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.
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