last updated 20 July 06
This blog is an ongoing account of my flying career. The opinions expressed within do not necessarily represent those of Cabair, BCUC or OFT.
They say practise makes perfect; but I think I need a whole lot more practise before I get that good at what I'm doing! The word for today is 'eventually passable but needs more practise'. However my instructor was eventually happy with my barrel rolls and stall turns, although it did take coaching through the finer points of the figure. Likewise with spins, which are now getting easier (but again with the practise). I think I can probably account a little bit of sloppyiness to the fact I haven't flown in a few days, but of course that doesn't cover it all, by no means.
Before I flew today I also watched a practice (judged) aerobatics competition, which was interesting to compare to Fairford, if only because having seen no mistakes made then, it was useful to see what would probably go wrong if I was performing some time in the future (hopefully not too soon). One major point was positioning - one guy did a good display, but as he was doing it the wind was pushing him slowly over the 'crowdline'. Which in addition to the obvious safety problems also meant sore necks from the viewers as we craned back to keep him in sight. Airspace was also a tad crowded to the north of Kemble today - lots of gliders about, which was a nuisance when we were trying to get me to master a good barrel roll (I just gotta remember to pull up more and make a proper dive to the right - I managed to do this eventually). This also hampered our ability to perform meaningful PFLs in the military way taught at Ultimate High - the method taught is to pick your spot (1/3 of the way down your strip/field/whatever), and then fly so that it disappears under the front of your wing, at the midpoint, and then just after it appears at the rear of the wing start your turn in (i.e. that's your downwind to base turn). When you've done that, the finals turn is performed when your site disappears under the elevator. You then use bank to control the aspect of the site - if it's too steep, less bank, and vice-versa. The beauty of this method is that it works at any height, as you fly around a cone centred on your site, and is therefore 'scaled' for your height. It's just a pity that there were so many aircraft in the circuit in the way today! Otherwise it would have been a good method to teach. I'm not entirely sure if it will work with any aircraft, but I can't think of any reason why not. It's good to have a solid, mechanical formula with which to perform PFLs that will work over any height. I suspect that if an engine failure happens for real, it could be quite useful. Back to Top
Having gotten up rather early to miss the traffic, we were pleasantly surprised to discover that getting into RIAT was quite easy (traditonally RIAT traffic is quite fearsome to navigate through). Once in, the static aircraft display did not disappoint; in addition to the usual collection of military & civil aircraft (including the B-1B, B-52, F-15E, F-16, Tornado, Nimrod, DC-10, C-130J etc) were a few aircraft of special interest to me. One was the Extra 400, which was quite smaller than I had expected, Polly Vacher's PA-28-235 Dakota (which she flew around the world for charity), the Air Cadet Vigilant & Viking gliders, and the Canberra, which will soon be leaving service with the RAF. A few photos can be found on the gallery page. The other stalls were quite interesting too; I bumped into the guys from Ultimate High, sensibly sheltering from the sun under the wing of their Extra 300. We also paid visits to the Vulcan Return to Flight stall & the Utterly Butterly stand amongst others. And of course the Red Arrows were amazing! More poignant however was a display by the Canberra and BBMF, the latter of which I thought was quite sedate, considering it included a Spitfire & Hurricane. But then the aircraft must be around 50 years old by now; it's not unlikely that the aircraft need to taken care of. One thing that did strike me was the commentator's point that if the Spitfire had served as long as the Canberra with the RAF, it would have retired from front-line service in 1993.... Back to Top
I will admit feeling a little trepidation over intentionally spinning an aircraft; but I felt that in my favour, I was flying a very nice aircraft approved for spinning, with an ex-Services instructor with bags of experience. So I really had nothing to worry about! It's hard to think of a better place to learn spinning from. In any case, once I'd been picked up on a few finer points of airmanship, spinning the Bulldog from 7000ft over the Bristol Channel soon dissipated any fears I may have had. My first attempts were sloppy; but I can now say I'm confident about getting into & out of spins. They even became fun (to a degree)!. I did not do so well upon being confronted with a simulated stuck throttle however. I even planned to carry out the correct action (cut the mixture, or have the instructor simulate the same, and then carry out a PFL onto the airfield) and then went and cut the throttle far too early! As my learned instructor sagely pointed out - 'better to go off the far end at 30kts than land short into a field at 80kts'. Still next time I'll remember.
My PFL also went well...sort of. Doing one from about 6000ft or so is not as eay as it seems! Especially as the fields along the Welsh side of the Bristol Channel are a) sloped and b) have power lines that only seem to appear when you get too close to them. Damn you Welsh! Still, all practise is good. Back to Top
Today's weather was intially poor, with a low cloudbase, so we planned to do a low-level navex, including flight into Bristol's CTR, which is Class D airspace. The aim of the exercise was to get me to be able to use Rt procedures & be familiar with crossing airspace, in addition to low-level nav techniques, timings & waypoints, with a bit of dead reckoning thrown in for good measure. As Kemble is still under the Fairford (RIAT) TRA, that helpfully added an extra bit of training into the flight, as Brize Radar controls the three entry/exit lanes incorporated into the TRA. The initial part of the flight started somewhat awry, as I was off track to begin with, but swiftly managed to get back onto it. By this time the weather had cleared considerably, allowing excellent visibility. Following my departure to the east from Kemble, we tracked down the M5 and talked to Bristol Filton, requesting a zone transit through their ATZ. My RT was poor that time as I failed to introduce myself properly, and just went straight into the details. They still let me through, and passed me to Bristol Radar. My 2nd attempt went better, although I needed to slow down a tad. I also mistook Clevedon for Weston Super Mare, but was cheerfully told by the helpful ATCO where I really was (she sounded far too pleased)!
Flight and navgation through the rest of the CTR posed no problem as we actually routed underneath it. One minor point was that I needed to see the bigger picture, i.e. looking at the wider view of the terrain, position of cities etc rather than small features, especially at low level. This worked rather well when we rounded a hill feature and lo and behold Cheddar Gorge/Resevoir came into sight. The plan had been to overfly the east side of Bristol, however my instructor was quite happy for us to fly over and look at the Clifton Suspension Bridge; he also kindly took the controls while I played tourist & took photos. We then flew back to Kemble overhead Filton & back in via the same entry/exit corridor through the TRA. Overall a good flight; my RT once I'd settled down & stopped talking too fast was good. I needed to concentrate on priorities, i.e Aviate, Navigate, Communicate & I did forget a few FREDA checks (which I thought odd, considering my experience with that last month).
My 2nd flight of the today took me through Lyneham's CTR, and down around to the West, over my local area (I snapped a few more photos along the way). My workload was a bit higher than normal, mainly due to RT & navigation. I was also concentraing on flying accurately, which I still haven't quite nailed to my satisfaction in the Bulldog. But on the whole my RT came together & I'm now quite confident about talking to Radar, asking for transits, FISes etc. We then flew over Castle Combe racetrack and proceeded to plan a diversion to Usk in Wales, which I managed to do fairly well. Except that when I got to Usk I made the mistake of assuming what I'd thought was Usk was, and failing to check that it was. We soon found the point however, and it was a useful lesson.....the old clinches about assuming & checking & asses and you and me came out, but I was annoyed I needed teling again!. Our Practice Pan went very smoothly, London Centre was lightning fast in fixing our position, and indeed were quite accurate. No worries there, making a single practice call destroyed any hang-ups I may have had about calling them in future, for real or practice. Highly recommended, they were very helpful! Likewise a position fix using VDF true bearings from Lyneham & Filton went well. It may seem like a small thing, but actually making those calls & using the information was a good way to reinforce theoretical learning. And on the way back we spotted the two UH Extra 300s engaging in air combat manoevering as part of a "Top Gun" day package....I suggested that we should join in, only half-jokingly. Back to Top
My first spin today! Made all the more interesting as I had my first engine failure....at the same time! Well, in actual fact it wasn't as bad as that; it wasn't an engine failure as such. The propellor did stop during the spin; however as soon as we recovered it started again. What was unusual was that the aircraft was in a spin to the left; engine stoppages normally occur during right spins in the Bulldog (due to the airflow & direction of propellor rotation). The aircraft engine did idle at quite a low RPM however, and this probably was a factor. In any case, the particular Bulldog will not be spun again until it's sorted out, of course. Apart from that, the sortie went very well - my instructor, who has bags upon bags of experience & qualfications was patient with my attempts to master some basic aeros, and by the end had me execute a passable sequence; a loop, followed by a stall turn, finishing with a barrel roll. He said he was impressed; I was more than happy after he said that! And of course we finished with the obligatory circuits. This was somewhat hampered by the TRA height restrictions (the RIAT Class A Airspace, which became active today, covers Kemble. There are low-level routes to allow access, but it limits flight to 1500ft on the QNH, which equates to 1000ft max AAL.) But any practice is good practise, and in any case I certainly benefitted even without airfield PFLs etc. Back to Top
Well, the weather was much better today, unlimited vis, lots of sunshine, and a few clouds at 2200ft. And I got to fly the Bulldog...and immediately though "what a damn good aircraft". Not only does it have all the things I mentioned yesterday (parachutes, stick not yoke, great vis, aerobatic, VP prop etc etc) it's also faster, easier to fly...and it's just great! Sitting in the left hand seat, I felt much more comfortable than in the PA-28 or C152, which I think is not due to anything with the seat, just the excellent field of view compared to those two, and maybe the much more secure chute/harness. Today's two sorties comprised a famil ex with the Bulldog, Kemble and the local area, intro to aeros including aileron rolls, loops, chandelles (wingovers), upset positions (like unusual attitudes, but much more unusual! try inverted, nosedive, tailslides etc) mil-style PFLs, circuits in many flavours and use of VP props/constant speed units. The aeros were a lot of fun, once I'd managed to get them right (however, I'm having to get used to G and aerobatic attitudes again). The VP prop was surprisingly easy to use, and the aircraft certainly climbs like a rocket compared to the other two (though of course this is due also thanks to the better engine). Upset positions were decidedly fun, especially the 'ballistic' attitudes (tailsliding), and my PFLs certainly need practice, but then practice with an ex-RAF pilot beside you talking you through of course helps a lot. Kemble airfield also was quite impressive, as were the Ultimate High staff, who were friendly and helpful, not to mention informative throughout. The UH premises are helpfully right next to the very nice AV8 restaurant, and also the control tower, which affords the restaurant (with bar!) excellent views of the runway. This was proven today when a P-51 did a few low-level passes & landed...must be my week for warbird flybys, I saw a early model Spitfire do the same thing last Saturday (he was a bit lower though..huzzah for the RAF!) and I'm off to RIAT this weekend. I'm eagerly awaiting tommorrow's flying. During an idle moment I figured that today's flying cost me around £390 or so (2 hours logged), but I think it was certainly worth it. It's the best, most fun flying yet, and it also taught me a lot. So if I can afford extra courses I think I will be going back for more - the Extra 300 looks very inviting...but also expensive. But then it is in a class of it's own. And if I fly it at UH then I will probably get the benefit of tuition from an ex-Red Arrow pilot, which would certainly be worth the high price tag.
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Despite a rather dismal forecast for today, and a layer of rain-bearing cloud across the entire horizon, I headed into Ultimate High at Kemble today, to be told (no surprises) that there was no chance of flying today. No matter, instead I was given a relaxed, informative brief about the operation & the Bulldog. I can't wait to fly the Bulldog; despite the fact it's fully aerobatic, faster and more advanced than the PA-28s & Cessna 152s I've been learning on, it just feels better...probably a combination of the improved visibility, proper harnesses (with parachutes!) and a definite military feel to the entire aircraft. It's a lot less cramped than the Cessnas too, with a sliding canopy, and it has a stick not a yoke! The Ultimate High Bulldog fleet are ex-Swedish military, so they still have the hardpoints that could have been used for munitions. They also have a 3rd seat in the rear of the cockpit, which is something new from my Air Experience flights in RAF Bulldogs 6 or 7 years ago. They've also got a quite different paint scheme, involving sponsors, teeth & eyes on the cowling. So tommorrow I start learning about variable pitch props, flight into UK controlled airspace & procedures, perfect circuits, advanced forced landings, spins & general revision. It's going to be awesome, and very much worth the cash I've been saving all year! 19 July 06 - Aeros Plus More Spins, PFLs & Circuits
16 July 06 - Royal International Air Tattoo
14 July 06 - Spins, PFLs & Stuck Throttles
13 July 06 - Navexs, CTRs & Practise Pans
12 July 06 - Spins, Aeros & Prop Stops
11 July 06 - The Bulldog Rules - End Of!
10 July 06 - First Day At Ultimate High