Saturday was a beautiful day here in Toowoomba. I was all lined up for a 3pm lesson, showed up to the Aero Club (hoping for crosswinds as there was a bit of a northerly), only to open the door where I saw one of the Grade 1 instructors talking to one of the Grade 3 instructors (the one which I was going out with).  The Grade 1 (Ray) turned to me & said, "going solo in the training area today are we Damien?". To which I responded, "I was hoping for some crosswinds". They laughed at me & Grade 1 told Grade 3 to do a couple of PFL's with me & if I was ok to send me out on my own.  So that was that.

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It's been a while again since I updated the blog, and don't worry, I'm not losing interested, I've just had a lot on my plate for a while now.

My last lesson was on Australia Day (26th Jan for the non-Aussies) where I didn't end up going up with my normal instructor, but another instructor. This worried me a little as I was supposed to be having a check ride with my normal instructor & then going area solo. Well, my concerns were validated as we ended up flying for an hour & a half dual, and then he said I was right to go area solo, but I was had it (nerves & wallet). Oh well.
The cool thing he did take me through though was 60 degree turns & limit turns. They were awesome! I think when I've completed my CPL & MECIR I'll have to do an aerobatic rating! (I've heard people say that life is better inverted (PCDU)... I reckon they might be right!)

I did really like how this instructor taught though. He's an ex-army helicopter pilot and was very practical when it came to practice forced landings. Some of his comments were actually rather daunting... true but daunting non the less! Very realistic, I liked that.

I will be flying again this Saturday (hopefully with my normal instructor), however it'll have been nearly 3 weeks since I have flown so I'm pretty sure it'll be much of the same. I've read blogs & listened to other peoples podcasts about learning to fly & most seem to get stuck, plateau, have trouble at a curtain time... I like to think it positive that mine is with the concept of the plane crashing ;-) .... but hey, you gotta learn how to bring it down safely or you may not be around to fly again!

On another note & to tell you some very important news, I tendered my resignation yesterday, Jo (my wife) & I are selling the house, and I will be learning to fly full-time. This has been what's been on my/our mind lately. It's a big risk we know, but we're very comfortable with the decision, and optimistic of the outcome.
The good news for all of you is that these blog posts will come within a day or two of each other (hopefully you wont get sick of reading them!), and I'll also be posting cockpit audio from time to time so you can listen to what goes up there.

I just wanted to say thanks to those who have been supporting me, giving advise & having faith in my ability (although the ultimate test of that will be when you get in a plane with me as the pilot!)... especially mum & dad who have agreed to have their 33yr old son, his wife & 4 children move back home!

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G'day all,  my name's Damien & I'm a plane-oholic... oh sorry, wrong group :), but it's true! My old man was a RAAF'y, working as a Radio Technician he served on the Iroquios in 9 sqn Vietnam & then again with 9 sqn at Amberley. He worked on the radar on the Mirage, worked on the Canberra & ECM with 482 sqn.  So growing up ,what do you think I dreamed about?!  Anyway, after having 4 kids & getting myself all tied up to a mortgage, I've finally got around to learning to fly (the wife always said I could after I got her a house - and she kept to her word!). 

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Lesson #9 - Advanced Stalls & Incipient Spins, Lesson #10 - Practise Forced Landings & Lesson #11 - Steep Turns

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Today was nice overcast day, with occasional drizzle. This meant very little thermal activity, so nice smooth flying.

The instructor & I flew just over 1/2 an hour, doing circuits. He cut the power on my while climbing out to see if I'd react accordingly, which I did... nose down, look for a place to land. After flying a circuit, just after the touch & go he did it again, this time I was still over the runway & did the same so he had me go around again. After the 3rd landing he got me to taxi over to the fuel bowser where we waited for a T28 Trojan to refuel & then taxi off.

After refueling, off I went on my own for solo circuits. I flew these for an hour, 7 landings in all. What an awesome experience! Once the hour was up I landed & taxied back to the aero club where I met up with the instructor who asked if I'd like to go up for another hour. What do you think my answer was? Yes, of course.

After a quick ground briefing on Glide Approaches, we went up & my instructor demonstrated a glide approach. This is basically where you fly closer to the runway than normal, then as you pass the threshold of the runway, throttle back to idle, turn on carburettor heat (which stops ice building up in the carby), then maintain 70 knots (in the Tomahawk) and fly her in, aiming to touch down about 1/3 of the way down the runway. Once the field is made, introduce flap & then touch down. He then had me fly 2 glide approaches, which in one I was too high & fast, so he showed me how to 'side slip'. This is cool, I've been waiting to side slip since I started. To side slip is where you hold full rudder (right in this case) and the use the ailerons to roll in the opposite direction to keep the aircraft level. This creates a large amount of drag, which slows the plane & causes it to decend rapidly, flying at about a 35 degree angle to the runway, but straight for it.

After the 2 glide approaches of my own, he got out & let me go again for the next hour. This hour was pretty much the same as the one before, except I got to do 2 glide approaches by myself. I needed to side slip one of them too! Before too long though I had company in the circuit, this mean't I couldn't continue to practise my glide approaches as he was in front of me. So I made the most of the situation & flew extended downwinds to give me practise at some nice long approaches. I flew a flapless landing, just for the practise, and even deliberately came in to high so I could practise the side slip a few times aswell.

All in all, I flew 3.1 hours today, 2 of which were solo & had 21 landings!

Next lesson is in 2 week, it'll be advanced stalls & incipient spins.

Oh yeah, one other thing. I was flying runway 29, same as last week... you know, the one that gave me all the trouble.

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Last friday I had a 1hr lesson booked in, with the title of 'solo consolidation'... no solo though :(

It was a very clear day here in Toowoomba, but very hot & the thermal activity was the worst I've expernienced yet! To top that off the wind from from the west so we were taking off/landing on runway 29, which is the opposite end to runway 11, my usual runway. So the lesson was basically taken up learning the circuit for runway 29, and more importantly dealing with some wicked thermals on my approach path.

I was very content with the lesson & what I'd learned.

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Just as the title suggests, I flew my first solo today! Totally unexpected I might add. I was booked in to do my second lesson of circuit emergency procedures with Ray, one of the instructors. Turns out he was going to be doing a fairly long flight with the Queensland Fire Service, firespotting over South West Queensland & Graeme (the Chief Flying Instructor) had been doing paperwork all day, so he suggested he come out with me. I had no problem with this, I'd flown with Graeme before and found his advice & awareness very specific & held it in high regard.
We took off & flew the first circuit, doing to the emergency procedures. We came into land & he had me fly a go around. While climbing out (all of about 2 full seconds after I'd gone full throttle) he cut reduced the throttle to idle to simulate an engine failure & I reacted instinctively with the steps to get the aircraft on the ground asap. He was satisfied with this & had me re-commence my go around.
We then flew the circuit & I brought it in to land. I touched down nice & soft, retracted flap, went full throttle & took off again. We then flew another circuit which went pretty much the same, another nice landing, however, Graeme asked me to stop the aircraft on the runway. (????) He then took over, called on radio that we were back taxiing down runway 11. I asked what was happening, he pulled out the folder to log all hours flown & said we had a slight problem. As I was taxiing back down the runway thinking why are we taxiing back down the runway then & not getting off the runway (I was oblivious). He had me turn the aircraft at the end of the runway 180 degrees & called our departure on runway 11. Looked at me, said to do exactly what I'd just done and that he was getting out of the aircraft!!! He asked me to wait until he'd cleared the aircraft until I started my takeoff.
Once Graeme was sufficently clear of the aircraft I pushed the throttle forward to full power (in a Tomahawk you need all you can get!), kept her centred on the runway, said a little prayer & then started talking myself through the procedures I'd been trained on. When the airspeed got to 60knots I eased back on the control column, the nose raised & then the VH-PBO lifted off planet earth with only ME at the controls! (you think I was nervous... how do you think the plane felt?!)

I flew the circuit, talking myself through every single thing I did. I came around onto approach, which got a little sloppy as I neared the threshold. My airspeed dropped a little too quickly as I crossed the threshold so I milked the throttle a little (I didn't want to bang the aircraft down onto the runday - I've done this before & it's not very nice). This increase in throttle gave me a little too much airspeed then, so I just held her level until she started to sink, then flared & touched down nice & soft, just like the 2 times before! I slowed the aircraft, taxied off the runway & made my radio call that I was clear of all active runways. After taxiing to the re-fueling area & shutting down, Graeme came over to me, I opened the door & he shook my hand & congratulated me on my first solo. I remember him saying, "that can never happen again in your life", he's right, you can only first solo once.

As we were refueling the plane he asked how many hours I had. I said "at the start of today it was 7.8", to which he said, "well you solo'ed at 8.4, that's pretty good". I asked what the average was & he told me it was between 12 & 13 hours, some as soon as 10 hours. I took that as a complement. I told Graeme that when I started this endeavouor, it was my goal to fly my first solo before my birthday, but that about a month ago I realised it may not happen... well, it did! (my birthday is in just over a week - for those who had forgotten)

So there you have it, I have flown a plane, on my own as Pilot in Command. If only Toowoomba had known, although it may have caused a mass exodus from the city ;-)

On a side note, if you go back to my first lesson & have a look at that photo, you'll find that VH-PBO is the same aircraft that I flew on that day, now the same that I flew my first solo in. The initials PBO will always be special now (Jo thinks that's a little nerdy - 1/2 of you probably do too - but your first solo is one of the milestones of a pilot's flying life).

Since before I undertook this adventure, I have wondered just how it would happen... well now I know.

Here's a photo of Graeme & I just after the solo... (click on the photo go get a better look)

From DJR - Flightlog

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Saturday just gone I had ground briefing & flight instruction on circuit emergency procedures. This is one of the lessons that you pray you'll never need to use, but need to know in case you need to use it (did that make sense?).

The whole lesson revolves around the possibility of engine failure in the circuit (im not talking electrical either - aerodrome circuit) or just after takeoff.

Basically it entails getting safely on the ground in the best area possible & flying the aircraft until it's completely stopped - the end goal being that everyone can walk away unscathed.

We flew out between Wyreema & Clifton to a ploughed field where we could practise such manouvers, flying down to about 50 feet AGL (above ground level) and then doing a 'go around', applying full power, leveling the nose, waiting for airspeed to increase, going into a climb and then when we have a positive rate of climb, removing 2nd stage of flap (if applied).

All in all the lesson was great! When we flew back to Toowoomba the traffic in the area got real busy (for me anyway), right when we got there! My instructor had me do a touch & go, then he demonstrated a 'flapless' landing - this is to simulate the emergency of one's flaps not working. This alters the your approach speed & profile quite a bit. After we took off he had me attempt a flapless landing. This wasn't as easy as it seemed, but lets just say I got it on the ground. It was a little further down the runway than normal & the landing gear got a little stress testing. :)

In 2 weeks I have got round 2 of Circuit Emergency Procedures. Much of the same thing, except it'll all be done in the aerodrome circuit & not over a field.

Then it'll be time for Pre-Solo checks!! (I won't tell any Toowoomba'ites it's happening or the authorities may have to deal with a mass exodus on the day)

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Today's lesson was awesome! Taking an aircraft to it limit of lift & then beyond to the stall was great. It started out with a ground briefing, then I did the pre-flight. We took of on RWY 29 (heading west). After turning crosswind, heading south to the training area there was a call over the radio. The Careflight Helicopter had just taken off & was going to pass below us at our 8 o' clock! I quickly turned in time to see the helicopter about 300 feet below us (we were climbing so I wasn't too worried) as it headed west. After demonstrating a stall, Kane handed over controls to me & then talked me through my first stall. He had me do about half a dozen stalls (with clearing turns between for safety), then asked if I would like to see an incipient spin, to which I immediately said 'yes'. This is what it looked like from inside the cockpit (albeit someone else in a different aircraft)...

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Yesterday I had an 8am training flight in Toowoomba, flying circuits, doing touch & go's (different from last week when I was doing full stop landings). For those who don't know what 'circuits' are, it's got nothing to do with electronics! It's basically flying in a rectangular traffic pattern around the airport. Touch & Go's consist of landing on the runway & then without stopping proceeding to retract flap, go to full power & takeoff again for another 'circuit'. So I did this for an hour yesterday with Graeme Geraghty, the Club's Chief Flying Instructor. He was (as you could imagine) fantastic in his conduct & knowledge. At one point in the circuits he gave some constructive critisism of my rudder work. I told him my usual instructor Kane has pulled me up on the same issue, basically not using them enough (you see we ground based creatures who drive our cars in 2D only ever use our hands to steer, in the air you're just about always using your feet to assist in steering or stabilising the aircraft). So after our 2nd or 3rd touch & go he instructed me to remove my hands from the control column (don't worry, he kept his there), this meant I had NO pitch or roll (up/down & steering) control, and then proceeded to instruct me to fly the whole circuit using rudder only, he would take care of pitch & throttle so I could focus on fully understanding the powerful and positive effect rudder has on flight. What an experience! That next few minutes taught me so much as I piloted the aircraft right in to touchdown using nothing but my feet! I had a few (4 out of the 7) rather 'firm' :) landings, and the other 3 I was satisfied with (I like most am very self critical). At the end of the lesson when I appologised for the hard landing (the last one was quite hard as a gust of wind played a nasty trick on me just after round out when I was flaring), he said it was no worries & that I was flying very well considering it was only my 2nd hour of circuits! (I was pleased with that comment). Dad came out & recorded some footage... until the camera battery went out (should have checked first I know) I've posted it below. Next week I am doing 'Stalls'... this will be fun... stomach testing time :)

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