Bridge then orbited over Manly while Sydney Air Traffic Control cleared us to fly over the harbour. We buzzed the Harbour Bridge then flew west back to Bankstown. Rod let me fly the approach into Bankstown which looked just like the flight simulator and not being able to judge the distance to the deck I proceeded to try to drill a hole in the runway until Rod told me to flare. Tops fun. The minute this stops being fun I'm outta here.
August 12th 2004 - Circuits 4th Solo and practice forced landings - 1.9H TT27.2H - Not really my 4th Solo, my 4th Solo was actually 29th July but because I had ballsed it up so badly it was time to get out there, get amongst it and try again. Today it felt right again. My head was in the right place and for some reason I seemed to have my spidy senses switched on. It was like I could feel exactly where the wheels were and my first landing reflected it - the wheels gently kissed the runway like there was a ton of feathers under the plane. Off to a good start and feeling good about things, I took the plane around a few more times and I can honestly say that even my worst landing was ok. The rest were 8 out of 10. My circuits were ok although I seemed to be a little high on final and spent most of the final approaches trying to lose height. I still need to have a think about why that is.
After that it was off to the training area with Rod to fumble through some practice forced landings. Rod has his favourite field to practice on out near Wallacia. I don't know who owns the field or how happy he is to have student pilots shooting approaches on his farm but I can see why Rod has picked it. It looks like a short, fat dirt airstrip. If you own this field and you're reading this, can I suggest you install a windsock? It would help us out enormously. While you're at it, plow some numbers and piano keys on it. Thanks.
August 13th 2004 - Crosswind circuits - 0.6H TT27.8H - Strong winds, a bit of a cheat because they weren't far off the centreline but they were very strong. JIW playing up with a fouled plug. Again I was high on final and Rod said I was turning crosswind too early. Overtaken by a Partenavia Twin. Last landing was a good crosswind, one point landing. Left wheel, right wheel, nose wheel.
August 20th 2004 - Forced Landings - 1.2H TT29H - After days of torrential rain the conditions were absolutely perfect today. Sky clear, wind 5 knots right down the runway, 20 degrees. Couldn't ask for a nicer day to fly VFR. Out to the training area to practice forced landings. The Red Baron kept bouncing us out of the sun. I'm not sure what he was up to but he kept distracting me by practicing intercepts on us. The exercise went ok but I need to more thoroughly memorise the emergency procedures. Kept having 'err' moments while trying to fly the plane, plan a course and speak over the intercom. Sometimes when this happens my brain freezes up and refuses to respond until someone hits the reset button. Practiced steep turns again, did a little better. Back to Bankstown and Rod decides to talk me through the short field landing procedure. This may have been a bit too much for my tiny brain to cope with because I completely forgot to flare the plane and tried instead to drill a hole in the runway. A massive bounce into the air, burst of throttle to steady then flared and landed nicely. I should have asked the bloke who landed behind me for style points. The circuit, though, wasn't too bad, I turned base at about the right point and my base leg was about perfect height and airspeed. I believe that landing is still a required part of the circuit, though.
August 21st 2004 - Precautionary search and landing - 1.0H TT30H - The idea of today's lesson was to be able to go low and slow and take a good look at a small landing strip before landing on it. After a fine display of airmanship by myself before starting up by dropping the checklist out the door and having to get out and chase it, then it was out to Badgery's Creek, couple of quick passes as if making a landing then back to Bankstown.
I guess one of the only ways that flying instructors can get some enjoyment out of life is to set small obstacles to their students and see if they manage to pass them or whether they fall on their arses. Part of doing a precautionary search and landing is to reset the DI to the heading of the runway you are inspecting rather than the compass. After doing the exercise Rod asked me to find our way back to Bankstown. I passed the first obstacle ok by remembering to return the DI to the actual compass heading before flying back. Bankstown Airport has two approach points to enter the circuit by, Prospect Reservoir and the radio tower 2RN. I'm most familiar with the Prospect entry point and I can't remember the last time I entered via 2RN. Of course, Rod asks me to take us back via 2RN. Fortunately I had anticipated him saying this and studied the approach procedures the night before. I get to 2RN and report to Bankstown Tower "...Whiskey India Hotel is at Prospect..."
D'Oh! I make a correction and proceed in. Everything is a bit strange and different for a while and I completely forget to carry out my pre-landing checks of brakes-undercarriage-mixture-fuel on-harness secure.
I guess one out of three isn't good enough, but on the plus side I remembered to flare today.
Oh, yes. Thanks goes out there to the guy who jammed the frequency while I was trying to make my inbound radio call by asking the tower in broken English for detailed taxi instructions back to his flying school. For about two minutes. It doesn't sound like much but you can go a long way in two minutes at 200 km/H.
August 25th 2004 - Solo circuits - 0.9H TT30.9H - Another session of solo circuits to keep myself in practice. Lovely day but too much fog early on so I had to cool my heels in the office and watched a couple of aviation videos until 0930 rolled around. The fog duly cleared and I was cleared to scoot out into the circuit.
The wind was right down the runway and steady but it felt like there was a burble or something just across the threshold that changed the sink rate and turned the nose during the flare. The first three circuits were not real good - not bad but not up to my usual standard. I wasn't tracking straight enough and drifting off to the right and plonking it down at too high a speed. The circuit was ok, turning too early onto base and I wasn't adjusting enough for the wind. Circuit no. 4 was a cracker and a beautiful landing, the circuit was programmed in and the touch down smooth as silk, with a chirp just as the stall warning came on, over the centreline and pointing right at it. I let out a cheer and continued around.
A yellow Robin appeared over the airfield with a radio failure. After circling for a little while the Robin made an approach to land. Right behind me. I, of course, was on final and unable to see, but the tower issued instructions for me to go around. Without hesitation I crisply opened the throttle, stuck the nose on the horizon, started reducing flap, deviated off the runway and called "Going around, Whiskey Whiskey Mike."
That actually felt better than the landing previous. No pause, just an automatic response and the tower thanked me twice for promptly obeying. Feeling like a real pilot, I made a lovely circuit, soft full stop and exited at the second taxiway.
August 27th 2004 - Short take-off and landing and Basic Instrument Flight - 2.0H TT32.9H - A long lesson, used 11R instead of 29L for the first time for a series of circuits. Short field take-offs and landings - trying to take-off and land in as short a distance as possible. Slow down as much as possible and try to plant the thing on the piano keys. Then to take-off, stand on the brakes, run up to full power then let go and rotate early with 10 degrees of flap. Had to go-around from base on one circuit due to wake turbulence from a preceding HS748. Eventually we had enough of that and headed out to the training area for basic instrument flight. Stuck a hood on my head on concentrated on flying by instruments only for the next hour or so. The turn co-ordinator and the artificial horizon weren't agreeing which made things a little difficult. The most fun was closing my eyes while Rod pitched and rolled the plane around the sky, which felt to me like we were spinning, looping and rolling, then handing back control to me to straighten it all out. I persuaded Rod to put the plane into a spin which was about as extreme a situation as I've seen a plane. The artificial horizon didn't like it very much, slumped over and sulked for ten minutes. Practiced some steep turns again and did better. Headed back to Bankstown under the hood again but not before Rod pulled the power on me and made me practice a forced landing. After a momentary brain freeze I sorted it all out but could have made better use of the wind. Under the hood headed back to Bankstown. I couldn't see any traffic so Rod kept an eye out and nudged the controls over at one point telling me it was to avoid an aircraft ahead.
"I'd rather you didn't tell me that," I said. I remember seeing an interview with a Tornado bombardier/navigator from the first Gulf War, who had his head down on the scope while trying to line up for a bombing run. The pilot informed him that they were shooting at them, so the Bombardier told him he'd rather not know as there was nothing he could do about it anyway.
Lifted the hood to see we were lined up for an approach on 11L and Rod requested a short field landing again. OK, I think I've got the hang of these now. Slowed it down, lined it up, held the glide path, powered off and flared right on the piano keys, on the brakes and off happily at the first taxiway. A short round of applause from the instructor and taxi back to park.
I think I did pretty well, but as a mate quite rightly pointed out later that night, I must have a pretty good teacher.
August 28th 2004 - Basic Instrument Flight - 1.0H TT33.9H - Onto the simulator this time. I walked into the simulator room to be confronted with a massive link trainer, a full motion museum piece and very impressive. Unfortunately it was NBG so onto the little simulator instead. This machine is basically a PC with a pretty neat array of black boxes attached to simulate rudder pedals, yoke, radio stack, throttle. The program is very accurate but it's frame rate is not quite up to the standard of MSFS2004 on my home PC.
I did ok - I've had a few hours practice on my PC at home - but I didn't realise how many mistakes and bad habits I'd picked up. I need to work on scanning correctly as for years I seem to have been scanning instruments at random.
September 2nd 2004 - Circuits, steep turns and practice forced landings - 1.0H TT34.9H - The wind was 150/15 and I was hoping for some cross-winds today. Had a look at the circuit and the wind was right down the runway, swinging 10 degrees either side so not very useful for practicing cross-wind landings. Off we went to the training area after fighting with an errant radio. A short burst of controlled, physical violence toward it and it began behaving itself.
Steep turns went well, I am becoming more accustomed to increased g-forces and held altitude well. Next was practice forced landings. There are a number of set procedures to follow when your engine decides to quit and my brain is not yet drilled well enough on the steps to follow. It takes me too much conscious effort to remember what I'm supposed to do next. I need to constantly scan areas to use in an emergency until it becomes automatic and second nature. I'm confident I could glide to a landing in an emergency but I'm certain to forget to do the right things, in the right order, in the right way and that simply isn't good enough.
Back to Bankstown for a flapless approach to runway 11 left. The landing was nice and soft, rolled out and exited the taxiway. Rod commented that it was a nice landing.
"Yeah," I said, "I've got landing sorted out now, I reckon. It's all that other stuff I haven't worked out yet."
September 12th 2004 - Crosswind circuits - 0.9H TT35.8H - Today the wind was 250/15-G25 so Matt seized the opportunity to practice crosswind circuits. This is a tricky thing to learn, and vital.
I noticed a nice CT-4 parked next to good ole' WSS as I approached the flightline. A very nice little ex-military piston-engine trainer and painted up in RAAF orange and white trainer colours. While pre-flighting my 152 I noticed the pilot stalking off, in search of assistance. Fair enough, he doesn't want the help of a student pilot and I can't blame him for that. When Matt arrived the two gold bars on his epaulettes brought the guy scurrying over, in a hurry but nonchalant at the same time, if that is possible.
"Ah, excuse me mate. Can you tell me what the departure procedures are for Bankstown?" It was all I could do not to laugh out loud.
"Well, mate, you stick to 1000 feet until you cross the railway line."
"Then you're clear to climb to...?"
"Class C airspace above 2500 feet."
Obviously this bloke was so out of pocket with his new airplane he couldn't afford a chart or visual flight guide for Sydney.
"He was well prepared," says Matt.
"Let's wait until he leaves before we take off," I suggest.
The wind was gusty and bumpy and 60 degrees off the runway, max crosswind of 20 knots, so pretty severe conditions. This was ideal for demonstrating good crosswind technique. For some reason my brain was wired the wrong way and my first attempt saw me slide the wrong way across the runway. Matt worked on my technique over the next hour or so and by the end I nearly had it. He told me afterwards the conditions were a bit extreme and I did well, which is instructor code for 'progress made, should do better next time.' Going into this lesson I knew it would be difficult so I'm not too fussed with not getting it right first time.
September 15th 2004 1.0H TT36.8H - Training area check flight - Matt was to check my standard to see if I was ready to fly out to the training area on my own and leave the relative security of the circuit. Ironic that a few weeks ago I was afraid to fly in the circuit - now I'm afraid to leave it. Got set up, gave Matt a passenger briefing he reckoned was the longest one he'd ever heard (I have a habit of being too thorough) and trundled out to the runway. After nearly heading for the wrong runway, I requested clearance to depart on the wrong frequency. A first for me.
Departing Bankstown the air was bumpy with thermal activity and variable winds roiling off the mountains to the west, which made holding an altitude difficult. Consequently I busted controlled airspace by 200 feet. I made sure to stay well under after that.
Practised steep turns and did pretty well although I wasn't using rudder at all, which Matt pointed out. Recovery from unusual attitudes went well except I used the throttle too quickly and too early. Practice forced landings went ok as well, except for the first one I tried to make an approach with a stiff tailwind. The wind at Bankstown was almost negligible but out at the training area there was a 30 knot westerly blowing. My second forced landing was in the correct direction but flirted with the stall limit a bit too closely for Matt's liking.
Back to Bankstown via 2RN radio mast. I was careful to give Hoxton Park a wide berth and consequently forgot to lose height to 1500 feet for my approach to Bankstown. A quick orbit to lose the height and back we went. Matt advised to approach a lot closer than the Visual Flight Guide provided by CASA recommends. Rather than track out towards the Bass Hill Drive-in, he reckoned the safest place to be at 1500 feet was right over the upwind threshold - there had recently been an accident where an aircraft was tracking out to the west and an another aircraft departing had climbed through 1000 feet and kept climbing, until it met the first aircraft at right angles.
While heading downwind the tower changed the ATIS and announced there was now a crosswind of 14 knots - the westerly that had buggered up my practice forced landing had followed us back and was going to force me to do a crosswind landing. This time I had it sussed, pointing straight down the centreline with rudder, over the middle with aileron, flare as normal. One, two, three point landing. I asked Matt if that counted for my second crosswind session and I finally got a laugh out of him.
The assessment was - I'm signed off for solo flight to the training area. A few mistakes but no major blunders. Only big mistakes were - getting too close to the stall during the practice forced landing and completely forgetting to switch on the transponder. Other things to work on - better coordination of rudder during steep turns, revised approach to Bankstown via 2RN, careful not to bust controlled airspace. Matt thought I did pretty well at holding altitude due to the rugged conditions and also thought the crosswind landing was pretty good.
Basically, I passed.
September 22nd 2004 - 1.1H TT37.9H - Advanced stalling - Flew out with Rod to the training area for some advanced stalling, after cranking the engine longer than I was supposed to. It had been so long since I had my previous stalling lesson I'd forgotten almost everything. Soon got back into the swing of it and saw stalls in advanced configurations, like climbing, approach descent. Had to avoid a yellow Pitts in the training area.
"Watch out for that guy," says Rod, "he's about to do a loop."
Ummm, sure, I think. Sure enough, the yellow aerobatic plane shoots straight up toward me then carries over into a loop.
How the hell did you know that, I felt like asking.
Headed back - an inversion layer was reducing visibility - could hardly find 2RN, and when I did I still reported that I was at Prospect. Rod wanted a short field landing, did pretty well until I stared at the windsock too long and overshot the threshold. No harm done.
I just felt rusty.
September 23rd 2004 - 2.0H TT39.9H - Area Solo Check, BAK and Area Solo - I didn't feel quite ready for my area solo yesterday, so Rod agreed to fly out one last time with me and make sure I was OK.
"Don't you do it," I said, "don't you even think about"
A great, grey, whale of an HS748 was lumbering out past me along the taxiway. Right in between me and runway 29R.
"All stations," called the tower, reading my mind, "HS748 about to to full engine run ups in the run up bay north of 29R"
"This time we'll go in front of him, "says Rod. Lucky he said that first as I was speculating on whether to exercise my command authority and state that we wouldn't go behind the 748. I'm sure If I'd said that Rod would have exercised the contrary nature of Flight Instructors and forced me to pass behind him and slide sideways out to the runway.
I volunteered a short field take-off then headed west to the training area. The first thing he did once we'd cleared Bankstown was take away the yoke. No ailerons, no elevator control - pitch trim, throttle and rudder only. Turns out you can fly an aircraft quite happily without the yoke. The aircraft we took, XGB, had just come out of an overhaul and the rudder trim wasn't set quite right, so I was holding a boot full of right rudder all the way around to keep it balanced. Back again, short field landing right on the numbers and back to the parking area.
Next I sat my BAK and did pretty well, only getting two questions wrong. I couldn't remember what slipstream was, for some reason, and the last question for take off performance had two figures, one MTOW and the other Max Climb Weight. I worked them both out but as the question asked what was the MTOW, I put that down. The Max Climb Weight was lower, however, and I should have used the lowest figure.
Next was my area solo in my favourite aircraft, WSS. My first flight outside the circuit at Bankstown on my own. I didn't feel too nervous, the skies were almost empty. The wind did a quick flip and the tower changed the runway direction before I left and off I went. As I was leaving I heard the callsign "Atlas 11." What a cool callsign.
It felt pretty good. I practiced steep turns and one forced landing and was happy with the results of each. I didn't get lost at all, kept a good lookout, held my altitude well, I was getting the hang of it. Steep turns are fun to practice.
I could see what looked like a line of rain bearing clouds approaching from the south and I was in two minds whether to cut it short and head back to Bankstown or drill holes in the sky a bit longer. The reference point I was using to do steep turns disappeared behind a line of precipitation, so I turned north east to find the pipeline and thence for home. A couple of fat drops of rain appeared magically on the windscreen and zipped off the top, confirming that it was time for tea and medals.
Did all the right things, pushed all the right buttons and levers, said the right things to the right people and lined up for runway 11L. A yellow tomahawk passed me on the way to Prospect, so I trailed him back to Bankstown. The wind picked up while I was on final and just gave me enough of a crosswind to practice my crosswind landing, which was a pearler, if I do say so myself. Pity there was no one there to watch it but me.