XC-ing

I decided it was time to step up one notch, and increase the frequency of flying a bit. With all those weather- and holliday issues, lately, I have had to skip or cancel too many flights to make any serious progress. Every time there was yet another whole month between two flights, I noticed I would end the flight at the same level as where I left off the month before, but not significantly better.
So I booked lessons pretty much every week, and now I have a different problem: I can't keep up with my blog :D

So below you will find a blog on 8 flights, divided among 7 flying days during a period of 8 weeks...

Weather, Weather, Weather, ...

It's not that I did not have the time to write, these last couple of months, I simply haven't flown for that long already! My last flight was December 6th, 2014. Between then and today (February 10th, 2015), I have had 6 bookings in the system, but none matured to actual flight. Every time, the weather played a decisive role. 2014 ended with a stormy, gusty December month, with occasional gusts over 40 knots (30 knots is our Club limit). Then January came with a lot of icing conditions, and bad visibility. Last Saturday, every 10 minutes or so the cloud cover dropped to some 400 ft, putting the wind mills with their heads in the clouds. We have a lot of those in the vicinity of my home field, so I would have to slalom between them... NOT!
On a couple of occasions, the day before and the day after were fine flying conditions, but thaat's the downside to being dependent on not only my own availability, but also of an aircraft, an instructor, and so-called "Visual Meteorological Conditions". At least, once I have my license, I will have one less of those factors ;) Then again, passenger availability becomes a potential issue. Mmmmhhhh... Anyway:
I hope that next Monday, the weather will cooperate, because then I have my next booking.

Emergency Procedures

After practising circuits, this time we'll look at what to do when the engine stops mid-flight. Not that that happens so often, but should it ever happen, it's good to know upfront what to expect, and what to do (or not do!)
There are two low-flying areas in the neighbourhood of Lelystad Airport, where it is allowed to fly lower than the minimum VFR altitude of 500 ft over uninhabited terrain. One is located a few miles to the south of the airport, the other is located between the cities of Deventer and Zutphen (south of Teuge Airport, EHTE).
While driving to the airport, the entire southern part of the polder it is located in is covered in mist. Visibility varies between 200 m and 1000 m, but no more than that! For a moment, it looked like it was going to be a no-go that day. But north of the "Knardijk" (a dike that divides the polder in two more or less equal parts), the weather was all clear. There were some Cumulonimbus (CB) clouds, which looked very active, and high, so the chances of thunderstorms and turbulence were high. Better stay well clear of those clouds...

I arrive early, as usual. So I have plenty of time to set up my camera and headset, so I can re-play today's flight, and maximise the learning experience. I also take the opportunity to try out my new photo camera on our Piper Arrow II, PH-KAX, which is taxiing out for an hour of local flight. While I'm at it, I re-do a shot I made with my previous camera already: the cockpit of my plane. In my previous shot, the fuel selector and parking brake lever were not in view, so I corrected that. :)

Back in the Air

After a three month "break" due to a shoulder injury, I finally got to crawl back into the cockpit again. That's a long time, soo flying took a bit of getting used to, all over again!

Human Performance and Limitations

Every aviation incident has Human Factors as at least one of their root causes. So a lot of research has been put in that subject over the last few decades. Human Performance on the one side, but espacially the limitations. Man was not meant to fly, so we are taking man out of their natural environment, yet still expect them to perform above and beyond what is expected "on the ground". One of those limitations is the amount of information that can be processed. It has been demonstrated that the human brain, when overloaded with information, goes into "survival mode", where only the information that is perceived as essential for survival is processed, and the remainder is "parked" in short term memory, only to be collected again after the essential information pool is processed. Short Term memory has a limited shelf life, so it is well possible that information that is not perceived as essential, is not processed at all.
Now this is all well and understandable, but how does that affect me, the (student) pilot? Surely this will be applicable in a crisis situation, but even then ... I know what to do when things go wrong, so it won't happen to me, right?. Well, I can tell you this: you're WRONG!!!

New Year's resolutions

Fist of all, my very best wishes to all of you for the new year! Of course, this is the time of the year for resolutions, but I don't really do that. However, I dis plan to start my PPL lessons "full swing" from January, so that could be called my New Year's resolution for 2014. :)
I had already made an appointment with my instructor Piet, and booked the plane in the new booking system for Friday, Janusry 3rd. I had been saving up my leave days at work, so that I can use them for flying lessons as I need them, and this Friday was a day my company was closed, so I decided to start my PPL lessons on that day, to make best use of my "forced" day off.

$100 mussels

The $ 100 burger is a phenomenon well known in the U.S. General Aviation . It has its origins in the search for a destination to fly to. Lacking a "real" reason to go anywhere , a trip to a distant restaurant obviously is a good excuse to have some air flow under the wings.
As a variant of this , I found the mussel fly-in on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Aeroclub Zeeland a good reason to book the Aquila. This time with Piet de Hondt as an instructor and thus my first flying lesson in "my own" air plane was booked :)
For me, so no $ 100 Hamburger, but mussels , this time !

And : this time the bad weather came only a day later , so I've actually flown my first flying lesson in the Aquila!