end of the journey

start of a new one

Now waiting at the gate in Melbourne, Australia for my aircraft with destination Hong Kong...
Spent a few days with my parents here around Melbourne after my graduation.
It was a great time in Adelaide, thanks to all! despite all the ups and downs, I really enjoyed it, especially the last couple of weeks....
anyway, time to move on, see ya in honkie... not able to head back to Den Haag yet, will be sooon i hope.

over and out, laaaaaats, toedels

CPL ME/IR

The header makes it clear I reckon? ;)
Yes indeed, I got my Commercial Pilot's Licence and Multi Engine / Instrument Rating :D
That also means, I'm finished with my flight training (few aerobatic flights to go, good fun!) and I started groundschool again for the written ATPL's... :(

Some numbers

223.8 hours
131 Flights
97 Flying days
4 types of aircraft
23 Airfields
16 Instructors
5 Examiners
27 Jeppesen amendments


and ofcourse too many times stand by or cancelled


Personal Milestones in Adelaide:
10 December 2007 - First Flight - Grob G115 VH-TGE

23 January 2008 - First Solo - Grob G115 VH-TGZ
26 February 2008 - First Landing away from Parafield - Grob G115 VH-TGT - Lower Light ALA

5 March 2008 - General Flying Progress Test - Grob G115 VH-TGZ

14 April 2008 - First Aerobatic flight - Mudry CAP10 VH-SZY

2 June 2008 - First Night Solo - TB10 Tobago VH-YTC

29 October 2008 - Commercial Flight Test - TB10 Tobago VH-YTG
29 October 2008 - First Multi Engine Flight - Beech BE76 Duchess VH-WZA

10 November 2008 - Multi Engine endorsement - Beech BE76 VH-BTO
15 November 2008 - Multi Engine/ Instrument Rating - Beech BE76 VH-HKI

Beech BE76

heeeelleeeeu

Day off today, done nothing much. Done my laundry and ironed my clothes :P

anyway, I got my multi engine rating checkride booked on last thursday. Paperwork and all that stuff done, walkaround, topped up the engine oil, cleaned the windscreen, did my pre-start checks, examiner got in and we were ready to go. Started engine 1 and trying to start the right engine... yesss trying to. The right starter was unservicable so my check got canceled. Booked again for Friday, which got canceled too, since the weather was pretty bad. And now monday! hope that is gonna work ya.

the machine


toedeloe

lieve kids

hoi, is weer een tijdje geleden dat ik wat heb geschreven dus hier ben ik wieder jaa voor een korte update. Heb het de afgelopen tijd wat drukjes gehad en dat blijft voorlopig nog wel even zo.

Nou, wat heb ik de afgelopen tijd uitgevoerd? In september heb ik voornamelijk groundschool gehad, vanwege capaciteitsproblemen hier op school. Echt zware kost na maanden geen groundschool meer te hebben gehad =P Maargoed, oktober dus. Zwaar aan de bak geweest in oktober. Maar dat heeft gelukkig ook z'n vruchten afgeworpen.
In het kort: 20 jaar geworden (27 oktober), CPL gehaald (29 oktober) en eerste multi engine vlucht gemaakt (29 oktober)

Ik heb afegelopen woensdag de 29e oktober mijn CPL flight test gehad, wat betekent dat ik mijn commerciele vliegbrevet heb gehaald :) Mijn flight test was tevens mijn laatste les vlucht in de TB10 Tobago hier, verder heb ik nog 6 uren Aerobatics te gaan, de enige uren die ik nog heb in een single engine hier.

Tegenwoordig vlieg ik op de Raytheon Beechcraft BE76 Duchess. Een groter vliegtuig met 2 motoren. Alles gaat weer een stukje sneller en omdat het groter vliegtuig is, zijn er weer meer knopjes en metertjes om op te letten, om het zo maar te zeggen, oftewel complexer. Maar zeker ontzettende tof!

Dat vliegen is nu natuurlijk wel veeul mooier dan groundschool, opzich wel logisch. Maar aan de andere kant brengt het vliegen weer enorm veel stress op, vooral als je het in een enorm korte tijd moet doen. Zo heb ik rond de 80 uur gevlogen en in de sim gezeten de afgelopen maand. Ongehoord, terwijl ik maar 7 uur ofzo had in juli. Dat is maar goed ook, schiet natuurlijk niet op anders. Maar als je die 80 uur vliegt heb je inprincipe alleen maar tijd om te eten slapen en vliegen. Zo had ik 3uur na mijn CPL-flight test gelijk mijn eerste vlucht in de Duchess. Oftewel bijna geen tijd om voor te bereiden, terwijl het wel zou moeten.

Sowieso was mijn flight test al vrij stressvol, het is 1 van de belangrijkste checks die je moet doen hier... met de pre-test, die je mag doen met je eigen instructeur, vloog ik al niet goed genoeg, waardoor ik een remedial moest doen, gelukkig ging dat allemaal goed en mocht ik voor mijn flight test gaan met een examinator, die vlekkenloos ging.

Over tempo gesproken, waarschijnlijk woensdag mijn Multi Engine Class Rating check. Dat is dus precies een week na m'n CPL flight test. Donderdag Night Rating check ook nog.

Als ik weer wat meer tijd heb zal ik nog wat uitgebreider zijn met foto's en dat soort dingen, maar voor nu toedels!
laats

ATPL's, Victor Harbor and more

Monthly update :P

Yesss as you can see i've been starting my ATPL's already...
There was not enough capacity down here at the college, so the management decided to put us in Groundschool for 3 weeks + 1 week of HongKong Airlaw groundschool, which makes a total of 4 weeks of groundschool. Deadly.... Has been a month or something since the last flight.
Monday the HK Airlaw exam and the BE76 type conversion exam. And the last week of groundschool before the CPL ME/IR. So actually I'm suppose to be studying right now.... ay

Yesterday somehow I was at the right place, at the right time and met the right blokes. I was fortunately enough to get a ride on the Citation Jet! Pretty awesome!

2 Citations !
Climbing Flight Level very high
Outback Australia Flight Level 360
Machineroom ;)

A couple of weeks back we went with a bunch of people to the vinyards around McLaren Vale and Victor Harbor, again Pretty awesome! Although I'm not really a wineperson, it's still great to get down there and try some different wines.
Adelaide has one of the better wineregions, with the Barossa Valley little North and McLaren Vale south. Probably some more I'm not aware of :P
After McLaren Vale in the afternoon we went to Victor Harbor with it's touristic Granite Island. It's indeed prettty nice there. We arrived there around sunset with terrific good weather, so that gave us some nice skies. After sunset we also got a few glimps of penguins! Haven't seen those before in wild. Check!

Penny Hill's


beeeh
Victor Harbor with Granite Island
Bridge
Sunset


Last week I had to do an eyetest for the renewal of my Class 1 medical certificate. For some reason they had to paralise my eyemusscles or something with eye droplets. So it was impossible focus and my pupils were wide open, which made me wearing sunnies indoor :P I havent done this test before, so I think the're some more methods to check the thing they checked :P Probably with the puff of air in the eyes, which I had before but not this time.

Enormous pupils

kick the tires, light the fires

Lieber Leuten!
And it has been long time ago again I updated this blog. Nope, I wasnt busy.. Just being lazy... being demotivated and a lot more..
I've been waiting for my mod 4 check for quite a while.. still nothing until yesterday!

I checked the roster and saw that I was booked the checkride with the deputy Cathay flight training manager.
So this morning I checked the weather/notams, did the planning and was ready to do my check! Done the oral part of check, did my walk around and started the aircraft up.
Waited on the ground for about 30minutes until we were cleared for take-off, due traffic. Skies over Adelaide getting busy :P.
We did a Parafield Three departure, which is a Standard Instrument Departure (SID) from runway 21R. Airborne switched to Adelaide approach... and got radar vectored to get on track for the next waypoint. After a few minutes we found that the oil pressure was a bit high, since we were still in the climb, we just waited until we leveled off. Flying straight and level with normal powersettings the oil pressure was still indicating high. So unfortunately we ended up going back.. Anyway, got my flight rebooked for tomorrow! fingers crossed!

Since the IFR flying was not progressing I did some aerobatics in the CAP10. Really awesome stuff! Did 4 of the 10 flights we got. Stall turns, wing overs, spins, loopings, barrel rolls, aileron rolls, half turn spit-S and probably forgot somethings as well :P seriously cool!

I also got a new passport since my old one was expiring in a few months. Was pretty quick actually. I went to the Dutch Consulate on 7 August and my passport was delivered exactly 2 weeks from that date. Not bad if you consider it had to shipped from Adelaide to Sydney, from Sydney to the Netherlands and back to Sydney and from there to Adelaide.
Nothing much to miss though, since I didn't had much stamps in my passport. I think only the Australian and the American ones, since I don't need them for Europe and Hong Kong.

So that's about it... Hope I can bring some good news tomorrow!

ps: I'll be there the 30st! ;)


Old passport, with the punchholes!

no news from the south

Adelaide city center

yess, still the same down here.

Dutch football team lost against the Russians....

Cold and windy...

Not much flying going on as well... My instructor is on the Multi Engine Training Approval course for the past 3 weeks parttime and this week fulltime on course, also busy with doing the flight grading. So no flying for this week, like the past 3 weeks actually :P

Did a solo 3.5 hour VFR-cross country 3 weeks ago and my last IFR flight was about 4 weeks ago... So not much to tell about the flying actually.

Since I got so much "spare" time, I got bored and when you are getting bored, you do weired things. And yes I did. As you might know, I have a car. But since I had plenty of time, I went to Glenelg with Mike and Megan, the awesome beach here, by train and tram. Pretty nice actually, never done that before. For your information, it was quite cold here for the last few weeks. And windy when I was there. Kind of Scheveningen. :') went out on the jetty to catch some proper sea breeze.

Also went to Hahndorf for some food. Hahndorf is a German village in the Adelaide Hills. Or German, it's more German style. A lot of those villages in the hills are from German immigrants in the 1800's. There are some restaurants with German food and ofcourse some German BIER.

Some time ago, I planned a trip to Melbourne via the Great Ocean Road, since I knew that I was off for 3 days, so it was just enough to do the trip. However it's quite a long drive and just with 2 of us driving, we didnt felt too comfortable going. So we ended up staying in and around Adelaide unfortunately.

All the other days? Just hanging around everywhere, doing nothing much... I mean ofcourse a bit of study ;P

Gonna grab some sleep now, it's freaking almost 3 in the morning.

laats

The Mighty Adelaide Glenelg Tram Service
The tram

Beach
uhhhh.. yeah...
Glenelg from the Jetty
The Jetty
And the jetty again

IFR baby! Oranje!

Yuh, finally done my VFR-check. Or actually, did that about 3 weeks ago. Got the results for my HKtech's (Average 92%, which is reasonable) and also done my simulator check.

Now going IFR. Which means you are all flying on your instruments and not looking outside anymore. That also means that we are able to fly in clouds and a lot of other sorts of crappy weather. Done already a few flights in actual IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions, other words for crap weather for Visual Flying). Really awesome, also quite weird, since you will get illusions and "leans". For Instrument flying it's really important to trust the instruments, since the human body tends to trust it's own perception, which can be dangerous. When you're cloud busting the clouds will give you a different perception than your instruments, so it's important to focus on the instruments.

When it's VMC (visual meteorological conditions, which means you're able to fly visually and not only on your instruments) We simulate the clouds by an IFR-hood, just a thing to block your view outside. Really a pain in the ass.

Cloudbusting!
IFR-hood
In Cloud baby!

The sim-check I did last week was a flight with all the enroute procedures, holdings and approach, just like a normal flight, but then in a simulator. Now, that simulator I'm talking about is just a very basic one, not the all moving stuff. Just the cockpit of a training aircraft. Works pretty well though to train the instrument flying stuff on. But still not the real stuff ofcourse.

The progress here is pretty slow, just an instructor shortage, like everywhere else I think. I'm about 3 weeks behind on schedule, it looks like that's gonna increase though, since my instructor is doing a course for the next 3-4 weeks and still didn't got an another instructor assigned. I've also finished all my solo-flights-1 for this module...

Some numbers:

- 56% done of my training. Started 34 weeks ago, now 26 weeks left.

- 54% of all sorties (actual + simulator); 83/153

- 39% of the simrides; 13/33

- 58% of the actual flights; 70/120

- 56% of all my checks; 5/9

The orange marked part is done :P

Since EURO08 is on, my sleeping rythm is completely wasted. :P stood up a couple of times at 4 in the morning to watch a game :P the Dutch team is doing surprisingly well this time :D

Went to a sportsbar in town to watch the Netherlands-France (4-1) ;) was pretty cool. And crowded with Dutchies :P

Saturday/Sundaymorning again if my roster allows me to. What do you reckon? The Netherlands-Russia (4-0) ;)

South Australia baby! Flight over the outback/desert whatever it is.

Flight over the Gulf

Stroopwafel, the copilot
and again!

waiting for

Yes, waiting and waiting and waiting. Waiting to get my VFR-nav check done, so close but still not there :'). And all because of the crappy weather down here. Last solo nav excersise is done, so now waiting for my pre-check and real check... The weather forecasts are not too promising though.

The passed week I flew twice. Both were solo navigation excersises. 3 hours and 3.5 hours. The 3 hours flight was in crappy marginal weather. According to the forecast it was alright, however when I got out there, I had to divert from my original route, to avoid the crappy weather. Not bad actually to get some real life experience to practise that stuff.
Now, the things you do during a diversion is firstly ofcourse get a new plan. Where do you want to go. So you draw a new line on the map from your current position to your new position. Get your new heading and fly that heading. Since you're flying a new heading with a new destination you also have to calculate your new Estimated Time of Arrival. And to get it all right some checkpoints to check your position and if needed adjust the heading to get on the right spot.
I diverted to Kadina (another airfield in the middle of semi-nowhere :p) to do some touch and goes, since my original destination Port Pirie was surrounded by crappy weather.
One of my coursemates, was also flying that same route, that same date, same time ( or actually about 1 minute behind me) Was actually pretty awesome, although we splitted up, since we were diverting to other places.

The other flight brought me to Renmark, yesss, another airfield in the middle of nowhere! Although the special feature there is the 2 unservicable/grounded company Diamond Twin Stars over there, which have been standing there for months.

I also started night flying. Seriously awesome! and different but still the same as "normal" day flying. The view is amazing, seeing the city lighted and the rest all black.

And somehow my room got tidied up :')
ohyuh and tomorrow off

laats

m'n auto wat doe je :')

Last week some bastards felt the need to break in to my car and smash my freakin window. Just in front of the fucking school and admin building, 2 nights in a row 6 cars got cracked. Result:

A sign of life!

Hooi,
Was alweer een tijdje geleden dat ik hier iets heb geschreven :) maar heb het een tijdje zelfs soort van druk gehad met school.

Maargoed, zoals ik vorige keer vertelde zouden we eind april onze HKTech examens hebben. Deze examens zijn een onderdeel van onze examens voor het CPL/ATPL volgens de HK Civil Aviation Department. Laatste dinsdag hebben wij deze afgerond en hebben we nu fulltime vliegen, in plaats van het om de dag theorie/vliegen. Erg fijn natuurlijk om weer van school af te zijn... voor een tijdje in ieder geval. Zo rond de 2e week van september gaan we weer lekker fulltime de schoolbanken in om de resterende vakken af te maken. Niet leuk, maarja, moet ook gebeuren.

Ik denk dat mijn HKTechs wel redelijk zijn gegaan, maargoed, dat zegt niks. Het resultaat krijgen we officieel gesproken in 2 weken, maar HKCAD kennende zal het wel weer 6 weken duren.


Door de examens is het vliegen ook een beetje stil komen te staan. De laatste paar weken voor de examens hebben we 5 dagen school per week gehad, waarvan je de resterende 2 eigenlijk wel wilde leren of lekker slapen. Ikzelf ben voor het laatste gegaan.

Het vliegen wilde ik ook niet missen eigenlijk, dus heb ik toch nog een enkel vluchtje gemaakt.
Je merkt dat je toch wel wat meer bezig was dan normaal. Dat zag je ook wel, m'n vlucht leek nergens op. Het was een redelijk vroege vlucht, dus met alle voorbereidingen die je moet doen, is het echt nodig om om 5uur op te staan.

Ik zou een vlucht maken met m'n instructeur naar Waikerie (een vliegveldje in de middle of nowhere hierzo iets van 200km vandaan) daar een paar landingen maken en weer terugkomen, waar ik onderweg een diversion zou krijgen. Een diversion houdt in dat je om 1 of andere reden (weer, brandstof of wat dan ook) niet je normale vliegplan kan volgen en je dus ergens anders naar toe moet dan gepland. Het komt er op neer dat je weer alles uittekent op je kaart en weer alles gaat uitrekenen. Alles gaat dan wel minder precies, maar je komt er wel. Het andere waar je op moet letten is natuurlijk het vliegen. Als het een beetje turbulent is, is de streep die je uit losse hand tekent van x naar z, opeens geen rechte streep meer en heb je opeens 50ft verloren. ofzo iets.
Maargoed, de vlucht die ik deed, had ik dus eigenlijk compleet opgekloot. Kreeg ook een kwartier voor de vlucht te horen dat we via Adelaide airport (dat grote vliegveld met allemaal big shiny jets enzo ;) ) gingen, opzich wel tof, maar brengt natuurlijk weer een hoop andere procedures met zich mee, waar ik nog niet bekend genoeg mee was. Dus al met al erg druk. Maargoed.

Ik had die dag nog een vlucht, ditmaal zonder instructeur, die vlucht had ik al grotendeels gepland, maar vanwege mijn eerdere vlucht op de dag die niet zo goed ging, had m'n instructeur besloten om een "makkelijkere" route te geven, zonder landingen op andere vliegvelden of wat dan ook, gewoon een blokje om van 2 en half uur zegmaar ;).
Doordat ik alles weer opnieuw moest plannen en nog moest lunchen kwam ik al krapjes aan, om mijn vliegtuig op te halen. Maar wat bleek, operations had mijn vlucht, die ik een paar uur van te voren nog zelf had laten verschuiven om mezelf wat meer tijd te geven, weer teruggezet zonder mij iets te vertellen, dus zou ik op het moment dat ik aankwam al in de lucht moeten zijn. Maargoed, na mij zou niemand meer in dat vliegtuig vliegen die dag, dus geen probleem verder.
Na een hoop papierwerk sjizzuul wat opeens allemaal geregeld weer moest worden ging ik de lucht in. Iets van in totaal een uur vertraagd.
Omdat ik nog in de VFR-fase zit, wat dus betekent dat je op zicht vliegt, moest ik op een bepaald tijdstip voor zonsondergang terug zijn. Ik zou het halen, maar was wel krap, althans dat dacht ik. Ik heb me zo erg lopen haasten dat dus misging en eenmaal in de lucht besefte ik dat ik hoe snel ik ook zou vliegen :p het gewoon niet haalde. Toen heb ik besloten om weer rechstreeks terug te gaan. Nu ik zo terugkijk eigenlijk best slecht, ik zou om maar een voorbeeld te noemen mezelf een diversion kunnen geven en daardoor op tijd terug komen, of anders geen rekenfouten moeten maken. Maargoed het zal de druk en de moeheid wel zijn die had toegslagen. Ook ik schijn zelfs een normaal mens te zijn ;) :')

Naast de vluchten die wat minder gingen heb ik natuurlijk ook een hoop leuks meegemaakt :D dat dan weer wel. Het Australisch landschap is toch wel bijzonder... Echt 1 droge boel hier, alles is geel/bruin/rood achtig en de meeste riviertjes zijn hier droge gleufjes met een paar boompjes erbij. Ben benieuwd hoe het er uit gaat zien na wt meer regen en dieper in de winter.

Echt bizar trouwens. Wij hebben onze vliegkaarten rivieren, wegen en dorpjes staan. Maar dat zegt dus echt helemaal niks in Australie heb ik gemerkt. Zoals ik al vertelde zijn de meeste riviertjes hier droog. Wegen zijn hier zand/grindweggetjes, asphalt is alleen voor highways/freeways, en daarzijn er maar 2 van ofzo :') en echte dorpjes volgens de kaart kan hier in real life een bruin hutje zijn. De enige dingen die je hier niet kan missen zijn de silo's. Gelukkig staan er hier ook "een hoop"(=de silo's op de kaart zijn ook silo's in real life) van.

Dinsdag waren trouwens 2 managers uit het hoofdkantoor hier om onze progressie te bekijken, de school hier een beetje te pushen om ons op tijd af te kunnen leveren aan cathay, maar vooral om instructeurs lekker aan het maken om voor hun te werken. De meeste instructeurs die hier werken, zijn er om wat uurtjes op te bouwen, om daarna vervolgens bij een luchtvaartmaatschappij te kunnen solliciteren. Gezien het feit dat momenteel de luchtvaart nog goed zit, is het verloop van instructeurs dus hoog, wat niet ten goed komt van de mensen die hier worden opgeleidt. Ze willen dus instructeur contracten laten teken voor een periode, zodat ze hier op school wat meer consistentie hebben en cathay een constante flow van nieuwe vliegers.
We kregen gelukkig ook de kans om problemen/situaties van de school aan te duiden, en nu dus hopen dat de 2 bazen de school genoeg kunnen pushen om alles weer op orde te krijgen. Waren 2 dames die veel interesse toonden en erg aardig waren, heb dus wel vertrouwen dat ze er alles aan proberen te doen, maargoed, de school hier is een ander verhaal...
Die avond zijn we met zn allen CP27 en CP28 naar Glenelg geweest om te eten. Kwam er op neer dat we opzich best duur hebben gegeten :') maargoed de zaak betaalde :')

Wat ook rete slecht was: ik ben naar een Queensday feestje :') hier geweest in Adelaide in het Belgisch bier cafe :') een hoop Nederlanders, voornamelijk backpackers en studenten. Hoe fout het ook was, ik vond het wel tof. :') Was serieus best raar om weer een hele avond Nederlands te praten. Moest helaas wel voor middernacht weer weg, de volgende ochtend weer lekker vroeg, voor een vlucht die later gecanceld zou worden :')
Na al de toffe rondreisverhalen vind ik het toch eigenlijk wel heel erg jammer dat ik hier zo weinig tijd vrij kan nemen. Ook al heb ik vrij, soms weet ik dat enkele minuten van te voren. Dus plannen gaat vrijwel niet, vooral niet nu we achterlopen vanwege alle omstandigheden met de school. Zou dus echt weleens Australie willen bekijken, lekker rondreizen... Wel echt zonde dat ik nu niet de tijd ervoor heb. :(

Foto's komen later, ik ga nu slapen. Morgen paintballen! ohja mijn leven wat doe je, het is nu vrijdagavond :')

heuh

Hey, here is that blog I talked about so long ;)

Quit a lot going on down here in Adelaide.

Just did my general flying progress test (GFPT), which means I have some more privileges than before and can do some more stuff, like taking passengers with me.
The flight-check itself was quite straight forward. I had to show some basic manouvres like (steep) turns, stalls and basic intrument flying.
The check also included a practised forced landing (PFL) ie the examiner cut my power and I had to do the procedure for a forced landing. My power was cut at about 3000-2500ft. When that happens, you're gonna set up your aircraft for the best glide, check your engine parameters, configure your aircraft for a landing and offcourse look for a field in gliding distance. When my power was cutted, height and the ground nearby looked pretty well. I flew the pattern and managed to get the plane well configured for the forced landing. Since it was a practice, I had to Go Around at 500ft.
Straight after the go around at 600ft or something, the examiner told me there was a simulated cloudbase of 800ft and low visibilty, so had to do a precautionary search and landing (PSL). I had to look for a field nearby to land, the exercise was to do 3 slow and low passes to inspect the strip and check if it was suitable to land. I screwed up my first run, I told the examiner where the wind was coming from, how my circuit would be and what my strip to land was. However, when I got there I did it in the opposite direction, fortunately I corrected in time and it was all good. During my first pass the examiner told me she had seen enough and we were going back.
On return some touch and go's and a full stop landing. When I did my check, there was a crosswind, so I got the crosswind landings signed off as well.
This check was actually quite fun, I did all my things pretty well and it was one of my better flights, have done it worser :P GFPT is in the pocket.

Pretty nice office huh ;)

Now with the GFPT, I finished module 2. 5 more to go.

There are 7 modules here, 1 of them is 10 hours of aerobatics. However, module 7 (aeros) is to be done during all your other modules.

Module 1: Up to the first solo
Module 2: Up to the GFPT
Module 3: Conversion to the TB10 and Visual flight rules (VFR, flying and navigating on visual references) navigation check
Module 4: Instrument Flight Rules (IFR, flying and navigating on your instruments)
Module 5: Commercial Pilots Licence (CPL)
Module 6: Multi Engine(ME) class rating and Command Intrument Rating (CIR, that's how they call IR here in Oz ;) )

That's the flying. Currently I'm doing parttime flying and parttime groundschool. When we finish the HKTECH'S (Hong Kong technical aircrew examination or something like that :') -> what the rest of the world calls written-CPL-exams) in late April, we are gonna fly fulltime upto the CPL ME/CIR. Which will be in early September according to the planning, but like everything else in aviation this is probably gonna be delayed :(
When we get the CPL ME/CIR, fulltime groundschool again for the written ATPL exams until mid-November...
After the exams we will get the Line Orientated Flight Training (LOFT), where we learn to work in a multicrew environment. All this is gonna happen in a 737 full motion simulater :)
The LOFT will be a month or so and then graduation!


Now, I just started mod 3 and currently doing my conversion from the Grob G115 to the EADS Socata TB10 (yessss EADS, the same EADS as in Airbus, Eurofighter, Mirages :') aber nein! scheisse es ist Fransözisch!/mais non! merde c'est Francais!)
Now the differences between a G115 and the TB10; The most significant thing is the fixed pitch propellor in the Grob and the variable pitch propellor with a constant speed unit (CSU) in the TB10. It's a lot of aerodynamic shit involved, but you can compare the CSU with a gearbox in a car. Other things are different speeds, tb10 is a bit faster; handling, tb10 is less "fun" to fly, more stable, heavier and less manouvrable. Landings are easier though :p also some more advanced instruments in the TB10 (autopilots and that kind of things :P ) and the TB10 is just larger and 4 seater instead of 2 in the Grob. There are just more systems in the tb10 than in the grob, so just more to think of and more to do when flying it. More switches, more handles. The seatbelt is btw really like the 3point seatbelt in cars. The grob had a 4point harness, like those race drivers have.

The tb-10 Tobago Grob G115

The weather here is pretty crap for the past weeks and the coming. A serious bloody heatwave has been in Adelaide for weeks, bushfires everywhere and temperatures of 40degrees or more is quite often the case during midday. So let the winter begin here! I want some proper green grass, some proper temperaatures (like during the summers in the Netherlands! I mean the temperatures, not "grass" from Amsterdam :') )

First time since I'm here, I had a Dutch conversation :P or actually 2x half :') I have temporarily an other instructor who is South African so speaks Afrikaans, which sounds a lot like Dutch. Also, Q22, the new qantas course here, has a semi-German, who speaks quite good Dutch for a German ;)

Wawawiwaaa, I likeeeee

Parafield, with the campus.

0.99 aud at Woolworths, so a got myself a few with my cheap ass


Fokker F27! Dutch shit in Oz, sadly it's not flying anymore, has been here for quite a while without engines

Had to check out those new fancypants Cirrus SR20's with their glass cockpit and Airbus stylo sidestick. It smelled like a new car.

And another day at school ;)

Cap-10B, the aerobatics machine

There were/are some problems with the fancy new Diamond da42 twin stars. The FADEC (some computer flyguy shit) thinks that the engine isn't working corectly somehow because of the oil pressure. Has maybe something to do with the Ozzie heat. Happend a few times that the engine wasn't giving 100% power when the throttle was fully open. Heard of a case that the engine kind of shut itselfs down.

Whole twin star fleet grounded

laaats

update preview 1.01

Hey, sorry girls and boys! I was quite busy the past few days, weeks, months whatever. Update coming soon!

One of the things I have been being busy with was amending my Jeppesen's (2 binders with a shitload of information around the operational side of flying; like in approach plates, aerodrome information and that kind of stuff). Every 2 weeks, there are some changes in those things, so you have to keep it updated with the newest amendment available. Believe me, it's crappy work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEdmOaOC20s

laats

short update

The first blog of 2008 :D
It has been a while ago I updated this blog. So hereby a completely new fresh one here.
Was quite busy since the last update, a lot of tests and that kind of stuff, had a lot to catch up with the flying as well.

On NY's eve we went to Glenelg beach, pretty good stuff, crowded as hell, however after the countdown all the people were gone in a few minutes :P. We decided to go to a bar/pub or whatever in the City, unfortunately everything was closed already.

The car is also in the garage right now, there were somethings needed to be done with the fuel-injection stuff or something :S and they are still working on it, now about 3 weeks :S better it's gonna be fixed soon....

A few weeks ago a senior course here (CP26) graduated, that means there is about a bit less than a year left for us here.

And the flying side; Quite a lot happened since the last blog. There were 3 weeks i haven't done any flying at all, which was pretty fcked up. however i'm back into the flying and I did my first solo here (flying without an instructor) :D flying is going pretty well right now.
Did some advanced circuits( a circuit is something like a pattern/lane to land at an airfield), like flapless approaches (landing without flaps, so you're going a bit faster and there is less drag), x-wind landings (wind blowing from the "side" of the plane), glide-approaches (landings without engine power) and low level circuits(just circuits, but lower then the usual 1000ft.). The low level circuit is seriously cool :O everything is going a lot faster, and you're a bit lower than normal. I like it :D Another thing is the performance of the aircraft when you're flying solo. The G115 is a little tiny cute German 2-seater. When flying solo, that thing is climbing like a fighterjet compared to dual-flights.
My next flight is probably on Sunday and gonna do some Practice Forced Landings, to prepare you in case the aircraft really meets a failure/fire/or other crap :) will be fun.. I hope :p

sorry guys and girls, not really much interesting to tell you.. :P
and i promise, the next update will be coming a lot quicker than this one

Laatss

update23303.291.1.x.1

I bought myself a great Christmas gift, 1/3 of a 1990 Daihatsu Applause 1.8L

oeei joei joei
Officially we just got the 25th off, which is a groundschool day for us. Since I was not booked for flights from 22 to 26 I got 4 days off. Groundschool is starting for me at 27 again.

On Christmas-eve we just relaxed a bit and went into the Isobar (the studentsbar here). For Christmas day, we bought the car and went out for dinner, nothing special done actually on the days off. Except for the cardeal ;)

The flying is great. Finished BAC and Performance flying, now doing the stalls :D. Looking forward to finish Mod1 (first solo) and hopefully withouth any delay, which probably will occur, since we got the stuff with Christmas. And there are still not enough instructors here around...

Also the internet and phoneline broke down fridaynight. The #$%^&* customer service is telling me the whole #%^&* time to wait 2 business days, which is almost a whole fcking week. Stupid Telstra. They do have a 24/7 customer service, but the technicians/cableguys or whatever are only counting business days. Yuh that makes sense... "We can accept all complains about faults, but we can't do anything about it"

And some other stuff to complain. I hate those fcking splash-toilets like the one we have here! It's totally not hygienic and uncomfortable! Who the shit wants splashing toilet water during the dump. And if you want to avoid that, you have to throw a shitload of toiletpaper in the toilet, therefore bad for the environment :') Just give me a non-splashing toilet!
Our current toilet, splash toilet. CRAPPY STUFF:

This is a proper non-splashing toilet! The dump goes first on the platform and it will go in to the water and been flushed away when you flush the toilet, totally logical, simple, hygienic and comfortable!
Proper non-splashing toilet GOOD STUFF!

Some other photo's of this place

Sunset
Moon + stars