July 1, 2012

Everyday life in the sky

A very exciting week has come to an end. This was our first flight week, which means we start each day by having a weather briefing at 07:45 in the hangar. Since some of the Norwegians also had flight week they presented the forecasts for the day in front of all students and the flight instructors. For pilots it's not enough to know if it's going to rain or be sunny, but we check forecasts for most importantly clouds (types, altitudes and degree of sky coverage), winds and visibility. Since we should learn how to fly visually (by looking on the terrain) we need to see were we're flying. For us students that usually means the visibility must be near-perfect (at least 8 km), if there are many clouds they have to be on at least 700 meters height and there must not be more than about 10 m/s wind perpendicular (vinkelrätt) to the runway – because then it's too difficult to land. Also, it must not be thunder and it must not be so cold there is a risk of ice forming on the wings (which is very dangerous).

During the weekend, the forecasts for Monday looked quite bad, but when we gathered in the morning, it was just acceptable. The wind was strong, but parallel to the runway (so it didn't bother us), it was raining in some places but the visibility was ok, and the clouds were precisely on an acceptable height. Tuesday to Thursday were also unstable, but generally better so it was not a problem for any of us. However on Friday afternoon the visibility narrowed so some of us, including me, were not allowed to fly... Which means half of the class has done one more flight lesson than the other half. But we will have to get used anyway to the weather obstructing us.

On Monday I just controlled for a few minutes testing turns, ascents and descents. On Tuesday I controlled for a little longer, doing exercises to learn the effects of the different rudders. On an airplane there are three rudders: ailerons (skevroder) for tilting left/right, elevators (höjdroder) for ascending/descending, and a rudder (sidoroder) for turning left/right. In practise, a pilot need to use all three rudders when turning, which is considerably more difficult than turning in a car. On Wednesday, I taxied (drove) the plane the whole time on the ground and controlled the airplane almost half the time in the air, the main exercise being to fly straight. On Thursday the instructor even let me start and control for most of the time, which of course I was very happy about. I did exercises on turning correctly.

In conclusion, I have had a very fun week and learnt so much. Not only was I given much of the responsibility to fly the airplane in just a few days, but also I've practised a lot trying to learn all normal procedures – i.e. check that the aircraft isn't damaged, starting the engine, taxiing, verifying that the rudders, engine and electronics work as they should etc. I've also learnt a lot about how to talk to the tower on the radio (there are lots of technical terms and phraseology that are very important that we know). You can imagine the importance of talking unequivocally (entydigt) when asking for take-off clearance or similar.

Since each flight lesson is about one hour, and with briefing, debrief etc. in total two hours, we have a lot of free time during flight weeks (especially when the lessons are cancelled...). However during this first week we have learnt so much new I've just studied procedures all days. Today, on Saturday, however I've not studied at all – four of us went to Eslöv (a larger town nearby) to see a flight show, which was really fun to see, and we also took a walk in Söderåsen's national park located really close to Ljungbyhed – and the nature there was really fantastic! Skåne is a mostly very flat region, but in the national park there are small mountains with really steep hills and fantastic views from above.

Next week we only have theory lessons until Thurday when our summer holiday finally starts! I will take the train to Berlin on Thursday evening, and then travel by train in Germany, Switzerland, France and Netherlands before returning to Sweden and then stay two weeks in Dalarna before school starts again (the summer holiday is only three weeks). Directly after the summer break we have three consecutive flight weeks so I will certainly not be unhappy about returning to school!

Photos:

Flight show in Eslöv. The pilot in the video is apparently the only Swedish Aerobatics ”athlete” who competes internationally, and as you see he's really skilled.

A lot of visitors came by private airplanes. In just a year, I will be able to rent an airplane and do the same!

 
 
Söderåsen's national park.

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