Just back form a morning of radio training. My head hurts from reading back winds and headings and from avoiding traps like not requesting clearances to cross over virtual runways.
This is gonna be fun when combined with some flying!
To be continued…
(originally posted on November 2, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/roger-roger/)
Visibility: less than 5 kilometers
Temperature: 10°C
QNH: 1014hPa
Location: EDAY
Equipment: Cessna 150 (D-EALX)
I have an appointment at a different flight school in EDAY today to sign up for the PPL, the Private Pilots License. It is the next step from my Sports Pilots License.
The new flight school is in the tower building. A friendly office manager welcomes me to a tidy room with large windows. We go through the details and start the paper work.
Next door, a flight instructor is preparing a check ride with another student. It is a rainy day with a low cloud ceiling. The weather is around minimums and they are debating weather or not to cancel the check ride.
New part of the airport
I have been flying in EDAY for a little over a year but I had not been to the round hangar at the far end of the airport. This is where the Cessnas of the new flight school are living.
Meet Lima X-Ray
My new ship is going to be Lima X-Ray, a Cessna 150 that is older than me. She has the look and feel of an old-timer but I know that her logs are up to date and that she is absolutely airworthy. The aircraft is larger and heavier that the light sports aircraft I had been flying so far, but the cabin is surprisingly narrow. We pre-flight the aircraft and I get my first hands-on experience with a certified aircraft. I read the flight manual of the C150 last week. That helps me now.
We taxi to the runway. The fight instructor operates the radio and I concentrate on steering. On the runway I slowly push the throttle forward. The Rolls Royce engine has a reassuringly deep vibrato. At 60 mph I start taking weight of the front wheel. At 80 mph I carefully lift Lima X-Ray off the runway, ease back on the joke to let her pick up speed close to the ground before I pull her up gently at 90 mph. So far so good.
We climb out of the pattern and break through a layer of scattered clouds at about twelve hundred feet. I know the area but I quickly loose my orientation with the poor visibility and my concentration on the new aircraft. The instructor keeps track of were we are while I do full circles to get a feeling for the handling of the aircraft.
Back in the pattern we do an approach. I am in charge of steering and holding the correct speed. The instructor takes care of the power settings and the flaps. I am pleasantly surprised how stable the glide path is and how easily Lima X-Ray comes down onto the runway. It is a calm day, that certainly helps. On the next round the instructor adds the flaps to my responsibilities and from the third touch-and-go on, I also set the power. I’m officially flying the little Cessna now.
The fifth landing is our last one for the day and we taxi back to the hangar. I’m enthusiastic. Not surprising, I guess…
To be continued…
(originally posted on October 27, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/d-ealx/)
Visibility: about 10 metres
Temperature: 21°C
QNH: undetermined
Location: my desk
Equipment: the trusted Mac
I was at the airport yesterday and talked to two of the other flight schools about a “Private Pilote Licence” (PPL).
I have a “Sports Pilots Licence” (SPL) right now. It lets me fly “ultra light” aircraft with a maximum take-off weight of 475,5 kg. I can fly VFR (visual flight rule) in the day time in Germany and a number of neighboring countries, that Germany has mutual agreements with.
From my SPL I can trasition to a PPL-N, the national version of the private pilot licence. That will let me fly single engine piston aircraft with two seats and a maximum take-off weight of 750 kg. I can fly VFR in the day time in Germany only.
SPL vs PPL
Ultra lights have come a very long way from the “lawn chairs with wings” that they used to be. Modern ultra lights like my trusted “Rider” or the “Wild Thing” are quite capable and very economic. They are fun to fly and range from very simple fun flyers to high tech flying machines. Modern ultra lights can exheed 150 knots cruise speed with retractable gears and adjustable pitch propellers.
In the PPL world, the development is much slower. The reason for that is the very different certification process. It makes the equipment much more expensive which means it is also more expensive to get the PPL and later charter aircraft.
So why do it?
The PPL-N has no big advantage over the SPL in itself. But it does open the door to a whole new range of options which are not available in the ultra light class.
The most obvious change is weight restriction: While I start in a similar weight class, I can get a two ton rating which will allow me to fly larger aircraft. Single engine aircraft with up to two tons covers most of the market. So I will be able to charter airplanes with four or six seats.
I can get extra ratings which will expand possibilities and safety like a rating for night flight, for controlled visual flight and even a rating for instrument flight (IFR).
And some day, in the distant future, I can get the international version of the PPL which will let me charter aircraft all over the world.
So after I have the tail wheel endorsement (which should be soon), I will go back to “ground school” for the PPL theory. Stay tuned for more licence talk!
To be continued…
(originally posted on October 3, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/licence-talk/)
Light airplanes either have two wheels just a bit behind the center of gravity and one in front, or they have two wheels way in front of the center of gravity and a much smaller one at the tail. This sounds like a minor difference but it does make for dramatically different handling.
In the tricycle configuration, the airplane just rolls on the ground much like a car. On take-off it will accelerate until it has reached a critical speed at which it can be lifted off the ground.
The tail wheel aircraft will start flying from the tail to the front during the take-off run. The steering on the ground is done with the tail wheel. So it handles much like a car in reverse. It takes some practice!
The landing is either straight on the two main wheels until the tail settles down or on all three wheels at the same time. Each way has its own complications, but I learn the three point landings first.
Make better landings
Alan Bramsons book “Make better landings” was recommended to me as a good resource. Unfortunately it has been out of print for a long time but I could find it online. The chapter about tail wheel landings was a very good preparation for the first lesson on the actual thing.
To be continued…
(originally posted on August 26, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/make-better-landings/)
Location: EDAY (Strausberg)
Equipment: D-MPBW (“Wild Thing” WT 01)
The weather is great for todays lesson. Not very clear but that is okay. The important part today is: Almost no wind.
I talk to the flight instructor for a few moments and then go ahead to preflight the plane. It is yellow and bulky and has nothing in common with my trusted “Rider”. I take the check list and work my way through the items point by point. After I have gone around the aircraft once, I have a first impression of her.
The instructor arrives and shows me the inside. Bravo Whiskey is much larger than the “Rider” I have been taught on. The flight instructor tells me stories of sleeping in the airplane on rainy camping trips and of a friend of his who actually hauled a washing machine in her once.
The lady and the jack
The “Wild Thing” is a bush plane, a rather rugged tail dragger. It is in the ultra light class but it is a stranger there and it comes from a very different pedigree as the flight schools other aircraft.
The “Riders” are ladies. Italian, elegant, sleek and very efficient. They look good from any angle. The MD3 has a rather modern Rotax engine and it is quite fast.
Compared to that, the “Wild Thing” is a wood chuck. Not fast, not sleek but solid. It is strong and it wants to feel the pilots touch as direct orders. It has an air cooled six cylinder engine and analog gauges. If something does not work, first thing is to tap it.
Let’s go
I go through the engine start check list with the flight instructor explaining the items to me. After we have checked all settings, I press the start button and Bravo Whiskeys six cylinder Jaibiru roars to life. The vibration of the slow idle is deep and feels comforting.
I carefully push the throttle forward, the stick firmly pulled and the hand on the break. The plane starts moving slowly and I start feeling the nervous tail almost immediately. The first turn goes well until I realize that the tail has no intention to ever stop turning. I step into the opposing paddle and suddenly the tail swings back violently. I press agains the swing, pull back the throttle and break. We stop and our angle to the taxi way looks like we are drifting in a cross wind. The flight instructor smiles. We taxi on and I am more careful. This is going to be fun!
Before we leave terra firma behind us, we do a number of fast runs on the grass strip. After all the ground handling is the challenging part of this aircraft. We speed up to about 60 km/h and lift the tail from the ground. This is one of the more delicate parts of handling a tail dragger. The aircraft is in between rolling and flying. The rudder does not have a lot of control yet, the tail wheel has no control any more. It is a demanding task to keep her steady. I am not yet ahead of the airplane, I react and I sweat. I am grateful that it is not windy today!
Love at first climb
Finally we take off and I have time to get to know Bravo Whiskey in her element. Flying she makes up for the challenging run ups. The aircraft is roomy, everything resonates with the engine and the flight is very stable.
We climb out of the pattern and the instructor tells me to try a few maneuvers. The aircraft needs explicit control inputs and reacts with stable, predictable maneuvers. I love it and I am very interested to see how she is doing in more turbulent weather.
Three point landing
We go back into the pattern to practice landings. I like how the aircraft handles and after a few rounds I am comfortable in the pattern. The power settings are easy and the flaps are manual. The approach on final needs some experience. I come in a bit too high most of the times. There is still no wind and it is easy to align the aircraft with the runway. On final approach I flare the aircraft, fly a bit parallel and then let the tail go down until she sits down on all three wheels simultaneously. Then I pull the stick to get weight (and with it control) onto the tail and keep it straight with the feet.
We do this for about one hour. The flight instructor stays ready but does not interfere. The landings are bumpy but not terrible. I guess I can work from there. At the end I taxi Bravo Whiskey back to the apron. On the small visitors terrace behind a little fence there are about ten people watching us taxi. The flight instructor opens the window and gives them a friendly wave. I smile, this feels like the beginning of a wonderful friendship…
To be continued…
(originally posted on August 26, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/first-steps-on-the-tail/)
My flight school has a lot going on lately. First they got a new airplane. It is another Rider MD3 but with a stronger engine and a very nice build in GPS. So this will probably be my travelling machine in the future.
Then they brought back this yellow beauty. She is one of their old trainings machines. It is a “Wild Thing”. It has many qualities but “wild” is not one of them.
The “Wild Thing” is relatively large for a Ultra Light, it is full metal and quite rugged. And it has a tail wheel configuration!
This may look like a little thing but actually it makes for very different handling on the ground. According to the flight instructor, learning to fly a tail wheel aircraft requires quite some practice. The aircraft tickles me and I think I am going to give it a try!
I have started a post in a forum, asking for advice. You can find that here (in German…). I will keep you posted how it goes!
To be continued…
(originally posted on July 30, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/tail-wheel-endorsement/)
It’s official, stamp and all – I can carry passengers now. My last flight to Eisenhüttenstadt was good enough for the lady at the aviation administration and she mailed an updated licese to me.
So if you don’t want to come fly with me, now would be a good time to come up with excuses!
To be continued…
(originally posted on July 15, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/passenger-rating-this-time-for-real/)
Visibility: about 50 km
Temperature: 27°C
QNH: 1011hPa
Location: EDAE (Eisenhüttenstadt)
Equipment: MD3 Rider (D-MALJ)
I took a quick trip to Eisenhüttenstadt today. It turns out that the lady at the aviation administration disagrees with my flight instructor over the requirements for my passenger rating. She is asking for one more trip of more than 50 km.
Eisenhüttenstadt is 62 kilometres according to my flight plan. Also it is an airport I had not been to and today was a gorgeous day for flying after a week of rain!
The city of Eisenhüttenstadt was founded in 1950 as a socialist model city around a steel mill. Today, former “Stalinstadt” is a strange melting pot of socialistic glorification of heavy industry and modern high tech. (wikipedia.org/Eisenhüttenstadt)
To be continued…
(originally posted on July 6, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/steel-bread-peace/)
Visibility: about 20 km
Temperature: 26°C
QNH: 1013hPa
Location: EDAY (Strausberg)
Equipment: MD3 Rider (D-MALJ)
I did the first addition to my pilot’s license – the passenger rating. With the sports pilots license, I can only fly on my own or with another pilot. Before I can take passengers, I have to fly solo to three different airports and I have to fly two trips of more than 200 km and a stop over each with a flight instructor.
We have decided to fly up to the coast today. The island of Rügen is the right distance from Strausberg and it is a nice trip. It is a warm day, the fuel tanks are full and with the flight instructor and myself on board, Lima Juliet is working hard as she climbs out of Strausberg.
The passenger rating is a great idea. It gives a new pilot like myself the possibility to get used to handling the aircraft without the reassuring presence of a flight instructor. After each of my solo flights, I came back with home work. I read the rules for the air spaces again and brushed-up on my radio communication. I learned how to fuel the aircraft and how to check the other engine fluids.
The weather is calm and although we don’t have great visibility, flying is pleasant. The instructor and I are chatting about the weather conditions and he confirms my navigation and gives me helpful tips.
The airport at Rügen is very proper and not very busy. We have fish for lunch and watch a tired Cessna take off with a group of tourists.
After the break we take the long way home. Out onto the sea and along the coast of the island. First along Prora, the Nazi vaccation home which at one point was the largest building in he world. Then further up to the tip of Rügen with its white cliffs like in Dover. Over to the western side and back along the neighboring island of Hiddensee – a glorified sand bank, really.
In the distance the city of Stralsund appears with the Rügendamm bridge to the island, its historic port and and the post-war industrial complex that is the Volkswerft ship yard. The size of the container vessels build there has increased
inversely proportional to the number of workers needed to build them or sailors to sail them.
From Stralsund on we follow the A20 highway back to our course line home. There is a pretty boring stretch ahead of us with not a lot of visual reference to navigate by except for the curvy concrete band of the interstate. As I look over to the flight instructor, I can’t help but smile. He is asleep in his seat. It does not look like he is fearing for his life.
To be continued…
(originally posted on June 22, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/passenger-rating/)
Visibility: almost unlimited
Temperature: 14°C
QNH: 1020hPa
Location: EDAY (Strausberg)
Equipment: MD3 Rider (D-MALJ)
I’m up early. I did not sleep well, woke up several times. I’m nervous. Yesterday I spent three hours at the flight school drinking coffee and listening to the rain. It should have been my practice run but we stayed on the ground. “I’m sure it’s gonna be okay” says the teacher. I don’t feel well prepared.
My wife tries to calm me down over breakfast. I look at the sky. It is completely over cast but it looks light. Without a reference it is very difficult to tell how high the clouds are. I need 2,000 feet, more would be better.
On the way to the airport I watch an airliner turn into the final approach of the near by commercial airport. I know that it is flying in the controlled airspace “charly” which is above 2,500 feet here. The large jet is not even close to the clouds. One less thing to worry about.
I’m at the airport very early. Watching as an early pilot gets his Cessna ready, I look at the sky. The sun is dyeing the clouds orange. It looks pretty together with the light blue patches in between.
The secretary of the flight school arrives and the office smells of coffee. I fire up the computer to start with my flight preparations. At least this I practiced yesterday. The weather data of the GAFOR system looks promising. Except for the wind direction. ‘VRB’ (variable) means that I have no direction to put into the flight plan. So I can not compensate for the wind. 10 knots is not too bad, though.
The examiner arrives just as I’m getting the flight plan ready. I like him. He was also the examiner for the theory class last year. He is very experienced and very calm. He radiates calm – just what I need now!
Three out of five
We chat for a few moments until the mechanic comes in to tell us that the aircraft is ready. The first part of the test is precision landings. I have five tries to get three right. I tell the examiner that I did not practice yesterday because of the weather and that I would like to fly two patterns before we get startet. He smiles in a friendly way and says I should not bother but start with the precision landings right away.
I do a slow and thorough pre flight check. The examiner is watching me and I comment on every check item as the flight instructor has taught me to do. We taxi out to the runway. The examiner gets out to watch my landings from the side of the runway. I am cleared for take-off and bring the aircraft in position on the center line. 1,200 meters of runway in front of me with a slight slope. My hand is shaking when I let go of the yoke. Come on, get a grip, you can do this!
A precision landing is an emergency landing exercise. You fly over the threshold of the runway at 2,000 feet. Then you pull the engine to idle and fly a full circle in order to arrive at the threshold and touch-down within a 150 meter area. I begin the first one and come in too high. My circle was not wide enough and I am still at a comfortable altitude over the landing area. I push the throttle forward and go around. One out of five.
On the second attempt I talk to myself loudly. I call out altitudes and way points. I come in too high again. I can safely get the aircraft on the ground now but I am way out of the 150 meter area. So I go around again. Strike two, now it has to work.
The talking to myself helps. I remember my altitudes from the last round and fly a wider circle. At 700 feet I set the flaps to 15° and slip a few moments to loose more altitude. During the flare, shortly before touch-down, I cross the middle marker of the landing area. I force Lima Juliet to sit down and turn the left over kinetic energy into squeaking rubber. Not cat like but within the landing area. I’m getting calmer.
Turn number four, I am actually a bit low. The flight instructor told me before, that I can cheat a little by giving the engine just a half a turn of power to slow down the descent. As long as I don’t gain altitude again, the examiner would not be able to tell from the tower. My examiner is not on the tower but right next to the runway. So much for cheating. I set the flaps late and actually make a respectable landing.
Number five is actually good. I break and stop the aircraft on the runway. I close my eyes for a second and take a deep breath. On to the second part.
The examiner gets on board and we take-off for the second part of the test. Now I go on course 121 on the first leg of my prepared rout. On the way the examiner asks me to perform several maneuvers. A “flat 8″ were I do two circles and should arrive back at the staring point. Rolling the aircraft from one side to the other around the center line.
“Keep in mind, the nearest exit might be behind you…”
Just after crossing a near by airport, he pulls the engine to idle to simulate an engine failure. I push the nose down to control the speed and then turn back to the airport behind us. Examiners love to I see whether the examinees are looking for an empty field ahead or if they remember the safety of a nice and plane runway just behind them. I was prepared for this, he can not fool me. A few minutes later we simulate landing on a field. I set full flaps in order to be as slow as possible on touch-down. It feels as if someone is holding the aircraft by the tail. Just before I am able to identify what is growing below us, he tells me to go. We scare a few cows as the engine screams to life.
A moment later he does catch me off guard by asking which air space is above us and at what altitude. I blank and fight with the map for a bit before I can give the answer.
I keep talking as I was told by my instructor. I volunteer possible emergency landing areas, tell were the wind is coming from and comment on the engine readings. The examiner does not say much. I know it is the way he is and it actually calms me down.
“Please stay seated until the aircraft has come to a complete stop”
The trip is meant to take just over 30 minutes but by the time we are approaching Strausberg again, almost one hour has elapsed. All the drills and emergency landings take time.
The landing is acceptable and we taxi back to the apron. I carefully follow the shut-down check list. Then I fill in the log book. “So, what do you think?” asks the examiner. I decide to take the bull by the horns and say “I thought it was okay.” He smiles and shakes my hand “I though so too. Congratulations.”
To be continued…
(originally posted on April 16, 2011 by tilbo at aloft.blog.com/big-day/)