Week 35: not much to see and a third first solo.

It would appear winter has well and truly arrived, with the Waikato being shrouded in fog most mornings this week, with the obvious disruption to training. I was scheduled early on Monday, and given this was my view during the drive in I had my reservations as to whether my chances of flying would be slim or none. 

As you can see only about five centre stripes are visible, so this put the visibility down to approximately 125m, which for an airliner would be Category IIIb ops. Now this means very little to most, asides from the fact the aircraft and airfield need some pretty modern kit to allow safe operations, and safe to say the Cessna 172 doesn't have it. So I wasn't surprised when my flight was cancelled, but on the upside as irritating as losing a flight is, getting a sight like this first thing in the morning is pretty good. Luckily for me I was rescheduled on Tuesday afternoon, and in glorious sunshine I flew my last flight with Scott prior to my check ahead of my third 'first' solo.

As mentioned, I have been lucky when it comes to flying, having flown both gliders and light aircraft since the age of 16. In both of these I have been solo, but in this case I still had to be assessed as competent by CTC instructors, so it counts as my first solo in the southern hemisphere and brings with it the expected nerves! Initially this assessment was planned for Friday, but after completing planning and briefing, my check was cancelled as the weather had deteriorated to low cloud and a 15 knot crosswind. Even with a reschedule for yesterday (Saturday), the weather still hadn't improved; so close but yet so far!

However, ever the optimist I found a checking instructor with a free slot, and after a few circuits with Kuni this afternoon I managed to clatter off into the big blue yonder on my own, passing a significant milestone in my course. The check wasn't without eventuality, as an Air New Zealand which had started it's take off roll decided to abort, so I got a real late go-around (always a nice skill to practice). 

Next up ill go back into the circuit with Scott, immediately followed by an hour of circuit consolidation. This is followed by another hour of solo circuits, then that's it for general handling as we move back to the simulator and onto navigation aid tracking ahead of the navigation flights. Ideally ill get the flights flown this week, as Alice arrives next Tuesday and I fully intend seeing more of this beautiful country with her! Let's just hope the weather behaves itself too, otherwise we'll be going for the windswept look in holiday snaps!

Week 34: Time seemingly stands still

Unfortunately for me, this week has gone incredibly slowly as I flew on Monday, then haven't been scheduled since. The main irritation is that I am so close to flying solo, but have now sat on the ground all week bored senseless, pretty much waiting for the schedule to be published each afternoon. This frustration is probably exacerbated by missing my family and girlfriend, and the fact i'm on the other side of the world being unproductive makes me feel quite helpless! It'd be nice to get the roster a few days in advance as this would give the opportunity to make plans and see friends, but given previous courses are slightly behind due to the weather, we're effectively on permanent standby until we get on schedule. 

On the upside I have been scheduled for a flight at 0900 tomorrow, so hopefully I get off the ground. Although the rather comedic weatherman has already forecast early morning fog, so my plans to aviate may be scuppered! But again this concern is fed by the fact Alice is coming in two weeks, and I don't want to be behind when she arrives so that I need to fly whilst she's here. So because your attention is probably waning right now due to the lack of pictures, I saw this fellow in the gym. And we complain about ants in England?! 

As I have had nothing to talk about, and someone I know is applying to the easyJet MPL, I thought i'd talk about airline and new technologies that have made the news recently. easyJet as an airline have often embraced new technology, and their commitment to low prices means they need to do everything possible to lower costs. Certain costs like airport charges and staff salaries will only ever tend to go one way, but with the continually rising price of crude oil, making the operation more fuel efficient needs to become part of airline culture. Those recent ones (ie. last 2 years) include:-

• Nano Technology- 8 aircraft were coated with an ultra thin polymer, developed for use on Military aircraft. The paint (which only weighs 4oz for the entire aircraft) prevents the build-up of debris/dirt on the surface, thus potentially lowering fuel costs by 2%
• Recaro seats-  seats constructed by the famous racing car outfitters were designed specifically for aircraft, and are approximately 25% lighter than their conventional counterparts. Each aircraft fitted with the new seats weighs roughly 600kg less, so the fuel savings are obvious!
• Ash aware- following the disruption caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud, easyJet became part of a group developing effective ash detection systems, utilising one of the Airbus aircraft during the equipment trials.
• Electronic flight bag/paperless aircraft- legally all aircraft engaged on public transport flights are required to carry on board paper copies of the charts and approach plates relevant to the airspace in which they are operating. Again this is a weight saving exercise, with the relevant documents being copied electronically on a tablet style device, easy to use in the flight deck.
• Inspection drones- this is the newest technology, using remote controlled drones during engineering inspections. The drones are equipped with lasers and cameras which can spot any defects significantly quicker than the human eye, and these are then electronically mapped. The plan is that the pilot then wears some rather fetching 'smart' glasses during the walk-around, and if he spots a defect which isn't already indicated on the inside of the lens, he can report to engineering. Again, this should save time and money, as well as prevent angry passengers, as delays due to technical faults don't require an engineer to be flown out for every inspection. 

The drone, credit to telegraph.co.uk

So that's it, hopefully more to report next Sunday and a happier Kieran! And if the above has been helpful ahead of any upcoming assessments, you're welcome. 

Week 33: round and round we go!

Following the completion of stalling in both the simulator and the aircraft, I moved onto the next significant milestone: Circuits. Although I have eluded to the accelerated nature of the MPL, circuits are something that cannot be rushed and it is the cadets competence that dictates the pace of progression (obviously within reason!). The circuit is effectively a method of organising the traffic around an aerodrome, so that Air traffic can maintain some semblance of order, and the actions of other pilots are both predictable and safe.

Put simply, the circuit is split into five sections, or 'legs'. These are upwind, crosswind, downwind, base and final. The direction of landing will normally be into wind (as this helps with the generation of lift at low speeds), so dependent on strength and direction the pilot is responsible for arranging their profiles so that the aircraft tracks along the right path. For instance, if the wind was flowing up the page, this would be a crosswind, and the aircraft would gentle be pushed away from the airfield. To counter this the nose needs to be pointed slightly into wind, and hopefully with a visual reference in the distance the pilot can tell if they're tracking correctly. 

As well as flying the aircraft, it is the pilots responsibility to correctly communicate with Air traffic control, as there may be a requirement to hold position or use a shortened approach path etc. This means flying, talking, and running checks, as well as looking for other aircraft also in the circuit or joining. Very quickly it becomes apparent how much the pilot workload ramps up, and this is why we are given 5 lessons with an instructor purely in the circuit, so that after our fifth flight we are confident and competent enough to fly off into the big blue yonder on our own!

I have performed two of these lessons and both were quite exciting. For the first I was in the circuit for 90 minutes at Hamilton, so had to be on form with the radio and planning as I was sharing the pattern with 3 others. Annoyingly the wind was variable in direction, causing tailwinds at times which caused enough windshear on final approach to decrease my speed by 5knots at 50 feet. However, this additional challenge was something to be embraced, and in my first lesson of circuits with CTC I was able to complete everything required asides from glide approach's.

Scott flying from the right on Final approach at Te Kuiti

In my second I sat in the back seat for Dan's flight (he had stalling), and after the wind had gently drifted us South, Scott flew us into a small uncontrolled airport called Te Kuiti where we could swap allowing me to fly some circuits. The challenge here is that the runway is relatively short, only 5m wide, and is surrounded by high terrain requiring quite a bit of planning, so although I now didn't need to worry about the radio as much, my flying needed to be accurate to maintain safety margins. As i'm sat here typing away, it's safe to say I didn't make a complete dogs dinner out of it!

After a few days hanging about Clearways, Chris, Matt and I decided to venture up to the Coromandel Peninsula to visit the Hot Water Beach. The beach exists as there is a fault line running close to the surface, so at low tide if you dig into the sand hot water fills the void giving a self built hot tub. And by hot I mean scalding; water temperatures commonly reach 65degrees celcius, so buckets of sea water are needed to cool things down (as Matt found out the hard way!). It was completely worth the effort of driving for two hours, even if we did need to leave at 0630 to get there before the tide came back in.

After that (and given we'd driven two hours to get there), we drove a bit further to a spot known as Cathedral Cove. It's one of those incredible spots that isn't particularly well publicised, but once you get down there you can see why the arch was seen as a beautiful enough spot to be the gateway to Narnia in one of the chronicles films. This was also a good opportunity to suss out whether the two spots were worth a visit again (which they definitely are), so rain or shine Alice and I will definitely be venturing up to the Coromandel during her trip!

And finally, as we drove through Paeroa we stopped at the visitor centre to pay homage to a rather large L&P shrine. L&P is a soft drink originally made in the small town of Paeroa that tastes immense, and the Coca Cola company seem to agree as they bought it! Clearly showing my love....

Week 32: Upset recovery and the Wairere Falls

As even someone with the weakest of interest knows, in 2009 an Air France Airbus failed to arrive in Paris following it's cross-Atlantic flight from Brazil. During normal operation through the inter-tropical convergence zone (an Equatorial region famed for very wild weather), the aircraft unfortunately experienced severe icing which caused a system failure, and although the failure itself wasn't catastrophic, the confusion it caused and the subsequent actions of the crew unfortunately led to the aircraft hitting the ocean, and 228 lives were lost.

I won't go into the reasons for the system failure itself, but one of the primary causes of the aircraft dropping out of the sky was the crew failing to recognise that the aircraft was in the wrong position (a nose high attitude), possibly due to confusion as to the limitations of the aircraft's safety systems, and perhaps a lack of thought for the very basics of manual flight they had learnt many years before. Put simply, the aircraft was established in a nose high attitude flying very slowly, and as a result an insufficient amount of air was flowing over the top surface of the wing; the wing had stalled. This meant the force known as 'lift' was too little to sustain flight, causing the aircraft to fall at approximately 10,000 feet per minute. 

The stall is one of the earliest hazards new pilots are introduced to, because it is a continuous threat to safety, and the earlier a pilot can recover from the stall without conscious thought the better. On Air France 447, the theory goes (as the pilots also perished so investigators will never know their thought process) that the pilots believed the aircraft was too technologically advanced to suffer from the stall, and therefore neglected to initiate the standard stall recovery. This conclusion is why there has been a recent change in flight training, with a lot of emphasis placed on upset recovery and recovery from unusual attitudes. On the MPL perform stalling in the aircraft and simulator (which I did this week), but also go through upset recovery in the Airbus.

Wairere Falls from the Lower 

viewpoint, all 150m of it

Asides from flight training, yesterday a few of us went to see the Wairere Falls which are about an hour away in the Kaimai range. The falls themselves are 150m high and the view from the bottom is just as impressive as from the top (as the picture to the right demonstrates). We were able to get close to the point where the water disappears over the edge, where the effort of climbing in the humid forest air was more than rewarded. Hopefully when Alice comes over the weather is dry enough to venture to the top again......on which note, happily the flights are booked, and a Qantas A380 should be winging its way across the globe! Excited to say the least!