Bump in the road

The last hurdle to leap here at CTC in Hamilton for me is to pass my CPL Flight Test.
Unfortunately I have fallen short.
My flight test yesterday resulted in a fail result.
The feedback has been that I need to work on my Forced Landings, Stalling under the hood, and balance in my turns (steep and max-rate turns).

I have taken the feedback on board and will be doing some additional training to rectify the shortfalls.
I'm confident the experience will make me a more competent and safe pilot.

Selecting a field, emergency landing practice

Maximum-Rate Turns

Multi-Engine Phase VFR and IFR in the Twinstar.

First up is VFR flying in the Twinstar.  An awesome and very enjoyable aircraft to fly. Lots of systems to learn and understand. 

Most of the flying I did in this phase was on one engine (asymmetric). Learning how to control the aircraft with one engine forms most of the multi engine rating.

After I was all checked out and type rated on the DA42 twinstar it was time to get into some IFR flying.

The IFR phase I found the most challenging, but also the most fascinating. There were several flights in the simulator before a few flights in the aircraft. Then the flight test which i subsequently passed.

REAL IFR.

ICING IN THE MORNING

MEIR FLIGHT TEST PASSED

End of Single Engine Phase

Hey, long time no speak:
Today marks the end of my single engine phase of training (for now)
It has not been an easy road at times and sometimes you can get knocked back a bit.
Through persistence the rewards are great.

So far I have...
Passed all my CPL exams
2 IFR Exams (With 1 more yet to resit)
and today I finally passed my CPL Navigation Flight Test
I also experienced my first solo night flight this month.


I now move on to more night flying followed by the DA42 Twinstar (Twin Engine Aeroplane)

De Havilland Beaver - New Years Eve Flight

My last flight of the year (although I didn't fly it) was a satisfying ride in a De Havilland Beaver around Auckland Harbor on New Years Eve.

I organised the flight through Auckland Seaplanes. You can check them out here

Below is a video of the flight

As far as my CTC Studies go:
I have passed CPL Air law and CPL Principles of flight. I only have 2 exams left (CPL Meteorology and CPL Navigation) and then I will be into the flying again!

Day One at CTC

Day one of Many
I have arrived at CTC and moved into Clearways (Local CTC Accomodation)
Put on my uniform for the first time and commenced my first day of training at CTC
Right off the bat there are a lot of things to catch up with like getting everything set up, email, lesson plans, operations, schedule, id card, parking pass, access card, books, folders, settling into the accomodation, finding my way around... etc.
Lots of fun.

The training schedule is intense Starting with CPL Air Law.  From here on I will have 4 more exams to pass between now and Mid January.  
(I have already passed CPL Human factors and CPL Aircraft Technical Knowledge earlier this year)

My Exam schedule looks something like this

Dec 16 - CPL Air Law
Dec 23 - CPL Principles of Flight
Jan 06 - CPL Meteorology
Jan 13 - CPL Navigation

After all that It should be time to get into the air!

Last Club Trip, Another type rating, and Start Date for CTC

A lot has happened since my last post.
I went on my last club trip with the Auckland Aero Club, which was a fun trip to Raglan for their annual fly-in. We had lunch at a local bakery and got to check out a lot of cool aircraft.

Flying from NZAA (Ardmore) to NZRA (Raglan)
Good opportunity to try out my brand new Sony ActionCam

Here are some select photos of the trip
You can check the rest out here -> Raglan Fly-in Photos

I've also obtained another Type Rating.  This time in a Slingsby T-67B Firefly.
I was quite excited about this one as many have raved about how easy and fun it is to fly.
It doesn't have great climb performance, but has excellent glide performance.  My favorite feature is how easy it is to maneuver, only had to trim twice the whole flight and landing is easy! Plus who doesn't love a plane you can comfortably control with 2 fingers.

The final news to share with you is that I have received my start date for CTC.   9th December.
So with mixed emotions I get ready to say "so long" to AAC and "hello" to CTC.  12 Days to GO!

Great News

I have received some very good news!
I heard back from Jetstar and I have been accepted into a Jetstar Cadetship.
This means that I will have a Job as a First Officer at Jetstar flying the Airbus A320's at completion of my training.

Only things left are
Assessment Flight with CTC
Organise Accomodation in Hamilton
And start my training next year!

While I bide my time I am sitting a couple of CPL exams
I have also got some exciting club trips between now and the end of the year. I will update with pictures and video!

Tim.