Day 14

The beginning of week 4 of my training, and with the weather set to be flyable all this week, I hope to get to the half way point by Friday. I now have 9.8 hours in my logbook, out of a minimum of 28 for the course requirement. 1.4 of those hours were today on a NavEx, or navigational exercise.

Navigating in the air can be a tricky business. Pilots never get lost however, they simply report being 'temporarily unsure of position.

To the left is a map of my route today.

We took off from Bournemouth and headed generally NW until we found Blandford Forum. Then I had to fly as accurately as possible my planned heading (taking account of the true bearing, magnetic deviation and wind variation) to try to get to Branscome at my planned ETA. The black hand-drawn line on the map shows you the route.

Then north to Bridgwater again with a planned heading and ETA, and then finally east over Street and Castle Cary to arrive at the small village of Tisbury, again using a planned heading and ETA.

Having done this lots in the Cessna (or the Cesspit as I heard an Air Traffic Controller refer to one today) I thought it would be fairly straightforward. However the GPS is not allowed to be used during training, and at 140kts airspeed, there's not much time to think. Blandford Forum to Branscome, 15 minutes. Branscome to Bridgwater, 10 minutes.

My instructor, Mark, also did a very interesting thing. After making each turn and getting set-up straight and level, he'd take away my map, and only give it back 3 minutes before the ETA for my next turn. That way, I was forced to fly heading, speed and height targets, and not worry about the nav until nearly at my next waypoint.

You may think this is unfair, but actually its the best way to fly. With the map on your lap, the subtle tendency is to start meandering around, flying from town to town, looking down all the time. This way you could go wrong and get completely lost. By flying a heading and then seeing how that matches up with the map half way along a 10 minute leg, you can then measure any error and correct it. If you are 3 degrees off track after 5 minutes due to the wind blowing you off course, then by making a 6 degree correction to your heading (3 to get you parallel and 3 to bring you back in) you will hopefully have got back on track by the end of the leg. Anyway, its complicated but fun, and there's more tomorrow so I'll not bore you further.

Day 13

Today was great weather to be in the simulator.

The FNPT1 sim is an artificial cockpit complete with all instruments, levers and gauges, but with no external visual or movement simulation. I (the student) fly the sim in exactly the same way as a real aircraft, commencing with the startup sequence and take-off. The instructor can manipulate various parameters via the attached computer, so for example component failures can be set-up and other unusual situations simulated.

The aim of my training session today was to become familiar with the sim, and also to practice basic instrument flying techniques. The key skill is to develop appropriate scans of the key instruments in different phases of flight, and to make inputs on the flight controls in order to ensure that the aircraft follows your intended path in height, direction and speed. Simple eh?

Day 12

And so now to the CPL. This is a 22 hour course, of which 4 will be in a simulator and 18 will be in the Beech Duchess.

Today we went out in the Duchess at around 3pm, flew north from Bournemouth to an area just south of Salisbury, and practiced stalls and steep turns, or in pilot parlance, 'general handling' for an hour.

A stall is the condition where the aircraft wings can no longer fly. It occurs at a certain speed (the stall speed) but is primarily caused by an excessive angle of attack (the angle that the airflow hits the wing). Here is a picture to demonstrate:
Once the wing is stalled, with all that turbulent airflow, there is no lift and so the aircraft tends to go down rather quickly. The pilot must either unstall the wings, or suffer what we call 'severe ground effect'. If a stall is handled badly it can develop into a spin, which if also handled badly might hasten the onset of severe ground effect, but this time with dizziness.

So in order to ensure that I become a really good, safe pilot, we practiced recovery from the fully developed clean stall, the incipient approach stall (gear down and 20 degree flap, in a turn) and the incipient landing stall (gear and full flap) several times. Phew!

Day 11

Well the Radar was fixed by this morning, and so I was able to complete my consolidation flight (just less than an hour) of various circuits and simulated engine failures.

I was also able to do the Multi-Engine class rating written test this afternoon, and so my Multi-Engine specific training is now complete.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, the CPL training starts. The majority of this is cross-country navigation, and so if you live in Southern England, watch out for one of the following aircraft overhead: G-BODX, G-BGRG, or G-MULT.

If I know in advance where we'll be flying, I'll try to put this on the blog the night before.

Day 10

NOTAM: A notice to airmen (and women).

As I drive down the M3 and M27 each day to Bournemouth from Basingstoke, I am impressed with the new electronic notice boards that have appeared, telling you how many miles and minutes it will take to get to Newbury, for example, or reminding you to 'Take extra care at Roadworks'. Of course these are also extremely useful for conveying urgent information about congestion, accidents or any other problem on the roads.

But how do you alert pilots to problems such as a low-flying aerobatic display, a change of frequency or an airfield that is unexpectedly closed? After all there are no matrix boards in the sky?

For many years now NOTAMs have been the primary means for news concerning hazards or abnormal situations at airports or in the enroute phase of flying. NOTAMs previously were transmitted to airfields by telex or fax. Of course nowadays a pilot can log on to the internet and view all the NOTAMs pertinent to their flight. If you'd have done that today for a flight to or from Bournemouth you'd have discovered the following NOTAM:

AERODROME (DEPARTURE) - EGHH (BOURNEMOUTH HURN) :
RAC : Q)EGTT/QSPLT/IV/BO/AE/000/999/5047N00151W005
     FROM 08/03/24 17:30 TO 08/03/25 21:00             
     E)NO RADAR SERVICE AVBL DUE RADAR U/S

Basically this means that the radar was broken at Bournemouth from yesterday evening to this evening. Actually another NOTAM has since been issued, saying that the radar will not be working tomorrow morning either.

As a result, as I left the M3 and joined the M27 this morning my instructor left a message to say that there would be no flying for us today. Without the radar, Bournemouth Air Traffic Control were unwilling to offer any circuit training, and unfortunately the next two sorties for me will include circuits. So I turned around at the next exit and was back in Basingstoke by 9am.

Hopefully the radar will be fixed at some point tomorrow.

Day 9

My friend John Crump has asked about whether the 'plane is heated. Well the Duchess does have a heater, but unlike most single engined aircraft, which use heat directed from the engine to heat the cabin, the Duchess, having engines out on the wings, has a separate unit.

This runs on Aviation Gasoline (AvGas, the same stuff that the engines use), but it burns in a cylindrical box just in front of the pilots' feet. Sounds dodgy? Yep, it is. But the worst thing is that they are notorious for going wrong, so yesterday we flew without one, and after an hour I couldn't feel my feet.

Today however the heater was working on the aircraft, and so we flew in relative comfort. More circuits, and as promised, they included simulated engine failures. It's even more hard work than yesterday, with the speed at which everything happens being the biggest challenge. If only I could slow down time or speed up my brain.

Still, that exercise is complete, and apart from a short flight to consolidate my progress so far, the Multi-engine training is now complete. Next comes the CPL, which is made up of around 4 hours in a simulator and 18 hours in the Duchess, followed by a CAA test with an Examiner. The syllabus is mainly related to navigation techniques and some instrument flying, along with 'general handling' which is what the last two weeks have been about.

Day 8

Circuit flying today. A circuit is a short flight of between 6 and 10 minutes, comprising a take-off, a sequence of turns all in the same direction, staying close to the airfield, and a landing. It follows a specific pattern (although these can differ at different airfields) and pilots spend a lot of time flying circuits, often one after another in a continuous sortie. You fly one circuit, land, quickly reconfigure the aircraft for take-off while is still rolling along the runway, apply full power and take-off again. Here is an example left-hand circuit (so called because after take-off, you can see that all the turns (on the solid line) are to the left:


The good thing about circuits is that you can practice up to 10 take-offs and landings in an hour. Certainly the Beech Duchess will perform a circuit in around 6 minutes, although the other air traffic at Bournemouth can cause delays to that (at one point today I had to orbit on the downwind leg for about 5 minutes to make way for a 737).

The bad thing is that everything happens quickly, especially in the Beech, and so there is little time to think about or enjoy the experience. I was certainly tired by the end of my circuits today. More tomorrow, this time asymmetric. That's right, flying a circuit with one engine shut down. Does that sound like a good idea?

Unfortunately it is of course very necessary to know how to do that, in case the day comes when it is unavoidable.

Day 7

Flying again at 9 this morning. My turn to suffer engine failures just south of the Needles (Isle of Wight, see picture opposite).

Engine failures in the twin demand a lot of rudder initially, so very tired legs (equivalent to pushing over 50kgs with the leg opposite the failed engine) . The drills are also quite long, so a very tired brain after just 30 mins or so of practice.

Then this afternoon we had another briefing, this time on performance. That is aircraft performance, in case you were thinking that Gary and I would be hitting the cabaret scene in Dorset any time soon...

Aircraft performance: Question. Why does the co-pilot shout 'V1, V2, rotate' in all those aviation films?

1) because it sounds cool
2) because the aircraft is trying to avoid Nazi rockets of the same names?
3) because V1 is the highest speed at which the pilot could abort the take-off (so once V1 is reached he/she is obliged to continue the take-off), and V2 is the speed at which the aircraft nose should be rotated (raised) in order to lift-off. If you get to V1 but fail to achieve V2 you really are having a very bad day indeed.
4) none of the above

Hint: as usual with multi-choice questions, it is often safest to opt for the longest and most complicated answer.

More tantalising performance questions tomorrow....

By the way, please feel free to let me know what you think of my blog (boring, silly, irrelevant, or otherwise) and anything else that you would like me to include.

Day 6

Hooray, another flying day today.

We took off at 10.30, with Gary in the back and me in the hot seat. The lesson was 'Asymmetric 1', which means flying the aircraft at different speeds, configurations and attitudes while simulating the loss of one (but not both!) engines.

The aircraft rapidly yaws (skews) to one side and then rolls in the same direction, due to the asymmetric thrust produced when one engine is working and the other isn't. So the pilot has to control the yaw and roll with rudder and aileron respectively, and then complete the engine failure shutdown drills, making sure first of all that the failed engine is correctly identified. Otherwise you might shut down the good one and really be in trouble. A bit like amputating the healthy leg by mistake....

Anyway, Gary then flew again late this afternoon with me in the back. We flew out to the south of the Isle of Wight, just beyond the Needles, and practiced simulated engine failures after takeoff at around 300ft over the water. Cool. My turn tomorrow.

Day 5

No flying again today. The weather looks better for the first part of next week though.

So I left Bournemouth just after just after lunch, went home, and painted the bathroom!

Day 4

A disappointing day today. The aircraft that we 'broke' yesterday is still in the hangar being fixed. In case you are interested, a failed shuttle valve was the main culprit. The shuttle valve directs hydraulic fluid in one of two directions (for raising and lowering the gear, respectively) and since the careful reader will have noticed yesterday that the gear was still retracting under hydraulics, you may have already worked out that the 'down' side of the shuttle valve must be the problem. Top marks if you did.

Anyway, in addition to being one aircraft down, the weather also got worse as the day wore on, so although another aircraft was available later, there was no flying today.

Gary and I did some more book work and practiced our take-off and airfield approach drills in the simulator, so at least it felt like we were student pilots.

The weather for tomorrow looks no better, with poor viz (visibility, in pilot speak!) all day.

We shall see...

Day 3

Another windy day in South-East England, but not enough to stop some foolish trainee pilots and their intrepid instructor from braving the 30kt gusting wind...

For the first part of my training (the Multi-Engined syllabus) I am paired up with Gary. Since yesterday he sat in the back while I bounced the aircraft around, today it was my turn to be the observant student passenger, while Gary and our instructor, Mike, flew the first exercise (General Handling) again.

We departed at around 10, having first chased the aircraft paperwork half-way across the airfield after a strong gust of wind took it. A bad sign. Was there worse to come?

After a straightforward but bumpy start, we headed north again, near Blandford, to practice stalls and turns. One of the stalls has to be practiced using flap and gear down, as if the aircraft were in the landing configuration. For obvious reasons this is not practiced anywhere near the ground!

So Gary selected 'gear down' as usual, and waited for the 'three greens' to appear (these being the green lights in the cockpit that indicates each of the landing gear wheels is down and locked).

And he waited, and waited some more. After about a minute it became clear that the three greens were not coming. Not even one. Gary cycled the gear lever again, but still nothing.

Here is a picture of another pilot just before touching down without the gear down. Apparently he landed unscathed, which is more than can be said for the aircraft. Just google 'belly-up landings' to see some interesting examples of what happens next.

Ahem, so what next for us? Fortunately the Duchess is fitted with a manual emergency gear release system. This is a trap door beneath the pilot's seat that reveals a small valve. Opening the valve releases the hydraulic pressure keeping the gear up, and gravity then assists in bringing the gear to a down and locked position. Since this was going to be the next thing to practice anyway, Gary duly opened the trapdoor and the valve and within a few seconds three greens appeared. Great.

Strangely enough the hydraulic system was working sufficiently well enough to re-retract the gear, but once again it failed to open. So with it fully demonstrated that a) the hydraulic gear extend was not working but b) the manual emergency system courtesy of Sir Isaac Newton was working fine, we returned to base, Gary executed anther manual execution of the system, and landed the aircraft gently after a very gusty and difficult approach. Happy to be on the ground!

Its my turn again tomorrow, asymmetric flight (that's where one engine has failed or is shut-down). Can't wait.

Day 2

Another wet and windy day, but after a morning briefing and studying, we were able to fly.

The Duchess cockpit is roomy and all the buttons look like they belong to a real aircraft, rather than the small plastic bits and bobs found in the beloved Cessna 150.

Also big, proper throttle, propeller and mixture levers (and two of each!).

After some familiarisation with the layout and starting procedures, I took-off and did an hour of flying to the north of Bournemouth. The cloudbase was a problem, but we managed to find a small pocket of clear sky just north of Blandford, where we climbed up to 6500ft and did some stalls, tight turns, and practiced the emergency gear extension procedure.

The weather then started closing in rapidly so we expedited a descent adn made it back to Bournemouth just before the heavens opened again. My first landing in the Duchess was OK, a little high initially and then a slightly overenthusiastic flare, so we balloned a little, but she settled back to the runway. A very forgiving aircraft, apparently.

Overall a good start I think. Lots to learn though, and now I need to go and study for tomorrow.

Monday 10th March: Day 1

Today was the first day of my CPL (Commercial Pilot's License) course, at Bournemouth International Airport. It also happened to be the worst weather day of 2008 so far, and unsuitable for my initial flying. In Bournemouth, we had horizontal rain and a thunderstorm. The wind at 1000ft was 65kts and the wind at 2000ft was reported at one point to be 85kts.

(just for perspective, the venerable Cessna 150, which I have been flying since October, cruises at around 85kts at 2000ft, so I would have been able to stand still in one direction, and zoom along at 170kts in the other. NOT SAFE!)

So instead today was spent hitting the books. Aircraft systems revision and some theory on twin engined aircraft, retractable undercarriages and complex (that is to say constant speed) propellers.

All my flying at Bournemouth will be in a Beech Duchess like the one opposite.

I'll first be working on the 'multi-engine' rating, which is around 6 hours of flying, and should take a week (weather permitting). In my case this is integrated into the CPL course and there is no separate test. If I pass the CPL test, I'll automatically have a multi-rating issued.

Flying with two engines is safer, because if one fails the other one can get you home. However there are new skills to learn and twice as many engine dials and settings to monitor. So it should be a busy week, weather permitting.