Firsts and Lasts

Less than two months to go and the pressure is starting to build ahead of our CPL (Commercial Pilot License) test at the end of our time here in New Zealand.  I am delighted to say I’ve now had my first flight on the Twinstar (picture below) which is a real step up from the single engine aircraft we’ve been flying up to now.  I’ve now also done my last Cessna flight and finally completed the extra night solo flight on the Katana meaning no more solo flights and the focus is now on twin engine flying.

The Cessna

Once we had finished our lessons “beacon bashing” (see previous post) over Hamilton, it was time to be let loose on the North Island!  IFR flying consists of following designated airways or routes around the sky, controlled by a radar centre based in Christchurch.  When we depart from Hamilton on the SID (Standard Instrument Departure) we are transferred to Christchurch control, who monitor us on radar and keep us separated from other traffic as we fly via the airways to other aerodromes around the country.  This flying has felt as close to ‘airline’ flying as anything we’ve done to date; flying an instrument departure into an airway and then onto an instrument approach at another aerodrome.  Typically, once we are close to the destination we’ll get clearance to do either an RNAV (that’s an approach using GPS) or a VOR (see previous post on a basic VOR approach) or a VOR DME approach (basically a VOR approach, but we are also given a distance from the beacon).  The other good thing about the final few “IFR Routes” flights on the Cessna was that we could choose where to go, and back-to-back with other guys on the course.  This basically means we can get a lot further as I might fly us in one direction for my lesson, and then we’ll have lunch and do a swap with a coursemate to take us back.  Anyway, the three ‘IFR Routes’ flights on the Cessna are now done – and it’s goodbye to the Cessna!

Last Cessna flight - flying to New Plymouth (aerodrome bottom left) with Mt. Taranaki in the distance.

Rather damp morning walk-around

The Twinstar

The DA42 Twinstar

The next step has been onto the Twinstar – a twin engine aircraft with retractable gear and generally much more sophisticated than the single engine aircraft we’ve flown to date.  The first 5 lessons are back to VFR flying (visual flight rules) meaning all the procedures and techniques learnt in the past month or so for IFR flying are put aside. 

VFR and IFR flying is fairly different, as when we are VFR we set the attitude of the aircraft using the view outside (basically where the horizon sits in our forward view, for example during a medium turn I know roughly where the 30 degree angle is without looking at the instruments, just by judging where the horizon cuts through my forward field of view).  In IFR flying, our head is mainly inside the cockpit as we are in cloud (or simulated in cloud if there isn't any!) – so the instruments provide us with the attitudes when there is no horizon.    In addition, during VFR flying we mostly fly in uncontrolled airspace so Air Traffic Control doesn’t separate us from other traffic meaning we can’t fly around with our heads buried in the cockpit using the instruments – we need to avoid traffic, weather, and terrain.  I am enjoying being back to VFR flying though, and even though I haven't done it properly since PT1 in December, it has all come back fairly quickly - proving I've learnt something at least!

The Twinstar is also a lot of fun!  It is much more powerful and flies faster than we’ve got used to so far, meaning we have to think ahead and be ready for whatever is coming up next.  The first lesson just got used to the handling, and the second one is a Circuits lesson where we get used to the slightly different circuit pattern that the Twinstar uses. 

The final three lessons (which I am yet to do) incorporate a key part of our training here – asymmetrics.  The bonus of a twin engine aircraft is (surprise…) two engines!  This means that we can still fly with one engine inoperative – however we need to learn how to safely fly on one engine, taking into account the asymmetric forces now in play given that all the thrust is coming from one side of the aircraft.   The forces can actually be quite large, and require a lot of rudder input and I’ve heard that a lesson of asymmetrics is a good alternative to leg day at the gym (not that I’ve ever had a leg day at the gym, who am I kidding).  I’ll update you on how my legs hold up.

The Katana

I also finally had my last Katana flight (and last CTC solo flight) doing my solo night circuits at the weekend.  It was really nice to be back in the Katana after a long break, it’s a great thing to fly!  The actual flight was just an hour of circuits here at Hamilton, and it was pretty cool buzzing around with the city lights in the distance.  Another milestone completed!

Last solo and flight on the Katana

The Boat

BP forecourt - our workstation

I’m pleased to say I managed to get out with the other boat investors here for my first sail on our newly acquired catamaran.  We headed down to Lake Karapiro to have a sunset sail, which mostly went to plan despite quite a light wind.  Luckily we had some spare oars on standby to assist when it really died down, and putting 5 of us on board was a bit of a squeeze but it was good fun nonetheless.   As the sun went down so did our evening go mildly downhill from there.  Having been bitten alive securing the boat back to the trailer we realised the light connection to the car had been broken, so we ditched the boat by the river and headed to find a replacement.  After some swift rewiring at a BP station 15 mins away we were back in action and returned to pick the boat up.  Our success was short lived due to a flat tire on the trailer on the way home – hopefully next time will be less eventful!

Preparing the boat for a sail at sunset on Lake Karapiro.

Tongariro

Last weekend I ticked off my top last major ‘bucket list’ item here in NZ – the Tongariro Crossing and Mt. Ngauruhoe (a.k.a Mt Doom).  I think my legs have only just recovered though, and attempting to do both Mt. Doom and the crossing was a bit ambitious.  However, it was well worth it – the views were incredible and it’s just another reason to love New Zealand!

Mt. Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom) was a definite challenge!

Balloons over Waikato

And finally… this morning we awoke at sunrise to see the annual Balloons Over Waikato event, where they have around 20-30 hot air balloons launch in a ‘mass ascension’.  It was a foggy start, but an impressive sight as they started launching into the air.  Not a bad way to start the day!

A few other adventures over the past few weeks....

Blue Spring - Te Waihou Walkway.  The water was crystal clear (and very cold!)

Backseating a night flight on the Twinstar

Bubble football at Clearways (mostly rolling around)

"Beacon Bashing"

Just over a month through the IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) training I've now completed the first batch of sims and the first 5 flights in the Cessna.  All five flights were done overhead Hamilton using the VOR beacon here - hence the term "beacon bashing" as it's a little repetitive, but really useful practice at this stage.  I'll try to keep some of the jargon to a minimum from here on in, but I'll do my best to explain what it is we are doing currently!

We learn to fly IFR because that's what we'll be using daily as part of commercial flying - the whole point is to fly along published routes or procedures to keep us away from any terrain and set us up on a suitable profile for landing when visibility is poor or flying in cloud.  It is also easy to get disorientated when flying in cloud, so it's important for us to get to grips with trusting and flying off the instruments.

I Can't See!

The first experience of flying in cloud is a little surreal, and goes against what was ingrained in us during the VFR stage (staying visual!) in keeping clearance from cloud. All the training in the sim did prepare us well though, and once you get used to flying off instruments it all seems a bit more manageable.  I must admit that it was an awesome feeling to fly through and then above clouds for the first time - hopefully we'll have plenty more opportunity to do that over the next few weeks.

Watching a coursemate fly a fine holding pattern in the sim.

The Sims

The Simulators we have here are DA42s (The Twinstar) but we don't actually fly the Twinstar for the first 8 flights - instead we're in the single engine Cessna 172.  However, at the moment the focus is learning the IFR procedures and how to use the Garmin Glass Cockpit (the two large screens shown in the picture above) which the Cessna is equipped with so although it might seem strange to swap aircraft from the sim to the first batch of flights, it's not been that bad.  Plus it's been good fun flying a different aircraft!  The other bonus of the Cessna and the Twinstar is that they come with 2 extra seats in the back for passengers (but alas, no on-board service) so I've managed to backseat a few flights that my coursemates fly and vice versa - meaning plenty more pictures to follow!

Our aircraft to start IFR flying  - the mighty Cessna 172

Back in the skies

As good as the sims were, it was great to be back in the air again and it allowed us to actually fly what had been practised in the sim. These past few lessons have tended to be very busy, using either the Hamilton VOR (to put it crudely, think of it as a homing beacon which we can navigate to) or GPS coordinates.

For either of these approaches we have a specific point to a hold above before commencing the approach.  Holding is just that - waiting around flying in a racetrack shape until we are cleared to proceed further - something I imagine we'll get used to while flying commercially, so I guess it's a good thing we are getting plenty of practice now!  I've put a picture of the approach plate we use for one of the runways here, and you can see the hold is the racetrack shape above the beacon (with the 3000' in the middle).  I'll give a skeleton overview of how we would fly this approach.

A guide for flying IFR - one of the Hamilton Approach Plates

If you can imagine this is directly above the airport - so we are often circling 1000s of feet above in the hold, waiting for our clearance to descend for the approach.  Once cleared, we track 'outbound' on the approach, for our aircraft, is the line with 344^o heading up the page away from the aiport and descending as we go.  We then effectively do a "U-turn" back towards the airport on the 'inbound' on the 176^o line to the runway to land.  In this example we have a minimum decision altitude (MDA) which means if we are not visual with the runway at this point, we can't land.  As the weather has been fairly good recently, we are often simulated in cloud and it's not until we look up at 50 feet before the MDA that we are suddenly visual again and can proceed to land.

That's a VOR approach in a very basic nutshell which hopefully gives an appreciation of what goes on without all the detail involved!  Each runway here has VOR and GPS approaches, so depending on what we are doing in the flight we will use a different plate to fly the certain approach.  In addition to this we are managing radio calls, going through checklists and making sure we are flying accurately - it can be a very busy time.  I do notice my capacity to process all this information is getting better with each lesson, however it does take a lot of concentration and after each flight there are plenty of little areas to work on to improve for the next flight.

Beacon Bashing in action - two hours tracking overhead hamilton practising entries to the hold and various approaches

Flying above CTC - lots of aircraft not in the air on that day!

Watching on in the hold above Hamilton airport.  Clearways is on the far right, the runway is over to the left.  The white-ish circle in the middle of the field in the centre of the photo is the Hamilton VOR.

Next up for the flying side of things are IFR routes, where we plan to go to various aerodromes around the North Island practising flying along the set airways and doing different approaches - this should allow us to get away from the familiarity of the Hamilton procedures to try something new and consolidate what's been learnt thus far.  There are now only 3 flights left on the Cessna before I move onto the Twinstar....  I've also clocked over 100 hours flight time with CTC now - how has that come around so quickly?!

Flying through the clouds!

Flying between the clouds

Ahoy there!

As usual we've managed to keep ourselves busy inbetween flights, spending a few days in Raglan, a day at Waihi beach on the east coast, and a comedy night and the usual weekly quiz here in Hamilton.  A few of us have also invested in a small catermaran - now you may think that's a rash purchase given we've only got 2 and a bit months left, but it seemed like a good idea at the time!  We are yet to launch her on a maiden voyage having towed her back from Rotorua, fingers crossed on her seaworthiness and our sailing abilities.

Our new acquisition

Katana on approach to Hamilton, New Zealand never fails to impress!

It's also great news to hear the BA FPP is currently open for 2015 - best of luck to those applying!

Until next time...