AZ: phase 3 & spotting!

Hi there

Finally everyone of prom 6B passed the pre-navigation check and so we're doing our last phase on the archer: the navigation phase. Not all the flights of this phase are navigation flights (god thanks!), but the majority are. You might wonder: what's so different then? Preparation! First finding your way through the VFR charts of Arizona, calculating distance, magnetic track, altitudes, ... and the day of the flight itself you have to calculate the magnetic headings (track corrected for the wind), true air speed & power setting (depends on temperature), ground speed, times, estimated fuel burnoff, ... and last but not least file a flight plan. Hell of a job if you have the early morning flight (take off at 6:30AM). Luckily the sun rises a bit later so the take off times are also delayed with 15 minutes :p. And of course you have to keep track of time, routing, ... during flight. But it's nice! If everything goes well (availability of archers & no cancellations due to wind / bad weather) we should finish this phase within 3 weeks. Last mission will be the navigation check and afterwards we'll start on the DA-40. But that's still future music ... .

This weekend the wind finnaly changed of direction (westerly instead of easterly) which gave us a nice opportunity to go spotting on a hill not far away from Phoenix Sky Harbour Intl.! The result? check it out:

AZ - spotting

What else can I say ... oh yes, "finally" prom 5 can go back home (the 2 last students will go back on Tuesday). Not that we wanted them away, on the contrary. But they spend more than 7 months (7,5 I believe) here in Arizona, instead of the "usual" 6-7 months. Problems with instructors and the DA-42's kept them here for 1,5 month extra. The 2 last ones will have tomorrow their CPL check. I hope they'll do fine back in Belgium!

Well, that's all folks! Cya!

AZ: some pictures

As promised, this post would be again one with some pictures. I hope I won't take the appetite away when I say it aren't some exotic pictures of "far far away". But for those that are wondering how the new appartment I live in looks like, feel free to click further to the pics:

Van AZ - new appartment

What else can I say? Not too much, except that the temperatures are falling like a bomb. This weekend the evenings became quit cold (11°C), now it's even during the day not that hot any more (26°C). Very pleasant when you have to fly, but horrible when you leave the "warm" appartment. But you don't hear me complaining at all ... .

AZ: almost cross country

Hello dear blogreaders

Finally again some time for an update (and something to talk about that's worth it). The last weeks I spend mostly flying solo/dual at falcon fields (touch & go's, full stop taxi back landings, different patterns and landing techniques) & in the neighbouring practise areas for the manoeuvres. Today I had (saturday the 4th) my 2 last solo missions before the pre-navigation check. 3 missions with navigation (complete a navigation log, calculate headings, speeds, power settings, ... and fly as precisely as possible) will follow next week, the check probably too. Lots of preparation and long flights (up till 4 hours), but I'm looking forward to it! (flying patterns and manoeuvres gets boring after a while).

Since yesterday I'm also living in another appartment! One of the students of group A of our prom wanted to change, and for me it wasn't really an issue. It was nice over there where I used to live, but here it's also ok. I'm now living with Pieter (Hutsebaut), Dan and Hannes. When they go back to Belgium, I'll move back into the appartment of Olivier, Kristof & Adrien.

What else can I say ... oh yes, the weather over here. Finally it's cooling down a bit. Today we have some clouds and lots of wind, maximum 28°C. Nice! (except for the wind if you have to fly).

The next post will be again one with some pics. And before I would forget about it: yes, I miss Belgium! (eventhough I know the weather isn't the best one for the moment).

Cheers!

AZ: Finally ... solo

Today, september the 22th, I had my first solo mission in the morning. 3 full stop landings with the instructor, taxi back to the sabena ramp (that's how we call it here), shutdown of the engine, the instructor exits the plane and wishes you good luck and then you're on your own. No one besides you to help you if you screw things up (or if the plane feels like to). Sounds awful, but it feels great. during taxi, ground check (engine check), you double check everything what's on the check lists, you taxi to the active runway (4L/4R in my case) and once you got the take off clearance from the tower you line up, and realise this baby is all yours. Just because it's a habit you say "take off, I have controls", but you know that actually the plane wouldn't take off if it wasn't you :p.

3 landings later I taxi back to the sabena ramp, shut down everything, collect my personal belongings while Pieter and Adrien are pushing the aircraft back into his stand (no push back trucks at our airport unfortunatly :p). My feet may not touch the ground before I got thrown in the swimming pool! They carry me to the car, put me in the trunk, drive me to the swimming pool, throw me in it and then I could be proud of legally and completely being a solo student pilot. And another habbit we have: cut the hair very short. and then I mean: VERY short. Maybe some more pictures about that another time :-)

It was a wonderful day, I was the last one that still had to do his solo flight, so now everyone of our group is solo. For the next missions, it will be or fully solo or split into half an hour with the instructor and one hour solo.

Tomorrow again a flight in the morning, so it's bedtime.

and of course, pictures ... enjoy them!

Van AZ - Solo!

fossil springs

Last sunday, Kristof, Bertrand and I went to Fossil Springs, some kind of national park. Upon arrival we noticed that the hike towards the falls was closed (due to works at a dam) ... that was the moment on which we felt we've been driving 2 hours for nothing and that our trip ended on that moment. Since the bush road wasn't that wide and cars here are extremely large, we drove a bit further to turn around & head back towards Mesa. A few minutes later Kristof manoeuvred the car backwards and ... *bam*, there we were stuck in a ditch. We were quit lucky some young student scientists came by, they helped us to get out of the ditch and we could join them for another hike towards a creek/river some miles further down the road. While they were doing some experiments with fish, we enjoyed the refreshing (and cold) water of the river & the beautiful nature sights while avoiding cactuses and a dangerous snake.

3 hours later we went back uphill, towards the car ... we forgot to swich off the lights, so the battery was way too low to get the car started ... a very friendly american couple was so kind to stop and reload our battery, they gave us some pepsi's (a pepsi never tasted that good in my life up till then) and a few moments later we headed back towards Mesa.

So far for the weekend. About the flying courses: I was supposed to have my pre-solo check on monday (some kind of flight with an examiner to see if you're ready to fly solo), but due to strong winds and gusts they cancelled it. Today (tuesday) I don't fly, I hope I'll have my check tomorrow so that I'll be solo by the end of this week (thursday or friday). Of our prom (6B), Kristof & Bert are already flying solo.

pictures of the trip to fossil springs can be found here:

AZ - fossil springs

AZ: friday missions, evening pics & trip to the zoo

Friday the 5th of september, I flew mission 26 & Olivier mission 25 afterwards. This sessions (and probably the next week too) we'll practise on the pattern (touch & go's), landing technique and the manoeuvres to get me ready for the solo (should be somewhere at the end of the upcomming week of the week afterwards). According to the instructor I'm on track, so that's good.

Today (saturday) some of us went to the zoo! It was -again- a hot but lovely day. I'd say, enjoy the pictures on a probably rainy sunday (though I hope the weather stays dry over there in Belgium)!

Pieter

AZ - Mission 26

AZ - Mission 25 (Olivier)

AZ - evening at SATC

AZ - Trip to the zoo

AZ: Why it's nice to have the early morning flights ...

After a long weekend (monday was labour day), we continued with the "normal way of living": eat, fly, swim, cook, sleep, study, ...
Tuesday I had a mission in the afternoon, there were some delays (but we're already used to that :-)) and so it was again bumpy flying. Wednesday again an early morning flight and to be honest, those are the ones I really like. Not that I'm that person that really wants to get up at 3:30 o'clock, but the weather then is so nice and flying is enjoyable. We went to the practise area in the north east to practise some unusual attitudes, very funny ... "close your eyes for a few seconds, the instructor flies the aircraft in some kind of position which is not one of everyday flights (at least I hope so) and you have to recover asap". But don't you worry, all these things are practised above 5000 feet :-). Afterwards we went back to falcon fields for some touch & go's.

Today (thursday) I didn't fly, but I was backseating during Olivier's flight. Normal procedures, taxi to the active (22L), take off ... and sudenly the alternator failed during the climb out. In human words: the alternator supplies current for electric devices in the aircraft, such as the radios for the communications. Not such a good idea to keep on flying with a dead alternator, so we contacted falcon tower to report the failure and requested a full stop landing (there is also a battery that we can use if the alternator fails, but not for hours of course). After arrival we had to fill out the squawk book (a book where you write down technical failures) and bring it to maintenance. Our instructor (mr. Andrews) explained us some interesting stuff about the maintenance, the checks and FAA programs, ... interesting!

Tomorrow I have again a flight in the afternoon I guess it will be the last one for this week. If we're lucky, we'll be solo at the end of next week.

And, last but not least: we have some pets! 3 fishes (First they were with 4, but the bigest and most expensive one already died. He had a nice funeral in the toilet though ...).

Almost midnight, I'd better go to bed ...