Week Three of Flying

News from Phoenix is good. We have managed to get over all the technical difficulties inherit with having brand new aircraft out here in Phoenix, last week we all managed to fly 3 flight details and this week is looking good for a further 4, due to one stand down day of all instructors at the center in Phoenix. This takes us into first solo territory next week. Which means two things, a trip to the pool in full uniform, followed by a BBQ with the Lufthansa cadets to celebrate. There is a tradition in aviation (which I am not familiar with...) that once you fly solo you may touch water prior to touching the ground again. Therefore the pilot is carried from the plane to the pool and dumped in, instead of ditching the aircraft in water. Videos will follow!

Challenging weather to contend with...

 There is a tradition amongst the cadets from KLM to shave heads when the student goes solo, as the first course out here we have taken the decision on behalf of those who follow us, that we will not be going ahead with this tradition...

G1000 and ECU equipped DA-40. Makes life much easier!

I am not sure now the schedule will progress out here for the next few courses but at the moment it is pretty damn good. We fly every day we can from 6 am until around 1pm when the mass brief is finished and we head back to the accommodation. After this the whole afternoon is ours, this allows plenty of time to use the on site facilities, gym, tennis courts, volleyball, pools etc. Not to mention we have every weekend off which allows us some decent time to relax and go away and get on with the things we want to do. There are so many stadiums and sports venues around here, this week we drove around 20 mins into downtown Phoenix to see a game of Arena American Football, as the proper American Football is out of season, this was really good and the ticket was only $31. Really cannot complain!

On that note, eating out is pretty cheap, you can expect to go out and have a sit down meal, two courses and a drink for about $20-$25. That is if you can manage 2 courses, we went to the Longhorn Steakhouse last week and the main course was a 7oz steak, which came with fries, bread, a choice of side order (baked sweet potato for me) and a salad of your choice for $13... Enough said...

 We have also planned a trip to the Grand Canyon, where we have decided that we will visit Havasupai and Mooney Falls, a couple of waterfalls 10 miles off the road and inaccessible by any means other than on foot or by helicopter, and the heli can only take you 8 miles of the way. The sights look pretty spectacular but as with everything in the US you cannot just rock up and go, you need a permit to walk there and an overnight location to stop, which is compulsory. There are a couple of choices but we opted for the lodge at $145 per night between 4 people. Just a word for anyone thinking of doing this, it is booked roughly 6 months in advance for weekends, so plan it at the start of your visit if you want to do it, or before you leave the UK or you will not get it in! There is no negotiation on weekdays off in the US due to the tight schedule.

Havasupai Falls, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Saying that there is plenty of time, and plenty of things to enjoy out here and plenty of time to do them, I am biased but the weather is certainly better than that in NZ! The location could not be better and we could not have been better looked after, however the landscape is a bit baron when flying over and it is challenging to pick out reference points when flying VFR. If I had the choice again, I would choose Phoenix time and time again! Hope to see some more CTC guys out here soon. We are outnumbered by the Lufthansa cadets at the moment about 10 - 1!

What we are actually here for...

So the first two weeks of acclimatisation went really well. We had a great time, saw a lot of things and really got settled here in the US. But the day after the two week acclimatisation period elapsed it was straight into flying duties! Which was exciting, until my alarm went off at 5:15am for a 6am briefing. Really?!

That being said. The first flight of the day, and the last at night here are the best to be scheduled for we have discovered. Although the weather is.... Cirrus 25,000, outlook VFR, no significant change, gets a bit boring picking that up every morning! The thing that we do have to contend with obviously due to the heat is the thermals. We have been told by the instructors that we have seen nothing yet, and already when flying on approach below 2,500 agl it is pretty damn bumpy and you fight the aeroplane to make it descend! That being said, the first and last flight, and any flight above 6000 agl are in ideal conditions. 

I have managed to complete now 4 flight details taking my grand total to 4.6 hours, and it is really amazing what I have managed to pick up in those 4 hours. The CTC flying program has been really good so far. It takes each individual skill and splits it up, dedicating a lesson to each skill. This allows you to really nail that skill before moving onto, and incorporating what you have learned into the next skill. For example the first four lessons are Effects of Controls, Straight and Level, Climbing and Descending and Medium Turns. Seems pretty logical and works really well. 

Although it is split up like this the learning curve is steep. On the second lesson we were expected to make most of the radio calls, with the instructor only stepping in if he really had to. This sounds ok, but the airspace around Phoenix, and at Goodyear is very busy with student and commercial traffic. A great environment to be in but challenging to begin with. The second lesson we completed the take-off, with limited success and a lot of instructor input, but all nailed it in the third lesson. The third lesson saw us flying most of the flight detail from engine start, taxi, checks, takeoff, climb, cruise and decent to around the 50'agl point where the instructor took control for the landing. So although the program is good, there is a huge amount of skills to be learned. Tomorrow should see our first landing. And hopefully we will have 2 aircraft after all 6 of us have tried this... fingers crossed!

One of the biggest advantages of Phoenix is the ability to fly every day due to the weather. I think if these lessons had been spread over 2 weeks it would have been much more challenging to remember the skills and build on them and the following lesson is spent relearning the previous lesson. One of the reasons the course out here is just 6 months as opposed to 9 in NZ.

A little more about the aircraft. The Diamond DA-40. What a piece of kit. I don't have really anything else to compare this to but all I can say is CTC have not held anything back here. The aircraft performs brilliantly, the Garmin 1000 Glass Cockpit is fantastic and it is the perfect training aircraft for anyone who has a view of heading for commercial airlines. The engine is ECU (Engine Control Unit) controlled so no mixture control to worry about, liquid cooled so no cooling problems, the constant speed propeller is controlled by the ECU so nothing to be concerned about there. Set percentage power and off you go. The other great thing about this aircraft is it has 4 seats, so there is always an opportunity to backseat which means every lesson is delivered twice, really aiding progress. Finally, the Air Conditioning, which out here, is priceless.

The instructors out here in Phoenix are great too. Amazing teaching technique so far and they know the area like the back of their hand. Clearly a huge amount of experience, confidence and most of all they are friendly guys who you would not hesitate to go to with any problems. This is one of the biggest things that concerned me coming to a newly set up training center (spelled in American) but they are second to none.

Tomorrow we have another 6am report with first flight out at 6:50. Followed by the same on Friday.

And then there were two!

This week after a pretty relaxing weekend around the pool, which was forced upon us because the hire car was only loaned to us for a week and we were not fast enough in arranging our own transport! The process in the USA is pretty long, even when you do find a car at is suitable and have decided that you will buy it, and everyone agrees. You need to meet the guy who you are buying it from and exchange the keys and pay. Sounds simple enough. But no. Then you need to go to a notary who will witness the filling in of the paperwork and sign after seeing your ID (must be American ID) you can get American ID for $10 from the local DMV. Of course at the same time the notary will want a fingerprint to confirm who you are! :-) keep your fingertips unmarked and no cuts or damage while out here, you will need them a lot.

After this paperwork is fill in you need to get insurance. Quite simple and actually we were told that we needed to get US driving licences to make the insurance reasonably priced and this involved both a theory and practical driving test, as if there are not enough tests around at the moment! In fact this is not the case, as long as your stay is less than 7 months it actually works out better on a UK licence. So you have insurance and your car, but you still cannot drive it. You now need to go to the DMV and register it and get a number plate. This incurs a fee which is based on e value of the car, another reason not to buy one that is too expensive! Finally now you can get around.

This Monday we started by sitting in innovative a instructors course for the DA-40. Really useful stuff, this will last for three days and conclude with our first flight on Thursday. It is really weird pulling up the flying schedule and seeing your own name on it! Suddenly everytng seems to be worth it! The instructors course will not be a permit ant feature of the CTC course but will be delivered by the instructors to the cadets themselves. It is quite in depth and gives a really good grounding on the ins and outs of the aircraft, and the Garmin 1000 system, which really is an amazing bit of kit. This instructors have already told us that most of the functions will be inhibited to begin with because this aircraft is really so advanced it can display parameters and perform functions that really make the pilots life very easy!

All this was helped by a look at the next DA-40 to arrive in the hanger, the plane is fresh from the factory and still in many bits, so we really got a great view of how everything works, where it is located in e aircraft and hopefully this will all help us should we find ourselves in an abnormal situation.

Ground School Is NOT Over...

The elation that we felt when we finished ATPL ground school was great but wears of pretty quickly when you get stuck into ground school in Phoenix! There are a few things that are better, the days are not long, there is little home study and the weather is so much better so the afternoons are spent by the pool in a cool 30 degrees celsius. It is a far cry from ATPL ground school but nevertheless, we are unfortunately still watching the aircraft take off out the window! 

There is a lot of instructor training taking place at the moment on the DA-40 so everything is ready for us next week, but for this week we are stuck into ground school covering topics such as Goodyear Operating Procedures, Actual Fuel Planning (not the theoretical rubbish from ground school!) Effects of Controls, Mass and Balance and Performance for the DA-40, Apron Safety, Met and NOTAM sources in the US. While all this is pretty dry we can at least be objective in that we are learning about the aircraft and the airfield we will fly at for the next 6 months. Which is some consolation. 

In the background while all this is going on we are waiting for TSA approval, something which involves quite a lengthy process of fingerprints, visas, medicals etc to satisfy the US authorities that we are safe to fly around their country. That approval arrived this morning, is around a 6 week process in all starting in the UK and cannot be completed until you have entered the US and given yet another set of fingerprints to the Goodyear Police (the third set we have done!) 

This allowed us to go out onto the Apron and have a close up look and some cheesy photographs with the CTC's new (and currently only!) Diamond Star DA-40, N846TC. The aircraft is really great, excited about flying something brand new and on the stand it makes everything around it look like it runs on steam. We have a full glass cockpit, Garmin 1000, TCAS, as opposed to TAS in the other aircraft, Air Conditioning, 4 seats so back seating is always an option on classmates lessons (although the MTOM leaves a skinny margin,) something that I believe is more challenging in NZ. 

With all our afternoons off, we have been exploring a little further afield. We managed to source a car, this was very challenging to start with but as soon as some of the Lufthansa cadets realized they did not have long left in the US we found many people offering us their cars! Because we are the only ones buying they are all competing with each other on price. A nice position to be in! So there is plenty of availability out here, and not really any need to go off the airfield. 

Other than this we have been out to a couple more shopping mals, over the other side of Phoenix to see a bit of the dessert, which is over 75 miles! Just to get out of the city! and to an international soccer game! US V. Mexico, which cost us $48 each. Cant really argue with that! This was in the university stadium and 60,000 attended, great to be there. We were surrounded by Mexican supporters as there is no segregation at US games between supporters, so we went with Mexico!

Other big news... Yesterday it rained... about 4 drops for the second day this year. Exciting Stuff! It remained above 25 degrees though so nothing to get too upset about.