The World of IFR...

It seems that the frequency of my 'blogging' is directly proportional to the progress I make on the course at the moment. I'm pleased to say that I've now finished the VFR stage of the Multi-Engine course out here and am moving into the world of Instrument Flying.


The VFR bit of the Twinstar course was good fun and we got through it in record time due to keen students (Us), a keen instructor (JK) and some good luck with the weather. The VFR phase, or Visual Flight Rules for non-aviator types, is basically a conversion course onto the Twinstar, and is still completed in the Visual Flying environment - i.e. clear of clouds with good visibility. The aim of the phase is for us to learn how to fly the twin engine aircraft in normal and abnormal situations. 'Surely it's the same as flying as single engine aircraft just with another engine!' I hear you all say... Well, yes, in many respects that is true. The fundamentals remain the same - if you push the stick forward the ground still gets bigger... However, the most important considerations are for the situation when one engine fails. That's when things start to get a little more complicated...


However, we managed to complete the 5 Sims and 6 flights in less than two weeks aided as I said by some of the best weather I've ever seen out here. No cloud and visibility in excess of 80kms certainly makes for some spectacular scenery. One flight sticks in the mind where I looked right and saw the west coast of the North Island, then looked left and could see the east coast, and then looked straight ahead to the snow covered peak of the 9000ft Mt. Ruapehu. That said, poor weather has now become a little less of a show-stopper for flying as we move into the Instrument Flying Phase.

This is the phase where we start to learn about procedures that we will actually be doing when we start flying with the airlines. Navigating using just radio aids, flying round the hold waiting for our turn to shoot the approach, and then flying the approach itself, again using some kind of ground based radio navigation aid. The phase is 26 flights, with 16 of those in the simulator. This means the weather is less likely to impede our progress - firstly because funnily enough the weather doesn't matter for the sim, and secondly because we can now start to fly in clouds using just the instruments and on board navigation aids.


The end for CP41 in New Zealand is starting to appear on the horizon 49 days away...

Multi-Engine here we come...!

It is with great joy that I'm able to report that I today finished the Single Engine Phase of flying out here in New Zealand. As I said in my last entry to the blog, it was seemingly taking ages to push out the final flights in the phase, what with us being deeply stuck in the winter weather.

The main aim of the Single Engine Wings Phase is essentially one of hour building. For the issue of a CPL, one must have over 100 hours Pilot in Command, and completing the vast majority of these hours on a single engine aircraft is by far the most cost effective way of accruing the necessary time. Of course, during this hours building our performance is still closely scrutinised by our instructors. Indeed every 4 flights was a so called TPIC (standing for Trainee Pilot in Command) where we would go flying with an instructor who would give us scenarios to deal with such as emergencies and diversions. These flights were fully graded, and our performance monitored to make sure that we weren't picking up any bad habits.


At the end of the Single Engine Phase, there are two final hurdles to be overcome: The Pre-test and the Test. A pre-test is basically the same flight profile as the test, and is assessed to the same standard as the test itself, meaning that there are effectively two tests. I flew this flight in the middle part of last week in some of the worst weather I've ever flown in. The visibility was at 5km for most of the flight and the cloud was often no more than 700-800 feet above ground level. For those inexperienced in matters aviation, this weather is technically known as 'pants'. Indeed the pre-test flight was the hardest I've worked in an aircraft for quite some time; not since I flew at 420kts in fact. However, my debrief was fairly good, leaving me just one solo and the test itself to do.

The solo came and went, leaving just the last hurdle to overcome before I could move onto the Twinstar. We were programmed in for the Twin Groundschool at the end of last week, putting me in the strange position that I obviously had to pay attention in the lessons, whilst not consigning too much of what we learnt to memory before I had finished the Single Engine Phase.

So this morning I woke up, ready for the flight, to open the blinds and find that it was raining. A cursory glance at the Auckland rainfall radar revealed that Hamilton was not the only place with a damp Sunday. Most of the northern part of the North Island was covered in rain. This was not a good start....

However, luckily the cloudbase was reasonably high and the visibility was not actually that bad after all. So at 0958, we taxied out for what I hoped would be my last flight in a Cessna for a little while. 1.8 hours later we taxied back in to CTC, with a happy examiner and a happy pilot. The flight had gone really well, despite the weather's best efforts and I had passed. It's taken a while but finally, I'm on the Twin. Better get working, my first sim is a 10am tomorrow morning...