A bad day

Yesterday I had my first lesson on how to perform a circuit at Goodyear. It was by far the worst performance I have put in so far, nothing on the flight went well. As I taxi'd out I went to perform rudder checks, but was still in range of the ramadas - I didn't hit anything but it's a big no-no. I then carried out my power checks in the run-up area, then called Goodyear Ground for clearance to taxi to runway - but had completely missed out my pre take-off checklist.
When I finally got up in the sky, I just could not get comfortable at the controls at all. We were just doing touch and go's, and although I was getting the take-off and the pattern ok, I couldn't get the approach and landing right. Such a disappointment after doing well the other day.
Things started to fall into place after 3 hard landings and 2 go-arounds, when Gilbert said to increase speed on approach I should increase engine power. The training books we have all seem to imply that you set power at 1700rpm and leave it, but when I tried a landing with the power at 1900rpm, I maintained the glideslope much easier, and the landing was much better. I've uploaded a video of my full-stop landing on my website
Here's a great pic of Gilbert looking back at Mal after I nose-dived for the ground:



I have another lesson at 11am today, let's just hope I don't make the same mistakes...

Happy Birthday Clare!

Hi all
It's been quite a busy week so far, we've been out and about to a few places in the Phoenix area. I've been lucky with my flights this week - Monday was a day off, Tuesday I flew at 6am, Weds I backseated Mal at 6am then flew at 7:30, and I didn't fly today as it's Clare's birthday.
Getting a nice early slot means I am home early, which gives us the rest of the day to go do something. At this early stage in the training there isn't much 'homework' to be done other than learning checklists and procedures, so at most I'm looking at a 4 hour working day, which when started at 5am is pretty nice.
Anyway, on Monday we took the opportunity to go into Phoenix for a visit to the Science Museum. We were really impressed with the place, there was a lot of hands-on activities - including a chance to fly a plane! There was a lot for Georgia to do too, which was nice, and also an IMAX showing which we sat through. The only disappointment was the catering facilities - they made Oxford Aviation's canteen look like a 5 star Michelin restaurant. I think Georgia's expression sums it up best:



On Tuesday we headed over to Scottsdale, firstly for a visit to Crackerjax then a walk around Kierland Mall. The day started off a bit overcast, so at Crackerjax we headed outside for a go on the Crazy Golf - but 2 holes into it the sun broke through the clouds, and promptly cooked us alive. Thank god we'd only paid for a go on one of the courses. Georgia had a great time with the golf - although she quickly dispensed with the club in favour of just picking up the ball and throwing it in the hole. Tiger Woods has nothing on this girl!





After a spot of lunch at Crackerjax we went to Kierland, had a quick look around Barnes & Noble then a look in a couple of kiddy clothes places. It's a really nice mall, with a water fountain in the middle which is similar to the one at Asda Walmart in Swindon. Georgia had a good splash around there (fully clothed, of course), then dragged me in too for a good soaking. The great thing about here is that 5 minutes after you get out of the water, you are bone dry again.



Later that evening we were hit by an awesome thunderstorm, the likes of which I have never seen before in my life. It lasted for hours, and seemed to be all around us. There was very little rain initially, but after a couple of hours the rain arrived and flooded a few areas. The thunder and lightning was amazing though, it just kept constantly flashing and crashing, not at all like what you get in the UK. I managed to get a couple of photos that show three stages - dark, blue, then bright white:






I managed to get some good video footage too, which I'll put up on my website at some point. Gianni off AP256 got some awesome shots of the storm from Goodyear Airport, which I'll also put on my site when I get chance.

Yesterday morning I had a backseat flight with Mal at 6:00, then a quick change over at Buckeye airport and I took off at 7:45. I was practising PFL's (practise forced landings) - only the aircraft we had turned out to be a bit of a lemon. Unfortunately we didn't realise this until we went to apply max power to recover the practise landing. What we did was close the throttle and glide the aircraft towards a nice looking field as if we were going to land, but at the last minute apply max power and climb away - only the engine started to cough and splutter.... so we very nearly ended up doing an actual forced landing! Crumbs chief!
When we returned to Goodyear I brought us in for a landing, and performed my very first unassisted landing. It all went beautifully, so much so that when we cleared the runway Gilbert turned to me and said 'that was a pretty nice landing man' - which in Gilbert-speak means 'that was totally awesome dude!'. Even Mal (who was backseating) commented later that it was really sweet. Made me a happy bunny for the rest of the day!
When I got back home I picked up Clare and Georgia and we headed firstly to Borders in Avondale for children's story time, then up to Arrowhead Mall to meet Tony, Claire and Daisy. We had a spot of lunch at Johnny Rockets then had a wander round the shops for a while, before letting the girls charge around the play area. We also took the opportunity to get Georgia's feet measured at Stride Rites, and buy her some new shoes (she's a size 7 and a half U.S. - feet like canoes, just like her dad)

Today I had a nice lie-in 'til about 8am, followed by a nice lazy morning with Clare and Georgia. Unfortunately I'd already given Clare her birthday presents early, so she had nothing to open :-(
Just before lunch we arranged to head over to Big Surf in Tempe. We had a great time splashing about, keeping cool despite the really high temperatures. Clare had a go on a lot of the water slides too, which she loved:



Shortly after lunch Tony, Claire and Daisy arrived - and the two little-'uns had a great time in the pool. It's really nice for Georgia to have a friend to play with now, even though they do go a bit mental when they get together! Here's a nice photo of Clare with Georgia and Daisy:



Tony had to head back to Goodyear for a 5pm flight, so we brought Claire and Daisy back to our place for a while, which after a quick tea of french toast gave the girls another chance to charge about together, and play with Georgia's new toddler bed. Georgia is a huge 'Dora the explorer' fan, so we managed to buy her a proper Dora toddler bed, and she loves it! Here's a nice pic of Daisy giving Georgia a big hug on the bed:



And that brings us up to date! I hope my dear wife has had a nice day - I know it's not exactly been a 'special' day for her, but I'd like to think we all had a nice time. I just want to let you know that I love you very much Clarey - you are the best thing to happen to me, and I couldn't do this pilot training without you. Happy birthday darling.

Well, it's now 23:45 and I'm up at 4am for a 5:30 flight, so I'm off to get a couple of hours kip!

S.

Time flies when you're having fun

A dreadful pun, but it's bloody accurate. It's been quite a busy week since I started flying on Tuesday. Yesterday saw me have flight number 6 at 6am - and I should have had flight number 7 at 10:30 but the aircraft was still 'Tech' so the lesson was cancelled. The pace at which the learning goes at is very fast - you literally get to watch your instructor perform a manoeuvre, have a couple of attempts yourself, then move on to the next. A typical 1.5hr slot will end up being about an hour's flight time, due to time spent on the ground doing pre-flight, startup checks, power checks, taxi, hold... then it takes a good 10 to 15 minutes to fly from Goodyear Airport to the practise area to the south - allow 15 minutes for the trip back and you're looking at 30 minutes of 'new' lesson time.
I'm feeling happier in myself now as I'm starting to get a hang of all the checks, checks and more checks that have to be done, and also getting a feel for the controls. Yesterday we did practise stalls, and I received some good praise from my Instructor when I carried out a full power-off stall at 5000ft then recovered it with approx 100ft height loss and minor heading deviation.
I've managed to take a few more photos and videos too - but as we are still playing about locally they are mostly the same as what is already on my website. If anyone wants to see some of the video footage then let me know - it's a bit too large to keep on my webspace permanently.
I'm now off until Tuesday at the earliest as Gilbert doesn't work Mondays - and it sure feels nice to switch off and relax. Despite being up at 4am yesterday I didn't seem to suffer too much for it, and was bright and breezy when I got home at about 9:30am. My flying buddy Mal, and his chauffeur Steve Robinson (also from AP256) called round at our apartment at 10:40, and I felt rather sheepish when I told them we were heading out to Barnes and Noble for children's story time at 11am. They were both good about it, and followed us up there so we could sit and have a chat over some Starbucks's Frappuccinos (which in case you're wondering taste just the same as in the UK, only they cost less here)
After story time, and after the guys had headed back to the airport - Clare, Georgia and I hung around a bit longer at B&N, then headed home. Shortly afterwards we were paid a visit by Tony Grear (from AP255) and his wife Clare and daughter Daisy.
I hadn't met Tony until yesterday, despite him being on the course just ahead of ours and him being in a similar family situation to us. It's a shame that we hadn't got to know each other during ground school as we seem to have a lot in common (he rides a 2001 model R1 - which instantly puts him in my good books)
Anyhoo - we all had a good afternoon - Georgia and Daisy played nicely enough (Daisy is a couple of months older than Georgia) - apart from Georgia being a tad possessive about her toys and eventually going into meltdown when we got back from the pool.

Today (Sunday) we headed up to a McDonalds just north of Goodyear where we met Tony, Clare and Daisy, and also Dana, Rob and Robbie. We had a lovely breakfast while the little ones threw each other around the kiddy play area. Everyone seems to get on well, so hopefully we can arrange more meet-ups like this - it's definitely good for the kids, and got to be good for the mums too.


A couple of extra things: Here's a picture taken from our balcony the other night - the sun was just setting and there was a high level of sand in the air, the photo doesn't really do justice to just how amazing the sky looked.







And one last thing - a Happy Birthday to my good friend Ian who just turned 30. He's been given a nice present of a drive of a couple of Ferraris - looking forward to hearing all about it. All the best mate.

Time to get myself off to bed methinks - busy day planned for tomorrow: crazy golfing and splash park!

Ciao for now

Simon

Airborne at last

Tuesday 18th July, 10:55am: the moment the wheels left the ground on my first flight with Oxford Aviation.
I'll amend this post when I have more time, but I'm up at 4am tomorrow for an early flight. Meanwhile, here's a piccie of the aircraft I flew today.



************* Update ******************

My head is now swimming with information overload. I did my second and third flights today (see HERE for some pictures taken this morning).
The training is progressing fairly quickly, considering I have zero flight experience prior to this. For my first flight we spent a lot of time going over all the check list in detail, carrying out a proper pre-flight check and walk round, then taking time over the pre-taxi, pre-take off, top of climb, cruise, and all the other checks that need doing. Quite a lot to take in, but with time and practise it should come together. I didn't do much flying for lesson 1, just some very basic turns once we had made it out to the practise area just over the other side of the mountains.
For lesson 2 (7:30am) I was on the radios calling Goodyear Tower and requesting clearances etc, and carried out the take off on runway 21. For reference the ATIS was information Mike, wind was 120 at 8 kts, temp 33 degrees, dewpoint 18, QNH 29.91, runway 21.
Once out in the practise area we ran through lesson 2, which covered secondary effects of controls, and the effects of flaps. I had more time in control, but was still obviously getting a feel for it all.
For lesson 3 (11:30am) I performed the take off and flew the aircraft out past twin lakes and onto the greenfields practise area. By now the temperature had risen a few more degrees and the ride was pretty bumpy. For take off the ATIS was information Papa, windo 060 @ 6 kts, temp 38, dewpoint 16, QNH 2989, runway 03. We covered off what was required for lesson 3 - what 'straight and level' means, and how to trim the aircraft. I was struggling with this as the aircraft was being thrown around the sky by all the thermals - no sooner had you trimmed it were you fighting to hold your altitude and heading.
We then headed back to Goodyear airport to perform some touch-and-go's. I called up ATIS and got information Quebec - wind 120 @ 10 kts, temp 38, dewpoint 16, QNH 2987, runway 03. This gave us a 10 kt, 90 degree crosswind across the runway, which had us 'crabbing' the aircraft in sideways. Lovely.
Here's where I made a 'slight' error. Bear in mind this was my first attempted landing ever, and it was not the best conditions.... anyway... I was doing as instructed, keeping airspeed just above 70kts, 1000ft markers half way up the windscreen, and all the while fighting to keep the aircraft on the centre line of the runway. Unfortunately my grip on the controls was not all that light - ok I was hanging on for dear life - and when the main wheels touched down it was fairly rough - enough to bounce us back up into the sky. Whooops. Gilbert had done his best to stop this happening, but he couldn't wrestle the controls off me! No harm done, we applied full power and climbed out of there - Gilbert telling me I need to use a lighter touch, as he wasn't strong enough to overcome my inputs on the controls (he's only little, bless)
He was really good about it though, and we just did a quick circuit and had another go - and the second attempt was a good bit better. Although to be fair, Gilbert was mostly in control and I just followed what he was doing with the controls.
On the climb out for the second time, Goodyear Tower called us up and told us to stay on the centre line and not turn for the regular circuit. We did this, then 30 seconds later we got a call from Goodyear Tower asking us to state our intentions, as we had passed over the I10 and were heading for Luke Air Force Base airspace. Gilbert had a 'discussion' with ATC over the instructions they'd given us, then we turned back and headed round for a third landing. I'm pretty pleased to say that this one went really well - I got the aircraft down bang on the centre line and held it there. We then taxi'd back to parking, and that was the end of lesson 3.
All in all, a pretty good day. It's been a long day (was up just before 4am) - and there has been a hell of a lot of information to take on board.
I went down to Goodyear airfield earlier this evening and checked the shedule, I'm down for a 14:00 flight tomorrow, so I can have a bit of a lie in then get stuck into some work before the flight. Will hopefully not get screwed over by sheduling again like I did today, and will get time to fill in the mass & balance sheet and ATIS information.

Well, I think that just about covers it. I daren't proof read what I've written, but there's a good chance most people starting to read this blog entry will have fallen asleep by now.

Ciao for now!

Simon



P.S. Don't forget to check out my main website for some pictures from flying today.

Harrier crashes near Oxford

News from the BBC confirms that a RAF Harrier crashed near Kidlington yesterday. Fortunately nobody was killed, but there were a few injuries. The photo at the bottom of the page is taken from Oxford Aviation.


News from the U.S. also tells us that a USAF F-16 crashed near Goodyear Airport yesterday, but I've been unable to confirm this. Wing Commander Todd reports he did say a large fire near to the airport while he was out flying. Unfortunately, as none of the rest of us have been able to fly yet, and don't seem likely to any time soon, we can't get a second opinion.

Another day, another load of cancellations by Oxford Aviation. Today it seems they can't even keep a photo session running as planned. My confidence and general happiness with Oxford Aviation is at an all time low.

Off to get changed *back* out of my Oxford uniform, and into my pool uniform.

Webcam

I'm just tinkering with setting up a webcam - it's currently viewable here

I will possibly add this to either this blog or my home page, if I
a) Can be bothered
b) See any point
c) See a)

It's going to be of limited use to the peeps back home due to the time difference, but we'll see what the public wants :-)

Oh, the camera I'm using has face tracking enabled - pointing the camera at Georgia's doll seems to confuse it. I like confusing gadgets.

No complaints please, we're British

A dear friend of mine told me today that he was shocked and surprised that my blog didn't have more complaints about the way things have gone here - namely the lack of flying that's been done on a Pilot Training course.
Unfortunately for said friend I'm not in the mood for an hour long rant and rave, and if I was I'd just get told off by my level-headed but argumentative darling wife, so I'll not lower myself any more by complaining. Well, not today anyway (quick time check: two minutes of today remaining).

Toddy, this is for you. I think you're great, in a camper-than-a-row-of-pink-tents kinda way. :-)

  

Website up and running

More like walking really.... but I;m getting there. Head on over to my website and there is a photo album created that shows the best pictures from our flight over here.
I'm working on albums for the rest of the things we've done so far, so keep checking back (please!)

Incidentally - I've still not had my TSA approval through, so am spending my time wisely updating my website. A little bird also tells me that some of the guys who did get their TSA approval on the first week here have only had one flight - it seems the flights that aren't cancelled due to bad weather are given over to the guys preparing for PT1.
I'm sure that when our time comes and we're doing PT1's we'll be treated the same and will be glad of it, but right now it strikes us all as a little bit unfair, to say the least.

Meanwhile, we're enjoying our time at Desert Sage as best we can - before AP257 + the Flying Dutchman arrive to shatter the peace...

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Here's a few piccies of the Chevy Impala we are currently renting. A nice car all in all, ideal for cruising down long American Interstates. Check out the dashboard - the current fuel consumption and the outside temperature. Mental.
There's also a couple more pics of the scenery, including a shot of a plane on final appraoch to Sky Harbour, looking like it'll hit the mountain.

I'm looking into setting up a better online photo album instead of using up loads of blog... watch this space...


 
 
 

Playground fun

Just a few photos from the playground we found on our way over to Scottsdale. This is the first playground we've found that is covered - all the others get far too hot to touch! This one was lovely and cool(ish) and was all clean. I looked on Google Earth and it doesn't show, so it is obviously fairly new.
It's not too far to go either - just past Walmart - so we will hopefully take Georgia there a few more times.

 
 
 

IHOP

I've now been and had my fingerprints re-done by Goodyear's finest, which means by the time these are fed-ex'd over to the TSA, and they either take their time processing or lose them again, it'll be another few days sitting around. This means more time swimming with Georgia, which is always good - I'm a bit concerned that she might be growing webbed feet now though....

This afternoon we decided to treat ourselves to tea at IHOP, just around the corner from us. In typical American fashion the portion sizes are HEEEEYOOOOGE, yet still manage to be half the price of what you'd pay in the UK. Here's a few pics from the outing, including Georgia eyeing up the Tobasco sauce bottle!

Another day, no flying.

Still waiting for approval to fly - spent yesterday roaming about Phoenix a bit, generally getting lost somewhere near the I10. Thank the gods of Sat Nav!
Both Georgia and Clare were a bit under the weather so we didn't stay out all that long.
This morning I was up early to be greeted by an email from the TSA saying that there is a problem my fingerprints - apparently only one card of prints was submitted instead of two. Trying to clear this up with OAT, but it's a safe bet to say I won't be flying any time soon.
It's all very frustrating - sitting around hoping to hear some good news - but can't stray away and go on a 4 day road trip anywhere in case I get approval to fly tomorrow. It would be unfair to say I've wasted two weeks as I've had a lovely time with Clare and Georgia, but it is a shame that we couldn't get out and explore a bit further afield.
I really hope this all gets sorted some time soon so I can actually fly. Having said that, it seems OAT cancel flights due to bad weather a lot - so much for a fair weather base.
Enough grumbling - off to take Georgia to the pool, try and wash off some of these bad feelings.

I don't believe it!

Disappointment all round

It's now Wednesday July 5th, 7pm. July 4th was a bit poor to be fair, we didn't see much going on in the way of national pride. Mind you, we didn't really go out looking for it, if you know what I mean. We did head up to another large shopping mall near Glendale, which was rather excellent. Much better than Desert Sky shoe shop - although I did get a bit frazzled when it took Johnny Rockets 20 minutes to make a chocolate malt. Got a voucher for a free one next time I go though. There's a Trader Joe's up that way too which has a lot of organic foods and other healthy type stuff - a nice break from all the usual American processed crap. Speaking of which, Clare did make a rather excellent pancakes, bacon and maple syrup lunch for us all - and Georgia did have a spangly 4th July T-shirt on too!





Last night I got a text from Toddy to say I was down for a 6am flight - but I still haven't had approval to fly from the TSA yet. As it was 4th July and no operations staff were in, I had to get up at 4am this morning, get uniformed up and drive to the airport for 4:50 - to tell them that I couldn't actually fly. They had also put a couple of the other guys on 6am flights who hadn't had TSA approval, and also put down one of our guys from AP256 for a 7:30 flight even though he was still back in the UK. From what I hear from other guys on our course today it was a similar story all day - cancelled flights and general pi$$ poor organisation all round. Sorry OATC, but this is a very bad start to AP256's flying training. So much for giving us priority over all other flights too - guys turning up at 5am who could fly, to be told to come back at 9am.
I still haven't had my TSA approval, so it looks like I won't be flying tomorrow either. More time off with the family, which is always lovely.

Today we had the opportunity to take our Chevy Cobalt back to Enterprise and pick up a Chevy Impala from Hertz. The Cobalt was a great car for us (apart from not having central locking) - but the Impala is something else. 3.5 V6, more toys than you can shake a stick at - including a remote engine start feature that works from 65m away - automatically switches on air con and cools the car while you carry your shopping over to the car.
Our new car seat fits brilliantly too, using the LATCH safety system. This puts Georgia in the middle of the back seat, and her seat fastens really securely to the car using a similar system to the ISOFIX seat we have back home. Really happy that she is very well protected now.

Sorry this has been a bit of a non-entity as far as blog entries go - hopefully some time soon I can actually do some of the flying I am paying a fortune to do, and then get some decent photos and stories other than moans, groans and automobiles.

New link added

Just a quick note to say I've added a new link that shows Desert Sage apartments using google maps. You can make out the pool in the middle, our apartment is just to the south west of the pool.

Another nailbiting day in Arizona!

Monday 3rd July - still on holiday from flying. A nice easy day this morning, we all went swimming first thing (after bagels for breakfast) - then Georgia and I sat around the apartment reading books, playing games, watching Care Bears (the usual bloke thing). Clare went back to bed for a couple of hours more kip, after a restless night and an early wake.
After Georgia's lunchtime nap we all headed out to Desert Sky Mall, just off Interstate 10 about 15 miles from Goodyear. Not a bad place, but not up to Trafford Centre/Meadowhall standards. There was a large Merry-go-round there too, with assorted horses to ride on. Georgia made a bee-line for it as soon as she saw it, but when I took her on she clung onto me for dear life and wouldn't sit on any of the horses. After wandering round the shops listening to her chant 'horse, horse, horse' we finally gave in and took her back on it - same result as first time, baby clamped firmly onto me shaking her head frantically when asked if she wants to ride on a horse. Oh well.
We called in at another large Walmart on the way back home, picking up some more supplies.
Back home and I took Georgia down to the pool again for another swim, then back to the apartment for a quick tea then time to relax and catch up with the MotoGP from Donington. Check out the pics below of Georgia watching with open mouth as the racing starts, then going into full on nail-biting as Danny Pedrosa recovers a highside while trying to go up the inside at the hairpin. Amazing stuff. Mr Mangnall - take notes. Good job Georgia went to bed before watching the last lap, otherwise she'd have bitten her nails down to her wrists. Rossi's amazing performance taking 2nd place, despite a broken bone in his wrist and his foot - what a legend.
OK, enough bike stuff on what is supposed to be a pilot training/family blog. :-P

July 4th tomorrow - expecting lots of flag waving all over the place. Probably best if us colonial invaders stay inside, for fear of being burned at the stake.
Assuming we make it through the day, I'll try to update with what we saw on Independence Day.
Simon