Tinworm-wings

Wednesday, 31 December 2008

Traffic Cone Revenge

I stayed over at Sywell last night, but unfortunately the visibility was awful in the morning and didn't look set to clear away, so I left at lunchtime, having pottered around fiddling with my Dragonfly....thinking about where I am going to put my compass etc.

Yesterday, despite the haziness, which confined me to the circuit, I had a magnificent day's flying, bringing my time in the Dragonfly up to 4hrs50! My first experiences on it, on Monday, had been rather hairy; Neill said, having tried it out first thing, that it was the roughest weather he'd ever flown it in...and there was I about to fly it for the first time! A bit of rotor from surrounding hangars snatched the wing at one point and really scared me . But yesterday's flying was just superb....the experience, obviously, not my handling of the aeroplane; but even that quickly improved.

I got to the point where I could line up on the runway to land, control the wing with one hand and the throttle with the other and hold my line and height all the way along the runway...not quite sure how high....about ten feet, I guess.......but smooth and controlled. Best of all, Neill was there to see it. He got some good photos...(post them here when he emails them). Later, Stewart Bond came out and was complimentary....and even Cath had the odd nice thing to say.

Luckily the latter two didn't see me land on a traffic cone! I'd gathered that at one point on Monday Stew had said I was approaching too high, so yesterday I worked on ever shallower approaches....until I rounded out too early and so low that I didn't so much come down on a cone as fly into it! It was there to mark the end of the runway.

Monday, 29 December 2008

Today I flew my first aeroplane for the first time

The thing about flying the Dragonfly for the first time is that you can't be "checked out" on the type because there is no second seat; nobody can come round with you on your first circuit to make sure you are happy with the controls. You just have to listen carefully to instructions then climb in and apply all you have learnt.

And that is what I did today......completing 1hr 35 in it.

It is a fantastic feeling flying your first ever aeroplane for the first time (nice bit of alliteration for a lesson there).

More later, but right now I am off to The Aviator for a drink with Neill!

Friday, 26 December 2008

The BMAA community

I have been spending increasing amounts of time on the British Microlight Aircraft Association (BMAA) forums, where I have been picking people's brains about instrumentation. Jeremy Harris, Steve Wilson, Paul Collins and Paul Dewhurst have been especially helpful. I like the BMAA Forums as it feels like a community and everyone is very willing to share what they know.

I had no idea that most compasses on microlights were regular, common or garden nautical compasses, or that digital compasses were not just a gadget of little real, practical use, though Jeremy says the compass on his watch is "pants" because it has to be held perfectly horizontal to work.

Paul Dewhurst (who has won international competitions in navigation) has even used a flat walking compass (the type with a bezel) and managed fine. He said there is nothing to stop me just fixing it to the keel (I could probably just use a bit of black duct tape?). Steve Wilson, who flies near me, flies an unfaired Dragonfly with a Silva kayaking compass strapped to the keel, which is another very affordable option.

Jeremy recommends a Suunto watch with vario and altimeter, but I am not sure this is necessarily going to be cheaper than a Digi Fly. On his advice I have placed a wanted ad on Paramotorists' site.

GPS systems also have altimeters and digital compasses, and one that is very affordable is the Garmin Etrex Vista, and coincidentally Paul has one he is willing to sell. Steve just emailed me to say that you can download your track and see where you went on Google Earth, which is pretty seductive stuff! He also pointed out that an ASI is not really necessary as you know, for nav calculation purposes, how fast you go in trim (with the bar neutral). So, the Etrex could be all I need, though I would like a separate compass that I can just glance at (especially as the Garmin compass uses lots of battery).

the merits of not knowing what you don't know

I was talking on the phone to Dad today and mentioned Neill having complimented me on my rather fine side-slip turn the other day. He seemed impressed. I said that I achieved it mainly because I only vaguely know what a side-slip turn is, which made him laugh. All I know is that I wanted to get down quickly, so I made my call for Final half way down base leg and then cut the corner and dumped some height; I sort of just picked my target and then cut in towards it.

Neill (who attributes any latent genius in me to his teaching, naturally) was extremely complimentary. I was just chuffed he had seen it. He said I am now a "pilot", rather than a student. It was kind of a coming-of-age moment.

I have now done about 6 hours solo.

I have bought 3rd party insurance and next time I go to Sywell, I am going to fly MY aeroplane for the first time.

Saturday, 20 December 2008

Red Herrings and Asset Stripping

As a teacher who would far rather talk about aeroplanes than adverbial clauses, I have been teaching my kids the art of the skilfully initiated red herring....and thus, this week, was treated to a jolly five minutes discussing with Year 4 the business of storing an aeroplane.

One of my favourite pupils, a somewhat eccentric boy, suggested I bought a barn.

I have just bought an aeroplane. How on earth will I afford a barn?

He came straight back at me, "Buy a barn with a cow in it, and sell the cow"

That is one for the book.

.

Monday, 15 December 2008

a pilot's swagger

Today I flew three hours solo!
THREE hours!....something like 25 landings, lots of them beautiful.

I love the Quantum wing and people keep telling me the Dragonfly is even better!

Apparently I now have a pilot's swagger.

A fantastic day!

Sunday, 14 December 2008

Small is Beautiful!

I have loads of photos of the Dragonfly in various states of undress, including this one, which shows Stewart Bond crouching next to a knocked-down prototype trike. Look how compact it is. It really is incredible, isn't it!

Here's a superb film about how to rig it.
I have said this before, but someone really must do a stop motion film of it rigging itself.....like the You Only Live Twice gadget, Little Nellie.

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!