Mission complete, bugging out and going home

Sorry this is a little late, but it's been a very busy weekend for us. I guess the biggest news is that on Friday I took my Commercial Pilots License skills test. It was quite a day, starting very early in the morning and keeping my nerves on a knife edge until about 5pm.
My test was scheduled for noon, and my examiner was notorious for being incredibly tough. I arrived early in the morning as there was a chance that I could have flown earlier, but in any case I had to be there to sit in on the same briefing as my friend Toddy, who was scheduled to fly before me. The first part of the skills test is a navigation to a destination chosen by the examiner, and asI'd obtained the route the night before, I was able to prepare my plan before arriving at the airport. One of the problems with the route I'd been given was that it wasn't 'quite right'. The destination was an airfield called 'EDS' (how ironic, given I used to work for E.D.S.) - and the normal departure to head down that way would be the 'Gila Crossing transition'. The examiner however had asked for a 'Twin Lakes departure' - and for those who know about these things, know that a straight line from Twin Lakes to EDS takes you perilously close to the Estrella mountains, through the German training area Alpha, and very close to Sky Harbor Class Bravo airspace. I felt I had no choice but to make the journey two legs, with a slight detour south before turning on course to EDS. When I had my briefing I was expecting all kinds of trouble, but he was actually very impressed that I had noticed all these things, and made a PIC decision on where would go. Big sigh of relief...
Toddy went and did his CPL test, which left me with a few hours to kill. Unfortunately for me the winds aloft data was changed mid-morning (a rare occurrence) - which meant I had to re-do all my navigation. Not a major hardship, but slightly annoying.
When Toddy got back (having flown well and passed) - the examiner asked me to go pre-flight the aircraft and get whatever fuel I needed. I headed down, checked everything over and tried in vain to find a fuel truck. None to be found. I trudged back up to dispatch and asked them to radio the fuellers, which they did. Back down to the aircraft, arranged the fuel, and watched while the fueller checked the oil levels - then felt my jaw thud onto the concrete when I watched him drop the oil filler cap inside the engine. Oh My F*cking God! I could have strangled him with the chocks!
Back up to dispatch to tell them what had happened, and to ask for another Seneca - in case they couldn't retrieve the filler cap. I then had to re-calculate the mass & balance, take off and landing distances, and prepare to pre-flight another aircraft. I then found that I was out of CG limits with the new plane, so had to re-do it all AGAIN, accounting for an extra 50 pounds of ballast. All that sorted, and with the examiner being unusually reasonable, I headed down to pre-flight. On the way I noticed a group of mechanics around the original aircraft, and it seemed by fluke they had recovered the filler cap. Woohoo! Back up to dispatch for the original aircraft tech log, and I was good to go. The examiner then showed a moment of weakness in his usual brusque demeanour, and told me to go chill out for ten minutes.
I took the break, then we both headed out for my test. It was pretty hot by then, and the wind was coming from the north east, which meant runway 3 was in use. I never like using runway 3, so wasn't overjoyed by this turn of events, and my worries were confirmed when I made my first slip up when turning downwind after take off. Having only had 10 hours tuition in the Seneca, not all the procedures are automatic, and I found myself levelling off at 2500 feet on downwind, and setting the aircraft up for cruise config. Completely forgetting that in 30 seconds I would be needing to climb up to 5500 feet for the first leg of the navigation. True enough, 30 seconds later I have to change the mixtures, propellors and power back to climb config... damn. At least I didn't leave it in cruise and try to climb...
The Navigation went perfectly I'm pleased to say. Literally to the very second that I had planned, we were directly above where I said we would be. Couldn't have asked for anything better, I was very pleased. When we were reaching the destination he asked me to divert to a small helicopter strip up north. I carried out the procedure for the diversion, then turned on course. This part went really well too, the heading looked good and the distances and times were looking nice too. Unfortunately, at some point during the diversion I lost my folding plotter down the side of my seat, and couldn't retrieve it. This caused a slight problem when he then asked me for a position fix using a VOR and DME. I had to use my pencil as a straight line against the VOR, and get a rough idea of what 10nm was by using the radius of the VOR rose... it worked out ok, but no where near as accurate as I would have preferred.
As we got nearer the diversion area, he was happy that all had gone well, and asked me to put the hood on so I could do some instrument flying. This went ok, not my finest performance but not bad either. I demonstrated turns, climbs, unusual attitude recovery - all that good stuff. As a break to my waffling - here's a short video of an unusual attitude practise. I am flying on instruments, so cannot see outside the aircraft. My instructor takes control and throws the aircraft around a bit to disorient me, then basically sticks it on its side and points it at the ground, then tells me to recover.



After the instrument work was done, it was time to demonstrate some general handling - steep turns, clean stall, base-to-final stall, and final approach stall. All of these went ok - we had a near miss at one point though when I had to break out of the steep turn early to avoid an aircraft on a collision course with us. The examiner hadn't spotted it, and started to chastise me for levelling the wings without him saying so, when the closing aircraft buzzed right past us...
Once I'd finished all those, it was time to use the GPS and navigate to Chandler Airport for some pattern work. Again I made a slight error by calling Chandler Tower a bit too soon, but my instructor had always said to make sure I was too soon rather than too late, so it could have been worse. I entered the pattern at Chandler with no problems, and set myself up for the first approach. This was a two engine approach with a two engine go around. No problems there, so back round for a flapless approach with a touch and go. Again, no problems - only this time on the climb out he covered the throttle quadrant and 'failed' one of my engines. I brought the aircraft under control then identified the 'dead' engine, carrying out the proper procedure. I then flew the circuit asymmetrically, and as previously briefed waited until ACA (Asymmetric Committal Altitude) before flying a single engine go around. I then flew another circuit with one engine, only this time brought the aircraft in for a touch and go (regaining the use of my 'dead' engine for the landing and take off).
We departed Chandler to the south west, and upon reaching 3500 feet he told me my right hand engine was on fire. This time I was required to shut the engine down completely on my own, following the necessary drills. After a short while he then asked me to restart the engine - offering no assistance at all, which makes it that much harder as you need one hand on the starter, one hand on the throttle, and one hand on the control column....
With the engine started, it was time to head back to Goodyear. I made a note of the current ATIS, then called up Goodyear Tower and told them who I was, where I was, and what I wanted. They told me to enter for left traffic for runway 21, which prompted me to question them as the ATIS had just said runway 03 in use. I think my examiner was impressed that I hadn't just blindly followed ATC's instructions. One problem with the approach back to Goodyear was I had to avoid the airspace near PIR (Phoenix International Raceway) as there was NASCAR racing in progress. This meant a direct left base entry instead of the usual downwind entry - which meant no way of knowing when to start the timer and lower the gear and flaps. It all worked out ok as it happens, and I got us back on the ground safely. I was then asked to go back to full power for a take off, and as soon as we were on full power he then adopted the brace position and called out 'STOP STOP STOP' - which had me shutting the power off and bringing us to a halt on the runway (or near enough - he was satisfied I would have stopped us safely and squarely)
Off the runway, and it was back to parking. On the way back to parking I pointed out that I had been receiving intermittent failures on the gear down lights, and he said 'That's your landings son, it's a runway not an aircraft carrier'. Cheeky bugger! I had been instructed to plonk the plane down on the runway and not grease it (When I later told my instructor about this he just said 'if he told you that, you must have been doing something right')

And that was that. Back into his office for a debrief, and to be told I had passed. I could have hugged him! This now means I am a fully fledged Commercial Pilot, and a good step nearer to an airline. I'm so relieved it's untrue, but also a little bit sad. No flying for a few weeks now, and probably won't fly in Phoenix for a very long time, if at all. It's such a good feeling to be done with it all though. I was the fifth guy from our course to finish, and I finished a day earlier than the timetable planned. Considering I started 3 weeks late due to the TSA problem, I'm really pleased. I've really pushed myself these last few weeks, but as a good friend says - 'You only get out what you put in'.

The only damper on Friday was the problem that manifested regarding all of our return flights to the UK. There had been a slight error regarding our return dates, which meant a lot of stress on my part, and me setting my alarm at 4am Saturday to try and get hold of people in the UK to get things resolved.
The rest of Saturday was really nice. We did a quick trip to Walmart to buy a couple of extra cases, then went round to visit Damien, Aine, Joshua and Clare. We all had a dip in the pool, then drove down to TGI Fridays for a bite to eat. Or lots of bites - as the portions are monstrous! A rack of ribs with Jack Daniels sauce later, and I was suitably stuffed.

Yesterday (Sunday) - we did a bit more last minute shopping at Target then headed to Barnes & Noble for the last time. We said our goodbyes, then headed home. Jeroen came round a while later, and we all drove down to Johnny Rockets for some quick tea. We were a bit disappointed to find the table top jukeboxes out of order, but the food and service were up to their usual high standard. We had a lovely meal, then back to our place for a chill out.

This morning I was up quite early, so headed down to the airport to get my logbook stamped and signed, and also handed in all the bits of gear (headset, maps etc)
I called in and saw a couple of guys too. I bumped into 'big' Steve and had a nice chat with him, then headed round to see 'little' Steve for a chat with him. He has his CPL this coming week too, and I'm sure he'll do brilliantly. I feel very fortunate to have been his flying buddy for this last month or so. He's a great guy, and a fantastic pilot. Steve - it has been an honour and a pleasure to fly with you. I wish you all the very best for your last few flights and your skills test, and look forward to seeing you back in Oxford in a couple of weeks.

This afternoon we drove down to Arizona Mills for a wander round, treating Georgia to a ride on the horsey carousel, and also to some Haagen Daaz. We bought a few more things in the outlet shops, then drove back home. We still have a bit of packing left to do, but we should be on time for tomorrow afternoon - when we will say goodbye to our apartment and drive to Phoenix Sky Harbor and hopefully get the BA 747 back to Heathrow.

It's been a hell of a journey these last 20 weeks. We've had some great times and some bad times, but it has mostly been incredibly enjoyable and exciting. I still can't believe I came over here in June having never flown an aircraft, and leave here in November a fully fledged pilot. Or 'Pirate' as Georgia says - 'Daddy Pirate'. I guess she'll be disappointed when I don't bring out the parrot, eye patch and hook...

One thing I do know for sure is I am incredibly thankful to my wife Clare. I couldn't have gotten through these last 12 months without her by my side. She has been my rock - and I can't even begin to say how much I love her. I am so glad we stuck to our guns and kept our family together - it has been expensive, yes - but also so rewarding. I look forward to the next few months, as we take our little adventure back home to the UK. This will be the last entry I make here, but you can follow our progress at my other blog HERE

To all those who have been following us, I thank you, and hope you stay tuned to see what adventures befall us in the coming months.

Adios Amigos

Simon.

Final Week

Well peeps, we are now into the final week of our time in Goodyear. Last weekend we finally made it over to Phoenix Zoo, which was really nice. It was a very hot day (32 degrees and bright sunshine - nice for November eh) - but it wasn't too oppressive. The rest of the weekend went really well, it's been nice having a regualr weekend off these last few weeks. We of course found our way to Barnes & Noble, letting Georgia play with the train set there, and topping up at Starbucks :-)

Back on Monday for more flying in the Seneca, and the pace started to heat up. I had two lessons on asymmetric flying, which was pretty cool. We had a long briefing beforehand where Tom explained everything that would happen, then we headed out to the practise area and gave it a go. Basically the exercise involved shutting an engine down in flight, controlling the aircraft then identifying the dead engine (Tom covers the throttle quadrant when he pulls the throttle on one engine). I've got some good pics and vids of that flight, I'll try to put them on my website at some point.
The rest of the flying in the Seneca has gone pretty well; both Steve and myself have been flying every day, often twice, and are thoroughly exhausted. On Tuesday my last flight of the day over-ran slightly, which saw us coming back to Goodyear as the sun was setting - it was truly awesome. I feel pretty lucky to have seen that, as it's always been clearly day or night flying, not in-between.



Today I took my good buddy Jeroen up as passenger (Steve wanted time off to go study the checklists). Jeroen enjoyed the flight I think, and was good for me to listen to how he thought the flight went. Tomorrow I have my very last lesson in the aircraft, which should be about 2 hours long. I also have to squeeze in 3 hours in the simulator too, and if all that goes well then I have my CPL skills test on Friday. If that goes well, I'm finished, and we'll be heading home shortly afterwards.
Time to dig out my jeans and fleece :-(

Ah, almost forgot - the simulator. The sims are notorious for not being entirely accurate, and this is really apparent first time in the Seneca sim. First time I had a go I found myself weaving all over the runway on take off - partly due to uneven power on the separate engines, but mainly thanks to the hyper sensitive rudders that have zero feel. Anyway, here's a clip of Steve's first ever take off in the Seneca Sim. Sorry Steve....

Unlucky with aircraft - first flight in the Seneca

Something I forgot to mention about my PT2 the other day: The last week or so has seen Steve and myself squawking plane after plane for some fault or another - a pattern which has followed me to PT2 and also onto the Senecas. For my PT2 I arrived at the airport very early and went to pre-flight N203F. I had flown that plane the previous day with my instructor Scott, and was aware that the Pitot heat was inop, and also the front tyre was very worn. When I went to preflight it also turned out to have a missing oil dipstick (later found lying in the bottom of the engine bay), and also incredibly stiff controls and trim. I told Tom (examiner) that as PIC I was happy to fly, and he concurred so off we went. What then happened was on the take-off roll, just as the airspeed reached 60 knots the airspeed indicator starting fluctuating wildy between 40 and 80 knots. I called out that I was aborting the take-off, but as I started to reduce the power the ASI seemed to smooth out. I told Tom that given we had plenty runway left I would apply max power and try again, which I did. This time the speed held steady, and I kept a close eye on it as I pitched for 80 knots for the climb out. I think Tom was fairly impressed that I made both decisions so quickly and decisively, I think maybe some other guys may have either not aborted the take off in the first place, or if they did abort they would have not been brave (foolish?) enough to try again when things looked ok. Anyway, I was just glad that I appeared to have made the right decision. Interestingly the fault re-appeared later in the flight when I was carrying out stalls - on the recovery back up to cruise speed the ASI went mad again when passing 60 knots. Also on the way back into Goodyear I had quite a challenge - numerous aircraft in the pattern, a few inbound from the north and east, and an airship departing Goodyear at low level. It meant I was diverted quite a lot from the normal arrival procedure, and actually flew right over the top of the airship at one point. Tom was again impressed that I wasn't phased by any of it, and just got on with the job in hand, then landed safely back at Goodyear once cleared to. Steve and Scott were waiting for the aircraft when we got back, so we told them about all the problems before they flew. As it was Steve's last two missions before his PT2, and having already had a flight cancelled that morning, they did fly the plane but later took it to maintenance when they got back.

So, as previously mentioned yesterday was my first flight in the PA34-200 Seneca. Tom Armstrong (chief flying instructor) is my new instructor, which is fantastic news for me. Things didn't run quite according to plan, my 9:30 flight became a 14:30 flight due to various problems. After having carried out the pre-flight on one aircraft the lesson was cancelled due to Tom being needed in a meeting. A couple of hours later we tried again, but had to take a different aircraft, which meant a fresh pre-flight, but the battery turned out to be dead, which meant a trip back to Dispatch to get yet another aircraft. Third time a charm, and having gone through all the checks I was soon taking to the skies in N555L. What a fantastic aircraft! So much nicer than the Warrior, as you would expect - much heavier, but with 2 x 200hp engines instead of 1 x 160hp engine, the acceleration on the take-off roll is pretty impressive. Especially when those turbos kick in....
My first flight was a basic introduction to the handling and feel of the aircraft - we flew out to the practise area and pretty much just threw the plane around the skies for a bit. Cruise speed and rate of climb are much better than the Warrior, so you get to where you want to be much sooner, which is nice. It's also much less susceptible to being thrown around by thermals, which makes things easier and more pleasant. We came back into Goodyear, and Tom demonstrated the new landing technique required. It was a great flight, and thanks to Tom's infinite patience and superb teaching technique, left me feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

This morning I was scheduled to fly at 08:00, but noticed that the barely trained monkeys who do the schedule has put Tom down to do a navigation test at 08:30. This unfortunately for me meant my flight was moved back (so much for AP256 getting priority...) - and it was nearly 11:30 before we were good to go. I bumped into Steve in the crew room and asked if he wanted to back seat, and he jumped at the chance. It later turned out that Steve also has Tom as his instructor, so we will be staying as flying buddies for this last part of the course.
We headed outside and carried out the pre-flight, then went through the much longer start up procedure. Just as I rolled the aircraft forward to taxi, I noticed that we didn't have three greens for the landing gear - so no fly. Circle round, park up, shut down, stomp over to Dispatch to get another Seneca....
Finally sorted, into N555L again, and off we went. This second lesson was an introduction to pattern work in the Seneca, so with my first class passenger (and part time cameraman) comfortably seated down the back, I took us off and flew round and round in the pattern. It was very enjoyable, despite the much higher workload, and I soon started to feel pretty comfortable. There are a couple of pictures here, and also a video of one of the landings as viewed from the aft passenger seat. You can see how much faster, flatter, and steadier the approach is, with a very positive touch down as the extra weight settles down.



End of the day, end of the week, and things are looking good. If all goes to plan I'll have my last flight next Thursday with my CPL test on Friday - and if that goes well we could be on the plane home on Saturday. More likely to be Monday I would have thought - we're not in a rush to get back to sunny England, that's for sure.
This could be our last weekend here, so we are hoping to make the most of it!

Single engine flying complete

Yesterday I had my PT2, which is the last test that is carried out in the single engine PA28-161 Warrior. The test requires you to track towards an NDB, enter the hold as published, fly the hold then fly the approach to the airfield. All of this is done with the foggles in place, so you are flying on instruments only - making it pretty tricky. Once at the missed approach point you fly the missed approach procedure then the examiner gives you further instructions so you can carry out some instrument procedures. For this part of the test the examiner covers over some of your instruments and asks you to carry out some turns using just a compass, then takes control and puts the aircraft in an unusual attitude while you look away - then asks you to recover. Experience some pretty good G-forces while doing that, it's good fun.
Anyhoo, that all went well and I'm pleased to say I passed with a good mark, so am now finished flying the Warrior. I've changed instructor again, and now the CFI himself is my instructor (he was also my examiner yersterday). This morning I had my first lesson in the Seneca sim, going through the new checklist procedures and what not. Dispatch for some reason had me scheduled for a solo sim at 20:00 instead of 08:00, and a solo flight in the airplane at 21:30 instead of 09:30. Would have been interesting, my first ever flight in a Seneca done solo at night.... useless muppets.
My session in the sim went pretty well - it's considerably trickier to get the take-off roll right due to the imbalance between two engines, but once airborne things went pretty well. After the sim we headed out to the aircraft and carried out pre-flight, but the actual flight has been delayed due to Tom being needed in a meeting. There's a new instructor just joined here and he will be spending time back-seating my flights, so I showed him around the place for a while before heading back to the crew room to get a coffee and update my blog.

Back on the home front things are ok. We went to the 'trunk-or-treat' for Halloween the other night, Georgia had a great time scaring people into giving her candy.
One nice things G has just started doing is copying our parenting techniques. If I ask her to do something and she refuses I tell her I will count to 5 then help her to do it. Last night I had my PSP and she wanted it - so she said "Dadd, share! Count three - one, two, three, go!"
I was laughing so much, I can't believe she could have picked up on that and be sooooo cheeky! She must get that from me :-)

Well, I need to go read some more about the Seneca and hopefully take to the skies soon!

Laters

S.