9 exams, 7 hours, 1 day

Yo!

The last period has been quite hectic, with upcoming exams on Thursday this week. After having flown all week two weeks ago, last week was packed with theory lectures. With most of our free time spent with our noses in the textbooks, at least for my part I have already broken my personal record on preparatory studies for an exam. Being satisfied with last week's study progress I have relaxed during the weekend going to Lund on Saturday meeting a Japanese friend and then ”old friend” Johan who was an exchange student in Sendai at the same time as me in 2010. Johan then visited me in Ljungbyhed for two nights and we did some local airplane orientated sightseeing in the village.

Yesterday, Monday September 10th, we had a quite special day in school. Divided into three groups of four students each, we acted officers at Haverikommisionen (Swedish Accident Investigation Authority) and performed research on an imagined aircraft accident. It was organized very well and we got our information by faxes from different authorities and by making actual phone calls to the emergency services, the police, witnesses etc. (all played by our teachers). After four hours of investigation we presented our conclusions as a final report and listened to the conclusions of the other groups. The accident in question involved a small four-seat airplane that was flown by two experienced pilots who both died when they crashed in the woods outside Nyköping. Quite interesting and instructive!

If I pass all eight exams on Thursday, I will be able to leave Ljungbyhed for 1½ week during which I must book and take the corresponding license theory examination at Transportstyrelsen (Transport Agency) somewhere in Sweden. If I fail any of the tests, I will have to stay in Ljungbyhed until next week's Tuesday for re-examination - then I can leave. When I've passed the Transportstyrelsen examination, I will be finished with all theory for my Private Pilot License. If I fail any of the offical examination parts, I'll have to pay another 570 SEK or so for each that I have to re-take...

Even the school has tried to complain to Transportstyrelsen about the absurdly high examination fees. Out of the 570 SEK I pay for a test of about 30-60 minutes (depending on subject), the examiner receives about 250 SEK (according to one of our teachers) per student. Sure, he is supposed to accept a student that wants to take the exam alone, for the same price, but when we are up to 12 people in a class that take 9 exams in one day having one examiner to watch over us, the salary becomes ridiculous. Who wouldn't want to work one day a month and earn 27 000 SEK before tax?

Anyway, I hope I'll do alright! See you in two weeks or so when we've begun flying again!

Photos:

 

 

While going to Uppsala to move out from my old apartment, I was allowed to ride in the cockpit and get the feeling how my working days hopefully will look like in 2 years, nice! The captain was an old student of TFHS, why is probably why he let me ride there.

 

When Johan was visiting me, we heard that a former SAS DC-3 was parked at the airport – of course we went there to see it and say goodbye when it left. A person who has the privilege to fly one of these must be so happy!

Söderåsen national park before dusk.

I'm a solo flyer

Good evening!

Now an important milestone in my career has been accomplished: my first solo flight. Last week was the third consecutive week of practical flight training, and thanks to the weather being flyable every day except one 10 of the 12 students in my class, including myself, managed to do our first solo flight before this week's theory classes. Of course we have been looking forward to this moment a lot so it was a rewarding experience, and a great feeling to manage to fly an airplane all by ourselves!

The days before the solo flight we practised a lot of starts and landings and also emergency procedures if the engine stops at take-off, landing or low altitudes in general. Our airplane is a very safe plane and the geography in rural Skåne is very forgiving, so even in the very unlikely event that the engine stops we should be able to land safely on a field or even on the same runway we just left, no matter when in happens.

On Friday, the very day of our solo flights, we began flying just as we had the day before (on the ”final rehersal”) flying back and forth landing and starting immediately again (”touch-and-go landings”) on the same runway. After three such landings, if the instructor judges that we're ready, he/she steps out and we continue doing the same thing for another four landings all by ourselves. All of us that had passed the ”final rehersal” could complete our solo flights. Later in the day the class gathered and those who finished their solo flights that same day were all greeted by respective instructor and then soaked by a bucket of cold water. This is an old tradition...

In the evening the same day, last Friday, I ”hitchhiked” to Jönköping, where I had decided to spend the weekend, with my classmate who was going to his hometown Linköping. In Jönköping I met my cousin and my aunt who both live there, and then my friend Andreas from my physics class in Uppsala who guided me around the town. We also went fishing (no bites) and on a half day trip to Eksjö, a small and cute old town in the countryside where they had a pretty large air show. On Sunday evening, I tried the famous Jönköping kebab pizza (it was great!), and then hitchhiked back to Ljungbyhed with Sören and a perfect week came to an end.

This week we have had only theory lessons studying the final parts of the Private Pilot License stuff. Next week I will, together with half my class, fly again and we'll do our first solo flights outside the airport area and simple navigation flying according to a predecided timetable, and more. The following week the other half of the class will fly while we others will have final theory repetition before the final school exams in three weeks from now, on September 13th. Another week later we will do in principle the same exams but for Transportstyrelsen, the Swedish aviation authorities, and if we pass all parts of that exam then we are ready for acquiring a Private Pilot License regarding the theory part. The exam consists of ten parts or so and each part costs 500 SEK per try, so I better succeed on the first try...

Finally, some bad news, however not affecting me this far. Believe it or not, while Ljungbyhed is a rural village, it's locally known for having lots of burglars and thieves. And since my class arrived in June, we've been exposed to a lot of trouble. As of before, we had heard about lots of people getting their bicycles and car gasoline stolen. Then in the beginning of the summer someone, who seemed to have aquired a key to our housing, stole food from the refrigerators. It's hard to believe, but a lot of things from a new pork fillet to an open package (!) of ham have gone missing. Soon after, expensive sport shoes put outside one's apartment also were stolen.

We then let change the locks and barricaded the basement doors. Then they broke one's bicycle lock (but changed their mind and put the bicycle at another place), and also they stole more gasoline from cars on the parking lot. A while later, people once again entered the building, presumably through veranda doors that someone forgot to lock, and stole more food and other stuff. The straw that broke the camel's back came yesterday when they stole a motorcycle belonging to one of the military pilots who are here temporarily. So starting tonight, we will take turns staying awake on guard during the nights.

Blue skies!

Photos:

Four very excited TFHS students line up on solo flight day.

My instructor leaves me alone for the first time.

A very happy me.

 

 

Six very wet but happy students.

 

Jönköping sightseeing and fishing with Andreas.

 

 

Eksjö air show (flygdag) 2012.

Eksjö wodden town, popular tourist destination.

Beautiful and completely quiet advanced flying with a sailplane. Must try flying a sailplane sometime as well! By the way, did you know that the age limit to aquire a sailplane pilot license is 15 years, and that it usually costs only around 20 000-25 000 SEK? As a comparison, to aquire a PPL for engine-driven aircraft you need to be 17 years and often pay more than 100 000 SEK.

An ordinary day at TFHS

Hello! We're now in the beginning of our fourth week of flying, and while we have some theory and final tests in between we have at least another four fun weeks in the sky before the long Swedish winter and only theory studies. The final tests are on September 13th, all eight or so of them in one day. If we fail any of the tests we will do re-exams the following week, and in both cases around September 20th we will do the offical theory exams for Transportstyrelsen (The Transportation Bureau) that are neccessary for our Private Pilot Licenses (PPL). After that, the theory lessons will become more advanced as we'll start studying what an airline pilot needs to know, as opposed to a pilot who only flies small airplanes in his free time.

I thought I could make an example on how our daily schedule on flight weeks looks like:

• 06:50 – I wake up, eat breakfast.
• 07:35 – I do the 10 minute walk to the school's hangar for weather briefing.
• 07:45-08:10 – One of us students (taking turns) shows weather maps and weather forecasts for the day with the projector and discusses whether we will be able to fly as scheduled or not. Afterwards each flight instructor meets his/her three students and we have a short briefing about today's flight lessons. The student who is scheduled to fly in the morning stays, the rest of us walk home.
• 09:45 – If I'm flying the second round, I'll walk back to the hangar and meet my instructor personally, and if there's no questions about the weather or the flight lesson we'll immediately walk out to the airplane. I do a ”Pre-flight check”, checking that nothing seems damaged on the fuselage, that air vents are not obstructed and that there's fuel and oil.
• 10:15 – While reading the checklists so that everything is checked and ok, I start up the engine, ask the airport tower for fresh weather information, and then ask for clearance to taxi (=drive on the ground) to the runway holding point.
• 10:25-11:10 – I ask the tower for permission to depart, then do the take-off mostly from Runway 29R (the right runway in the direction 290 degrees). I fly at 200 m altitude most often west to the coast north of Helsingborg and then do the scheduled exercises. For example having climbed to 700 meters, the instructor turns the power to idle (pretending that the engine has stopped) and I'm then supposed to find a suitable field on the ground for emergency landing and then ”try” (pretending to try) to re-start the engine while I'm flying towards the field and prepare to land. When we're approaching ground, the instructor gives full power again and I climb back to the original altitude. When the exercises are finished, I head back to Ljungbyhed, gets permission to land and then do the landing.
• 11:15 – Having taxied back to the parking area outside the hangar I shut down the engine and I have debriefing with the instructor about how it went, and fill out my log book etc.
• 11:40 – Back home I eat lunch (usually leftovers from yesterday's dinner) and the rest of the day I study with my theory books and/or play videgames etc, and of course eat dinner. 1-2 days a week I do some exercise, in the gym or playing football etc.

As you can see, we have quite a calm schedule when we're flying – as opposed to the theory weeks with classes from 08:00 to 16:30 most days. However, of course we are supposed to prepare for each flight lesson by reading about the exercises and learn checklists etc. by heart.

If the weather is bad and we can't fly, then we usually are free the whole day. Of course we all want to fly though, so we're not exactly happy when it happens. In the three weeks this far I've done 13 lessons, which means two lessons were cancelled because of bad weather. In the very unstable weather that this summer has given us, that is quite a good record I think.

Please ask if you wonder anything, or just leave a comment anyway!

Photos:

 

The parking area in front of the hangar. A PA-31, that we will just fly a little in fall next year up front, and five Cirrus SR-20 that we fly during most of our training in Ljungbyhed. The school owns six PA-31 and six SR-20.

The interior of Cirrus SR-20. Four seats, a 200 horsepower engine, 200 km/h cruise speed, 100 km/h stall speed (minimum flying speed), 212 liters gasoline gives a range of 1450 km.

 

 

Passing Åstorp at 200 meters towards Öresund. It is actually pouring down straight ahead (first picture) which we passed through a few seconds.

At 1500 meters at the coast, amazing clouds.

 

My textbooks for Private Pilot License – we're supposed to memorize all of this in about three months. Also the map I use when flying, folded around the areas we usually use. The heights in black digits (2500, 65(00) ) are the maximum heights in feet (30 cm) that we don't need to ask the Air Traffic Control for clearance for.