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 ...

AZ: "bumpy" flying...

Thursday (august the 28th) I was scheduled on a flight around noon on the N4177L (the one I flew with the day before). Unfortunatly there was something wrong with one of the main gear struts, so dispatch rescheduled me on the N4149Y in the afternoon. The second mission contained air exercises like steep turns, climbing turns, descending turns, some touch & go's at coolridge, an airport in the south-east practise area. During one of my turns I almost hit a bird ... luckily for both of us it didn't happen :-).
You really have to get used to early morning flights (wake up call at 3:30, engine startup at 5:45), but then the air is still stable. Once the sun starts to rise the air warms up, and certainly in the afternoon the thermal currents can be quit strong. If you have to practise some air exercises it really can be a pain in the ass ... but as long we stay in the air it isn't such a big deal :p.
First Dylan flew for 1.5hr, after a short break at coolidge airport it was my turn. Debriefing, a short swim in the swimming pool and then back to work since my 3th mission was planned in the early morning on friday.
With about 30 minutes delay (as usual there were some technical problems with the BlueOne, the planning program which we have to use to login, fill out our hours etc. plus the printer wasn't working, so I couldn't print my preparation. Not a big problem since the weather radar didn't detect thunderstorms or showers in the vicinity. External check in the morning twilight, cockpit preparation, engine startup and ground check, taxi to the active and there we go! Once you're airborne and doing the climbout towards the south-east up to 3700' you realize how nice it is to have an early morning flight during the lookouts :-)
After my flight I backseated with Dylan and I took some pictures.

AZ - backseat...

Probably we'll have 3 days of for now, there aren't many flights during the weekend and monday is a holiday (labour day).

cheers!

AZ: first mission (M21)

August the 26th: a quick briefing about the archer, a walkaround (external check) with one of our instructors, studying in the afternoon, short night, wake up call at 3:30 o'clock and one hour later towards the airport for our first mission. Although the weather wasn't really perfect for a first flight (thunderstorms in the vicinity), we prepared everything and we were able to take off with only half an hour delay. First Olivier (my flightmate) flew, after him it was my turn ... exiting! Of course the instructor helped me a bit, but I managed to take the N4177L safely into the air and keep it there :-). After takeoff (from RWY 04R) we made a left turn towards the practise area in the north. I did the approach, the instructor the landing. Tomorrow I'll have M22. Again some pictures to make you ppl jealous ;-):

AZ - First fl...

cheers!

AZ: chairflying

Since there aren't many instructors who want to fly on sundays, most of the aircraft stay on the ground. A perfect oportunity to do some "chairflying": practising the flows (what to do when), external check of the aircraft, see which button is where located in the cockpit, find somehow a logical way to advance the flows and checklists, ... . Today in the afternoon there will be again some archers available, so at 4PM we'll be practising again (by the way: temperatures in the cockpit with the door closed can go up as high as 45°C). Pictures (MANY):

AZ - chairflying

and another "small" news item: we bought a car! Stay tuned for more stories and pics ;-)