This is the box, just opened..

First step was to assemble the cockpit & start putting together the nose-landing gear. Painting not so great on the cockpit – had real problems with the acrylic paint sticking (discovered plastic primer paint a bit later in the project!)

Fairly pleased with this after painting – looks nice & metallic!

Things are easier.. much easier, takeoffs and landings, circuits are very tight, I’ve passed avation law (first exam of seven) and I’m starting on practical navigation exercises.

I’ve kept the same instructor (John Smith) for the past ten lessons, we have a good rapport and he has taught me a lot by letting me make my own silly mistakes in the air & on the ground. Nothing teaches you quicker than AFIS (the person in the control tower – aerodrome flight information service) correcting you when you readback something wrong!

My lessons now go something like this: -

Arrive at airfield, have a quick coffee if I’m early (which I usually am), have 10 minutes with John to discuss the plan of action then he tells me if I need to do a T-check (which is a quick check around the aircraft if it’s been out that day) or an A-check (not sure if that is 100% correct as I’ve only done one but involves checking the fuel for water – there’s a checklist in the plane anyway).

Usually, I head out and start my t-check – there’s a cafe next door to the airfield and I’m concious of loads of people watching me while I’m doing it but I soon forget all about that and get down to business. I start at the front of the plane, checking the nose-wheel for any cracks, damage or lateral movement (wouldn’t want that when landing!) and I generally work my way around the plane, checking every rivet, screw etc. I put the flaps down before I start so I can have a good look to see if they’re operating correctly and if there is any rubbish jammed in there. As I work my way around the plane, I check both ailerons to check the control column is moving to the correct extent and check the elevator for full free & correct movement (and also to see if there is any vertical movement on the hinges – wouldn’t want that to be loose in the air!). I also have a quick look at the oil before I get in, much better to top up before we take off than have to deal with it in the air!

Round the front I check the prop is undamaged/even & the pitot tube & engine cooling intake is clear – again, better to notice these things on the ground!

Once I’m happy that the plane is airworthy (in my very humble opinion), I get strapped in and I’m ready to go!

John usually turns up singing some tune, and patiently waits while I do my (engine) pre-start checks. I’ll elaborate more on these in future but basically like the external checks making sure everything inside the cockpit is reading as it should be and the engine is ready to start. Once I start the engine I do a few power checks to make sure it is running as it should be then it’s time for the first radio call to the tower!

“Wellesbourne information, Golf Whisky Alpha Victor Victor, radio check and taxi for local, two people on board”

Still not great with the readbacks so the next bit may be wrong but they usually respond back with something like: -

“Golf Victor Victor, Wellesbourne information, readibility three – you are quite faint, runway 36 right, hold echo, QNH 1016″

I then have to read back with something like: -

“runway 36 right, hold echo, QNH 1016 Golf Victor Victor”

The runway number is the one we will be taking off from – you can guess this from the wind-sock on the drive in which I always make a note of – take off into wind. The Runway number – 36 – is the one at roughly 360 degrees (i.e. North), the hold echo is a holding point where you have to wait before going on the actual runway, the QNH refers to the setting on the altimeter you need to put in (which is basically a barometer) in millebars and the Golf-Victor-Victor is me!

At this point, I take off the parking brake and get moving to the hold point!

At the hold, I turn the aircraft so it’s pointing into wind and do some proper power checks, ramping the engine up and down, check each magneto (a bit like an alternator on a car, these provide power to the spark plugs) while always checking  the temperatures/pressures of the oil & fuel.

I then move to the holding point, listen out & look out to see if anybody is in the circuit (or on final to land!) and make my call to the tower: -

“Golf Victor Victor holding at 36 Alpha ready for departure” (not allowed to say take-off)

The response should be something like (as I have already checked to see if the runway is available)

“Golf Victor Victor, takeoff at your discretion, surface wind 020 5″

(which means the wind is coming from 020 degrees at 5 knots – I have a quick look on the direction indicator which is like a fancy compass and decide if it’s going to affect my takeoff and climb. Anything between 0-10 knots shouldn’t really cause a problem.)

I respond, “Golf Victor Victor” just to let him know I have received his transmission (I don’t have to read back weather information)

There may be other responses of course, there is a massive thick manual on all the radiotelephony stuff I should be learning (which I do read but it trickles in slowly!). The other obvious things are making me wait at the hold while another plane lands or clears the runway or asking me to line up & report while they wait for another plane to clear the runway. It’s common sense, listen to what you’re told and repeat back any instructions!

Anyway, I’m now at the start of the runway, it’s time for one last check on the dials that everything is making sense and I hold down the toe-brakes, push the throttle up to 2000rpm and release the toe-brakes. As soon as the plane starts to move I push full throttle and put some slight pressure on the right-rudder (as the plane yaws left at this stage – there are three reasons for this – I’ll explain another time) to keep the plane in a straight line and at around 65 knots I apply slight back-pressure to the yoke & we’re airbourne!

Quick check on the dials, temperatures & pressures in the green. Everything sounds normal, 300 feet and flaps can go up (I’ll explain flaps another time!). Trim for the climb and we’re flying!

John says next lesson will be solo (flying without him) as long as I get my medical certificate (which says I won’t drop dead in the middle of my next landing). That’s the next plan of action!

There is a setting in the fsx.cfg file which makes the scenery (and autogen objects) shimmer or look a bit grainy. Removing the MipBias=6 line from fsx.cfg fixes the problem for me (ATI Radeon 1900)

Flying-wise I’m further than I was last time but every time I have a lesson it widens the realisation of what I have to learn to become a pilot. Flying is simple – a plane will fly itself if you leave it alone, it’s doing it safely without crashing into things that makes it a bit fiddly. I’ve now got a whiteboard on the wall reminding me of a few things I need to do rather than a nagging feeling in the back of my mind (like booking a medical for one, I’ve heard they make you touch your toes – I don’t think I can do that!). I’ll elaborate on the whole flying thing another time.

For now, it’s coming up to Christmas and I decided to make a Christmas cake this year. I’m normally quite good in the kitchen, I can handle lots of things going on at once and can make a sunday lunch along with a few cakes all come together at once. I made a Christmas cake a few years ago and it worked out very well but this time I think I may have rushed things a but too much and I now have a Christmas cake disaster situation on my hands.

The cake looked okay(ish) after the 5 hours at gas mark 1. A bit sticky on top but I put that down to my very relaxed measuring of the treacle. Turning the cake upsidedown after a full day I seem to have a mushy, undercooked, raw mess which I’m currently trying to recover.

Cooking is 90% science and 10% luck/art. The luck/art element comes down to the individual differences in cookers, testing the damn thing is cooked afterwards and using a certain amount of judgement which I think I have lapsed on this time. The science bit is understanding why the individual ingredients bond together and knowing what happens during the actual cooking process.

I have gone against science on this occaision as I know the cake is a complete write off but, just in case, I tried to put the cake back in the oven for twenty minutes. Turning it upsidedown it appears to have started to fry the fruit-mix. I have now completely inverted the cake in the tin and it is now back in the oven – god knows how it will turn out, I’m ready to throw it in the bin.

As I was driving towards the local asda (closest to work), approaching a roundabout I hear sirens & saw a police car coming the other way. Letting it pass, I entered the roundabout and an ambulance car (one of those vauxhall paramedic things) overtook me on the left hand side and clipped the front wing (oh, that’s where the sirens were coming from!).

As they had the full blue flashing lights & sirens and were driving quite fast I continued right on the roundabout (thinking, “bloody hell, did that just happen?”) but saw the ambulance pull over just off the roundabout so quickly adjusted course to follow it & park behind.

The passenger got out, came over and asked if I was okay. The driver (a young woman, mid twenties) got out & started apologising. I was more concerned about the emergency call they were supposed to be going to but they said they couldn’t leave the scene of an accident and another unit had been sent!

They radio’d through to their gaffer who was on his way and we spent the next ten minutes apologising (them for driving into me and me for not checking my left mirror before pulling out) until a police volvo came screaming round the corner and pulled in front of the ambulance (my volvo, an ambulance and a police car so far – lots of flashing blue lights).

We explained the situation and the damage report (some slight scuffing to paintwork which disappeared when I rubbed it with my fingers). The police then pulled out the breathalyser and said as we had collided and the police attended they had to take a breath sample. At 12:15 on a Monday afternoon I very much doubt I would fail a breathalyser but I’d never done this sort of thing before so was a bit scared! At this point, the ambulance unit’s gaffer turned up (yes, sirens & lights) so we had two ambulance units & a police unit all parked up in front of my car. After doing the breathalyser (didn’t realise how much you had to “keep breathing, keep breathing) and exchanging details we all parted ways. I was slightly worried I’d run out of fuel at this point but managed the three point turn on the busy road (other drivers were loving the flashy blue lights and would have let me do anything at this point) and fill up the car!

Reported the “incident” to the insurance company when I got home but stressed I wouldn’t want to claim for the T-cut and the dry cloth I’d be using to effect the repair. I very much doubt the West Midlands Ambulance service will be pursuing this one but I’m supposed to report such stuff according to my insurance policy so will be left hanging for six months while my premium goes up – not to worry!

Eventually made it to my flying lesson where I ended up in a piper PA28 warrior (four seater, beast of a plane with manual flaps – very old-school but nice to fly). John (my new favourite instructor) had me do all the taxying, take-off and landing. The take-off was surprisingly easy after reading that the slipstream from the prop tends to yaw the aircraft to the left so lots of right-rudder correction! This time we covered climbs & descents so got some great views on a clear day at 5,000 feet – need to work on my navigational awareness a bit though as I pointed out the airfield in the complete opposite direction when it was time to return home!

The landing this time was a lot better – I’d done it once without turning into a ball of flame so I was okay with drifting in nice and low. Again, didn’t have to do circuits as it was very quiet so got the go-ahead to fly straight in. Lined it up, dropped the power, stall warning horn & on the runway & touchdown. Instructor, arms folded and feet off the pedals so it looks like I’m starting to pilot the plane both on and off the ground. Brought it in for the final checklist and parked it up. Nice lesson – was very worried I’d be forgetting stuff but it’s starting to click into place!

Piper PA-28

Due to some problems with aircraft today (breaking down, students landing them propellor-first, that sort of thing), my instructor had to nip off to Leicester and pick up somebody who was stranded. I’d almost written the day off when they said I might have to fly a piper-warrior (not that I’ve got anything against them, just not flown one yet) but fortunately they shuffled things around and got me a slot with the Robin HR-200 I’d flown the previous two times (G-WAVV or “Victor Victor” as everybody calls it).

My instructor arrived and we walked over to the plane. I hopped in to buckle up while he did a quick check outside. Once we were both in, he had already strapped himself up while I was still fiddling with the ridiculous radial-harness system the Robins have. “Do they do a course in harnesses?”, I asked. “There’s the French for you, ‘make things difficult”. I had to agree, the French do make things difficult.

We went through pre-flight & started it up missing out the shout of  “Clear prop!” which is in place to avoid unfortunate incidents involving fast-moving rotating objects & human limbs. “we missed out the ‘clear prop!’” I suggested. “Yes, you’re supposed to shout ‘clear prop!’”. Oh… that was clearly my job then, didn’t stop him just starting it up though!

“Okay, I’ll do the radio, you take her along the taxiway and stop just short of taxiway alpha (can’t remember the actual taxiway)”. It would appear that after one brief go at taxying last lesson, I would be responsible for ground manouvers! It did get relatively easier to manouver after a short while but I was sneaking the toe-brakes on from time to time as I was terrified of the high-speed walking pace we were doing on the ground.

“Just pop it over there & we’ll check the engine”. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d seen these planes turn on a sixpence but wasn’t prepared for having a go myself – plenty of toebrakes went into this one!

Very quickly, I’d lined up at the start of the runway and he just slammed full throttle and we were airbourne. The next 20 minutes seemed to last like hours. He wanted to cover straight & level flight (exercise 6) and after I showed I could do it all with various power & flap settings he decided to play a game of “I’ll bugger up the configuration and you’ll put it right”. At one point, he had almost idle throttle, full flap, full forward trim and banked it at 45 degrees with probably a good hard push on the left rudder but fortunately I remembered the old “power, attitude, trim” before we were sent into an uncontrollable spin leading to a small crater and fireball in a nearby field.

After the fun & games, we headed back to the airfield where we got permission to go straight in (no circuit this time) as it was a fairly quiet Tuesday afternoon, I was getting a little un-nerved that I still had control. Last time I did a full left-hand circuit and a proper approach with the instructor taking control at the final 100 feet. This time was different, he asked me to line up for the final approach. This time, I made a point of lining the runway up in front of me rather than in front of the nose (which would see logical but would actually result in landing parallel to the runway as you don’t sit directly in front of the nose!). 300 feet, 200 feet, 60 knots, trees looking very close…

Those last few seconds were the most nerve-racking of my life, I was desperate to hit the throttle and shout “go around, go around!” but I suppose landing involved touching the ground at some point. “nice gentle pressures at this point” he remarked ever so casually. From my point of view it was like a world war two film, with the pilot desperately ditching a plane in a field missing both engines, fires raging from the wings.

The next few seconds happened very quickly, I wanted to pull back afraid of digging a trench in the runway.  “wait for it, not yet”.. when I did eventually bring the nose up to flare I heard the faintest pip of the stall warning very quickly followed by the bump of the main wheels on the tarmac. Good lord, I’d landed without crashing it!

As we went down the runway, the instructor laughed “that wasn’t so bad was it?”…  “terrifying” I replied!

To follow it all, I had to taxi off the runway and park it parallel to the other planes. This was a piece of cake in comparison to the ordeal I had just been through!

On the walk back to the clubhouse to do the paperwork and rescue Deb from the local flying geek who had given her the full history of aviation I reflected back on my future choice of instructor for bookings. The past two had been relatively easy going and done most of the work. This guy made me work, made a 40 minute lesson seem to last several hours and make me lose half a stone in sweat. I’ve booked him for the next four lessons, bring it on!

The instructor (James) hadn’t even turned up yet so we found a table outside and I chugged down a sandwich, hardly tasting it wondering a little how the hour was going to go.  Around 15 minutes later, my instructor turned up & introduced himself and we headed straight to a 1979 Cessna 152 which looked in fairly good shape. Not having been in a real Cessna before (only virtual), it was interesting climbing into the cockpit, fiddling with the seat-belt arrangements & the headset but the real bizarre thing was the instrument layout – I knew EXACTLY what each and every dial did! I decided not to mention that I was a “home pilot” and had racked up a fair few hours in the same plane on Microsoft FSX but told him I did have real experience in a glider for a ten minute flight around ten years ago.

He primed the engine and started it up. He took it over to the ramp for a minute to play with the throttle (he said he wasn’t sure about how the engine was sounding – I suppose you learn to hear what sounds “right”), soon enough he asked for clearance from ATC and taxied over to runway 24 and we were soon in the air!

“I’ll take it to 2,000 feet and it’s all yours!”

The climb rate of this beast was around the same as the simulator, slow & steady so after around a minute we were at 2,000 ft and he gave control. I wanted to fly over Doncaster to see the place I grew up in from the air, in order to do this he had to contact Doncaster airport for clearance which was granted after a brief exchange.

Following this, for the next hour, I was amazed that I had complete control over the aircraft to fly wherever I wished! James had his map on his knee and indicated which heading to fly to get to where I wanted to go but apart from that I had little intervention from James and Doncaster ATC (as long as I stayed below 2,000 over the town they didn’t really seem to bother us). I flew over the race course, over the hospital then headed West over the Peak District.

I headed south-west to fly over Ladybower reservoir (and several others along the Derwent Valley) and headed back East to fly over Sheffield city centre. To see the ring road and the city buildings from the air was fantastic, I now know where Sheffield United football club is anyway (from the air!).

Heading back south, my hour was almost coming to an end. I must have covered over 100 miles at a height of 3,000 feet but it seemed to go in a flash. I took my camera but only took it out at the last minute while James landed the plane as I didn’t want to let go of my ‘control’ of the aircraft.

All in all a fantastic experience. I’m now on the pooleys.com website looking at the student PPL pilot starter kit – a snip at £200!

It’s tiring though, today I did a 200 mile round-trip between meetings. Started with Redditch to Mansfield, then rushed off to Stoke on Trent (grabbing a sandwich from the previous meeting to eat in the car) with a 5 minute fuel-stop on the way. I was watching the gps on this leg of the journey and trying to get my ETA down by driving as fast as possible (as safely as possible) and managed to make up the 5 minutes. Never realised how many roundabouts the A38 & A50 between Mansfield and Stoke have – you just get up to speed and you’re back on another roundabout!

The final leg of the Journey was back down south, with a minor detour via Birmingham to pick up my good lady wife. I would normally go via spaghetti junction picking up the ring road via the aston expressway. For fun I decided to follow the gps which took me though Soho. I used to drive outbound through Soho when I worked in the city centre and it wasn’t much fun then, full of crazy asians wandering around the road and vans pulling out in front of you. Things haven’t changed, I’ll be avoiding that area in future.

The big highlight of the weekend will certainly be the trial flight Debs got me for fathers’ day (well, technically Debs but officially the kids) in a cessna for an hour at an airfield near Sheffield & Worksop. I’ve always dreamed (daydreamed) of flying a plane (had a 10 minute “go” in a glider about 10 years ago but kind of felt very limited – was rushed with 10 other students, it only cost £3 so can’t complain I suppose) but never got off my arse to sort it out. I’m not quite sure how to act when I get to the actual airfield when the instructor tries to tell me what the controls do as I’ve been training on the cessna 152 on FSX for a couple of months now. I think I’ll just keep quiet about it as I will no doubt get ridicule that flying a real plane isn’t like a “game” – I’ll just happen to know the full cockpit layout and checklists. Maybe I’ll have a wry smile.

Really looking forward to it!!

Roughly translated, if it rains on the 15th July, it will rain for another 40 days. It’s now two weeks later and I don’t think it’s stopped which is a shame for the poor car which is still collecting gallons of water in the boot. Fortunately I have it booked in the garage on Saturday to get the light-seals put in. It will then be another job to disinfect it and give it a good clean to remove the smell of rank stale water however!

With the constant grind of work and the summer holidays upon us we have finally relented and decided to go away for a week’s holiday (we usually go away in October as well but might as well push the boat out). After much deliberation on prices and location (mostly prices) we’re staying in a Hoseason caravan park in Withernsea. No, I hadn’t heard of it either – it’s on the coast, close to Hull boasting a beach and a chip shop. It is fairly close to the other north-sea seaside resorts however and I expect we’ll be having day trips to Hornsea, Bridlington, Scarborough etc.

After booking the caravan, I couldn’t help myself but look at reviews of the place (why look at reviews beforehand? It just spoils the surprise you’ve just committed yourself to!) – a few horror stories about caravans full of spiders but nothing too scary. In a caravan for a week with a Dalmatian and two kids – sounds like fun!

The day started well, I packed up the “technika” television to take back to Tesco to get a refund or replacement. It has a nasty hissing sound to it, it’s very subtle but quite audible especially at lower volumes. Knowing about it makes it worse when watching it as you tend to tune into the random crappy white noise which distracts from any decent telly viewing. I also lugged the 500 tonne beast that died and originally prompted the replacement television into the boot of the car. I seriously began to wonder if I was covered under any of my health insurance policies if my back gave way.

Once at Tesco, we queued at the electrical desk to be told that it was policy to test returned equipment. I chose not to take offense at this as they were obviously doing this to test the authenticity of my claim rather than the actual equipment. A bored-looking child emerged from the back, wearing an official-looking brown warehouse coat who took the slightly-faulty television and plugged it in next to the hundreds of display models.

At this point, I began to doubt myself – fearing that I’d be “rumbled” (the same feeling you get when a police car is following you – you immediately begin to feel guilty for the armed robbery you didn’t just commit and the several bodies you don’t have in the boot of the car).

He plugged it in, put on a DVD and began to turn the sound up. Remember this was in a busy supermarket with tannoys going off and hundreds of people milling around.

“erm.. you have to have it fairly quiet – it’s like a white noise, constant but very low. In a quiet room it’s really noticable”, I offered.

“White noise eh?”, he said as he turned the volume down and scientifically craned one ear right against the speaker, plugging the other ear with his finger, “I’m a musician you know so I’m very good at hearing white noise”

“Yes, so you’ll know with the noise of the store you’re unlikely to hear anything”, I suggested.

With a glare back at me he harrumphed and said he would have to take it to another room, unplugging the set and walking off down a corridor marked “staff only”.

Some minutes later he returned and said, “I’ll have to get a second opinion on this one” and rushed off to the other side of the store. I began to weigh up my options now, what if he uncovered my obvious attempt to waste his time by with returning a perfectly good television with an identical model? I was clearly making the whole thing up and he wanted reinforcements to destroy my credibility in the middle of Tesco.

Then I came back to reality, remembered that I was in the middle of a supermarket having my time wasted by somebody who plays “when the saints go marching in” on the bontempi organ and I clearly had statutory sale of goods law on my side. It didn’t really matter what his opinion was, if he tried to refuse I’d just ask to see an appropriate duty manager and end this silly charade here and there.

Some ten minutes later, he returned alone (I presume his accomplice, whom I never saw, must have been entered and again left by the back entrance) and said, “yeah, I can hear something – do you wanna change it?”.

After briefly considering a near identical model (well, exactly identical it seemed) for an extra forty quid, the look in Debs’ eyes told me that she wasn’t 100% keen on investing even more money in a Technika telly and with that we obtained our refund (including the vouchers we’d spent!) and left the store.

After browsing a few shops, we ended up driving to Droitwich (which I have to say is a lovely town, virtually no people there at all) and picked up a nice Wharfdale 22″ model for around the same price from Argos (on sale – £200 knocked down from £350).

And it has a built in DVD player!