Pendair's first passenger flight

Yesterday morning brought with it grey clouds and that sinking feeling that my planned bimble around Amsterdam and up to Texel was not going to happen today.

Last week I had asked some friends if they wanted to join me in a trip up to Texel for a spot of lunch. Ever since I read stories of the "$100 hamburger" in the flying magazines I religiously bought before I ever GOT my wings, I wanted one of the first things I did after getting my wings to be a bimble somewhere nice for a spot of lunch. So I put the feelers out with some friends who said they'd be willing to risk life an limb for said burger and told them I'd take them somewhere exotic for lunch this Saturday. However Mother Nature, that fickle nemesis of most GA pilots had other ideas. Sometimes I think she does it on purpose.

I plogged (slang Matt and I use for Plotting/Logging) the route on Thursday night and then set about praying to the weather Gods as I had done the week before for my club check-out ride.

I religiously looked the the weather daily, trying to figure out what the clouds and rain were doing. There was a large band of cloud lying right across Europe lying NE/SW and it was slowly moving Eastwards. The forecasters were predicting it to sit right over Holland on Saturday. So I prayed for some wind to push it past us quickly. And it looks like my prayers were answered. At 9am I woke up and headed immediately to the PC and checked the satellite images and forecasts. The speed the rain was moving on the radar looked like we were still on. By the time we would leave it would have passed over us.

So my friend Lucy and I set off for the airport to meet Ian and Sofia there at around 1pm. The rain had stopped and we grabbed a coffee whilst I completed the weight and balance load sheet. As we finished the coffee, peeking off in the distant was some sunshine, teasing us to come folly in the sunshine rays. That was enough for me.....I needed to fly and now was as good a time as any.

I briefed the gang on emergencies, how to open the door and use the belts. The girls decided that they'd swap turns sitting in the co-pilot seat and will the plane fuelled and ready to go we started her up. My steed for today was Polder Aviation's PH-PJL.....I'm gonna call her "Me Julie". A quick chat to the tower in Lelystad, taxy to the active and away we went. The cloud was a wee bit low....scattered at 2000ft and we flew through a tiny rain show on our way South to the medieval city of Naarden. It's an old fortified city with the moats and things clearly visible. Lucy brought her camera and took some great photo's. We circled the city for a while and headed East.

I was hoping to get a sightseeing trip over Amsterdam but with the weather being the way it was I wasn't optimistic. But with my best Top Gun "radio voice" I called the folks in Schiphol tower, passed my details and was asked to standby. So we circled over the Ijsselmeer for a minute or two. Then they came back and said "PH-PJL is cleared to enter the CTR overhead the VFR Sector not above 1000ft on the QNH 1019, be advised VFR traffic in the area". I repeated the clearance and I told the gang that we were going in.

I made my way in via the water and aimed for the Centraal Station. On our way in I saw the other airplane leaving the sector and ATC told me that a police helicopter would be in the area too. I asked the guys to keep an eye out for other aircraft. Since I was not allowed above 1000ft I ended up having to overfly the city at around 800ft-1000ft. It's amazing to see just exactly how close you fly to tall buildings and churches. After a while I heard Ian shouting "I can see my apartment....right down there". I chuckled to myself and asked if they were ready to leave. We had orbited the city for about 15mins and I was keen to continue to Texel. They replied "Yes" and I informed ATC we were exiting to the North. They asked me to report clear and off we went.

The wind on the way up was stronger than forecast so I had to correct for it on the way up. I asked Amsterdam Info if I could switch to Den Helder Approach and I got the latest weather for Texel (beautiful day with sunshine and 10km's visibility) from them. The also told me there was parachuting going on in Texel, so that was another thing to watch out for. Now....this is where it got tricky. This is the first airport I have had to find on my own without ever having visited it before. Yeah, sure, I have been to other airfields solo, but we went there the previous day or two with my instructor Kevin, but this was brand new.....a grass airfield, with parachutists falling from the sky and a minimum approach height of 1500ft. Eventually I saw what looked like the airfield, gave them my position and was told it was a right hand circuit for runway 04. I slowed the plane down, deployed flaps (followed by a "What was that noise" from Ian in the back) and brought us in on final. Lucy was busy snapping away with the camera and I was concentrating like mad. Texel radio told me the grass was wet so not to brake.....wonderful!

The approach went well, but with four people in the back, I wasn't used to how sloppy "Me Julie" was at lower speeds, and the sink rate was a wee bit faster. But there was also a crosswind blowing 90 degrees to my left. I don't know which one was making me cock-up the landing but I flared a little bit too high and porpoised a little bit, but it was a softish landing. The gang thought I did great, but I wasn't happy about it. We taxied back to the control tower and I paid the landing fee. Since we were pushed for time, we would have to skip the $100 hamburger on this trip, because I needed to get the plane back shortly.

A quick co-pilot change, this time with Sofia in the front and everyone ready for the trip home we started "Me Julie" up and took off again. I had to do a soft field take-off because the runway was wet. I LOVE doing these....you lift the nose off during the take-off roll....then keep the plane in ground effect and build up speed....and then you shoot skyward and let the speed bleed off a bit. That started Ian and I off then on a whole Top Gun pa lava....."Jester's dead....yeehaw" or "Your writing cheques your body can't cash" and so on and so on.

We headed across the water back home towards Lelystad. We followed the route along the dijk and headed straight for the city of Lelystad. I'm amazed by the sheer size of the antenna's here....especially being so close to the airfield. But I could see the azure blue from the KLM B-737 static exhibit at the Air Museum at our airfield and called Lelystad Radio. The guys must have been having a bad day because all day long they sounded grumpy....reminds me of one guy in Gillespie, San Diego :-) I joined the circuit, slowed us down and set us up for an absolute greaser of a landing. I was definitely proud of THAT landing. We taxied back, shut her down and exited with Cheshire cat grins on each of our faces.

"Where to next?" I hear you ask....well the folks at Polder told the gang about an airfield in the German islands that is 200m walking distance from the beach. I guess that's Summer sorted out then :-)

Back in the saddle

Wow....what a difference a week makes. Last week it was torrential rain, 45kt gusting wind and visability of only 1km. But today the weather Gods were smiling on me. I had re-booked my check-out flight at Polder Aviation for today and I was worried that the weather would be more of the same. But a check at the weather sites showed that Saturday would be hot and miss and Sunday was sure to be a good one. And Lo and Behold....they were RIGHT!!! :-)

I have been studying the flight manual for the C150 like mad all this week. Revising the emergency drills and memorising the V-speeds. But one of the things that has had me worried all week is my performance during emergency drills like engine failure or the engine out gliding approach. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time before take off and met Rubden, my instructor for the day. This was my first time in the C150, and the plan behind it is that when I want a quick and cheap bimble, then I'll rent the C150, and when I want to take friends for a spin, then I'll take the bigger C172. Since I learned on the C172, they figured if I did well on the C150 then they'd sign me off on both.

Ruben took me out to the my steed for the day...PH-HIL (I've nicknamed her Hilena) and I did the walkround. The C150 is definately more snug than the C172....or as we say in Dutch....it's GEZELLIG. There's not much room from each other and the seats only adjust back and forth. But in I got, settled on my belt and got used to the layout. The panel is pretty much the same, although the engine instruments are way over to the right in front of the P2. And the flaps are annoying. It's a switch that you have to hold until the required flaps arrive where you want them. Not like the 172 which you just select and forget. AND the flap indicator is in the most awkward position.....in the frame near the door on the P1 position, which makes it hard to spot. That said, we started her up (having to prime her a good bit first) and then taxied out.

Lelystad is a new concept to me.....a busy uncontrolled airfield. I've been spoilt with having ATC at the fields I flew in in the States. So it was a bit weird having all this traffic doing what they were doing on their own bat. But I wasn't really daunted. We lined up and took off and departed to the West heading over towards the Ijsselmeer. We then tracked NE along the coast of the Flevo polder (this is all reclaimed land from the sea done in the 1950's) and climbed up to 2000ft into the class D airspace. Ruben then asked if I wanted to do some steep turns to get a feel for the airplane. So I did, starting with one to the right and then one to the left. I noticed that very little power was needed given it's so cold here. In San Diego I needed to belt in the power to maintain height, but because the engine is more efficient in the colder weather it maintains height at almost the same power setting as the cruise. We then headed SE and I did some engine failure practices and a PFL (Practiced Forced Landing) and had to halt the descent at 500ft so as not to break the law. Climbing back up to 1000ft, Ruben then pointed out some useful landmarks to use when transitioning to and from the airpot and also the gliding strip which I need to know about in order to avoid it.

We approached the airfield and descended to 700ft agl (standard circuit in Holland) and went for VRP Sierra which is the approach point for joining the circuit. But some clown in a PA-28 also wanted to aim for Sierra. He drifted about 200 metres off my left wing and I turned tight to join the downwind leg. I kept my speed up as someone was flying quite wide circuits and when I turned left for base leg, there was the idiot in the PA-28 again, off my left wing, also at 700ft and buzzing in front of me. It looked as though he was going to cut me up on the circuit and Ruben was going nuts. But eventually he kept flying past the turn for finals as though he was carrying on to the west. We called "Finals" and I did a flapless landing.

The first landing was quite good (for someone out of the saddle for 2 months) and we powered up and did another circuit. This time it was a full flap landing. Not so good this time and I was getting used to the strong wind in the crosswind leg. The nose attitudein the 150 is different than that of the 172 also. It's more nose up than the flatter approach of the 172. A roughish landing and off again. This time the next one was better and we decided to do a glide approach. But someone was flying wide circuits ahead of us and so we had to improvise a little. The same idiot who was flying wide circuits was also using up the ENTIRE runway when he landed. The runway is 1200m long, and there's no way he needs that much. We did a go around and tried again. This time we had an empty circuit and I executed a fairly good glide approach. Finally we did one more landing, a normal one. Everything was looking OK, but on final, the speed started to drop rapidly. So I had to lower the nose down a lot....but then the ground was coming up fast, so I flared.....a little too early, and I heard the stall warning as the wheels kissed the ground. We called it a day and Ruben said he was happy with my flying.

So that's it.....I'm signed off to use Polder's planes and have now flown in de land of dose crazshy Dutch. Hopefully next weekend will be good weatherwise too so I can finally take my friends up for a spin. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed.

I miss the California sun

This weekend was supposed to be a fun weekend. I had booked a flight with an instructor this weekend to find out more about the local flying area and to get checked out on the C150. It's a smaller plane than the C172 I trained on, and consequently it costs less to rent. The idea behind it was that should I want to go flying on my own, just to keep current, then I could rent the C150 and then when I need the bigger C172 to take friends up, I just rent one of those. Sadly though, Mother Nature took it upon herself to bugger up the weather. Outside it's grey (albeit high cumulus clouds) with intermittent light rain and gusts up to 45kts!!! The rain and clouds are doable.....but the gusts meant that its bumpy and turbulent both int he air and near the surface. So after scheduling for Saturday and then re-scheduling for Sunday, I've had to scrub both flights completely. Hopefully next weekend will be better, but I have a feeling that I'm going to be saying that alot over the coming months.

Roll on Summer sunshine.....

Road trip with a difference

Well after several weeks trying to settle on what we were going to do, where to do it and when, Matt and I have now finalised our next big adventure. We're going to learn how to do aerobatics. Well, actually, I am and Matt i still trying to decide on whether he'll do the aerobatics course or the Unusual Attitudes course. The aeros course is what it says on the box...learning how to do aerobatics like those nutters you see at the air shows. But the Unusual Attitudes course is more of an extra bag of tricks to get yourself out of those hairy situations. Both courses are apparantly similar with a slightly different emphasis on certain things on each course. We'll do the course in a school that was both found individually by Matt and then also came recommended seperately by my friend John in San Diego. It's called Unusual Attitude in Livermore, California.

The course is 8 hours long, and the plan is for us to complete the course in the first week (in the first few days) and then for the 2nd week to rent a plane and go on a road trip, or in our case, an air trip. We've settled on trips around the Bay Area in San Francisco, to Lake Tahoe, the Mojave airport where the aircraft graveyard is, and also a trip to San Diego to visit our old school in Gillespie. We've let John and Janis know about the trip, so we'll try and meet up with them either in San Diego or arrange a "fly-in" somewhere else and have dinner with them. I think a trip to either Reno, Vegas or Oregon to see the volcanoes is also on the cards.

The only thing now we need to sort out is accomodation. We'll probably settle for B&B's....something cheap, cheerful and comfy and vary where we stay when we're doing the air trip, and choose a place for the week we'll be in Livermore. And the best part is that I managed to get Matt and I biz class tickets with KLM there and back. So we'll be flying in comfort and style going there ;-) I cannot wait.

There's a bit of paperwork involved. We need to get our JAA licences endorsed by the US FAA...which means sending a form to the CAA to allow them release our details to the FAA, then sending a form to the FAA asking for a US licence and then dropping into the FAA's FSDO office in Oakland to get our FAA licences. We already have our medicals, so that's not a problem. And we can get the FAA thing when we arrive in San Francisco. I cannot wait. This will certainly get me through the Winter months.

Another development is that I will be shortly moving to Ukraine with Cisco. I'll be the new controller (actually the first controller) for the Ukraine/CIS region. I am trying to find out if my JAA licence is valid in Ukraine, but you can imagine the problems I'm having trying to get them to answer etc. But hopefully it will all work out. And there's a guy in the office who flys a Yak!!! It's aerobatics rated, which means that I can borrow it and chuck it around the sky when the mood takes me :-) Keep your fingers crossed that it all works out.

That's it for now.

My Licence has arrived!!!!

Great news everyone. My pilots licence arrived this morning, courtesy of UPS. I just happened to decide to work from home this morning (getting over a cold) and the doorbell rang. When I took the parcel in, I saw the CAA stamp on the envelope, so I tore the thing open. And inside was my brand spanking new licence :-)

The ONLY downside is that it isn't as sexy looking as I thought it would be. For starters, the booklet thing it comes in is "poo brown".....hence why it's known coloquially as the "pooh book". And the licence itself isn't very ornate looking. I've seen an example of a Dutch one and it looks nice and official looking. But still, I have it and now I am OFFICIALLY, in the eyes of the State, a PILOT!!!

I'm off again this weekend to check out another flying club, and hopefully the weather will improve so that I can go up for a spin. It's bugging me that I haven't been flying in a while. My friend Matt was up last week, and he said he had to deal with 17kt crosswinds. I think the weather is less aggressive here right now, but I'm looking forward to bimbling in Cloggie airspace :-)

Blue skies everyone and ping me when you fancy a jaunt above Terra Firma.

Sent off my licence to the CAA

When I started this flying malarchy, I knew it was a costly hobby, but after filling out the forms, I found out that my licence itself will cost £300!!! Daylight robbery. Anyway, I hope to get the stuff back in a few weeks. I sent it via DHL, so it should get there by Friday at the latest :-).....I'm SO excited :-)

A HUGE big thank you for everyone who made this possible

Firstly, I want to thank Kevin, my instructor, for teaching me how to fly and making it possible to get my pilots licence. Your patience, trust and encouragement was fantastic, and I will also keep my fingers and toes crossed for you that you get the Jet job soon.

I would also like to thank the boys in the "Squadron". They are Sqdn Ldr Matt Arman, Mark "The Machine" Nulty and James "Jimbo" Bayes. Your encourage and drive and belief that I was MORE than ready for the writtens and to stop faffing was the boot up the arse I needed. Especially Mark....who's passing his writtens in a fortnight must be a record!!! Matt, I will be forever grateful for your help throughout, especially when it came to the Nav and how to use that fecking Whizz-wheel.

Then there's Paolo and Enrico. Two crazy Italian's who are the funniest pilots I have ever met. Paolo, your drive and determination is an inspiration and the fact that you never give up has inspired me to believe that I too can do anything I put my mind to, as long as I don't give up. When you're "climbing like a monkey" out of your aerobat, then I'll know you've achieve that one huge goal. Enrico.....what can I say to Enrico. I hope that you get BOTH your greencard AND your type rating but that you do it whilst behaving yourself with the ladies. Thank you for your help and support and for making everyday and fun day at the airfield.

Janis and John.....you both know that you're near and dear to me and your advice was what I needed and I hope your ears (when I was complaining) recover after I'm gone. John.....Matt and I are going to get our taildragger endorsements, so we'll be seeing you again soon ;-)

And Laulu......for knowing that I could do it and for believing in me that I could do it. Kiitos kultaseni.

I'm a Pilot!!!!

Mission Accomplished ;-)

The day of reckoning came, and I passed. The weather might have been shit, my examiner was a little kooky and kept trying to fly the plane when I was doing it, and he made up the flight as we went along becaus eof the fact that the weather weas clagging in. But I got the result I wanted. I passed my checkride, I have the rubber stamp in my log book and I've all the forms filled and countersigned to send to the CAA to get my licence.

I'm looking forward to going to the flight schools here and renting a plane and taking friends up for a spin around Holland. I really cannot wait :-)

Flight test scrubbed

Well today has been a comedy of errors, only I'm not laughing. I woke up this morning at the crack of dawn to meet Kevin with the intention of flying out to Phoenix to pick up our examiner, Victor. We would then sit the test on the way back and he needed to come back to examine someone else also. But it's has been raining and really shitty weather all day today.

Kevin checked the weather, didn't like the look of it (thunderstorms and icing conditions) so we held off for a while to see if it would improve. While we waited, Kevin said he'd head off home and come back. He came back, but with a huge gash in his head. Apparently he'd walloped his head against a cupboard door and cut open his head. So he went of to get stitches. So I was paired with the guy who did my stagecheck the other day.

I preflighted the plane, fueled her up and taxied back to pick up Mike. We'd be flying IFR (on instruments) to get there because of the weather. When Mike got his clearance, his phone rang. It was Victor. He was calling to scrub the flight because when all was said and done, by the time we'd have gotten there and prepped for coming back, it'd be dark. And Victor didn't want to fly night IFR on the way back. So it looks like I'm doing it tomorrow. But tomorrow is D-day for sure because I'm flying back on Monday!! Please everyone.....keep your fingers and toes crossed that it all works out tomorrow.

Skills test today......with a twist

So it seems my examiner had to go off to Phoenix to sort out some personal stuff....taxes and such like, which menat he was to be picked up to come back here and test myself and some other girl. But he's now dreamed up a plan that myself and Kevin fly out there at the crack of dawn to pick him up, and then the flight back will basically be my flight test!!!

I'm more worried now than ever, because I don't kn ow the terrain and don't know all the little airfields there. I'll also have Kevin in the back when the test is being done, which means I'll have extra weight in the plane when I do my "Practice Forced Landings" and my various other landings. I'm not a happy bunny, and if I fail the test, I'll ask immediately for a new one....in San Diego!

Please keep your fingers and toes crossed and say a wee prayer for me that I pass.

Stage check is done......here's the verdict

Well I did my stage check this afternoon. Everything seems OK, and got some good pointers. Did it with this small Latino bloke called Mike Diaz.

We took off from Gillespie, and as soon as we departed East, he had me put on the "foggles" which are glasses which limit your vision to just the instruments. He had me fly headings, climb at specific speeds etc and I felt I nailed it. He said I did well on that part, no problems.

Then we did some slow flight. We did slow flight without flaps...never did it before, so he gave me a speed to fly and I did that. Did pretty good, and then also some slow flight with flaps. Again, no real problem. Then we did some stalls. First one.....a clean stall, wasn't great. Not enough rudder from the beginning and then I had to carefully not over correct. His tip was not to be afraid of the rudders and to use them to stop moving side to side. Overall it was OK though.

Then we did "turn to final" and "final approach" stalls. It was a little difficult to get the turn to final stall setup. But once I got it, I recovered well. The final approach stall was good too.

Then he pulled an engine failure out of the bag. I did the drill and set best glide, but I'd forgotton to retract the flaps and we were dropping faster than normal. He asked why were we dropping faster and I said "shit", retracted the flaps and set us up for a forced landing. His biggest tip was to not just work from memory, but to also go through the checklist when I've got everything done to make sure I got everything covered. He said that because I had forgotten to do the Mayday call. D'OH!!!!

Anyway, picked a field, coasted out and turned base leg and then final. But it's very difficult to get the height sorted out. SO I was a little high, and had to slip. Wasn't the best PFL, but was good enough. We'd have landed safely, albeit a slightly worse for wear airplane. Climbed out and went to do steep turns.

I learned something new here too.....Kevin has taught me, and as do the books read, that you put in full power for the steep turns. But he asked why I did. So I told him it was how I was taught. He told me you don't have to, so I pulled back on the power. Turns were OK, but he gave me a tip to pull the power back as I roll out of the turn.

We headed off home and did some touch and go's. I did the checklists and he wanted to see a shortfield landing. It was a bitch, because ATC had us do a straight in approach. This is annoying, because when you're in the circuit, you have specific turning points and the picture is set in your mind. But coming in straight, you have to amend everything. Consequently I came in a little high. I still made the number, because I had to side slip like to loose height, and I landed in a very short distance, so no biggy....but I was just vexed because it wasn't a smooth landing. But if I remember what Neale said (one of the senior instructors who did my pre-solo checkride) said, "If you've landed and you and the plane are all in one piece, it doesn't matter then how slick it was....all that will come later and you can work on your finesse"

The next landing was supposed to be a short approach landing (i.e. pretend the engine is out). But Mike was too late in asking ATC, so we did a soft field landing instead. Because we were too late, I was a little late setting up the plane, and again a little too high. Once again a little sideslipping was needed, and I landed OK. Nose was kept off for as long as I could and we came off the taxiway and headed back.

So his tips were not to be frightened of the rudders when stalling, to remember the pull out the checklist for everything (even when doing stuff from memory), and not to put in full power in the steep turns and pull out the power when turning wings level.

Some night flying later tonight with Kevin, and it now seems the checkride will be Saturday now and NOT Friday....fucking hell.....I think that means no Mirimar this year :-(

Bimble up to find Billy Joe

This morning saw me get into the school and prep for a solo ride up towards French Valey to locate a private airfield called Billy Joe. Why?....I hear you ask me? Well, because it's one of the designated diversion fields for my checkride flight and it's NOTORIOUSLY difficult to find. When I got there, I spent about 15 mins circling trying to find it, and then had to fly radials from two of the lakes there to try and pin point it. EVENTUALLY, I managed to find it, but fuck me is it difficult. It's nestled in between a bunch of houses, so almost looks like a normal road from the air. I made a note of where it is in relation to other big features, so I should be able to spot it when I do my test tomorrow.

Later this afternoon I'll do my stage check with another instructor to make sure I'm ready for my test and then tonight Kevin and I will do some more night flying to complete my Night Rating. The clock is ticking down closer and closer to the big day. I can already feel my tummy churning. Better grab some Peptobismal and continue with memorising my Emergency Drills.

Last written paper passed

Good news everyone. I have passed both my last written paper AND my R/T Licence practical test. Now all I need to do is sit a stage check with another instructor so they can see if I'm ready for my checkride and of course the checkride itself which is scheduled for Friday.

I only got two questions out of a total of 50 wrong in my written test....not bad, even if I do say so myself. I was up till very late last night cramming and revising for the R/T practical and I arranged with Kevin to take today off from flying so I could concentrate on the written exam. I was planning to sit that one tomorrow, but after memorising the answers in the confuser and reading the books I felt as ready as I was ever going to be and sat it int he afternoon.

I made a couple of mistakes during my R/T practical, for example, getting my callsign a bit muddled in the beginning (I still have ZP and GF on the brain) and repeating one or two things I didn't need to from time to time. But the examiners main concern was that I knew my Mayday calls, I knew my direction finding calls (if I ever get lost) and that my basic radio etiquette was up to scratch. He was happy enough and said he noticed how much better I got as it prgressed and I started to calm down and relax. So now I'm licenced to operate a radio in the air :-)

Tonight will be spent memorising the emergency procedures and the aircraft settings for the different manouvres I'll need to do during my checkride, and hopefully the weather will be good enough for me to sit it on Friday, because I really want to go to the Mirmar airshow on Saturday.

So today was a VERY good day....no more written exams and the countdown is ever closer to the deciding flight. Am I nervous ?......Is the Pope Catholic? :-)

And then there was one

Well, the day of Matt's leaving has finally come. The last three weeks with him, and the rest of the guys, have been fantastic. I, however, am left to fend for myself for the remainder of my stay, which is only 6 more days.

I've learned a lot from the guys, not just flying, but lots of other things too. And I want to thank each and every one of them for their help, support and for being good mates, helping share a laugh and a tall tale.

I think I have made some really good friends who I hope to plan many a bimble together and share our passion for flying.

Matt, I hope you had a safe (albeit LONG) trip back and that your licence doesn't take too long in making its way from Blighty to the Fjords of Norway. I'll miss your support and advice about the exams, but I hope to be winging my way to do a bit of Fjord flying Noggie style in the none too distant future.

Something old and something new.

Today, Kevin and I flew up to Borrego Valley airport. The plan??? To work on my landings prior to my checkride and to also work on "short field approaches", also known as engine out landings. I had a lot of fun, although one or two were slightly heavy because I misjudged my heaight a wee bit. But I had fun doing the short field approaches. On the first one, Kevin pulled the power on me without telling me and said "Engine failure". So I went through the drill, trimming for best glide speed, spotting the airfield and then checking the fuel tanks on both, fuel mixture is set to rich, carb heat is on, magneto's are on both. All the time I'm doing this, I'm watching my approach back to the airfield.....or area I've chosen to land, to make sure that I canb make it. As soon as I know I can make it then I bring in flap to help loose height. I had to slide slip in to loose height, but I think that's good. Afterall, it's better to be slightly too high than slightly too low.

We headed home and grabbed something to eat. Matt had his "Triple triple burger" from In & Out burger. Since he heard about it a week ago he's planned to have it before he leaves, which is tomorrow sadly. So we got our burgers, and I prepped for the night flight. Since I've done my minimum solo and dual hours I can now fly at night with Kevin to gain my Night Rating. The main advice from Kevin was about depth perception and how it can trick you to think you're at the right height when you're actually too high. I got caught out about twice, and on one occaision Kevin admitted he'd even been caught out on it too. Made me feel less bad after the slightly heavy landing that my instructor even thought it looked OK. But mostly I got the knack of flying at night. The only two things that I noted were that it's harder taxying than flying at night and secondly, for some reason I kept coming in slightly right of the centreline. I never do that during the day, but I asked Matt and he said he noticed the same when he was flying.

I'll do another stint in the afternoon and again a night flight with Kevin, and I'm really looking forward to it. The downside to tomorrow........Matt's leaving for home, which means I'll be on my own for the remainder of the week :-(

Another one bites the dust....

Another exam out of the way. That makes 6 with one more left. I'm planning to sit that one on Thursday, in time for my checkride which is scheduled for Thursday. I basically memorised everything in the "Confuser" and then sat the exam. So that's "Flight Planning" out of the way.

Another one bites the dust....

Another exam out of the way. That makes 6 with one more left. I'm planning to sit that one on Thursday, in time for my checkride which is scheduled for Thursday. I basically memorised everything in the "Confuser" and then sat the exam. So that's "Flight Planning" out of the way.

The floating city that is USS Midway

Matt and I took the afternoon off and headed out to the USS Midway. It's an old aircraft carrier moored in San Diego harbour and is open to the general public to see whatlife aboard a working carrier was like. My first impressions??? I'd say it was VERY hot, VERY sweaty and VERY cramped....not my cup of tea. It was interesting to see what life was like and to see those conditions first hand, but after a while we got a little bored because we really came to drool over the planes on board :-) Here are some pics I took. Enjoy.

Me looking like a git in front of an F-9 Panther













President Matt boarding his personal Helo













The old reliable F-14 Tomcat....an oldie, but a classic!













My favourite fighter jet of all time, the F-18

F-4 Phantom in front of the Flight Deck Control

The ubiquitous "Huey", a Vietnam veteran, some of which we've seen coverted into forest fire fighters flying out of Gillespie












The F-8 Crusader, which I thought was a Corsair...but anyway. Nice pic in front of the Flight Control deck.


















T-2 Buckeye....despite the ugly name, I think she's a bit of a looker

Finally I did my X-country solo

As I had previously mentioned, I had some problems trying to get my long x-country flight done. The first day I was supposed do it I scrubbed it due to bad weather. I rung the weather brief guys and they mentioned lots of lovely things like "visibility obscured in the hills", "thunderstorms in the area" and "winds gusting at 34kts".....all wonderful things you DON'T want to meet when you're alone and many hundreds of miles from home.

The next day saw Matt and I go for a jaunt in my friend John's BEAUTIFUL bi-plane. I made my way to the school while Matt was having fun doing lazy eights and I replotted my route with the weather. The weather was behaving itself at least....but someone had take "Foxy Girl" up on a checkride and didn't get back on time. As the minutes, and then hours, ticked by, John was saying if it was him he wouldn't go up because the visibility was worsening as the evening came in and the haze was quite bad aloft. So I decided I'd scrub it again and go for a jaunt up towards French Valley to familiarise myself with the area I'd fly in during my flight test. But I got halfway there and had to turn back because sure enough, that clag John had predicted made it impossible to see very far. So home I came.

The following day was much better though. I woke up to blue skies, no clouds and made my way in to the school. Replotted the route for the winds again (3rd time's a charm) and off I went. I was flying "Foxy Girl" for this one and felt quite happy in the fact that she had GPS which, if all else fails and I find myself having the same general sense of direction as my mother, I could switch it on and figure out where to go. Luckily Kevin had showed me how to use it on our duel flight a few days earlier.

But something was amiss as soon as I set-off. I noticed that the track I was flying was taking me away from the track I wanted. Which meant one thing....the bloody winds on the NOAA website were old...AGAIN!!! To be honest, the weather available to pilots in the U.S. is bollocks. They only update the winds twice a day, so they can be 12 hours old when you use them. Unlike in Europe which updates the weather 6 times a day!!! So I had to make course corrections in flight. I made it safely to stop number one.....Imperial Airport. Here was were the fun started. First of all, I was too high coming in to land. So I sideslipped all the way in, but then I floated a good bit down the runway because I was carrying about 5kts too much, and I had a heavier than normal landing. On top of that, I need to get a piece of paper signed by a witness to prove I was there. But do you think I could find anyone? There wasn't a soul about. I must have walked round for about 20 mins, until I saw this guy running along the fence on the outside. BINGO....I nabbed him (he was apparantly having trouble with his own plane or something) and he signed my paper. And off I went to stop #2...Thermal airport.

This was much better....flew in, approached the runway....which is very very VERY long, and made a nice soft shortfield landing. I stopped right were the exit to taxi to the ramp is and made my way there. I couldn't remember where I needed to go to get my paper signed, so I called Matt and he gave me dirtections. A brisk walk there and an ice-cream later and I had my second signature. I basked in the sunshine.....about 30C, chatted the nice lady there for about 5 mins and went for a pee before setting off again. I was now beginning to feel like a real pilot....having a set destination to go to, a flight plan to follow etc etc. Off I went and headed South to avoid the looming mountains to my right. I think most of all that I'll miss seeing mountains when I get back to Amsterdam.....It'll be weird flying around a country that's as flat as a pancake. Anyway, I intercepted a radial for a Julian VOR (a radio beacon) and flew towards it, over Borrego Valley airport. But between Borrego valley airport and the VOR the winds became turbulent. At one stage I dropped about 200ft in a matter of seconds. So I climbed higher hoping to get out of the downdraughts. It helped, but only a little bit. I overflew Julian and aimed South to El Capitan reservoir. I heard one of the other instructors, John Locke, doing the same trip with one of his students only going the other way, so I told them about the severe turbulence. And shortly afterwards I was nearing Gillespie, pre-landing checklist complete and clearance from the tower. But again, nearing the field, between two hills...Rattlesnake hill and Twin Peaks I encoutered some windshear. I dropped 200ft odd and lost about 10 knots in airspeed. But I landed safely and let ATC know about the windshear. They warned other pilots about it and I taxied home. All in all a pretty eventful, adventurous and fun trip. I can't wait to do another one....next time as a fully fledged pilot :-) Matt and I relaxed for the rest of the day by going to see the USS Midway, an old aircraft carrier.

Joy ride pics

This is John's baby.















John pre-flighting

Me trying to climb into the plane.

Who is this handsome devil?

"Roger Red Leader....Bandits in sight....Tally Ho!!"

Claython and John together after our flight