'Well that was interesting....'


Lunch at Ryan because of Obama visit restrictions

Parking up and taking an airport car into town for lunch

Do all my blog post start with me saying I've attempted another exam? Well I hate to break tradition- so here goes, I've passed PT4! This is a milestone because it is the transition phase from single engine to multi-engines.... ooooo. We now have the Seminoles to play with. These come with the added bonus of having 100% more engines and a host of new things to worry about, such as retractable landing gear. We do not have much time on these planes before we are pushed in front of a CPL examiner to demonstrate our skills. For a few reasons we are not going straight from Archer to Seminole. We have a slight delay as AP359, the course in front, finish their training. So for now... I have a little break.

In the run up to PT4 I was placed with a new instructor called Todd. Todd is an ex A300 pilot with a cargo airline and has many hours on different types of aircraft. He is a excellent instructor who enjoys taking you out of your comfort zone which you had built up after 100 hours give or take. For instance, I have flown into international airports, flown ILS's, vectored by approach controllers and been to some challenging airports. But, more importantly, I have flown into airport with an airport car so we can drive into town and get some lunch. All a lot of fun but very educational too, iv learnt if my instructor say 'this will be interesting' it means... challenging and different, iv had many 'interesting' times!

I have been learning how to 'hold' and perform instrument approaches with Todd and as PT4 was a instrument flight (cannot see out of the window) it was important to get these right as they are in the exam. Briefly, a hold is when an aircraft needs to remain in an area and is often what you perform before you land at a busy airport such as Heathrow to organise traffic. Unlike a car going around circuit, a plane is not 'fixed' to any ground point. This means the wind can drift you from your intended holding area, and this is why holding can be a little tricky because you have to correct for wind. We hold on a heading outbound (radial inbound) with a wind correction but track another heading - meaning you can be flying sidewards towards a ground feature. If you have ever seen a plane land in a cross wind, this is what they are doing, merely flying into the wind. You fly off course to fly on course.... get it? Me neither first time. We tend to hold on a VOR (click) which means we hold on a radial to the beacon... perhaps a story for another time. Anyway it took a bit of getting used to but by the end mine were not looking too bad. Pity in the real world we will never do them, the autopilot will. The picture shows one joining hold (the smaller hold), 2 holds (which only shows one but they were on top of each other), and 2 approaches (longer legs, cross over the beacon and tract the 090 radial outbound) with one landing and one missed approach back to the hold. The chart we followed is an OAA made one for practise but they typically look like this.

The instructors at APS

APS training - we have some great footage.

Putting parachute on before flight

As a part of the training at OAA we are taught what is referred to as 'Upset Recovery Training' - this is effectively acrobatics-simulating what to do in the final stages of a potential disaster to recover the aircraft. Many accidents could have been prevented it would seem if the pilots had been given this advanced training. The industry is gaining momentum into this type of training now. I am not saying current pilots are under trained, its a new way of training. Anyway, it is done by a local company out of Gateway airport. The instructors are all ex fighter jet pilots or, in my case, an astronaut. So now feeling as big as an ant next to my astronaut we where briefed on the basics using theory based training, how not to be sick, and what to expect. We would be flying Extra (click here) which are fantastic fun for the student but must be a bit of a step down from an F16 or space shuttle for them! We had three flights total over 2 days and I was starting to regret going to the airports cafe before the first flight and enjoying a specially generous BLT and refills of Coke. I need not of worried, it was an incredible flight, not just because I managed not to see my BLT again but because I learned a huge amount, also doing positive and negative G with barrel rolls etc. The second day was like the first and I could go into a lot more detail but luckily it was all videoed. APS are a hugely professional and impressive outfit. APS is run like a military operation: for example the engineer would stand by your plane until you taxi out and would have his name and the instructors on the plane, like an F16.... minus the huge jets. It was one of the best things I've done out here. One thing worth mentioning is our last flight we had a little time to spare. I asked my instructor to show me some high G manoeuvres..... he did.... I mostly blacked out at 7 G, I had the tunnel vision come in... it was incredible fun. Thank you APS.

The Seminole- the new toy

I have been doing some exploring in my time off and had a trip to Sedona and Jerom which is apparently haunted. The scenery is beautiful and it was like going back in time exploring the old mines. Did I see a ghost? Course not....

So my time in Phoenix is nearly at a end, I am sure by the time I get onto the Seminoles we will 'fly' through the course and be back home. I've got maybe another 3 to 4 weeks, but the hard work is on. I need to stay focused - my plane ticket home comes with a CPL. The trend recently is to take your CPL in the morning and be on the plane home in the afternoon, once your done your done, off to the next challenge.

Thanks for reading.