Next Flight Scheduled : November 27th

Next flight scheduled: November 27th, Solo overland to Teuge and Hoogeveen.

Inflight course change

Wind was to strong (230/30) to do the overland solo. The direction of the runway of both airfields is exactly 90 degree on the wind direction of this day. So it was not safe to go there. Instead we practiced a forced change of direction inflight, using the wind-protractor. We did two course changes which worked out fine. The landing on Lelystad was still hard, eventhough the runway heading is 23.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
07/11/05 12:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHLE 1.40 1

Basic Instrument Flying VOR

Again the wheather was to bad to do the overland solo. As a backup we did the VOR training today. This was much more difficult than expected. I have ordered the VOR for my flight simulator so I will be able to do some practice on the sim soon.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
23/10/05 16:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHLE EHLE 1:10 1

Introduction (2) to Instument Flying

Limited visiblity again today so the solo to Hoogeveen had to be postponed again. Instead we practiced instrument flying. Realy fun lesson, wearing special glasses you can only see the instrument panel. Than we praticed turns and how to make course changes when the electrical system or the vacuum system fails. Realy fun. I am looking forward to practice this on my sim. Next time we will learn to use the VOR and ADF, have to practice that too on the sim.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
15/10/05 16:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHLE EHLE 1:10 1

Navigation pratice to Hoogeveen

It had been a while ago since I had my last lesson so I did not feel comfortable to go solo to Hoogeveen. I went with my instructor once more and planned my next lesson soon, than I will make the trip on my own. Although it was a while ago everything went fairly well. Wheather was perfect with almost no wind (220/05).

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
28/08/05 10:30 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHLE EHHO 0:50 1
28/08/05 12:30 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHHO EHLE 0:50 1

VFR to Hoogeveen

We went to Hoogeveen to practice that particular circuit. Wind was pretty steep but directly on the runway heading. It was good to go there once more because it is not an easy field. Next time I will be going there solo.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
19/07/05 12:30 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHLE EHHO 0:50 2
19/07/05 14:15 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHHO EHLE 1:10 1

Lelystad-Teuge-Hoogeveen-Lelystad

This time we visited two other airports. I did not feel comfortable making this trip solo yet so an instructor accompanied me. Our comm did not work so it was more or less like flying solo anyway... The navigational part went OK this time. No problem at all. The landings at all fields where a bit messy. Somehow I did not do a lot of circuits and landings lately and that showed immediately. Weather was nice clear and sunny with some crosswind during landings. We where over two hours in the air and all in all the lesson took me from nine to three (excluding driving to lelystad) so I was exhausted when I got back home again. Next time I am going to fly to Hoogeveen en do some landings over there again. It is not an easy field so it will be a good practice.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
10/07/05 11:30 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHLE EHTE 0:40 1
10/07/05 12:15 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHTE EHHO 0:50 1
10/07/05 14:15 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHHO EHLE 0:40 1

Inflight divertion to another airfield

It had been a long while ago since my last lesson. I moved to another house and that consumed all my spare time. We just continued where we left off so we practiced the inflight divertion to another airport. We first headed to veenendaal and from there we diverted to Teuge. On route there was some restricted airspace but we got clearence to cross it. It was realy great wheather for flying. We also practiced steep turns and stalls. Then we tried an emergency landing but that didn't work out. I have to practice procedures a lot more and we will get back to it another time.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
26/06/05 11:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHLE 1.30 1

Overland trip Lelystad - Hoogeveen

We made a trip to another airport today. Sky was clear and it was nice day for flying so there was a lot of activity around the airports. Back and forth both trips took 50 minutes each. There are a lot of little things that need improvement but in all it was an instructive trip again.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
01/05/05 12:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHLE EHHO 0.50 1

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
01/05/05 13:30 PA Cesnna 150 PH-ALI EHHO EHLE 0.50 1

No visibilty - introduction instrument flying

Weather did not permit to do the trip to Hoogeveen. There was a thick layer of haze at 600 feet and we had a crosswind of 15mph so we decided to practice some landings. First we took of and left the circuit to do an introduction in instrument flying. In a few minutes i totaly lost my bearings... When the instructor guided us back to the airfield we did some circuits at 500ft. I was happy to experience that limited visibility does very strange things to your senses.

First overland solo!

Today I made my first solo trip to another airport and back. That was very,very exciting. The days before I imagined so many things that could go wrong. It was a nice sunny day with good visibility. Wind was 180/15 so a direct crosswind on both runways which made landing a bit tricky. We did three touch and go's on Lelystad before I went on my solo trip and these went OK. Navigating from Lelystad to Teuge is as easy as it can get, but still you can get pretty nervous imagining what would happen if you lost track (I didn't get around to pratice the VOR ;-). Another exciting thing was the turbulance above 'the veluwe', a large body of forest ground where an emergency landing is near to impossible. All in all an exciting lesson and a milestone in my life.

The approach charts above are now, amongst lots of other nice stuff, free downloadable from the AIS Netherlands website.

Lelystad-Teuge

Beautiful spring day today. Sunny and a little breeze from the east (100/10). At home I had already adopted my flightplan for this wind direction and level. We made the trip to teuge, paid the landing fees and headed back immediately. I have to work on my timming (picking up course, radio, etc) in a way that things do not interfere with each other. In all everything went fine and next time I am going there on my own. Just to be on the safe side I will figure out how to work the VOR in the meantime...

VFR in the snow

It is hard to navigate when everything is covered with snow. You miss all your regular landmarks and it is difficult to distinguish between land and water. We made an effort to fly to Teuge (EHTE) inbetween two snow showers but on the way there visibility got worse and worse. So we decided to turn arround and head south to a low-flying area to practice some emergency landings. Everything went quite well. Hope to finish the trip to Teuge next time.

Stormy weather

Intention today was to fly to Teuge again. I already made a flightplan at home but the weather was very stormy. We managed to get airborn inbetween two rain fronts and we excersiced the basics of navigation. On my own I managed to get above a restricted military area where they train with live ammo, but it was on a sunday so we didn't take any hits :-). We proceded to Teuge, spotted the airfield and just managed to head back before a rain cloud passed us. The landing was done by my instructor because we had some 15 knots crosswind with gusts of 20 knots.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
13/02/05 15:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHLE 1.00 1

Lelystad-Teuge

We made an overland flight to Teuge, the airfield closest to ours. It was a very sunny but cold morning, a snow front was comming in from the north so we decided to do a touch and go at Teuge and immediately headed back for Lelystad. We had a crosswind of 20mph so we had to use almost all of the rudder. The trip itselfs was very hectic again, there are lots of things to do and to take into account when you are a beginner. I guess that in time it will become as easy as driving the car.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
24/01/05 13:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHLE 1.10 2

First overland

Time to do my first trip to another airfield. So I had to make a flightplan for Hoogeveen (EHHO). On the way over there we had to wind exactly in our back (240/30) so it took about 40 minutes including taxiing, we landed, paid our landing-rights and took a cup of coffee. When we headed back we faced the wind so it took over an hour. It was real fun to do a trip from one airfield to another and back. There is a lot more to it than just flying some circuits, new where the radio procedures with DutchMill and the approach of another airfield. This trip added 2 hours to my flight log, at a price though, a trip like this costs almost 400 euros nowadays.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
09/01/05 13:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHHO 0.45 1

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
09/01/05 14:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHHO EHLE 1.10

Solo again

Unlike last week, visibility was unlimited. A very nice winter day with a clear sky, sunshine and freezing cold. Very stable weather so perfect for a solo. We did three touch and go's of which two flapless and then I dropped my instructor off to do another three myself. I enjoyed it even more than last time because I was a little more self-confident.

This weekend, the museum next to our airport, transported an out of commission Boeing 747 to lelystad. The 747, next to 'Connie'. It looks great.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
19/12/04 12:15 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHLE 0:55 7 0:30

Weight & Balance / Flight Plan

Lesson cancelled due to limited visibility. Instead I spend a hour in the classroom, making a weight & balance calculation and drawing up a flight-plan.

First Solo!

First solo today! After a standard, flapless and a glide-in my instructor asked me whether I wanted to go up alone. The wheather was very steady so it was time to go solo. That was just great and scary! Having dropped the instructor of at the tower the loss of weight had a remarkable impact on the plane. Instead of climbing to 700 ft I was at 900 ft before I even knew it. I made two touch and go's and one full stop. My first time as 'pilot in command', great!

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
27/11/04 15:30 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHLE 0:45 6 0:20

Circuits and some local flying

We flew 3 circuits, trained an engine failure and then left the circuit to start exploring the neighbourhood... Had to find my way back to point 'charlie' and complete the circuit. This was my last lesson before my Holiday. Hope to make some real progress when I am back.

Date Time School Plane Reg from To DBO Landings PIC
24/10/04 10:00 PA Cesnna 150 PH-GRA EHLE EHLE 0:50 4

Some more Circuits

7 circuits again. The weather was a bit unstable even low at the ground but evrything went fine after two runs. My instructor told me I could go for a solo run if I wanted to but I decided to do it next time.

Summer time

There have been some lessons in the summer but I need to ckeck my log-book for the dates. Most of all we have trained the circuit and that is all OK now. Still no solo because of weather conditions but first day with normal conditions I will fly my first solo. Due to holidays in November I will start taking theoratical exams in february.

Circuits, circuits

Even more circuit flying. Today with another instructor than usual which was interesting because he highlighted other things than my usual instructor. Still no solo today because there was to much crosswind and I only succeeded to do some nice landings after my fourth try. At start we had to wait before we could use the runway because another plane tried to land with the nose gear retracted :-)

Getting used to again...

Circuit flying today. Nice sunny day with little wind. Landings did not go smooth though because it was to long ago that I did some circuit flying. I only got into it again after 6 landings, the last one was fine again. The lurningcurve is realy bad when there is to much time in between the lessons. So I have planned my next lesson next monday, probably I will go solo than. Circuit flying in the weekends is expensive, i paid 340 euro for this lesson alone, half of it in landing fees.