I’ve always heard that every pilot, even those who have been flying for many years, never forget their first solo. Now, having had the privilege of doing the same myself, I can see why pilots can never shut up about their first solo – it’s an experience that is hard to describe, or make an analogy of.

It’s an odd feeling when the instructor asks you if you feel ready to go out by yourself, finding yourself unable to refuse and then, the next thing you know, the instructor’s closed their hatch on the run-up bay. Silence. You taxi slowly, down the taxiway, towards runway 35L. You’re excited, but you can’t seem to keep the rudder pedals steady or get a steady pressure on the brakes while turning. They’re just trembling far too much. You find it hard to hit the brakes before running over the runway entrance. You take a deep breath.

“Moorabbin Tower, Cessna 152 India Victor Tango is runway 35L, for circuits, first solo, with Quebec, ready.”

And before you know it, you’re airborne.

And it’s then you realise. You’re on your own.

It’s a very different kind of experience when you’re airborne by yourself. Maybe it’s just me (or the lack of the instructor’s weight!), but the flying experience is so much more fun! It’s almost like this is the experience that I’ve been waiting for my whole life. I also kinda enjoyed the utter silence, for want of a better word, in the cockpit. And those nerves? I dunno. They just seemed to go away once I was airborne.

I then completed an uneventful circuit.

It was only after I had landed and made my ground call that I realised what I had just achieved. The tower congratulated me for having done my first solo, that slap of reality. I then picked up my instructor from the run-up; she proceeded to ask me how it was and congratulated me for having completed the solo whilst we taxied back to the school.

Looking back, now I can truly understand why you never forget your first solo. I know I won’t.

The last few lessons have been mostly revision flying. Most of the time was spent drilling the circuit pattern and working on softening up my landings.  Needless to say,  my landings still suck! I really need to be not so scared of the ground and flare a lot later – I think I’m flaring too early causing my plane to stall some distance to the ground. However, my instructor says that my circuits and approach have been generally quite nice other than the fact that I need to watch my airspeed on final. I also had a lesson where I revised stalling and incipient spin recovery.

I was also introduced to glide approaches, where the engine power is pulled at some point late downwind. Obviously, this is to simulate an engine failure in the circuit (or anywhere else for that matter). The drill is to (simultaneously) get the plane into a best glide attitude (i.e., 65kt), trim and run through the engine failure checklist which is CFM (carby heat, fuel/oil, master/magnetos/mixture). At the same time, depending on current altitude, the circuit would either be abbreviated or completed as normal.

Needless to say, my glide approaches still suck. I think I’ve only made the runway threshold once. At least I’m making the field, though…something to work on anyway. I need to learn how to judge how much I need to abbreviate the circuit by in order to come in with a good approach and not fall just short of the threshold (there’s still runway as its a displaced threshold).

I was also taught a technique that I can use in case I need to have a flapless approach (due to flap failure or similar) called sideslipping. This is where the controls are crossed intentionally to create additional drag in lieu of flaps (they shouldn’t be used together). To do one, I’d roll using aileron and counter the yaw by using opposite rudder. I’ve found that quite a bit of rudder (almost full deflection) seems to be the right amount for not a huge amount of aileron. Also, I still haven’t quite worked out which direction I should be deflecting the rudder/ailerons in relation to the prevailing wind, but my guess would be aileron pointing to the direction of wind and rudder the opposite.

I also had the opportunity to sit in the Diamond DA40 that Tristar operate with Bradley, one of my brother’s friends who is currently pursuing his CPL, at the controls. This was a brand new plane complete with glass cockpit and composite airframe. Sadly, I don’t have any photos of the really shmick interior, but it is very nice. Also, being a low-wing, I had my first experience of getting into one…climbing onto the wing felt a little strange especially with the kind of weight I’m carrying around. I was slightly worried that it would fall off! The flight control was a joystick between the legs (it sticks out of the seats) which made climbing into it whilst avoiding a collision in that general region interesting. However, once buckled in and on the move, I was absolutely gobsmacked at the technology in the aircraft; millions of different things happening on those two glass displays. After taking off on runway 17R, we headed to the training area. The canopy of the Diamond gave excellent visibility and, as a passenger and not having to worry about flying the aircraft, I had an opportunity to really admire the views around Moorabbin. I’m still kicking myself for not bringing a camera!

Brad showed me some of the features of the aircraft, including how well it climbed when pitched up hard (and not stalling in the process!), its turning performance and the auto-pilot. I must say, after paxing on the DA40, that I’m thoroughly hooked on this aircraft and will work towards an endorsement on it after I get my PPL!

• circuit revision
• glide approaches
• side-slipping
• EFATO/Go-Around revision
• stalling revision

I’ve also sat the pre-solo/pre-area solo exam as well as had an opportunity to fly in the Diamond Star DA40, which was absolutely amazing. More to come when I have some time!

We did some more circuits today on 31R and boy did they suck. I’m not sure if it was the weather or the new runway or something else that caused me to trip up, but my landings were pretty darn hard. During the lesson, we also looked at Engine Failures After Take Off (EFATO) and Go-Arounds.

One of the key rules about aviation is to always follow this set of priorities – aviate, navigate and communicate. In other words, make sure you’re flying the plane safely, you know where you’re going and then let everyone know of what you’re doing. This is especially true in emergency situations. You don’t want to find yourself talking to ATC after an engine failure, only to find out that you’ve lost 1000ft in altitude because you let the aircraft stall on you. So, in the event of any emergency, fly the plane first!

In the case of an engine failure, the first thing is to immediately lower the nose attitude and trim for 65kts. Whilst doing this, run through the engine failure (CFM) checklist. This is:

Carby heat ON
Fuel ON
Magnetos, Mixture, Master BOTH/RICH/ON

After these checks, time permitting, an engine restart can be attempted. However, most time there will be insufficient time to worry about this, especially after take-off. As such, the first priority is to look for a suitable landing field in front of you within 30 degrees. Things like ovals, beaches or other natural features that would be relatively large and smooth. Preferably also away from populated areas.  Roads are possible too, but is probably not a good idea around Moorabbin especially when you include the consideration of power lines.

If you can’t find anything within 30 degrees, try 45 degrees. If there’s nothing within 45 degrees, try for anything on the windscreen. The trick is to avoid turning as gliding turns are highly inefficient and a lot of altitude (read: time) is lost.

Then call ATC. Last thing to do.

As for go-arounds, it is a matter of making a timely decision to do so. Then, by applying full power and trimming the aircraft for 75kts, the aircraft should start climbing. Once a positive rate of climb is established (500ft/min and climbing), start releasing the flaps in stages. As each stage of flap is retracted, there will be a sinking tendency as the aerofoil size has been decreased. Ensure that there is always a positive rate of climb before retracting a stage of flap.

During all this, flying should be to the dead side of the circuit (i.e., right hand side where left hand circuits are in operation). However, at YMMB where there are parallel runways, the go-around circuit is slightly to the side of the circuit (so, ‘inside’ the normal circuit). Whilst climbing, look around, especially at the runway, for traffic. Do not turn onto crosswind until past the threshold at the end of the runway. After this, fly a normal circuit.

Of course, tell ATC that you’re going around – but most importantly, aviate, navigate and communicate.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the new breath of fresh air!

I will get onto my musings about EFATO and Go-Around from last week…have been absolutely snowed under with Uni work. On the bright side, this set of assignments will be my last for this degree!

Also, my lesson today (yesterday) was cancelled due to the wild weather that existed. Funny that it was really nice as I left home, and really went south as I pulled up to the flying school. I must have bad weather karma.

Edit: Scratch that, didn’t work. Investigations are continuing. A workaround is to press F5/Refresh if you encounter this problem – it should fix it temporarily for you.

In any case, everything’s back online now and good to go! And now for some appropriate humour…

Would have been an interesting situation if there was only one runway and they all needed to come in at the same time!

Flapless landings/circuits is a way to practice and become familiar with how the plane handles in a circuit where the flaps have failed. They aren’t too different from your regular circuit except for the obvious fact that you don’t use flaps. Flaps create extra drag which means that a lower RPM setting is needed to increase the rate of descent as it is lower due to the lowered drag. This also means that the nose attitude will be somewhat higher. It is otherwise the same as any other landing.

I did four circuits today, as that’s all we could fit into the time that was available due to VH-IVT being due in for a 100 hourly maintenance check as well as the additional time spent holding and waiting for three aircraft that decided to all come onto short final one after the other. Also, we wanted to avoid the worsening weather that was approaching the airport and thus avoid a VFR into IMC incident (hell, you see the cloud/rain front moving in towards YMMB!). I must admit, I was a little scared!

Tomorrow’s lesson is on engine failures after take-off (EFATO) and glide approaches (I think). Apparently tomorrow’s weather is meant to be somewhat better than today’s, but I am no longer trusting the Bureau of Meterology. It was meant to be sunny on Sunday dammit!

After buying a copy of Flight Simulator X (FSX), a yoke and rudder pedals, I really started to get an appreciation for how good the simulator software is with the yoke – it really does make the experience that much more immersive and, well, playable. With that experience in mind, I want to build a new computer that will both serve as my general (new) desktop and a good flight simulator setup. My current setup is a typical desktop (Core 2 Quad Q6600, 4GB RAM, 1TB storage and 8800GTX) with a 24″ Ultrasharp Dell display. It’s a good box (maybe needs a new home if anyone wants it?), but I’m getting bored of it.

I intend to salvage the 24″ display, and add on another two more displays (probably two more Dell 24″ budget displays for AU$399 each). I already have the HAF 932 case for the new system and I intend to fill it with some Core i7 goodness. A list of it goes below:

• HAF 932 case (already bought – $300)
• Core i7 920 (LGA 1366 – $364)
• A cooler of some description – maybe a TRUE120 ($80 or so)
• 2x Dell Monitors – 24″ ($399 each)
• ASUS P6T motherboard ($288)
• More hard drives! (Western Digital 1.5TBs @ $95 each – the motherboard supports up to 7, including two on a SAS (?) controller, assuming I install at least one DVD drive in there);
• 3×2G DDR3-1600 G.Skill RAM kit ($160)
• Some brand of GTX 275 x2 ($279 each)
• Corsair 620W PSU ($169)
• Saitek Yoke and Throttle (already have – $250)
• Saitek Rudder Pedals (already have – $219)
• Saitek Switch Panel ($169)
• Buttkicker Gamer ($140) – this adds force feedback to the chair, for added realism short of implementing a movement platform…that’d be Phase 165 of the Sim project?
• NaturalPoint TrackIR Kit ($279) – this moves the view of the cockpit with your head; very nifty to prevent the ‘eyes inside’ flying that sims tend to encourage with their fixed view
• Azuentech X-Fi Prelude ($279)
• Keyboard and mouse will be salvaged – Logitech G15/G5
• Headphones will be salvaged – Beyerdynamic DT234Pro

Bolded items are core (i.e., must have components). The other stuff can be installed as time (and money) builds up. This makes for a total of $3186 in core components and $1057 in non-core components for a total of $4243. Of this, I need to spend another $3474. Fuck.

I might as well throw in another monitor cause the system can support it if I’m spending that much!

Anyway, time will tell if this mini-project has legs. It will eventually, I guess, when this computer gets too old…but perhaps technology procrastination might get the better of me!

Something like what I have in mind…

File this one under ‘wishlist’.