Hi Everyone,
Having been away for a quite amazingly rapid (almost)
sixth months I thought I would send a quick e-mail to let you all know how
things are going...
The becoming an airline pilot thing is coming along
nicely. I have spent the first 5 months from July up to Christmas in the very
non-glamorous world of flying ground school, "Phase 1". This involved 9-5 in the
classroom getting to grips with subjects such as Meteorology (the weather -
don't fly into thunderstorms they are very scary), Aircraft Systems (how many
bits and pieces can you possibly cram into an aluminium tube ??), Navigation
(how not to get lost), Principals of Flight (so that is how it work), Radio Nav
(things to stop you getting lost even if your trying) and Mass and Balance (how
to load your aircraft so it doesn't go into a scary uncontrollable dive).
Generally life is very pleasant with a typical day
along the lines of ground school followed by an hour around the pool, dinner, a
few hours homework and then generally some TV, a Film or something equally
leisurely. Admittedly had a minor blip in September when I managed to break a
bone in my hand during a "lilo" jumping contest in the pool. The over
enthusiastic Spanish doctor then managed to put the plaster on a bit tight,
which subsequently resulted in my fingers turning a rather pleasant purple
colour and a swift return to the hospital for some anti-coagulants ouch !
Jerez itself is what I would imagine a typical Spanish
town to look like. There is the old town with whitewash buildings with tight
cobbled streets and washing lines strung across between the houses. The main
part of the town has loads of street bars and cafe's that do great tapas and
gets completely packed with Spanish locals all dressed up really smartly. In
general the night life is pretty good, although English is not spoken that
commonly so getting by with some Spanglish (the Spanish part is getting slowly
better).
Time flew by (pun) and it was down to the hard graft
for the ATPL exams which came all to soon in December. The papers weren't
necessarily that hard but required immense amounts of detail learning (not
something I have done in a while) however with everyone else on the course
putting the hours in there weren't to many distractions so I managed to get
plenty of hard graft in. After the normal two weeks of nervous panic the results
came in the day of the return flight back to blighty before Christmas. Happily
all exams passed (94% average - not bad if I do say so myself) and phase 1 out
of the way.. Phase 2 brings actual flying (having spent 5 months in a classroom
with all the planes a tantalising but distant 100 meters behind a big fence -
actual flying had seemed somewhat of a distant dream)..
January bought the start of phase 2, which is split
between 1 day in the classroom and 1 day flying (hooray !). This first stint of
flying is all completed on a single engine trainer - a Piper Warrior. Not a bad
little aircraft 160Bhp and certainly at this stage seems plenty fast enough and
agile enough for me. The course of 14 is split into pairs and each assigned an
instructor - my wingman is another Britannia guy - John Bright and by chance we
have ended up with the standards manager as our instructor (our course is a
little bigger than most of the others so our instructor would normally spend his
days assessing the other instructors - this could be tough !). A flying day
starts at 8:00 with an hour long brief then its up for the first flight. John
and I alternate flying with backseating (watching the other person fly from the
back) and the same again in the afternoon. Each flight lasts an hour or so and
so far we have covered flying straight and level, stalling and circuit flying.
The area to fly around is amazing its bordered to the south by the sea and to
the east by a 5000ft mountain range so there are some spectacular views (it also
means it's not too difficult to get lost !).
Last Tuesday bought the first milestone - my first solo
(although in theory it is actually my second!) non the less you get somewhat
used to someone sitting in the right hand seat and chipping in the odd helpful
comment if things start heading in the wrong direction! This is how it goes -
after a couple of circuits to check I haven't lost the plot, Peter (my
instructor) gives my the nod and we nip in after a landing and he hops out. The
Warrior feels incredibly empty with just me in it but off we go - line up on the
runway, put on full power and accelerate up to 55kts, pull back on the stick and
up and away. 1000ft takes a little over a minute then start heading back to the
opposing threshold for landing.. minor diversion as a big jet comes in and as a
result I am instructed to circle over the Jerez race track (quite interesting as
F1 teams test there - and a Renault F1 car is blasting round)... then back to
plan A line up back on the runway 70kts on the approach. About 20ft from the
ground bring the nose back (flare) and gently let the speed and height bleed
away.. bit left of the centre line on the landing but not to far wrong !
I've put a few pictures up on a website
www.jameswinspear.co.uk
It would be good to hear how you all are doing.
Cheers,
James