Instructor On Holiday

My instructor is off on holiday this weekend so no flying. Last week I was too ill having just come out of hospital the day before and the week before that I was unfortunate enough to cop early morning rain and not get my lesson off the ground.

Oh well, this is flying I suppose however its torturous that the last two weekends have been bathed in glorious sunshine and clear blue skies.

I suppose the timing isn't bad as I have a lovely baby boy now 12 days old called Oscar to dote over.... Future pilot? Of course!!!!!

Until next time.

My website has changed now and this part of it is the blog component. OceansOfAir (me basically!) is also on Twitter. This is a handy way of posting my musings and updates to the site from my phone.

Lesson 33: A Trip To Lydd Airport In Gorgeous Sunshine

What a fantastic day it was today! It was 30 degrees celsius, still air and great visibility ....... in October. And even better than that (for me anyway) was the fact I was flying!! I arrived about 8AM in the most beautiful sunshine to a quiet airport. I had done my preparation the night before and in the morning by plotting out three routes as I was not sure what we would be doing today. As it turned out it was a super day combinig some navigation work and my first land-away at another airport - Lydd.

Everything went really well on my side, with lots of things to absorb. Lots of radio work. I had a failed transponder as well. The weather was amazing. Apparently it was the hottest day in October since records began yesterday and today was just as great.

The trip went from Rochester Airport (my home base) North East to Southend Pier, turning South East to Whitstable, East to and overhead Manston and South West over to Dover. On my plan I was to return home at this point but instead we headed down to Lydd Airport where landed.

It was my first time landing on a hard (non grass) asphalt runway and it was great. It was much bigger than the runways at my home airport so you have plenty of time to land. The circuit was large as well and it was nice going round the circuit over nice countryside and sea as opposed to the motorway, houses and supermarkets I have back home. Taking off on the way home we didnt even use flaps as the runway is so long. It felt so smooth with none of the bumpy bits you have on the grass runways.

The return leg home was a joy and the landing good. My instructor was pleased and said I could have done this on my own but there was a lot of radio work. I felt confident with this because of the work I had done leading up to yesterdays exam but its one thing saying everything right and another thing knowing exactly what to say and when.

Things to take away from todays wonderful day is I want to have better cockpit management (better map folding for a start), more map referencing and more work on the RT. What a great great day. I loved every minute of it.

logbook entry 

33.02-10-11 C152 G-CEFM EGTO LYDD 09:10 10:20 1:10 1-1 EX18
33.02-10-11 C152 G-CEFM LYDD EGTO 11:35 12:10 0:35 2-2 EX12E/13

HOURS = 30:00 INSTRUCTOR + 03:20 SELF

Ground School: Radio Telephony Theory Exam Completed

I sat and passed my Radio Telephony Theory (RT) Test this morning. Huraaaah! Huraaaah! I am pleased to get this out the way now as that's all my ground school tests done. It was nice as well to get 100% and finish on a high.

I was going to mention that I had previously purchased an audio revision RT guide from Pilot Wharehouse (see photo) and made my way through that when I was either in the gym or on the train etc. It's OK, there are 2 CDs with 29 tracks on each one and it extends beyond the scope of the test for the PPL course. It's not necessary to pass the test but it is useful if you just want to just extend your knowledge of the subject.
Hopefully flying tomorrow!

P.S. It is the 1st of October 2011 today and it is 29 Degrees C - absolutely scorching hot with no breeze! Incredible.