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!

Week 31: Full power, RPM stable, here we go....

Finally, after being in New Zealand for a month, this week I got my first couple of flights in the Cessna 172. The weather did it's level best to stop me flying, and on Thursday my first scheduled flight was cancelled due to a South Pacific depression basically leaving the Waikato completely saturated. This however did offer the opportunity to go through a comprehensive brief on the cadet 'to-do' list before every flying detail, and as there was no pressure to prep before a certain time we were able to go into plenty of detail. 

So what needs to be done prior to flight? The below list is really only the items carried out at the airfield and by no means exhaustive, but there is a requirement for the cadet to arrive briefed on the details of the flight so they have a fair idea what to exist. This is done by going through the training manual and reading up on the specifics of the detail, so there are no surprises during the instructor brief. On arrival at the airport:-

• Aircraft Inspection- general condition, oil level, fuel level, acceptable hours before next service
• Mass and Balance- Calculate the position of the centre of gravity for take off and landing based on crew/passenger mass, fuel on board. 
• Performance- Distances required for take off and landing based on weather conditions, surface, and aircraft weight. Is the runway long enough?!
• Meteorology- What are the weather conditions now, during the flight, and what are they expected to do. Will the flight remain legal if the worst case scenario develops? Do we need to change the plan?
• Briefing- Final opportunity to discuss with your instructor whats going to happen during the flight, what areas potentially need to be concentrated on, and what are the potential threats to be managed?

After my cancellation on Thursday I was rescheduled on Friday, and thankfully the weather broke long enough for my primary instructor Scott and I to jump in and clatter off into the big blue yonder. Regardless of my previous flying experience, my eyes were immediately opened to the CTC way of doing things, as well as the concept of multi-crew briefings. Up to now I have been able to jump in, start up, taxi out and get airborne. Now however there is a need to brief the departure (what are we doing after the wheels leave the tarmac), brief the taxi (how do we get to the end of the runway), brief the take off (points of interest like a cross wind, what to do in case of emergencies), and finally brief the arrival (how do we get ourselves into the pattern). 

I also got to fly on Saturday, and given the way my first flight had gone we were able to spend 20 minutes in the circuit, allowing me the opportunity to get to grips with the Cessna approach/landing slightly ahead of schedule. As a training base Hamilton can at times be very busy, and chatter on the radio needs to be kept as concise as possible. Thankfully spending a few years as a controller meant I was fairly confident when it came to the radio, but I can see how daunting it could be to a complete ab-initio. The only advice I can give is have a good think what you want to say before pressing the button, and if you're really nervous write down the bits you want to say so you have something to read off. Hopefully next week I get a few more flights, but i'm sure the weather's going to do its best to prevent that!

Week 30: Sims complete but Autumn has arrived!

,Unfortunately this week I didn't get near the simulator again until Thursday, but that gave me a chance to pour over the operations manual as well as read ahead on upcoming lessons. I have now completed my four flights in the simulator that form the foundaiton of the MPL course, so the next time I manipulate the controls they will be in a Cessna 172 airborne over New Zealand. I am very very excited to say the least as I haven't flown since September (just before starting ground-school), so hopefully it won't take me too long to get back to standard.

The major difference I am finding with the course to any other sort of flying training, is the greater focus on the end goal and building a foundation to achieve it. A simple example is the approach, and how the pilot flies the aircraft. Normally when flying a light aircraft pitching (moving the nose up or down in relation to the horizon) controls the aircraft speed, and power controls rate of decent (how quickly terra firma comes up to meet us). However, in a jet with huge amounts of inertia this method wouldn't work as changes/adjustments would be unacceptably slow, so instead pitch controls rate of decent (point the nose where you want to go), and power controls speed (give it the beans and you'll go faster!). To get us flying like airline pilots, it is this method employed from the outset, so I gently had to re-learn quite an important skill! Another example is treating the cockpit as a multi-crew flight deck;. this means all checks are vocalised, giving a better defence against potential threats.

With time off I also had the chance to sort my car, and as promised here is 'the beast'. Surprisingly it drives rather well (asides from a knocking sound every so often!), and appears to sip on petrol, so ill accept the fact I look like an idiot! The name......as Andy and I are both fans of Norwich's favourite DJ Alan Partridge, we decided an appropriate name would be 'Lady Partridge'; and she's a classy girl, so no abuse!

As well as that, I this week managed to pick up one of these beauties. For the observant amongst you, you'll notice it's a ticket to watch England play the All Blacks in June. I feel like Charlie with his golden ticket to the chocolate factory!

The only other thing i've been up to was a walk around lake Tarawera, which is an absolutely huge crater left following the volcanic eruption of Mount Tarawera. Unfortunately our plan to climb the Mount was ruined when we arrived only to learn the foot of the mount was a days hike, so instead we followed the 'Tarawera trail', taking in what can only be described as the scenery from Jurassic park! As you can see, Nikesh is demonstrating his amusement at the amount of work Andy has done, and that was us at the halfway mark!

Finally, Happy Easter for those that celebrate, and for those that don't, enjoy all the chocolate. I'm waiting on the roster to be published to find out if i'm flying tomorrow, but even if i'm in chances are the flight will be cancelled as Autumn appears to have arrived in New Zealand, with half the Pacific deciding to pour on middle earth. The images below show the cloud brewing, and about 2 minutes later the result when it couldn't hold on any longer. Not exactly conducive to flight training!

Week 29: Mass briefs, exams and flight training!

This week has been relatively busy for myself and my colleagues on EZMP03 (i'm no longer part of cp112), a week which irritatingly started with two more days in the classroom. However, the lessons were actually 'mass briefs', an important element of the course. Put simply they are whole class briefings focusing on the specifics of the upcoming flight details, so immediately are significantly more interesting than air law/differences. In these we looked at mass and balance for the aircraft, performance in the Cessna C172, went through a type rating for the C172, and finished with fundamentals of flight which we'd be working on during our simulator sessions.

And so the MPL (multi-crew pilot licence) this week came into its own, the early flight details being flown in the twinstar sim instead of the Katana, but flown using Cessna performance figures. I had my first flight on Thursday, the focus on flying the aircraft by visual means, whilst allowing the opportunity to operate the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit system. It is possible to fly the aircraft incredibly accurately given the displays are digital, and my previous flying experience certainly helped me to get used to the equipment as I was able to fly with slightly less conscious effort than an 'ab initio' cadet (zero experience). My second sim session was however much more eventful as most of it was spent flying in cloud, so all outside reference was lost and the aircraft needed to be flown with sole reference to the instruments, a completely new skill for me. I'd like to think I performed to an acceptable standard, and I'm very much looking forward to my next session (which irritatingly wont be until Wednesday at the earliest!). On the left is Dom and the right Liam, both taking the sim for a spin!

On Friday I had my New Zealand Air Law exam, an exam which is taken in a shopping centre, which is surreal to say the least. I passed so am clear to train unrestricted, and that's all that needs to be said about that!

Now those of you in training will appreciate the importance of a good nights sleep for efficient performance, and those that have completed Human performance have a good understanding of having a disturbed circadian rhythm, specifically being woken in the middle of a sleep cycle. Unfortunately this week the fire alarm decided it would go off at midnight, so we found ourselves dragged from our beds waiting for New Zealands finest to make the drive from the nearest Fire station to effectively tell us it was a false alarm. Fortunately I put a top on before going out, as we were waiting about 30 minutes in the cold to get back to our beds!

In completely unrelated news I have managed to get a car for my stay here, an absolutely tragic hatchback which for those that watch 'the inbetweeners' would probably recognise as Jay's car. Our's honestly isn't much better, but as long as it gets me to the airport and the shops and keeps my head dry, i'm happy. Pictures of 'the beast' to follow....

And finally, this week I had some great news that Alice has managed to get a week off and will be coming out to visit in the first week of June! Although it'll be winter down here so probably pretty cold, it's great she can come at the halfway mark of this phase, and is something to look forward to outside of flying! To the cadets on cp113, good luck on Friday for your ATPL results and hopefully we'll see you soon enough!!