Tinworm-wings: Partial Pass

Tuesday 26 May 2009

Partial Pass

I got a partial pass, which means that I passed the test on everything except for an element that the examiner wants to see again before he can sign me off conclusively. Neill called this "Fantastic News" and others have congratulated me on it too, so quite clearly, among fellow pilots that is regarded as a good thing. The examiner did say that the word fail did not come into it anywhere and actually he was terrifically complimentary, so I am pleased.

What I partialled on was "engine failures". I did one safe one and a very dodgy one, where I drifted too close in to the field while losing height, so that I would have landed too fast and long into the field, but where I wouldn't have had quite enough momentum to get over the end hedge into the next field. Disappointing.

My examiner is a discreet man, so I know he won't want me to name him, but I do have to say that he is really friendly and reassuring with you in the air, so that you don't feel constantly stressed. In point of fact, amazingly, I actually enjoyed the test; I suppose because I knew at each stage that I had handled each exercise correctly. I'd been worried about losing height on my 15degree banked look-out (HSELL check), though he says he does it at 30deg, which would get it over more quickly and where the wing is less likely to dip. So that is one for the future.

My high energy banking was a little abrupt; he says he rolls the wing in just as steadily as he does a 15 or a 30. My stalls and unusuals were fine - phew. My fast and slow level flight was fine, though I was using the trim setter, where previously I had been told that it was of negligible use, as it is more a load control on the Quantum, so that added to the workload. Another addition to workload was that I wasn't allowed to opt for the examiner to take the RT calls, as Neill had thought I could.

All in all, a very positive experience, I thought, with my examiner, who is a stickler for detail and who I therefore feared having, being hugely supportive. He even came in on his day off because he knew that the weather was not looking good for my test the following day. Also, Phil, my instructor at the start of all this, gave me some pre-test instruction (as Neill was unable to be there) on soft and short field landings and take-offs, which I very much appreciated because I was rusty on them...and it gave me a chance to chill out, as I haven't flown for a fortnight and this worried me. Thanks Phil.

If the weather improves, I hope to be able to do my brushing-up tomorrow or, failing that, Thursday....with the chance of doing the partial this weekend or next. The sooner the better.

Fingers crossed.

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Ground handling (how to store an aeroplane at home and get it to the airfield)

A trial flight in a Thruster, when I was 28, c.1991

I have started to learn to fly before...TWICE! First time round I had just graduated and got a job at an aerodrome in Cornwall, where I earned flying hours by fuelling microlights, giving hourly weather reports to the Met office etc. The weather was bad, so there was little flying to be had...and in the end I was paid with broken propellers and bits of crashed fuselage to hang on the wall. The boss was a great bloke called Ian Stokes, who had been a leading light in forming the BMAA and had manufactured Thrusters in the early days . In retirement he moved to The Gambia and became a publican and, shockingly, was murdered this year.

Flying Rogues

ten years on from my first experiences at Moorland Flying School (and now nearly ten years ago) the flying school was under new management and my girlfriend and I booked full courses. We both made good progress initially but never felt we were being moved on and had difficulty pinning the instructor down to signing our logbooks. When another instructor signed himself as P1, we got suspicious, contacted the CAA and were horrified to learn that our instructor did not have a current instructor rating, that we had not been insured and that none of our hours counted towards our licences. We were eventually refunded and the instructors were prosecuted by the CAA.

The very sympathetic CAA investigator spoke to the BMAA on our behalf and my hours have been allowed to count (at the discretion of the school). But in point of fact, I flew way over the minimum number of hours subsequently, so it is really quite academic in the end.

Around 2001 an instructor in Norfolk tried to convince me that if I bought his aeroplane he could teach me at a cut rate, as I'd then be using my own plane. Great idea, I thought, except that it turned out that the aircraft in question had failed a noise test and could not be used from the instructor's field. He later admitted that I would have to learn on his aeroplane at the normal rate. He resisted showing me the paperwork, kept avoiding me and eventually, when it was quite clear I wasn't going to buy without the paperwork, told me to F-off.

So far my experience has been that there are a lot of rogues in flying, which is one reason why I was so very impressed by the professional set-up at Sywell.

by air to Africa

My sister and I were lucky to fly many thousands of miles in the 1960s and '70s in many aircraft types, including BOAC VC-10s, Boeing 707s and even a Nigerian Airways Dakota, as our dad (and later our mum) had teaching posts in Kenya and Nigeria. Those were still the romantic days of flying, when passengers walked across tarmac and up steps, rather than walking down the tubes that have turned passenger flying into a mundane affair. (Mind you, aren't take-offs still incredibly exciting!?)

Back then air hostesses GAVE children the sorts of nick-nacks that their parents have to pay fortunes for from the airline catalogue these days; things like model aeroplanes, keyrings etc. We were also given sweets to help us cope with depressurisation. (And they were hostesses, so nobody give me a hard time)

Mum says that I cracked my first joke when I was small, on a flight out to Kenya, when I said, "Mummy, shouldn't there be a wing on this side of the plane too". Apparently I got her with that one.

At Kano airport I remember standing behind an engine and thinking how hot it still was....and then being told that the engine was cold. The heat was Kano. I got a headache and took several days to aclimatise.

The airport perri-ways at Kano were littered with aircraft that didn't make it, including a burnt-out Mig 15. The Nigerian Airforce flew them and my dad played squash with one of their pilots, Ben, at the Kano Club. I recall a Mig fly-past on my birthday. Was it arranged with Ben over a beer? Was it a pure coincidence?

At Entebbe airport (Uganda) I remember climbing down the steps on to the runway and being encircled by soldiers with machine guns, who then went through all our belongings and confiscated my cherished Swiss Army penknife, purchased on one of numerous European stop-overs. That was in the twitchy time after the Israeli hijacking ...and mum had to stifle my protests.

Before my first flight to Nairobi, as an infant, I was scared stiff. I didn't understand that I wouldn't have to sit astride the fuselage, as I did on my pedalcar! In a funny way, I not only overcame that fear but have come full circle; microlighting is just like sitting on that pedalcar......open to the elements - real flying!