Lesson 16 - Circuits and EFATO

It had been 3 weeks since I had last been up - Family trip to Lapland, Christmas and bad weather filling the intervening weeks.

We were originally scheduled for the trip to Rochester to practice on a grass runway, which I had been looking forward to, but the cloudbase was a bit too low for Rochester, which stands on a bit of a hill. to be honest I was just happy to get flying again.

So instead, we did a bit more circuit practice and some EFATO - no not a result of too many Brussels sprouts over Christmas, but Engine Failure After Take Off. This is one of the pre-requisites for solo.

Although we had covered EFATOs briefly before, Tim took me through them in a bit more detail during the pre-flight briefing. The key point throughout is to fly the plane. As soon as the engine failure occurs, it is important to set up the aircraft in the glide attitude with a glide speed of 65 knots and trim the aircraft.

The next step is to select a suitable landing site 45 degrees either side of the nose and within gliding range. At Southend there are many suitable fields, particularly when taking off from 06. Fields are first choice, Tim wasn't very enamoured with my suggestion of roads, but instead was happier to suggest a roof. I reckoned with my luck, I'd crash-land OK on the roof, then fall off! In most cases, it is not advisable to try to land back on the airfield - research by many learned organisations has shown that a very high proportion of these attempts end in tragedy.

Anyway, having selected your landing site, the next job is to do the engine checks, Tim advised going from right to left in the cockpit:
- fuel on
- mixture rich
- exercise throttle
- Carb Heat on
- mags L/R/Both
- master switch on
- primer locked.
If any of these is out of place, then correct and attempt to restart.

At all times it is essential to keep flying the plane.

Next job is to call it in: Mayday 3 times, followed by callsign and "engine failure". Then get back to flying the plane.

Prior to the forced landing, you need to make the aircraft safe:
- fuel off
- bring the mixture to idle cut-off
- mags off
- master off
- check harnesses are secure
- open the doors - this helps in case the airframe deforms on landing.
- brief the passengers to brace

And keep flying the aircraft into as good a landing as you can manage. Reading through the AAIB bulletins, the majority appear to be survivable.

We were back flying Foxtrot-Romeo today and were flying off runway 06, which I am less familiar with than 24. The sun was quite low and it was a bit hazy, so visibility wasn't always so good. And I was out of practice.

My de-brief notes to myself were "could do better!". It was the standard circuits I seemed to have more problems with and it was fairly basic and fundamental - I just wasn't paying attention to the speed, which is crucial as it is really the thing that keeps you in the air! The problem was I was caught up with looking for the runway, but as Tim said, it wasn't going anywhere. It was fairly guaranteed to still be where we had left it...!

My EFATO practices were OK - I just need to ensure I nailed the speed and attitude first, but generally OK.

We did a practice go around and I inadvertantly raised the flaps before ensuring I had a positive rate of climb - I had got used to doing this on touch-and-go's. Otherwise it was fine.

We also did a glide descent on one circuit and this was reasonably succesful. Tim suggested a squirt of throttle just on very late finals to ensure we made the threshold, but said we would have done anyway. The landings were fine. I've got surprisingly used to flying straight at the ground now!

Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as P2	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	0:55	0:00	3	3
Total	15:45	0:00	32	24

Lesson 15 - Glide and Flapless approaches

Refresher on flapless approaches - 1500 RPM and 70 knots.

Glide approaches at 65 knots. Estimate point to close the throttle to land a third of the way down the runway, which on runway 24 is about taxiway Bravo.

If aircraft is too high, then use flaps - flaps 10 initially, and flaps 20 once you are sure to make it. Flaps 30 only once very certain! It is OK to land without flap.

The circuit was fairly busy today and at one stage I needed to orbit. I was not disoriented this time, as I was the last by doing this.

In the debrief, Tim raised a number of "peripheral" items that I need to remember and correct:
- I have to taxi slower.
- When cleared to line up on the runway, I need to remember the transponder, the strobes and the landing lights.
- After landing, leave all the controls until clear of the runway when you can do the post-landing checks (otherwise one day I WILL raise the undercarriage instead of the flaps - when I am in a plane I can do that with!)

Of the flying items, I need to only do a rate 1 (15 degree of bank) turn when asked to orbit. I also need to not be scared of the radio - I don't think I am really worried by the radio anymore, generally, but today I was more cautious. Must remember the "if in doubt, shout" saying! I also need to keep an eye on my altitudes - I tend to get a bit high on the downwind leg.

The flapless approach - which we did with quite a long final - was quite a "firm" landing - although Tim confirmed that it hadn't caused any problems with his underpants! The issue, as we discussed it later (the landing, not the pants) was that on a flapless approach, the nose attitude tends to be higher, so it is more difficult to judge the sink. Therefore I need to beware of closing the throttle too early (and smacking down on the runway!).

Overall a good lesson. Tim talked about going to Rochester for the next lesson, as we would need to do a circuit detail or two on Rochester's grass runways - preferrably before going solo, as Rochester is the alternate airfield. I'd quite look forward to that - a change of airfield would certainly be interesting!

Stats at end of lesson 15
Description	Hours as P2	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	1:00	0:00	6	5
Total	14:50	0:00	29	21

Lesson 7 - Turning

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Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as P2	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	1:00	0:00	1	0
Total	6:50	0:00	2	0

Lesson 6 - Climbing and Descending with flaps

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Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as PUT	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	1:10	0:00	1	0
Total	5:50	0:00	1	0

Lesson 5 - Climbing and Descending

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Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as PUT	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	0:55	0:00	0	0
Total	4:40	0:00	0	0

Lesson 4 - Flying straight and level with flaps

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Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as PUT	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	1:00	0:00	0	0
Total	3:45	0:00	0	0

Lesson 3 - Flying straight and level

Tim had turned 30 in the week, and had been celebrating his birthday the previously evening, so was feeling a bit tender. Had i not been advised to read up on it first, I may have thought this was the primary reason for us doing "straight and level" flight today... :-)

We flew south today to fly over Sheerness, which made a nice change. It was a nice sunny day and there were a few thermals coming up from the buildings and concrete areas below - which were not welcomed by Tim!

I'm finding these lessons quite straightforward, but am learning much more about the aircraft, and the layout of the instruments etc and am thoroughly enjoying myself!

Tim started me on using the radio this week. This is probably the scariest thing I have done to date - broadcasting on the ether; knowing that everyone is listening to you. We were in G-BOLW (which is said as GOLF-BRAVO-OSCAR-LIMA-WHISKEY. I seemed to be stuck in some strange Bruce Forsythe impression of BRWRWRWAVO-OSCWRWRARWRW. Tim did also comment that my WHISKEY had occasionaly been WISPY. Which my two daughters found hugely amusing and had to tell everyone about!

The tip is to write it all down on the knee pad and read it back.

Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as PUT	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	0:50	0:00	0	0
Total	2:45	0:00	0	0

Lesson 2 - Secondary effects of controls

This lesson was to look at the secondary effects of the controls. Tim took me through what we were going to cover in the lesson in the briefing room beforehand, then we went out to the aircraft to fly the lesson.

First off, however, Tim took me through using the checklist to do the pre-flight checks. There are 3 pages dedicated to checking the aircraft before we even get in it. The most strenuous of these was that, to check the fuel, you shouldn't really believe the fuel gauges, but it is required to visually check the level of fuel. There are two tanks, one in each wing, joined in the middle. To see the contents of the tank, you need to step onto a little step on the side of the aircraft, hoist yourself up using a handle on the front fuselage and then rest your spare foot on a small step on the wing strut! Thank goodness I am tall: if I was this unfit and short, I would never manage it!

The weather was a bit grim, but Tim deemed it sufficient to fly in. He did say he didn't want to spoil me by providing excellent flying days, so early in my flying career...!

In the air, we flew to the practice area to the north of Southend, over the river Blackwater, centering all our practice over Osea Island. We reviewed the primary effect of the controls, then moved into the secondary effects of controls.

For this, Tim demonstrated, with me following the controls with fingertips, then trying the manoeuver myself. The secondary affect is the response of the aircraft, if the controls are left in the position, with no other control input once the primary affect is acheived.

For example, by using the rudder pedals (which I could now feel without my wallet in my back pocket!) I yawed the aircraft to the left, with no other control input, after yawing the aircraft began to roll to the left. This is for two aerodynamic reasons, firstly by yawing to the left, the starboard wing moves forward quicker through the airflow than the port wing, which therefore produces more lift on the starboard wing. Secondly, the port wing is sheilded from the airflow to some extent, by the fuselage, which reduces the lift on the port wing. Less lift on port, more lift on starboard means a roll to the right.

The secondary effect of roll is yaw. This is because as the aircraft is banked, it begins to slip sideways, as it slips the fin causes more drag to the rear of the aircraft and therefore yaws the aircraft in the same direction as the bank.

As we were finishing the lesson, it began to rain, so we headed back to the airport and landed.

Another good lesson - I'm really enjoying this!

Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as PUT	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	0:55	0:00	0	0
Total	1:55	0:00	0	0

First lesson - Primary effects of controls

Unfortunately I didn't keep notes for these first few lessons, so I have had to remember details of these lessons by using reminders from my Student Progress Reports - notes kept on record by Tim - my instructor


This lesson was to look at the primary effects of controls - which I was reasonably familiar with from my early flying days in Chipmunks and my glider training - also many hours on Microsoft Flight Sim. Turn the yoke left, bank left; turn the yoke right, bank right. Centre the yoke when required angle of bank was acheived. Pull the yoke back and the nose comes up, push the yoke forward and the nose drops down.

The rudder is controlled by pedals - left rudder makes the aircraft yaw to the left, right rudder makes the aircraft yaw to the right.

The rudder pedals also control directional control on the ground, via steering the nosewheel. I am a lot less successful with this! 20-odd years of driving cars means that when I want to go left I turn the wheel I am holding left. This has little effect on an aircraft on the ground!

Something I hadn't previously known was that the attitude of the aircraft (nose up, or nose down) primarily controlled the speed, and power controls climbing and descending.

On the way back, Tim also showed me how to trim the aircraft (which does not involve chopping bits off it!) - set the attitude of the aircraft to acheive the requred speed and then turn the trim wheel - until you can pretty much release the controls and the aircraft stays at the same attitude.

A very enjoyable first lesson!

Back at the club house, I bought the first books I needed, my log book, a knee board and a checklist for the aircraft.

Stats at end of lesson
Description	Hours as PUT	Hours as P1	Take Offs	Landings
Lesson	1:00	0:00	0	0
Total	1:00	0:00	0	0

Requirements for a PPL

In the UK to Acheive a PPL(A) (Private Pilot Licence(Aeroplane)) the student must have acheived the following:

- A total of 45 hours flying time, of which at least 10 hours must be supervised solo time and at least 25 hours must be dual instruction time.
- Solo flight time must include 5 hours solo cross-country time
- At least one qualifying cross-country flight of a minimum of 150nm (nautical miles) which includes two full landings at airfields which aren't where you took off from (i.e. you have to fly a triangle).
- Pass a skills test - a bit like the practical bit of the driving test, but in 3-dimensions!) including any questions the examiner wishes to throw at you.
- Pass a medical
- Pass the following written exams:
- Air Law
- Principles of Flight and Aircraft General Knowledge
- Navigation
- Meteorology
- Flight Performance and Planning
- Human Factors
- Radio Communication

Phew!

And that will allow you to fly a single-engined, simple aircraft, in good weather, in daylight, and within sight of the ground.

If you want to fly outside those boundaries, then that means more hours, more training and (potentially) more exams!

If this level of regulation was applied to the roads, two things would be achieved:
- there would be much less congestion on the roads.
- there would be a lot fewer accidents.
But I guess the automotive industry would suffer, so cars would cost as much as planes!

Ancient History...

I first got hooked on flying when I was an Air Cadet at school. About once a term, if your name made it to the list, you would have time off school and travel by minibus to Marshall Airport near Cambridge where you would be shown the safety film "Jump, John, Jump" (anyone remember that!?), clear your pockets of FOD (Foreign Object Damage), then be fitted with your parachute and waddle out, hunched over, with the pilot striding along beside you with his parachute nonchalantly slung over his shoulder to the waiting DeHavilland Chipmunk. Ground crew would fasten you in, the canopy would slide shut and the pilot would take off with the main aim of many to see how green they could make the cadet in the back.




We all loved it!




I don't remember being taught all that much about useful information, such as controlling the power, straight and level flight or gentle turns. However I still remember the principles of how to fly a loop-the-loop, perform a stall turn and a barrel roll...!






The useful information I learnt at a week's gliding course at RAF Halton. The aim of the course with the Volunteer Gliding Squadron was to be able to fly a single solo flight at the controls of Slingsby Venture powered gliders.




I was fortunate to be awarded an RAF Sixth Form Scholarship, but as I was not going for a flying branch, I did not automatically get the flying scholarship which went with it. Apparently, I could have got one, had I gone to ask the sergeant behind the desk, but as I did not have this information, know who the sergeant was, or where his desk was located, I missed out on that 30 hours of flying time.

My degree had a sandwich year, which I spent working for the RAF. whilst there, I did a favour for the pilots of Number-1 squadron and earned myself a flight in the back seat of a Harrier. This was - as you can imagine - the chance of a lifetime. There were a couple of scary moments - when the power kicked in, I received a kick like a dozen mules in my back and I appreciated for the first time the power of the thing I was strapped to and then when my G-suit tightened and did not release. The pilot told me to lift a leaver just behind my right hip and I was pretty worried that I might find a spare ejection handle. I would be paying the RAF back for the loss of a harrier for a long time! However these little worries just added to the huge enjoyment of flying in, and actually taking control of (for a few brief moments) such a wonderful aircraft.



Then latterly, my fiancee (now wife) bought me a trial flying lesson for my birthday. It was in a PA-28 from Southend Airport. I vowed to myself that this would not be the last.


At least 10 years passed, during which time I flew numerously in the back of many passenger jets, but never in anything smaller, and never at the controls, then last Christmas, my brother-in-law bought for me another trial flying lesson. This time with Seawing Flying Club at Southend. Personal circumstances meant that, for the first time I was able to continue from the trial lesson and take up flying lessons to achieve my PPL.


This blog will follow the story of these lessons hopefully to me succeeding in getting my PPL and beyond...