Hello,
Update number 5 (May!)
Another very rapid three months have passed by and its now
only a measly two and a half months before my year and a bit in Spain is all
over (quite unbelievable)..
The end of April early may saw me finish off the warrior
flying and a fairly sizeable 103.4 hours accumulated over a period of 4 and a
bit months. This obviously involves another test (as do most things here), which
went ok. In fairness it is the same format as the test mentioned in update 3
just they expect to have reached a much higher standard and be flying completely
independently - no more friendly instructor "have another go at that" or "don't
worry just remember to sort it for the next time you fly" type of thing.
However the best bit of all about getting this test out of
way was that because I have a PPL (private pilots licence) I didn't have to
complete all the lessons and finished a few weeks early. Leaving me with spare
hours and time to invest in the SLINGSBY!!
This is an aerobatic training aircraft retired from the
RAF where it would have spent its early days showing your average fast jet pilot
the basics. Lesson 1 - Loops, barrel rolls, wingovers, stall turns, aileron
rolls and max rate turns! To give you a feel for the different types of aircraft
the warrior is a kind of ford fiesta of the light aircraft world, very good at
getting from A-B with enough room for your shopping in the back, the Slingsby is
more your Lotus Elise type of aircraft with very little in the way of
practicalities and really at its best upside down.
You sit with your feet and bum at pretty much the same
level with the idea of minimising the effects of G (avoids all the blood getting
stuck in your feet when really it is needed to be upstairs in your head) and it
has a 360 bubble canopy so its much more of a feeling of actually flying rather
than sitting in a car in the air.
As you probably can imagine I am fairly nervous, fully
expecting to turn out to be a bit of a wimp and churlishly coming home have
decorated both the aircraft and instructor with the contents of my stomach at
the first sign of anything slightly energetic. Anyhow off we go (John Hall is
today's willing aerobatic instructor) its one of those great days with bright
blue skies interwoven with patches of small cumulus clouds. We pick the first
hole that looks reasonable large point the nose of the aircraft at it, just
managing to skirt through with the aircraft just ridding over the cloud tops.
After we get enough height and find a big enough hole to
get back through the cloud if need be its straight to business. Wingovers first
- with this you end up with the lower wing tip pointing straight at the ground
and then just gently let the nose fall back to straight and level. Then into an
aileron roll - pitch up maximum roll and the aircraft whips itself through a 360
degree roll in a couple of seconds (stomach is still holding out at this stage
and the earlier fear is disappearing and I am actually starting to enjoy things
a bit more).. Then loops - pitch the aircraft forward getting 120kts then pull
back as hard as possible, the earth disappears into complete blue sky with the
aircraft rapidly slowing down and then all of a sudden the earth reappears (just
manage to spot a school warrior heading by a few thousand feet below us - sadly
they didn't spot us, which would have resulted in much ooohing and aaahing in
the bar afterwards) the speed rushes up again and you ease out the bottom of the
loop with the G meter registering a cool 4gs... (i.e. my ample 90kg x 4 =
360kg). Finally its barrel rolls similar to loops except throw in maximum bank.
All in all a truly memorable experience and not as hard or
as scary as I thought - by the end of the lesson you end up going from loop into
barrel roll back again into a wing over another loop etc. etc. The highlight -
spotting a loan cloud and doing a barrel roll around it - awesome!!
The rest of May was spent studying for exams and
combination of things meant it was probably the worst conditions I have ever had
to study and sit a set of exams under (you'll have to ask in person I'm afraid)
still enough said. Results came through mid-June and ok in the end - all the
ATPL theory exams in the bag - no more groundschool with the last 4 months being
full time flying !
Mr. Honey of Deloitte fame (as well as numerous other
equally fine establishments) also paid a visit for a few days. A sound thrashing
on the tennis court was dually delivered (I was of course victorious from a
moral stand point and Dave from an actual one - bugger) and a few very pleasant
evenings enjoying the Jerez sunshine.
Bring on happy days, sitting by the pool and the odd bit
of flying - see update 6!!
James
A few random photos!
.jpg)
The INSTRUCTORS
Dave Thomas, David Serrano and Mike Pinney
.jpg)
The STUDENTS
Henry Bevan, Me and Chris Wong
.JPG)
Getting a close up view of the local mountain range
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