Day 27

Not much to say or time to say it. CPL test scheduled for Sunday.

Working as hard as my brain can handle.

Day 21 - Big Catch Up

Well, I have now been in the Seneca Sim 3 times and flying in the actual aircraft 4 times.

For those that know and care, it is a Piper Seneca III, PA34 - 220T which is a twin engined aircraft that can carry up to 6 people with two fuel injected, turbocharged engines each producing 220hp. It has the relevant de-icing equipment to be rated for icing conditions and in a standard cruise at 5000ft is doing about 165kts true air speed which is about 200mph.

What this means in real terms is that when you apply power at take off, the acceleration pushes you into the seat, things happens fast and the turbo lag is a pain when adjusting power settings.

I think that I am progressing reasonably well, but the learning curve is such that you can never really get on top of things. Yesterday we shut down one of the engines in flight, something that I will have to do on my CPL test and will be simulated countless times between now and then.



















The sight of a shut down engine feathered (turned to align with the wind) in order to reduce drag.


Speaking of my CPL test, I have just been told that it is scheduled for Sunday 5th February.





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At the weekend, I was joined by Erica, Andy and James. And some wind, well on Saturday at any rate. We went down to Tarifa where we had a good sail until the locals got out of bed. It all became a bit crazy with lots of kooks about. I continued my good kiting fortune by crashing my 12m and ripping it almost in two, prompting me to comment that it was one of my worst kite sessions. Totally true, however still a very good day. That says something.


















Kook Central. It must be pure craziness on the more popular beaches in the middle of summer.


We stayed in The Hurricane Hotel, a relatively upmarket place for the area remimiscent of a colonial hotel where it would be appropriate to take afternoon tea. Perfect for Sunday. Saturday night, Erica and I only lasted till about 2am, which is the beginning of the night out here. James and Andy did better, only to end up sleeping with dogs and walking 7km back to the hotel respectively. Good work lads.


















Lovely.


A really good weekend, and probably just what was in order before two weeks of hard work.

Right, I had better go and learn some more checklists.

ps. Special hello to those that I've spoken to, always great to hear from you.

Day 13

Saturday morning I was more annoyed at having lost my board. I went back and had another look for it. I ran along the beach until I was tired which unfortunately was over an hour and so by the time I returned, boardless and knackered, I had been running for about two and a half hours. Beautiful coastline, so not all bad.


Conil de la Frontera harbour












and
a lot of anchors


















The weekend was learning about the Seneca systems. Today I had the last flight in the single engine Warrior and tomorrow I start on the Sim for the twin engine Seneca. In theory I should be Commercial Licence test level in the single, but I certainly don't feel it yet. The Sim tomorrow is basically a familiarisation session so will mainly involve running through checklists and so on.

Erica, Andy and James are out for the weekend which is exciting. Not much wind forecast though. Rats.

Day 9 - Lost Board

A reasonable flight today. Thay makes one per day for this week and I have back-seated about another 7. I have one more flight in the single engine warrior before I move onto the sim and the Seneca.

There are 4 of us on the Modular course. A good crowd. Gareth, Jamie, Sarah and myself. As far as I know we are the only modular students in the college of about 120 total. All the rest are "ab initio". A lot have literally a handful of hours and I have spoken to two that have never flown at all. How crazy is that? How can you invest so much time and money in something if you haven't even tried it to see whether you like it or not?

Jerez motor racing circuit is fairly near the college. Some of the Formula 1 teams are testing at the Jerez track at the moment and they are so loud that you can hear them from the college and even sometimes over the noise of the plane engine when you fly over the top.

I had a couple of hours before darkness today so hired a car and went down the beach. Barely worth it in the underpowered conditions. I went for one more run before darkness, dropped the kite, suffered 5th line problems and by the time I had body dragged back ashore, it was dark and I had lost my kiteboard. I spent 2 hours looking up and down the beach in the darkness. The definition of optimism really as I lost it well out the back with a strong cross shore current and an outgoing tide. Need to find a replacement. Annoying, as I liked that board but in the grand scheme of things not too bad.

Day 7

Not really day 7, more like day 3 really but I've started with this nomenclature so I'll continue.

I didn't really feel like writing anything yesterday as didn't have the best flight. It was a navigation exercise with a diversion thrown in. The staple of the CPL course. I didn't get lost but wasn't happy with my technique in most respects.

Today's flight was a similar type and things are starting to fall into place. Not enough, but I left feeling better than after yesterday's flight.

Tomorrow brings a similar challenge so I will see how it goes.

Day 5 - First flight

Morning consisted of briefings which was a relief as they aren't presupposing too much. Finally got up in the air this afternoon and found that I am really rusty.

We only have 8 hours on the single engine before we move to the twins and by then we should be CPL test standard. I have a lot to do.

Flying to Seville tomorrow so time to dust off the Navigation brain.

Day 4

Still not flown yet. Friday was 3 Kings Day, some kind of public holiday so we have been trying to (re)learn those things that we have forgotton in readiness for starting proper on Monday. Tomorrow.

There are 5 of us on our course. Well it's 4 now as one guy has just told us that he is quitting. Don't really understand it as we haven't even started the course yet. Anyway, the other 3 are a good bunch. Which is nice.

Day 3 - Contact Details

By phone:
+34 956 317 800 gets you through to the switchboard. When the recording starts, dial 2 and when the next recording starts dial 13110 , my room number.

Address:
Ed Jarman,
Flight Training Europe S.L.
Aeropuerto De Jerez de la Frontera
Antigua Base Militar La Parra,
11401 - Jerez de la Frontera,
Cadiz,
ESAPANA

Skype - free internet calling thingy:
My username is whalesharked.

Day 1

A good day. Great first impressions.

Have been shown around the school am really really impressed. Everything seems so professional and the staff really friendly. The food is very good, I had some amazingly tasty fish tonight and they even have tabasco on the tables. How good is that?

We have been given loads of study material to sink our teeth into before we start on Monday, so apart from that not sure what we are going to be doing over the weekend.

All good though.

Arrival in Jerez

Just got in and have been shown my room - nice enough. There doesn´t seem to be anyone else about though. Bit of a ghost town. Considering this was the day that our course was told to arrive, I was expecting others on my flight. Oh well, see what tomorrow brings.

Also, I was really sad to be leaving the dogs. No offence to Mum, Erica or friends but I felt really emotional. What a gimp.