Gotta rate 'em all!

Hello! Finally I've now got my Private Pilot's License PPL!

The last few weeks have been quite intense ones! We have had every other week of theory studies and flying respectively. This block of theory studies consists of Mass and balance, Operational procedures and Instrumentation. Mass and balance is one of the subjects that is most useful for everyday life as a commercial pilot – since pilots before every flight have to calculate the total weight and centre of gravity of the loaded plane and verify that they are within the limits. Operational procedures is about rules and regulations – from a little more practical point of view than the similar subject Airlaw. Instrumentation is about the instruments in cockpit and is one of the largest theory subjects.

The last flight lessons consisted of practicing the most important parts we've learnt since we began flying and showing for a school instructor that we are ready for the practical exam at Transportstyrelsen. He decided that I was indeed ready, why I had one last chance to practice by myself the things I thought I needed the most, and after that I could take the real exam – which I passed without problems. The school is known to be harsh and not let students do the exam too early, why it's quite rare that students fail the real one.

The licence that I've now obtained is a Private Pilot's Licence (PPL), with a Single Engine Piston Land (SEP(L)) rating, which allows me to non-commercially fly piston engine propeller airplanes with only one engine and only on land (=not on water). Other licences are among others Commercial Pilot's Licence (CPL), Multi-crew Pilot's Licence (MPL), Ultralight aircraft pilot's licence etc. These must then be combined with a rating, and there are a lot of ratings – including Multi engine piston, Turboprop, Motor glider, Instrument flying rating and individual Type ratings for most larger aircraft (one rating for a Boeing 737, another for 747, 757 etc.). Then you'll need differences training for retractable gear, modern instruments, different wheel types and more. It's an infinite collector's sport.

Almost immediately after passing the exam I contacted the local flying club here in Ljungbyhed about membership in order to be able to rent an airplane and fly whenever I want. Costs for flying in a club vary a lot but this one is a little cheaper than most clubs in Sweden. The yearly member fee is 1205 SEK. It is also a fairly large club having seven airplanes of six types at members' disposal: two Piper PA-28 (a -161 and a -181), a Piper PA-32, a Diamond DA-40, a Pierre Robin DR400, an Evektor 97 Eurostar and a Saab 91 Safir. I decided to begin with flying the PA-28s doing a roughly 80 minutes differences training flight lesson with an instructor – so now I'm ready to fly as much as my wallet permits! Rent is 1060 SEK/hour and 1240 SEK/hour respectively for those planes – the more expensive one is much newer (2001 year model, compared to 1977). However I only pay for the time actually flying and every five minutes are counted.

The PA-28 after having been in production since 1960 and still is, have become the second most produced civilian airplane in history (number one is Cessna 172). It has four seats but the engine is not near powerful enough for four adults and full tanks – so in practice it carries two to four persons depending on their body weight and how much fuel is carried. This is perfectly normal for a plane of this size. Speed is around 200 km/h. With 180 liters of fuel (full tanks) it can fly for around 6 hours and a distance of 1200 km. That gives a fuel consumption of roughly 14 liters per 100 km. While it's certainly not the most environmental friendly pastime one can have, I doubt that an average car would consume less fuel, if you drive at a speed of 200 km/h...

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On a weekend recently a German airship visited Ljungbyhed on its way to Skavsta - really cool! While one would think that airships are fairly environmental-friendly and not the least this one doing climate research, but in fact it is always followed by a caravan of cars on the ground including a truck acting the docking point for the airship – obviously that's very important since most cities lack an airport suited for airships nowadays...

 

Me and my classmate Martin flying the PA-28 at the flight club. In the second picture Martin is flying the newer PA-28-181 and in the last picture I'm flying the older PA-28-161.

A landing with the same newer PA-28-181

Very recently our friends in the class above us – TFHS11 – passed their practical tests and obtained a commercial pilot's license – an MPL. Soon after that they boarded a real Boeing 737-800 (the training and tests up to this point have all been in a simulator) and did 12 touch and go landings at one occasion which is the final part of the training before you are allowed to fly an airliner with passengers. Me and some classmates went by car to nearby Kristianstad airport in order to watch their touch and go training from the airport tower – really nice! Good luck to them in their internship flying as real pilots for Norwegian, starting now!

Exciting times

Hello! Long time since last time as usual...

Now is a very exciting period since we all are supposed to do our practical exams for our Private Pilot's Licenses during this and next week – the first of my classmates already tomorrow! If we pass the exam we will immediately acquire the license with which we are allowed to fly basically any single engine piston (propeller) aircraft on our own responsibility anytime we want. However in reality the school's aircraft are not available for private use and in order to fly at a flight club we will have to learn to fly their specific aircraft in order to get them to allow us to rent it. I will probably learn to fly Ljungbyhed flying club's Piper PA-28 aircraft – the second most common civilian aircraft in the world – as soon as possible.

The exam itself takes 2-3 hours including a short theoretical oral exam, briefing, around one hour of flying and debriefing. Before we are allowed by the school to do the final exam we will have a final progress check flight with a school instructor and a repetition flight for anything that is found at the progress check to need more practice. Generally the school "mock exam" is more difficult than the real one, and it's rare for students to be flunked on the real one.

I've been on a few quite fun and instructive flights lately. Most importantly I've been on solo navigations first to Halmstad, Växjö, Kalmar, Ronneby and back to Ljungbyhed in just over 3 hours. Then to Göteborg City Airport (Säve), Jönköping and Växjö again on the longest trip this far: 620 kilometers in over 4 hours including a short break. Especially Säve was really cool since it's a quite busy airport being an important base for Ryanair and it's located fairly centrally in the city so on the way there I got a good view of most of Göteborg. I have also had 3 more lessons (4 in total) in the simulator where we practice flying in bad weather including resolving abnormal flight conditions. The most difficult part was to get back to stable level flight after the teacher had put me in extreme flight attitudes (e.g. nose pointing almost straight down banking steeply to the left) with no visual references nor the artificial attitude indicator (horizon on the instrument panel)...

Also, another class has graduated: the 2010 entrance class of the University of Tromsø. That is nine Norwegian students, and left on the school are two more Norwegian classes, and my class of course. A little tragic is the fact that of the four girls attending the school until now, three of them are UiT10 students, so from now there will only be one girl left... Though perhaps more poor her than anything else.

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This is Bolmen – a lake on the border between the län of Halland, Kronoberg and Jönköping – shortly before spring finally erased the white color from southern Sweden.

 On my way to Växjö.
 

The instruments up close. Cruising at 1500 feet (450 m) in 111 knots (205 km/h) on a northerly course (024 degrees). Not the same occasion as the photo above.

Göteborg from above.

 

This is our Company Flight Plan in which we enter the most important information such as courses, distances and frequencies to the different air traffic controllers. about the flight and then follow up times and remaining fuel during flight. We also often check on our map that we haven't veered off course. Lakes, highways and churches are especially useful for locating yourself on the map.

Me and a classmate parked at Jönköping airport in late afternoon.

Congratulations on the graduation of the 2010 University of Tromsø class!

Finally some air under our wings

It has been a long while since my last update, sorry for that! Since we're now finally back in the sky, I'm sure there will be more frequent updates from now on.

For most of the time since the last update, we have been studying theory. We had our final exams on the very last day of February in the following subjects: Aircraft general knowledge (AGK) about airframes, engines, electronics etc., Principles of flight (aerodynamics) about the physics that allow airplanes to fly, and Performance. Performance is practical and contains much useful knowledge including about how, for a particular airplane, the required runway length for start and landing changes with temperature, air pressure, runway condition (wet, snow covered etc.), loss of some particular systems and of course the amount of passengers and luggage.

I struggled a lot especially studying AGK which contained a very large amount of facts to be memorized. However in the end, probably because I focused very much on AGK, I just barely passed the performance school test. As usual, the Transportation bureau tests were easier than the school tests. Since I passed all tests in one day, I had ten very nice days of mid-term vacation during which I was in Malmö, Stockholm, Uppsala and mostly in Falun.

After the exams, last week, we finally started flying again. The first flight lesson was a repetition of basic maneuvering. With an instructor, I did some turning climbs and descents, sharp turns, stall, emergency landing procedure training and a few landings. Since my landing technique was a bit rusty, we continued practicing landings, both with and without engine power, on the next day. After that I could return to my original study plan, which meant that the next lesson was a navigation flight via Halmstad to Jönköping, by far the most distant place I've flown to. This time it was with an instructor and another student, so while my classmate did all the flying on the way to Jönköping, I was responsible for the return flight.

Finally, on Friday last week, we had our first flight simulator lesson. From now on for at least a few months time, we will have quite a few lessons in the school's flight simulator. It's a model of a two-engine Beechcraft airplane, but it doesn't move, and for the initial period it actually flies like the one-engine Cirrus SR20 we're used to fly. Anway, it's quite fun to use the simulator as well, mainly because the cockpit is more complex and it feels like you're flying a larger airplane.

Photos:

It's actually possible to do skiing even this far south in Sweden! One day at Vallåsen ski park with the class.

 

TFHS10, the students who entered my school in 2010, graduated in January – congratulations to them! All of them got contract jobs at Norwegian, I'm not jealous at all!

 

Halmstad from above on our way to Jönköping!

 

 

 

Landing at runway 01 at Jönköping airport. I can recommend the café's ham sandwiches (frallor)!

 

 

When me and a classmate went and practiced crosswind landings at Ängelholm Airport, we parked at the general aviation parking to switch places. Bet we were amazed when the Swedish "Air Force One" Gulfstream IV (regeringsplanet) was parked at the same place. It even departed during downwind approach of one of our touch & go landings, but we've no idea if any government official actually was riding it.

I recorded some of the landings. Unfortunately there's not so much speech, but I did record the radio communication during this approach for runway 11L at Ljungbyhed after we've finished our crosswind training.