This morning I met Norbs at 8:45. The plan: Review every exercise in the commercial flight test to identify my weak points, and write off the stuff I have covered. I planned the first stub of a cross country to Maniwaki (CYMW).

We started with the navigation & flew the route to the first checkpoint, then cross checked speed, time elapsed, drift versus heading, etc.

When Norbs was satisfied that I was able to navigate we threw the planning into the back and did a diversion. What is a diversion? It’s a technique used when you have to change destination when you’re already in the sky that basically involved roughly estimating your new route as opposed to planning it nicely. As the primary cause for diversions is deteriorating weather you’ll usually be flying low over the ground as well.

I orbited my island while planning my diversion, then we set off. 1000ft AGL en-route to some little town Norbs had picked. Again my planning is satisfactory, and we arrive at the time planned.

Next us was instrument work - my favourite. We started off with full panel straight and level, then moved to partial panel and practised timed turns and unusual attitudes. That last part was fun, recovering from a dive without having the faintest idea of where your nose is.

Once again the performance was within standards, so we chucked the hood in the back and went to practise stalls.
The first stall was somewhat botched. Norbs called for a full power climbing stall, but when I recovered my wing dropped too far. The encore was perfect though. We did a second stall, which I have already forgotten, then a spiral dive. Performance was within limits - good.

Next exercise: the steep turn, which consists of doing an S turn at 45° angle of bank while maintaining altitude and speed. Horrible! My nose was all over the place, and to make things worse the heading indicator wasn’t working correctly so my turns weren’t even. I need more practise with steep turns.

Norbs then pulled my throttle and it was the dreaded engine failure... Well dreaded for some, dead easy for me. I found a road, circled it, and could have landed with plenty of place to spare.

The precautionary landing, an exercise involving a controlled landing on an unprepared surface due to safety concerns, wasn’t as nice. Basically my approach wasn’t stabilised early enough and my altitude and speed was too variable. I hate doing these things, but I’ll have to go practise them again.

We then turned for home, did some slow flight on the way, then two circuits. Landings were acceptable, but not great.

My tasks are now to go flying and do loads of steep turns, some precautionary landings and circuits. I also have to somehow log 11 hours before being able to take the real flight test. The training and simulated flight test 2 will take up about 6 hours, and I’ll probably use up the other 5 on some cross country. I am looking for passengers if anyone is interested ;-)

S.

Saturday last I went flying again. The mission: wear the most uncomfortable contraption in aviation (a hood) and go flying using the instruments only.

Flying by instruments is probably my favourite ‘exercise’ in flying. Maybe because when I get a career that’s all I’ll be doing. Anyway I had no difficulty holding a heading, altitude, turning, climbing/descending. The one exercise that kicked me around somewhat was flying slow and doing turning/climbing while maintaining a given speed. I’d like to say the bumpy air was the cause but I’m not that type ;-)

This flight was very special in a different way though: It would be my last flight (for the foreseeable future) with my instructor, Nigel. He has gotten a job as a Captain on a PC12 in Western Ontario and Saturday was his last day at Laurentide.

I had planned a flight with Norbs (my new instructor) today, but the weather isn’t too favourable:

METAR CYUL 151700Z 04017KT 1/4SM R06R/2200FT/N R06L/2400FT/N +SN DRSN VV003 M09/M11 A2998 RMK SN8 PRESFR /S08/ SLP154=
SPECI CYUL 151733Z 04012KT 3/8SM R06R/2600FT/N R06L/2600FT/N SN DRSN VV004 M09/ RESN RMK SN8=

And to think that the altimeter yesterday evening was 30.30”

S.