My Adventure of Learning to Fly

I apologise for the previous apology

06h04, 26/3/2007 .. 1 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader, I apologize for the previous poorly timed apology, I in fact still haven't gotten back to write you about my instrument flying and i did promise that I would soon do so, yet i haven't done so yet. so please accept my second apology for the delay and i will endevour to write something soon. In the mean time I'll wait for another blognow page to load and have a coffee.

michael

slow down

06h03, 26/3/2007 .. 1 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader, Is it my imagination or is Blognow getting very very painfuly slow?

One persons adventure

06h01, 26/3/2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader, Please follow the link to a young mans adventure:

http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/2007/03/1st-blackman-to-fly-around-world.html

apologies

06h54, 20/3/2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader,

Hello dear reader, I'm sorry i have been so slack the last weeks I have so much to write here but i haven't been doing it. I have flown twice since my last post both with out being able to see past the dash as it was instrument flying. however i hope to update you very soon. till then may you walk away from all your landings.

Some aviation Logic fuuny but all true too

06h46, 20/3/2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader, Some aviation logic funny but all true too

It's better to be down here wishing you were up there, than to be up there wishing you were down here.

An airplane will probably fly a little bit over gross, but it won't fly without fuel.

Speed is life, altitude is life insurance.

If you're ever faced with a forced landing at night, turn on the landing lights to see the landing area. If you don't like what you see, turn 'em off.

Never let an airplane take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.

Too many pilots are found in the wreckage with their hands around a microphone or holding onto a keyboard. Don't drop the aircraft in order to fly the microphone.

An airplane flies because of a principle discovered by Bernoulli, not Marconi.

Fly it until the last piece stops moving.

No one has ever collided with the sky.

Any attempt to stretch fuel is guaranteed to increase headwinds.

A thunderstorm is natures way of saying "Up yours."

Keep looking around, there's always something you missed.

Remember, you're always a student in an airplane.

Any pilot who does not at least privately consider himself the best in the business is in the wrong business.

It's best to keep the pointed end going forward as much as possible.

Hovering is for pilots who love to fly, but have no place to go.

The only time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.

A jet fighter in the air is a dual emergency: Low on fuel and on fire. A single engine jet is a triple emergency.

The only thing worse than a captain who never flew copilot is a copilot who was once a captain.

A terminal forecast is a horoscope with numbers.

Takeoffs are optional. Landings are mandatory.

The first thing every pilot does after making a gear up landing is to put the gear handle down.

A "good" landing is one which you can walk away from. A great landing is one which lets you use the airplane another time.

A good simulator check ride is like successful surgery on a cadaver.

Good judgment comes from experience. Good experience comes from someone

else's bad judgment.

An airplane may disappoint a good pilot, but it won't surprise him.

Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make them all yourself.

Things which do you no good in aviation:

* Altitude above you.
* Runway behind you
* Fuel in the truck.
* Half a second in history.
* Approach plates in the car.
* The airspeed you don't have.

A smooth touchdown in a simulator is about as exciting as kissing your sibling.

Three things kill young pilots in Alaska: weather, weather and weather.

Fuel is life.

cross wind landings

06h56, 3/3/2007 .. 5 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader, My apologies for not keeping you informed. I do however offer my poor personal health as an excuse. I was sick with flu this week and did not much feel like anything.

Last weekend I did get out to fly, and I did have a cross wind of about 5 knots, this was plenty to keep me busy on landing.
So what is the Cross wind landing? I'm glad you asked that question. A cross wind landing is when the wind is blowing across the runway and pushing the plane off to one side. so one has to crab the plane into the wind so that you kind of come at the runway slightly sideways or at least crooked. Your aircrafts nose is not pointing straight down the runway its more to one side or the other. But as you would realise this is not going to help at touch down so one has to time it just before the wheel touch to kick the plane around with the rudder to make it straight to land. This is all about timing as is the average landing but now there is a second and third thing to consider lol. "It just keeps getting busier on these dam landings LOL" anyway I went around a few times with the instructor, he did the first one and I the rest and I did not do too bad a job but I was so focused on the cross wind elements that I was not doing very fantastic approaches, and missed the odd check item like putting my carb heat in etc etc, I'm just lucky I have fixed undercarriage as I forgot a final undercarriage check at one landing. Anyway the touchdowns were not too shabby and the mistakes I made were helpful to learn from. All around a nice days flying. More Later

manxaura

Lighter control

06h15, 3/3/2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader, doing my cross wind landings I was given some pointers on the rest of my flying apparently I grip the control column a little bit tight, not sure why it just seems a good thing to hold onto when flying, anyway i was able to get some pointers from Graham this week. He had me take my hand off the control column completely and fly with just the secondary effects of rudder. it was hard not to grab hold of it again and a few time I was instinctively trying to grab it and got a strong ,"Don't" from the instructor LOL the plane did continue to fly to some degree and I was able to steer with secondary effect so it was a great demonstration. Today when I fly I will attempt to be more relaxed and have a very light touch on the controls. I think I just have a habit of holding on tight without realising it or knowing why, as these days I'm feeling very relaxed in the air and at ease, no more over exhilarations

I have two lessons this weekend, the end is near....

michael

This weekend

15h36, 24/2/2007 .. 0 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader,

Just you an I again dear reader, I'm glad you could make it back. This week I am waiting for cross winds again for the cross wind landing lesson. But in the mean time if there is no cross wind I will learn Instrument Flying. This will be when i use the instruments to determine the positions and direction of the aircraft. it will be fun i think and a very good skill to develop. In bad weather that’s what’s going to cause you harm most. Not knowing where in the sky the plane is. That includes the attitude, direction altitude, roll and pitch; Remembering that a plane unlike a car moves around on all axis. LOL, that’s what makes it fun.

Having the plane in the right configuration is what makes it fly if you don't get that right it becomes something less then a plane. LOL Anyway this will be fun a fun lesson if the cross winds don't arrive on time.

Giovanni my partner is doing web design work for the Aero club just now, whilst out at the club this week, discovered one of our ozegay friends is considering taking up flying too. OMG! it's great to see, we will soon have enough folks for a chapter of the, Gay Pilots Association. I think we need more Gay pilots, I don’t want to be the only gay over the village.

manxaura

Actual exchanges between pilots and control towers

07h35, 22/2/2007 .. 3 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader, the following is some funnies sent to me via email recently , enjoy!

Actual exchanges between pilots and control towers

    Tower: "Delta 351, you have traffic at 10 o'clock, 6 miles!"
    Delta 351: "Give us another hint! We have digital watches!"

    **************************************************************************************************
    Tower: "TWA 2341, for noise abatement turn right 45 Degrees."
    TWA 2341: "Center, we are at 35,000 feet. How much noise can we make up here?"
    Tower: "Sir, have you ever heard the noise a 747 makes when it hits a 727?"

    ****************************************************************************************************
    From an unknown aircraft waiting in a very long takeoff queue: "I'm f...ing bored!"
    Ground Traffic Control: "Last aircraft transmitting, identify yourself immediately!"
    Unknown aircraft: "I said I was f...ing bored, not f...ing stupid!"

    ****************************************************************************************************
    O'Hare Approach Control to a 747: "United 329 heavy, your traffic is a Fokker, one o'clock, three miles, Eastbound."
    United 329: "Approach, I've always wanted to say this...I've got the little Fokker in sight."

    ******************************************************************************************************

    A student became lost during a solo cross-country flight. While attempting to locate the aircraft on radar, ATC asked, "What was your last known position?"
    Student: "When I was number one for takeoff."

    *****************************************************************************************************

    A DC-10 had come in a little hot and thus had an exceedingly long roll out after touching down.
    San Jose Tower Noted: "American 751, make a hard right turn at the end of the runway, if you are able. If you are not able, take the Guadeloupe exit off Highway 101, make a right at the lights and return to the airport."

    ******************************************************************************************************

    A Pan Am 727 flight, waiting for start clearance in Munich , overheard the following:

    Lufthansa :" Boden, was unsere Anfangsabstand Zeit ist?"

    Ground (in English): "If you want an answer you must speak in English."
    Lufthansa (in English): "I am a German, flying a German airplane, in Germany . Why must I speak English?"
    Unknown voice from another plane (in a beautiful British accent): "Because you lost the bloody war!"

    *******************************************************************************************************

    Tower: "Eastern 702, cleared for takeoff, contact Departure on frequency 124.7"
    Eastern 702: "Tower, Eastern 702 switching to Departure. By the way,after we lifted off we saw some kind of dead animal on the far end of the runway."
    Tower: " Continental 635, cleared for takeoff behind Eastern 702, contact Departure on frequency 124.7. Did you copy that report from Eastern 702?"
    BR Continental 635: "Continental 635, cleared for takeoff, roger; and yes, we copied Eastern... We've already notified our caterers."

    ********************************************************************************************************

    One day the pilot of a Cherokee 180 was told by the tower to hold short of the active runway while a DC-8 landed. The DC-8 landed, rolled out, turned around, and taxied back past the Cherokee. Some quick-witted comedian in the DC-8 crew got on the radio and said, "What a cute little plane. Did you make it all by yourself?"
    The Cherokee pilot, not about to let the insult go by, came back with a real zinger: "I made it out of DC-8 parts. Another landing like yours and I'll have enough parts for another one."

    *******************************************************************************************************

    The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot. They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them. So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
    Speedbird 206: " Frankfurt , Speedbird 206! Clear of active runway."
    Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."
    The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.

Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience): "Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, -- And I didn't land."

******************************************************************************************************

While taxiing at London 's ,t Airport, the crew of a US Air flight departing for Ft. Lauderdale made a wrong turn and came nose to nose with a United 727. An irate female ground controller lashed out at the US Air crew, screaming: "US Air 2771, where the hell are you going? I told you to turn right onto Charlie taxiway! You turned right on Delta! Stop right there. I know it's difficult for you to tell the difference between C and D, but get it right!"

Continuing her rage to the embarrassed crew, she was now shouting hysterically: "God! Now you've screwed everything up! It'll take forever to sort this out! You stay right there and don't move till I tell you to! You can expect progressive taxi instructions in about half an hour, and I want you to go exactly where I tell you, when I tell you, and how I tell you! You got that, US Air 2771?"

"Yes, ma'am," the humbled crew responded.

Naturally, the ground control communications frequency fell terribly silent after the verbal bashing of US Air 2771. Nobody wanted to chance engaging the irate ground controller in her current state of mind. Tension in every cockpit out around Gatwick was definitely running high. Just then an unknown pilot broke the silence and keyed his microphone, asking: "Wasn't I married to you once?

BAK still struggling

05h45, 13/2/2007 .. 1 comments .. Link

Dearest Reader,

BAK! "Basic Aeronautical Knowledge" OMG! "Oh My God"
I really have to get my nose in my books my instructors are all continuing to say they why have I not done my exam. I'm really struggling with my study just now and I find it hard to think I have enough info in my head to complete it successfully. I have some days off work next week and i will spend some of it in my books. I just don't seem to be able to get the information to remain fluent in my brain. I think it's my age and the fact that I was never scholastic. But it and the weather are the only things holding me back just now. I need a cross wind and I need to do my BAK. Grrrrrrrr!