Michael’s Flight Training Diary

15-20kts with CBs floating around this evening. Six cancellations in a row, now - 4/18 = 22% of lessons flown.

Two more cancellations so far this week, and with 7G17kts and widespread rain forecast for my lesson booked tomorrow, looks like that’ll be six down in a row, four flown out of seventeen booked. It’s becoming a new sport for me - seeing how many lessons I can get cancelled due to weather, in the height of summer!

The Jeremy Pratt PPL theory books, published under the AFE brand, are fairly good. They seem comprehensive, and they’re very accessible. I passed the Air Law exam comfortably, so they’re doing something right. Now I’ve just finished reading his Human Factors and Flight Safety book.

But he sometimes says some stupid and anachronistic things, like his comparison of the relative merits of alcohol and illegal drugs: apparently, boozing it up is harmless if you allow it to clear from the body before flying, but if you have a few puffs on a spliff or do a little bit of speed one day, it goes without saying that you’ll never, ever be safe to fly an aeroplane again, because unlike alcohol, they have long-term and irreversible effects. Apparently. I’m certainly not advocating their use… but I do have a penchant for factual rectitude.

And his little foray into statistics at the beginning of the Flight Safety section is a brilliantly ironic illustration of his title of for the chapter, which is “Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics”. He presents an obviously daft mis-interpretation of a statistic, to illustrate his point that “to get the best out of any statistical study, it is necessary to approach the subject with a fair dose of common sense.” Well, I claim that it is necessary to approach the subject with informed logical thinking, rather than common sense. His “common sense” analysis then presents the laughably fallacious conclusion that “statistically, a pen top or a sock is far more dangerous than an aircraft in flight”, because more people were injured by them in one year than by aircraft! He fails to consider that only a miniscule proportion of the population encounter light aircraft, and then only for a small amount of time on average, whereas almost everyone encounters pen-tops and socks almost every single day.

(Aside: A sensible comparison would be the number of current pilot’s license holders killed or injured by pen tops or socks, compared with the number of aviation fatalities and injuries. If we conservatively assume that the 30,000 UK pilots (1/2000 of the population) are as likely to be victims of pen tops (140/year in the UK) or socks (60/year) as anyone else, we get an average of 0.1 pilot victims a year… but 18 pilots a year die in aviation accidents, roughly 1 in 2000 pilots. This compares with about 1 in 20000 people being killed on the roads each year, so flying light aircraft appears more dangerous than regularly being in a car.)

Mr. Pratt occasionally gives a sense of “common sense says this, so it must be worth heeding” - which is wrong (and inconsistent with much of the good advice he gives elsewhere), and is a fallacy that may lead to the death of aviators. There is no valid substitute for evidence-based facts and rational thinking, and intuition may be wrong at any time.

<dismounts hobby horse>

Another lesson cancelled by inclement weather. This isn’t really a blogworthy event any more. Except perhaps to note that since I started this in mid-April, I’ve flown four lessons at PFT out of a total of fifteen booked: a hit rate of about 27%.

It’s a beautiful afternoon, but the wind is 230/10 on runway 19. Described by PFT as “ten knots right across the runway”, this is clearly too much for me to solo - so the lesson was cancelled.

I don’t quite understand the rush to get me solo. I understand that I may be ready after another four or six good circuits, just to get that hold-off nailed, but I figured that since there’s so much more for me to learn in the circuits - flapless, EFATO, and of course crosswinds - I’d be able to get a useful dual lesson in anyway, without going solo. Well, PFT claim that first solo is such a radical and important learning experience that it’s important to get it done before going on to the more advanced manouevres. Since they are turning down money by making this claim, I’m inclined to believe them.

The next lesson is Thursday evening, in 48 hours’ time. The forecast is looking dire, though - so it might well be Monday next week before I get in the air again.

Since my much-improved circuits in the last lesson, they’ve been talking about sending me solo soon. At the moment, there is no way I’m ready for solo, because I haven’t yet made a landing without instructor intervention. In particular, I haven’t got the hold-off correct yet: I’m still letting the nose drop too soon. However - given everything else in the circuit is now pretty much correct, it’s conceivable that I could master this one last point pretty quickly, in which case I could be ready for solo with another four or six circuits.

I had a lesson booked at 18:00 today, but the Brize TAF was indicating showers, so PFT phoned mid-afternoon to explain that since there was a risk I’d be sent solo during my next lesson, I should really do it when the weather is good. Sensible, I guess. Anyway, I’m feeling the financial pinch slightly of so much flying in such a short time, so I don’t mind a cancellation for one. Instead, anticipating solo, I took the opportunity to go and do the Air Law exam.

Pass: 88% (35/40)

The folks at PFT have been heavily dropping the “s”-word since my latest and much-improved lesson in the circuit. So I figured that it would be a good idea to finally getting around to sitting the Air Law exam, on the presumption that I need to pass it before going solo - although nobody at PFT mentioned it, and since it’s not a legal requirement but generally a club-driven one, maybe they don’t care. I was ready for it when I went out to Fly-in-Spain nearly a month ago, having done all three of the mock papers in Jeremy Pratt’s Question and Answer Simplifier book. I slightly rashly decided to go for the exam at about an hour’s notice when my lesson was cancelled this afternoon, so I dashed home from the office, crammed the subject summary from the Q&A book for twenty minutes, then went to the airport for Judgement.

Didn’t do as well as I’d hoped: got 37 and 39 in the last two mocks, and a couple of the questions seemed to be unfamiliar material to me. But, never mind. I passed with a comfortable margin.

Next up - Human Performance. Got half-way through the book section, and it seems pretty straightforward though there are some tables of numbers to memorise. Let’s see if I can get it done in the next month.

Hours on this day: 0h 55m

Hours so far: 14h 20m

Today, I had my second circuits session. In a nutshell, I’m getting much, much better now. In my last lesson, I made major and potentially catastrophic errors on every landing, and felt perhaps 40% in control. This time, I made no catastrophic errors, had only modest intervention from the instructor, and felt perhaps 70% in control.

The startups, checks and taxi are almost routine now, so much so that I can apply my brain more to the radio. I still managed to make the elementary error of forgetting to reduce the throttle to idle before releasing the brakes, though! I still have a little difficulty steering and taxying simultaneously, due to the limited flexibility of my ankles, but the simple solution there is to brake before turning - which should be done as a matter of course, anyway. Another thing I realised is that I’m sitting leaning forwards in my seat all the time, to get a better view of the ground in front down the sides of the cowling. I should make sure my seat is higher in future - I had far more headroom than I needed. I should also really buy myself a decent headset as soon as possible, that’s comfortable to wear with my sunglasses. The PA28 at full throttle on climb-out is a noisy place to be.

So, after completing the startup, power and pre-takeoff checks with no omissions, we took off and set off round the first circuit to remind the instructor where I’d got to. I forgot to turn off the fuel pump on departure on perhaps half the circuits. I’m getting better at that, but I still need to be more diligent to get into the habit. The downwind checks are fairly quick now, though the instructor pointed out that I didn’t look at the RPM for deviation when checking the carb heat. It’s a fair point, though I was listening to the engine note carefully - I expect that any carburretor icing or other problem would cause an audible change.

The circuit was reasonably accurate to downwind, but the easterly wind aloft was carrying us back towards the airfield - so much so that base was half the normal length, we overshot the centreline, and were far too high. The solution on subsequent circuits was to aim about 10 degrees left of the visual reference of the Yarnton business park warehouses. The late descent and overshot centreline was somewhat inelegantly recovered, and adding flaps 40 was illustrated to be a good way of losing height!

The instructor felt that I wasn’t quite getting the control correctly in the short final and round-out, so after a couple of mediocre-but-not-disastrous circuits, we flew a glide circuit. He thought I’d done them before, so we turned base early, and he told me to cut the power when I thought we’d make the runway. Tricky piece of judgement, since I’d never flown or ridden a glide approach… but with a bit of prompting I made the call and we sailed on in. Approach speed remains 75 knots, but the approach profile is controlled by raising or lowered stages of flaps. The final approach is generally made with flaps 40, and 75 knots with full flap and no power is an extremely steep approach in a PA28! The first glide approach was a brain-overloading mess, because I didn’t know what to expect, but the second was good: with a bit of assistance from the instructor making judgement calls on flaps, it was stable and accurate.

After the two glide approaches, my conventional powered approaches showed dramatic improvement. The reconfiguration for descent at the start of base was quick and precise, getting into a stable and trimmed 75 knot descent before reaching the centreline, and maintaining a stable and accurate approach from that point on. There was even enough spare brain power to call final! The instructor later pointed out that I hadn’t been crabbing the aircraft correctly in the approach, so I must watch out for that next time.

The round-out and landing were also dramatically improved. My rudder control was largely accurate in keeping the aircraft pointing at and down the runway, and the round-out was consistently made at the right height, though I wasn’t compensating for the yaw and pitch change of reducing the throttle to idle, when over the threshold - I must remember to increase back-pressure and squeeze a bit of left rudder there. I wasn’t quite applying enough back-pressure after the round-out to prevent the nose from dropping - the instructor had to grab it every time. I think I was afraid of applying too much back pressure and ballooning, but I’ve realised that once the descent is arrested and the hold-off is stabilised, a balloon is much less likely. So I speculate that the trick is to enter the round-out with gentle but firm back-pressure, and then keep on increasing the back-pressure as the speed subsides and the hold-off stabilises. Perhaps I need to keep the nose higher in the hold-off, and slightly overcome my aversion to and fear of ballooning!

The touchdowns were firm and inelegant, as I wasn’t holding-off sufficiently, although they were allegedly safe. Once rolling on the ground, I need to be quicker on re-configuring for takeoff: full throttle, carb heat off, quickly but gently raise flaps, then put my eyes back outside to make sure I’m not about to go off the edge of the runway! But despite all these flaws, the last two circuits were pretty damn good. Everything felt right about them from the turn to final, seeing the runway beautifully lined up in front of me three miles ahead at a stable, hands-off 75 knots, the displaced threshold immobile against the windshield. On the last circuit, the instructor said next-to-nothing, and I just got on with flying the plane, making the calls, and making everything fall into place.

So the instructor said that the next lesson needs to be with someone else, who’s qualified to authorise me for solo. The next 2-3 hours of flying time could be quite interesting!

After my gruelling first hour in the circuit this evening, a most curious thing happened. Driving back from the airport in the beautiful balmy summer evening, my driving was so smooth, so precise, so quick - balanced perfectly in the corners, each heel-toe downshift dropped into place seamlessly, whereas usually I fluff them half the time. I don’t think it was an illusion, either - I was thoroughly aware of the other traffic and maintaining good separation.

Something funny happened to my head when I was in the sky!

Hours on this day: 0h 55m

Hours so far: 13h 25m

I was seriously looking forward to this. I mean, landing’s what it’s all about. I’ve really enjoyed the approaches I’ve flown so far: there’s something magical about the turn onto final, seeing everything fall into place in front of me. Well, today I did it six times in a bit less than an hour. Unlike other lessons where I could recount events roughly chronologically for my diary post, it all became a bit of a blur this time. I had a thorough briefing after my last lesson, which I discussed at great length here. So I’ll just go round the circuit once now…

Takeoff

We were on runway 01 (previously known as runway 02) today, the nice new tarmac one available since the diggers moved out. Fuel pump on, carb heat off, full power, and hold it straight on the centreline with a hint of into-wind aileron. Rotate at 65, lift off and settle into a climb at 75, turning slightly into-wind to maintain centreline. I haven’t figured out how to maintain centreline when the view of the ground ahead is completely obscured, and the crosswind shear effectively unknown - must ask the instructor next time. My first climb out was all over the place, getting waaay too slow (60 knots!), but after that I got it sorted. I blame two-and-a-half weeks out of the cockpit. At 1000ft AGL, remember to turn the fuel pump off - I wasn’t aware of this procedure, but I was aware that I was constantly forgetting to do the correct thing with the fuel pump switch!

Crosswind

On a 01 RH circuit, turn to crosswind comes when abeam the big chimney at the Bunkers Hill cement works. It’s a *gentle* 15 degrees bank turn - needs some care to maintain the bank and maintain speed. The circuit height of 1500ft QNH comes up somewhere on crosswind: level-off, let speed build to 90 knots, then reduce power to about 2350rpm and trim. Pretty easy once I’d recovered from my two-week gap. Then look out for the turn to…

Downwind

The turn comes a little before reaching Bletchingdon, and should track a line over the church on the northern tip of Kidlington, and to the big white roofs of the warehouses on the business park by the Yarnton roundabout. Time for the downwind call: “Golf Golf Juliet, downwind touch and go”. If permission is forthcoming, the instructor said that the appropriate response is “Wilco, Golf Golf Juliet”. Now I thought that the use of “wilco” for this sort of thing was vaguely discouraged, as it is more helpful to confirm that one has properly understood the message… but I can’t recall what phraseology Tower used to give permission, apart from obviously “report final”, and it obviously wasn’t one of the things requiring mandatory readback. I’ll hopefully be able to dig out a spare brain cell from somewhere next time I’m on downwind, and try to remember exactly what Tower said. Or maybe I’ll go and camp out nearby with my receiver…

Next, the downwind checks, as I discussed at some length in the briefing post. I was getting these pretty quickly and efficiently by about the third circuit, as one would expect. Satisfyingly, I was consistently remembering to do the right thing with carb heat, too. The one thing that the downwind checks missed, and which isn’t in the checklist either, is to switch the landing light on. In practice, this should stay on for circuits. When departing the airfield, I suppose is would be sensible to switch it off at the same time as the fuel pump, climbing through about 1000ft AGL.

My control of speed and height downwind was wobbly at first, but bang-on for the last two or three circuits. When we’re flying over the Yarnton business park, and can see the edge of the village ahead, it’s time to have a good look left for people joining base, then aim for the gap between Yarnton and the railway with a smart 30-degree turn to…

Base

Flight visibility on base was very poor, as the sun had dropped below the cloud base and was shining straight in our eyes through the illuminated haze. Must make sure the windscreen is clean, too - the instructor had said it would be OK, and we were anxious to get away, but I shouldn’t have let him do that. Putting my sunglasses on helped immensely - they really are quality items. The aiming point to roll out on is the sewage works by the railway south-west of Cassington - fortunately, the pools were glinting in the sunlight, and they were pretty much the only thing visible to aim for.

As soon as the wings are level on base, RPM to 1800, flaps to 25, hold level to 75 knots, then lower the nose to maintain 75 and trim. Not tremendously difficult, and by about the fourth circuit I was reconfiguring the aircraft quickly and accurately. Almost as soon as the aircraft is reconfigured and slowed to 75 knots, a quick glance right shows the runway centreline almost on top of us, so time for a swift turn to…

Final

The instructor said that the ground should loom big on the turn to final if one is pitching down sufficiently to maintain 75 knots… but possibly not as much as it loomed on the third circuit. Never mind, we were still about 1000ft AGL, so plenty of room to rectify the problem! The aiming point is the black and white marker boards either side of the runway, which apparently indicate a displaced threshold - not an indication I’ve seen before, so I’d better go and check my Air Law book. My speed control on final was pretty good, and I’m getting better at maintaining the aiming point (with throttle, of course), though it’s not without a fair amount of prompting from the instructor. Maintaining a steady centreline is more difficult, though. I somehow got it over the threshold going in approximately the right direction every time, despite the moderate crosswind, but I don’t quite understand how. I really didn’t feel that I had positive or confident directional control with the crosswind compensation, nor good rudder co-ordination, and I guess that’s essential for a good approach. The approach that one instructor taught in Jerez, maintaining wings level with aileron and steering with rudder, didn’t really click. But I think I should possibly persist with that technique - after all, it avoids nasty surprises with inappropriate use of ailerons while landing!

Anyway, if it goes to plan, I should end up over the hedge at 75 knots, the runway looming awfully big in the windscreen, and it’s time to…

Land

*Gently* cut the throttle to idle over a couple of seconds, and simultaneously pull back gently to level off. If the aircraft is going straight and is steady, it’s… not exactly easy, but maybe doable. If I’m struggling with maintaining direction, forget it - too much for my brain. Some mistakes I made and I hope not to repeat:

• When rounding out, a wing dropped. Still in “approach mode”, I tried to level it with aileron - ERROR! The round-out is inducing an incipient stall, and ailerons definitely don’t work properly under that condition. Correct it with rudder.
• Despite endless warnings of the dangers of pushing forward elevator after levelling out too high, I still managed to do it. Sure enough, I had no idea of what I’d done until the instructor told me as he climbed out from the go-around - exactly as the other guy at PFT had predicted, I’d be significantly lagging behind the aircraft’s behaviour. Sigh.
• I rounded out, but I’d left a bit of power on. The instructor said “gently reduce power to idle”… so I grabbed the lever and shoved it down its last centimetre of travel. D’oh! The instructor grabbed the aeroplane with a fistful of power, rescuing it from its violent lurch earthwards. Unless it’s a necessarily hasty go-around, be gentle with the throttle when near the ground!
• General lack of timely rudder control. This was true of the approach too, which possibly caused the directional problems to continue over the runway.

My judgement of the flare, and elevator control in the hold-off, wasn’t too dramatically bad (apart from the one-off errors noted above). The instructor had to intervene to some extent every time, but I’m starting to get a reasonable idea of the picture. If I can get directional control sorted and maintain my reasonable control of the approach slope, I should be in a good enough position over the threshold to make progress with the round-out.

Back to base

So after six circuits, we did a full-stop landing and taxied back to parking. My circuits are OK, really - unsurprisingly, it’s just the landings that are posing major difficulty. The instructor noted a technique for tracking the centreline when taxying, claiming that the centreline is aligned with the cowling hinge - but that doesn’t work for me because I’m taller! It seems that the next major rivet inboard on the front of the cowling is a reasonable approximation. The other significant error I made today is missing or misreading several items in the checklist, because I was in a hurry. Big mistake. Anyone else can wait while I read the checklist, think, and do what it says. It consequently takes three times longer than someone practiced in it… but if they’re waiting for me, that’s their problem rather than mine.