Back in the UK

Another long gap between posts, I know, but I have had the busiest month of my life! Since my last post, I have returned to the UK - with my CPL flight test passed! I had the flight exam last Wednesday and as I passed was able to return to the UK as scheduled the following day.

So before taking the CPL, I had to finish off the New Zealand IFR flight phase of training. This mainly consisted of some more SPIC flights - I didn't go anywhere too exciting, as the weather deteriorated and it got to the stage where I just needed to get up, fly and make sure that I could learn something (instead of plan flights in order to see the scenery!).

Rotorua Airport from the circuit

The flights were pretty standard and each would contain VOR/NDB DME approaches, some asymmetric flight, various holds and the DME arcs. The final IFR flight in NZ is your PT2, for which I flew to Tauranga. I was asked to fly there, enter the NDB hold, before commencing the NDB DME approach. From there, I did a missed approach, had a simulated engine failure and entered the hold again, although this time flying on just one engine. Once established I was cleared onwards to Hamilton, where I started the VOR approach from the 12 mile arc, which was also done asymmetrically.

The flights after this all go back to VFR. There are three CPL profiles before the actual flight exam and CTC try to keep you with the same instructor for the three flights. For anybody who doesn't know the CPL test contains the following:

• Ground work: mass and balance/performance/aircraft type knowledge
• Departure: start-up/taxi/takeoff/exit from the control zone
• Navigation: there is a planned nav leg, before completing an inflight diversion which you are given a few minutes before your arrival at the first destination. 
• General handling: steep turns/stalls (in clean/base-to-final configuration/finals configuration)
• Circuits: normal, flapless and asymmetric
• Instrument flight: partial panel airwork/compass turns/inadvertent entry into IMC/unusual attitudes recovery/position fix using a radio navigation aid
• Emergencies
• Arrival: entry into the control zone/landing/shut down

Each profile covers as much as possible and they give you a good idea of what to expect on the day. Before the flight, you will be given your nav destination, which you then plan along with your mass and balance and performance calculations. The examiner comes in after a reasonable time period and will ask about the route, how you planned it/fuel requirements etc, before asking about other preflight procedures. During flight, the examiner must be treated as a fare paying passenger with no knowledge of flying (unless otherwise specified!). This means apron safety briefings for them before walking out to the aircraft and when onboard, an aircraft safety briefing on emergency exits/fire extinguishers etc. For my CPL, I was sent to Whakamaru for my planned leg and then diverted to Rotomahana; the destinations given are usually pretty remote, as they are really testing your navigational skills. Once this section was complete, I was asked to take the examiner to Rotorua Airport for circuits, where I completed a normal and a flapless touch and go, after which I was given an engine failure after take off. This then led to an asymmetric circuit followed by a go around at asymmetric committal height. I was then given both engines back and vacated the control zone headed for Hamilton to complete the rest of the flight. I was given an alternator failure en route which I had to complete the drills for, before being asked to put on the instrument flight hood. Inadvertent entry into IMC drills were then completed before doing some basic flying; turns, climbing turns etc. Following this, I was asked to do some compass turns and a position fix and mark where I worked out I was on the VFR chart. Once I had put a cross on it, I had to put on the autopilot to demonstrate basic use of it whilst I took off the hood and had to prove the the examiner using external references that my fix was correct (which, thankfully, it was!). I then completed the general handling section, with the steep turns being before the stalls. Once this was complete, I was told there were flames coming out of the right hand engine, meaning I had to complete the engine fire drills, which are checklist memory items. This drill includes a full engine shut down, a requirement in the test, potentially followed by an emergency descent. Once the situation is under control and the drills are complete, you are asked to restart the dead engine. When everything was back to normal I was told to please return to Hamilton, where I would complete an asymmetric landing. After what was possibly my best asymm. landing yet, I taxied back to CTC, shut down the Twinstar and headed back into the training centre, where I was told I had met the flight test requirements and had passed! I don't think I have ever been so anxious, excited or relieved! After a debrief I headed back to Clearways to pack for my departure the following day. 

Extremely relieved with my CPL aircraft, ZK CTL

Inbetween all of this I also completed by VFR single engine night solo circuits flight which was incredible. It was great to fly solo again and was a fantastic way to say goodbye to the Cessna which taught me to fly - video to come!

Safe to say the flight home was a relatively stress free one, with six very relieved trainee pilots on board looking forward to home comforts! We head down to our new accommodation in Bournemouth on Sunday, ready for starting the BOH phase of training on Monday. 

Uh oh why has the engine stopped and back to IFR

A worrying sight!

I have now completed my five initial DA42 VFR flights, which are really there to just familiarise us with flying a new aircraft type - especially one with an extra engine, retractable gear and is a whole lot faster.

The last three lessons were asymmetric (so practicing flying with an engine out), with a lot of emphasis placed on engine failures during critical stages of flight ie. takeoff/go around when we are in the most vulnerable stage (low speed, high power setting).

In the first of the three flights, we were just learning how to control and identify engine failures in various situations and were given some form of emergency where it was necessary to read through the Quick Reference Handbook and follow the procedures in there, which always led to the engine having to be shut down. When the engine stops it is "feathered", meaning that less drag is being created. This is because the engine is no longer windmilling through the air; when feathered the aircraft's performance increases and it is a lot easier to control. After flying around for a bit with one of the engines feathered, we had a go at the engine restart procedure - always a bonus when the engine comes back to life!

The second asymmetric flight focussed on performance during an engine failure. This included lowering the gear and putting flaps to landing, with one engine failed. We maintained Vyse, which is the best rate of climb with an engine out, in order to see the effect raising flap and gear had on the climb performance. Engine failures after take off were also involved, as was an engine failure whilst climbing at Vy.

Asymmetric circuits were last, which brought it all together. The instructor would fail an engine (simulated) after rotation and so I had to control the aircraft and identify the failed engine, before completing more checks and maintaing positive performance for a circuit to land. The lesson was pretty intense, although was only an hour long.

I am back in the simulators for six IFR flights now. My first was yesterday and was NDB tracking and holding; the others involve more NDB, ILS, emergencies and DME arcs. Once these are done, I'm back into the Twinstar to fly IFR routes in it - before returning again to VFR to prepare for my CPL. Busy times ahead!

These photos are taken by Christian - so thanks to him! 

Me taking off from NZRO

Climb out from NZRO

Turns out you roll pretty quickly if you do nothing when the engine fails...

Multi-engine phase is here

On a high, as today was my first DA42 flight; after all the waiting, I finally got to fly the beast!

Today was a generic general handling flight and was really to just get a feel for the aircraft and how it handles in various situations. After getting to grips with the fact I had two huge engines on two huge wings with two huge winglets either side of me, I managed to taxi it to the runway without bashing into anything (the clearance is extremely close, so safe to say it was a concern of mine!)

I practiced medium and steep turns, as well as stalls in various configurations (clean; approach; base to finals turn). After getting the hang of that I was talked through an emergency descent, which was great fun - basically consisted of lowering the gear and pointing the aircraft straight down to the ground.

Tomorrow I am going up for my circuits flight, which I cannot wait for - I will get to fly the entire flight (today take off and landing were demonstrated to me; unsurprisingly they have a much bigger kick than the Cessna!) Can't wait to have all of that power at my control on the take off.

Bunch of photos! 

RH engine start and a steep turn:

IFR Update

So I am left with just 2 more Cessna flights before I get my hands on a Twinstar! I should have only the one left, but unfortunately had to cancel one at the last minute yesterday due to some crazy fog which didn't shift until early afternoon. The flights we are currently doing are SPIC, which basically mean we can log the hours as PIC, even though we are still flying with an instructor. The idea is to treat your instructor as a safety pilot, or perhaps even a passenger, although a passenger who knows more about flying than you and who you ask questions to... We are allowed to choose where we go (within reason) and are advised to use these flights as lessons to help improve anything we may find trickier or that we have had less practice of.

Tomorrow and Thursday is our Multi engine ground school, so we will begin to learn about the DA42's airframe and systems etc as well as be taught how to preflight it etc. We are hoping to have had at least one flight on it by the end of the week, but the weather will be the make or break decision on that!

I had my first VFR night flight a couple of nights ago which was up there with my cross country as one of my favourite flights yet. A friend on my course and me were both back to back in the same aircraft with the same instructor, so decided to back seat one another. Jack flew towards Auckland with some general handling before going back to the airport and practicing overhead rejoins at night; I flew locally for a while practising general handling before also heading north towards Auckland. I already have flown at night in the IFR stage, although of course wasn't able to fly visually until the last minute. I was surprised how easy it is to become disorientated and was tricky to work out when to flare, as height perception above the runway takes some getting used to. The next VFR night flight involves both dual and solo circuits, which will be brilliant!

A few photos from a night IFR flight I back seated:

VFR night flight:

Me preparing for takeoff

Air New Zealand aircraft shutting down for the night at Hamilton

Don't judge my landing to harshly! Only my second night one, so it was slightly, eerr... positive. 

My first IFR flight

I had the first of my 8 C172 IFR flights today! Was absolutely fantastic to get back up in the air. Today's lesson involved flying the SID, before practising point to point tracking and a few other bits such as spot wind checks. After this we practised some hold entries, before flying the VOR DME approach. Lots to do in 2 hours!

Both me and a friend had our flights back to back, so we each back seated one another's flight - this is really beneficial, as you see everything unfolding without having to concentrate on everything too much. All in all it was absolutely brilliant and I can't wait to go up for my next lesson, which involves practising the VOR DME approaches some more.

A few photos from my phone

The scenery isn't too bad!

Not a great shot, but Clearways from above

Today's aircraft

The mad evening fuel pump queue

Goodbye VFR, hello instruments!

Hi everyone. Very sorry for the lack of a new post! A fair amount has happened since my last update, although at the same time there has been a lot of waiting around.

Back at the beginning of March, I passed my PT1, which is the PPL test equivalent (you don't get a PPL on the course, we go straight to CPL). The test is 2 hours long and is done with one of the VFR flight instructors. The test basically consists of:

• Ground work - preflight checks/mass and balance/aircraft performance/general questioning
• Departure - taxiing/takeoff/departure from the control zone
• Navigation - we are given a destination to plan and fly to which is followed by a diversion
• Emergencies 
• Circuits - normal/flapless/glide; they may not be at Hamilton (mine were at Matamata)
• General handling - instrument flying/stalling/steep turns
• Arrival - arrival and landing into Hamilton

It is pretty stressful, as there is a lot to be getting on with - also for a lot of us it is our first ever flight test! After the PT1, we had a fair amount of time off before we began IFR training (around a month). 

Then on to IFR! 

I am going to end up knowing this like the back of my hand (hopefully!) 

Our first two days of training involved ground school - we had already collected our DA42 checklists/multiengine manuals/IR manuals and had been asked to read up on them before the classes.   Since the initial IFR ground school, we have all completed six 'flights' in the DA42 simulators and another day of ground school (for the IFR C172 stage). These sim sessions involved general instrument flying revision, tracking, holds, approaches, and GPS procedures - the final sim session was a "check" to make sure at least some of the stuff had gone in! I am now awaiting my first actual IFR flight, which should hopefully be within the next few days. We have 8 Cessna 172 flights before we start on the DA42, which is when we know we are scarily close to our CPLs! These single engine IFR flights help us to practise the techniques and procedures we have learnt in the sims before we move onto the twin engine phase and are travelling a fair bit faster! There are 3 VFR night flights which I should be booked in for in the not too distant future too, which I am really looking forward to. 

Apart from that there has been a lot of free time - my family came over to visit for 2 weeks recently too which was great. Got up to lots of touristy things and I was able to see a bit more of the country (from the ground this time though), although the weather has began to turn a lot colder which is a shame. 

Showing them around the CTC apron

Not long!

Didn't even fly the DA20, but I like this photo!

Probably being really boring telling them all about the plane

Hobbiton is well worth a visit

My sister and I did the Skyjump off of the top of the Auckland Skytower... 

...which is pretty high!

Mugshot! Smiling, but petrified on the inside. 

Taupo RapidsJet was amazing too

Sorry for the lack of content this time- hopefully very soon there will be far too much to write about. Please also don't hesitate to contact me with any questions in the box at the right hand side of the page!