The dawn of a new era... The ATPL's!!!

Today, Wednesday 21st February was the start of a new era, the continuation of Pilot Marky's flying onto a new level... The road to the ATPL had been opened...

Passing the Airline Transport Pilots Licence exams (ATPL), are a requirment to be issued with the Joint Aviation Authorities Commercial Pilot Licence with Multi Engined Instrument Rating (JAA CPL ME/IR). The ultimate of ultimates. Consisting of fourteen written exams and a mountain of revising and learning, the exams will without a doubt be the largest hurdle so far. I decided to enroll on the distance learning course offered by the Pilot Training College of Ireland in Waterford. Known for its professional status and facilities, the college will hopefully be a great block on to which I can build my flying career. Based at home, I will study as many hours a day as I can and hopefully within six months to a year, I will have completed the exams. Both stages one and two, which each contain seven modules need to be completed. The exams will be sat in Dublin at the IAA, Irish Aviation Authority. Only after these are passed successfully, will my flying for the CPL ME/IR progress.

There is no doubt that they will be hard, both in a sense of commitment and talent, but I am personally ready for the challenge. I know that my heart is in the right place, and my desire and commitment is unquestioned. The studying will bring back memories of my PPL course at KSEE, where for me, ground school occured from early in the morning until late into the night...

To Lancaster and Back

After constantly checking the weather for the weekend ahead for the majority of the proceeding week, I was amazed to wake up to blue skies and relativly clear skies. Desperatly wishing that I had not gone out the night before, I patiently waited for my hang over to depart, so that Victor Alpha could too depart with myself as PIC. Finally pulling her out of the hanger and onto the pan at 14.00HRS on Saturday, we got ready to depart. My able minded friend Jonathon was the co pilot for today. The plan was to depart Barton on RWY 27R and proceed over to Formby, before routing up the coast abeam Blackpool and up to Lancaster, before turning and tracking the M6 back to Barton. A route which was quickly becoming common nature to me. But due to the dangers associated with becoming complacent, every turning point and VRP was still double checked againt the CAA 1:250 000 VFR chart.


The only major problem today was the consistent and at times often problematic hazey conditions which were present around Barton and parts of the North West coast. Today also seemed to attact a hive of GA, Blackpool Appr. being inundated with incoming R/T. After being told that the area was alive with both reported and unreported A/C, we proceeded with extreme caution. Several aircraft passed overhead at less then 1000ft but this was little problem.


After a fun but uneventful flight, we retuned past winter hill and over Bolton. Strangly we had a Grob trainer from Barton right on our starboard wing tip on approach to the overhead position. As he was too close for my liking and had no clear intention of moving I opted for a right base leg join, which was quickly approved by the FISO who had seen the arrising problem. There were nine A/C in the CCT, four of which were on finals! To stop a go around occuring, I decided to take the lead and preform an S-turn over the Trafford Centre, something which although not part of the JAA training I had picked up whilst at KSEE. We were still numnber four and when number three broke away for a go around, we slipped it in and although we were 200ft high on short finals, carried out a nice landing. I had kept it high as to be honest it was 50/50 whether a landing would take place. All in all a solid, well executed flight.

France... The final frontier... Marky's log fly date August 2007...

Caernarfon...

Flying… Again… For the second time in one weekend! Wow! After the success of yesterday’s flight, I was eager to get back into the saddle and fly again. Rising early at eight o’clock, I was down heartened to see the usual story with the weather, which threatened a wet and gloomy day. Luckily for me, as the morning wore on, the blue skies rolled on in… Driving to Barton like a madman, I decided to route over to Caernarfon, on the North West coast of Wales. VA was still gleaming from its check and just as eager as me to get up. Even with ¾ tanks of AVGAS but once again flying on my own, VA took off like a rocket, utilising less than half of Barton’s unusually (lol I wish!) 530m RWY 27R. Although it would actually be nice to have someone who wanted to come flying, I don’t mind going on my own. Before I got my licence I always thought that I would have que’s of people who deeply lusted to come with me, but surprisingly this is not the case…

Departing the CCT I headed for Wigan, then over to Woodvale before shooting across Liverpool Bay at 1200ft amsl. Due to the high levels of visibility on the day, I decided to fly across Colwyn Bay rather than to hug the coast. Although this put my track well over open water it seemed like a good idea, albeit probably not the most sensible without a life jacket! R/T was the highlight of the day. To be honest, I can’t remember a period of longer than three minutes when I didn’t speak to a new or a pre-existing ground station. The list which included Barton, Blackpool App, Woodvale, Liverpool App, Valley MATZ, London FIR, Caernarfon, Hawarden App and finally Manchester App just seemed to keep on growing… In reality this made the flight go extremely quickly and helped my communication skills greatly.

Being the first landing on tarmac since I was last at Caernarfon in early December, and only one of a handful since the days at KSEE, it was a greaser. Landing on the hard stuff is something I miss and it is nice to brush up my skills once in a while. The main point was that due to Barton requiring short field approaches, I had VA stopped on the deck within 400m, which led to a very long taxi down the length of the active! The return leg saw a speedy takeoff into a developing mist. Rather than sit on the ground I felt it best to do a CCT and assess the conditions before deciding whether to turn back and land or press home to Barton. In the end I choose the later option and although the conditions did deteriorate further until Bangor, where Vis was well down below what I prefer, it rapidly increased over Colwyn Bay to well over 9999 with crystal blue skies. The only other adverse weather I experienced was severe turbulence approaching Hawarden overhead. Could well be explained due to the presence of the power stations cooling towers close to Chester?

It was lovely to see Chester from the air, being a city I recently visited and enjoyed. A short leg over to Oulton Park racecourse and then up the low level corridor led me back onto the home straight. After announcing my presence to Man App, I kept a listening watch on the freq to hear that they had an emergency and that the active would be shut for at least quarter of an hour. I have spent most of today wondering what this emergency actually was! All in all, a fantastic flight. Although my head was still racing all night due to the sheer workload of the flight, it was undoubtedly one of my best ever flights. On an aviation level, it could not have gone more according to plan. On a personal level, I just wish that I had someone who was close to me that I could share all the joys and experiences with…

Episode Two... Marky Strikes Back...

Today was the day of days, the time of times. The first flight after five weeks of bad weather, bad luck and having to keep my feet on the ground. The best part about it was that it was completely unexpected. Only at 11AM did I decide to go up. A break in the weather and the availability of VA meant that a flight was possible. VA, just emerging from its 50HR chx was looking sparkly clean, even the interior smelt like polish! Ill admit it now, I was nervous due to the time which had passed since the last time I was airborne, but the moment I climbed into VA and switched over the magnetos I once again felt at home. Gaining, 60L of AVGAS, I taxied along the very damp Bravo taxiway to RWY 09L. Although I was alone, it was what I wanted today in order to feel at ease with the aircraft and not have to worry about any passengers.

Calculating that it would be just after 2 o’clock when I took off, I had decided to route over to Formby, on the North West coast, then up to Blackpool and Fleetwood, before turning over Lancaster and heading back down to Barton. A flight roughly just under two hours in time. In reality, it took two hours and five minutes, as Blackpool App. insisted that I hold over Marsh Side VRP until their traffic, a 737 had landed. This was actually a pleasant experience, as I got to see the approach and landing, whilst being able to practice my 45-degree steep turns! With improving visibility the further North I got, I was able to see a large number of ships departing both Fleetwood and Heysham. The wake which they leave on a lifeless sea is amazing when viewed from the air!

The chosen turning point of Lancaster was emotional, as it was the first time that my Mum, Dad and godparents had seen me flying from the perspective of the ground. They had walked from their yacht at Glasson into Lancaster and were stood on the ramparts of the Castle to see me pass by. After a few passes, I headed back south to Barton. The highlight of the return trip was seeing Winter Hill in its full glory, the top half of which was covered in snow. Approaching Barton, I was given the option of a standard overhead join or a left base join. For reasons of practicality and because I like to make things difficult for myself, I opted for the former. Lower than expected cloud meant that I had to make the overhead at 1700 instead of 1800ft, but as CCT’s at Barton are flown at 1000ft, there was still plenty of vertical separation. On short finals I found myself too high, and with only one person on boards, VA did not want to descend too rapidly! Instead of over reacting, I decided to put on full flaps earlier then normal, and gently brought her home for a smooth touchdown. After having a laugh with the duty firemen and the operations staff, I departed Barton, full of glee and excitement after today, and with all of my fingers crossed that the weather would keep for tomorrow, when I had originally planned to fly…

Episode One... A New Hope???

Having booked the Friday of work, and not having flown for nearly five weeks, I was eager to get up and roam the skies. Unfortunately, mid week news hit me hard, like a blow to the stomach. Although it was common knowledge that VA was having it s 50HR chxs, the news that there was significant corrosion on the flap mechanism and also on the rudder and elevator came as a surprise to us all. Although it was not a financially demanding or labour intensive job to repair VA in time for Friday, it did mean that the chances of flying were slim to say the least. Having already rearranged my day off upon hearing the news and the undesirable weather forecast, I suffered a further blow to hear that after the wind was stripped and sprayed with an anti-corrosive spray, VA was reassembled and ready to go by Friday lunch. Thus meaning that flying would have been a viable option!

With Friday turning out to be a day of average but perfectly flyable weather, one could not help but feel disheartened. But, with a change in wind direction forecasted, bringing milder conditions over the later course of the weekend, flying is once again on the cards. A trip to Caernarfon could be on the cards for Sunday morning. Having been so tantalisingly close over the past few weeks, but never once being lucky enough to catch the right weather conditions and get my feet off the ground, I personally cant think of a more pleasant experience. With that in mind, I guess its fingers crossed that the skies don’t decide to empty their contents over Barton’s beautifully grassed (lol) RWY’s before Pilot Marky can once again take to the skies…

Maverick & Iceman reunited.. What out France here we come...

The demise of Marky and Sammy will hopefully be positive on one front, by being the start of brighter things and more focussed flying. It has now been transformed into an all male experience, shared by myself and Matt, a.k.a. ‘Maverick and Iceman’. Although the original road trip style plan of touring France has been greatly built upon and generally expanded to a much larger scale, the basic principles of the original idea sill remain. These are to take VA over to the continent and explore, explore and explore some more! This will hopefully offer a wider variety of experience, mainly on an aviation level, but also on the more general cultural and social levels. The plan is to spend the days flying and the nights in bed and breakfasts. That is unless we are lucky enough to meet some beautiful rural farm girls who don’t understand a word of English and merely fall for our good looks and charisma… best get booking the BnB’s early then I guess!!! The encounters with different kinds of weather systems, airfield layouts, air traffic operations and will hopefully provide a pleasurable, albeit perhaps sometimes stressful experience, whilst greatly increasing our knowledge of the trade.

By the time August arrives, we both will have been qualified pilots for almost a year. The journey will hopefully begin on Monday 30th July, when we depart Barton for Sandown, Isle of Wight, routing through a variety of Class D controlled airspace and MATZ’s along the way. This will be the first scheduled fuel stop, both for VA and for us along with the last footing on English soil until we return. The plan is to then fly on to Clamecy, in the Bourgogne region of France. Being a small grass airstrip, the skills used to land should be similar to those required at Barton. Although it is hoped that the weather will be slightly better! This will be out first overnight resting spot. The plan for day two is to plod on to Marseilles, in the Provence region, where the looming international airport should require some very different techniques during both the approach and landing stages of the journey. Should be interesting! Apparently some of the approaches bring you in right over the Mediterranean! Wow! Day three will see us route from Marseilles to Nice on the Cote D’Azur, a place of luxury and hopefully plentiful sunshine. Fingers crossed that we will get to test the sea as well as the food.

The next leg of the trip will be the longest and most enduring flight of the journey, flying from Nice to La Rochelle, the Atlantic seaport and provincial capital of the Charente-Maritime region. Due to the fact that I prefer to have at least one hour of reserve fuel left in the tanks upon shutdown, it will be necessary to stop along this 386NM stretch in order to fuel VA. Although the exact place of choice has not yet been decided, I believe that the chosen airfield will lie within the Limousin region. After rest and recuperation in La Rochelle, we will track up North along the Atlantic Coast towards Ouessant, a small island off the coast of Brest in Western Bretagne. This island, which apparently gets very busy during the summer months is home to a national local sized airport, and should provide an interesting treat of the famous Bretagne seafood! Yummy!

Upon leaving Ouessant, we will most likely track towards St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly, where we will utilise the short and reportedly bumpy RWY’s in order to revel in the natural beauties which surround the islands. They are some of the most beautiful areas around the UK and for me, this will be one of the highlights of the trip. Due to the lack of fuel on offer at St Mary’s, we will be forced to route via either Perranporth in Cornwall or more likely to Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire for a splash n’ dash of the old AVGAS, before continuing up towards Caernarfon on the North Welsh coast. This is one of my favourite airfields, due to the combination of its rugged nature on the tip of a spit of land, which is almost fully surrounded when the tide is fully in, and the beautiful approaches, which bring you in over the Irish Sea. The trip will be completed by a short, (in comparison to the preceding flights!) leg back across Northern Wales, with either a zone transit through Hawarden and a shoot up the Low Level Corridor to Barton, or routing up and around Liverpool airspace via Formby and Wigan back towards Barton, the resting place of VA.

Although we have planned the journey for seven days, we do have a few buffer days in case the weather decides to turn nasty and force us to take cover from its ferocious nature. If we are not forced to utilise these days, then who knows, the world is our oyster… well admittedly yes, but much more likely to happen is a day trip Navigation exercise to the Lake District or the Isle of Man! All in all, this should be the most enthralling, entertaining, yet challenging journeys of my flying career. But, it is one, which I am looking forwards to with an open mind and bags of bottomless enthusiasm! Bring on August!

VA Top Gun Style!!!

Heres the beauty looking like something taken straight out of Top Gun, which would make me Maverick??? Well I can live with that!!!

Weekend take two???... Could this be the day???...

For thousands of people nationwide, Sunday proved to be a more fore filling day for GA. For me personally, it was no better than yesterday. Rising early at 8AM and being at Barton by 9AM along with my ever keen and wiling passenger Jonathon, we eagerly awaited a flight, but in the back of our minds knew that there was little chance of this occurring. Although the fog had lifted, we only had VA until 11AM, when another group member had already booked it. Although vis to the North, North East and East was all the 9’s, to the West it was reported to be less than 4Km and into the sun, it was reported as IMC. The 4Km was no problem, but the IMC warning rang alarm bells in my head, especially after the tragedy at Blackpool last night. As PIC, I decided we would knock it on the head and stand down. Instead we spent most of the morning recording others take off. And take off they did! When the vis improved at least six aircraft took to the skies in less than 6 minutes off the by now very battered looking RWY 27R. The weatehr for the rest of the day was now Vis well in excess of all the 9's, no significant weather and no wind at all. What a day to miss! Having not flown for four whole weeks now and being lucky enough to have next Friday off work, I am eagerly awaiting my next flight. With VA booked next Friday and Sunday for both full days, one can only hope that the weather improves and that the forecasted heavy snow, does not actually arrive!!!

...Deepest Condolences

I would just like to take a minute to point out that the Piper PA28 crash off the Fylde coast last night was a shocking event. Although the pilot reported that he was low on fuel to Blackpool Approach, it has emerged that he tried to land before making a go around. It was only upon this go around that he was lost from radar contact. The bodies of the two airmen have been recovered inside the cockpit of the wreckage. I have met many people from the Blackpool flying club, and I can only hope that those people I have been lucky enough to meet were not involved in the accident. My heart goes out to their families, their friends and the ATC members involved, as do my deepest condolences. ATC at Blackpool have always been nothing but friendly, welcoming and helpful to myself. This was a dramatic tragedy; an event, which I am sure will haunt the minds of many for years to come...

Could this be the day???... Dont be silly its a Saturday!!!

After today I am left with two lingering questions… Firstly, is the weather sent to test me? And secondly, why are the joys of flying such hard work to come by? Ok granted it is February, but when you rise early and look outside to see blue skies, no wind and nothing but vapour trails and sunshine you would expect to get airborne. With the prospect of my first flight in four weeks, a long trip over to the East Coast via three aerodromes, I was eagerly anticipating a great day. Along with my friend Jonathon, I was shocked and amazed to see that Barton was reporting 100M Vis in freezing fog. Still, off we drove to the airfield only to meet this fog, which only seemed to be lingering within a three-mile radius of the airfield. The frustrating thing is that the fog only existed here. Even more frustrating was the fact that the likes of Cessna’s and Piper’s could be heard above the airfield, quite possibly transiting Eastwards from Liverpool and Blackpool to hours of joy and fruitful flying. Being a Saturday, the fog didn’t want to lift and even got thicker as the day went on. Even a subway from the Trafford Centre didn’t help the feeling of emptiness, which was filling my stomach. Still, not to be defeated we hung around until well after 15.00HRS in case it decided to life, as last landing was set at just before 17.00HRS.

Even thought the weather put short ends to our means of getting airborne, the day was still a laugh and actually turned into quite a fun day. I ended up showing/teaching Joni all about the various instruments and their subsequent functions in both flight and on the ground. I also got some valuable details for the up and coming trip to France with my friend and budding pilot Matt from Norway (more details on that to be posted soon!!!). Hopefully, tomorrow morning will be more eventful, but with the fog now starting to settle everywhere, the chances of getting airborne are slim and descending. Any flight that will take place will have to be before 11AM, as VA is currently booked after that until well into the afternoon. Bring on summer, sunshine and the limitless amounts joy, which comes with flying!