Week 47: PPL Flight School Week 16

Tuesday

My day started very early with my flight scheduled at 0800hrs. For the first time since I'm here, I woke up before I could see the sun. The morning was cold with temperatures hovering around 15'C. I reported at 0700hrs only to find out the aircraft I was assigned to had a stone chip on its propeller the previous day and is in the maintenance garage.

After a visit to the garage, it was discovered that the engine had other issues other than a simple chip on the propeller and had to be left there for further diagnosis. My luck still haven't change for the better huh? So I went back to the airport and request for an aircraft change with slim hopes that one will be available. But to my surprise, there was actually one.

Thank god for the unused aircraft that my flight didn't get cancelled again. This flight was something very new to me, both in terms of lesson as well as instructor. He was a totally new instructor to me and I had to be extra careful with what I do so as not to leave a bad impression on him. Lesson for the day was instrument flying, which involved me wearing a hood while doing the basics of climb/descend, straight&level and turns. In addition, I will also have to recover from unusual attitudes.

I lifted off the tarmac at about 0840hrs after all the mayhem on the aircraft issue. Conditions were perfect to say the least. Zero turbulence, zero strong winds and zero worries. I was flying effortlessly in VFR. Then, I put on the hood and started my training on instrument flying. It wasn't easy flying with only instrument reference. I had to constantly monitor my engine rpm, IAS, wing balance, AoA, altitude and heading. My eyes had to do this "T-scan" on the G1000 screen to keep my flight in a proper manner. 

I was lucky to be blessed with such great weather conditions, or else I would have to constantly fight the controls to keep my instrument flying respectable. Straight&level was easy, turning at Rate-1 was fine, but climbing and descending can be challenging, especially when I had forgotten the correct procedure to end the climb/desc. For climb, it's Attitude-Power-Trim. For descend, it's Power-Attitude-Trim. I wasn't happy with myself for forgetting these two procedures. My instructor was forgiving and reminded me of them and I ensured these errors were not repeated.

Next came the recovery from unusual attitudes. I had to close my eyes while my instructor brought the plane to some unusual attitudes, asking me to recover it to straight&level with instrument reference when I'm instructed to open my eyes. This is not easy at all. The plane was either very nose high or nose low with angle of bank at 60degrees or more. Holy sheesh, the artificial horizon on my screen never looked so scary before. At times, I even had to recover the plane from the verge of stalling with the horn sounding.

I got a little dizzy after all these practice but was able to bring the plane back to base, removing the hood only when I was near to circuit area. Being under the hood for 1.1hrs, I got a little bit disoriented when I was back flying at VFR conditions. End up my circuit flying wasn't at its best. First try to landing was horrendous with a very poor base turn. Instructor had me do a go-around to show him a better one.

The second landing was  held up by traffic and I did another go-around, but the base turn still wasn't good enough. My third try was better, but I was still too high on finals and my instructor had to remind me to go on idle rpm. I managed to land the plane safely to me relief. To be honest, the instrument flying probably tired me out to have me perform so poorly in the circuit.

The whole lesson lasted 1.8hrs and I managed to meet the standards to pass. More revision on my own will be needed as I realised I had lost touch in area flying after being in the circuits for so long.

The rising sun greets me on the tarmac

Friday
The day was windy and cold with temperatures never hitting above 20'C. My flight was scheduled for 1430hrs, right in mid day but it was still very cold even with the sun shining. Once again, found a crack on the plastic cover of the navigation light. So I had to taxi the plane to the maintenance garage to get it checked. A hole was drilled at the end of the crack to prevent it from spreading.

After that was done, my real flight began. The winds were strong and gusty, but it was mostly headwind. However, headwind on runway means very strong crosswind on crosswind leg and base/final leg. The circuit was full of turbulence and had my plane thrown about so much that my instructor asking me if I was the one oscillating the aircraft.

Well, it was not a good feel right from the start. My reactions were slow, my altitude wasn't consistent and my speed on base/final wasn't very safe as well. It was so unlike me that my instructor said "What's wrong with you today?" three times to me during the whole course of the solo check.

I have no idea what hit me, but it was a crap performance. No complains from me when we eventually made a full stop and he didn't let me go solo. Yes I would like to blame it on the wind, but that's just an excuse. I promise myself to fly better in my next solo check.

Cleaning the windscreen, hoping it will be my final solo, but it was not to be. Try again next time!

The week ended with a bad flight, but I shall not let that dampen my mood. There's always a chance to do better in my next flight. Bad days do happen, the key is to learn from the bad flight and try not to repeat it. Spent the weekend in Melbourne with a visiting friend. Not a bad way to end the week. I really miss my friends back at home.

Lunch at St Kilda Beach

Brighton Beach

Melbourne was mad packed with people during the White Night event.