Self Medicated..

The past few weeks have been plagued with utterly terrible, unflyable weather, low temperatures and high pressures causing fog at ground level which just hasn't been clearing. What this has meant that there have been many days going into the airport to sit around in the crew rooms watching flights get cancelled.

Another down side of this is the cold weather; cold weather plus irresponsible attire means illness. Having been travelling all over the country visiting friends and relatives has often meant jumping between car to house, bus to bar, etc in a jacket which probably isn't sufficient. Over a series of days with nowhere near enough sleep in between to let my body recover had left me with an unavoidable sore throat, cold and flu.

This comeuppance began on Monday and slowly got worse, I was scheduled to fly on Monday but weather below minimums caused the flight to be cancelled. Only being scheduled to backseat a few sims on Tuesday meant that I would make the most of my 'time off' and engage the illness head on. Armed with a small pharmacy of pills and potions I was to recover.

Lemsip Max Strength pills, Echinacea pills, Vitamin C Supplement and Anaesthetic throat spray were my weapons of choice; using them throughout the day at the recommended intervals. Still in a state of placid illness I sat through two sim sessions making notes as best as I could. In the debriefing discussion the topic of the following day's bids came up. I still wasn't up for an aerial flight nor a sim session.

The days passed and the cold took a more prominent stance; determined to get back into the cockpit before the end of the week I decided to call in sick on Thursday and stay in bed to recover. I requested to be put back in the sim for Friday, which was readily agreed and a slot arranged.

By Friday I was still popping Lemsip pills along with the rest of the medication; the flu had begun to subside. Though whilst still dripping at the nose I decided that I could still manage the cockpit well enough to make the sortie count.

How wrong I was, I couldn't seem to concentrate on the tasks at hand in the slightest, my RT was shoddy and my approaches sloppy. I left the sim room with one thought, only of how bad the sortie had gone. The debriefing confirmed this; there was nothing that I had not already silently berated myself on.

A lesson learnt at the expense of 1.5hrs in the sim; if you are on any medication, or not feeling fine, consider yourself 'not fit to fly'..!

Radio Check..

Ok, so having not quite left you with a clear understanding of what I am doing with regards to my training at the moment, I got my CPL a few months ago (Woohoo..!) and the associated Gold Wings.

I am working towards my Instrument Rating at the moment; and for my less acquainted readers, this is essentially what is required for flying in clouds; flying with opaque screens over the windows. Having spent the past four weeks in a simulator practicing my instrument flying we had got to a stage where we were forgetting what it was like to fly a real plane (having been 7 weeks since last being in a real cockpit); our instructor was adamant that we would be aviating this week.

Monday started in this vain with back to back flights with my flying partner.

Today, mine was the first flight of the day on an aircraft returned from Maintenance; so in theory this aircraft should be fine. A walk-around and pre-flight check confirmed that she was fit to fly.

Before takeoff the IF screens were up and I was to fly by instrument, shortly after departure we were well on our route to the first waypoint. After being handed off to airfield approach frequency I got a questionable read-back. We were just practicing in the local area, so it wasn't much of a concern. A few (perfect) laps around the hold later we were outbound to the next beacon for a hold. I relayed our intentions to our ATC ground unit.

- "OXxx leaving BOTLY heading WCO, maintaining Altitude 3,500ft"

- No reply...

I looked across at my instructor with a confused and somewhat concerned look

- "Did you hear a read-back to acknowledge our message?"

He shook his head and languidly replied

- "No, it's fine."

Approaching the hold at the next beacon saw me set up in the approach configuration and attempt to obtain the aerodrome ATIS (weather); no luck. So I entered the hold while my increasingly concerned instructor began requesting radio checks from every station on the ground in our vicinity.

I continued the hold as per planned; my instructor shortly looked across at me and calmly said

- "Right, so our radios are buggered, what is the procedure?"

My flying partner and I promptly brainstormed over the aircraft intercom and decided on our plan of action. Here it was;

- Squawk 7600.

- Head towards the airfield above the circuit altitude whilst making blind transmissions.

- Observe the traffic situation in the circuit.

- Descend to circuit altitude joining in a gap in the traffic.

- Perform a low pass of the runway flashing landing lights to indicate our intention to land.

- Go around and perform a visual circuit to land.

I was the pilot flying and the instructor took control of the radios.

We continued towards the airfield whilst making blind transmissions. Once we had the field in sight, we joined the circuit and found a safe leg to descend into. We were now going to do a low pass of the runway flashing the landing lights.

[This is something which you read about in the theory textbooks and don't think you will ever have to do; I was excited and could barely contain the grin which was erupting on my face.]

Flashing on and off the landing lights frantically as we passed overhead the centreline and climbed out again to circuit altitude. As we continued our visual circuit and arrived abeam the tower we heard a crackling transmission giving us a landing clearance.

- "Cleared to land, Runway 01, there is a fire engine waiting for you and will follow you once on the ground"

Two whites, two reds, a nice soft landing to taxi back to the ramp.

As we climbed out of the cockpit my instructor looked across at me with a smile and said

- "That's a first for me..!"

Poor Vis..

For the past few days the weather here has been awful; an indication of the week to come, came when I received a text from my IR Instructor on Sunday afternoon, it read

"I have just seen the weather for tomorrow and it looks like there will be heavy fog for some time, we definitely won't be flying..."

And so yesterday arrived with a heavy fog from before sunrise. Most of the day saw the crew room filled with some cadets with faces pressed up against the windows watching the fog remain over the runway, whilst others watched as red crosses slowly removed name after name from the flight schedule. This was not a day for aviating..!

TAF for the area forecast BKN 000; hhmm, broken clouds at ground level..??! As the day progressed it looked like there might be enough of a silver lining to get airbourne, but alas, this was not the case. The fog became denser and denser as the sun began to set.

It became clear that the following few days would be the same; the high pressure system, low temperatures and light winds would mean this weather would be here for a while.

Today was much the same with with airport remaining closed for most of the day, the fields surrounding were much the same with roads being a danger to be on. From the crew room it was barely even possible to see the aircraft parked on the ramp.

Let's hope this doesn't continue for too long, otherwise my flying will be limited to sitting in a very expensive room, pretending to fly..

AWOL..

Right folks, I haven't posted for quite some time, in fact nearly four months. I am sorry for the break in posts. I have been meaning to post something for a very long time, but have not got round to it.

I am now back in the UK following the completion of my fair weather flight training in Phoenix Arizona. I have now been back for over a month and have been working towards my IR here in the UK.

Over a few drinks in London, a friend asked as to the reason for my lack of posts. Whilst I had envisaged having lots of free time in America being sat by the pool in between flights, therefore having time to post liberally, this was not the case at all.

Early morning flights had me wake at 0300hrs in the morning to plan, pre-flight and a host of other things. This happened all too often, leaving me back in the apartment by 0900hrs but being shattered at the same time. So, every moment when I wasn't in the air or in the crew room waiting/planning to go in the air, I would be catching up on much needed sleep.

This not being the only excuse; when there was no sleep to catch up on and we were off duty and having bottle to throttle hours to spare, we would be routinely going out drinking, socialising and frequenting the local bars and clubs.

Thus, for the duration of the five month stint in the States, my free time exclusively adopted a few hobbies; sleeping, drinking, socialising and clubbing.

Here above are the reasons for the no-posts. Hopefully I can post more regularly now I am back in the UK, but suffice to say, those activities listed above, take precedence over blogging..

Flying Solo..

By now, I have been flying for a short few weeks; not very long to say the least. Lots of stuff in the training areas, a few flights in the circuit to get my landings up to scratch and a good measure of groundschool to make sure I was familiar with the airspace in which we operate and the laws of the land. It is surprising how many things are different from the theory we had spent months learning for the sake of JAA groundschool exams.

Going solo is quite a big deal, for those of you that don't know what it is; it is when you are the only person in the aircraft, Pilot in Command, head honcho, there is no one to hold the umbrella over you. If things go wrong, they go wrong and you are the only thing determining how you reach the ground..!

Very scary stuff indeed..! We had spend enough time practicing engine fire drills and engine failure stuff so in that case we should have enough to get safely back to ground.

The day finally arrived, I was going to fly solo today..! The plan for the day was to spend an hour in the circuit with the instructor at which point he would send me up on my own to brave the skies for the first time.

The circuits went off without a hitch, some nice soft landings, stable, centreline maintained, glideslope maintained.

My Instructor, The Sport's Fan stepped out of the aircraft.

- "You're good to go"

He jumped out at the ramp, engine running. I waited for him to step clear of the vessel and signal me to leave. I cautiously taxied over to the staging area and then the hold short line.

- "Tower, Warrior 000XX is holding short of Runway 2-1, First solo student for full stop landing."

I addressed the tower, full of excitement and anticipation. I awaited the clearance to take off; my heart was racing.

- "Warrior 000XX, departure approved for runway 2-1, cleared for take off."

The circuit was empty, I taxied onto the runway and throttled forward, airspeed live, 65kts, rotate. I pulled back gently on the yoke, the nose pitched up and I was now aviating on my own. The cockpit was serene, a calm mood fell over the cabin as there was no pressure from the instructor's eyes. I climbed to altitude and levelled off, trimmed fine. Everything was going well, altitude maintained, trimmed level and I was heading downwind.

The sun was beginning to set, the weather was calm, life was perfect. I turned base and then final. I aligned with the centreline and glideslope. Before long, touchdown; a nice gentle landing.

I taxied back to parking, shut down the aircraft and stepped out to meet a wide smile and an extended hand. The Sport's Fan, shook my hand heartily.

- "Great job, have a beer tonight, you deserve it.."

A Quick Update..

Things have been very hectic lately, so I will be posting up some blogs from the previous week as they become available..

Responsible Pilots..

So, following the debaucheries of the Initiation, Monday arrived;

Ring Ring, ring ring..!

The phone rang without rest; the rest of my housemates were asleep, so I got up and answered the phone. I assumed it must be an international call as no one in their right mind would call at this house on a Monday.

- "Hello, with whom am I speaking?"

The mystery voice asked, the tone of their voice was somewhat serious and it was clear he meant business. I told him who I was,

- "You and the rest of your class are required to be in Classroom 3 at 1000hrs for a meeting. Please inform the rest of your class. All cadets are required to attend and in uniform..!"

He then hung up. I was taken slightly aback by the call, but at the same time, in the pit of my stomach I could sense what was coming. As per the request I ran around like in 'The Apprentice' when the call comes, knocking on all of the doors I came across shouting,

- "Guys, we have a meeting at 1000hrs in Room 3, everyone has to attend, I think it's serious..!"

Ok, so it wasn't that early in the day, but as expected, our days off come far and in between, so we were all enjoying a well-deserved(?) lie in.

So we rushed to shower and uniform up. We scrambled everyone and got into the course cars. Rushing over to the airport for the meeting, the conversation took an anxious tone. We all sat speculating on the severity of the meeting and its possible outcomes.

A few minutes to go till 1000hrs and there was a crowd of cadets classes including our own. This was very much the 'waiting outside the headmaster's office' situation. Smirks mixed with fearful looks. For many of us, this was the first time we had seen the perpetrators from the initiation.

We filed in as our superiors lead the way. As we went in people calmly took seats available and some went straight to the back of the classroom to find a place to stand, as far from the 'blast zone' as possible.

Everyone was in, the door slammed shut, the inquiry began;

- "Can someone please explain to me what happened on Saturday..!"