Day 14 Flying the Tecnam Sierra

Thursday 26th February


I fronted up today expecting to spend today's lesson familiarising myself with the Tecnam. But Kev had other ideas; well not totally other ideas, but it was not what I expected. He told me to grab my nav gear as today we are doing a nav-ex and I can familiarise myself with the plane while I'm doing that. I had sat in on a nav course on Sunday but I was still a bit vague on some things. Because I wasn't expecting to be doing a nav-ex so soon, I hadn't done any study to sort out the vague areas.

After plotting a course etc (with Kev giving me some help), we got the Tecnam out, did the usual checks etc and got airborne after a ragged take off. We got to Redcliffe where I matched up the ragged take off with a ragged landing (hey, there was a good cross wind and this is the first time with left hand on the stick ;-) ).

After a cup of coffee I did a neater take off and set a course for home where I did a short field powered approach with some prompts from Kev to help me in.


All in all a good day with a good landing back on home strip to top off the day.


T/T 16.2

Day 13 Some low level hairy stuff.

Tuesday 24th February

As discussed last week, today was my last day in the drifter in my training program. I took off knowing I was going to be doing a practised forced landing under a power line some time in this lesson. So I headed for the windmill where we normally turn left to stay out of the Amberley restricted area on our way to Bradfield, but instead of turning left as usual Kev called out to turn right and follow the Seven Mile Lagoon to its south west extremity. He explained to me that there was a pumping shed near the edge of the Lagoon. I told him I could see the pumping shed and the power lines running across the paddock to the shed. He then said "you have been well briefed on this and that is the only paddock suitable for you to force land in and you now have an engine failure" and then the throttle was closed.

My first attempt would have got us into the paddock but it was going to be a bit short as Kev wanted me to pick a point closer to the power lines. So Kev called "my plane" and took us back up to a suitable height again, then handed the plane over to me again and cut the power. This second attempt I judged it better as I lost height and turned into the wind. As we came over the fence I pushed the nose down a little more, not only to aim at the spot Kev wanted me to aim at but also to carry enough speed to carry us under the power lines after I levelled off a couple of feet above the paddock.


After one more aborted attempt and another successful one, Kev told me to climb to one thousand five hundred feet and head for Bradfield. We were about half way there in a beautiful cloudless sky when Kev told me the cloud base had now dropped to 1500'. So I dropped the nose and levelled off at 1400'. Then he called that the cloud was now down to 1400' so again I descended, but as I descended he kept the cloud dropping and as Bradfield is 400' above sea level it wasn't long before he had the clouds at tree top level and we were down amongst the trees and about one and a half k's from Bradfield. I knew there were mostly paddocks with just a few scattered trees between where we were and Bradfield, but with tree lines running along some of the fence lines it meant I had to scout around these to get there. Down amongst the trees I could not see Bradfield but I knew we would be getting close. Then as I scouted around a patch of trees there was the threshold of runway 18 only 150 mtrs away lined up directly in front. Then Kev called out that the clouds were now at ground level and I was dead.

Kev chewed my ear off for not deciding to make the call that I would have to put it down in a paddock instead of trying to reach my destination because that is how pilots kill their passengers and themselves. Lesson learnt !!!

When we landed he told me to go for a fly and practice some steep turns, stalls and some forced landing approaches but do not go below 500'. "And don't forget to come back in an hour or so and pick me up". :-)

Back at Lynfield at post flight briefing Kev told me he was happy with how I handled myself with the low level flying through the trees and under the power lines. For me, it didn't faze me too much having to do it and I can see how in training it can be beneficial, like practicing forced landings, but I hope I'm never put in a situation where I need to draw on that part of my training.

T/T 14.6 hrs (solo 2.4 hrs)

Day 12 Tecnam Sierra time???

18th February 2009

When I left Ipswich for the 45 minute drive to Lynfield there were some light showers around and I was driving through some fog on top of the hills. You know you have low cload base when you can't keep below the cloud in a car. But Kev hadn't rang to say don't bother so the conditions must be better up at Lynfield.

The sun was shining when I arrived so we started with briefing which was going over lessons that I have done. Kev told me today we will be doing a forced landing under a power line (which we discussed for a while), and a refresh on anything I have already done that I would like to revisit. At this point the weather that I had left behind when I left home had followed me to Lynfield. So Kev gave me the Tecnam Sierra check lists and told me to go and sit in the Tecnam and familiarise myself with the cockpit.



Hooray!!! It looks like one more lesson in the Drifter and then I will be flying the Tecnam Sierra. I'm looking forward to that. So even though I didn't get to fly today, I am excited about next week (weather permitting).

PS. Robyn gave me a David Clark head set yesterday. She said that was my award for going solo. Isn't she thoughtful :) (I better not forget to do the same for her when she goes solo :) )

Planning beyond flight training

Back a few months ago when it was explained to us that Recreation Aviation was more economical than General Aviation, Robyn and I started to think about learning to fly. We also started to think about what we were going to fly when we finished our training. We bought some aviation magazines and read up about the various recreation aircraft that would be suitable for touring and decided a new aircraft was well out of our range.


So we started looking at the second hand market and asked around. A friend of mine Jim G had started to build a Karatoo from plans. I told him what our plans were and he told me he would introduce me to Marty H, a friend of his that had an RV6 which was a good performing all steel kit plane. Jim explained that the RAA were looking at increasing its MTOW to 760kg and that would allow the RV to be registered under RAA.

From there we did some homework on Van's web sight and scoured google for test flights on the various RV models and finished up deciding on the RV9a (like the one pictured below). This aircraft using the Lycoming 0-235 has a 38knot stall speed, maximum take off weight of 750kg and will cruise on 75% power @ 143 knots (264 kmh).

A Vans RV-9A

We have now acquired a used mid-time Lyc 0-235, which thankfully we were able to pick up at a good price together with a full set of engine and VFR instruments. And if all goes well and we are able to scrape up a few more dollars, we hope to be placing an order with Van's in July for a RV9a quick build kit.

Our slightly used Lycoming o-235

We also realised we are going to be needing somewhere to hanger the plane when it is built.
An hour up the road from where we live is Watts Bridge, an ex WW2 airfield that has been brought back to life. We managed to acquire a hanger/chalet leasehold site there and plan to build a hanger/weekender before the plane is finished. The plan is to build a hanger large enough to fit two high winged and two low winged planes, and leasing out hangerage will help to pay for the hanger.

The proposed site for our hanger/chalet at Watts Bridge

Now all I have to do is sell the business before the kit arrives so I'll have the time to put it together, and at the moment it is not a good time to be selling a business. We also have to hope that Recreation Aviation Australia do increase the MTOW to 760kg before the plane is finished or we will have to register it as General Aviation.

Here's hoping the future smiles on us.

Day 11 Just go for a local fly about

Monday 16th February

I'm starting to get the hang of the rudder on the ground as this morning's take off was again straight down the centre line.

On the trip over to Bradfield I found myself looking for and evaluating forced landing paddocks as I was expecting any moment for the throttle to be closed. It didn't happen but the threat has got me looking, so I guess that is what it is supposed to do, keep me on the ball

When we got to Bradfield we did two circuits and Kev got out and told me to go for a local fly around and enjoy myself for a while then come back and do a couple of circuits and pick him up. Now I'm not a guy to not do what I'm told so I went for a fly. And spent the whole time looking for forced landing paddocks as they came and went and working out how I would descend and set-up for the landing. It was peaceful up there on my own buzzing around and even though I was training myself to keep a constant look out for other aircraft and emergency landing paddocks, as well as keeping an eye on the instruments, I did enjoy myself

Back at Bradfield the first landing was good but the second was a bit of a bouncer so I powered on and went around again. The bounce probably wasn't bad enough to abort as the second bounce was hardly a bounce but as I have not had to abort a landing because of a bounce situation I did it for the experience, besides I was told to do a couple of circuits and pick the boss up and this gave me the excuse to do another circuit ;) .

I stuffed up my short field powered approach back at Lynfield by being too high when I turned onto final, so I need more practice at these.

T/T 12.6. T/solo time 1.4

PS Both Robyn and I did our Human Factors training course on Saturday and we both passed

Sitting for my Human Factors test

Day 10 More PEFFL's & solo time

It was a lengthy briefing this morning on "Practicing Engine Failure Forced Landings" I guess it would be called stage two of this subject as this briefing was more in depth.


We took off and headed to the training area (I've got to say this morning's take off was straight down the centreline, but there was very little crosswind). We went straight into engine failure practices and out of the seven we did two were good, three were ok and two were aborted. I hope we are going to be doing a heap more of these as I want to get them 100% right. After all as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.


We then joined circuit at Bradfield and landed where Kev got me to let him out and told me to do a couple of circuits and then we will go home. On both my solo landings I held it off longer to give the aircraft more time to lose energy before I sat it down and both landings were good landings, so I'm happy.

Looking forward to my next lesson.


T/T 11.1 hrs (.6 hr solo to date)

Day 9 A great day for a 1st solo

Mon 9th February

I got to Lynfield early to check out the Drifter and fuel it up. As I was the first student for the day I was hoping we might get up early before the wind came up and it worked.

I fired the drifter up fifteen minutes earlier than normal and we took off into a clear blue sky and turned onto a coarse for Bradfield. We joined on crosswind and when I turned onto downwind I couldn't help but smile at the fact there was no drift and the Drifter was gliding through almost still air.

My first landing was a little past my marker but Kev said it was a good landing, so I powered off again and as we were climbing towards the crosswind turning marker I brought the power back and turned the booster pump off. Then suddenly the throttle was closed, I shoved the stick forward, sighted a paddock that looked suitable, checked the airspeed to make sure everything was good, cleared the fence easily and then started easing the stick back to set it up for a landing then Kev called "OK, take us out of here".

We hadn't gained much height from that exercise when the throttle was closed again and I did another "engine failure on take off" practice, then Kev said "OK, get us back to circuit height".

I joined downwind, did the downwind checks and turned onto base, pushed the stick forward as I cut the throttle and set it up for a short final approach. I judged the throttle shut down better this time and put it down nicely on the marker and received an applause from the back seat, which made me smile as it was the best landing I had done so far.

I started to open up the throttle to take off again but Kev yelled over the intercom as he pulled back the throttle "no pull over I want to talk to you". Then he got out and told me I can do the next one on my own.

As I taxied down to the holding point I kept busy checking instruments, switches, like the boost pump was on etc, and my harness was secure, just to keep busy. But when I got down to the holding point turned into the wind to do pre-take off check my mind went blank. I just could not remember the checklist so I checked the instruments and the switches again, made sure the boost pump was on, ran up and did the mags check, could not think of anything else so I moved out to the runway centre line, pushed the throttle forward and said "wow" when it jumped into the air and clawed some serious altitude.

I pulled the throttle back to climbing power and turned the boost pump off and then remembered "oh, If engine fails land straight ahead". I was at circuit height before the turn for downwind so I levelled off, pulled the power back to cruise and then discovered I hadn't set the trim for take off.

I remembered the downwind check, got that done, then turned onto base and closed the throttle as I pushed the nose down. When I turned onto final I was looking straight down centre line and the height looked good. I flared right on my marker but the thing just seemed to want to keep floating, but it finally touched and then floated again with it's nose starting to go skyward. I pushed the stick forward, got the nose down, flared again and it gently touched down and stayed there.

OK it looks like with one up I have to give it more time to wash off energy before I try and put it down.

1st solo circuit completed.

TT 9.9 hrs

Day 8 EFATO's and being thrown around

Friday 6th Feb

Well today started off looking good with a light south/south easterly and a few clouds drifting across the blue sky. I was excited and looking forward to a lesson without that strong cross wind creating wind sheer,mechanical turbulance and sink down amongst the trees.

I did all the pre-take off procedures, checked out the aircraft etc then we strapped in and got airbourne.

We had a slight tail wind to the training area and as we were going to be landing on r/w 36 that also meant we would have a slight tailwind on final. I joined circuit on cross wind and turned onto downwind and noticed a little bit of drift and adjusted my course for it, turned onto base picked the position to bring the throttle back to idle, turned onto short final and soon realised I must have had a good tail wind because I was going to over-shoot so I powered on and went around again. So that set the theme for the rest of the lesson, trying to control a bucking bronco down through the trees and onto the ground.

Fortunately the paddocks up-wind were clear of scrub so we also practiced a couple of engine failures on take-off and called it a day and headed home.

T/T 9.3 hrs

Day 7 Flying sideways & doing more circles

Because conditions were not good for doing circuits today, Kev (my instructor) told me that we were going to do some steep turns and see how we go doing some gusting cross wind landings.

From memory I can not remember ever doing a landing with the wind on the nose, all of my landings have been in some form of cross winds but today has been the worst gusting cross wind I have had to handle. At times trying to keep on centre line on final it felt like we were side slipping in. But over all I believe the landings were good, considering the conditions and the fact the airfield is a cleared strip through the bush which made things a little interesting once we got down below the tree tops.

We did the steep turns first and they went well once I got used to pulling back on the stick as hard as you need to, then we headed off to Bradfield (pictured) to do the cross winds.


View Larger Map

We also practiced a forced landing before heading home. When we arrived back at Lynfield we did a power on short field cross wind landing.

All in all it was a good learning curve today. It was challenging doing the gusting cross wind landings down through the trees, but I'm happy with how I did.

T/T 8.4 hrs