Lots Of Flying!

Since my last update I have been flying a lot! The main news being that I completed my first ever solo flight! The flight itself lasted only 15 minutes, completing one circuit of the airport, but it was a great feeling to get it done! A few lessons later and I completed my first out of circuit solo, heading over to the east to practice some steep turns, stalling and practice forced landings. Practice forced landings are to practice choosing a field to land in should your engine fail during flight, it takes some practice flying down from 2500ft to 500ft and making the field you are aiming for with the power at idle.

About to go on another solo flight.

I’m now on lesson 26 which is half way to our first major test in New Zealand, PT1, testing our abilities to fly the aircraft accurately, making sure we can navigate successfully and the management of unexpected situations and emergencies. It’s quite amazing how quickly we are getting through all of the flying; I’ve already accumulated 30.4 hours of flying in just over a month! After lesson 26 all of the Nav flying starts which require us to fly routes around the Hamilton and New Zealand north island area. At first they are dual flights with an instructor and they decide where we fly before being free to choose where we want to fly for the route. It will be good flying to new airfields and getting to know the area a bit better. I’m looking forward to the challenge of flying approaches to airfields that I’ve never been to before.

Some photos from my flight to Raglan:

Aside from the flying, we have decided on our plans for Christmas and New Year. We are going to the beach at Tauranga on Christmas Day, it will be quite a novelty having Christmas on the beach when it is normally freezing cold and snowing at home! For New Year we are heading up to Auckland, the first major city in the world to celebrate New Year! We’re staying overnight there and hopefully going further north to explore the area round about Auckland. 
I also have my final PPL exam, before my ATPL resit in February., so far I've managed to pass them all first time, hopefully tomorrow will be the same!

In other news we recently bought another car last week, a 2.5L Twin Turbo Mitsubishi Galant VR4. Its an absolute beast!

Overall I feel that I’m making good progress with the flying and I feel I’ve come a long way since I started with only 7 hours previous experience. It’s amazing how quickly things are picked up and then perfected with a bit of practice and although there is a lot to remember to do, I’m really enjoying the flying part of this course!

We're heading over to Tauranga for Christmas Day and then down to Rotorua and Taupo for Boxing Day, hopefully it will be a lot of fun, its a perfect chance to go exploring while we have the time off!

Merry Christmas! 

New Zealand Flying

After all, this is what I’m here for...

Track of my first flight!

Since my last update I have passed my differences and PPL Air Law exams and completed up to lesson FK006! So far I have learnt a lot in these six lessons from the effects of controls to climbing and descending and onto stalling. Next things on the agenda are some more stalling, circuits and then my first solo... exciting stuff!

We normally go in around 1.5-2 hours before our off blocks time and do some preparation for the flight including getting the weather forecast for the airport and the local area and completing the mass and balance and performance of the aircraft. We then have a briefing with our instructor, detailing what we will be covering throughout the lesson. Then it’s onto the preflight checks of the aircraft; checking the fuel and oil quantity, testing the fuel for water and sediment and a general walk around of the condition of the aircraft are just a few of the checks before flight can commence. Then it’s off to retrieve our instructor and get the flight underway.

So far it’s been quite overwhelming at times at the amount of things there are to remember to do with actually flying the aircraft, as well as adding in checklists to be completed and talking to ATC, however I have found it very enjoyable so far and I think most things will come with experience and practice! 

Flight FK006 track, circuits at Matamata top right

At this stage of the training, we perform all the before take-off checks and the actual take-off and departure. My instructor normally takes over at some point during the departure to fly to the training area. Most of the radio telephony is left up to us to control, which was quite nerve-racking at first but I am slowly easing into it. I have also completed a few landings so far, some of which have been better than others! On my last lesson we flew over to Matamata to practice some circuits and to get the approach and landing correct. Matamata is a small uncontrolled airfield around 15 minutes from Hamilton, it’s mainly used for gliding but it’s a lot quieter than Hamilton and the runway is about a mile wide so it’s perfect to practice some circuits.

Raglan from the air

Away from the flying we recently had a trip out to Raglan Beach for the day which is on the West coast about an hour from Hamilton. It’s well known as one of the best surf beaches in New Zealand, shame I can’t surf though! It was an excellent day out and it was absolutely boiling, it’s really weird having hot sunny weather at the end of November! On the way back we stopped off at Bridal Veil Waterfalls which were very impressive. On one of my lessons we actually flew over Raglan Beach which was amazing to see the sights from 2,500ft.

We also have been down the Waikato River a couple of times in inflatable dinghy's with a few beers, enjoying the sunshine. It's great fun and very relaxing! 

Floating down the river

I had the first of my PPL exams today, which is what I have to take as a result of failing my Mass and Balance ATPL before coming out here to New Zealand. It was Navigation and Flight Planning today and I’m pleased to say I passed it with 82%, 4 more PPL exams to go! Hopefully, we should be finished them by Christmas as we are doing one per week until then; and afterwards I can focus all my attention on my ATPL resit in February.

I’m flying tomorrow for lessons FK007 and FK008 which are Stalling 2 and Circuits 1… making quick progress!

Bye for now… 

New Zealand Life Begins!

Hello from New Zealand! Sorry for the lack of posts over the past couple of weeks but everything has happened pretty quickly and I’m finally in New Zealand! We got our exam results a week ago and I managed to pass all but one of my module 2 exams. It was quite a tough exam and a few of us found it difficult but it just means I have to re sit it in February next year out here.

We got an email on Monday last week telling us we would be coming out here on Wednesday 30^th October. It was a bit of a rush to get everything packed and sorted for eight months away from home. It was a very long journey to Auckland from London and we all arrived very tired and ready for a good nights sleep! I’m staying near the airport in Clearways which is a really nice environment to be in, we are staying in one of the new blocks that were just finished three weeks ago so everything is brand new! We went out on Saturday to buy some essentials and to check out Hamilton itself which is a really nice city.

Emirates A380 to take us to Dubai! 

My view for the next 14 hours to Sydney and Auckland 

First NZ sunset 

Hamilton

Today was our first day back in uniform, but this time on the other side of the world! We had our orientation and then this afternoon started study for two exams we have to sit before we can start flying – The New Zealand differences exam and New Zealand Air Law. We have the differences exam on Wednesday and then Air Law next Tuesday – wish me luck! I also found out that I will be flying the Diamond DA20 for the single engine phase which I’m really pleased about; we will hopefully start flying at the end of next week. I can't wait to start all of the flying! 

Bye for now... 

Not Long Left Of Ground School...

It’s been a while since my last update and as you’ve probably guessed, quite a lot has happened.

Firstly, CP107 have almost finished groundschool! With only eight more days of teaching before we enter the exam period again, the end of groundschool is well and truly in sight! Module 2 seems to have gone a lot faster than the first, it doesn’t seem like 5 minutes since we were sat in that exam hall wondering whether to pick A, B, C or D! Since we only sat 6 exams in module 1 it means we have 8 this time round, which are Performance, Mass and Balance, Air Law, General Navigation, Radio Navigation, Flight Planning, Human Performance and Limitations and finally Operational Procedures. The work has been quite different in comparison with many of the subjects requiring you to actually perform calculations to work certain things out rather than just wordy type questions, however I have found it more interesting.

GNav

I also helped out at the last CTC careers event. It was a very busy day but highly enjoyable, I also managed to get into the 737-800 simulator to help out with the running of it throughout the day which was an added bonus!

We recently applied for our New Zealand student visa which definitely means it getting close. In fact, it’s just dawned on me that it’s now next month that we are due to go! I can’t wait to get out there to fly, but for now I am just focusing on passing all of the exams!

A few of us had a trip to Cardiff last week to visit the General Electric engine maintenance facility nearby. It was very interesting to get an insight into the maintenance side of things and the work the engineers do with the engines if airlines report that they have been having problems with them. Throughout the day we saw the engineers working on engines off A320’s, A380’s and 777’s. A wide variety of airlines get their engines maintained by GE Wales including British Airways, easyJet, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines and Emirates. We also managed to see the engine casing off a GE90, which is the largest engine in production. It is hard to imagine that one of those hangs off each wing of a 777 producing 115,000lbs of thrust each; they are easily over 20ft in diameter!

GE90 making the fuel truck look small!

As part of our Radio Navigation course, we got time in the simulator again, we were split into groups and I had my turn today. It was an excellent session where we were putting into practice the navigation aids that we have been learning about in class such as VOR’s, NDB’s and ILS. We took off from Belfast in the Boeing 737-300 and then tuned in the Belfast VOR to look at the instrument readings, this could tell us how far away we were from it and what course we had to turn to intercept it. We made an ILS approach and let the plane perform an autoland while we watched the instruments, then we had a turn landing it ourselves which was great fun!

On another note, just been looking at cars in New Zealand, and found this bad lad. http://turners.co.nz/Cars/Search/Toyota/Starlet/1151714/

Exam Results!

We got our module one exam results last week and I'm pleased to say that I passed all of them with an average score of 93.5%. I woke up on the morning of the results day quite nervous and they kept us waiting until midday before the emails slowly started coming through, it turned out to be worth the wait though! Still on a high from our scores, we all decided on the next logical step - CP trip to the pub. Well that was the days work out the window and we had a good afternoon in the sun enjoying a few well deserved pints.

Enjoying the weather at the pub 

That means I can focus all my attention on the module 2 subjects, of which we have 8 to sit in just 10 weeks time, then it's hopefully onto New Zealand and all of the flying which is what we're really here for! So far module 2 hasn't been too bad, all of the subjects are more practical and involve things we'll probably use throughout our career. There are a lot of calculation questions, I find it a bit more interesting than just learning facts although there are a lot of formulas to memorise. For General Navigation, or GNav, we got a copy of a Jeppesen airway manual, its quite interesting to look through all of the charts contained in the manual and we will be looking at them in more detail next week. Another piece of kit used in GNav is the CRP5 flight computer, or whizz wheel as its known. It looks a bit intimidating at first but once you get the hang of how to use it, it doesn't seem so difficult.. I just need to have a bit more practice with it!

Load and Trim sheet used to work out the mass and balance of the aircraft.

Whizz wheel

Jeppesen 

We started Air Law today which is basically just learning facts off question bank from what I've heard. Exciting stuff.  After Air Law, there's only 4 subjects left for us to complete the 14 ATPL exams! Still can't quite believe how fast it's all gone so far!

Exams Over For Now and Starting Module 2

Hello again!

Well after exam week finishing last week, we headed out on Thursday night. It was a really good night and we all enjoyed a much needed drink, exam week seemed to last forever! It was very tiring sitting the exams, coming back home and then getting into the mind-set to prepare for the next one. The best way to prepare in my opinion was just to do practice exams over and over again. I ended up doing over 13,000 questions by the end of the week! Hopefully they have all gone okay, we will find out the results in just under two weeks time.

I also headed up home last weekend, it was really good seeing all my family and friends as it was the first time I've visited since being down here in Southampton. Just one problem.. It went over way too fast!!

With the intense nature of this course, we were straight back into module 2 on Monday morning, starting off with Performance, which is basically an extension of Principles of Flight. It adds onto the knowledge we can (hopefully) still remember, with some graphs thrown in to work out certain things such as landing distances, climb rates and headwinds/tailwinds.

Performance planning

We also have a four day weekend coming up.. result! We’re finishing off performance next Monday before moving onto Mass and Balance which is a short two day course and finally onto GNav by the end of next week. 

My next post will probably be when I find out my exam results, which may or may not be worth reading depending on the outcome! Bye for now…

Exams are coming...

Well that’s it for module one groundschool, it’s absolutely flown over and I can’t believe we are almost halfway through the groundschool phase! We have our mock exams next week and then we’re off for 10 days of reading over notes and trying not to go insane off intense question banking before the real things start on July 1^st. Our first set of 6 exams consists of Aircraft General Knowledge, Principles of Flight, Meteorology, Instruments and IFR and VFR Comms all crammed into 3 days.

Trying to remember everything! 

Since my last post, I’ve also been to CTC’s training centre in Bournemouth which is where we all end up after New Zealand to do our Instrument Rating. Me and James went, it was an excellent day and we got a flight in a Diamond DA42 Twinstar! The pilot flying was training for his IR, which meant the windscreen on his side was blocked out for the majority of the flight. This is done so that we have to fly solely on instruments, not visually. We flew to Cardiff, did a missed approach and then flew back to Bournemouth. In total we were in the air for about 2 and a half hours. It was excellent to see where I will end up in around one year’s time and it definitely was another thing to keep to motivation up for these upcoming exams.  

Flying past Cardiff Airport

We even got a sneaky look in this beauty! 

Thanks G-CTCD!

We also went into the simulator again the other day. It was an excellent two hour session, simulating things we have been learning throughout mod 1 such as trimming the aircraft, the effect of flaps and spoilers in straight and level flight and we also conducted a full auto-land in fog conditions at Bristol. 

 
Anyway back to revision for me...