Squawk 3000

Yay! Went up yesterday for an hour of circuits in VH-WIX. Weather a bit cloudy (SCT at 2000, Overcast at 3500), a bit gusty (330/11 to start with, changing to 340/20, gusts to 35 for the last few). Three left hand circuits from runway 32L, then three right hand circuits, including one left orbit (Jetstar A320 on ILS approach) and change of runway to 32R (grass strip) while a Virgin Blue 737 departed for Melbourne.

How did it go? Well - forget the comments my previous CFI made about minimal flying to sign off my BFR… I probably doubted it myself - I will need to do a fair bit more ‘refreshing’ before I will be confident enough to go it alone. It’s more a matter of internalising all procedures than personal ability, so a few more blocks of circuits, refreshers and practice for emergency procedures, sign-off for solo circuits, and a nav trip (or two) should get my own confidence levels back where they used to be. Also, the C172 handles quite differently to the Piper Warriors (PA-28) I used to fly - I particularly notice the difference in ground effect when flaring for landing. Plus, this was the first time I had any significant wind to deal with since I started again, so a couple of the touchdowns were, shall we say, interesting.

I’ll book some more time next week - in the meantime, I’ll drill all sequences and procedures into my brain. As my instructor said - he wants to be a passenger/observer, and not have to say anything to me from chock to chock before he will let me loose. Fair comment.

Stay tuned.

Must blog more often. I guess it’s a discipline thing. Since my last post, I have been up again - this time for approx 45 minutes to the training area at Launceston to continue the refamiliarisation process (C172P VH-WIX). That was on the 28th April - so a bit over a month ago. It was good though, and I feel it is all coming back to me very quickly. I was pretty critical of my landing approach - it felt way too high, and I used up over 300 metres of runway before touchdown - but my instructor was happy with it.



I had a chat to him after the session to get his opinion of how much re-training he thought I required, and I was quite surprised at this response. He feels that with a session of circuits, including crosswinds, and another navigation trip from Launceston (YMLT) to Georgetown YGTO) to Devonport (YDPO) and back, that he would be quite happy to sign off on my Biennial Flight Review and let me loose again. Maybe I underestimate myself - but I thought it would need more than that. I guess I am the best one to judge for myself, but his comments were pretty encouraging.

I plan to do the circuit training this week - hopefully Launceston can rustle up a bit of wind - it’s been pretty calm here for the last several weeks - and then I’ll look at doing the nav-ex a week or two after that.

I’m also toying with the idea of buying a quarter?/fifth?/sixth? share in a second hand Cessna/Piper/similar - and need to talk to some knowledgeable aircraft owners about the financial sense (or otherwise) of doing that, as compared to hiring club aircraft.

If the aircraft can be kept on the line at Tas Aero Club, then it may be a viable opportunity - but I need to do some serious research first. Could be fun - always wanted my own aeroplane

Stay tuned for the next instalment - I am going to try to update this more regularly.

Cheers