Simon takes to the air - The journey begins...

[Dish]

" my mama used to tell me there would be days like this" - some singer don't know who...

keep at it dude... there will always be a time you think to yourself WTF .... am I doing... anyone who says different is lying. We have all had days when it just don't seem to go right... stick at it... keep your head down and .......

see you all at kittyhawk on Saturday...

[slysi]

Thanks Dish

[Trevair]

Hi Simon,

Don't you just hate that Press to talk button ? I call it the BRAIN DISCONNECT SWITCH We all went throught it don't let anyone tell you different.
Well done

[slysi]

Thanks Trevair. You are soooooo right

[Malcolm]

When is your next lesson? If I had known you were flying, I would have popped over to Petit a long time ago!

[slysi]

Howzit Malcolm? Weather permitting I will be at Petit around 9am on Tuesday morning and again on Thursday. Will be lekker to see you

[Malcolm]

Some of us have to work for a living boet! Im talking weekend here.

You will have plenty ups and downs during your training so dont worry too much. I remember landings going wrong after 100 hours. I sat down with my son and spoke thru the entire approach, flair and touchdown before I realised what I was doing wrong. Flying is a continuos process of learning.

Enjoy!

[slysi]

You are mos a groot kop now, so take some time off! Will let you know when I am there on a weekend.

Cheers

[slysi]

A LITTLE BETTER

So off to Petit bright and early this morning for some long overdue flying. Arrived at around 7am, had a cup of coffee, preflight and taxi out to 21. Managed to remember the radio calls

There was a bit of a cross wind so a bit more challenging on take off but with Juan's assistance it went pretty well. Once airborne managed to remember my checks (Brakes, undercarriage, mixture, fuel pump, flaps...) Left hand climbing turn to Sentrarand and then off to the N12 to so some S turns. The whole idea of which is meant to teach me to relax my feet and keep the ball in the middle.

Once above the N12 did some medium turns, zigzagging over the road, left, right, left, right....managed to maintain the turns and altitude well and more importantly keep the ball in the middle, well most of the time. Then onto some steep turns, full power and in to the turn. Same drill as before but kept creeping into a climb so I need to concentrate on keeping the nose down slightly. Enjoyed the drill though

Then back to Petit for a couple of dreaded circuits....if you read my last blog then you would have seen that it did not go so well last time

We were not going to do full touch and go's but approach, hold slightly above run way, full power and back into the circuit again. My circuits are better but still resemble ovals rather than rectangles Checks good, radio work ok'ish. I am really struggling on finals to keep the wings level and nose pointed to the centre line. Seem to be all over the place, a bit of a crosswind but am to tense on the controls (and yes my feet are still super glued to the pedals) I think I am pressing with one foot but meanwhile back at the ranch am pressing with both feet so no effect on the ball, obviously. After a few circuits we did a full stop landing, parked FSE for some fuel and had a lekker cup of coffee to clear the mind and relax my body a bit. Shoulders were quite stiff

Then off for some more circuits. Same problems as before but am climbing out well, not too bad on maintaining heading but need to learn to turn crosswind and base when 45 degrees to the runway. I am not giving myself enough length to descend properly. This certainly needs some work. The most important thing though is trying to relax, has anyone got a magic formula

So in summary I am fairly happy with this morning, making slow progress but it will click eventually.

Hours logged this morning 1.8 Total hours 11.3

Til next time....keep your fingers crossed for me, hit a speed bump with my medical and the review board is making a decision on Tuesday. I have a back up plan in any event, will just have to stretch my training out a bit whilst the "problem" is taken care of....more about that on another day.

Over and out

[Paul Meanwell]

Hi Simon,

Good reading about your progress, keep it up!

Enjoy the tense feeling and keep monitoring it! It's a real good indicator of progress. As you get practice, your competence increases, and you start to relax more...... it just happens that way.

Towards the end of your training, you will be having to mentally jog yourself alert for the landing, 'cos you'll be too relaxed!

!!!!!!!!!

[slysi]

Thanks Paul

[Bundy]

Nice thread Simon, I havn't browsed the training section for a while and it was lekker to read about your ongoing training exploits. I agree with your destructor...edit it into a nice article for the Misasa Mag!

Oh and don't worry...as Dish said...we have all asked ourselves at some point... "What the #@$% am I doing???" ....

...and my instructor asked me that plenty too!

Enjoy the rest of your training mate.

[slysi]

Thanks Bundy, glad you are enjoying the thread. I find it quite useful to reflect on each training sortie, we need to learn from our mistakes and admit our weaknesses

I am not much of a writer but will gladly try to condense it for submission to MISASA.

No flying this past week but back in the left hand seat this coming Tuesday

[slysi]

BACK IN THE COCKPIT

Shooo, its been a while since my last flight which in some ways is not a bad thing, it gives one time to reflect on what you have learned thus far. It also cleared my head in terms of some of the frustrations with regards the circuits and landings.

So Saturday morning arrived and whilst it looked a little gloomy I decided to climb onto my Harley Heritage Softail and head out to Petit. It turned out to be a great morning to fly, the air was really smooth and no wind to speak of

After the usual pre-flight checks, myself and Juan climbed into FSE and fired her up to taxi to 03. There were some aircraft circuiting Petit but not too busy. Got to the holding point, engine checks, etc. Waited for an aerie on finals and then lined up on 03. Full power, stick forward, rotate, level out to build airspeed and then continue the climb out. So far everything felt good and I was certainly more relaxed than my previous two sorties

We turned right, climbing to 7000ft and heading towards the GF to do some more medium and steep turns. All in all it went really well, love doing the steep turns but need to watch out that I don't climb. After doing some of s-turns we headed back to the airfield to do some circuits.

As I said earlier there was a bit of traffic in the circuit and I tried to understand the radio chatter but I am sure this will come in time. En route back Juan and Andy (I think, flies a blue Cheetah) starting chatting on the radio when a LOW FLYING RV cut across the circuit without any warning or radio calls. As I looked down I was quite taken aback by how low he/she was. Unfortunately we could not get the reg but seriously, whoever you are, learn how to use a damn radio. He did not respond to any radio calls from wither Juan or Andy

Anyway, back to the circuits. I was much better than last time, at least managing to fly in rectangles Turning into base and then finals is much better, starting to descend nicely and keeping airspeed to 65mph for the landing. Some more work needed on controlling the rate of descent but over all I felt pretty good. Still not keeping the wings 100% level but Juan thinks that when I ease the stick back to flare I may be inadvertently pulling it to the right slightly. Makes sense and will work on that next time. After a few touch and go's we made a full stop landing and taxi back to hangar 1.

I enjoyed the session as I felt more relaxed and confident and am looking forward to next time......

On another note however, getting my SPL has become a nightmare. I have been declared "temporily unfit" to fly so my hopes of going solo anytime soon have been dashed. I can't even write the dreaded exams Without going into too much detail the medication I am taking is on the "not acceptable list" but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. In conjunction with my Dr we are going to start taking me off the medication which may take 3 months and the CAA has confirmed that I will get my medical clearance as soon as I am off the meds

So I will be flying lots of dual hours in the interim which is not such a bad thing as I can sharpen all my skills

1.1 hrs logged on Saturday. 12.4 hrs in total.

Till next time......

[okflyer]

I wish you only the best to get that medical stuff sorted out.
You really deserve to become a licensed pilot.