On to IFR

Finally enough interesting things have happened to justify another blog post. August was a pretty grim month, weather-wise. Each low pressure system brought rain, winds and low cloudbases followed by high pressure systems of poor visibility and fog. All in all, not much use for VFR training, especially as almost all the latter flights are solo. Nonetheless, we all soldiered on and yesterday I took, and passed, my PT1 (Progress Test 1). This is the culmination of our single-engine VFR flying and tests the various skills that we have built up over the last few months: navigation, handling, emergencies, circuit flying, general airmanship and decision-making. The aim is to be sure that we are ready to go on to the more complex, faster aircraft and to operate under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR). We will return to this world of VFR towards the end of the time in NZ when we sit our Commercial Pilot's Licence (CPL) test, though this will be in the twin-engine Diamond DA-42 'Twinstar'. 

Sunset over Hamilton Airport after my PT1

Before that we start to build up our experience of flying on instruments and practising the set procedures involved that will be at the heart of our commercial operations. This includes VOR holds, ILS approaches and a significant amount of GPS, more properly known as GNSS, work. So Monday see us start two days of groundschool - we have covered it all in theory back in the UK as part of ATPL groundschool but the practical application of it is all rather different so that will be the focus of those two days.

Standard Instrument Departure (SID) plate

Then it's into the DA-42 simulator to get the basics of IFR operations started. From there we move to Garmin-equipped Cessna 172s. This gives us a chance to get used to the glass-cockpit environment that is found in modern airliners but while only having one engine to worry about. Then we eventually move on to flying the DA-42 for real. This is a landmark moment in any pilot's training: the move to powerful multi-engine aircraft. I've not yet even sat in the back of one of these so am very much looking forward to taking the controls of one in about a month's time. We then move back to VFR, though still in the Twinstar, for our CPL and then back to the UK to gain an Instrument Rating (IR) on the Twinstar. Should take 4-5 months and that will mark the end of basic training. To call all that 'basic' seems a bit of a misnomer but we have the conversion to Jets, type-rating and associated procedures to come before getting in the right-hand seat of an A320 with paying passengers so in the grand scheme of things, it really is only the basic training complete.

DA-42 cockpit

DA-42 Twinstar

VFR training has been great, even with the constant frustrations of bad weather and I know most pilots look back on it very fondly. Here are a few of my favourite shots from training:

 Hamilton City at night

Hobbiton

The Firth of Thames