Logbook's Starting to Fill Up!

So Week 2 of flying has Come and gone. 11.5 hours of flying has been gained and I'm feeling more and more competent each time I take off.
Last week, I covered more of the basics, while trying to bring everything from the previous lessons together, to deliver a more improved flight each day. It may sound simple, and it is, however in the desert, you'll be no stranger to up and down draughts throwing you about the sky. To the extent of having a 5 degree nose-down attitude and still be climbing at several hundred feet per minute. It's all stuff to learn to fly with, after all, not everyday is going to be smooth and turbulence free. God knows last week wasn't!

This week, I've build upon my knowledge of climbing and descending and started stalling manoeuvres and Ground reference manoeuvres. Which was fun! Especially the stalling. I found it quite uncomfortable pulling the power to idle, and pulling back on the control stick until the symptoms of the incipient stall started to arise; light buffet due to the turbulent air from the wing hitting the Diamonds high T-tail, very sloppy control response and the stall warner screeching at me, like "seriously mate, what are you doing?" 

Me Taxying the DA40, taken by my course mate Greg.

Getting there! Filling out the Logbook
with my flight times from my kneeboard.

We'd recover from a few incipient stalls, and then push the Diamond a bit further towards a fully developed stall, by holding the control stick back even more so than the incipient stall. The fully developed stall is evident by the heavy buffet on the aircraft, the nose dropping and the aircraft sinking sometimes accompanied by a wing drop. We also practised the stall in other manoeuvres such as a turn, where if you've already been through ground school, you know that the stall speed (Vs) is higher, so we demonstrated this in a scenario. We found a road in Rainbow valley to emulate our runway, and I performed a standard circuit to line the aircraft up with the road (with safe altitudes of course, we were not at any point at landing altitudes) but instead or lining up correctly, we overshot the runway to simulate the following point. Overshooting the runway requires a correction, and by simply over banking the aircraft (to simulate recovering the runway centreline while at the lower speeds associated with landing) the aircraft showed signs of the incipient stall at a higher airspeed. These exercises are REALLY important to emphasise how vital a good cross check of your instruments are as well as maintaining a good visual cue of what the aircraft's attitude is. It shows just how easy it can be to stall when you're in one of the most critical parts of flight and CTC emphasises this importance from the start. 
       
Right Now, I'm sitting in my room, preparing to start my circuits lessons which start tomorrow which i can't wait to begin!
This is a particularly important week as it's really likely that we'll be going solo for our first time. So before that happens, I need to make sure that I'm going to be ready for whatever comes. I'm brushing up on my radio telephony and my procedures to make sure they go as smoothly as possible.

En-route to my flight, you can
see the apron in the background
with the White Tank Mountains.

Watching the sun set after a day of flying
has to be my new favourite thing.

The Logbooks filling up quite nicely now. As of tomorrow, I'll be on my tenth flight, Basic Circuits, which I'll be conducting around Goodyear. I won't go into the details of the exercises but there seems to be quite a bit to remember; all procedures I'm sure will become easier to remember once I'm in the air. 

My flight debriefs have been made a bit more challenging now, as every day I'm given a new emergency procedure to learn for the DA40. Last week we started with 'Fire on the Ground' and this week we'll move into other areas such as the aircraft's electrical and fuel systems.

Last week, we also had a 737 takeoff and return to Goodyear airport with suspected gear failure. The 737 could be seen flying in a pattern over the airport, while the controllers in the tower worked their magic and grounded all of the nearby training aircraft from CTC and Lufthansa. 

Once everyone was back on the ground, the 737 made a low pass at approximately 400 ft over the runway so the controllers in the tower could check that the gear was in fact down.
We ran out to the side of the runway once we had heard, where annoyingly we missed the landing, but could easily hear the reverse thrust of it's engines as we were heading to the airport's perimeter fence. 

Luckily thanks to the skill of the crew and the control tower, the landing was safe, successful and perfectly orchestrated. 

This is why we train so much, to be able to do things like this when we're called to do them. It's also a perfect reminder that although this is the safest form of transportation, it isn't without it's events, and our training is what prepares us for situations like these. 

Amazing DA40NG at the end of my lesson. I want one.

Yesterday me and the other guys from my course headed off to Flagstaff, which is about 120-ish miles from Goodyear, and about 7000ft higher, 2000ft higher than we fly in the Diamonds! The drive was great fun in the Cadillac, oh yeah, we've bought a Cadillac Deville with a pathetic 4.6lt V8. Laughable really....

What we didn't plan on, was stumbling onto the famous Route 66, which by chance runs straight through the middle of Flagstaff, which of course meant I had to have a photo with the sign! 

After stuffing myself with a nutella and cheesecake crepe (it was amazing) and watching the mile long military trains rush through the city, we headed to the Lowell Observatory which is in Flagstaff, and for any of you who aren't interested in astronomy, this is the place where Pluto was discovered back in 1930. It's a really amazing place, and surrounded in beautiful scenery too! I definitely recommend checking it out if you're ever in Arizona. 
Other that accidentally wondering onto the most famous road in the world, and going to see the site of one of the most important discoveries regarding our Solar neighbourhood, the other surprise for us it that a mere few hour away from our desert home, was this cool, lush green little town. I say cool, it must have been in the high 20s but compared to 40º+ that's cold.

GREEN! In the desert!

I'd definitely recommend visiting Flagstaff if you're ever in the area, or if you come to do your training in Goodyear from CTC.

However amazing Flagstaff is, nothing will compare to our journey home to Goodyear, through Sedona. Possibly, THE most beautiful and jaw-dropping place I've ever witnessed in my life. Our journey towards Sedona, took us down a ribbon of tarmac, which was laid on the side of a a pine tree covered mountain side, which brought us into a stunning canyon. The basin of this canyon, was coated in the smell of pine, covered with small creeks and streams, all being bathed in sun light through one of the canyon's many fissures. 

After approximately 40 minutes of driving, we cam across an even more spectacular sight, shown in the photos below. We were fortunate enough to see Cathedral rock, Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte and countless others!

massive red rocked mountains

Humphries Peak

Us at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, on Mars Hill. 

Driving through Sedona

A photo will NEVER do this place any justice. It's simply magnificent.

Our Cadi, 'Cruella'. And yes, there are 4 exhaust pipes, with
Bell Rock in the distance (5000ft high)

Another beautiful sunset in Arizona. They all are.

First Week of Flying

Goodyear is one of the best 'instagram
opportunity' areas that you'll ever visit.
Shown by my instagram account being flooded
with photos of Goodyear  

So now we've completed our first week of briefings (ground school #2) we've finally been let loose into Rainbow Valley in the DA40. 

Our first few flights have been really straight forward. Straight and level flight, effects of controls yada yada yada. Obviously you need the basics before you can move onto other more exotic lessons; a learn to walk before you can run kinda thing. 

Having said that, this was the perfect opportunity to take baby steps in a new aircraft type, and not to sell the DA40 too hard, but it's absolutely, unequivocally, thoroughly fantastic. State of the art G1000 glass cockpit, soft and comfortable leather seats and an unhindered panoramic view from your seat make this aircraft a dream to fly, despite the best efforts of Rainbow Valley and its constant thermals and up draughts. And lets take a moment to thanks the human who put the air con in these aircraft. You are a true hero. 

The DA40NG ready for departure.

Now, on to the lessons...

My first lesson involved recognising the 'datum attitude' and correcting it when the aircraft deviates from it and then stabilising the aircraft using the trim, all the while keeping a thorough lookout. 

Over the next two lessons, we slowly started to commit our pre-flight checks to memory. This entails a thorough examination of the airframe to check for damage, especially to the leading edges of the wing, vertical stabiliser and the prop, a testing of the aircraft electrics and the control surfaces. Oh and a handy tip, when you're testing the lights, don't stare too closely at the Strobes, because it will immediately incinerate your retinas.

So lesson number 2. It was basically an extension from lesson one, and this time we developed upon our understanding of the controls. This was achieved by adding in the uses of secondary flight controls such as the flaps as well as the effect of different power settings on the aircraft's attitude.

It started as the last one did, with a standard departure towards Rainbow Valley. 
We practiced engine note recognition, where you try to get used to the particular engine note purely from the noise the engine is making. 

The DA40 interior, with the Garmin G1000

Our remaining 2 flights had the objectives on maintaining straight and level flight, in different scenarios, such as if the aircraft has deviated from the datum attitude, if the power has been changed from the original
setting or the configuration of the aircraft has changed, so if we have take off or landing flaps selected. However, you need to maintain a good lookout, the Rainbow Valley area is quite busy with other aircraft and  it also has an abundance of birds. So to make sure you don't smash a Turkey Vulture to pieces or heaven forbid the other way around, you need to make sure you keep a really good lookout. A process that CTC teaches you from day 1.

So after just a week of flying, we've managed to cover the bare basics of flying, as well as nailing down the preflight checks and passenger safety briefs. We've been briefed for our next series of flights, climbing, descending and turning.

My first DA40

CTC's Diamond DA42s

Lufthansa Bonanza to the left and CTC Aviation's Diamond DA42s to the right under the ramadas at Goodyear. 

Welcome to Goodyear, Arizona

Compliments of the cafeteria, fresh Cinnamon
buns for the newbies.
Yes, they were amazing, and yes, they were absolutely massive.

We've been here at CTC's Goodyear base for a few days now, so just before our lessons begin, I thought I'd let you know a bit more about the airport and what it's like here. 

Long story short, its hot. Really hot. 

The first day we were here, we had a bit of an introduction. We were told about the local area's dangers i.e. rattlesnakes, scorpions and other miscellaneous horrible critters, how to take care of ourselves in the Phoenix climate as well as what we had in store for the next week. We also had our fingerprints taken by some really nice volunteer policemen for the final stage of our TSA application, and we were given all of our necessary equipment to fly, including local area charts, plates for Goodyear, our David Clarke headset, single engine and VFR navigation training manuals, our checklist for the Diamond DA40NG as well as the SD card for the Diamond's Garmin G1000 to save our flight data. 

Fortunately for us, we have Friday off as it's the July 4th holiday weekend, so poor old me has to sit by the pool in the sun for the next three days.... How am I going to cope? What pool do I choose? 

How will we survive with two pools? 

Last night, something happened that I wasn't even sure was possible. Well, not outside of America at least. 

We found a pizza place that supplied us with a 32" pizza. I'll just let that sink in. 32 inch. Pizza. Of course we couldn't eat the whole thing, two slices nearly killed me. 

Adding to that, it could have killed several others. With all the food on offer in the states, they're lucky my short's button didn't fly off like a riffle bullet taking out anyone in its path.



So this weekend, while we still don't have any transportation we're planning to go to Goodyear Baseball park where there are going to be 4th July fireworks, hotdogs and a few (many) beers. Pretty decent. As a brit, we are getting a bit of stick for the 4th of July, but it's all in good fun, and luckily we live along side a load of German Lufthansa students, so we tend to deflect any 'war' talk off at them and they forget about us.

However, most of the other guys living here at Goodyear have gone a bit further afield, some have taken a road trip to LA whereas some have gone to San Diego and naturally, you have to go in a Mustang; well you'd look silly otherwise.


As I've mentioned before, we've not yet sorted out our transportation, so today's been another pool day. I know, damn! 

To be a bit more productive then we had been on friday, Greg (course mate) and I decided to familiarise ourselves with the DA40's checklist; in between sunbathing, finishing off the 32"pizza, having a BBQ and jumping in the pool. Whoop!  

On Sunday, we hired a car from enterprise (who have a discounted deal with CTC) so that we could drive around and see the local sights of Phoenix. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be so picturesque. It's strangely stunning, in a sandy/ desert kinda way. 

I've posted only a few photos from our day out, I've been absolutely ramming Instagram with more of them, so check out my instagram link to see anymore.

White Tank Mountains

U.S.A here we come

We've waited for what seemed like an eternity but the day is finally here; the day I fly to Phoenix. I can't really comprehend that this phase of my training has finally arrived. It seemed like only a few weeks ago I was standing in the events hall of CTC southampton meeting everyone for the first time.

So only 3 weeks after finishing ground school in Southampton, I arrived at London Heathrow. As my parents were away in Sardinia due to a date conflict ( as CTC changed our flight dates) I was there bit earlier than the other guys as it was the only lift I could get, so naturally after check-in, I went to the airport lounge, grabbed a beer( or 7) and had a massive nerd-fest watching the aircraft on the apron. Bliss.

I'm not going to lie.... it was pretty awesome, as you can see by a few of my photos below.

After a few hours of plane spotting from Heathrow's 'No. 1 lounge' I went to meet my other course mates Henry and Greg at the bar, where we spent our time waiting for our gate to be announced.

Our flight was slightly different than most others who had flown to Phoenix in the past. Instead of the direct flight offered by British Airways, we flew with American Airlines to Charlotte, NC and then caught our connecting flight with US Airways from Charlotte to Phoenix.

<--- Our ride to North Carolina, beaut A330

So after a good long flight, followed by a shorter, yet delayed flight, we had arrived at Phoenix Sky Harbour airport. I'm not sure whether it was the look on our faces, or the muttering of "ohh .... god!" that gave it away, but I don't think any of us were quite ready for just how hot Phoenix is. There's no other way of putting it, other than to say we were hit, no, smacked in the face by a wall of 40ºC heat. 

We were met at the airport by Sherry, one of CTC's Employees, who was going to bring us to our new home for the coming 6 months. Amazingly, she drove us to a Wendy's on the way to Goodyear for something to eat; suffice to say,  it was amazing.

So now I'm sitting on my comfy new bed in my room at Goodyear and that's my story as to how I got here. I can't wait for the sun to come up so I can check out the rest of the area and explore Arizona!